Bangalore Mega-city and its Micro-cities: An Interview

Interview with Harish Bijoor

Brand-strategy specialist  &

CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.

1.     The city has many micro-markets such as Indiranagar, Jayanagar etc. What has led to these acquiring a distinct brand image of their own?

In the beginning there is the city. And then there are the micro-cities.  We live in urban agglomerations that are getting to be bigger and bigger in some ways, and smaller and smaller in other ways. Both these movements work together. Mega-cities happen by the fact that more and more people from all over gravitate to live in these mega-clusters, drawn to the magnet city. And micro-cities happen within them as a reaction to the fact that the mega-city has gotten just too big for liking.

Micro-cities are movements that are spontaneous. These are movements that occur when smaller localities get more and more self-sufficient. People who live in these localities want to travel out less and stay self-sufficient for all their wants, needs, desires and even aspirations. These smaller localities then offer the best of F and B options, the best of shopping locations and the best of entertainment options. When a locality becomes totally self-sufficient with the bank branch, the eating out ‘adda’ and the shopping destination, the micro city emerges. In many ways, a Koramangala, an Indiranagar, a Kamanahalli and a Jayanagar are classic examples of the micro-city.

 Micro-city is therefore a city within a city. A self-sufficient cluster, content on its own. Each of these clusters gradually acquire their own unique identity and brand image. Over a period of time, new settlers in the mega-city pick and choose their own micro-city to live in, depending on the dominant functionality and dominant imagery that each conveys.

2.     Some micro-markets such as the Outer Ring Road are prime office space markets. Do you see these turning into the city's prime business districts commanding a premium in the future? What is driving them?

Even as micro-cities emerge, specialty districts will emerge as well. These districts will be the Shopping District of Bangalore, and the Business District of Bangalore and more. For all you know the BIAL area will emerge as the Aviation District of Bangalore.

The Prime office space locations that have emerged on the ORR and the IRR for that matter, as well as the ones that will emerge on the road to the Kempegowda International Airport, will command a distinct imagery of their own. The more builders and their marketers invest in this generic brand building opportunity of developing district-imagery oriented districts, the more will it benefit their price appreciations.

Imagine the opportunity to develop the BIAL area as an “Aerocity” and the ORR as the “OfficeHub” of Bangalore. And maybe an area in Whitefield as the ‘EntertainmentDistrict” of Bangalore.

3.     What are the attributes that give a micro-market its brand image?

Focus is important. A keen yen to focus on a set of three unique attributes helps the branding process that much more.  Look at Koramangala. It offers the widest range of food and beverage options you can imagine, in mid-price range. In addition to what it offers, if one can focus on street-food and offer an entire street that goes “closed to traffic” on a Sunday, and open to the street-foodies of Bangalore, the brand identity will develop, slowly but surely.

Koramangala then gains a magnet status on Sundays. When you think food, you head to Koramangala. If it is a Sunday, you go Koramangala. These micro-cities then start competing with one another, offering distinct USPs that help position every micro-city as it emerges.

A mega-city will then become a sum of its whole.

4.     Is the city heading towards an agglomeration of micro-markets, each with its own distinct image?

 Yes it is. I have explained this in detail. Bangalore will aggregate at one end. More and more people will throng to Bangalore as it offers more and more jobs. Bangalore will attract people from all types of cities, towns and villages. As the mega-city emerges as an ‘opportunity-center’, people will throng to it. Bangalore the mega-city will then become bigger and bigger. This mega-city will be a mixed city. It will have people form every country, and people from every state in India. It will have urban folk rubbing shoulders with rural folk who have just entered it.

In the midst of all this aggregation, will occur dis-aggregation. The micro-city trend will ensure this. Economic groups will form as a function of rentals in these micro-cities will dictate who can afford to stay where as well.

5.     How does this phenomenon of almost each locality being a micro-market impact the image of the city as a corporate/investment destination? 

As an investment destination, the mega-city will not suffer. The city will continue to attract interest. In fact micro-cities will bring about a better governance structure as well. Ward-level governance will need to deepen and the city will be managed better with boroughs of micro-city interests pushing more and more of local self-governance.

Our villages have local-self-governance mechanisms with Panchayati Raj in place. Our cities need to replicate that through the Corporation Ward level management system. There needs to be a greater degree of autonomy in the management of these boroughs. The locals who live in these micro-cities need to decide how their budgets will be deployed and on what. Citizen-participation, as an adjunct, will need to deepen in these micro-city management systems.

6.     What sort of impact does the brand image of a micro-market have on its real estate prices?

An excellent and positive impact. Real-estate prices will go in tandem with the image of the micro-city. The more you invest in a micro-city image, the more you rake it in, in terms of real-estate prices. I would recommend every real-estate player in the city to invest in the ‘think’ towards the micro-city movement.

7.     Is there need to plan some brand management for the city now with a view to attract global investments?

There is surely a need. Unfortunately, when it comes to brand thinking for a city, everyone puts it on the back burner. In the bargain, the city writes for itself a self-fulfilling prophesy of mediocrity. And that’s precisely what’s happening in and to Bangalore.

Twitter @harishbijoor

Bangalore the Ideas City

Rodin In Cubbon Park

By Harish Bijoor

I live in Bangalore. I love Bangalore. But that’s not why I am saying what I am going to say right now.

I do believe, if New Delhi is the political capital of India, Mumbai the commercial and Kolkata the ‘kultural’, Bangalore is indeed the Intellectual capital of India.   We are a city of ideas. A city of thinking people who think the past with equal aplomb as we think the present and the future.

While most cities today are very besotted with the present, we straddle every aspect of the past, present and the future, in our own true-blue Bangalorean way. Never mind the fact that we live treadmill lives, like everyone in the bog cities does, but we get off at times as well. And that’s the time we think. And sometimes act.

Bangalore today is all of 87 lakh people living cheek to jowl with people from 25 different Indian states and some 39 nationalities that have made Bangalore India’s biggest expatriate island. Bangalore is therefore a true-blue amalgam city of sorts. We are the melting pot city in India, if there ever is to be one, where different cultures, tastes, and most importantly ideas mix, rub shoulders and blend. This then is an ideas-laboratory of sorts. A place where new things are thought out. A few ideas flourish and most die of course. In many ways an idea is a sperm. It lives like one and dies like one as well. Very few germinate.

Bangalore today is really an ideas city. It has been one for a while now. Only thing is we have not noticed enough of it, and not made enough of it as well. This is an innovative city. Innovative at every level. A city of entrepreneurs as well. A lot of credit for this entrepreneurship streak needs to be given to the lakhs of new settlers we have welcomed into this city from every part of India and the world at large.

Let’s first credit every land entrepreneur who came in from Andhra and indeed the immediate neighboring states around us. Lets credit every retailer, whether it be in the space of grocery ‘kirana’ or gold retail, many of whom came in from Kerala and again our very immediate neighbor states. I can go on listing out terrains that cover technology, ITES, IT-end to end services, Biotech, manufacturing, pharma and literally every other idea vertical that has made this city what it is. A city of ideas. A city that has encouraged idea start-ups from the realm of the humble Momo-cart to high end embedded systems that run nations and their many programs.

The basic DNA of this city, from the bottom end of the corner 'kirana' grocer to the top-end of the IT-preneur is a city that is led and bled by ideas.  Look around, and it is not difficult to spot an ‘ideapreneur’ on the prowl. This guy has been welcomed into the fold of this very accommodative city. Never mind where you are from, all are welcome. There is no jingoism here. If your idea is good, you will survive here. And thrive.

The ideas that run here are both small and big. Decades ago we started with Pub-entrepreneurships. The theme pub started in Bangalore really. A space pub called NASA, a car pub called Black Cadillac, and 485 other variants happened here. The food revolution is a reality in Bangalore today. Every food-entrepreneurship is an idea whose time has come. Koramangala today boasts of the highest density of restaurants per square kilometer in India for sure, with its 458 offerings. The Café started in Bangalore with VG Siddhartha’s Café Coffee Day, and now we have 2950 of them belonging to a myriad set of brands all over India. The IT end-to-end services enterprises happened here and sprouted, just as did the BPO outfits that litter our lives, From bottom end to top-end, this is surely an ideas city.

One downside though. The idea sperms are many, but few meet and mate the money that is needed to ramp up the humble idea. One wonders where the moneybags are burying their moneys. Let’s dig.

In a way, if I were to look for an image icon that would represent Bangalore for what it is, it would not be the Vidhana Soudha, which we use so profusely. Neither would it be the visual of the “Namma Metro”.

Instead, I would land up right in Paris, run into the Musee Rodin and fly out Auguste Rodin’s “The Thinker” and plant it out here right outside Cubbon Park! Sorry Parisians! This is the spanking new thinking city of the spanking new world. Bangalore!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harish Bijoor is a Brand-strategy specialist & CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.

Twitter @harishbijoor

Email: harishbijoor@hotmail.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Must Election Campaigns Be Banned?

Must Campaigns Be Banned Altogether

By Harish Bijoor

Have you noticed? Elections and the campaigns that accompany them are getting quieter and quieter. Even less exciting than the ones that preceded them. It’s a matter of perspective really. While the politician at large feels there is less excitement on the election campaign process itself, from the lay-voter point of view, there is that much more clarity and that much less noise that drowns out the real issues at large.

The Election Commission is to be thanked or blamed for it all. Again, depends on the perspective you come from. I would personally go all the way out and thank the guys at the EC who have made this happen over successive sets of elections. Progressively, over the years, more and more of these regulations have stepped in to halt the otherwise raucous tempo of electioneering and undue throw of money-power.

In the old days, think elections, and you thought noise and clutter. The process was truly un-regulated and therefore the election campaign at large was electoral pollution at its best. There was visual pollution and clutter all around in terms of posters, banners, streamers, buntings, Chennai-style cutouts and more. When you looked around, the election looked like a festival of democracy for sure. In this festival atmosphere however, there was little to distinguish and a lot to confuse. In many ways, the one who put up the most posters looked the biggest and the poor candidate with little or no money looked very small. Never mind the issues and philosophy he or she represented as an individual and minor party in the fray.

Add to this visual pollution,  noise pollution as well. Every place of every kind was used for electioneering. Schools, colleges, temples, churches and mosques were not left out of it as well. Music would blare right through into the wee hours of the morning disturbing schools, hospitals and the sleeping public at large. The election continued to be a festival of noise and sound. Auto-rickshaws with loudspeakers, taxis with folk singing songs and shouting into microphones and more. Remember?

Again, the one with more money to burn on the campaign was a better guy, at least in terms of his imagery in the constituency.

The campaign included more of course. And this part of it is still not as regulated as it can and must be. Biryani-dinners, cricket-clubs in villages with sponsored t-shirts and caps and prizes, mobilization of crowds, grocery-shop coupons to redeem, liquor-coupons to redeem and lots more to redeem, except respect.

The point I make is a simple one. Campaigns at large gobble up money. This money is of different colors: black, grey and white. The ‘black’ is spent in terms of hard cash that comes from God and the Devil knows where. The ‘grey’ money is all about benefactors who sponsor dinners and posters and taxis and helicopters and more, without coming to the fore of it all, and the ‘white’ is the Rs.16 lakhs a candidate is allowed to spend on a campaign.

Campaigns that consume money to 'influence' voters are an insult to the electorate. Why insult at all? Campaigns that consume money must be banned altogether. Why must so much money be spent to 'influence' voters?

Why must a voter be ‘influenced’ at all? Yes, a voter must be ‘informed’ but not ‘influenced’. The process of keeping a voter informed and aware can be well achieved by the EC itself. Why not ban campaigns altogether? Allow for only 1:1 contact programs of the candidate and the voter at large. No support campaigners even. Allow for television and radio debates with clearly allocated free slots for all candidates in the fray. Lessen the noise, and lessen the pollution further. Campaigns in many ways increase the clutter, are cost-intensive and confuse and confound.

Think again from the perspective of expenditure. None of us really believes that all a candidate in a constituency spends is as little as Rs. 16 lakhs on the campaign.  The truth lies somewhere in the number between Rs. 35.84 Crores on the Karnataka election and a number of Rs. 6000 Crores as touted by some.

Will we save a lot of time, energy, money and pollution of every kind if only campaigns are banned altogether? Touche!

Twitter @harishbijoor

Karnataka Elections 2013: 4 Parties and 4 Stories

Four Parties, Four Stories

By Harish Bijoor

As Karnataka wakes up to another summer of election discontent, the noise level in our lives is slated to go up by decibels in the weeks ahead of 5 May.  This noise is not just aural noise, but instead it is all about the clutter of the visual, the confused tonality of touch, the sense of mixed election smell and indeed the delicious taste of an election as well. Not to talk of the after-taste. Bitter or otherwise!

Elections, after all, are very sensorial processes. Sensorial processes that affect our sense of sight, the sense of smell, the sense of touch, the sense of sound, the sense of taste and indeed the sixth sense beyond that as well. The election ahead in the state of Karnataka is therefore an interesting one.

At this point of time, parties are yet to announce their candidates and their party manifestoes are still being cobbled and bound together. To that extent, the election ground of Karnataka is as pure as pure can be as of now. I am really talking about the mindsets of people and their dispositions to parties. The minds of people are yet to be influenced by the campaign that is just about to commence once the last date for withdrawal of nominations is upon us. To that extent, this is a lovely time to assess what each party has in store for itself in terms of imagery. Imagery cues that each party has accrued over the last five years, and in the case of one party, imagery cues that have accrued over the last three months.

I am going to paint a picture from the Brand Positioning perspective of the top four formations, in alphabetical order.

And before I do just that, a definition for a start. The Brand Position of a political party is really the exact pinpointed position a political party occupies in a voter’s mind at a given point of time, in relation to all other political parties that occupy that voters mind. To that extent, this brand position exploration is an as-is-as-of-now kind of an exploration. Do also remember that this position can change with time, change with campaigns, change with crises, and change with an act of God as well. The joy of political reality is change. Constant change that continues right up to the date of polling. And that’s why, none of us can call an election right. Never ever!

Let’s explore the brand positions and high ground occupied by the various parties in Karnataka as of now. Lets remember, every political party is a brand and its leaders are sub-brands that go to either embellish or rob the party of its deserving image. So here goes a quick paintbrush imagery of the four prominent formations that are assembled to face the electorate.

1.     BJP:
The Story So Far: A party in tumult. But then which party is not? The ‘nataka’ of Karnataka politics has bitten every one of them.  The BJP however has many bites to show though. A clear mandate to rule 5 years ago. A leader who rose from the grass roots in the guise of BS Yediyurappa. A good start. The politics of appeasement of groups. Rebellion. The Bellary brothers. Scams galore. Corruption issues that had the leader go to jail as well. And many Ministers as well. The challenger and the challenged all went to jail for sure. Forsaking the CM’s gaddi to a trusted name. The trusted name assumes his own in no time. A demand to change leadership. Resort politics. Brinksmanship. A new leader. But the same old issue. The leader assumes his own, this time causing for division within the Lingayat vote-bank itself. Brinksmanship again. And the leader who built the BJP in Karnataka, BSY, finally leaves the party to form his own. A quick variant of a name: The KJP. From “Bharatiya” to “Karnataka” Janata Party.

The Brand Imagery of the BJP: Corruption is a non-issue. Performance is. Voters strangely forgive corruption, but not a lack of performance. The BJP seen as a party that squandered the popular and solid mandate given to it, is an unforgiveable image the party has to tide over. This is the key explanation the communication format of the party needs to address in Karnataka.

2.     Congress:
The Story So Far: A party broken in form. While the party ruled the roost in the UPA coalition at the Centre, Karnataka remained a muddled dream of fishing in troubled waters. The efforts kept moving in a straight-line trajectory as any opposition party worth its salt would indulge in. The efforts, despite so many opportunities provided by the ruling party in the state, came close to snatch it all away from the BJP, but the party could never manage it really. A divided leadership in the State ensured that the party’s biggest competition was in-between its own leaders. This continued. Sadly, this continues to date, with the latest bickerings on ticket allocation catalyzing it all even more. Who is the real leader of the Congress party in the State then?  And “real” means real and unchallenged. Unchallenged in front of the leader, and more importantly unchallenged when the leader has turned his back to smoke a cigarette.

The Brand Imagery of the Congress: The party is fighting with itself. The party has a near sure shot chance at governance. The party has however not got its act together. The party is seen to be secular. The party leaders seem to exhibit ability, but the missing element is a common weal and a common driver who all will respect, before, during and more importantly after the elections. This is the key communication the party needs to address. Manifesto apart, leadership needs to be defined.  Announce Siddaramiah as the CM in waiting and sort it all out then? Or will it? Or will an old war-horse of the party in Karnataka need be invited back?

3.     JDS:
The Story So Far: A party that is intermittently awake and intermittently asleep. Are there two parties really, or one? Is there a party in North Karnataka and one in the Bangalore-Mysore region? Kumaranna’s work has been appreciated in the past at the ground level. But has Kumaranna lost out being center-stage for long? Public memory is proverbially short. The party’s stand on the Cauvery and Krishna waters issue has been a point of appreciation in the farmer community. That’s a plus. Is the JDS a party that is family led and family managed? And has this put off a lot of leaders who have deserted it over the last 5 years?

The Brand Imagery of the JDS: Confused as of now. The party needs to address key issues in the eye and has to move much beyond its trajectory of talking about the farmer at large. Rapid urbanization is a reality and the party needs to address these issues that relate to infrastructure, education and more, rather clearly and with cogent purpose. And just water politics may not do.

4.     The KJP:

The Story So Far: A new born led by an old war-horse. BSY is possibly the only leader in the pantheon of leaders around, who can be seen to be a real grass-roots leader capable of rousing the troops into action. The pity however is that the troops are just being assembled, and some of his key confidantes still sit across the party lines in the BJP, waiting to be rejected a ticket to defect. This delay might prove to be just too costly.

The Brand Imagery of the KJP: Nascent and just forming. The party needs to assemble its troops together fast. The key communication piece it needs to address is the fact that many a voter will think voting for the KJP is a waste of a vote. The typical hurdle the best of independent candidates face in elections, where voters want to vote for you, but don’t as they want a winner and not a loser to be the beneficiary of their valuable vote, faces the KJP as well. This is a big communication task.

Over to the election campaign then. Let’s see who says what?

Twitter @harishbijoor

Why We Must Must Vote!

Why Vote?

By Harish Bijoor

“Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.”

-Abraham Lincoln

This classic Abraham Lincoln quote says it all. The language is the polite and civilized  language  of the  1860’s, but you and I can well imagine what it would sound like, and how rude it would all appear if translated into the lingo of my young daughter and your young son today, circa 2013.

Lincoln packs a mean punch. And this punch is the ultimate answer to the question: Why Vote?

I am going to attempt to add seven more to that. But then, any piece written on the need to vote is seldom read and flossed over cynically. Therefore, allow me to embellish some sets of key thoughts with ‘desi-filmi’ titles that might just make you read this. And more importantly, take heed and act on it, when voting day dawns.

1.     ‘Sahib, Biwi Aur Gangster Returns’: We get the leaders we deserve. When Sravanthi Khan decides to take off to Ooty for a short two day trip on voting day with her family of 5, clubbing the Saturday to voting day (which many are likely to do), she does disservice to herself and her entire family. She gets the type of leaders she deserves. She didn’t vote, but she still gets what she deserves. A leader elected on the merit of her non-vote. A society really gets what it deserves. You and I get leaders we deserve. When we do not vote, we write a self-fulfilling prophesy of being governed by a leadership in place without the consent of our vote.

2.     ‘Dhamaal’: The vote is a source of power. Use it. It just might be the only source of power any of us have. We elect the people who make the laws. We elect the mechanism of governance we get. Have a say in it. Do not give up this source of power. It’s our only one.

3.     ‘Kaminey’: A vote is an opinion. Express it. A powerful opinion really. When you and I vote, we really express both positive and negative. We express our anguish and we equally express our hope for a better society and governance structure. In the one choice we make when we vote, we pack a lot. We pack our hope and anguish equally on issues that relate to education, health, society, safety, governance, corruption, and a myriad other things that affect us. And this chance comes once in 5 years. Normally. And what you and I have felt for these 5 years that have gone by gets bottled up in the one vote we cast. Is this not a heavy one? And is this not reason enough to vote?

4.     ‘Zindagi Na Milega Dobara’: The vote gives you a right to participate and demand. A lot of us are ready to talk the talk, but not necessarily walk the talk. When we vote, we really walk the talk. We stop being what Lincoln would have politely phrased to be bull-defecators!  I really don’t have the right to demand when I have not voted. I really don’t have the right to criticize, when I have not voted. Do you want these rights at all?

5.     ‘Son of Sardar’: We don’t vote for ourselves; we vote for our children really. To those of us with children, when you and I vote, we vote for our children even. We vote for our children who are not of voting age as yet. To an extent every vote we cast represents the positive intent we express for our children. It is therefore right that we vote, if at all not to disappoint and abrogate the aspirations of our children.

6.     ‘Bodyguard’: Education is meant to be a safe-guard of democracy. Really? Those of us who are educated and do not vote, somehow seem to make this statement seem all wrong! What’s the point of being educated, if we don’t exercise our educated franchise on that one day in 5 years? Have you realized that election outcomes are really controlled by those who step out of their homes to vote? Why would you or I abdicate this joy?

7.     ‘Qurbaan’: Your vote need not result in a winner. And lastly, there are people who really think that you always want to vote for a winner in the election. Let’s realize this is not a lottery. This is much more serious. Never mind that the candidate you and I vote for has lost. We have made a point. And every vote in the kitty of the losing candidate is a point made volubly.

Let’s not take off on that nice Sunday outing before we cast that vote on Sunday the 5^{th of} May then!

Twitter.com @harishbijoor

Bangalore and I

Being Bangalore

Harish Bijoor

Bangalore means a lot to me. If I am asked to name one thing that excites me about Bangalore, that’s a difficult one. To me Bangalore is a ‘bisibele baath’! And I love Bisibele bath! My favorite vegetarian dish. It is so much like Bangalore. An amalgam of this and that.  A mixture of cultures, a mixture of people from all over India. A mixture of nationalities, with us housing the single largest population of expatriates in India. A mixture of tastes, a mixture of textures even. A veritable delight to the city palate at large.

Do I love this city? I do. I owe everything to it. My education, my life, my career, my friends, my relationships and most importantly my entire being. There is a state of mind called ‘Being Bangalore’. And I think I embody all of this, as many of us in this city do. ‘Swalpa adjust maadi’. And we do a lot of it.  I have done a lot of it as well.

My earliest memories of Bangalore as a kid are that of walking in good old Lalbagh, playing around, getting hungry and then being taken by my parents to good old MTR, where I would gourmandize on rava idlis, and those small little ‘gindlas’ (katoris) of pure ghee that added a taste of its own to the idli at large.

If I think later, my favorite place was the State Central Library in Cubbon Park. That stately little red building. To me this symbolized the one space of all reading and learning. I don’t know why, but I spent thousands of man-hours here. Reading the magazines and newspapers within its confines, and reading books within its confines as well.  Those days one could not afford to buy all the magazines and newspapers one wanted to read, and so, this was my daily haunt, visited religiously every day whenever I got the time (and there was so much of it in abundance then). I would cycle there every day from my home on Victoria Road on my reliable old blue BSA cycle and get back in time to be very hungry at home. Moving around took so little time, that one had all the time to focus on the real thing.  Reading and eating in my case. Two passions that I still hold on to.

And then there is my college. St. Joseph’s Arts & Science. I remember being more out of class than in. I was into every extra-curricular activity there was to handle.  I was in so many of them that I had little time for the curricular activities altogether. My favorite memory was that of an inter-collegiate magazine a few of us started called “Scribe”. We had St. Joseph’s Arts and Science, St. Joseph’s Commerce, Christ College, and of course the more exciting Mount Carmel College and Jyoti Nivas College onto it. We had representatives from each of these colleges on the Editorial Board, and all of us poured passion into it. Passion and time. This was the earliest business and consumer-touch venture that helped all of us hone our early and latent instincts for business and writing and communicating alike.

I can go on and on. Memories are such. “Being Bangalore” has been an experience to cherish and preserve.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

harishbijoor@hotmail.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Bangalore Real-estate market

5 Reasons I am positive about India and Bangalore

By Harish Bijoor

The real-estate market of any city is a sub-set of the environment in the State it belongs to. And that is a sub-set of the country and its many policies, progressive or otherwise. Add to it the fact that the world is for sure a connected place today, and therefore there is a bigger environment that governs real-estate prices and practice, and that is the environment across the world at large.

Real estate is however all about geography that is real. It is about physical spaces that are about land, buildings, gated communities and more. To that extent, it is a physicality. A physicality that is very dependent more on the local than the global. To that extent, while the stock market of a country is all about being umbilically linked to the sneezes and joys of the world at large, the physical real-estate market is that much more local than global. And thankfully so.

In the world of real-estate, the further you move away in concentric circles from the local to the global, factors that affect the price point of real-estate get that much more insulated from the factors that surround. To that extent, the point I am making is a simple one. When you look at real estate, don’t fret and fume as to what is happening in Greece. Don’t worry that Nicolas Sarkozy has been replaced by Francois Hollande. Just don’t worry that you will not see Carla-Bruni Sarkozy that much in the news anymore. Just worry more about factors that are immediate and adjunct to the area of your investment. If you are planning an investment in Bangalore, worry more about what is happening to the governance structure in the real estate market, worry about jobs in the eco-system that throws up investors in the Bangalore real-estate market, worry about laws and rules that are in force and ones that will be enforced later than sooner. But worry about nothing more than that.

5 reasons why I am excited about Bangalore and India then, in that order:

1.     The aggressively young population

Bangalore boasts of a young population. While 54% of the population of the country is below the age of 25, Bangalore boasts of 63.6% below the age of 25.  A younger city means a hungry city. A city hungry for achievement, hungry for jobs, and most certainly hungry enough to invest in land and more. This young profile of the city is un-enviable. The only other city that comes close is Pune on this count. Young cities are hungry cities and hungry cities are investment friendly cities.

The downside of a young city is the fact that pressures to perform abound that much more in younger cities. Younger cities are high-tensile cities. No wonder then that Bangalore and Pune have emerged to be the suicide capitals of India as well. Sad fact.

2.     Spends and patterns of splurge in the TOP and MOP

The second reason why cities such as Bangalore are exciting places for the real-estate market for first buys, re-sales and repeat buys, is the fact that the splurge quotient of cities such as Bangalore is very high. The city is a polemical factoid. While Bangalore boasts of  10,600  Dollar millionaires at one end, at the other end, it also hosts large populaces of those living on the fringe of a hand-to-mouth existence. The real-estate market, sadly, depends on what the Top-of-pyramid (TOP) and Middle-of-pyramid (MOP) folk have to contribute to the kitty.

When you look at the spend patterns of the TOP and MOP profile, one witnesses no gloom at all. The splurge quotient is high on products and services alike. Super-market carts are still laden full with products that do not necessarily represent the best value-buys. The number of spas in Bangalore has grown from a measly 6 in 2001 to 121 in 2012. The number of beauty parlors has grown from a mere 107 in 2001 to 1220 in 2012. I do not have a comparative number for restaurants, but if you just look around, you don’t need numbers to tell you the story.

And every one of them is raking in the ‘moolah’. The point is a simple one. Never mind the fact that Greece is in trouble. Never mind that Europe is in shambles. Never mind that the Japanese economy is slated to de-grow at 0.6% p.a, in GDP terms. Just never mind. Look around and you will sniff prosperity and spends in your local TOP and MOP markets. Sadly or happily, the real estate market depends on its future on this market.

3.     The eastern investment mindset, and the shift from metal to land

This is a quick and happy one. Indians at large are very highly investment geared and investment oriented. The old mindset of investment was gold. This has held families in good stead over the years, particularly with gold prices ruling at an all time high as of today. This investment mindset has gradually shifted in the country from gold to land and dwelling units. The first things everyone wants to do, even before buying a Life cover in an Insurance policy, is to own a house or a piece of land. This has spurred and will continue to spur demand. Real-estate investment apathy has not set in as yet. It looks far way for now.

4.     The poised Next-gen ahead

The next generation is a very highly educated generation. Parents of the current generation have spent their lives working hard to educate their children and get them the best in terms of a qualification to earn more than they have earned. This is a good sign for the economy at large. This means the children of tomorrow will earn higher multiples than their parents did, net of inflation. This means there will be more money to invest. This is a trend that is quite unlike what we see in markets of the United States, where new generations are lesser equipped at large in terms of qualification and earning potential.

5.     Bangalore as a magnet city

The city despite all the ills we bemoan, is still a magnet city. We host mixed nationalities. We remain a secular city with secular intent. We are largely peaceful. We seldom fight. We might watch porn in the assembly, we might huddle our MLAs time and again in close-by resorts, we might clamor for free IPL tickets, but essentially we are a nice people living in a nice city. The city will still remain a magnet city. And that’s a big one for real-estate investments.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harish Bijoor is a brand-expert and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.

Follow him on Twitter.com @harishbijoor

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brand Bangalore in the Future....

Brand Bangalore: A Fantasy

By Harish Bijoor

Q: You and I live in the same city. How do you see our cities change over the years? What is your fantasy for Brand Bangalore?

-Revathi V, Bangalore or Bengaluru (still confused)

A: Dear still-confused Revathi, the city of the future is more virtual and less real. A lot of us will be spending more time in a life that is virtual, rather than real. A few of my personal fantasies on Brand Bangalore of the future:

1. We will finally have a new name. We will officially be "Bengaluru". Never mind the fact that Mayawati-ji's BSP, which will be the ruling party in the state by then (thanks to the lack of an alternative) will want to re-name the city into something else altogether by then. The re-naming debate is a forever one.

2. Future Bangalore is a different city altogether. We are going to be a Lasagne city if you look at us top-down. We are going to be a layered-roads city. Roads at different levels that help make the commute that much more bearable. Bangalore has been the first to experiment with roads made of recycled-plastic. We will have more of these. Our pot-holes (they will still be around) will be filled with this plastic no sooner than they appear. Silicon will find a more functional use in our roads than in our cosmetic surgery parlors as of today.

3. Commuting from one end of the city to another will take no longer than 32-minutes. This is going to be true at-least across those stretches connected by "Namma metro", our own city lifeline. A fair number of our city-techies will work from the Metro, thanks to its superior ambiance than the one at the noisy home. Eight up and down journeys on the train, and the code is written, tested, packed and dispatched to the Project Manager. Time to get back home.

4. Bangalore will have the first Pod-hotel. A hotel room in a pullout drawer of sort’s establishment. A see-through pod-room equipped with the best. Just one thing will be at a premium: size. Expect every Pod hotel to be fitted into a 2400 sq foot space. A 40-room hotel. The creative one's will call it the "Coffin hotel".

5. Night-life in Bangalore would have gotten a bit too noisy. In any case our Excise rules do not permit drinking and dancing in public places. You will therefore have the pure drinking places and the pure dancing places. No transgressing here. You decide. Most of our nightlife places will be "No-noise" places even. Wear a Wi-fi headphone and dance the night away. No noise anywhere, except in your ears. Anyone looking at you will think you to be the lunatic you are. Imagine strobe lights, lasers and a silent party in full swing. The cops are happy. The dancers are happy. Bangalore has found its own creative solution to the party-angst at large.

6. Bangalore will be more virtual than virtual. The largest number of tablet-PC's will be in Bangalore. The city will be the capital of the touch-enabled device.  We Bangalroeans will live more virtual lives than real. The largest number of Facebook users will be from Bangalore. We will make all our friends and enemies on FB. The largest numbers of Google+ users will be from Bangalore. A record number of circles with the most innovative names will happen from here. Lady Gaga move over. The largest number of Twitter followers will follow @harishbijoor.  Touche!

Q: The snack-food category is on the fast track. What’s next here? Is there a market overseas for the Indian snack-food?

-Rajesh Thevar, Mumbai

A: Rajesh, I do believe the snack-food category out of India can go places if it sticks to the knitting. Investing deeply into the health platform without tampering taste and the fun of the snack environment it lives in, is a must. If it is able to do this, it will thrive.

The snack-food category is a forever category. As India and its brand image grows, Indian snack-foods and foods and beverages will grow in franchise globally. A great way of understanding a country is by tasting its food and snack. While food is difficult to access and is difficult to prepare in any condition, snack-food that is packaged is easily accessible and is easy to transport and easy to find on the retail shelves overseas. In many way, every pack of a Haldiram’s ‘bhujiya’ that is opened in Norway or Sweden or in Cincinnati, is taking a piece of India out there. Food imperialism at play.

As interest in India grows, interest in Indian foods will grow as well. Food diplomacy and its time has come. Indian packaged foods have a lot to gain.

Q: Baba Ramdev has not been able to make much of a success with his political entry. Despite all his popularity, why this?

-BB Joshipura, Lucknow

A: Joshipura-ji, Baba Ramdev is respected as a Yoga Guru. As a person who has brought healing for a whole lot of people. Transcribing and super-imposing the same equity onto the realm of political activism is a long-haul task, and could be a mistake as well.

What works in one realm does not work in another. That is the sensitivity of branding that people need to understand. One cannot assume all popularity is divisible and that all popularity can be appropriated equally, once had.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harish Bijoor is a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.

Email: harishbijoor@hotmail.com

Being Bangalore

Being Bangalore


Harish Bijoor
Bangalore means a lot to me. If I am asked to name one thing that excites me about Bangalore, that’s a difficult one. To me Bangalore is a ‘bisibele baath’! And I love Bisibele bath! My favorite vegetarian dish. It is so much like Bangalore. An amalgam of this and that. A mixture of cultures, a mixture of people from all over India. A mixture of nationalities, with us housing the single largest population of expatriates in India. A mixture of tastes, a mixture of textures even. A veritable delight to the city palate at large.

Do I love this city? I do. I owe everything to it. My education, my life, my career, my friends, my relationships and most importantly my entire being. There is a state of mind called ‘Being Bangalore’. And I think I embody all of this, as many of us in this city do. ‘Swalpa adjust maadi’. And we do a lot of it. I have done a lot of it as well.

My earliest memories of Bangalore as a kid are that of walking in good old Lalbagh, playing around, getting hungry and then being taken by my parents to good old MTR, where I would gourmandize on rava idlis, and those small little ‘gindlas’ (katoris) of pure ghee that added a taste of its own to the idli at large.

If I think later, my favorite place was the State Central Library in Cubbon Park. That stately little red building. To me this symbolized the one space of all reading and learning. I don’t know why, but I spent thousands of man-hours here. Reading the magazines and newspapers within its confines, and reading books within its confines as well. Those days one could not afford to buy all the magazines and newspapers one wanted to read, and so, this was my daily haunt, visited religiously every day whenever I got the time (and there was so much of it in abundance then). I would cycle there every day from my home on Victoria Road on my reliable old blue BSA cycle and get back in time to be very hungry at home. Moving around took so little time, that one had all the time to focus on the real thing. Reading and eating in my case. Two passions that I still hold on to.
And then there is my college. St. Joseph’s Arts & Science. I remember being more out of class than in. I was into every extra-curricular activity there was to handle. I was in so many of them that I had little time for the curricular activities altogether. My favorite memory was that of an inter-collegiate magazine a few of us started called “Scribe”. We had St. Joseph’s Arts and Science, St. Joseph’s Commerce, Christ College, and of course the more exciting Mount Carmel College and Jyoti Nivas College onto it. We had representatives from each of these colleges on the Editorial Board, and all of us poured passion into it. Passion and time. This was the earliest business and consumer-touch venture that helped all of us hone our early and latent instincts for business and writing and communicating alike.

I can go on and on. Memories are such. “Being Bangalore” has been an experience to cherish and preserve.

Email: harihsbijoor@hotmail.com

Karnataka Global Investors Meet Imperatives Ahead

3rd June Congratulations Mr.Yediyurappa


By Harish Bijoor


As the Global Investors Meet (GIM) kicks off in Karnataka today, the BS Yediyurappa government in the State, which has just about entered its third year at the helm of affairs, has fired its first serious salvo of development for the state. The GIM in many ways is the first big organized bid by the State to attract investors to a State that has everything to offer to the serious investor. Well, almost everything, except Power. But then the flip side of that statement is that Power sector investment is also an opportunity in itself for the serious investor.

The Yediyurappa government that came to Power 2 years ago has had serious issues at its doorsteps to date. Like a true-blue Sandalwood film unrolling itself, it has had a lot of drama. The euphoria of victory, the throes of division of power through the various ministries, two successive budgets that had Ministers clamoring for more in terms of expenditure limits, depending how much political clout they brought to the party. Ministries such as the Tourism Ministry, oft ignored and pushed into a corner of the budget, benefited for sure out of this. By reasons of default, rather than by reasons of conscious planning.

And then there was deceit and dissension to boot. A performing minister such as Shobha Karandalije had to leave the Ministry, thanks to egos at play. Nature had its play. Severe floods at one end that disrupted thousands of lives, and a severe drought at the other that had the government pushed onto the brink on its promise of the Rs. 2 per kg rice scheme. And amidst it all, the only missing element has been ACTION. It has had plenty of lights, lots of camera. But not too much action to date.
There was off-screen action though. There were bad-words in plenty, mouthed against a Chief Minister in front of television channels waiting to unfold it all. There were patch-ups cobbled together in Delhi. There were euphoric patch-up returns played out at the BIAL.

Amidst all the ‘nataka’ we have witnessed thus far, Karnataka and the BSY government in the State has fired the first serious salvo of good intent, backed by good planning through the GIM kicking off today. Hopefully thousands of serious investors will throng the show, and by the end of the 4th of June, 2010, we will know for sure how the event converted into serious bucks of investments. The MOU’s and their value (whether it be 4 lakh Crore INR or more or less), and more importantly the very many verticals that will receive investor interest will define the path of development the State will traverse over the next decade.
Every vertical of value and significance has been targeted, be it aerospace, biotech, pharma, Services, auto, infrastructure, power, food processing, health, education and more.
I do believe this festival of investment organized by the BSY government in the State is the first serious investment oriented foray launched in a State that deserves this and more. To that extent, the BSY government in the State earns its first positive spur of serious intent towards the development of the State.

Karnataka will move ahead basis the MOU’s signed. If we sign a 4 lakh crore INR set of MOU’s, conversion of this into actual projects, and on time as committed, is going to be a serious issue to tackle in the future. It is important for the government to set up a single-point nodal body that does serious follow-up on each investment oriented MOU. Investment-intent as exhibited in MOU’s need to convert to serious action plans cleared as projects by the State government. These need to be backed by loans as lined up by the plethora of banks that are keen participants in this 'mela'. And that needs to convert into actual on-ground action with the several projects being set up all over the state.

This nodal body needs to be empowered with action-parameters that help rather than hinder. The GIM is a terrific piece of proactive Karnataka-oriented development action. Let’ remember, this is just the beginning. From intent to plan to action to fulfillment is a long phase of dedicated work a lot of our bureaucrats need to get involved in. The game in many ways has just begun.

If good work results out of it all, and if investment intent translates into ground-level action, and if completed projects result in jobs and resultant prosperity, it can all only reflect in positive votes for the BJP government by the time we get to elections. Development is always a positive vote. And a well deserved one.

This is one big opportunity for Mr. BSY to emerge as a Statesman-planner of the State of Karnataka. The planning effort is excellent. It is important to witness the same degree of efficiency and follow-up action in terms of fast-tracking intent and implementing it all. And with pace.

Congratulations Mr.Yediyurappa! May the force be with you!

The author is a business-strategy specialist & CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.
Email: harishbijoor@hotmail.com

Prosperous Cities

On-street Value


By Harish Bijoor

How rich and prosperous is a city? Is there a quick measure and metric for this one?
Is a city defined to be prosperous basis the number of cars its citizens buy? Or by the ownership pattern of homes? Or by the investment profiles represented by the stash in their banks as cash or in their lockers as paper securities and gold on hand?
Having spent a fair bit of time with macro-economic data that talks of prosperity indices that are complex and aggregated to a country, I have been in the quest for a measure that is true-blue micro, true-blue representative and true-blue comparable across cities and economies, never mind the color of their politics.

Being as rustic as I am, I have always wanted to get at it simply rather than look at complex numbers that boggle more than answer right. One measure that serves me right and serves me well, particularly after using it across cities in India (21 to date), and across cities from some 17 countries (Eastern Bloc cities included), the On-street value method is a great way to go.

What does this method do? It very simply looks at the on-street value of the citizens of a city and does a quick valuation of the various commodity items and brands carried on the persona of an individual on the street.









Take for instance Bengaluru. Hit the street and pick a whole cross-section of people off the street for an assessment. Pick from bottom to top. Pick up an auto rickshaw driver, a bus conductor, a newspaper hawker, the driver of a BPO van, the cook at a local dhabha, the pan-wallah at the street corner, the BPO employee in a hurry either to or from office, the Tech-worker from an end-to-end services enterprise, the bank clerk, the tinker, the tailor, the teacher and more.

Having picked sets of people who truly represent a city, run a clear and clean audit on what he or she is wearing, carrying and with. Let me look at two possibilities we have explored.

Look at the tailor and the techie for a start. The tailor has on him a shirt, which is stitched by him. Check the cost of garment and put a notional stitching cost to that. Add to it the price of vest and every other under-garment he is wearing. In most cases, the under-garments are aggressively branded items and the over-garment is not. Put a price tag to everything.

Look at the watch he is wearing and the purse she is carrying. The mobile phone, the blue-tooth device, and more. The contents of the purse, every one of them, lipstick, mascara, comb and every one of the 26 other items that adorn a woman’s handbag. The cost of the slippers, the belt, every earring, every accessory and right upto the point of assessing the value of the brand of perfume sprinkled onto her. Add the gold and silver ornaments on the persona as well. The cost of the 'Janivaara' (sacred thread) as well. God is in the details of this assessment.

Having done this basic exercise across every one of them, do it across every city. Do it across countries and you have a benchmark that tells a rich story. A story that is both gory and dark as well as bright and prosperous.






Is Chennai more prosperous than Bangalore? And is Delhi equally as prosperous as is Istanbul? The answers are blowing in the winds of such a study.
Some quick data points then for Bangalore.

The average on-street value of a techie on the street of Bangalore is INR 87,500 when on the way to work. At a weekend his value dips to 31,450, as he is without his trusted laptop on shoulder.

The average on-street value of an auto rickshaw driver in Bangalore is INR 12,100. And this is nearly three times more than the on-street value of a black and yellow taxi-driver in Mumbai.

The average on-street value of a BPO employee in Bangalore is INR 13,700, not too far from the on-street value of the auto rickshaw driver he employed to ferry him around.

The data goes on and on in the impact-throw of prosperity and flaunt value of the man and woman on the street.

A great way to check, compare, collate and literally run on a quarter to quarter basis as well to see a change in trend, if any. A rustic route to market. A rustic route to understanding cities and consumers who live and thrive in them as well.

We have just emerged from a study of some 7970 such on-street people from all walks of life. A study that looks at 38 cities across 18 countries. A study that is rich and compelling and a study that can get richer by the day.

Reading a city off its streets is a rich and satisfying way to go.
The author is a brand-strategy specialist & CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.
Email: ceo@harishbijoorconsults.com