The Hindu Business Line : Venture into the lands of opportunity

`Teledeserts' are beginning to blossom with high-speed satellite links. Cell-phones are enabling rural coffee and cocoa farmers to call produce markets in the cities and negotiate their own prices. Read up on this and more with this week's pick.

HOW to succeed in the biggest market opportunity of the 21st century? That's the sub-title of Vijay Mahajan and Kamini Banga's book The 86% Solution, from Wharton School Publishing and Pearson Power (www.whartonsp.com) . 86 in the title refers to the percentage of people who are ignored, even as attention is showered on the mere 14 per cent of the world's more than 6 billion people living in countries with a per capita GNP of greater than $10,000.

"By 2020, in China and India, only an estimated 5 per cent of the population will have a per capita GNP of more than $10,000... Assuming a constant growth rate of 5.5 per cent, it would take India almost 60 years to enter the $10,000 club," forecasts the book. However, "given the sheer size of populations of developing markets, there may soon be more rich people in the 86 per cent markets than in the 14 per cent markets" of the developed world which are ageing and getting over-saturated and over-competitive.

Thus, the preface opens with the example of Hewlett-Packard's battery-operated digital cameras and printing systems "that allow entrepreneurial photographers to operate completely off the grid." Another example is of IBM, which took $600 million in cash for the ThinkPad brand and PC business it sold to Lenova of China. The amount is insignificant; for, it represents "less than 1 per cent of the company's $89 billion 2003 revenue," point out Mahajan and Banga. "But the move positions IBM's brand for growth in China and the rest of the world, with an on-the-ground partner in the world's fastest-growing market for PCs."

A chapter titled `the lands of opportunity' speaks of areas known as `teledeserts' that are beginning to blossom with high-speed satellite links. "Bedouin nomads in the Middle East negotiate deals for their sheep and goats on cell-phones. In the West African countries of Ivory Coast and Ghana, shared cell-phones are enabling rural coffee and cocoa farmers to call produce markets in the cities and negotiate their own prices."

Do you know that cell-phone makers are tailoring products to the 1.4 billion Islamic markets? LG and Ilkone are offering cell-phones featuring "the full text of the Holy Qur'an with English translations, programmed calls to prayer (with the voice of the Azan), prayer times and Qibla directions for more than 5,000 cities, and Hijri Calendar converters," informs another chapter.Encounter the `ricochet economy', which "works across a set of relationships between immigrants in the developed world and their family and friends back in the developing world." The end user of the purchases may be in the developing world, but the payment comes from the developed world, explain the authors.

"Peruvian retailer E Wong, for example, advertises its online site to immigrants in California, New York, and other US regions. These immigrants can purchase more than 50,000 products for relatives back in Peru." In telecom flow from the US, India has been the fastest growing destination, "rising from 59 million minutes in 1991 to more than 1.4 billion minutes a decade later." (Mexico phone-access receipts from the US are the highest in the world, with 5.2 billion minutes in 2001, followed by Canada, informs the book.) Online community Sulekha.com also finds mention, for its wide reach to Indians in more than 100 countries.

`Connect brands to the market,' instructs a chapter, which speaks about Microsoft's `Local Language Program' rolling out software in the 14 official languages of India, and about MTV's plan to treat the Indian market like Europe, "with different programs for different countries," because the population of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu is equal to that in Egypt and the UK, respectively!

`Grow big by thinking small' is the advice of another chapter. Among the strategies discussed in it is one about combining products to conserve space. "Microsoft has developed an entertainment system that combines a television, computer, DVD player, and stereo... Professor Raj Reddy at Carnegie Mellon University is working on a $250 combination wireless networked PC-TV-DVD-phone, which should be available by 2006."

Towards the end of the book is a look at how the developing world has been catering to the needs of the developed. "Some 85 per cent of the output of India's software and IT-enabled services is exported," write the authors, and hasten to remind that the top five IT companies in India combined accounted for "only $5 billion in revenue in 2004, roughly equivalent to the sales of US toy maker Mattel."

Read this at the first opportunity!

Communication technology with a human face

THREE major functions of the journalist, according to Harold Lasswell, are surveillance of the environment, correlation of parts of society through interpretation of the events reported, and transmission of cultural heritage from generation to generation. J.V. Vilanilam, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kerala, cites this thought in his book "Mass Communication in India," from Sage (www.indiasage.com) , and adds, "The journalist's writings may be entertaining but its entertainment value is only incidental."

The book traces the progress of mass communication from `a historical and sociological perspective', through radio, print, television, films and so on. A chapter on `new media' speaks of `compunication' or computerised communication, and `shockumentaries', the shocking documentaries. On the latter, Vilanilam is critical.

He writes, "Bizarre events are presented in print as well as electronic media via reports, televised features and video-graphed accounts with gruesome details... Although they are based on true events, all truths are not pleasant and should not be repeated over and over again." Why do the media portray such events? Because they know how to appeal to the bizarre tastes of the users, reasons the author. "There is no great informational value in these media products, only sensationalism and the exploitation of shock."

The final chapter wishes for `communication technology with a human face'. The mass media and the instruments of interpersonal information and communication technology (ICT) unwittingly spread the false impression that the world has already solved the basic problems, fears the author. He exhorts ICT experts to create employment avenues for the ordinary millions, "not just for those trained in computers, electronics and information processing".

An insightful thought is that we must differentiate between growth and development, between social communication and mass communication. "Mass communication often divides rather than unites people in poor countries; only social communication, interpersonal and through small groups, can lay a lasting foundation for social cohesion," argues Vilanilam.

Useful literature on media matters.

Tailpiece

"Just when I was about to propose to her, the mobile rang... "

"How embarrassing! You should have kept it in the silent mode!"

"No, it was hers, and it actually saved me from what could have been awkward. Because she told me, `Excuse me, this is a call from my husband!'"

Books2Byte@TheHindu.co.in

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