Hungry Kya?

A humid summer afternoon today in Chennai, and I was lazing indoors at home when my phone rang indicating an unknown Delhi number. I answered the call and a pleasant female voice said that she was calling from Domino's Pizza to get my feedback on an order I had placed on Sunday. The feedback revolved around which item I liked the most, what improvements I would expect and whether the offerings were worth the price.

Domino's pizza has come a long way since it set shop in India in the year 1996. Under the control of Jubilant Foodworks which holds a master franchisee agreement (presently extending to Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh), it has taken long for the global pizza giant to warm up to the Indian consumer's mindset. But things are looking up now after massive changes have been put in place.

The questions posed to me during the feedback call revealed quite a lot about the new focus areas of Domino's Pizza here. In my opinion, they are:

1. Variety - The addition of pastas and the choco lava cake complement the regular pizza offering which has itself been embellished by the new Cheese Burst (below) - a roaring success.
2. Quality - The effort to incorporate customer feedback, specifically in improvements indicates the strong focus on quality.
3. Value for money - With offerings starting from Rs.39/- and exciting deals on the menu, Domino's is proving to be an ideal dining destination for the middle-class youth.

Any successful CEO would vouch for the fact that successful strategies are born out of the analysis of huge volumes of data, which bring out the strengths and opportunities that the organization should invest in.  I have a feeling Domino's is doing exactly that, thereby gearing itself up for a successful growth phase in India where it aims to grow to over 500 stores in the next 2 years having stood at just 120 stores 2 years back. The CRM system and the feedback process only confirm my beliefs.

India is the fastest growing market for Domino's worldwide, and is expected to become one of the top 5 markets globally within the next 3 years. No wonder, Patrick Doyle's first halt was in India, after taking over as the new CEO recently.

However, managing growth will be a great challenge and requires immense planning, focus and superb execution, along with great leadership. In my opinion, some of the challenges Domino's will face are the following:

1. Standardization in product and service across all outlets in this vast diverse country
2. Food price inflation will surely affect margins, yet pricing needs to be competitive
3. India is primarily a dine-in market unlike most other countries where Domino's thrives on home delivery (which happens to be its USP) - Real-estate, store management etc. require specialized skills

Notwithstanding these challenges, Domino's is trying to inch-ahead on the innovation front (with online ordering being the latest one) and I'm sure competitors are feeling the heat.

<Photo (left): My friends Bala and Harish relishing our last lunch at a Domino's Pizza outlet in Indore - a place that we would miss terribly (Yes, we were regulars there!), yet carry fond memories>

Sibling Success

It's again the turn of an Indian to take over the top job at a well renowned MNC. This time it's Ajay Banga (left), the turbaned Sikh, who also happens to be the younger brother of Unilever veteran Vindi Banga. Ajay, who like his brother walked the hallowed portals of IIM Ahmedabad, has a very different career graph compared to Vindi, but has eventually pipped him to the post in becoming a CEO.

It's well known that Vindi has spent all his career so far at Unilever, only to announce his decision to quit a few weeks back. He was in the running to be made the CEO of Unilever but lost out to Paul Polman, an ex-P&G strongman. Rumours are that Vindi was never comfortable at Unilever in the Polman era.

However, Ajay who started off at Nestle in 1981, has had stints in diverse MNCs like Pepsico and Citibank before eventually joining Mastercard last year. He has relocated to 10 different places in the last 25 years. 

I recently read an article which says that the elder sibling makes a better CEO material and is more likely to succeed in business than the younger one. The article points to the results of studies that show that first-borns have higher IQs. While both the Banga brothers are exceptional business leaders in their own right, it just seems incidental that Banga jr gets to sit at the top post earlier than Vindi.

Also, Vindi Banga was recently awarded the Padma Bhushan along with a host of other achievers and a certain Sant Singh Chatwal. While the issue of a hotelier being awarded the prestigious civilian honor has been discussed at length in the Indian press, all I wish to say is that there are other high-achieving Indians who deserve the honor, without getting overlooked. 

And I hope the Banga family would soon cheer for another of their illustrious sons receiving the coveted award from the President of India!

Inspiration Premier League?

There are a handful of geniuses in this world who are blessed with magical powers to innovate and achieve pathbreaking success. But the smart businessman is one who gets 'inspired' by these great innovators. Getting inspired (the insightful equivalent of blatant copying) at the right time and in the right way can reap huge rewards.

Think big money, and the first thing that comes to mind is the Indian Premier League (IPL). Is the IPL really an innovation as Lalit Modi and his 'cheerleaders' claim? A quick read of the book "IPL: Cricket & Commerce" by Alam Srinivas and T.R.Vivek would give you suitable answers. Lalit Modi was indeed inspired by the business model and marketing might of the NFL during his student days at the US. The manifestation of his keen observation of the American sports business scene has resulted in the Inspiration Premier League, errr.... IPL!

No wonder, Modi today benchmarks the IPL with the NFL and the NBA, and even goes on to say that the IPL will grow bigger than the NFL and the NBA. The bottomline: I hate to call Modi a genius, but he is undoubtedly a smart (Marwari) businessman.

Does the inspiration story end here................................ ? (more to follow in a later post)