Kapil Dev speaks to Planman Media…

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Your reaction to BCCI’s treatment with you?

I’m not angry at all. I have always believed that people associated with these boards must have respect for the sportsman and I am glad that my country can see that too. We don’t need Businessmen and politicians on our boards, but unfortunately our system does not run without them. And if today I want to change that, what’s the issue? The board says that one cannot work for two organisations, but we have created only a small league to have tournaments. What’s wrong with that?

How did you get involved with the ICL?

To be honest, it was great for cricketers! Mr. Chandra looked at it as a business opportunity and as long as it is benefiting sports and the sportsmen, I have no problem. Financially sound individuals are behind the plan and they will see it through.

Will your involvement with ICL make any difference to fans and players?

It’s difficult to say. I hope it all remains positive. But you try to do a 100 positive things and 20 do not work. I just want to see sportsmen in our country ready to take up challenges. We want to do well in sports, but our culture isn’t geared toward sports. ICL has done something that I never thought could happen.

As told to Megha Jaitley

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The Road Ahead!

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Rahul Mehra, Advocate, Supreme Court speaks to 4Ps B&M

MRTPC says that no individual organization should have a monopoly. BCCI threatening to take away the benefi ts from players, who join ICL will have a major impact in court. BCCI has been pulled up by the MRTPC even in the 1990’s. This is going to be a battle of egos and it will be very interesting to watch how the court handles it. For BCCI and ICL, there are three routes open: a merger, an acquisition or battling it out in court. I personally believe that there’s enough space for both of them to co-exist. There is a huge vacuum in India’s cricketing domain and many can share the pie. Look at the television industry, NDTV, CNN, CNBC, AAJ TAK and hordes of other news channel co-exist peacefully. I know from sources that BCCI had been in talks about opening a parallel league for months, but the question is why did they had to wait for ICL to wake them from their slumber and announce a league after them. All said and done, we should not forget that BCCI is very politically driven and in politics, you don’t (cannot?) stay enemies for long. BCCI will do whatever is benefi cial for them first, and then whatever is benefi cial for the game. The 75-year old cricketing body may well come up with a business proposition for Chandra, which the businessman in the Zee supremo, will find tough to ignore!

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FORD...

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FORD... The innovation with the diesel engines have helped Ford to conquer the Indian psyche, and of course, Indian roads...

In what is a clear signal that the Blue Oval can no longer ignore the booming Indian auto mart, Ford has climbed the innovative band wagon big time in India! You only have to take a peek at the new Fiesta, designed and built with state-of-the-art automotive technology, including the innovative 1.0-liter supercharger engine and the facts will stand clearly in front of you. Fiesta Supercharger is the first application of this technology in a compact car, and its 1.0-liter engine has power equivalent to that of a 1.6-liter unit.

Ever since launching the Fiesta in 2005, there is no looking back for Ford India. The car has been so successful that it has created its own niche in the Indian auto bazaar. Piggybacking this success, the year 2007 has been special for Ford India. Ford now understands that the secret behind its unprecedented success in India is undoubtedly its common rail armed diesel engine range. For starters, Ford has installed a larger capacity engine in its up market SUV – Endeavour, which needed to get rid of its legendry power deficit. Talking to 4Ps B&M, Arvind Mathew CEO Ford India said, “I want a presence in all the segments. I never said no to any small car.” With the prospective entry of Honda and Toyota in the small car segment, Ford too has big ‘small car’ aspirations. After this momentous year in Ford’s kitty there will be more innovations on the horizon. Ford’s international crisis remains the only continuing problem.

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TOYOTA...

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TOYOTA... Customer satisfaction & retention tops Toyota’s priority list. From ingenious products to servicing, Toyota is looking ahead as always...

Here’s a company that lives, breathes and eats innovation, globally, and in India too. Last year, it launched its unique Express Maintenance facility (an onehour periodic maintenance service) in India. Available at select outlets, the facility utilizes the Toyota production system & Kaizen methodologies to deliver the service, and hopes to increase customer satisfaction & retention. Toyota customers who otherwise would have had to wait for 14 hours for servicing, can do the same in an hour now.

In terms of product innovation per se, after making the ugly, but practical, Qualis super successful (now discontinued) in India, it did not do anything of much magnitude. But, the company is presently engaged in figuring out the perfect version of the ready to be refreshed Corolla, a product which has been hit hard by the revolutionary Honda Civic. They also plan to launch a new small car in the high potential B+ segment, which will compete with the likes of Swift & Getz.

Toyota is known for its extensive market research led strategy. The successes of the multi-utility vehicle Innova and the radically styled Camry can be atributed to the fact that Toyota anticipated their demand well in advance. KK Swami DMD, Toyota Kirlosker told 4Ps B&M, “We focus on the study of the consumers’ changing preferences and therefore getting the right cost price is important. We target a 10% market share by 2010.”

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Is media’s latest obsession with women & lifestyle publications misplaced?

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And if trends are anything to go by, print media in India is biting the ‘specialised content’ bug with aplomb, exploring readers with unique tastes and preferences. In this context, the rise in publications in two categories in particular - women & lifestyle, merit special mention. The India Today Group has, for instance, magazines like Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping & Golf Digest in its kitty. Similarly, Marie Claire (from the Outlook stable), Elle India & Verve have already marked their presence in the country in a short span of time, giving well entrenched players in India like Savvy, Woman’s Era and Femina some much needed competition.

With the upcoming launch of Vogue in India, which is literally considered to be the ‘Bible of fashion’, one can well expect much more cutthroat competition in this space. It’s women’s liberation at its best, for sure, and far beyond what the daily saas bahu soap operas on prime time TV could perhaps ever achieve!

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LG - Life’s Good

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BRAND: LG
HEADLINE: Born to shine
BASELINE : Life’s Good
AGENCY : Innocean

4Ps TAKE : All that glitters is not gold but all that shines is LG – this is what LG is claiming through its Shine Black Label GSM handset series. The idea is to introduce this shiny range in the Indian mart positioning it as a high-end product. Targeting classy Indians who like to live in style & make ‘fashion’ (and power!) statements through their accessories, the body copy lures potential customers via a flashy communication using words such as ‘dazzle’, ‘chic sparkle’ & ‘shine’ while describing its full metal body, wide mirror LCD, multifunctional scroll key & 2MP auto focus camera. Visual is appealing with a sparkling silver handset; the black backdrop is also extremely appealing. Though LG has not been able to make the right connect in the handsets market (not as much as, say, Nokia, Motorola or even Samsung!), the reward to the prospect is the trusted ‘Life’s Good’ LG tag name in this case. The USP: this range’s glamorous looks. Guess after LG’s chocolate range, this Shine Black Label series is going get the brand shiny new prospects!

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Could China’s Olympic preparations lead it to an unrelenting quagmire?

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If the glitzy show at Tiananmen Square is any thing to go by, then come August 2008, the dragon is all set to spew fire, this time not a fire of er... lead laden toys, but a fire of publicity. The world’s largest authoritarian state has pushed forward its infrastructural preparations with incredible speed and resolve. The countdown to the Beijing Olympics aptly marks China’s readiness for “One World; One Dream.” It can be easily judged by the impressive collection of new as well as renovated sports venues, newly built roads, railways, metros and the draconian measures undertaken to restrict traffic & industrial activity. Ever since 2001, when Beijing was elected to host the Olympics of 2008, things have changed for the better at a furious rate. Former venues like Los Angeles, Seoul & Athens have been finally outpaced. Construction & pollution control are scheduled to be completed by the year end, so is work in 36 out of the 37 venues.

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How do you think Coca Cola is placed?

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Compared to other players in the market, how do you think Coca Cola is placed?

The beauty of our product is that you get all the functional benefits of energy, refreshment with all the emotional benefits for just Rs.8 a bottle. No products can claim to offer such benefits at such a price.

And what about allegations related to ground-water depletion, pesticides, et al?

We are opening our doors to the public to see the facts for themselves. We are inviting media to come visit our plants and see for themselves, talk to the local neighbouring communities to see how we are doing because it is easy to make allegations as anyone making allegations gets media coverage. And when you make allegations against an iconic company and a brand like Coca Cola you get much more media coverage.

What are your company’s future promotion plans? Our brand ambassadors like Aamir Khan for Coke and Akshay Kumar for Thums Up will remain the same. We plan to come out with new ad campaigns. And it will be a 360 degree promotional exercise including print, TV, and a new look website. We will also have a plant visit programme wherein we will invite media which will be a ‘little trip of joy’.

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SONY

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Having risen from the rubble of Japan post-World War II, Sony is a part of millions of living rooms in India...

Flaunt your Bravia with arrogance, feel your pulse with Xplod, and work in style on your VAIO... India is no exception to the manner in which Sony has tickled the imagination of dreamers across the world. But the previous year was not ‘all’ smiles for the Japanese giant as it got engulfed in a global battery recall exercise following complaints of overheating. Unfazed, Sony still stands tall in Indian landscape, bagging the 46th rank, climbing a whopping 22 positions. While the consumer electronics space has always seen intense competition, Sony has nevertheless managed to create its own niche market with a set of loyalists. “Exclusive brand stores such as Sony World, located in high street and residential markets, rather than in conventional electronics markets, provides customers the opportunity to visit the showrooms at leisure. Sony has opened similar smaller brand stores viz. digital kiosks, Sony Shop or Sony Ericsson stores,” a company spokesperson told us. The Walkman is a manifestation of the same and the brand is banking upon on the same to promote its range of MP3 players, as also its latest range of mobile phones. It’s a Sony, after all!

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An intelligent coffee table?

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Having conquered software, Microsoft now looks to dominate the hardware industry

Desktops are antediluvian, laptops are prehistoric, and palmtops are passé; the time has come to make way for tabletops – the latest of the breed. However, this time it is not computer giants like IBM or HP that are leading this revolution, it is the software giant Microsoft which has launched an entirely new product category called surface computing. It’s a 30 inch screen, which sits atop a 21 inch long coffee table. Though it sounds ordinary, Microsoft’s Surface Computer has the potential to turn your coffee table into a dynamic and vibrant intuitive surface that allows you to have effortless interaction with all possible forms of digital content using your hands and natural movements.

“With Surface, we are creating more intuitive ways for people to interact with technology. We see this as a multi-billion dollar category, and we envision a time when surface computing technologies will be all-pervasive, from tabletops and counters to the hallway mirror. Surface, in fact, is the first step in realizing that vision,” says Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft.

Yes! Now you don’t need to shuffle endlessly with that cumbersome keyboard and mouse, instead use your fingers to perform tasks on the Surface, literally! So, now while browsing through your favourite music albums, you would be able to drag your favourite songs to your play list just by moving your finger across the Surface computer.

There is more to it. If you are in the process of finding information about a particular area, you can use the map by moving it or shrinking it and can also gather some relevant data about that particular area, while still sipping your coffee or having your dinner.

“Surface computing is going to revolutionise everyday lives. It lets us manipulate a tremendous amount of information with our hands so that the content works with you rather than for you,” explains Tom Gibbons, Corporate Vice President, Productivity and Extended Consumer Experiences Group, Microsoft.

Well, if that was not enough to leave you flabbergasted, your Surface computer can also recommend preferable drinks and food to you and will also alert the waiter when there is a need to refill your drinks. What’s more, if you happen to place your phone over the Surface, it even has the ability to sense the model and make of the phone and will recommend suitable upgrades, ringtones and other mobile accessories for your consumption. Phew!

Unlike the traditional touch screen panels, Surface with its multi touch and multi user abilities, recognizes many points of contact at once. This allows multiple users to use this single unique system simultaneously.

This is the first time in computing history that a collaborative and face to face computing experience has been introduced. Rest assured, like email changed the way we stayed in touch and ATMs revolutionised our banking experience; Microsoft’s Surface Computer is all set to transform our computing experience, making it more intuitive, enigmatic and enjoyable...

Edit bureau: Devdeep

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‘Forti’fication in RetailWORLD

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Combine FMCG & healthcare biz. What do you get? A retailer’s dream come true!

India’s retail fire continues to burn. And even as the spat between brand-doctor and corporate hospital, Escorts has ended with cardiologist Naresh Trehan’s exit from the Group, the flagship brand Fortis Healthcare continues to forge ahead with its retail ambitions. The format? Blend personal care and medicines with retail and let the magic work. The fresh brand in their stable? ‘Fortis HealthWorld’, and with an investment of Rs.800 crore, the company’s gungho on charting out a pan India presence via 1,000 stores by 2011. In March 2007, the company first rolled out its tenth round the clock health store in the NCR. Considering that the health and well-being market is estimated to fetch a staggering $24 billion annually; and the personal care segment is recording sustained double digit growths too, little wonder that even before Fortis came on the scene, other healthcare companies (98.4 degree, Health Glow, Life Spring and more recently Dabur) were already reaping rich rewards. Ashish Kirpal Pundit, CEO, Fortis HealthWorld, talked forthrightly to 4Ps B&M about competition, the present and the future. Excerpts from the interview:

Many big players are already into pharmacies. What is your big differentiation and winning point?
Yes! There are many players in the reckoning, but none have provided a complete range of medicines. With Fortis HealthWorld, we provide holistic medicines, health food required for certain diseases, doctor’s consultation (OPD), OTC drugs, and even Ayurvedic and Homeopathic medicines. We are a complete one stop medicine shop and that’s where we are different from others.

But even Dabur claims a similar USP and they also ventured into retail at the same time as you?
We have our hospitals and we are in touch with top doctors and specialists (unlike Dabur?). So even if you don’t need any medicine, but instead need an appointment with certain doctors, we can organize that just as easily. We are working to assist people round the clock and are available even if they want to be admitted in any of our hospitals in an emergency situation. And of course, SRL Ranbaxy, would be another clear distinguisher, which enables us to house even diagnostic centres within the premises of our stores.

Why did you prefer to create a separate company for your retail foray?
Fortis HealthCare is into hospitals and it was necessary to have a separate company, as the venture is totally different from hospitals. At the same time we wanted to be more focused, so we created a new brand. In February 2007 we listed it, as we are planning for many acquisitions.

You will have both FMCG products and drugs in your stores. Which will have a bigger share of the pie?
No, our focus is purely into health and that’s what Ranbaxy is known for. We might have personal care but it’s got to have a direct link to health. Like if it’s toothpaste it will definitely enhance your health. And we are more into drugs and medicines. We are testing the option of tying up exclusively with some life saving drug-manufacturing companies abroad. We are a health store addressing the daily health related needs, for this reason we are trying to set up our stores in the heart of every locality.

What’s next?
We will be leveraging our Group’s strength and will soon have a presence in 400 small towns and cities, apart from metros.

Edit bureau: Angshuman Paul

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Feel like god, do You?

When power and price matter, look for the Avenger...

When Bajaj thought of plugging out Pulsar’s engine and enshrining it in the flashy exterior of its older kin – Kawasaki Eliminator, many were sceptical. Today, they are speechless! And as for Bajaj, the Avenger has proved yet another winner! Amit Nandi, GM-Marketing, Bajaj Auto Ltd. asserts, “The Avenger 180 DTSi is a cruiser bike that is targeted at the customer who has a love for the outdoors. It is a lifestyle statement for the user and an image driver for the company.” Sure enough, this machine has proved why the experience of a ride on the Avenger will make the rider give a second thought to all other modes of two-wheeled rides... Perhaps also proving why the now popular TV commercial for the bike does not talk too much about the bike’s features and instead positions the brand more in terms of experiential delight.

Adds Nandi: “The advertising for Avenger which has played a pivotal role in building image for the brand portrays the sense of freedom that a rider experiences on a long ride. It transports the viewer beyond the mundane to a zone where he ‘feels like God’.”

But thrills apart, a 180cc powerful engine, a fuel tank with a capacity of 17.5 litres... here are surely some physical features to get infatuated with! It is a conscious improvement on the Kawasaki Eliminator and the Pulsar. The Avenger, true to the spirit of the cruiser, comes with an extra long wheelbase and a laidback riding position. Added to it is the price advantage. At an ex-showroom offer of Rs.63,000 it is Rs.30,000 cheaper than the Eliminator and Rs.20,000 than Enfield Thunderbird. Beat that?

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Smooth Operator...

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It’s elegance & comfort guaranteed!

After a lot of deliberation it was the Civic for me. Car options, model options, colour and variant options, test drives moving from dealer to dealer... its madness out there. It’s a question of choice, to take on the highest model in one segment v/s the first model in the next segment. More so the involvement levels are amazing. Scan of the models available, features, fuel efficiency et al are time consuming.

It took us almost four weekends to do the scan. Each weekend, the hunt would begin from morning to evening, from dealer to dealer, not to undermine the role of sales people & their regular follow-ups through the week.

At one time we almost decided to move to the SUV/ CRV segment given we already have an Esteem and an Optra. A comparison gave us a great value for money option, irrespective of the segment value for money is a critical criterion given everyone’s hard earned money. The test drives meant a lot.

Unlike the Honda City, which is lighter & shakes beyond a certain speed, the Civic is sturdier and runs like a dream on the road. Above all, as a vehicle, it kind of has a royal class to itself...

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‘Money’burnt!

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The PE bull run could soon be over Accident? Call an ambulance. Robbery? Call the cops. Fire? Call the fire brigade. An under performing business? Caught you there, didn’t we? No, dear investors, there isn’t any emergency number for this malady, at least not yet! But as recent trends across the globe indicate, the panacea for hapless managers of such companies increasingly happens to be private equity (PE). And the deluge of money PE firms are pouring is sending a wave of frenzy, excitement and also fear across markets.

Last month, a whopping $48.5 billion for Bell Canada (a 127 year old telecom operator in Canada) by a group of private equity firms led by Teacher’s Private Capital, set a new benchmark in the history of PE investments, a record that was previously held by the $45 billion acquisition of TXU Corp. by KKR & Texas Pacific Group. While KKR has made huge strides, it has often run into opposition from another PE giant Blackstone, which has a leg up, thanks to the acquisition of Equity Office Properties for $38.9 billion and an offer of $26 billion for Hilton Hotels. Gloated Michael Chae, Senior Managing Director, Blackstone, on the Hilton offer, “Blackstone’s real estate and corporate private equity funds collaborated on the acquisition of Hilton, demonstrating Blackstone’s unique ability to undertake such a transaction.”

Going against the tenets of conventional wisdom, these PE firms are in fact falling over each other in a race to decide who gets to cough up the billions for underperforming companies! Not for them are basic business jargon like corporate vision & strategic planning. Rather their philosophy is buy, strip & flip, a philosophy that wins them bouquets & brickbats alike. The basic fear is that they overburden the companies they acquire with debt and can bring company valuations to junk. This downside also gives companies that are under the PE umbrella an additional benefit – management that is overloaded by a substantial debt burden is more likely to be frugal in its handling of company operations.

As per the leading index provider Standard & Poor’s (S&P), there were only 16 pure private equity listed entities with a daily turnover of more than $1 million and a market capitalization greater than $250 million. As of 2007, these numbers have nearly doubled, S&P stated. The company has released a Global PE Index that includes 25 top PE firms across the globe that meet its specifications. S&P admits that the success of PE firms in terms of market valuations made it inevitable to have a separate index in order to track their performance.

While it may be boom time for dollar rich PE firms at the bourses, there are many who feel that this success story is not going to last very long. Firstly, the ever rising interest rates are making it tough for PE firms to be able to extract value, even with their rather ruthless methods. Secondly, in a mad rush to acquire companies, they are competing not just with each other, but also with companies that have genuine strategic interest. This is raising valuations for acquisition targets to exorbitant levels. For instance, Blackstone is paying Hilton $47.5 per share, which is a 29% premium on the latter’s closing price on July 2, 2007. One bad news can have the markets scurrying for cover, bringing this rather extended bull run to a grinding halt. And we may be finally left waiting for that emergency bailout number after all!

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A lot of gas...

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Fertiliser subsidies are as scandalous as gas pricing!

The unseemly brouhaha raised over gas pricing in India is quite natural. After all, many billions of dollars and many more corporate fortunes are linked intimately with gas prices. Potential buyers of gas from the Godavari basin (mostly controlled by Mukesh Ambani of Reliance Industries Ltd.) like power and fertilizer companies feel that high gas prices will throw their projects and plans completely out of gear. Fertiliser companies are lobbying hard with the newly appointed Group of Ministers (GOM) mandated to look into the issue. They say that high gas prices will lead to an unsustainable rise in fertiliser subsidies. And that Indian farmers could be hurt.

That brings me to a core, and often neglected issue: have fertiliser subsidies helped Indian farmers? Or have they been fattening corporate bottomlines even as the rural poor continue to languish in dire poverty? Lets face it. Only rich farmers can afford to buy subsidies (just as only middle class and rich urban Indian families can afford ‘subsidised’ LPG cylinders). The relation between poor farmers & landless peasants with fertiliser is just as intimate as the relation between Osama bin Laden and peaceful co-existence. Yet, in the name of the rural poor and the farmer, the government is currently spending about Rs.50,000 crores every year on fertiliser subsidies. What if the same government decided that it might be a better idea to distribute the subsidy in the form of cash doles to the rural poor of India? Yes, every poor Indian in rural areas will then end up getting close to Rs.5,000 every year as cash. Assuming a rural poor family to be having five members, every such family in rural India will get a cash income of Rs.25,000 a year!

Sure, there will be howls of protest from lobbyists and self-important economists. Many would accuse this columnist of being too simplistic. But the fact of the matter is that the fertiliser subsidy regime in the country is crying out for simplicity and transparency. The rules and procedures for claiming subsidies are so complex that even mathematicians would need complex formulae to crack the code! As with many other things in India, this lack of transparency is perhaps deliberately designed to encourage skullduggery. According to the regime, the quantum of subsidies depends upon the capacity utilisation achieved by a fertiliser plant. So there have been repeated situations when many fertiliser companies have reported that their plants have consistently achieved utilisation levels of 120% and even more!

Gas pricing is a complex and important issue no doubt. But, what about the scam of fertiliser subsidies?

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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Irresistable ISTANBUL

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“If the Earth were a single state, Istanbul would be its capital,” said, Napoleon Bonaparte on Istanbul. Indeed this city, which straddles two continents, Asia and Europe, is said to be the first truly cosmopolitan city in the world. Populated by Romans, Greeks, Turks and Armenians along with a myriad of ethnic communities over thousands of years, this city was the melting pot, even before the term was invented. The old nickname of Istanbul is Vasileousa Polis (Queen of Cities), mind you not an idle nickname, for it was the wealthiest and culturally most advanced city in the world for hundreds of years after Rome had fallen to the Barbarians. An ancient city, with the first recorded human settlement during Chalcolithic period, with artifacts dating from 5500–3500 BC, it has served as the seat of government for some of the most powerful empires of their time for over 1,600 years. With such a rich history, it’s no surprise that the city is replete with ancient buildings, cultural monuments and world-renowned architectural wonders. The best known is undoubtedly the Hagia Sophia Museum, originally constructed as a cathedral in the 5th century AD by the Eastern Roman Empire – the largest of its kind anywhere in the world for over one thousand years after it was built. With a massive dome and distinctive Byzantine architecture, the building has become the symbol of Turkey. For all those shopa-holics out there, don’t forget to visit the Grand Bazaar. As befitting its name, it’s one of the largest covered markets in the world, housing more than 4,000 shops, selling everything under the Sun. And lastly, not to be missed are the massive redoubtable double lined walls which protected the city from all sides for over 600 years as invaders poured in, no doubt attract- ed by its legendary status.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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THE RITZ-CARLTON, SANTIAGO

The Sunday Indian - India's Greatest News weekly

Having been featured in the Robb Report’s ‘Best of the Best’ and the prestigious Condé Nast Awards list, the Ritz-Carlton, Santiago means class in every sense of the word. Also rated the Best Hotel in Mexico, Central & South America by Travel + Leisure Magazine this year, the Ritz stands proud, snuggled by the plush and most opulent locales of El Golf.

THE VIEW: With the most beautiful surroundings imaginable, courtesy the towering Andean Mountain range adding to the grandiose, the Ritz-Carlton, Santiago offers a view that one would want to savour for a lifetime… Besides, the glittering city which looks more like a spread, studded with diamonds in the evenings, elevates its magical magnificence to newer heights.

ARCHI TYPE: 205 guest rooms, 7,440 square feet of Health and Fitness Centre and about 9,207 square feet of meeting and conference space, all jazzed up with floor to ceiling windows and state-of-the-art facilities, are the best one would have come across!

BON APPÉTIT: Be it the Turbot with Garden Vegetables or the pan-fried spiny Lobster, which also happen to be the two specialities of the ultra stylish Adra restaurant, it’ll leave your senses in hunger pangs even on a full stomach! The delectable Mediterranean cuisine coupled with 365 varieties – one for each day of the year – of assorted white and red wines and a pastry buff et forms the divine platter.

AROUND THE CORNER: Go for some skiing to beat the chill of the winter or for some beach sport, if you’ve got your sunny side up all the time!

FROM UNDER THE CARPET: Pollution and the occasional (but heavy) smog can be a dampener for the free spirited, who prefer the outdoors to the luxury of their plush hotel rooms.

IN ESSENCE: The glitz of the ‘Rtiz’ will bedazzle even the most pernickety ones!

Edit bureau: Pooja Priyadarshini

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

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