1. Aneeta Madhok
A
SK ANY management
student in India as
well as abroad what
his dream job is and al-
most 50 percent of the time you
will find the name of a consult-
ing firm like McKinsey, PWC
Global, Booz Allen, Deloitte, Ac-
centure, Infosys, TCS crops up.
The excitement in these place-
ments comes from being a part
of a team that delivers knowl-
edge-based solutions to global
and domestic clients. Access to
knowledge and models that have
evolved through research and
experience, applications of
these across verticals and sec-
tors, best practices of what
works and where. With the for-
mulation of creative solutions
for clients and its implementa-
tion in the corporate context,
there is a win-win for both the
consultant and the client. And
these jobs pay well too.
Business schools are also
gearing up their curriculums to
meet the ever-rising demand for
knowledge workers. A closer
look at the syllabus will reveal a
strong focus on functional area
content and expertise. Domain
knowledge is becoming increas-
ingly specialised and more com-
plex. The students’ ability to in-
ternalise this knowledge and
make it instantly retrievable is
a crucial part of the learning
process reinforced by case stud-
ies, simulations and highly in-
teractive methodologies. While
this domain knowledge is im-
portant, some B-Schools have
recently included special sub-
jects in the training of prospec-
tive management consultants.
NMIMS University offers
an elective on “Consult-
ing to Management”,
Symbiosis Centre
for Management
added “Manage-
ment Consul-
tancy” Tolani
Institute
in Gujarat also offers consult-
ing skills as a very popular elec-
tive for all students who want to
enter the profession. Topics like
the consulting process, scoping
a consulting assignment, writ-
ing a winning proposal, pricing
and billing for consulting as-
signments, managing consult-
ing operations, preventing
scope creep, report writing, all
go to build the consulting skills
of the management graduate
and prepare him for a consult-
ing career.
The summer project is a mini-
consulting assignment for the
students. They plan the assign-
ment, collect data, collate infor-
mation, diagnose problems,
make applications of knowledge
and recommend changes for im-
provement. No wonder B-school
grads make for readymade ma-
terial lapped up by the consult-
ing firms at placement time.
Students enter B-schools as
unpolished diamonds. The pol-
ishing process is delivered by
faculty in the classroom as well
as outside. If a student emerges
still unpolished, it is the skills of
the faculty members that were
missing. The moment of truth
in the teaching-learning process
lies inside the classroom. It is a
magical process of transform-
ing raw material into finished
product. Like any other polish-
ing process, so too, teaching-
learning involves painful grind-
ing, buffing, shaping, cutting
processes to build the knowledge
skills and attitudes needed to
shine above the others.
Next time you bunk a class,
oversleep, miss a team meeting,
fudge an assignment, or suffer
from a bout of cognitive lazi-
ness, remember it is your loss
that will deprive you of the op-
portunity to shine and glow.
Success is not an accident. So,
if your dream job is in manage-
ment consulting, make the most
of your B-school education.
The writer is President, The Institute of
Management Consultants of India.
Kaushik Mukerjee
I
T’S A competitive market-
place. And with competition
begins the Herculean task
of winning the hearts of
customers. At the core of it all
lies seamless and efficient cus-
tomer service. Only this can re-
tain customer loyalty, the fruits
of which can be savoured over
long periods of time. To this end
marketers have undertaken
noteworthy innovations in cus-
tomer service. These methods
though familiar now to many
are the ones that paved the way
for maximum customer reten-
tion, giving the marketer a com-
petitive edge.
Take the banking industry for
instance. The customary visit to
the bank between 10 am and 2
pm only to wait patiently in a
queue till the clerk enchased a
cheque has changed. Now banks
provide access to customers on a
24/7 basis through ATMs, web-
sites or even the humble tele-
phone line. No doubt such trans-
formations have resulted in bet-
ter quality of service, the fallout
of which is enhanced customer
satisfaction. Even restaurants
are not to be left behind. The cui-
sine, the very thought of which
leaves your mouth watering, is
just a phone call away - call and
it arrives at your doorstep. Auto-
mobile manufacturers too have
pitched in their own way. They
have ushered in the era of mo-
bile service vans and toll free
helplines. The bottomline is this
- companies that still insist on
customers’ running around to
access a service are bound to be
left behind in the race.
But this is more than just a one
way ticket. It is an endeavour of
co-creating value. Instead of
treating the customer as a verita-
ble nuisance, smart companies
have begun treating them as part-
ners. They are co-creating value
using the customer. A ubiquitous
example of this phenomenon is
the ATM. The customers using
the ATM are actually doing the
operations that the bank clerk is
supposed to do, yet the they do it
gleefully since it offers more con-
venience. For the bank it trans-
lates into cost savings since ATM
transactions are cheaper when
compared to those carried out by
the bank’s personnel.
As the saying goes – the cus-
tomer is king. If this is so is it
not the duty of every marketer
to delight the king by offering
enhanced value? And this value
enhancement is the way to turn
threats into opportunities. This
is what enables one to beat the
competition. Small things do
matter and thinking smart
makes it work. Take the example
of restaurants which faced the
problem of empty tables on days
of cricket matches. The smart
ones found a way out - install
television sets and see whether
it brings back the crowds was
the thought that entered their
minds. The smart restaurants
promptly installed televisions to
ensure that customers could be
glued in to the TV while having
their dinner. A common sight
now in most restaurants is the
omnipresent television set. The
smarter ones took it as an oppor-
tunity to create an event out of
the cricket match by promising
exotic dishes, large screen TV
viewing and other fun elements.
The value additions enabled
these restaurants to charge a
premium for the seats and cus-
tomers gladly complied.
The conclusion is not too hard
to find. The most important
thing for marketers who wish to
offer innovative customer serv-
ice is to study the unmet needs of
their customers. They must fo-
cus on their psychographic pro-
files and, most important, learn
lessons from why they lost cus-
tomers. Sensible use of these
concepts is sure to go a long way
in delighting customers with
stellar customer service.
The writer is faculty member,
ICFAI Business School, Pune.
MUMBAI, TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2007 Page 23
Timeill-spent
The average person
gets one interruption
every 8 minutes. It
takes 5 minutes,
totalling about
4 hrs or 50% of an
average workday
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Jayashree Dubey
E
VER
THOUGHT
the FMCG
market
would be
conscious
about the sex of its cus-
tomers? Even more so
when the target audi-
ence was not female.
Though a fine line
differentiated ‘gen-
der-specific’ re-
quirements, the
‘gender-neutral’
product market
(e.g. shampoo,
cold cream) had
never differenti-
ated between its
male and female
customers. A well-
known example is
that of Fair & Lovely
- it has been used by
male and female alike.
Nor had the brand tried to
treat the genders differen-
tially. This was when the mar-
keters were complacent with
booming sales. Today, forced by sti-
fling sales figures in overcrowded
markets, ‘gender-neutral’ products
have become the new favourites for
sketching new strategies. This is by
differentiating such products to
specifically lure the vast but hith-
erto unexplored male grooming
market.
Societal change has aided this
surge of interest. Till some time
ago ‘Tall Dark and Handsome’
(TDS) was the tagline to describe
the most desirable men. However,
the scenario is transforming fast
and TDS is now an outdated defini-
tion. Increase in salary, cosmopoli-
tan culture, corporate jobs, profes-
sional education, a populace glued
to TV shows and many more fac-
tors have bred this new species
called the ‘metrosexual male’
mainly popularised by ‘delicately
handsome’ Bollywood actors. This
brash new breed wants much more
than well-ironed cloths, polished
shoes and body sprays for personal
grooming.
Historically, the male grooming
market was limited to products
such as clothes, shoes, body sprays,
after-shave lotions amongst others.
Companies like J.K. Helene Curtis
have been offering soap brands like
‘Park Avenue’ and ‘Premium’ tar-
geting the male segment. Palmo-
live, Lifeboy and Cinthol are some
other popular brands positioned to
target the segment. Brands like
Lux and Clinic Allclear too reposi-
tioned their brands to target male
customers by chipping in film star
Shah Rukh Khan for Lux and Sa-
haid Kapoor and Madhavan for
Clinic Allclear as brand endorsers.
However the first salvo to extend
female-specific products to male
customers in the Indian market
was fired by Emami in 2005 by
launching a fairness cream ‘Fair
and Handsome’. And no brand has
tested success the way Emami has
with the launch. The strong strate-
gy of Emami to attack the market
leader (‘Fair & Lovely’) and other
skin care brands while avoiding
head-on collision is a classic exam-
ple of ‘flank attack’ by market-chal-
lenger on a lead brand. ‘Fair and
Handsome’s’ positioning as having
gone through clinical trials which
showed it helped in improving fair-
ness, providing protection against
the sun’s UV rays, acted as an af-
tershave moisturizer and helped
relieve stress and fatigue, helped it
to find favour among male con-
sumers. Added to this was the lure
that it was claimed to be approved
by ayurveda experts. The success-
ful launch of ‘Fair and Handsome’
increased the sensitivity of male
customers about skincare prod-
ucts. The result was that such prod-
ucts, which were more of conven-
ience goods for the majority of
male customers, became specialty
products.
Emami’s decision to target male
customers was not solely based on
gut feel. It was supported by mar-
ket research which indicated that
30 percent of fairness cream users
were men. The male-specific skin-
lightening cream industry is val-
ued at over $190 million. Some rea-
sons behind big success of such
products are that the launch of the
product was supported by heavy
advertisement, strong differentia-
tion and increasing number of
metrosexual males.
It was not too long before other
companies too leapt onto the band-
wagon. HLL launched the ‘Fair &
Lovely Menz Active’, while L’Oreal
zoomed in the Indian market with a
wide range of cosmetics, starting
from anti-fatigue moisturising lo-
tion to anti-dark circles eye cream
to anti-regreasing moisturising
gel. So high was the perceived po-
tential that Paras Pharma
launched Set Wet hair gel exclu-
sively for males.
Emami has already opened a
plethora of undiscovered and un-
tapped markets. The advertisement
of ‘Fair & Handsome’ not only pro-
moted the brand but also acted as a
generic product advertisement that
increased the awareness and usage
of similar products. Its launch can
be equated to test marketing for the
entire range of gender-neutral per-
sonal grooming products for male
segments. Euromonitor Interna-
tional forecasts that the spend on
men’s grooming products is expect-
ed to rise 24 percent to Rs 14.5 bil-
lion, or $320 million in the next five
years.
The lesson is clear. It’s time for
companies to start grooming males
rather than over-grooming fe-
males. It may not be a wild idea to
launch a range of cosmetic prod-
ucts targeting the lucrative metro-
sexual male under a separate um-
brella brand.
The writer is Asst. Prof. Institute of
Public Enterprise, Osmania University
Campus, Hyderabad.
Forget gender-neutral, the cosmetics market has
its eyes set on the under-served male segment
IT MAY NOT BE A WILD
IDEA TO LAUNCH A
RANGE OF COSMETIC
PRODUCTS TARGETING
THE LUCRATIVE
METROSEXUAL MALE
UNDER A SEPARATE
UMBRELLA BRAND
THE MOST
IMPORTANT THING
FOR MARKETERS WHO
WISH TO OFFER INNO-
VATIVE CUSTOMER
SERVICE IS TO STUDY
THE UNMET NEEDS OF
THEIR CUSTOMERS
IT’S A
GUYTHING
GURU SPEAK
Winners must learn to
relish change with the
same enthusiasm and
energy that we have
resisted it in the past.
TOM PETERS,
management guru
If you pick the right
people and give them
the opportunity to
spread their wings and
put compensation as a
carrier behind it you
almost don’t have to
manage them.
JACK WELCH,
former CEO, General Electric
A business has to be
involving, it has to be
fun, and it has to
exercise your creative
instincts.
RICHARD BRANSON,
founder of Virgin Group
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Treating customers
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How to turn an MBA into a consultant
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