Blogs & News
The futility of “Plan B”
A net not a hammock. What if Martin Luther King in his legendary address back in 1963 said, “I have a second favorite dream”? What if Kennedy said...
The curious case of the missing CMO
A recent Korn Ferry study suggests that the average tenure of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is the lowest in the C-Suite: 4.1 years versus 8.0...
Brands are missing from the Board room
Did you know that 94.6% or 19 out of 20 of listed firms in the world do not have a board representation for marketing? I have forever wondered why...
Free choice: Isn’t that what got you elected?
The big story that burnt the pages in every newspaper and the studios of every major TV channel last week was the debate on the banning of porn. The...
Two Minute Recipe For Resilience
IN THE MIDDLE of last week, my immediate team had pulled out a couple of big rabbits. So we went down to this favourite little Bengali snack joint...
Should Apple Buy Out Greece?
GOT YOUR ATTENTION, DIDN’T I? But seriously, if it weren’t for this sovereignty business wouldn’t you give it a second thought? Think about it....
Driving in God’s own country- God help us
Last week my colleague, Siddharth and I landed in Kochi’s Nedumbaserry airport on our way to a town called Valapad. Believe if you will, but it was...
Sinking Societies, Shrinking Markets
Last Saturday night, between some lovely blues pieces, one feisty activist from Amnesty suggests to me that the Tatas are not as holy as one thinks....
The Indian MNC. Really?
Fifteen years ago, it was a proud moment for corporate India when the first Indian advertising hoarding went up in the middle of Paris. Titan...
Worldwide Is Not World-Class
Momofukus started as a single noodlebar in New York, arguably the toughest food and beverages (F&B) market on the planet. When they opened their...
Does the Nation really Want to Know ?
A warm welcome to 2015. I thought we might begin the year by considering the evolution of a true blue media phenomenon. Super prime time is a...
Bring back my Mumbai to me
Last Saturday, over much (probably too much) wine and cheese, my good friend the shiny eyed Paul Fernandes quietly offered his understated genius to...
Taken for granted: Compliance is a cheaper substitute for Customer Concern
Last week saw the unseemly defence by SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers) of two of their member organizations against the adverse...
Hiding Outside the Balance Sheet
Last week at a management retreat someone asked why acquisition after acquisition had failed to deliver to expectations in spite of all the auditing...
Why does Jeff Immelt personally manage the GE brand?
Every month I sit down with my advertising team to review all the ads they are proposing to support our overall company brand. I have been doing...
Why do I find the time to teach?
Five years ago I set up a trust in Calcutta for the retired teachers of the St. Xavier's Collegiate school. I spent 15 years in that institution,...
Is it really a gentleman’s game?
Earlier this month, I was invited on a panel in Mumbai which pontificated on the strategic value of corporate brands. However, the more significant...
Is culture pure corporate drivel?
Its May this year. It's Toronto. Over dinner an old family friend from Calcutta is lamenting the invasion of the boisterous immigrant Chinese into...
Is there value in values?
Earlier this month I had breakfast with my old friend Anne Bahr Thompson in New York. She is an exceptional thinker who used to run the strategy...
Indians can lead. Can India?
India celebrated lustily early this year when Satya Nadella was anointed chief of Microsoft. Indians in global leadership positions are causing no...
The Bumblebee Vs. The Spelling bee
Two decades ago my existing notions of education were shaken by my 10 year old niece in the UK. I had the arrogance to believe that I knew what it...
What does Blue Ocean Strategy have to do with brand value?
In a recent HBR blog, Niraj Dawar, a colleague who used to be at INSEAD, wrote about the why a valuable brand is so important for successful...
Hindustan Unilever: A Quality Product from Surf?
Up until the beginning of the nineties, I remember that quality was a brand advantage. Packaging spoke of "a quality product from Hindustan Lever"....
The Return of the King
Two weeks ago I woke up to a cryptic text from a senior journalist friend of mine: “HE’s BACK…AND HOW!” Not the most illuminating as communications...
Would you rather brand or innovate?
Last month my dear friend and former boss Tom Blackett sent me a revealing annual report from an organization call the WIPO WIPO is the UN body...
Flying blind: businesses without dials
Sitting on the boards of entrepreneurial businesses can be very interesting. They are all characterized by high energy ownership and very sincere...
ROCE : Return On Customer Experience
Last month I was invited to speak at the customer service conference of a well-known MNC bank. What did a left brain valuation type like me have to...
Non-profits as Valuable brands
I was meeting Reena after many years. She had been a banker in the Western Hemisphere for a couple of decades. After dinner, she revealed that she...
Importance of founder-led firms seeing resurgence – Chris Zook
Chris Zook, author of management books and cohead of the Global Strategy practice at Bain and Co., has made a name for himself advising CEOs on...
Thinking twice about price – Schumpeter
WHEN bosses promise to make their companies more profitable they usually say they will do so by increasing sales or cutting costs. But a third road...
The emerging-brand battle – Schumpeter
THE past 20 years have seen a massive redistribution of economic power to the emerging world. But so far there has been no comparable redistribution...
AIMA World Marketing Congress
From the recently concluded edition of the World Marketing Congress at New Delhi. Equitor continues to be the Knowledge Partner for the AIMA-RK...
AIMA
Blind Side 2
Another Blindside : the 2% bureaucrat K.P. Joseph turned 88 last week. He is a great grandfather twice over. I grew up watching him return home...
Blind Side
Blind Side “Full many a gem of purest ray serene The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear: Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its...
High Performance Brand of the Year
This is the media coverage that appeared in the Economic Times, dated 7-Feb-11, Mon and is from the World Marketing Congress held on the 4th &...
‘Brand Assets as Force Multipliers’
Managing Coimbatore’s invisible assets Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India, January 28, 2011 “With nearly three fourths of an entrepreneur’s asset base...
Grey Entrepreneurship
A greater ‘hole in the wall’ you cannot imagine. A small fading sign on the top saying “Cellphoon reapars” barely visible through the street vendors...
Who Rocks India?
Is it really rocking ? Last week two journalists asked me what seemed like two unrelated questions. One, from a leading business channel queried...
Managing Consequence
Ramesh Jude Thomas President & CKO, EQUiTOR Consulting Some time in March, I was in the middle of some performance management workshops around...
What would you rather lose?
Ramesh Jude Thomas President & CKO, Equitor Consulting Last month two defining headlines caught my eye. The first was about the venerable State...
The Voyager Series – 2
An evening with an unusual traveller Ramesh Jude Thomas President & CKO, EQUiTOR Consulting What is the VOYAGER series really about? Hearing...
The Voyager Series – 1
Real life stories of daring always inspire and provoke us. The courageous people behind these stories are individuals with a very unique sense of...
IPL is the Bluest Ocean Around
Ramesh Jude Thomas President & CKO, EQUiTOR Management Consulting Pvt Ltd. Last week an old colleague of mine who runs Interbrand Australia...
Co-creator
Ramesh Jude Thomas President & CKO, Equitor Management Consulting Over a series of performance workshops we recently held, one of the elements...
How resilient are your intangibles?
Ramesh Jude Thomas President & CKO EQUiTOR Management Consulting Pvt Ltd Most of us spend large amounts of time and effort building our...
SAFE CAPITALISM
Ramesh Jude Thomas President & CKO, Equitor Management Consulting Last week someone sent me three questions to be answered for publishing in a...
Brands and Bad Times – 1
Ramesh Jude Thomas, President & CKO EQUiTOR Management Consulting Pvt. Ltd. The biggest analysts and pundits could not see a 20k market could go...
Brands and Bad Times – 2
Ramesh Jude Thomas, President & CKO EQUiTOR Management Consulting Pvt. Ltd. The biggest analysts and pundits could not see a 20k market could go...
Brands in the Boardroom
“Why don’t we see a single Indian brand in the Business Week league table?” This question raised by an aspiring manager at the recently held ET in...
What will happen to the small guy..
Ramesh Jude Thomas, President & CKO EQUiTOR Management Consulting Pvt. Ltd. A group of us were sitting at a friend’s backyard on the Palms last...
Intangibles as wealth creators…
Last year, buyers paid 72% of the takeover consideration (on average) for the intangibles in businesses. You might recall that Procter and Gamble...
The Great Indian Brand Ambassador
Ramesh Jude Thomas, President & CKO Equitor Management Consulting Pvt. Ltd. “Why is it that we see more of Amitabh Bachhan between programming...
Makeover Marketing
Imagine one day waking up and finding that your newspaper masthead looks a little different. You reach for your specs and take a closer look .....
Managing Value in an intangible environment
Did you know that a company like GE which is so capital intensive has a brand value of nearly $47 billion? Did you know that TATA brand value is...
What’s in a name?
At a senior management workshop on “Value Creating Assets” I asked one of the participants to sell me his name for a consideration. Even with the...
