After a big research in the market including market visits, online search and WOM i could finally zero in on Hitachi. WOM played an important role and it was not a wrong decision.

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components of hard drive

Hard Drives will soon be available in a new format which might not run with XP. Currently the drives are manufactured in 512 bytes format which will be replaced by the 4k bytes format. The 512 byte format has reached saturation levels. i.e. it is becoming difficult to reduce its size further. Whereas 4k byte format has scope to reduce the size and increase efficiency simultaneously.
Experts in a discussion said that the industry has agreed to phase out the old formats by 2011. Except XP all other new operating systems are likely to support this new format. Some say that this new drive will still be compatible to XP but the data transfer speed might suffer.
I was trying to figure out why this 4k and not more or not less. Is this an incremental innovation strategy to milk the customers or is it the best solution? This move by the hardware industry might reduce the life cycle of technological products further.

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turbulence

After the season of recalls, it is now time for the major players to reshuffle their stakes. The reason may be the unpredicted growth in automobile sales all over the world in the month of February. The recovery of JLR sales have increased the SPI of TATA Motors which in turn triggered Daimler to sell its 5.34% stake. Daimler, also plans to enter India by investing more than Rs.4000 crores for which it had collaborated with Hero Honda. However, the deal was called off. Now, after raising cash from stake sale at TATA, Daimler might strategically enter India and other developing nations.
In another move, Suzuki has raised its stake in Maruti-Suzuki to 55%, up 0.8%. Analysts say that Suzuki might go for further increase in stake in near future. Maruti, which sells every second car in India, has established itself as the crown jewel in Suzuki’s global operations and is a rare bright spot for sales across the world. It already contributes nearly 80% of Suzuki’s profits, and in volumes too, it has eclipsed its parent’s tally. So it is wise for Suzuki to leverage on this rare asset.
As the small car market is heating up, every major motor company is planning to launch small cars, whether they have experience or not. Ford for the first time, has launched a small car ‘Figo’ targeted at middle class people of India. Honda has also launched ‘Jazz’, a small car, but at a higher price(Rs.7.21 lakh) to target the niche market by making it a limited edition car. Except Toyota every car company plans to launch new products in recent months.
These big news in the automobile market in just a month calls for an in depth analysis by investors and consumers before taking major decisions. Is it a consolidation phase, where first movers might end up as market leaders or is it time to en cash on the growing automobile industry?

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underdog

Formula one will soon experience the unbeatable strategies of the greatest underdog of business world. Yes, it is Sir Richard Branson! He through his team Virgin Racing has developed a car with best aerodynamics created in half the cost of other competitors. Traditionally, teams used to test physical cars in wind tunnels, whereas Virgin has used computational fluid dynamics to cut through the expenses. His newly hired team of 200 designers have done it. Richard Branson known for his underdog approach to compete with British Airways, NASA spaceships and many more, will change the F of F1 to finance. His objective is to become the best team with minimum investment. Earlier top teams like Ferrari and McLaren used to make money from money but now he has brought in the innovative element. It seems like formula one will become the next big thing in sports! Whether he can sustain this by continuously innovating is the next question?

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Rogues

Apple's Strategy

Steve Jobs is known for creating revolutionary products and launching them like a box office thriller. The movie producers should learn a few tips from him! The launch of IPhone marked a new milestone in the history of tech products. Now, it is the time for IPad. What is IPad? In the last few years, the world has seen that the technological gap between a phone and a computer is reducing. Earlier people were satisfied with a basic phone which can be used to communicate only. Gradually the products’ expected features like internet, WAP and data processing abilities crept into the basic features. However, mobile manufacturers could not break the ice to think further, which Apple has done. Apple is trying to create a new segment where people want a multipurpose mobile device through which all basic needs of a mobile and a computer can be experienced with ease. IPhone implemented this unique ‘Filling the Gap’ strategy successfully. It seems that Apple has made this ‘Filling the Gap’ strategy it’s unique selling proposition. Is it sustainable? The sustainability of a strategy depends on the entry barrier for competitors. If the entry barrier is low then apart from the first mover advantage, Apple will have nothing. It will not be able to milk this newly created segment for a long time. One feature which is valuable about this product is that more than one lakh applets can be accessed through this device. These features are currently used in Iphones and IPad is compatible with it. So, the product is different but the features are developed on a common platform which can be used only on Apple products. It reminds me of the era when Apple tried to rule the market with Macs which could use only Apple’s applications and software. This strategy of Apple decades ago, did not last much because the competitors could sniff it and Microsoft and IBM reaped the benefits. Is it that this time the competitors are not aware or Apple has done its homework well enough. Apple has penetrated deep enough in most of the developed markets with its platform featured products IPhone, iTouch and IPod. Gradually they are moving back towards the PC in terms of features. WOW! Steve Jobs seems to implement his old strategy well enough to reach the levels of Microsoft with huge strategic advantages. Analysts say that IPad will not be able to replace the PC/Laptop market but you do not know what Apple is all for. It will not be surprising if Steve introduces an iPC which will run on the same platform used for iPod, iPhone and iPad.

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Also read :

Best gadgets of the decade – best of last 10 years

11 reasons Why not to buy iPhone in India

Google Nexus One Vs iPhone – The review

Secondly we will talk about the strategic options available to the new players: The new players can enter the market either by providing services at lower than the current prices or by providing some differentiated products. Aircel launched itself by lowering the price whereas DoCoMo did it by per second billing. Airtel once revolutionized the way people used to recharge their phones by introducing the Rs. 10 recharge voucher. And now, the new players are redefining the way people talk! Hence, we can see that whenever their is a new entrant there is a drop in price of the product. It is the war of share! A new player forces an established player to lower its price or it will loose the hard earned market share.

In the end who is benefiting? CONSUMERS

Now let us talk about what will end this price war? Air Deccan created a similar furor in the aviation industry some years ago. which forced all the major players to reduce the prices which in turn almost collapsed a few. Consolidation of the sector is said to have ended the aviation war. Many M&A experts say that yes, the Indian telecom sector will see the consolidation phase very soon. If it happens the consumers will have to pay by paying more for the services.

Enterprise Resource Planning or better known as ERP has been the key IT Buzz since a decade now.Today every big company either has it or aspires to buy it. Why not? It is such a wonderful system that pressurizes the organization to adopt the benchmarked business processes. SAP being the leader in providing ERP packages, has gone through the entire business cycle and has developed key innovations. Considering the fact that small companies cannot implement ERP (because of the huge costs associated with it), cloud computing

is here again to help the resource scarce organizations. Today ERP can be implemented in two ways. One: In-House ERP software (traditional way) and Two: Through Application service providers (Cloud Computing way)

ASPs are organizations which rent ERP software to small companies. They have a central server which can be accessed through internet by the users. They also provide necessary training to the users. Usually they charge on per user basis or the number of transactions. On the other hand in traditional in-house ERP model, everything has to be bought and paid for by the user organization as shown in the diagram shown above.

Now the question arises, which one is better. There are three things (FIS) which should be considered before taking this crucial decision. One: Financial resources of the company, Two: IT expertise available in-house and Three: Strategic evaluation looking at your competitors.

One: Finance: It is seen that ASP supported ERP is almost 30% cheaper than the ownership model(over 5 years). However, your companies information lies at the ASP servers.

Two: IT expertise: A company which does not have strong IT infrastructure in the organization may spend a lot more in developing the expertise. The in-house model might also take a lot more time to implement ERP. Here the ASP model might be beneficial, because the risk associated with unsuccessful implementation is fraction of the former.

Three: Strategic Evaluation: If the concerned industry/competitor is growing fast and your forecast says that investment in infrastructure is key to sustainable growth of your organization, do not worry about the costs. Go for the traditional proprietary model of ERP implementation.

To sum up, now even a small company can reap the benefits of business process re engineering or the God like ERP!

Rogues