Markathon December 2011 Edition

Dear Readers,

2011 has come to a close and what a year it has been! Tata Sons finally has a successor to Ratan Tata - Cyrus Mistry has proved to be the proverbial dark horse and is all set to don the chairman’s hat come December 2012, when Ratan Tata’s tenure ends. The story of how Pallonji Mistry’s son dropped out from the panel formed to choose an heir for the conglomerate and become a candidate for the same race is fascinating. Interestingly, Cyrus Mistry is an Irish national and will become the first non-Indian citizen to hold the chairmanship of Tata Sons. During Ratan Tata’s tenure, the Tata brand went from being an Indian conglomerate to one of the best recognised brands worldwide. Several high profile international acquisitions saw Tata become a truly global player and Cyrus Mistry has a difficult task ahead in terms of matching his predecessor, leave alone outshining him.

2011 also saw the launch of the much touted ultra-low cost Indian tablet – Akaash. This tablet is supposed to revolutionise education in India. Education in India has often been overlooked and the Government’s policies have always fallen short of amending it. Team Markathon was fascinated by how the Education industry in India works and how it has changed radically in the recent past. Our cover story for the month ‘Education – An Evolving Landscape’ looks at this evolution from a marketing perspective and also gives out interesting snippets on how some companies are innovating to tackle some of the biggest issues plaguing the education sector in India. I am sure the readers will find this story a fascinating read. December’s Vartalaap has two of the biggest names Markathon has ever seen. The first is Jack Trout. Jack Trout, who along with Al Ries ( Interviewed in July 2011 edition of Markathon) came up with the concept of Positioning in 1972, is the pre-eminent guru of Marketing Strategy. He has authored over 10 bestsellers dealing with the domain of Marketing and has consulted the who’s who of the Fortune 500. He talks exclusively to Markathon on various topics right from his education years to his assignments with Indian companies like the Bajaj Group.

From the world of corporates, the Vartalaap for this month features Mr. D Shivakumar, the Managing Director and Vice President of Nokia India, who is set to take over as the head of the newly formed India, Middle East and Africa sales region covering about 90 countries. In this exclusive interview for Markathon, he talks about his days at IIM Calcutta and also about Nokia’s strategies to overcome the slump it currently faces. The readers will certainly not want to miss this excellent interview. 2011 was a great year for Markathon with many great interviews and also the wide range of sectors we covered in our cover stories. Team Markathon is grateful to all the readers for their constant support and encouragement throughout the year. We hope 2012 will only see us scaling newer heights.

Sit back and enjoy this edition!
Happy Reading!
Jitesh