Connecting women with what’s beautiful, educating and inspiring, Vogue, the ultimate fashion bible from the Condè Nast group of publications, recently re-launched its website with a great new look and a rewarding user experience.

Vogue India’s online makeover has been empowered by Puretech Internet, which designed and developed the portal keeping in mind the end users’ needs and Vogue’s emphasis on strong visual appeal. From the start, the objective was clear — to establish Vogue.in as the fashion destination of choice through an engaging mix of content, design, technology and search engine optimisation (SEO).

Design

The new Vogue India website features cutting-edge design, truly reflecting Vogue’s approach to fashion. The home page, for instance, is a compelling amalgamation of the latest from the fashion and beauty world, with an emphasis on the visual aesthetic. The Puretech design team included small elements that made a great difference to a visitor’s the first impression of the website — such as a flexibile masthead with a picture, a tag cloud, and a social media section. Popular earlier features such as polls, ‘Pick of the Day’ and ‘From Runway to Red Carpet’ have been retained, but in a new avatar.

Besides the home page, the inner pages have also undergone a transformation. The page layouts and clutter-free look make reading and discovering new content a more user-friendly experience. The Vogue.in site is also now more empowered with Web 2.0 tools, such as social sharing features and interactive slide shows.

Development

Based on a brief on editorial requirements from the Vogue India digital team, Puretech Internet suggested Drupal as a Content Management System (CMS) platform, which allows tremendous flexibility in content management as well as page layouts and is a robust, tried-and-tested system.

The Puretech team used additional modules with Drupal to provide a customised experience to the website’s editorial team, enabling them to post and edit content faster in web-friendly formats. As a result, putting up slide shows, or changing the home page carousels, or even integrating blog and twitter feeds has become a quick and easy process.

The revamped Vogue.in, with its new look, engaging and authoritative content, rich interactivity and cutting-edge technology promises deliver a compelling experience to its users, making it the online destination for the best of Indian and international fashion and beauty. The story of Vogue is about investing in the best, selecting the best, and believing that women know the difference.

About Puretech Internet

Since 1999, Puretech Internet has been helping companies achieve business goals worldwide. With award-winning expertise, and by following international best practices, Puretech provides clients with innovative, integrated web-based solutions.

Puretech is headquartered in Mumbai, India with a satellite office in the US – San Francisco, CA. Its dynamic team of talented and skilled professionals has diverse experience and expertise in IT, marketing, business, and design.

Puretech offers various services such as Web Strategy & Content, Website Design & Development, Website Maintenance & CMS, Web Application Design & Development. Interactive Marketing Solutions, and Digital Marketing Services.

With the highest standards for communication, teamwork, and professional excellence, Puretech is firmly committed to its clients’ success.

May , 2010, Mumbai…Known to offer industry firsts which are clutter breaking and innovative, 92.7 BIG FM, the radio arm of Reliance Media World Ltd. launches its latest television commercial, to promote its show BIG 30 Countdown, endorsed by none other than Bollywood heart-throb Hrithik Roshan. The television commercial sees Bollywood and Radio, coming together for the first time ever to promote the station and the movie, in a truly unique way.

The TV commercial brings together the soon to be released blockbuster film KITEs and India’s No. 1 FM Station 92.7 BIG FM, and will hit television screens on May 5, 2010. The commercial centers around the BIG 30 Countdown, BIG FM’s daily national evening drive show, which air’s across 36 stations in the network. The show, BIG 30 Countdown features latest music and Bollywood gossip, the biggest stars, the biggest music hits and the latest blockbusters making it ideal to associate with KITEs, featuring Hrithik Roshan, Barbara Mori and some fantastic music.

The BIG 30 Countdown is designed to give listeners the best possible “re-charge” each evening, after a hard days work. Hrithik as an actor himself goes through long hard days and needs entertainment each evening that helps him unwind. It was these 2 simple truths that were picked up by the creative agency Rediffusion DY&R, who have created a meaningful and entertaining TVC using Hrithik Roshan the way he is in real life – a busy, hardworking superstar.

The storyboard is kept simple, Hrithik, after a tired day of shooting, retires to his car, turns on the radio – tunes in to 92.7 BIG FM’s BIG 30 Countdown. Along with KITEs music in the background, rushes of the film depicting action, song-dance and shararat play as Hrithik asks audiences to tune into the show just like he does each evening. The television commercial concludes with an extremely relaxed Hrithik, enjoying a comfortable stretch having re-charged at the end of the day, echoing with the radio stations brand line ‘Suno Sunao, Life Banao’. A BIG Pictures and Filmkraft film, the TVC has been directed by Prasad Hegde.

Speaking on the soon to be released television commercial, Mr. Anand Chakravarthy, Sr. Vice President, Marketing, 92.7 BIG FM said, “FM and Bollywood have a symbiotic relationship, growing off each other. A lot has been done in the past between the two, but it has all largely remained on radio only. We found the synergy between Kites and our BIG 30 Countdown show worked excellently and therefore decided to create a television campaign vs just staying on radio. The BIG 30 Countdown, with an unbeatable mix of the latest music and Bollywood gossip is the show where we promote KITE’s and its music. Hrithik was fantastic and has, as always, done a great job. This partnership sets a new benchmark in the relationship between radio and Bollywood and you can always expect BIG FM to create more. ”

About Reliance Media World Ltd.

Reliance Media World Limited is part of the Reliance ADA Group. One of India’s youngest media houses, it has grown at a steady pace becoming one of India’s leading media businesses.  RMWL currently has play in the spaces of Radio, Experiential Marketing, Out of Home and Digital and specializes in creating & executing integrated solutions for clients, across the country. 92.7 BIG FM- the radio brand pioneered the spread of FM entertainment with the launch of its 45 station network, reaching out to over 200 million Indians. The company offers a truly integrated solution to clients having build significant multi media capabilities. BIG Reach – a customized brand activation division, BIG Street – in the business of out of home media, BIG Events – specializes in event creation & management BIG Live –  in the business of creating, managing and commercializing multi-brand engagement IPs in the space of entertainment, BIG Rural – offers holistic solutions for clients’ rural marketing requirements and BIG Digital – an initiative in the digital space offering mobile and online solutions.

Key role is one of the best ways to create intellectual and emotional engagement in people. Every level employee’s engagement is fluctuating. So, it is the responsibility of the management that they should have proper planning about how they are going to manage the available talent to get maximum output. If an employee is emotionally attached with the firm then it become very easy for the management. Emotional engagement of employee can be achieved through alignment of social value with business value. Means to say that, a company should have a social goal and sound economic mission to produce financial benefits should have social goals.

To achieve the social goals a firm should have corporate social responsibilities (CSR). Here, creation and communication of value has a big impact on the development of the employee engagement. And it should align with the leadership behaviour. That’s means whatever management is saying in their social goals it should match with their initiatives. Leaders should walk with talk. They should create trust throughout the organization on the basis of personal credibility and integrity. Here, we can compare the leader of SATYAM & INFOSYS. Satyam lost their image just because of one wrong step by the top management, on the other hand Infosys is one of the leading brands because of its mentor.

After setting the goals, management should take care about the continuous improvement and commitment level of their employee. Remind them and make them understand about the bigger picture. Give them authority to take action when required, it will shows their responsibility and emotional attachment. Tell them to give importance to the ethics. 360 degree feedback and system should try to monitor the leadership behaviour and adherence to ethical, social and business value.

In short we can say that shared vision, shared value should focus on company’s strategic goal. And at the same time employee and firm’s value should match for the maximum utilization of the talent.

Now at this situation VC comes into the picture. Before going to the deep, we need to know that what VC is?  VC stands for Venture Capitalist, the institution which provides funds for the advancement and development of the upcoming projects in your company. Here the question comes that how much you are going to ask to your venture capitalist for the investment. You need to make them understand about your project, your industry, your product life cycle, existing market capitalization etc.

A VC always looks for the potentiality of the project. They are least bother about the profit. They will evaluate your project on each and every aspect and then decide about the valuation. In mathematical term;

Valuation = market price of the share * total number of shares of your company

Some other factor which should be taken into consideration is brand value, future prospects, market capitalization, EPS etc.

Let us consider that you are average profit making company and you are not satisfied with your current growth. You are more focused to improve the face value of the share. The attitude towards investment will decide that what you will be in future. Your aggressive approach and high risk taking ability can lead you to become more successful and established venture. On the other hand, your conservative approach will keep you as of now. So, it’s better to approach to the venture capital for further advancement or development of the company.

We can better understand this with the help of a example, if VC infuses a sum of amount suppose 90 crore for 15% shares in the company. Then total value of the company will be 90/15% = 600 crore, and your share will be 510 crore. It will increase the face value of the share which indirectly indicates the expected growth of the company.

After the diversification or expansion of the business, the next major objective of the company is to exit of VC or to pay the other obligations of the company. One of the best ways for exit of the VC from the firm is to pay his return within the prescribed period. But generally, the preferred mode of exit is either to sold the company or to go for IPO.

Even if the company decided to go for IPO then also firm should have enough control on interest so that they can repay the interest to their investors. And at the same time they will be all in all of their company.

“The six companies and bank accounts which were operated from London were started in 1999 and closed down just before the listing of Satyam’s American Depository Rights on New York Stock Exchange in May 2001. These accounts and fictitious firms were clearly part of Raju’s modus operandi to divert Satyam scam money,” whistleblower said.

CBI sources said the whistleblower, in his late forties or early fifties, contacted the agency on his own and his statement is being currently recorded. “Since these benami accounts no longer exist, this person will be able to provide us valuable leads as to the trail of the money that were in these accounts”, a CBI official said.

The CBI is still awaiting responses to the letters rogatory sent by Indian courts to six countries seeking their cooperation in unearthing the trail in the moneylaundering of Satyam scam money. The requests were sent to courts in US, UK, Belgium, Mauritius, Singapore and British Virgin Islands. CBI sources said it may take a few more weeks for responses to arrive from these countries as the courts there have to still complete the formality of recording statements of those connected to the foreign accounts there.

‘Legalities taking time’

Even as next hearing of Satyam scam was posted to March 31 by a special CBI court, Union minister of state for corporate affairs Salman Khurshid said: “Sometimes, legal system takes its own time.. I can tell you that it is high priority for us that we do it as quickly as possible, so that the world knows that not only did we get back on our feet, but also made sure that people are accountable”, he said.

What is CTC all about?

In simple language, CTC is the total direct salary cost faced by a company to employ you. Along with fixed compensation like your basic salary, allowances and perks, it includes other variable components like bonuses and incentive-driven commissions. Finally, social security payments made on your account, by your employer or compulsorily by you, also form a part of your CTC (for instance, your employer’s contribution or your contribution to your provident fund).

If you are looking for a new job or a salary hike, you are well advised to think about how to maximise your cash in hand, after all the deductions and taxes will be borne by you. Otherwise, you might be lured away by the promise of a high CTC, but one that results in about the same cash in hand as your previous job.

As a result, economically you might not be any better off. Here, Shyam’s case has been taken as example. See table to understand his salary structure and the CTC component. Net of all the taxes is the amount that will be Shyam’s cash in hand. The taxes that Shyam will need to pay are calculated on the taxable components of his compensation package after allowing all deductions and exemptions under the I-T Act. These taxes will be deducted by way of instalments from his monthly salary payments.

Shyam’s take-home salary, before his bonus, is around Rs 4.83 lakh. This is around 69% of his CTC of Rs 7 lakh. In case Shyam can negotiate a new salary structure with his employer, his goal should be to maximise his take-home salary as a percentage of his CTC. However, with the new rules for personal taxation, this has become more challenging, but not impossible.

The cumulative effect of the recent changes in personal taxation now puts a higher burden on the individual taxpayer. Previously, certain benefits that you received from your employer were taxed to your employer under the fringe benefit tax (FBT). For most of these items the tax rate was 6.79%, and your employer would pass on the economic cost of this to you — the employee.

Currently, the new rules (announced in Budget 2009 and with further clarification coming in late December 2009) are applicable. Under these rules, as of the start of April 1, 2009, all benefits given to you by your employer that were previously taxable to the company under FBT will now be taxable in your hands, as perks according to your tax slab rate (compared to the employee’s previous cost of 6.79%). This puts a higher burden on an employee, and will reduce the cash in hand, even though one’s CTC is not affected by it.

If Shyam’s employer offers a range of tax-efficient options as a part of the company’s salary structure, then Shyam can attempt to maximise his cash in hand. Every company will have its own range of options that they can offer, depending upon its internal accounting policies and interpretations of the tax code. Nevertheless, as employees, it is our prerogative to ask our HR managers for options that can help mitigate the impact of the recent changes to the tax law.

Bollywood merchandise retailing started at Shoppers Stop with Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Om Shanti Om, when the company started displaying apparels and products almost six weeks before the release of the film. In October last, Vodafone egghead characters Zoozoos made their appearance on Shoppers Stop shelves through T-shirts, mugs and bed accessories. “The brand was well-known and the customer already had empathy with the characters and the merchandise was not steeply priced and it worked,” Mr Shrikhande said.

Reasoning that fashion too follows the Bollywood cycle and is topical for 4-8 weeks, film-based merchandise makes sense. It also helps that now film stars too have changed their opinion of brands, they respect the value of such merchandise and are willing to participate in the experiment, he added.

The retail chain is now working on the IIFA Bling range where clothes similar to those worn by the stars at the IIFA awards ceremony would be merchandised at Shoppers Stop. This range would be available on the shelves in 4-6 weeks’ time, he said.

Though revenue from this new line of merchandise is still very low and in single digits, the Rs 400 crore retail player is upbeat that with the right ambience and service, the experience would ‘connect’ with its customers.

Expansion plans

From zero growth in the same store sales in the first nine months of this financial year, Shoppers Stop is expecting to announce a 5-7 per cent same store growth during the current quarter that ends in a week’s time. Mr Govind Shrikhande told reporters at the launch of its third store in Bangalore (30 {+t} {+h} in the country) that the company plans to invest close to Rs 200 crore in the next 24 months to open 18 more stores.

This is in line with Reliance Venture’s recent rebranding and widening focus on investing in disruptive and sustainable business models with a sector-agnostic philosophy, the company said in a press release issued here today. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sherpalo are co-investors in this round of funding in Reverse Logistics along with Reliance Venture Asset Management. The release did not, however, mention the amount of funding but it is understood that the total investment done by all the investors is between Rs 35-40-crore.

Founded in 2008, Reverse Logistics uses its proprietary technology to help its customers reduce supply-chain costs by over 25%, increase asset recovery by over 100%, improve productivity by over 10%, and get a 100% customer satisfaction while growing profitability exponentially, the release said.

Reliance Venture Asset Management’s CEO, Harshal J Shah, said, “the reverse logistics space is a fairly untapped but promising sector and will revolutionise efficiency levels of the fragmented Indian supply chain.”

“As an opportunistic investor, we see an immense potential in the industry…Reverse Logistics with its expert management backing will clearly contribute to the India growth story and compete with global compatriots and we are excited to partner them,” Shah said.

Reverse logistics refers to the backward supply-chain network where a product moves from the end-consumer to the manufacturer for re-use, disposal or surplus sale purposes with the rationale to increase overall efficiencies. In developed countries, the reverse supply-chain management is outsourced and focused to increase the overall shareholder value.

However, India is still near the bottom when it comes to supply-chain efficiencies. Estimates suggest that 3% of its GDP is lost to supply-chain inefficiencies and low compliance with the government’s e-waste regulations, the release said. Hence, with its growing importance, Indian companies are now looking to manage this network as a strategic and critical business area, the release said, adding that according to market studies, the Indian reverse logistics industry is pegged at $10-15 billion.

Change is something Gopalakrishnan willingly embraces but even he didn’t anticipate the upheaval that lay in store when he was handed the baton by Nandan Nilekani in June 2007. A global slowdown of unprecedented proportion, wild currency fluctuations, scuttled mega deals, clients under tremendous pressure, MNC competitors biting at the heels and amid all this, the exit of Nilekani himself. Not even in his wildest dreams would the soft-spoken CEO have predicted the rollercoaster ride that his tenure was to be. When Gopalakrishnan first took over the reins, times were actually quite exciting.

The software biggie was a $3 billion company, going on four, it had enjoyed an annual compounded growth rate of 41% under Nilekani’s leadership from 2002-07 and had moved on from being a 10,000-employee company to one with over 72,000 professionals. It was also spreading its wings in different directions: revenue from new services like consulting, BPO and infrastructure was gaining ground, it was set to open a new facility in Mexico and four years after its foray into China, it had 700 people working there.

Gopalakrishnan saw his task as carrying the good work forward. With the momentum going, Gopalakrishnan got off to a great start. Revenues in the 2008 fiscal came in at $4.18 billion with a year-on-year growth rate of 35% and Infosys made the highest private sector dividend payout in Indian corporate history. Meanwhile though, the currency environment was getting to be challenging and global economic uncertainties were bubbling. Then slowdown struck.

Third time unlucky?

On the 15 of September 2008 Lehman brothers filed for bankruptcy and the global economy turned upside down. “Everyone was caught completely by surprise. So were we,” recalls Gopalakrishnan . Ironically, he adds, the quarter ending September 2008, with 6% sequential growth had been one of Infosys’ best. The next few days were a wild scramble ; Infosys was due to announce results and give guidance in less than a month. For the first time in its history, the company had to revise guidance downward. The biggest worry for the company was holding onto its existing customers and making sure it responded to their needs. Not surprisingly, Nilekani and he spent the most of the next few weeks living on aircrafts and client locations.

Closer home, another problem was brewing. Over 19,000 campus offers had been made by Infosys in April 2008; what of them? “After a lot of debate we decided to honour every offer,” he says. The grapevine on campus was working overtime with rumours of lay-offs ; was the blue eyed company of India Inc going to bite? “We went the other way,” says Gopalakrishnan. But in April 2009, as the slowdown showed no signs of abatement, he had to announce to employees that bonuses, wages, promotions were all frozen.

As deal sizes got smaller, decision making slowed down on the client side and along with it the overall pace of business; did Gopalakrishnan ever feel like this was not what he had bargained for? “I always believe you play with the cards that you’re dealt,” he says, “besides , the slowdown was affecting every company in the industry, every customer .” Neither was he the only one who’d seen tough times. It was hardly a cakewalk for Narayana Murthy himself to take the company from US$ 140,000 revenue in 1982 to US$ 535 million revenue in 2002 by, as he says, “ensuring that the fledgling Infosys survived during the dark days of business-unfriendly India prior to 1991 and the growing competition from much larger companies” . The booming growth only came post 2000 and even then there was SARS, the dot com crash.

But for the man whose favourite book is Bruce Lipton’s The Biology of Belief, a science and spirit saga, unleashing the power of mind over matter was imperative.

Running the “flat” company

As the slowdown worsened, Gopalakrishnan held things together. Then in June last year Infosys started seeing the first signs of stabilisation amongst clients. “Customers in the US and Europe started reviving shelved projects and allocating more funds for technology services,” says Gopalakrishnan. The worst seemed like it was behind them. And then came another blow – Nilekani surprised the entire IT industry by announcing that he was quitting his position as co-chairman of Infosys to head the government’s unique identification number project.

Until then Nilekani and Gopalakrishnan had shared the burden of the recession’s fallout. Gopalakrishnan was now left alone to engage marque clients and was spending less and less time at home. The larger issue was that Nilekani had been the public face of Infosys. According to Jessie Paul, who was global brand manager at Infosys between 1998-2003 , much of this personality-led branding was consciously inbuilt by Murthy. She recalls a time in 2000, pre-US IPO, when Murthy, who was CEO & MD, purposefully placed Nilekani in the limelight so that by the time Nilekani took over the role from him in 2002, people would identify Infosys with him. Nilekani also had a tremendous rapport with several top CEOs, something that his successor is working on building.

Troubles notwithstanding, Infosys came out of the 2009 fiscal with a strong balance sheet with cash and cash equivalents of over US$ 2 billion. But while it preserved its profits and operating profit margins; it had to sacrifice revenue growth; its rivals Wipro and Cognizant were growing faster. “We were as responsive as we could be. We continued our global expansion strategy, we continued to invest in people and in new campuses,” says the CEO.

Infy version 2.0?

Some may say that the Infy’s biggest transformation will be in the days to come. According to its guidance its fiscal 2010 revenues are expected to decline by 6.7% to 3.1%. And there is a ‘new normal’ in the IT landscape to be dealt with. In the short term the challenge for Infosys is volatility of currency, in the last two years there have been quarters when the currency movement has been 15-20 %.

Also the rise in protectionism in the US has pushed Infosys to hasten the amount of work it does in emerging markets like the Middle East and Latin America. The larger worries though, he says, are issues like staying relevant to your customers: “The expectations of customers are changing and if you don’t keep up they will go to your competitors.”

Infy Reset

The genial CEO has twin battles to fight: one on the global front, to lead Infosys to its rightful place amongst global biggies such as IBM and Accenture , and at the same time fight off their growing presence in India. His plan for getting Infosys ready for the next stage involves moving up the value chain and creating a more balanced distribution of revenues.

This includes increasing the share of higher value services like consulting, going big on IP to power future growth, new pricing models, improving efficiency and finding new locations like China and Mexico to take advantage of local labour pools (China now has 2000 employees). He aims to generate around one-third of Infosys’ revenues from high-margin new business models like cloud computing platforms; currently business operations (maintenance and infrastructure management) contribute over 60%. “We haven’t set a limit to this however because to some extent it is driven by how quickly the market accepts these business models,” he says, loath to cast anything in stone in an uncertain world.

Nasscom has projected that ITO-BPO exports in 2010 will increase by 13-15 % but for Infosys the challenge will be to sustain its leadership position among the four top Indian IT firms – TCS, Wipro and HCL. The key will be to sustain its industry leading margins. Will Infosys, under Gopalakrishnan eschew its preference for organic growth for acquisition led growth? “We are open to strategic acquisitions especially in non-English speaking geographies like France and Germany, but remember, 70% of all acquisitions fail. In the services industry especially, you’re acquiring people and their capability and if the people walk away then all you’re acquiring are tables and chairs,” he says.

Change of guard

Going forward, a key challenge will be going from a founder-led firm to a non founder-led firm. As was scripted by Murthy back in 1998 no founder CEO tenure exceeds five years and all founders will step down from operational roles when they turn 60 and leave the board at the age of 65. In six years, practically none of the promoters will be involved in the day-to-day running of the company. “Leadership development is something we are concerned with. We are very concerned with creating longevity for the corporation. And about creating a company that goes beyond generations of leaders,” says Gopalakrishnan. Murthy retires from the board next year and two years from now it will be interesting to see if Gopalakrishnan himself makes an exit in favour of the first non-founder CEO.

Without doubt, Infosys has done a great job de-risking management under the present CEO. Firstly, five senior executives Chandra Shekar Kakal, Subhash Dhar, Ashok Vemuri , V Balakrishnan and BG Srinivas now make up the Executive Council (EC) to be mentored and evaluated as potential CEOs. The EC has also made the de-centralised decision making process by taking it one level below the Board and the Infosys Leadership Institute (ILI) is committed to grooming future generations of leaders, having identified 50 senior executives. The challenge for Kris will be to find the kind of perfect core group that the founders made up with their specific skill sets. “Murthy was the visionary and Nilekani followed up by being the institution builder. Kris came in as the solid operations guy. As a combination they were ideal,” says a former senior leader at Infosys.

The other challenge for Gopalakrishnan will be creating an Infosys 2.0 that retains the culture and DNA of the present corporation. Infosys has always had a simple rule – the interest of the firm overrides the interest of any individual. “Through continuous reinforcement and having the senior management walk the talk we communicate clearly that while poor performance can be excused, there is zero tolerance for value violation,” says the CEO. As Infosys adds between 20,000-30 ,000 people each year, the task will be to have these values transcend the lives of the founders, no mean feat.

Meanwhile, despite all the high voltage drama of the last two years Gopalakrishnan hasn’t lost his sense of humour. 2010 will be a great year for Infosys, he says laughing, because 2009 would make any year look good. He is also hoping he’ll have more time to read this year. He’s ambitiously juggling three books at a time and he’s finally getting that new laptop. The Apple iPad has been pre-booked and will be here in May. Just in time to launch his fourth year as CEO and Infosys’ 30th birthday.