Storm the Norm

Storm the Norm

By Anisha MotwaniBusiness
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Storm the Norm episodes

  • Nationalistic brands will have an edge over global brands in the post-Covid era.
    This norm may sound pretty obvious—and familiar, because it is an inescapable one these days, given the socio-political climate, not just in India but in many countries across the world. Recall the Donald Trump’s MAGA ideology that almost demanded a nationalistic fervor from business (the integrity of that ideology is another debate altogether), Brexit has asked Britons to view business from a non-EU lens first. Even in something as critical as a Covid-19 vaccine, the US wants to favor the one developed by an American company (Pfizer, in this case) while India has its predilections towards the ones where Bharat Biotech or The Serum Institute have a hand.
    So, will local geo-politics influence businesses & will brands start being vocal about showing off their nationalistic credentials and make that a key strategic pillar in their playbook?
    To answer this, we have an expert who has straddled the line between both local and global. Our guest expert today is Geetu Verma from Unilever, a global marketer and business leader, part of Unilever's global Foods and Refreshment team based out of Rotterdam, Netherlands.
    29 min
  • Challenger brands have to swim harder than the leader to stay in the same place
    What are the rules of winning for challenger brands? But first, what makes a challenger brand? What differentiates them from market followers & qualifies them as challengers?
    Let's take a cricket analogy here. The 1983 men’s Indian cricket team was an underdog that came from nowhere to dethrone an invincible West Indies. But there is another more apt team when it comes to satisfying multiple conditions of being a true challenger. The Sri Lankan team of the 1996 cricket world cup. They were a decided underdog, much smaller as a cricketing nation, in the midst of the worst days of the civil war and they definitely did not stay in the same place at the end of the tournament.
    What is amply clear is that it’s high time the ‘challenger brand’ norm was stormed.
    We do have an expert who brings his lived insights and experience with him — on what it takes to be a challenger brand and not end up in the same place. Listen to Mr. Vishesh C. Chandiok, CEO of Grant Thornton Bharat to shed light on this & more. Don’t miss the #StN Innovation #Hacks to help you change your game
    29 min
  • Storm The Norm 16: Indian boards are more statutory than strategic, end up as rubber stamps

    What really makes for a great board?

    The turn of the century saw the collapse of Enron, Worldcom, Tyco, Adelphia, 2008 saw the collapse of Lehman Brothers. They all had boards with great experience, diversity, equity involvement, independence, and they all oversaw governance as well as strategy. Closer home, we’ve seen the tussles in the past few years in two of the most iconic Indian companies—Tata Sons and Infosys. We take this norm head-on with the leading subject matter expert on Board Governance, Mr. Shailesh Haribhakti. We asked him—much like how it’s asked of journalism: who will watch the watchers—what governs the ones tasked with governance?

    And as expected, he didn’t just make sense. He gave a rousing rallying cry and pointed unequivocally towards the direction Indians boards need to take, and what it takes to be a successful board.


    #Business #IndianBusiness #India

    29 min
  • Storm the Norm 15: Traditional media businesses & their traditional revenue models are doomed

    The irony of this norm is that it’s staring at us, but that change seems to be so long in coming, when the norm has been actually crying out to be stormed!!

    The traditional media industry may not acknowledge it, but as Einstein once said, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity…and not in a good way.

    The problem with this industry is that they have allowed themselves to be defined by the medium and not the purpose. They’re called the media business, not the journalism business or news & analysis, or reportage. When you pigeonhole yourself like that, then you’ll tend to be defined—both from inside and externally—by whatever the fashionable technology is these days. For centuries, print was it, then along came audio-visual media such as radio and television, and now we have the 21st century’s posterchild, digital.


    But media—any of these—are just that. They’re just the technological platforms, they’re not the product. And when you let yourself be defined by a medium, then of course your revenue models are going to be constrained by that myopic thinking.


    So can this norm be stormed? Well, to take a crack at it, we roped in Mr. Anurag Batra, Chairman, and Editor-in-Chief of BW Businessworld. Anurag is a media mogul, serial entrepreneur, journalist, and an eternal optimist. Given his multi-faceted set of experiences, we figured we couldn’t have gotten a better expert to storm this norm.


    #Media #Business #IndianMedia

    24 min
  • StN Ep 16 Indian boards are more statutory than strategic, in the bargain ending up as rubber stamps
    What really makes for a great board?
    The turn of the century saw the collapse of Enron, Worldcom, Tyco, Adelphia, 2008 saw the collapse of Lehman Brothers. They all had boards with great experience, diversity, equity involvement, independence, and they all oversaw governance as well as strategy. Closer home, we’ve seen the tussles in the past few years in two of the most iconic Indian companies—Tata Sons and Infosys. We take this norm head-on with the leading subject matter expert on Board Governance, Mr. Shailesh Haribhakti. We asked him—much like how it’s asked of journalism: who will watch the watchers—what governs the ones tasked with governance?
    And as expected, he didn’t just make sense. He gave a rousing rallying cry and pointed unequivocally towards the direction Indians boards need to take, and what it takes to be a successful board.
    29 min
  • STN EP 15: Traditional media businesses & their traditional revenue models are doomed
    The irony of this norm is that it’s staring at us, but that change seems to be so long in coming, when the norm has been actually crying out to be stormed!!
    The traditional media industry may not acknowledge it, but as Einstein once said, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is the definition of insanity…and not in a good way.
    The problem with this industry is that they have allowed themselves to be defined by the medium and not the purpose. They’re called the media business, not the journalism business or news & analysis, or reportage. When you pigeonhole yourself like that, then you’ll tend to be defined—both from inside and externally—by whatever the fashionable technology is these days. For centuries, print was it, then along came audio-visual media such as radio and television, and now we have the 21st century’s posterchild, digital. But media—any of these—are just that. They’re just the technological platforms, they’re not the product. And when you let yourself be defined by a medium, then of course your revenue models are going to be constrained by that myopic thinking.
    So can this norm be stormed? Well, to take a crack at it, we roped in Mr. Anurag Batra, Chairman, and Editor-in-Chief of BW Businessworld. Anurag is a media mogul, serial entrepreneur, journalist, and an eternal optimist. Given his multi-faceted set of experiences, we figured we couldn’t have gotten a better expert to storm this norm.
    24 min
  • Storm The Norm 14: Indian Startup Ecosystem is at Best a Clone of its Global Counterparts

    At a time when the Indian Government is ruthlessly banning Chinese apps and pushing the Indian Start-up eco-system to raise their game,

    the question really is, "Are we ready to take the challenge"?

    It's well known that most Indian startups are prone to emulate successful global ideas, by and large fine-tuning an existing model to serve local needs. There’s Ola for Uber, Gaana for Spotify, OYO Rooms for Airbnb, and Flipkart for Amazon. So while India has provided for a nurturing ground to numerous startups in the past few years but they are merely clones of Western ideas.

    To storm this very pertinent norm we have none other than GV Ravishankar, who is a Managing Director of Sequoia Capital India. GV’s specific focus areas are the Consumer, Financial Services, and Education sectors. Two of the most interesting Indian start-ups GV works with are Byju’s and Rebel Foods. A President’s Gold Medal awardee from IIM Ahmedabad, GV’s experience spans many years with Wipro Technologies and then McKinsey & Company in senior advisory roles.

    31 min
  • Storm The Norm 13: Indian Brands Don’t Have What it Takes to Succeed Globally

    Indian executives have always succeeded spectacularly on the global stage. Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, Ajay Banga, Indra Nooyi, Rajesh Suri, Shantanu Narayen, Rakesh Kapoor... The list is long. And yet, we'd be hard put to name even 5 Indian businesses that have similarly succeeded on a global scale.

    Why is that?

    What will it take for Indian brands to win on the global stage? How can businesses storm this norm?

    We have just the right person to answer these tough questions Tune in to listen to Mr. Mohit Malhotra, young & passionate CEO of our very own home-grown global Indian conglomerate, Dabur. This is a person who’s been there, done that in storming this norm, alright.


    #innovation #disruption #branding #StormTheNorm

    27 min
  • StN Ep-14 Indian Start-Up ecosystem is at best a clone of its global counterparts
    At a time when the Indian Government is ruthlessly banning Chinese apps and pushing the Indian Start-up eco-system to raise their game,
    the question really is, "Are we ready to take the challenge"?
    It's well known that most Indian startups are prone to emulate successful global ideas, by and large fine-tuning an existing model to serve local needs. There’s Ola for Uber, Gaana for Spotify, OYO Rooms for Airbnb, and Flipkart for Amazon. So while India has provided for a nurturing ground to numerous startups in the past few years but they are merely clones of Western ideas.
    To storm this very pertinent norm we have none other than GV Ravishankar, who is a Managing Director of Sequoia Capital India. GV’s specific focus areas are the Consumer, Financial Services, and Education sectors. Two of the most interesting Indian start-ups GV works with are Byju’s and Rebel Foods. A President’s Gold Medal awardee from IIM Ahmedabad, GV’s experience spans many years with Wipro Technologies and then McKinsey & Company in senior advisory roles.
    31 min
  • Storm The Norm 12: Why are most supply chains built for full-time cost & part time use?

    COVID 19 has exposed the vulnerabilities of rigid supply chains and has heightened the need to circumvent existing supply chain limitations, cut the cost and time to reach customers, and figure out ways to generate more value—for customers and for themselves.

    Multi-channel distribution eco-system, ‘just-in-time’ delivery, customer’s expectation of personalization, coupled with demand volatility has resulted in complex but highly in-efficient supply chains.

    Time is ripe to evolve to the next normal by storming the rigidity norms of the existing supply chain eco-system. Listen to some path-breaking insights in this new episode of our podcast.


    #innovation #disruption #supplyChains #StormTheNorm

    25 min

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