Category Archives: 1-By Laksh

All these articles are from Laksh’s desk

1-By Laksh, Doing Business, Leadership, Strategy

Reverse Innovation: Prof.Vijay Govindarajan at ISB

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Key points from a talk at ISB on January 08, 2013
  1. What is Reverse Innovation: 
    • It is an innovation seen first, or likely to be used first, in the poor nations and then extended to rich nations. Rich and poor nations being classified based on the GDP bar as set by United Nations.
    • So, if an innovation springs up in India and if it is applied to US it becomes reverse innovation
  2. If it works here, it will work anywhere: The speaker presented a few examples from healthcare industry that illustrated the above point, emphasizing that low cost does not mean low quality. Infact, that it worked in India or Thailand, means that the product is world class, due to the extreme conditions this product is put to use.
    • A low cost ECG machine from GE (Though developed for $2/per day earning rural Indian, now finds place in the high way ambulances in US, where installing a million dollar ECG machine along with a high skilled technician does not make sense.)
    • World class Heart surgeries in India for a fraction of cost that has paved way to the medical tourism model. Infact, now in Cayman Islands, there is a project that is being developed where people from US can travel to and get their surgeries done for a fraction of cost
      • Narayana Hrudalaya performs a heart surgery for less than $2000, that takes typically $50,000 in a leading hospital in India
      • But the quality is still the best because of the equipment that is used and the demanding customers we have in India. (Indians are supposed to have weak(est) of hearts)
      • 60% of patients are treated free, but interestingly remaining 40% makes this hospital to still enjoy over 45% of gross margin!!
    • A low cost artificial limb (Though developed for Thailand, now is being marketed world-wide. Further they have perfected the model of training the amputees fitted with artificial limbs to fit the limbs for new patients, thus obviating the need for high skilled technicians as in US)
  3. Stop thinking like an American:  Further he presented the following that could be eye openers to companies when they extend to emerging markets.
    • A project for low cost house ($US 300) which is building momentum through a web project (http://www.300house.com/)
    • How channels like ESPN could benefit when they drop the US eye-lens and stop using the same market segmentation as in US and figure out India-specific segments to better sell their services.
    • How companies like Kellog could benefit from understanding Indian way of consuming cereals with hot milk etc…
  4. Be in India and Be an Indian is the mantra for Global companies
    • Focusing on India and its consumer is the way forward.
    • Innovation is not value for money, but value for many
    • Globalization of ideas is the key–and  reverse innovation will help you do it. Innovation isn’t meant to be hugely capital intensive. It can come from meager budgets and poor countries. Rich countries, large budgets is old school thinking
    • Master innovation for Indian consumer and you will have a global winner
    • When the terrain is tough and the villain is on the run, Rajnikanth chose a horse to chase down a Mercedes Benz!! That is innovation at its best.
    • Finally, innovation should aim at addressing the inequality in the world through ultra-low cost, high quality and global products. Amen!

My observations

  1. This speaker’s mentor/idol C.K.Prahlad came up with a concept called “The bottom of the pyramid”, which is about how new markets can be found while productizing for poor people (shampoo sachets, cheap phone rates through pre-paid cards etc). Reverse innovation is one step forward–how can such innovation be extended globally
  2. If whatever works in India works globally, does it mean that a block buster like ”Magadheera” or “3 Idiots” can appeal to world wide audiences? Did Thai/Korean/Chinese movie companies cracked it already?

1-By Laksh, Movies

‘Rosebud’ and ‘Skyfall’: Some musings…

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‘Skyfall’ in a lot of sense is an anti-thesis of a James Bond movie, that attempts to decode the persona of Bond, instead of making it bigger and brighter. The movie lacks the grander set-pieces, huge spectacles and the franchise strengths, and instead becomes a brooding and soul-searching effort with the director (Sam Mendis) offering his tribute to ‘Rosebud’. (Orson Welles and ‘Citizen Kane‘)

Sadly, the approach of Mr.Nolan’s unmasking the superhero isn’t the appropriate delineation for a Bond movie.

With some positive reviews (Wired, being one of them) floating around, my view could be seen as counterpoint.  May be a back story isn’t out of the order.

My introduction to James Bond transpired in a rather old fashioned way, when a chummy of mine narrated the lead scene to the opening titles of “The spy who loved me”.

He did it to perfection, including the act of mimicking the the James Bond theme that kicks in when the parachute bursts open. For a ten year old kid, it was a heady experience, imagining the terrific chase, villains chasing the hero and finally hero jumping off the snow clad mountain.

But, the true appreciation for the man who has a penchant for scantily clad women, exotic locales and an assortment of  gadgets n’ cars, came in a little later, when in my early teens, a norm in our household was broken.

It was a routine in our house to fast forward all the rain and item songs in Telugu and Hindi films, and it was never challenged as the powers that be, mostly my father, controlled what came out of the Video Cassette player. However, for some mysterious reasons the Bond films were left intact.

I wonder, if it were my father’s way of telling me that with Bond and God (read Lord Krishna), everything is not what it seems and merely watching them indulge in girls, guns and gadgets wouldn’t influence me (read mortal) in any way 🙂

My fascination for the franchise continued even as I picked up years (a-k-a getting old) as I watched bond movies both on the big screen and on home video. It sort of reached a peak when one of my favorite bands, A-ha,  performed the title song for ‘The Living Daylights”.

Interestingly, all along I became a ‘serious’ movie fan itching to dissect each and every movie I watched. While all the other movies were laid to bare on my post-mortem table, the Bond movies (Jim Carrey, Govinda, Manmohan Desai and a few others included) escaped my scalpel of story n’ structure. You could say that I reinforced my childhood gyan about Bond and God 🙂

 

 

 

Now, you could imagine my puzzlement after watching ‘Skyfall’ and its painful attempt to make ‘sense’ of Bond and his world.

 

 

The director unearths just about everything about the psychological profile of  Bond, barring his extreme virility and libido, or did he make an innuendo that they are on the wane? 🙂  He brings down Bond to just an extra-ordinary human being (like in ‘The Expendables” ) and in the process justifies the ‘fall’ in the movie title 🙂

May be, he should have listened to Steven Spielberg, who (supposedly) believes in following up with bigger things in the sequels in terms of scale and surprise, and sticking to the original ‘format’.

Hopefully, we will have a new director at the helm (and a clean shaven Daniel Craig) for the next outing. Hmm…how about a remake of Dr.No, just to practice the basics?  Hope the folks at Eon, MGM and Sony have something exciting planned for the movies to come.

But, No Dr.s (read shrinks) and  ‘Rosebud’s, please.

 

1-By Laksh, Books, Movies

‘The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo’

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‘The Girl With A Dragon Tatoo’ is about two individuals–an investigative journalist and a freelance researcher–whose paths cross when the journalist (Mikael Blomkvist) is offered an assignment to track down a missing woman belonging to a rich business family.

Mikael, having just suffered an ignominious defeat in the courtroom and facing the imminent danger of losing his magazine ‘Millennium’, reluctantly agrees. He shifts his base to the countryside and under the pretext of writing a memoir of the ageing and semi-retired patriarch of the business house, starts probing into the family. Mikael solicits help from the girl researcher (Lisabeth Sandler), and both embark on a risky journey to unravel the dark secrets of the family.

 

 

The movie stays pretty much faithful to the novel, trimming the not so important aspects of the novel (like Mikael ‘s affair with Cecilia Vanger etc). David Fincher as usual does a very good job of unveiling the serial killer and his den towards the end.  Special mention for the production design (Donald Graham Burt) and music (Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross)