Entry Barriers

When I was a MDP consultant at IBS Kochi, I had a chance to visit premises of more than 50 small, medium and large businesses. My job was to develop businesses for the intellectual capital of the faculty at IBS. My experiences during the visits to the prospective customers' premises made me feel that intellectual capital is the least wanted capital by them, but mostly needed. We found two situations in the customer’s premises: one is " business is doing well" and the other " business is not doing well". After visiting a score of prospects we found a pattern in their responses, mostly unfavourable ones.

Places where business is doing well the following behavior is found.....

 They....

·   Do not allow the new service providers to access the business leaders

·   Show ‘we-know-it-all’ attitude

·   are busy Expanding the organisation at a faster pace

·   Revenue growth and profit generation is equated with business growth

·   Give high priority to prestigious certifications and image building activities

·   Focus mostly on customers with high purchase power

·   Engage in creating entry barriers to the new comers / competitors

·   Look for business diversifications

·   Command and demand services from the vendors (supply chain)

 Places where business is not doing well the following behavior is found.....

 They....

·         engage in cost cutting measures

      ·         sell the products at thin margins

·         arrange programs to change the peoples’ behavior. The programs will be conducted by in house experts or by an outside agency that quotes the least.

·         take disconcerted marketing initiatives

·         spend more time in urgent and managerial issues

·         Search for certifications that will give them credibility in the market.

·         are hesitant to discontinue the unprofitable / failed product lines

contributed by Sasikanth Prabhu

Listening to a Professor from IIM, A

I had an invitation to attend a dinner meet with a professor from IIM, Ahmedabad, organised by CBRC (Centre For Business Research and Counseling) at Kochi on 26th January 2010. He has about 25 years of experience in management education, but looks younger in spirit and in body. One of the dinner participant mentioned an observation that rarely the Professor's elder family members have grey hair.

It has been a great experience listening to the unfiltered and authentic dialog with the Professor. We the small gathering from CBRC were immersed in the discourse by the Prof. for almost two hours.

The Professor highlighted the themes of value creation and the importance of intellectual capital in a B School. According to the Prof. every B school must differentiate itself from others through the demonstration of their unique intellectual capital. He suggested a B School must build intellectual capital by taking up sponsored research projects from governments, Industries and other funding agencies, by providing Executive / Management development programs and by doing consulting projects with the industry. A B school should be a sequel to these activities. He informed us that IIM, A was fully engaged in Executive development programs before starting the Post Graduate Program.

He said one of the key aspect of education at IIM, A is that the students are put to such experiences so as to develop independent thinking and ability to bring new perspectives to the issues under consideration. He confidently said that any student who attend the PGP at IIM, A will achieve this state by the end of first year.

By interacting with Professor, we were all able to experience a slice of stimulating life at IIM, A. It was a very engaging and fruitful evening. Thanks to the Professor for spending time with us.

contributed by: sasikanth prabhu