Jessie Paul, Managing Director, Paul Writer Strategic Services presented on Corporate Dwarfism: From Corporate Dwarfs to the Land of Giants" at D'FORUM-2010- A National Corporate Conference on "Envisioning Indian management Thought" (Christ College, Bangalore)

1. From Corporate Dwarfs
to the Land of Giants
Jessie Paul
CEO, Paul Writer
8 October, 2010

2. Dwarf questions
How many employees do you have?
Are you profitable?
Focus on Sales
Invest in your product
Put money in land

3. Dwarf questions
How many employees customers do you have?
Are you profitable scaleable?
Focus on Sales marketing
Invest in your product brand
Put money in land marketshare

4. Marketshare or Profits?
✤ Top 3 firms have
disproportionate
growth & profits
Source: “Rule of Three” - Dr Jagdish Sheth

5. Road to profits is paved with
losses
Zero Profits:
Invest like crazy in marketshare, postpone profits to the future (at least 3-5 years away) eg MakeMyTrip
MakeMyTrip has just completed its successful IPO in the US.
MakeMyTrip reported net income of $1.3 million last quarter, reversing a loss from a year earlier, after increasing
sales by 49 percent.
In the prior three fiscal years, it lost a combined $32.5 million.
MakeMyTrip has about 48 percent of the $1 billion in online travel reservations made in India
Yatra.com and Cleartrip.com accounted for a combined 42 percent of sales, Expedia and Travelocity.com Inc. have a
combined share of < 10%
(http://news.businessweek.com/article.asp?documentKey=1377-a6H0tn.DPM3c-0P1GK1Q70AEHFETHSJCUH8QR3F)

6. Road to profits is paved with
losses
Somewhat profitable:
Be less profitable than your peers, and reinvest in the business. Sacrifice current profits
for marketshare gains eg Cognizant
Gordon Coburn its CFO and Chief Strategy Officer said “Our strategy is to maximize
revenue growth”.
Cognizant has has been less profitable than it could have been, consciously sacrificing
around 4% of margins vis-a-vis the incumbent large players, to reinvest in growth.
Cognizant’s SG&A of 22-24% is way higher than the industry norm
Cognizant is slated to become the 3rd largest IT services provider from India

7. Road to profits is paved with
losses
Slow-cooked profits:
Identify businesses which do not require a high investment in marketing/sales/
branding. Create an initial revenue stream, and use that to fund a second line of
business that requires up-front investment eg Zoho
ZoHo is a part of AdventNet a 14 year old firm, that has no VC funding.
Zoho is the most glamorous product and only B2C offering from their stable, and
funded by low-margin B2B offerings
Zoho has successfully withstood the onslaught of Google Apps and Microsoft Office
and is now a profitable $50 Million firm, with 3 million users.

8. About Us
Paul Writer is founded by Jessie Paul,
considered an expert in brand
✤ Paul Writer is an advisory firm that helps define your marketing,
branding and communications strategy. internationalization and frugal
marketing. In 2009, Jessie published No
✤ We provide frameworks, processes, expert support, and creative Money Marketing, Tata McGraw-Hill’s
insights to enable you to translate who you are into a cohesive fastest selling professional book on
marketing plan. marketing.
✤ Paul Writer brings expertise on marketing innovations across the
spectrum of offline and online to reposition and communicate brand As Chief Marketing Officer of Wipro’s IT
values in a frugal, yet effective manner. business and as Global Brand Manager at
Infosys, she has been recognized for her
contribution towards putting the Indian
✤ Services offered are
IT industry on the global map.
✤ Marketing Strategy Design
✤ Validation & Advisory Services With over 15 years in services marketing,
including a stint with Ogilvy & Mather,
Jessie has been named one of the most
✤ Our clients include:
influential business women in India. She
✤ Ramco Systems | Aujas Networks | Allied Digital Services Ltd.
runs a popular blog on marketing and
✤ NIIT Technologies | IDS Softwares | SYSTIME was India’s first CMO on Twitter.
✤ Venkataramanan Associates

9. Writer: n A person entrusted with managing a tea
or coffee estate including the marketing and
operational management. A trusted advisor of the
estate owner. Origin: Colonial English.
Paul Writer: n A trusted advisor to brand
owners.
West African symbol or adinkra for “help me
and let me help you”
Thank You
jessie@paulwriter.com
Skype: jessie_paul
twitter.com/jessie_paul
312-313 Prestige Meridian, 30 MG Road, Bangalore 560 001, India
The frameworks and concepts in this discussion are elaborated in No
Money Marketing by Jessie Paul, published by Tata McGraw-Hill in 2009.
Please visit www.nomoneymarketing.org for more information
All rights reserved.
No portion of this presentation may be excerpted or reused without the author’s written permission Photo Courtesy Powru, Flickr