Private FM Radio Industry In India

Recently I finished uploading my analysis of Radio Industry in India. It was long due but took some time and some pushing to get this done.

In India the private radio industry is experiencing rapid growth. Though the industry was privatized in late 1990s, the business model was not viable until the phase II of licensing came into force. The phase II fostered competition and brought in new players into the industry.

As part of the overall growth experienced in the Indian economy during last decade, the media and the advertising industry has experienced good growth. While the share of radio industry is far below the international standards, the industry is experiencing good growth. Because the model of the industry is advertisement driven, the radio industry largely mirrors the contours of the advertising industry.

While there are several promising factors that support the growth of the Indian radio industry, there are quite a few factors that might actually delay or dampen the growth. The competition for listeners and advertisers that ushers in price war without any strong differentiating factor among players is not good for the long term health of the industry. The undifferentiated content issue should be addressed immediately and even though the players might be ready now, the regulator has to address the concern.

The phase III licensing will surely enable the industry to move forward and resolve some long standing issues but it is still some time away and the new and existing players should adopt wait, watch and prepare policy until it is announced to make new moves.

The presentation is embedded below.

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Private FM Radio Industry In India

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I have been away from the online world for many days now and that has more to do with my work and the job hunt. Presently I am working on a small project to understand the Indian consumer preference with reference to sports, health and fitness market in India. For that a survey has been designed and is available at - http://bit.ly/4AoLV4.

Would appreciate if you could kindly take the survey and help me in my work. I promise to share the findings on my blog once it is closed.

With respect to the job front, I am seriously planning to give it a serious thought. I am in two minds to continue with the hunt or start something on my own. Will post a update soon on that as well.

Being an Intern - Part I

In my previous post I updated that I am joining radio industry in India as an intern. Now that I have spent some time in the company, I think that it would be the right opportunity to share what I think of being an intern.

Being an intern is first of all an interesting thing. I remain an outsider yet an insider at the same time. I observe things differently. There is always a dichotomy, a struggle to be a part of the team and yet be an outsider. It is a full time job. I know I am intern and I have the liberty to select my role and also the kind of work that I want to perform. The only requirement is whatever role and work I select within the company it should fit in the overall design of the company. At the end of the day it is beneficial if both, I and the company gain something from the experience.

While, presently I am not sure of the end so far, I am quite happy with the way things have worked out. I am finalizing the kind of work/research I want to do for my final dissertation, the company gave me four options to select from the work they want me to do. Needless to say, I have selected the option that suited best for my research and now that it has been decided, I am in the process of laying out plans for both, the work and the research. I think at the end of this internship period, I will have extensive knowledge of how the radio industry function, which I think will be a great plus for my future.

It is also interesting to say that as an intern I can freely talk about my career options to people and tell them that I will be looking for opportunities elsewhere. It is difficult to talk about job search when you are a full time employee. Isn't it?

Apart from the work, one funny question that has been posed by various employees here is that am I doing my MBA from distance education. The concept of a student coming from UK or anywhere else to India to do internship seems to be alien. When I dig deep in the question, the fact remains that Indians still do NOT consider India to be a happening place where opportunities are plenty. People consider foreign degree to be a passport to a better overseas career. While overseas career definitely offers few good opportunities, the fact that India is a happening place and if I have come back for good, I consider India to be a land of opportunities has to sink in.

So far, the period has been exceedingly well. I am also appreciative of two individuals - the top boss and the immediate boss, both have been supportive and suggestive. They are helpful and also leaders, whose first impression on me has been excellent. Needless to say, I am thankful to both of them for all the help.

Updates - Back to India

Recently there have been many updates that I wanted to share earlier but paucity of time and priority did not permit.

Update 1: I have moved to India recently (as recent as last Saturday) to start upon my internship. My internship is with a media house - Dainik Bhaskar (for those who don't know - it is the second largest read Hindi newspaper in India and one of the diverse media houses with interest ranging from Hindi newspaper publication, regional langauge newspaper publication, web based information portals and radio). There is a case study from Knowledge@Wharton on the Bhaskar group. The same can be found here.

I have joined the company in their radio network, which they operate on the frequency 94.3 FM from 17 different stations in 7 different Indian states.

Now answer to the question, why media and especially why Radio, given that my background is in Software industry and I have literally no experience in any other industry.

The answer is simple. I want to experience different industries before I move back to the technology industry. Radio industry in India is still in infancy and has huge potential to grow. The competition in the industry is intense, it is fragmented and there is no clearcut differentiation among the products that the players offer. Given such a scenario, I began thinking wouldn't it be nice and wonderful if I became part of an industry that is poised to grow, which will arm me with a different perspective towards business and also help me to diversify my skill set.

Secondly the position is based out of Delhi. I am quite keen on starting my innings after MBA in north of India and Delhi and surrounding regions seem to be the best place. So, this internship gives me the opportunity to look for opportunities that interest me at the location I think is best suited to me for personal reasons.

Update 2: My farewell from Lancaster and the journey from Lancaster to India was wonderful. I flew AirIndia for the first time and apart from the airhostesses the flight was good. The seats and the decor of the flight including inflight entertainment was nice. The memories are the things that remain and I believe I will cherish the same for a very long time. Wonderful friends, long parties, longer assignments, mid-night walks to Pizzetta (the cafeteria) will definitely be remembered for a very long time. I am sure, I will miss most of the things for a long long time. I get nostalgic but that's what memories are for, esp. good memories.

Now that I have got internet connection at home in Noida and I hope to get time to manage my time, I will have lots to share and write about how I am progressing over my internship.

I want this post also to thank my mentor on my dissertation and one of my close friend whose discussions over phone/email/in-person have proved useful to me in evaluating my research interest, which has helped me in identifying my dissertation topic. Thank you guys.

A state of uncertainity

Ask any MBA student - where do you see yourself in next six months?. The answers most likely will not vary among majority of students. The most common response will be - 'I don't know'. 

This answer stems from the uncertainity that has plagued the job market. What seemed earlier to be a good investment in oneself (it still is), in the short term appears to be one of the not-so-wise decisions. Worldwide collapse of the markets, the recession (Umar Haque calls it a state of compression) and the loss of confidence have taken its own toll on the prospects of finding a job. Students are now dwindling between finding nothing to finding anything so as to pay back the huge loan they have taken. Internships have dried up and the summer projects are not so easy to find. Overall the state of the MBA economy looks not so pleasant. Afterall no one left their cushy jobs to land themselves in this state of uncertainity.

While many will resonate with my claim, I do not claim to represent the entire MBA student fraternity, I for certain falls in the category of uncertain people. Even though all is not lost and there are opportunities to look for, this experience, has certainly allowed me to think out-of-the-box. I do not simply think about the regular profile that I would have got for myself after MBA, nor do I fancy my chances in UK, which I surely considered before joining the course. Now I am thinking more than ever about opportunities in India. Now I am no more looking for a stereotype role in the IT industry (though I may still end up there) but I am considering all types of industries. This will enable me to 

• experience different industry, and
• enhance my profile

I am not so sure if I will be successful in what I am thinking but slowly and surely I am looking forward to apply wherever opportunities arise. If you think you might have something in store for me drop me an email. 

Who said recession was bad, MBA in a recession has definitely made me resilient.  

Why should you NOT fly AirFrance

A lot of people have asked about my travel experience when I went home recently. I have been telling them sometimes in detail and sometime in brief that the total time spent travelling both ways was close to 5 days. 

5 days, Yes. That humungous amount of time that I literally spent on my travel was courtsey AirFrance. It is the time in which I could have gone around the world twice on a non-stop flight. Let me tell you what happened.

I was scheduled to fly from Manchester to Paris and Paris to Delhi and back via same route. Internally within India, I had to take an early morning train from Delhi to Bhopal and back. My flight from Manchester was on 16th of December early morning at 6.40 am. I had been to London and so came back early morning to Manchester. I stood in the first queue at 4.30 am and boarded the flight at 6 am. I was seated comfortably and since I was really tired because of the long night, I was soon sleeping after drinking a glass of water.

Half an hour past departure time, I woke up and realised that the flight was still in Manchester. Upon asking, the reason was, the fog at Paris airport delayed our departure. Reason accepted and I forced myself to sleep again. 45 min. later, I woke up again and this time realised the under the floor, in the belly of the aircraft, a massive movement was taking place. I asked again and I was explained that a passenger had checked in with her luggage, but later checked out while the airline did not knew which was her baggage so they were looking for her baggage. As soon as her baggage was sorted out, we will fly. This was the first time I started getting worried about my connecting flight from Paris to Delhi, which was at 10.25 am local time.

I wanted to clarify if my connecting flight would still be available and I was explained that while I may miss my direct flight from Paris, some arrangement would be met at Paris airport and I will have to wait until we reach Paris. Flight from Manchester took off around 9.30 am and we reached Paris at 11 am local time.

My flight to Delhi had left.

Almost co-passengers had missed their connections and then we stood in the customer service queue. It was 11 am and I got to the counter at 2 pm. It was an excruciating wait of nearly 3 hours in the queue without food and water. In the flight no breakfast was served and at the airport the treatment was "We are doing you a favor, dare you not question us". When my turn came up, I was exhausted and the darn lady at the counter said she could offer me a connection from London on AirIndia flight to Delhi. The flight was at 9.30 pm London time. To drop me to London, my flight was at 7 pm from Paris. She gave me a "Drinks + Sandwich" coupon and said 'BYE'.

I was pissed off. Treating me like a shit is no way to get away. Since I did not wanted to waste other passenger's time who were wearing out like me, I wanted to meet the manager separately. I got to meet him after an hour who, realizing what he was getting into, gave me nothing but a meals coupon. 

After coming down on the terminal, I had my lunch and found a chair to sleep. I woke up again at the departure gate for the flight to London to realise that the same flight was delayed by more than 1.45 hrs. There was no way I could reach London to catch the AirIndia flight. 

I went back to customer service.

The customer service guys had no idea how to help. Their supervisor couldn't even try to help apart from saying that I will have to spent the night at Airport since I did not have the visa to enter city and there is no possibility flying out that night via any connections. Still, I asked her to try to arrange something and later she took my passport, cleared us out of terminal and asked us to wait. Three hours after waiting in the no-man's land in the airport, I asked if my visa/passport has arrived. It had and I was moved into a sub-standard hotel at around 11.30 pm. There was no food or water and I slept hungry.

Next day I came to airport and asked the airline representative about the compensation and he asked me to contact customer service at Delhi who would be able to help. I belived him and boarded the flight.

I fly into Delhi and the airline guys gave me a sales office number to help me with my complaint. My entire reservations of previous day had gone awry and I had to re-reserve my ticket to Bhopal. Call to sales office gave me an email address of customer service in India. I emailed them and their response was

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Dear Mr Bhargava,

We acknowledge with thanks receipt of email dated 23rd December 2008, regarding your scheduled travel AF1469/ AF148/ 16th December 2008 Manchester/ Paris/ Delhi. At the outset, we offer our sincere apologies for any inconvenience that may have been caused.

May we kindly advise you that as you are currently residing in UK, your email has been forwarded to our office at the following address, for their necessary action:

Air France - Europe
Customer Care Center
TSA 13002
60035 Beauvais Cedex
France

Best regards,

Ashwani KUMAR
Customer Relations Supervisor

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So far, I have not heard back from them.

On my way back on 2nd Jan, the flight developed a technical snag and the oxygen pressure in the cabin was not enough to fly high altitude. This required re-routing as the aircraft could not fly over Afganistan. While they waited for a new route and the delay was over 2.5 hr. Instead of flying at 1.20 am, the flight took off at 4 am. 

My connecting flight from Paris to Manchester was at 7.40 am, Paris time and like last time, I missed that too. I had a confirmed train ticket to Lancaster at 11 am, local time. I missed that too. When I reached Paris, the guys gave me a new ticket and I reached Lancaster 8 hrs late in the evening.

My story ends here but I have vowed that unless there is a very compelling reason to fly AirFrance, I am never going to fly with them. I am going to wait for them to respond back to my complaint else I will lodge my complain under EU laws to European Transport Commission and hope that atleast they will redress my complaint.

Their rude customer service behaviour, non-responsiveness to customer issues was agonizing enough. I was not flying free and I understand issues like this do happen but other airlines are more responsive and try to make the experience better and not worse.

If you read this and decide to fly AirFrance, please think again.