The Hindu Business Line : Fo(u)rget mantras

THE Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) - Southern Region has organised a two-day conference on marketing in global India - The Marketing Mystique, which commenced here on Thursday.

Delivering the keynote address, Dr Y. L. R. Moorthi, Professor (Marketing), Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore elaborated on the four `forgets' to move forward in a competitive environment. He called upon the participants to `forget competition' in the first place and believe that they were competing with themselves.

According to him, the so-called ISO certifications existed only in name and did not necessarily get the company move up in performance. Citing a number of examples of how the renowned players such as Toshiba, Canon and a number of others fought their way to emerge as world leaders, Dr Moorthi said "incidentally, not all good companies are foreign." Many are Indian companies, he said before adding "though much has been said about the Indian software services and outsourcing opportunities in India, this is just one side. There is a lot of action without much noise on the other side."

"One thing you must remember, however, is to make your own product obsolete before your competitors make them," he said and reminded them to "forget price premium" in the second place. "We are heading from cost-lead price to price-lead cost."

The third rule according to him was in `forgetting the past'. The past is not a guide to the future, he said, but stated that one could recall the pleasant memories of the past and leave it at that.

The fourth and final rule would be in `forgetting the rules' itself. "Think differently, work around the rule and change the game," he said.

When a participant raised a query on the ethics of such a game play, Dr. Moorthi said "what is ethical for you may not be true for me."