India is largely disappointed with its performance at the largest festival of creativity - Cannes Lions 2015. But advertising honcho, KV Sridhar a.k.a Pops, Chief Creative Officer (India) of Sapient Nitro shares his insights into India being self critical and how we need to catch with the new media. Here is Pops giving you the Cannes flavour, as told to Hita Gupta India has always done well in the traditional categories of the advertising which is Print, Outdoor, Film Craft and Media. In Print, India is only the second nation to have three Silvers in Print category. We had good contenders in the Outdoor category too. India also has one shortlist in design also. There are two advertising worlds which exist now - traditional media and new media. But we are missing out on the new media which is Cyber, Media, Mobile, Promo & Activation, Product Design, Titanium and Creative Effectiveness etc. So, these are things which we are missing out on because the entire category is also expanding at Cannes, year after year. India might be lagging behind by three years. If you were to see it in comparison, we are at the same stage we were at 10 years back in Print. People say that India has very good ideas but is not able to execute it very well. For the last seven-eight years India has dominated in Print, but to dominate in new media we are still lagging behind in terms of use of new technology and the new mediums. It will work the way the Indian market does. The Indian market is not mature enough currently and that is the reason for the small number and the scale of entries. Digital in India means that people just do longer commercials and put them on YouTube which is not digital at all. You cannot use YouTube as a television channel. Outside India, all work that is done on mobile is very interactive and internet allows you to make things interactive and India hasn’t done much about using that medium in a different way. Both the market and the advertising agencies have to catch with the people and create better campaigns. But I think that nobody doubts the capability of India, it is held at high levels in terms of our creativity and craftsmanship. Brazil and Argentina are two nations which have braced the new technology and communication and they have been doing fabulous in new media and as well as print. India’s print and television craft have also been universally acknowledged. The results are not as disappointing as it seems, it is just that we are very self critical in nature as we always want to overdo what we did last year. There will be some years which were good and there will be some years where we don’t perform that well but we just need to move on. This might be a wake-up call to think of new ways. The festival is becoming bigger and bigger every year. There were close to 40,000 entries and 15,000 delegates over seven days. The categories are also increasing year after year. It celebrates creativity to enhance business. Gone are the days when people could work in a silo, this is an integrated world. The blurring of one discipline to another is also very high as one campaign can go into seven or eight different categories. This year, the mindless party is giving way to a lot of big agencies which have come here to have small groups for workshops and seminars, this is a big change compared to the last year’s festival. This time there are several private seminars and workshops which are happening at other conference rooms of the hotel. So depending on the niche there are events at Cannes and that is the major change this year.
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A supply-chain company with focus on e-commerce solution, Gojavas, has appointed Sobhit Jain in the senior leadership team as general manager to strenthen its leadership skills. He comes with about 12 years of experience in supply chain spread across management consulting and industry.Prior to join Gojavas, Sobhit worked with Accenture strategy where he was a principal in the supply chain consulting practice. In Accenture, he worked for clients across FMCG, telecom, metals and others advising them on supply chain strategy, future ready operating model, logistics cost reduction and network optimisation.“We have expanded our network in the last quarter. Currently we are strengthening our leadership team to consolidate our recent growth and Sobhit’s addition in the team is in line with that objective. We will be hiring more key resources for senior leadership roles in the coming months," said, senior official from Javas.He worked with Glaxo Smith Kline Consumer Healthcare and Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals in various supply chain roles. He has done an MBA in operations and supply chain from National Institute of Industrial Engineering, Mumbai.
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Gold Lions drought continues for Indian entries at Cannes, writes Hita Gupta BBDO India bagged the Grand Prix in the Glass Lions category for its ‘Touch the Pickle’ campaign for P&G’s Whisper brand. This is India’s first Grand Prix in six years at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Glass Lions is a new category that was introduced this year, in partnership with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s LeanIn.Org. It recognises work that implicitly or explicitly addresses issues of gender inequality or prejudice. BBDO India also won a Glass Lion for its ‘Share the Load’ campaign for P&G’s Ariel brand. But the drought for Gold trophies continued for India on the second day of Cannes Lions 2015. Indian agencies secured one Bronze at Media Lions, and two Silvers and three Bronze at Outdoor Lions at the 62ndedition of the world’s largest festival of creativity. There were no winners in PR Lions despite its three shortlists. At Media Lions, India had eight shortlists but only the Glass Lions Grand Prix winner BBDO India’s ‘Touch The Pickle’ campaign secured a Bronze. BBDO India was the lone winner from the country across 80 awards that were given for the category. In the Outdoor Lions category, six awards from a total of 131 were given to five agencies from India. McCann Worldgroup India was leading with two Silver Lions. McCann received one Silver Lion each for its Dish TV campaign for Essel Group titled ‘Basement’ and also its three-ad campaign series - Basement, Sofa and Puddle. Creativeland Asia joined the Silver league for its client Reckitt Benckiser's Durex RealFeel condoms campaign - Heart, Gut and Brain. Grey Worldwide India, DDB Mudra and Ogilvy & Mather secured one Bronze each taking the awards tally under Outdoor Lions to six. Grey Worldwide’s Bronze was for its campaign for DHL while Ogilvy & Mather’s was for its Soundwave campaign for Puffin. DDB Mudra closed the awards for the day with two of its winning entries - Automatic Distance Control and Bi-Xenon Headlamps for Volkswagen. Among India’s most celebrated campaigns, Unilever India's Kan Khajura Tesan was also awarded a Bronze Lion under Creative Effectiveness. The entry was submitted by Lowe and Partners Worldwide London but was conceptualised by its team in India - Lowe Lintas and Partners India. From the total of 17 Lions given in the category, the Kan Khajura Tesan campaign was the lone winner from India.
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One of the takeaways for Emery in the course of judging the Media Lions entries was that lines where blurring as to what defined “media, writes Noor Fathima WarsiaAs the Jury President for Media Lions, Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Nick Emery, CEO, Mindshare Worldwide had only three rules for his jurors this year – it should be about the work, not politics; should factor in media craft and it should adhere to the criteria where results are as important as the idea itself. In a conversation with DMA, Emery reflected, “We had to keep the politics out as a shadow has been casted on these awards in past. Media craft was important to factor in because, at present, around 80 per cent of the work in Media Lions category comes from creative agencies. We cannot stop that and we should not discriminate against that either. We should however ascertain that the idea has the media rigour in it. Finally, and especially from a media agency viewpoint, it is easy to be swayed by the creative idea but it is necessary to take a pause and check what the strategy or targeting or results was. We had a fantastic jury that stayed with all these points, and I am happy with the entries that we have awarded this year.” One of the takeaways for Emery in the course of judging the Media Lions entries was that lines where blurring as to what defined “media”. He also remarked that comparing an NGO ad to a large multinational corporation was unfair in a sense. “How do you compare a burger ad to a child adoption ad? It is not a fair comparison,” he said. With similar moral questions and the use of new technology, Mr Emery described the jury debate as ‘stimulating’. Elaborating on a larger question, on how media agencies should view the category, Mr Emery observed, “Media agencies should be more confident in their work because it really is as good. Creative agencies enter the same work across various categories and that is a mistake. They lose out on points for some of the parameters. It is also a function of the industry. Media agencies are driven by cautious procurement of commodity.” Mr Emery pointed out that there is a gap between the kind of work that is coming for charity organisations and for large superpower advertisers. “Large brands do some really good work but it is safe. In some cases, if you you swapped the corporate colours and logos, it is all the same. I did not also think that some of these brands are addressing Millennials as they should and they are in the process just creating some boring work.” From a perspective of the region’s performance, Mr Emery reiterated that the jury did not filter the work with that lens while judging but some at an overall level, large Asia Pacific markets such as India, China and Australia were not outgunned by their Western counterparts. He summed up, “I would also like to see more work coming from the Southeast Asian markets.”
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To transform, enterprise leaders must first script their company's digital strategy, and a key point is identifying the main stakeholders in the Enterprise Smart Transformation process, says Priyadarshi MohapatraTen thousand years ago, we learned the secrets of selective breeding and early agricultural techniques, paving the era of new habitats for human beings in groups of houses and hence the creation of villages. With food surplus, people turned to other specialized trades which led to the creation of cities. Fast forward to the mid 1700s and the industrial revolution had just started; it changed cities to the way we know them today. The need to evolve cities' infrastructure and create public services such as police, fire and sanitation departments arose. Road networks were built, electricity distribution became the norm, and other "modern" municipal services started to appear due to the rise in urbanization.In 2008, the UN's Economic and Social Council Ambassador Leo Merores, said in public forum in Bahrain that "for the first time in history the urban population will equal the rural population of the world and, from then on, the world population will be urban in its majority". This inflection point turned the attention of analysts to "slum" prevention and environmental sustainability. John Wilmoth, Director of UN DESA's Population Division thinks that "Managing urban areas has become one of the most important development challenges of the 21st century", and that building sustainable cities is a key success factor in urban planning.The history of the creation of cities, and developing its services as we know them today, is intriguing; but what's exciting is that we are now part of the third major milestone in cities' evolution, making history as it happens, a natural response to the increased urbanization, a paradigm shift in the way humans live their lives, it is the creation of "Smart Cities".During his last visit to India, Mr. Kevin Kennedy, President & Chief Executive Officer of Avaya, addressed India's CXO community recently and said that India is undergoing a digital transformation, and ensuring last mile connectivity in a country with population of more than 1.7 billion people is a humongous task. It's a large scale transformation which not only requires support from the government and its initiatives, but also from every individual and organization, to make this transformation a success.Empowering a city technologically is not a new concept, but to earn the label "Smart City" is much more than just upgrading the city's ICT infrastructure. Wise leaders are looking at the bigger picture, setting goals to improve the efficiency of their city's services, with the purpose of offering quality and equal lifestyle for the city's citizens, and to drive economic growth.But who owns the "Smart City"? NO one, and EVERYONE! It is true that governments are producing digital strategies for their Smart City transformation, but what about the city's enterprises? Would a city be smart if its citizens don't have capable smart phones? or if the service providers do not have the performing city wide infrastructure? or real estate firms don't integrate technologies into their newly built buildings, or retrofitted their existing buildings with sensors and smart connected equipment?or if there is no demand for smart and connected home appliances? orif schools don't adopt a digital connected educational platforms? orif Banks, health care institutions, safety and security departments don't go that route also? A Smart City is like the Internet, every content, website, service provider and end user's home network is part of building and maintaining it.While IoT (Internet of Things), social, mobility and cloud are the tools to enable a Smart City; the world of smart has three main building blocks: Smart Governments, Smart Enterprises and Smart Citizens. If one of those is not ready, then the city's transformation is not complete. What most visionary politicians and civic leaders have achieved in the smart space is very ambitious and daring to say the least, and the journey continues. However, enterprises must follow and should do that quickly for long-term survival: the enterprisereadiness for Smart is an essential building block in the formation of the Smart City, without which the smart ecosystem will not be complete and will never deliver on its promises.To transform, enterprise leaders must first script their company's digital strategy, and a key point is identifying the main stakeholders in the Enterprise Smart Transformation process: employees and customers. The slow adoption of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies and mechanisms as well as the old communication platforms have inevitably led to increased shadow IT (enterprise employees getting IT solutions without the IT department's consent). An Infinite Computer Solutions survey (a publicly listed IT services company) found out that almost "70% of companies are concerned about employees using third-party messaging and chat apps to communicate and send documents internally" and that "59% believe that currently available third-party messaging tools are insecure for enterprise communication". On the other hand, a research done by IDC (a market research company) revealed that "Enterprise Mobility is the number one technology area of implementation for middle east CIOs (Chief Information Officers) in 2015, while cloud has been at the center of CIO discussions for the past few years". A solid digital strategy must include mobility, communication and collaboration as key elements for employee to employee, enterprise to employee and employee to customer relationship platform.While the first key stakeholder in the Enterprise Smart Transformation is the employee, the equally important stakeholder is the customer. If employees are not engaged, enjoying their work and collaborating efficiently, chances are even if you have the best smart channels, customers willnot have the experience they expect, so priorities must be set right from the beginning.Customers nowadays know about an enterprise's products and services more than ever, and expect to find these throughoutall contemporary channels; including social, web, mobile, video, chat as well as the legacy telephony channels and more.Other recent technologies that leverage the mobile and wireless world (for example: beacons) are bringing customers even closer, more than ever, to the enterprise. A company's digital strategy will reinforce the customer experience journey in all of its digital channels, engaging the enterprise's customers; contributing to the overall happiness of the citizens.Adopting open standards as opposed to proprietary is the key, to allow for agile integration between different solutions while protectingearlier investments. Security is a big concern: if not managed and factored in well in advance, because if not, then consequences can be disastrous. But above all, the belief of the importance in the place of the enterprise as a major building block in the Smart City vision is what will drive the Enterprise Smart Transformation.By simply enabling new technologies alone, however sophisticated or solid, will never transform an enterprise into being Smart. Smart is a cultural capability, adopted by the enterprise leaders, whose main responsibility in their company's smart transformation is breaking the silos. Enterprise Smart Transformation must be built on the concept of adapting to agility, serendipity and employee's sociability.Being part of the third milestone in the history of city development can be taken for granted by many,but only those who embrace it, lead it and become part of it will always be remember. At this point in time in the human history, citizens and governments have made their choice, and enterprises should not be left out and become the weakest link.Smart cities can provide benefits to all, only if created by all. Remember, if we think about technology alone, technology often fails, and Murphy's Law will hit hard.The author is managing director, India & SAARC, Avaya
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India's Adani Mining said on Wednesday it was rejigging the budget on the A$10 billion ($7.72 billion) Carmichael coal mine project in Australia as it faces delays in government approvals. Adani intends to ship most of the coal from the mine to India for use in generating household power in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's goal to connect all of India to the electricity grid during his tenure. In announcing the setback, Adani also confirmed a media report it had asked independent contracting firms employed on the project to halt work around the mine. A report in the Guardian Australia said it had asked its four engineering contractors to stop operating, raising speculation that the Indian company might scrap the project altogether. "This is only temporary," an Adani spokeswoman, Kate Haddan said, adding a target to commence coal mining in 2017 stood for now. Adani in a statement said the project's current budget based on previous anticipated approval timelines and milestones were no longer achievable due to delays in receiving various approvals from the Queensland state government. "As a result of changes to a range of approvals over that time, it’s necessary to synchronise our budget, project timelines and spending to meet those changes," it said. Adani has signed up buyers for about 70 percent of the 40 million tonnes coal the Carmichael project is due to produce in its first phase. Adani's project mainly hinges on environmental approval to deepen a port on the fringe of Australia' Great Barrier Reef in order to ship the coal, a proposal generating opposition worldwide. An earlier plan to dump 3 million cubic metres of soil dredged at the port of Abbot Point into the sea about 25 km (15 miles) from the Great Barrier Reef was rejected. The Australian federal government must approve the actual channel dredging and the state needs to clear Adani's solution for storing the spoil. A draft U.N. ruling has recommended against listing the Great Barrier Reef as "in danger" but indicated it remains on its watchlist ahead of a final ruling due by the end of this month as it monitors plans for dredging. Eleven of the world’s biggest private investment banks, including Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan Chase, have publicly ruled out providing financing to Adani, citing environmental concerns over the reef and fossil fuel development. The Queensland Department of State Development, which is charged with approving the storage procedure, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Australia's minister for industry and science, Ian Macfarlane, recently said he was confident Adani would build the mine because India was looking for a stable supplier of coal. (Reuters)
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The enabling approval of the shareholders to the fund raising plan shall be sought at the company's AGM on 24 June, says C H UnnikrishnanDrug maker Lupin Ltd, which has been targeting an ambitious growth both in the domestic and international markets, especially in European region where it still does not have a strong footprint, is planning to raise a substantial amount through debt or equity options for a possible a strategic acquisition. Lupin's board at its latest meeting held on June 22 has approved an enabling provision to raise funds up to Rs 7500 crore through issue of securities including equity shares, global depository receipts, bonds or any other equity linked instruments, the company informed stock exchanges on Wednesday. The enabling approval of the shareholders to the fund raising plan shall be sought at the company's annual general meeting scheduled for Wednesday. Although Lupin witnessed strong sales and profit expansion in the range of 10-29 per cent over the past 3 years, sector analysts had expressed concerns about the scalability of its existing brand portfolio and the need of inorganic growth. "Despite a sharp operational movement, we believe there are ample levers for the company to sustain current margin levels. However, we remain sceptical on the current branded portfolio which has limited scalability, making inorganic growth imperative," said an analyst report by brokerage Reliance Securities in May. The analyst report said that, "though convinced on its (Lupin's) execution ability, we remain concerned on the valuation stretch. Slower new drug approvals and uncertainty over its branded drugs strategy also act as overhang." Meanwhile, the European drug regulator had suspended certain products of Lupin along with a few other Indian drug makers in that market recently due to doubtful tests. In response to queries from stock exchanges, the company had earlier clarified that, "We wish to state that in connection with GVK Bio Eqivalence studies, the company along with many other companies in the EU, received communication from European Medicines Agency (EMA) for suspension of Trimetazidine and Cefpodoxime tablets in January 2015." Hyderabad-based GVK Bio, a clinical research organisation, contracted by drug makers including Lupin for bio-equivalence studies of their products, had faced penal action by the European regulator for alleged errors in the trial practices, last year. Following this, Lupin had also informed the European regulator that it will submit new bio-equivalence studies (the study that determines the quality and efficacy of a generic drug compared to the originally approved branded formulation) for these products to EMA by June. It had submitted a similar report to the European regulator for review in May and the feedback was awaited. Lupin's new fund raising plan is mostly aimed at a strategic acquisition in the European market, said another sector analyst, who doesn't want to be identified.
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Mahindra Reva's new plant in Bangalore is the first of its kind electric vehicle plant in India. How does it run? Text and Photographs by Bivash BanerjeeIt runs 35 per cent of its power on solar energy. There is not a drop of grease in the plant as there are no engine components to be mounted.The building is certified Platinum by the Indian Green Building Council. It has the lowest dust to dirt footprint. The rooftop solar power plant to gives enough power for industrial use and enables charging facilities for vehicle testing. The building uses natural ventilation and lighting. It translucent mesh covers the building to block heat and reduce the need for air-conditioning. Mahendra Reva has now set up close to 110 charging points in Bangalore alone, where almost 1,200 electric Reva vehicles ply. These stations are available every 5 kilometres in the city.
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