Tata Group to Acquire 100% Stake in Air India

 

Disrupting the Telecom Industry: Inside the Secrets of Reliance Jio's Unparalleled Success

 

Reliance Jio's exceptional triumph in the telecom sector has captivated the world. As we dive into the factors that contributed to Jio's remarkable success.

" Growth Is Life"

Reliance Jio, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, entered the Indian telecom market in 2016. Led by visionary businessman Mukesh Ambani, Jio aimed to revolutionize the industry with advanced technology and affordable services. Here are few Important elements that helped reliance jio succeed.

1. Disruptive Pricing Strategy

Free voice calls and incredibly cheap data services were offered by Reliance Jio as part of their innovative pricing plans. millions of customers were lured by this action, which also started a price war in the sector and forced rivals to change their prices.

2. Expandable 4G Network & Focused on Data Consumption

Reliance jio made signifiacnt investments in the construction of a strong 4G network infrastructure all over the nation. their extensive network coverage gave people access to quick and dependable internet connectivity that was before unavailable in the economy.Traditional telecom firms prioritized voice, but reliance jio placed a big stake on data usage. this turned out to be a foresightful decision because of the dramatic rise in dta usage brought on by the popularity of streaming services,social media, and other online activites.

3. Affordable Smartphones & Strategic Partnerships

Reliance jio collaborated with several smartphone makers to provide affordable 4G enabled Smartphones packaged with Jio services in an effort to further penetrate the market. Due to this action, a sizable portion of the population now has access to smartphones and internet. strategic allainces were formed between Reliance jio and well-known digital giants like Facebook,Google, and Microsoft. These partnerships not only attracted significant investment but also gave people acess to cutting edge technologies.

4. Continuous Innovation & Customer Centric Apporach

Reliance Jio placed a high priority on learning about its customers' wants and preferences. They were able to better customize their solutions to the needs of the Indian market thanks to their customer-centric strategy.Jio regularly launched new products, services, and promotions to engage its existing client base and entice new subscribers. They remained in front of their opponents because they were quick to adapt new technologies and trends.

5. Digital EcoSystem & Agressive Marketing

Since Jio is a member of Reliance Industries, it was able to build a full digital ecosystem by utilizing its already established business.Jio combined its telecom services with a number of platforms, including Jio TV, Jio Cinema, Jio Saavan, and Jio Mart, among others. providing customers with a variety of content and services.They also used an aggressive marketing strategy to effectively build brand recognition and market their products. Particularly well-liked promotions included "Jio dhan dhana dhan" and "Jio digital life".

Jio revolutionized the Indian telecom industry, proving that an ambitious and creative strategy can achieve great success in an extremely competitive marketplace. Its capacity to adjust to shifting market circumstances and preserve their worth across other businesses within the reliance industries group was important in its development from a start-up to a telecom giant.

Thankyou

-Ujwal unnikrishnan

Fading Wings: PAN AM's Quiet Descent

           
    Imagine being the founding member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), enjoying a near monopoly on international routes, the unofficial national carrier of the United States; that was Pan Am. Pan American World Airways founded in 1927 by two U.S Army Majors was the most famous principal and largest international air carrier. They were the unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States for the most part of the 20th century. Once their slogan was "Live today, Tomorrow will cost more!". They were at the top of their field as the sky is not their limit. But now a few people know the name Pan Am. Now it's just one of the defunct companies that are being diminished from the minds of the public. Only bits and pieces of this "Conglomerate" exists today. The descent is due to a lot of internal and external factors, the Industry.

1. Financial Troubles

All companies experience tightness in their financials. But in this case, they expanded their fleet at a rate no one would imagine. And that made their pockets a little slim. The problem was time they expanded. Many other airlines came in for their own pound of customers and they were ready to sacrifice a little bit of profit for gaining (in this scenario stealing from Pan Am)customers. The expansion of fleets and routes set back a fortune and that put them in a tight spot making them not able to reduce the price. That only strained their financial resources.

2. Rising Debt

       They did accomplish a great expansion in fleet and route, but the question is at what cost? They alone couldn't handle such a large change. So they took some financial help from the available sources. Actually can't blame them, if the other emerging airlines haven't been so generous Pan Am could pull through out of that debt. This large debt took their ability to be financially stable like before.

3. Oil Price Shocks

      The infamous Oil Crisis in 1970 was a significant turning point in global energy dynamics, influencing policies, economies, and geopolitics for years to come. This shook Pan Am badly because their planes were craving the costly jet fuel. Blaming OAPEC (Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries) and their response to the political development in the Middle East was making no good. The overly-priced jet fuel made their financials thinner.

4. Terrorist Attacks

There was a terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 when it was over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. Already their financials were a mess and their goodwill was getting out of hand. And now this, being able to be like old times was just a normal daydream. For Pan Am the old saying is true; "When it Rains, it Pours". They wanted to fly but they were in deep water.

5. Deregulation of the Airline Industry

The policy of reduced cost and increased competition was due to the deregulation of the airline industry in the United States in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were forced to jump from the frying pan into the fire. Crumbling down made them fight back, but they were of no use. While other airlines exploited the freedom, Pan Am was trying to hold what was left of their loyalty.

6. Failure to Adapt

Innovative competitors were taking their chance to adapt and be creative when Pan Am was just in denial. They struggled to adapt to changing market dynamics and customer preferences. They were pretty slow on that matter. Updating their services, implementing new technologies, and fleet modernization were not included in their agenda. It was kind of a loophole to overtake the near monopoly of Pan Am.

7. Sale of Assets

The airline was having a tough time and they couldn't handle the financial pressure and business stress. So they started to sell their valuable assets including their prized routes and the iconic Pan Am building in NewYork city. This desperate act made their value go downhill and revenue-generating capabilities to ashes. Delta Airlines saw the opportunity and acquired all the Pan Am's proud routes and shuttle service in a blink of an eye. They were not realizing they were digging their own graves. MetLife was more than happy in acquiring 'The Pan Am Tower' situated in New York. It kind of steals the public's attention because of its unique layout and center position. Johnson Control bid the most for the PAWS(Pan Am World Services).

8. Bankruptcy and Liquidations

After all this Pan Am doesn't had a snowball's chance in hell to be productive. They tried their best to secure their investments and restructure their operations, but they had to file for bankruptcy in 1991. Gradually their assets were seized and auctioned. Guilford Transportation Industries bought the company's name and imagery in 199. They changed the name to 'Pan Am Systems ' and adopted the globular logo.

All the above reasons such as financial challenges, external shocks, and other deregulation issues gradually made the deathbed of Pan American World Airways, putting an end to the era of the promising and prominent airline.

By

Rolwin Biju C

The failure of Tata Docomo

Why did TATA Docomo fail? 

    Tata Docomo was a joint venture between Tata teleservices and a Japanese telecom company called NTT Docomo. Tata Docomo came into existence in 2008 and it has 2G and 3G services in India. The company provided several services for its customers and has received many business awards for its telecom services. But some serious factors affected its performance and led to the failure of Tata Docomo. In this study, the various reasons for the failure of the company are discussed.

Reasons for the failure of Tata Docomo

1.Competition from other telecom market players

Tata Docomo faced intense         competition from other telecom providers like Vodafone and Airtel, who had better infrastructure and more attractive services. It was difficult for the company to retain its customers and it failed to attract new customers.

2.Poor financial performance

The company failed to meet its standards and incurred huge losses. The competitors' low price offerings also reduced the margins for Tata Docomo.

3.Issues with partnership 

Because of the low market share and revenue, NTT decided to exit from the venture and it significantly affected the business.

4.Lack of technological innovations  

The company failed to upgrade itself from 3G to 4G and it also failed to upgrade its network coverage. So the customers switched to other service providers who provided more attractive offers and network coverage. So, the inability to adapt itself to the changing technologies caused customer dissatisfaction.

5.Cancellation of license

Three licenses of Tata teleservices were canceled by the supreme court and the court fined Tata teleservices for benefiting from the 2G telecom spectrum scam. 

These are the main reasons for the failure of Tata Docomo. 

             

Now all the Tata Docomo customers are merged with Airtel network, and the company has been taken over by Bharti Airtel.

-  ANJU PAULSON 

PLIGHT OF E PHARMACIES IN INDIA

INTRODUCTION

E Pharmacy sector have proliferated steadily in last few years, attracting significant attention and investments. During the pandemic period, E Pharmacies pegged at around $ 2.7 billion in 2021. The outbreak of Covid-19 elevated the performance of online pharmacy websites. The Indian online pharmacy sector was projected to grow at 63 percent annually from 2020 to 2025. Private equity and venture capitalists had invested more than $ 2.5 billion in online pharmacies.

   But contrary to the expectations, the consolidated losses of E pharmacies grew further and further. PharmEasy, the leader in this sector faced a loss of 4043.1 crores in FY22. It also withdrew its initial public offer draft papers in August 2022 almost an year after filing it.

REASONS FOR POOR PERFORMANCE OF E PHARMACIES

1)REGULATORY CHALLENGES:-

Most of the E Pharmacies in India were operating without licenses. They engaged in immeasurable unethical practices like selling medicines without doctor's prescription and selling of fake medicines. The drug abuse cases also shoot up during the span of last 5 years. Upon this allegations, Government of India strengthened the surveillance on online pharmacies.

> E Pharmacies are required compulsorily to take license to operate from Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation. (CDSCO)

>Online Pharmacies have to maintain detailed records of all transactions associated with purchase and sale of medicines.

>In september 2018, Delhi high court banned the sale of medicines via online. But later, this ban was revoked in December that year.

>In December 2019, Madras high court also imposed an interim ban upon online Pharmacies.

>In February this year, Drugs Controller General of India issued show cause notice to 20 E Pharmacy platforms for alleged contravention of laws.

2)INCREASED COMPETITION :-

As the sector was enjoying huge amount of profits along with a mountain of predicted profit, corporate giants like Reliance group and Tata group smelled the growth opportunity and entered into competition. While Reliance acquired major stakes in Netmeds, Tata invested their capital in 1mg. E commerce giants like Amazon and flipkart have their own pharmacy sections.

Howe'er, these arrivals had a negative impact on the profits of E pharmacy leaders during the period.

3)Retail Rivalry :-

The All India organisation of chemists and Druggists purported that E Pharmacies were burning capital to kill competition. As the margin given to offline stores by the National Pharmaceutical Authority is 10% for wholesalers and 20% to relailers, they are unable to compete with 25 % to 40% discounts offered by E Pharmacies. Because of this, there are huge amount of rivalry among the traditional traders of medicines all over the country. This is having a negative influence upon E Pharmacy sector.

CONCLUSION

Corporate governance is the system of rules, practices and processes by which a company is directed and controlled. Accountability, transparency, fairness and responsibility are the four pillars of corporate social responsibility. By abiding corporate governance norms and conditions, E pharmacy sector in India can grow bigger and stronger in the future.

 According to Vijay Chawla- CEO of KPMG,

"The industry is growing nicely and eventually it will become profitable. E Pharmacies in India will see a Compounded growth of 20-30% over the next several years "

Let's hope for a highly profitable and socially responsible E pharmacies in India.

Article by

Stalwin Joju

Stalwin Komban

FAILURE OF NOKIA

Nokia was the world's largest vendor of mobile phones from 1998 to 2012.Nokia Corporation was established in 1865 with its headquarters in Espoo and Finland.It was one of the most dominant mobile phones in the world.The company launched first internet-enabled phone in 1998.

But,Nokia failed due to some of their poor decisions.There are internal and external factors that resulted in the failure of the company.The company struggled to cope up with the innovation,and this resulted in decline of its market share.

Poor marketing strategies was one of the reasons that led to their failure.Nokia decide to launch new products with different brand names that confused their customers.Nokia didn't adopt umbrella branding,which was adopted by Apple and Samsung.

Another reason was the deal with Microsoft.Microsoft acquired Nokia,the biggest blunder that wasn't fruitful.This partnership made Nokia dependent on Microsoft.

Lack of innovation in products significantly contributed to the brand failure.While brands like Apple and Samsung came up with advanced phones,Nokia launches phones with basic features.These dull features didn't help.Nokia didn't adopt the latest technologies.

There was a change in top management.In 2006, Jorma Ollila was replaced by Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo as CEO.The new management focused more on traditional phones rather than coping up with latest changes in technology.

The company also overestimated its brand value.They believed that people will purchase Nokia manufactured phones,if they used just better software.This was a wrong belief.

Nokia was a most recognized brand till 2007.But the things began to change with the entry of Apple and Google in 2007.Nokia's failure is the best example that tells us, even the most recognized brand may fail when they don't cope up with changing environment and watch their competitors.

Malavika VJ