Tuesday, May 05, 2009

A Billionaire’s Crystal Gazing...


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As a seventeen year old lad, with Rs.300 in his pocket, he got into the business of trading rice. From there on, its always been his ability to identify a need gap and act upon it even before the consumer realises the need. As Ashish Kaul, Executive Director & Business Head of UAE based Credence International puts it, “His sense of spotting a business opportunity is incredible and that gives him an extra edge over any other entrepreneur.” (Ashish worked with Zee for ten years & played a key role in the launch of Dish TV and the Indian Cricket League). The launch of Dish TV in 2003 (the second private DTH player Tata Sky came in only in 2006) is a case in point. His timing was perfect, when even buying a DTH connection was considered stupid by consumers. But Chandra realised the digital potential and started early, which eventually helped him to not only grab a significant share of the market, but also add subscription revenues to his broadcast business model. So by the time, Anil Ambani, Sunil Mittal and their ilk even caught on, Chandra had already captured 60% of the DTH market with about 5 million subscribers. It’s simple. Start walking before the race starts and by the time others start running, you’re halfway through!

Same is the case with regional news channels. When most broadcasters are fighting for a share of the Hindi, English and business news space; Chandra has forayed into the regional TV news with channels like Zee 24 Taas (Marathi) and Zee 24 Ghanta (Bangla), with plans to launch more regional TV news channel in markets like UP and Andhra Pradesh (Zee 24 Ghantalu). Star India too has begun following a similar line of thought. The logic is again simple: give advertisers a wider viewer base and a better channel bouquet to reach out consumers. Chandra deployed a similar strategy for regional entertainment channels way back in 1999. Others started making their forays in this space only a couple of years ago. “I think he (Chandra) makes much more money out of these regional channels than he makes out of the Hindi one,” says Naresh Gupta, Head, Strategic Planning, Publicis India.

And then there are businesses like Playwin, Intrex Trade Exchange, ItzCash et al. Clearly, the man has a clairvoyant ability to crystal gaze, spot new business opportunities and turn them into real businesses churning profits. Take ItzCash: it was started to support Dish TV’s payment collections in rural areas and is based on selling cards worth various denominations to consumers enabling them to recharge their set top box through their mobile phones. Chandra saw the opportunity. He re-launched ItzCash as a ‘Multi Purpose Prepaid Cash Card’ to provide cash management & control solutions in the manufacturer-distributor-retailer dynamics for efficient payment collection and dynamic inventory management. The company now boasts clients like Reliance Energy, BSES Rajdhani and Indian Railways. Says Rajiv Tiwari, Director, True Wealth Creators (and former Vice President at ZEE News), “Subhash Chandra is tough and has learnt his basics in the field. Imagine at the age of seventeen he taught Food Corporation of India how to store wheat.” More than anything else, Rajiv truly salutes Chandra’s spirit of keeping costs under control at all costs!

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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