Learning about adapting Hyderabad from Malleshanna

Mallesh works for a seed company in Bangalore and sells seeds in Hyderaguda. This post may be of some interest to my friends who share a bond with Hyderabad and for others it is a story of a changing city that adapts in so many ways to the new.
Back to my chat with Mallesh on the train ( The TTE breed of new India is a refreshing change and a post on that some other time). Some of the things he told me were
1.The Chicken will get cooked but not tomatoes of the hybrid variety (laxmi 501 or similar) . The tonnage yield has gone up many times but the the sourness and taste of the "original' are lost forever
2.There are hardly any grape gardens in Hyderabad ( yes, quite a revelation to me!) most have converted to growing vegetables and the structures used for grapes are suitable for gourds of all kinds. So you get good looking snake gourd, bitter gourd, bottle gourd. etc.
3. It is extremely profitable to grow vegetables especially if you have a contract farming arrangement with modern trade or chain retailers.
4. Hyderguda is still the main market for all seeds, pesticides and farm requirements even if the farms have gone further from the city. There are 40-50 Bangalore companies selling seeds in Hyderabad.
5. The use of pesticides for vegetables is going on at unbelievably high rates. Cauliflower and cabbage needing the most.
6. Hyderabad grows carrots, cauliflower, cabbage ( both white and purple), .....once thought to be from cooler climates only
7.Sitaphal does not need any pesticides. Papaya however has recently joined the club of using high amounts of pesticides.
Shifting from traditional plants like grapes to nice looking vegetables for the modern supermarket is obvious, what surprised me was the scale of the migration that has happened. Am happy Hyderabad now gets a wide range of really nice looking vegetables...loaded with pesticides? Yes but that is true for almost any place.

Management Education. Is it time out or final whistle?

Admissions to management courses have dipped big time. The latest issue of the Economist indicates admissions have taken a beating in Europe and to some extent in the US;the Mecca. India has had "millions" of management students. This year many of the government quota seats (which come at 20-25%  cost of open seats)  in MBA programs across the country have not been filled. Except for the top two tiers of business schools, most do not have sufficient student strength.

The reasons are not far to seek. Globally ROI is diminishing thanks to campus placement. The average salary has taken a beating and in many countries getting placed on campus has become difficult. Apart from this universal factor majority of Indian B schools (of course there are exceptions!)
1. Have not provided value and charged a very high fee for many years, it was a case of limited seats and great demand.
2. Have faculty with very little industry experience and/or understanding of industry requirements and the university MBA programs do not build any skills, it is all theory culled from US authors and presented as books from authors who form part of the university or can influence the choice of suggested reading.
3.Have been used to demand outstripping supply to a great extent. The need to build a brand and have differentiators of value to students/employers was never even discussed.
4. Have always focussed on building great infrastructure which appreciates in value ( read real estate) and investing only as much as regulations demand in terms of human resources  or providing a better  'student experience'

To add to this
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A great number of B schools were approved by the regulatory authorities making  supply far greater than demand
Industry recognised that it was better to hire undergraduates and train them rather than take on someone who has greater expectations in terms of job profile and salary. Many have started visiting undergraduate institutes and investing in training departments.
 Students are now looking at ROI more seriously as education loans are becoming necessary. Students are also keenly looking at potential 'experience'at the school instead of just 'learning'.

Only those with a clear understanding of stakeholders needs, integrated marketing strategy, strong differentiated positioning, and long institutional horizon may survive in this consolidation/shake out. It is time to watch how management schools in India respond to market forces.  In 2010 in view of low demand (even number of those writing CAT has reduced) there has been a substantial price correction for management courses and this is just the beginning...of what ? Want to speculate?

What is "Branded"?

In the Indian context "branded" itself is becoming a brand! Gullible customers assume that "Branded" stands for everything that good brands stand for. Retailers use this term in their advertisements to lure customers and sell them products of inferior quality made by small industries or those imported from china. Do brands have to stand for something? Do brands have to provide some of the advantages of branding for customers that one reads in text books? The way the word "Branded" is used in India is worth thinking about.
Marketing Innovation, or Marketing just legal, it does not matter what you think of it. "Branded" is worth spending advertising money on!
Indian customers have had to deal with a deluge of brands in the last few years, could this be the reason for not being able to distinguish  between brands that simply the term "branded" has acquired a life of its own?

My views on management, marketing and retail in India

This blog will be as valuable as the comments it receives. Many times I might not even have a firm view,  just some subject that I think needs to be considered. Please send in your comments.  Any agreement or disagreement with my views will be valuable. So dear reader I crave you write in.