Whatsapp introduces calling feature

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

T. Anup Prasanna Kumar, MBA 2014-16, Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur

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Whatsapp, India’s favourite instant messaging app, which attracts not only the usual customers but also the small and medium entrepreneurs has introduced calling feature now. Whatsapp, which came into lime light once it was acquired by Facebook for a whooping price of 19 billion dollars, mainly because of its wide customer base of 450 million users.

Now, Whatsapp has opened its voice calling features to all Android users. But the invite window for this feature is opened only for a few hours of time. Reports say that, many people have been receiving the Whatsapp calling feature on their Android smartphones. To activate the feature, all you need is the latest version of of whatsapp and a whatsapp call from someone who already has the feature. Once the call has been received, there is a change in the appearance with more number of tabs, which includes – calls, chats and contacts.

This move has received overwhelming response with over 1 billion installs or upgrades via google play. Initially it was opened to only few users and then closed. Also, it is not yet officially out on their website that calling feature has been introduced. The iphone users might have to wait a bit longer to receive this feature although voice calling button appeared in the app sometime ago.

Whatsapp with feature seems to be augmenting its offering, they also have recently introduced a web version, which is working well. So overall after the acquistion, there seems to be lots of changes happening with this popular app.

 

 

Beef Ban in Maharshtra

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

T. Anup Prasanna Kumar, MBA 2014-16, Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur

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Maharashtra government’s new law of banning beef has disappointed lots of meat lovers in the state. The Bill which was passed in 1995 by the then BJP-Shiv Sena Alliance government under the Maharashtra Animal Prevention(Amendment) has been given formal consent by the President Pranab Mukherjee. Under this bill slaughtering of calves and bullocks is completely banned. Only the sale of inferior quality beef is allowed. Any person found selling or eating beef can be jailed upto 5 years and fined upto Rs 10,000.

Maharashtra had banned the slaughtering of cows long back in 1976, but it did not come into affect. Present Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis issued a public statement thanking the president for the consent. But the beef traders are unhappy at this decision, according to them, there will be loss of jobs and also possibility of smuggling. Beef currently costs almost a third of mutton and in that buffalo meat largely exported. India stand in the second position when it comes to exporting beef only after Brazil. People also have accused the decision saying that it is not of priority to Hindutva and is hence banned. Also, many people have come in support to protest against this decision and are trying to keep this agitation trending through social networking sites like twitter and Facebook.

The thing needs to be looked is whether there will be any change in the law due to the protest or will people accept the law and move forward.

 

McDonald’s Fries its CEO

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

T. Anup Prasanna Kumar, MBA 2014-16, Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur

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Very less people would have though that a big hamburger chain giant like McDonald’s can face CEO crises. Recently, McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson stepped down since the company is fighting to hold on to customers and and transform its image.

The company’s CEO will now be replaced by Steve Easterbook, veteran from the company who has rejoined the firm as Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Brand Officer in 2013. Easterbook began working for McDonald’s in 1993 and held various leadership positions. From 2011-2013, he left McDonald’s to become the CEO of pizza chain PizzaExpress.

Easterbook’s fast-causal experiences have uniquely prepared him to take on McDonald’s new direction in targeting its fast-casual competitors. Easterbook as CEO has a herculean task ahead of him in tackling changes that are already underway. Some of the problems McDonald’s is addressing as of now are “Fast Food is Junk Food”, “Bloated Menu, Clumsy Service”,”Pickier Customers”,”Prices too High” etc.

Still the question for McDonald’s remains: Will Easterbook be enough to reboot company’s sales? Some feel that rather than appointing an internal CEO, McDonald’s should appoint an external CEO. That could maybe be the shock to the system that is required to revive McDonald’s. However, this isn’t McDonald’s method. The company believes in the tradition of hiring internally.

We’ll just have to wait and see if McDonald’s is successful with this new CEO. If this move fails, it may be time to throw out the playbook and get a new external CEO. Easterbook, for his own sake, better start executing the changes quickly and successfully, or he’ll be following Thompson out of the McFamily.

Condition of new IIMs in India

The following article is based on my own interpretation of the said events. Any material borrowed from published and unpublished sources has been appropriately referenced. I will bear the sole responsibility for anything that is found to have been copied or misappropriated or misrepresented in the following post.

T. Anup Prasanna Kumar, MBA 2014-16, Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur
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In Union Budget presented in July 2014, Government of India announced setting up of 6 new IIMs (Indian Institute of Management) in the states of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar, Odisha, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. By the introduction of these 6 new IIMs, the total count of IIMs in India has reached 19. Now the question arises, does India require so many IIMs? and will the tag ‘IIM’ will have same standard as it had before?

Last Month, Economic Times published a report saying that, any news is yet to come on the admission process of the 6 new IIMs announced by Government of India in July 2014. During the announcement, it was said that the older IIMs would mentor these new IIMs. But recently, IIM Bangalore Spokesperson said, “We’re waiting for directions from the HRD ministry on which IIM to mentor. As soon as we get the communication, we’ll start the procedure for admissions”. The newer IIMs, some of whose locations are not finalized, have a long way to go. “At the moment, everything is up in the air for the new IIMs. It’s a herculean task,” said an IIM director. So, given the circumstances admission to these new IIMs are far from reality this year. Looking at other IIMs, apart from the traditional 6 IIMs, which have been operational since long back, the condition of other IIMs which have been set up in the year 2007 as a part of the eleventh five year plan needs lot of improvement. Although land allotment and construction of the buildings have started, they are yet to achieve the status of 100% completion. Apart from the infrastructure, the standard of the new IIMs are not up to the mark. They are nowhere close to the reputation maintained by the Old IIMs. In fact, students prefer joining other reputed private B-Schools rather than these new IIMs. It’s still a long way to go before these IIMs  establish themselves as a premier B-School of India.