By Alok Jain

A few years back if someone would have told me that we will see the end of laptop soon, I would have laughed at the suggestion. Laptops can be considered a natural descendant of desktops in terms of innovation as they started providing more storage and RAM, and that too by occupying less space. Soon desktop computer became thing of past.

From big desktop machines to heavy laptops to light weight machines – computers just kept on getting lighter and better.

Laptop designers kept on doing away with what were once considered necessities: stuff such as CD Drives, huge storage space etc – all results of technical innovations such as pen drives and portable hard disks.

Continuous innovation did managed to impress old timers like me who has grown up booting desktop through 4″ floppy drives. However Gen ‘Y’ who is growing up on smartphones is giving it a miss. They are so used to working with smartphones that I doubt they will ever need laptops for their work.

I have always felt that this generational shift and preference for tablets and phablets will break the WINTEL ‘cartel’ (if i may say so). Little did I realize that this will happen at the pace it has played out at.

A number of new technological breakthroughs are contributing big time to this change. Key among them is the evolution of the Cloud. Everyone keeps on talking about it, but once its full potential is realized, I would not hesitate in getting rid of my laptop.

The biggest challenge for any cloud computing solution is reliability, security and speed. Even though I am a fan of dropbox, google drive etc but that is only to ensure availability of documents anytime, anywhere. I still have a thick client installed and keep a local copy. The simple reason is ease of use and of updating documents.

If one goes by the pace of past technological breakthroughs, these challenges with Cloud computing will disappear very soon.

Private clouds are the solution to security and cloud providers are investing heavily to pacify nerves here.

Fibre optics have led to speeds unimaginable only couple of years back. A normal retail customer can get speed in excess of 15 MBps (in India) and in excess of 100MBps in matured markets which makes the place you store data immaterial  – you can access it in real time.

Network connections are getting more and more reliable with 24*7 access QoS. Telcos are investing heavily to augment cloud computing and are coming up with special offerings for this solution which will make the market more mature. Cloud access through Internet does away with need of VPN (Virtual Private Network) too.

In the excitement to make laptops lighter, companies removed excess storage and decided to provide it over the Cloud. That innovation actually sounded the death knell for laptops in my opinion. If I can get a smartphone which has a port to connect to a screen and a keyboard, I would not require a laptop. And I don’t think that day is quite far.

If we take away the storage feature, there is very little ground left for smartphones to cover. Available RAM has already crossed 2GB and storage has already reached 64GB.

Of course, we are talking of high-end smartphones, but then laptop do not come cheap either.

In the excitement to make laptops lighter, companies removed excess storage and decided to provide it over the Cloud. That innovation actually sounded the death knell for laptops in my opinion. If I can get a smartphone which has a port to connect to a screen and a keyboard, I would not require a laptop. And I don’t think that day is quite far. 

So what does all this mean?

In simple terms, a laptop could soon be thing of past. Users are comfortable with one device rather than carrying multiple devices performing similar functions. With a dwindling user base, there would not be enough money to invest in innovation in laptops and the product will stagnate soon.

It seems laptop manufacturers such as Dell and Lenovo have seen the writing on the wall and are trying their hand at making smartphones.

It will be sad to see a marvelous product dying but that’s the crux of innovation and it will not be wrong to say that the laptop has scored a self-goal by pushing cloud computing forward!

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By Alok Jain  

Starting December 2013, airlines ticket prices started going up steadily. This is understandable given that the holiday season is a lucrative time for airlines to make profits as demand outstrips supply by a huge margin. What was surprising was that the price of tickets for the non-holiday time period were also on an upward rise. For instance, the Bangalore-Delhi round trip which used to cost Rs 9,000-Rs 11,000 when booked 15-30 days in advance had risen and were costing Rs 15,000 for the month of February.

Now, suddenly, the 30-day advance booking fares have crashed to as low as Rs 8000 for a round trip between Bangalore-Delhi. This seems to be a great deal which no one would want to miss. But how do airlines benefit from such a scheme? On the surface, it seems that airlines will be making a loss with such schemes when they are already bleeding!

Here is why the scenario might be quite different. 

The accounting behind the airfares: First, such schemes are being launched close to the financial year end. This scheme brings in huge liquidity in the form of cash for the airlines and makes theirs cash flow statements a bit healthier. The revenue is still considered unrecognized and shown as a liability in the balance sheet till the time a customer takes a flight. If subsequently, the ticket is cancelled by the traveler, then a minimum of 40% of the revenue will stay with the airline as cancellation fees for tickets.

The economics behind the airfares: Lets consider the Delhi-Bangalore sector. The regular advance fare on this sector is Rs 4500-Rs 4900. During the current schemes, the tickets are priced at Rs 3900. If the cost of capital for airlines is 16%, lets average it for half a year to keep it simple @8%, the airlines would have paid Rs 312 as interest to get this revenue. Since no one is sure of plans 6 months in advance, lets say 15% of tickets are cancelled and 15% of the tickets are rescheduled. This brings in an additional Rs 474 (Rs 1580 as cancellation/change charges) per cancelled/ rescheduled ticket.

Airlines do consider these cancellation/schedule changes and overbook tickets by a factor of 20% which brings in an additional Rs 780 per cancelled/ rescheduled ticket.

In reality, a seat which is being sold as Rs 3900 is actually bringing in Rs 5446 as revenue to airlines companies! That’s a fair bit more than the regular advance fares which used to be in the range of Rs 4500-Rs 4800.

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The One year MBA (EPGP) Class of 2014 at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM B) recently visited National University of Singapore (NUS) for the international immersion. The immersion is a common feature of all One year MBA programmes at Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) as part of which the entire class shifts lock, stock and barrel to a foreign university to gain an international perspective of business. Alok Jain shares his experiences in Singapore.

By Alok Jain

As soon as we got a breather from the second term exams on 16th August, the focus shifted to the two weeks international immersion program in Singapore, one of the top ten financial centers of the world.

A trip to Singapore was a first for me, like for many of us, and possibly the first trip outside the country for some of us. As soon as we reached Singapore, we rushed to duty free shops to take care of the essentials for the next two weeks. As I stepped out of the airport, the hot weather reminded me of New Delhi – a far cry from the cool climate I had been experiencing in Bangalore for the last five months.

The next morning we started our first day at the sprawling National University of Singapore campus with a welcome note by a NUS professor who focused on aspects of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) economies. In India we keep on hearing about China and its fast paced growth. The thrust of the session at NUS was no different. The Professor shared how China is a major player in the ASEAN economy. After this we had an invigorating discussion on how India fits into the larger scheme of things. We discussed the drivers for growth in both regions and discussed the differences in the economies within the zone: while India is a supply driven economy, ASEAN is demand driven economy.

It also came out during the discussion that India seem to be getting left out from the ASEAN scheme of things because its foreign policy is not focused on East Asia. For instance, we are not utilizing our historical ties with Myanmar for increasing trade with the mineral rich nation while China is making significant inroads into the country.

Arriving in Singapore

This was followed by Mr. Sameer Arora, Founder and Fund Manager, Helios Capital Fund who shared some incredible business insights with the class.

Post Lunch we had meeting with Prof. Sekhar for the project on Smart Cities. This is part of our international group project being driven by ITU for United Nations.

Next day we focused our discussion on Singapore and how it achieved growth and became a major transport hub despite having minimal resources at its disposal. Probably the single party system played a big role in this but we can’t ignore the hardwork put in by the authorities – in the words of the first PM of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, “there was no secret; we had no choice but to take a chance and sail into rough waters”.

There are many lessons to be learnt from Singapore’s development for other countries. In a short span, Singapore has managed political stability, ensured a high quality of governance, established an open and modern culture, minimized a chance of rebellion etc. While we may not agree with each specific aim, for Singapore the model seems to be working effectively.

Post lunch, we had a lecture on the aviation industry by Prof Anthony Chin, Academic Director for EPGP immersion. He shared how the aviation industry is fueling economic growth and the innovative business models that are emerging. For instance, one interesting model is the adopted by Tiger Airlines where every single service is charged separately.

Shipping containers lined up at Singapore dock (Image copyright – worldofstock.com)

Next day started with peep into Chinese culture and post that we did some experiment of using chopsticks to eat Chinese food!

Slowly the sessions at NUS were getting more intense with regular talks by Industry experts, business houses and government agencies in Singapore. Over the next few days we got a deep understanding of how Singapore is controlling its exchange rate against a basket of currencies despite being a surplus economy. We also learnt of the efficient cargo clearing capability of Singapore where 80% of the cargo is cleared in eight minutes and 100% clearance is done in 15 minutes!

Soon later we attended a talk by Zafar Momin who is on board of Maple Tree Trust. The talk was quite interactive and he shared an interesting quote: “If the going is too easy, may be you are scratching the surface”. Later we got opportunity to visit Jurong Port and the IKEA factory.

Connecting with IIM B alumni

An IIM Bangalore alumni meet was organized on the weekend to help us explore opportunities and learn from their experiences. The alums shared important takeaways from their careers which was followed by a Q&A session. An interesting part of the meet was when we were divided into small groups of four to five people in order to have an informal chat. I was particularly impressed with the humility and frankness of alums.

IIM B alumni meet at NUS

In the evening, we went to marina bay sands to try our luck at Casino and I was surprised to learn that the locals actually have to pay a fees of S$100 for entry, while entry was completely free for tourists!

We have heard a lot about Sentosa Island and it was one of the must see places in Singapore. It is an artificial man-made beach and fun-park and is frequented by everyone who comes to Singapore. No wonder a small country like Singapore has so many tourists. It has worked very well within the constraints it faced and developed its economy.

The second week at Singapore started with lengthy discussion on smart cities and which was also the theme of our international project. Key industry speakers from IBM, Cisco, Siemens presented their view on how the world of future would be. Prof. Sekhar discussed why there is a urgent need for smart cities. I felt this territory was a blue ocean that presented a whole new new wave of business opportunity as it is an elite market and cities and countries are making huge investments in such projects.

Any talk on marketing has to be interesting. So when David Shaw talked about the challenges in marketing communications and how things can go wrong, the class was glued to his every word. He took us through marketing campaigns which went wrong and what can be done to prevent such occurrences. For instance, an advertisement on a ‘Starbucks’ van inadvertently displayed as ‘SUCKS’ when the van door opened , a Turkish Airlines advertisement on escalator looked like a plane crashing down and how taking a customer for granted lead to a loss of millions of dollars for a company when an irate customer released a music album highlighting the incident on Youtube!

Starbucks’s unintentional self-effacing ad: a lesson in the importance of attention to detail in execution

Day 12 started with a pep talk by Anshuman Gupta, CEO, Strontium on his journey, the challenges he faced in setting up a company, and how he created a space for himself in a market dominated by big players. The key takeaway he shared was that for a start-up, often a good strategy is to find the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid.

Next we had an interaction with Prof. Nitin Pangarkar who talked about strategies of Asian companies and how Kodak failed to capitalize on its competency with the introduction of digital cameras and how FAVNE has captured more than 60% of market in robotics. In the evening we had a meeting with Prof Sekhar for the delivery of Smart City Project and he was very impressed with the work done by us. He suggested that we continue working on the project after the immersion program and we gladly accepted the proposal.

EPGP 5 Cohort

The last day of our exciting international immersion trip began with a photo shoot of the whole batch at the NUS campus (required for the brochure ). We had speakers from Ocean Health, Deutche bank talk to us. The journey at NUS culminated with the presentation of certificates and a small gift by NUS.

Afterwards, we went to the Siemens building to see the advancement and research they have made in smart cities. We also had some fun playing with a working model of a smart sustainable city.

With this our journey to this interesting land of opportunities came to an end. Singapore really is a wonderful country with many opportunities and which has grown to become a financial center despite challenges. The country anticipated these challenges and dealt with them in time.

During the night we went for shopping for some toys at the Mustafa center, which is the only place in Singapore which runs 24×7. The history behind Mustafa center becoming the favourite shopping hub for locals is one of the many success stories hidden in the streets of Singapore.

IIM Bangalore’s One year MBA (EPGP) Batch at NUS

Contributing blogger Alok Jain is a One year MBA (EPGP) candidate at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. Alok has close to 12 years experience working in IT services and products with organisations such as Amdocs, Sapient, Infosys and Jindal Steel & Power Ltd at numerous global locations. Besides an accomplished leader he is also an adventure sports enthusiast.

The post India’s missed opportunity at ASEAN? EPGP reports from Singapore appeared first on OneYearMBA.co.in.

The One year MBA (EPGP) class at Indian Institute of Management (IIM B) says ‘lets do our bit’ and organises two medical camps – one for providing artificial limbs to amputees and the other to treat vision related problems such as cataract. In total 150 people got a new lease of life at the camps.  

By Alok Jain

Nine-year old girl Ayesha has come from Bijapur with her parents to this camp. As she walked back after getting the calipers she was literally running. I saw the glitter of happiness in her eyes. 30-year-old Rajanna from Tumkur who went back with a belief that now he can support his family again. At the eye camp on the other corner, many patients would get treatment for cataract soon and would be able to work.

EPGP students at IIMB started Prayaas: A Social Responsibility Initiative four years ago and its activities are synonymous with its tagline, ‘Let’s do our bit’.  Prayaas organized two medical camps in the institute on 27th Oct 2013. One camp was to provide artificial limbs or the famed Jaipur Foot for amputees and calipers for Polio ridden patients or those with weak limbs. The other was to diagnose and treat eye related ailments ranging from simple vision defects such as refractive problems to cataract and optical nerve damages.

The camp was a major success and attracted participants from people as far as Bellary.

For instance T S Guruprasad, who had lost his limb in an accident two-years back and had come to the camp back for a limb replacement. The story of his will power and the transformation in his life brought about by prosthetic limb were both a source of inspiration to the students as well as other patients.

In all, fifty patients will get benefit from the Jaipur Foot Camp of which 41 were benefited on the spot. The daylong eye camp helped 130 patients of which 26 patients will be treated for cataract and 31 will be provided glasses. The complete cost for the camp and treatment will be borne by Prayaas that is funded primarily by contributions from EPGP students.

Director and Dean (Academic) Professor Devanath Tirupati congratulated the EPGP students for continuing with the tradition and finding ways to expand the volume and scope of its activities in providing help to the needy. The entire IIM B community supported the camp – volunteers came from every program of the Institute. Everyone including Professors, students of EPGP, PGP, FPM, PGPPM, exchange-program, spouses of students, EPGP office and staff, contributed towards making this camp hugely successful. Kajal, the wife of an EPGP student and a physiotherapist, helped lot of people with medical advice.

For Valentin, Alice and Johanna, who are at IIM B on an exchange programme from universities in Europe, this was a unique experience. Alice, student from Italy, was amazed at the scale of camp and said, “It’s good to see people walking on new legs and the way you are putting in efforts to provide this for free to them”.

The joy and satisfaction you get when you bring a smile to someone cannot be expressed through words. You can only experience the joy of seeing people come to the camp on a wheelchair walk back to their home.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Contributing blogger Alok Jain is a One year MBA (EPGP) candidate at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. Alok has close to 12 years experience working in IT services and products with organisations such as Amdocs, Sapient, Infosys and Jindal Steel & Power Ltd at numerous global locations. Besides an accomplished leader he is also an adventure sports enthusiast. 

The post Beyond business: EPGP at IIM B restarts lives appeared first on OneYearMBA.co.in.