Shailesh J.

Mehta School of Management

IIT Bombay

COMPENDIUM
Admissions 2023-25
 INDEX

• FINESSE – Finance Club……………………………………….....……….. 2

• CONSIG – The Consulting Club………………………………….………. 13

• ECONOMICUS - The Economics Club…………………….…………….. 27

• HUMANe – The HR Club………………………………………….……... 44

• MARKTRIX - Marketing Club……………………………………….…... 52

• OPERA – The Operations Club…………………………………………... 70

• PRODIGY – The ProdMan Club…………………………………..……... 99

• SYSTEMATICS – The Systems and Analytics Club…………………… 110

• E CLUB – The Entrepreneurship Club…………………….……………. 133

• Annual Budget 2023-24…………………………….…………………… 138

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 FINESSE – Finance Club

What is Finance?

Finance is a branch of economics, a science that studies the management of funds (money and other assets).
More specifically, through financial analysis, decisions and actions can be taken regarding the collection
and use of those funds towards fulfilling the objectives of an organization or individual.

Finance affects every area of business. Financial information is pivotal to the strategic decisions
organizations make to improve profitability. Finance generally involves activities such as investing,
borrowing, lending, budgeting, saving, and forecasting intending to guide organizations through short and
long-term planning and deal with uncertainty.

Understanding finance is critical for making informed decisions at all levels of business and is hence crucial
for corporate success.

Careers in Finance?

The study of finance is relevant to a wide range of occupations. Finance majors typically embark on careers
in corporate finance, risk management, investments, insurance, real estate, banking, or financial planning.

Investment Banker
They provide a range of financial services to companies, institutions and governments. They manage
corporate, strategic and financial opportunities. Investment bankers also advise and lead management
buyouts, raise capital, provide strategic advice to clients and identify and secure deals.

Risk Managers
Risk managers or analysts specialize in identifying potential causes of accidents or loss, recommending and
implementing preventive measure and devising plans to minimize costs and damage should a loss occur,

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including the purchase of insurance. They identify exposures, recommend solutions, promote loss
prevention, update and monitor compliance with insurance procedure.

Corporate Treasurer
They are responsible for determining financial strategy and policy, advising on what businesses to invest
in, arranging appropriate funds and ensure the company has the cash and liquidity to meet its obligations,
involving raising funds from banks

Equity Research Analyst

Studies and analyses financial information and trends for an organization or industry by monitoring trends
and supervising research. They review stocks, bonds, and other financial instruments and write an unbiased
equity research report and recommend what stocks investors should buy and sell

Fund Manager
They are responsible for managing the Asset Under management which is contributed by the heavy amount
of investment in equity and debt market. They conduct quantitative and qualitative analysis using databases
and monitoring regulatory information to provide consulting to their clients who may be institutional or
individual

Regulators and Key anecdotes:

Reserve Bank of India

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is the central bank of the country which has the responsibility of administering
the monetary policy. Its key concern is to ensure the adequate growth of money supply in the economy so
that economic growth and financial transactions are facilitated, but not so rapidly which may precipitate
inflationary trends.

Securities and Exchange Board of India

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is the regulatory authority for the securities market in India.
SEBI was established under Section 3 of SEBI Act, 1992 under an act of Parliament. SEBI’s primary role
is to protect the interest of the investors in securities and to promote the development of and to regulate the

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securities market, by measures it thinks fit. SEBI’s regulatory jurisdiction extends over corporates in the
issuance of capital and transfer of securities, in addition to all intermediaries and persons associated with
the securities market. It can conduct enquiries, audits and inspection of all concerned and adjudicate
offences under the Act. It has powers to register and regulate all market intermediaries and also to penalize
them in case of violations of the provisions of the Act, Rules and Regulations made there under. SEBI has
full autonomy and authority to regulate and develop an orderly securities market.

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI)

IRDAI regulates the insurance sector in India in accordance with the terms of the IRDA Act, 1999. IRDAI
is the licensing authority for insurance companies and defines the capital and net worth requirements for
insurance companies. IRDAI’s mission is to regulate, promote and ensure orderly growth of the insurance
sector, including the re-insurance business, while ensuring protection of the interest of insurance
policyholders.

Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA)

The PFRDA is the authority entrusted to act as a regulator of the pension sector in India under the PFRDA
Act, 2013. It was constituted in October 2003 with the following responsibilities: (a) To promote old age
income security by establishing, developing and regulating pension funds, (b) To protect the interests of
subscribers to schemes of pension funds and related matters.

Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI)

IBBI, established under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016, is the regulator for overseeing
insolvency process as well as the insolvency professionals. It has regulatory oversight over insolvency
professionals, insolvency professional entities and insolvency professional agencies.

Securities
Securities are transferrable financial instruments or contracts that show evidence of indebtedness or
ownership interest in assets of an incorporated entity. These include equity shares, preference shares,
debentures, bonds and other such instruments. These are issued by companies, financial institutions or the
government. They are purchased by investors who have money to invest.

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Equity Shares
There are many financial instruments issued in the market, each with distinct risk and return characteristics
that define its suitability for an investor.

Debentures/Bonds/Notes
Debentures/Bonds/Notes are instruments for raising long term debt. Debentures are either unsecured or
secured (backed by collateral support) in nature. There are variety of debentures/bonds such as fully
convertible, non-convertible and partly convertible debentures.

Indices
A market index tracks the market movement by using the prices of a small number of shares chosen as a
representative sample. Most leading indices are weighted by market capitalisation to take into account the
fact that more the number of shares issued, greater the number of portfolios in which they may be held.
Stocks included in an index are also quite liquid, making it possible for investors to replicate the index at a
low cost.

The most widely tracked indices in India are the NSE’s Nifty 50, S&P BSE Sensex and MSEI’s SX40. The
S&P Sensex has been computed as the market cap weighted index of 30 chosen stocks on the BSE. The
SX40 is composed of 40 most representative stocks listed on Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India Ltd
(MSEIL) and the Nifty 50 is composed of 50 most representative stocks listed on the National Stock
Exchange. The shares included in these indices are chosen based on factors such as liquidity, availability
of floating stock and size of market capitalization.

Some of the other common indices in India are listed below:

• Nifty Next 50
• Nifty 100
• Nifty 500
• S&P BSE 100
• S&P BSE 500
• S&P BSE MidCap
• S&P BSE SmallCap

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Mutual Fund Units

Mutual Funds (MFs) are investment vehicles that pool together the money contributed by investors, which
the fund invests in a portfolio of securities that reflect the common investment objectives of the investors.
Each investor’s share is represented by the units issued by the fund. The value of the units, called the Net
Asset Value (NAV), changes continuously to reflect changes in the value of the portfolio held by the fund.

MF schemes can be classified as open-ended or close-ended. An open-ended scheme offers the investors
an option to buy units from the fund at any time and sell the units back to the fund. These schemes do not
have any fixed maturity period. The units can be bought and sold anytime at NAV linked prices.

The unit capital of closed-ended funds is fixed and they sell a specific number of units. Units of closed-
ended funds can be bought or sold in the Stock Market where they are mandatorily listed.

Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)

Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) is an investment vehicle that invests funds pooled by investors to track an
index, a commodity or a basket of assets. It is similar to an index fund in the sense that its portfolio reflects
the index it tracks. But, unlike an index fund, the units of the ETF are listed and traded in demat form on a
stock exchange and their price changes continuously to reflect changes in the index or commodity prices.

Commodities
Commodities are basic materials or goods that are largely homogenous in nature. These goods are
interchangeable with other goods of the same type. Thus, a bar of gold is a commodity, while a jewellery
made of gold is not a commodity. This is because an investor would be indifferent to different bars of gold
as long as their quantity and quality remain same. However, in the case of jewels, the buyer may prefer one
design over another even though their weight and quality may be the same.

Commodities may be hard or soft. Hard commodities are essentially natural resources that are mined or
extracted. This includes all types of metals and crude oil. Soft commodities on the other hand refer to
commodities that are grown i.e. agricultural products. Soft commodities include grains and pulses.

Commodities are largely traded goods that are meant for use in production of goods or for consumption.
Since inflation and prices of commodities are directly related, investing in commodity can help protect real

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value of investment. However, most of the commodities involve huge storage cost and are thus not suitable
investments. Having said that, there are certain avenues available to invest in commodities.

Structure of Securities Market

The market in which securities are issued, purchased by investors, and subsequently transferred among
investors is called the securities market. The securities market has two interdependent and inseparable
segments:

Primary Market: The primary market, also called the new issue market, is where issuers raise capital by
issuing securities to investors. Fresh securities are issued in this market.
Secondary Market: The secondary market facilitates trades in already-issued securities, thereby enabling
investors to exit from an investment or new investors to buy the already existing securities.

The primary market facilitates creation of financial assets, and the secondary market facilitates their
marketability/tradability which makes these two segments of Financial Markets - interdependent and
inseparable.

Public issue
Securities are issued to the members of the public, and anyone eligible to invest can participate in the issue.
This is primarily a retail issue of securities.

Initial Public Offer (IPO)

An initial public offer of shares or IPO is the first sale of a corporate’s common shares to investors at large.
The main purpose of an IPO is to raise equity capital for further growth of the business. Eligibility criteria
for raising capital from the public investors is defined by SEBI in its regulations and include minimum
requirements for net tangible assets, profitability and net-worth. SEBI’s regulations also impose timelines
within which the securities must be issued and other requirements such as mandatory listing of the shares
on a nationwide stock exchange and offering the shares in dematerialized form etc.

Follow on Public Offer (FPO)

When an already listed company makes either a fresh issue of securities to the public or an offer for sale to
the public, it is called FPO. When a company wants additional capital for growth or desires to redo its

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capital structure by retiring debt, it raises equity capital through a fresh issue of capital in a follow-on public
offer. A follow-on public offer may also be through an offer for sale, which usually happens when it is
necessary to increase the public shareholding in the company to meet the regulatory requirements.

Private Placement
It refers to issuing large quantity of shares to a select set of investors. According to Companies Act 2013,
the number of investors to whom shares are issued under private placement should not exceed fifty. Private
placements can be in the form of qualified institutional placements (QIP) or preferential allotment.

Terminologies:

1. Alternate minimum tax: It minimum tax that is leviable alternative to normal tax. Rate of AMT
is 18.5% (plus applicable surcharge and cess).
2. Depreciation/ Amortization: Depreciation is the practice of spreading a Tangible fixed assets
cost over its useful life. It also reflects the deterioration aspect of the fixed asset over time.
Amortization is the practice of spreading an intangible asset's cost over that asset's useful life.
3. Alpha: It represents the performance of a security over an benchmark (Market indices). It is
basically the excess returns earned on an investment above the benchmark return
4. Angel Investor: Individual investors who invest in small businesses or start-ups in exchange for
equity.
5. VC/PV: Venture capital is the funding provided by Venture capital firms to start-ups which has
potential growth and Private equity is the part of equity held by investors of a company which is
not publicly listed or traded.
6. Arbitrage: Simultaneous buying and selling of an asset from different platforms, exchanges in
order to profit from tiny differences in the asset’s listed price.
7. F&O: Futures and Options are derivative market products who derive their values from an
underlying asset. A buyer and a seller enter a derivative contract where they agree to buy or sell
the underlying asset at an agreed price on a fixed date.

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8. Bear/Bull market: Bear market is time period in security market where the overall market
movement is downward, and price of the securities keeps on falling. Bull market is the period is
during the period in which the market trends upward and security prices increase.
9. Beta: The systematic risk of a security is measured in terms of its sensitivity to the market. This
sensitivity is called the Beta of a security.
10. Break-even point: The production quantity at which the total revenue equals the total expenses
incurred.
11. Cash cycle: The time taken between the payment for goods purchased and the collection of
cash for sales is referred as the cash cycle.
12. Collateral: It is the security that is pledged to take loans for business purposes. In case of
repayment of loan is defaulted then the security is forfeited
13. Commercial Paper: A commonly used unsecured, short term debt instrument issued by
corporations, typically used for the financing of payroll, accounts payable and inventories and
meeting of other short-term liabilities.
14. Contingent Claim: A derivative whose future payoff depends on the value of another
“underlying” asset, or more generally, that is dependent on the realization of some uncertain future
event
15. Covenant: A commitment in a bond or other formal debt agreement that certain activities will or
will not be undertaken. Provisions in a bond indenture that protect the lenders by requiring the
borrower to perform some actions (affirmative covenants) or avoid some actions (negative
covenants)
16. Credit Rating: Credit rating determines the credit risk of a debtor and helps in predicting their
ability to payback the debt. A credit rating can be the deciding factor on whether a borrower does
or does not receive a loan.
17. Economic Profit: Economic profit is determined by the difference between the total revenue
generated less the expenses incurred and the opportunity costs.
18. Face Value: It is the Nominal value of a security. For stocks it is the original cost of the stock, as
listed on the certificate
19. Coupon Rate: The annual interest rate paid on a bond, expressed as a percentage of the face value
and paid from issue date until maturity.

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 20. Financial Leverage: The process of getting more funds to buy assets. By using the funds, the
firm tends to increase the returns. Higher the leverage taken, higher the risk to repay it back if
sufficient returns are not generated
21. Forex: Foreign Exchange Market is a global decentralized market for trading currencies. It
determines the foreign exchange rates for every currency.
22. Technical Analysis: It is a methodology to analysis the securities based on Chart pattern, trends,
volumes, and technical indicators for trading purposes in general.
23. Fundamental Analysis: It is a methodology to analyse the securities in a broader perspective in
studying its business and practises for investing purpose in general.
24. GAAP: Generally accepted accounting principles is a collection of commonly followed
accounting rules and standards for financial reporting.
25. Goodwill: Goodwill is an intangible asset recognized when ownership of a firm is transferred as
a going concern
26. M&A: Merger and Acquisition refers to when two or more companies combine together to form
a single entity or if one company acquires another company.
27. Rights Issue: An issue of shares offered at a special price by a company to its
existing shareholders in proportion to their holding of old shares
28. Sunk cost: a sunk cost is a cost that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered

Some Current affairs topics:

1. https://finshots.in/archive/sovereign-bonds/
2. https://www.business-standard.com/article/international/twitter-plans-to-roll-out-
zero-ads-subscription-model-says-elon-musk-123012200062_1.html
3. https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/inflow-in-gold-etfs-drops-90-in-2022-
asset-base-investors-account-grow-9912371.html
4. https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/existing-home-sales
5. https://finshots.in/archive/indias-sinking-towns-have-a-renewable-energy-problem/
6. https://finshots.in/archive/10-billion-call-centre-scam/

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Finance fact sheet:

S.No. Parameters Values

1 GDP 3.76 billion USD
2 Repo Rate 6.25%
3 Reverse Repo rate 3.35%
4 CRR 4.5%
5 FDI 85.84 billion USD
6 Fiscal Expenditure (2022-2023) 3358.44 billion INR
7 Government Debt 89.26% of GDP
8 Exports 34.48 billion USD
9 Imports 58.24 billion USD
10 Foreign Exchange Reserve 572000 million USD
11 WPI & CPI 4.95 & 5.72
12 Manufacturing PMI (Dec 2022) 57.8
13 Service PMI 58.5
14 Composite PMI 59.4
15 Corporate Tax rate 34.94%
16 Fiscal deficit 6.9%
17 Unemployment rate 8.3%

Finance – Model Interview Questions:

1. What is Finance? Why are you interested in Finance?

2. What are the different branches of Finance?
3. What are the different career avenues in Finance?
4. What is an Initial public offering?
5. What are the different financial ratios?
6. What are the different financial statements?

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7. What are the differences between the income statement and the balance sheet?
8. What is PE Ratio? How is it useful?
9. What is the Difference between Financial Accounting and Cost Accounting?
10. What is Discounted cash flow model? How will you calculate the late Present value of an asset?
11. How are Return and Risk measured for a Stock?
12. Which are the Top 5 companies in India by market capitalisation?
13. What is meant by taking a Short position in the market?
14. What is the Difference between FPI, FII & DII?
15. Any recent M&A deals in India. What was the reason for the deal?
16. What is Fintech? Name some major Fintech companies.
17. What are the highlights of this year’s budget? Where do you think the government must have
invested more?
18. What is the difference between monetary policy and fiscal policy?
19. What happened in the NSE Scam 2022?
20. Do you think that the government should regulate Cryptocurrencies?

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 CONSIG – The Consulting Club
Who is a consultant?
A consultant is a person who provides professional or expert advice in a field of science or business to
either an organization or an individual.

Fundamental Objectives
Another way of understanding consulting is to analyze its fundamental objectives, as given by Prof. Arthur
N. Turner of Harvard Business School, and arranged hierarchically they are: -

1. Providing information to the client

2. Solving client's problems
3. Making a diagnosis, which may necessitate a redefinition of the problem
4. Recommending a solution based on the diagnosis
5. Assisting with the implementation of the solution
6. Building a consensus and commitment around corrective action
7. Facilitating client learning, i.e., teaching clients how to resolve similar problems in the future.
8. It is permanently improving organizational effectiveness.

The initial five purposes are practiced more and are easily understood by most in the consulting field;
however, many consultants aspire to engage with goals 6 to 8, which are essential for effective consulting
even if not explicitly recognized as part of the initial consulting engagement.

Different kinds of consulting

The top consulting firms in the world include well-known names like McKinsey & Company, Boston
Consulting Group, Bain & Company, Gartner, A.T. Kearney, KPMG Consulting, Ernst & Young, etc.
Within the consulting subspace, there are six broad categories of consultants -

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 Strategy Consultants focus on strategic topics like corporate and
organizational strategy, economic policy, government policy and
functional strategy.
They carry out work assigned by top managers, CXOs and directors.
Their role is more advisory than implementational.

Management Consultants (known as Business Consultants) focus on

all organizational concerns from strategy to many elements within
management
Management Consulting is a collective term used for all services that
fall under Strategy Consulting, Operations Consulting HR Consulting

Operations Consultants are consultants who help clients improve the

performance of their operations
Services vary from advisory to hands-on implementation support, for
both primary functions (e.g. Production) and secondary functions (e.g.
Supply Chain)

Financial Advisory Consultants work on all finance related processes

from M&A and corporate finance to risk management, tax, real estates
etc.
Most financial consultants work for large combined accounting and
consulting firms, or else for niche advisory offices.

HR Consultants help clients with human capital within their

organizations and / or with improving the performance of the HR
department. These include organizational changes, change
management, terms of employment, learning & development, talent
management and retirement

IT (or Tech) Consultants helps clients with the development and

application of IT within their organization
Contrary to regular IT-employees, IT Consultants work on transition
projects like ERP systems applications, system integration etc.

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Why do companies employ consultants?
Companies approach consulting firms to get fresh perspectives on intractable problems. Hearing ideas from
an independent source is an excellent way to get new ideas for improving business performance.
Sometimes, it is more cost-effective and feasible to hire consulting firms to help solve business problems
rather than setting up internal teams.
Consulting is about solving problems and developing strategies to improve efficiency and performance in
businesses or functions. Many consulting firms also use business-related case studies to test candidates'
ability to think commercially. Still, guesstimates isolate your core critical thinking abilities from your
knowledge of the industry you're hoping to join. This means interviewers can assess how you respond to
unfamiliar situations and your raw ability to succeed in the job.

The skillset of a consultant

To check an individual's business acumen, companies/colleges come up with Guesstimate problems and
mock Case-based problems in interviews. This is used to test an individual’s analytical skills, problem-
solving capability, thought process, structural approach, and innovation.
Below are some of the tips and techniques to get an edge over others in such problems
i. Thinking on your feet: The key to solving the problem is to think rationally and logically. It takes
nothing more than real-world knowledge, common sense, and a bit of quick maths to solve even
the toughest of problems
ii. Thought flow process: Rather than the final answer, the interviewer is looking for how logical and
structured is the interviewee's thought process. Whichever methodology you are following, try to
break down a problem into smaller pieces, identify the most important ones and work through them
logically to find a solution. Follow techniques like the 80/20 rule, hypothesis framing, and top-
down/ bottom-up approaches to solve the problem efficiently
iii. Communication Skills: While solving problems, always ask clarifying questions and doubts to
ensure you have all the important facts. Don't be afraid to think out loud while translating, and
make sure you walk the interviewer through the process and justify your reasoning in a clear and
concise way
iv. Learning capability: No matter how much you know, there are always things you need to do.
Learning in management consulting is an ongoing and never-ending process (even for partners and

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 directors), from learning new industries, new geography, and new functions, to learning how to
work well with different people, etc.

Guesstimates
Consultants must make educated estimates about the size of a problem or the impact of a strategy, etc.,
using their logical ability, general knowledge, and problem-specific learnings (garnered through extensive
research and asking good questions).

Illustration
Estimate the market size in the US for delivering tomatoes on demand.

Top–Down Approach
If you are unsure how to start the guesstimate, start big with the basic assumption that the population of the
USA is 330 million. According to the Consumer Expenditure Survey, an average household spends $751
on fruits and vegetables yearly. Assuming the average household size to be three members, a total of $
82.6B in annual spending in the US.
According to the USDA, the share of tomatoes in fruits and vegetables is 5%. Assuming that on-demand
delivery of tomatoes will be desirable in large cities where 30% of the population resides, that reduces our
estimate to $ 1.25B.
Assuming that 20% of households would order tomatoes on demand if offered and that the delivery of
tomatoes would increase their consumption by 0-5% (taking a 4% increase), the final estimate is
$260M.

Bottom-Up Approach
One can also start small by estimating the demand in a large city and extrapolating by considering the total
number of large cities. The price of a large tomato in the US is $ 1. Assuming that consumers buy three
such tomatoes weekly, the average consumer would buy $ 150 in tomatoes annually (thinking 50 weeks in
a year for simplicity). The average population of large US cities is 1 million. Since the average household
size is three members and assuming that 20% of households in large cities would order tomatoes on demand,
66,667 homes would be willing to order tomatoes on demand.
Assuming the US has 30 large cities, the final estimate is $ 3000M ($ 150 * 66,667 * 30)

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Practice Questions
• Estimate the no. of schools in Mumbai.
• Estimate the total orders delivered by Swiggy in Mumbai on the weekend.
• Estimate the total number of flights from Mumbai airport in a day.

Case-based Interviews
The case interview is an example of a real business problem based on your interviewer's past work
experiences. The issues you will encounter are not designed to be brainteasers or theoretical problems
created to stump you but rather to reflect on the challenges and identify the gaps that clients face.

Problems solved by a Consultant.

1. Profitability: Case wherein the client has been facing an unexpected drop in profits for the last few days.

Frameworks/Techniques

• Identifying revenue sources and cost centers

• Systematic analysis of revenue and cost levers
• Competitor benchmarking
• Value chain analysis

2. Market Entry: Case wherein the client requires assistance or advice in deciding whether to invest in a
new market.

Frameworks/Techniques

• PESTEL analysis
• SWOT analysis
• Porter's five forces
• Quantitative estimation of market attractiveness

3. Mergers & Acquisitions: Case wherein the client seeks advice on whether to execute a strategic merger
or acquisition.

Frameworks/Techniques

● Estimate the standalone value of the firm to be acquired

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 ● Analyse revenue and cost synergies arising due to the merger/acquisition
● Study the capabilities of the acquiring firm to execute the merger/acquisition

Reference Articles:

● https://hbr.org/1982/09/consulting-is-more-than-giving-advice
● https://www.inc.com/soren-kaplan/the-business-consulting-industry-is-booming-and-it.html

Industry Trends

Technology
Customers' purchasing habits have profoundly shifted and evolved. That phrase should be on the minds of
every channel organization today, particularly those whose primary business model has been product-
centric and transactional up to this point. The rise of easy-to-use/quick-to-buy online marketplaces, the
surge in line-of-business tech buyers who purchase differently than IT departments, and the influx of new
types of channel players who do not operate their businesses or relationships with customers or vendors in
traditional ways have all contributed to these shifts in customer habits. All these considerations, as well as
others, have caused numerous channel companies to rethink their business models. Consulting is one type
that has witnessed a rise in popularity and is predicted to continue.

We will now take two different tech-oriented industries (Ed-Tech &Fintech) one by one: -

Fintech Sector

a) Industry Overview

• Payments, Digital Banking, Investments, Crowdfunding, P2P lending, and

Blockchain/Cryptocurrency/InsurTech/RegTech are the main components of the Fintech world.

• Major Fintech Trends:

a) The exponential growth of data volume

b) The influx of new start-ups

c) Rising customer expectations

d) New Risks/Regulations and Technologies in the Financial Market.

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 • During recent times, most fintech start-ups are shoring up their funds and funding from investors
and lenders, such as Paytm, PhonePe, Ezetap, Billdesk, Capital Float, Lending Kart, Policy Bazaar,
and others. Others have implemented cost-cutting measures, such as reducing their employment.

b) Advantages and Challenges

FinTech's survival is contingent subject to these competitive advantages —

• Using alternative data sources to compete with incumbents' considerable data advantages by
leveraging new technological platforms

• Benefiting from the lack of legacy systems, procedures, and culture by participating in more
extensive business and service networks to compensate for brand and advertising drawbacks.

Obstacles - Creating a value proposition takes time and effort.

• For industry issues, generic Fintech solutions will not suffice.

• Financial institutions have a hard time distinguishing between quantitative and qualitative data.
Benchmarks for Fintech Success on a Qualitative Level.

• Organizational restrictions such as - deals that aren't completed on time and financial institutions
that are segregated are challenging to overcome. Such restrictions are preventing Fintech ideas from
being implemented.

c) Trends

• The potential use cases of Blockchain in Fintech are growing, with an increasing fit in
guaranteeing audit compliance and anti-money laundering policies.

• Financial authorities worldwide are keeping a watch on fintech's progress to assess how it will be
used. With no formal guidance in place, the difficult balancing innovation with risk and control is
difficult

a) Industry Overview

In the next five years, the EdTech market is expected to rise 2.2 times, from $4.6 billion in 2022 to
$10.4 billion in 2025. By 2025, EdTech services and solutions are likely to have an addressable
audience of 37 million or more paid consumers because of increased adoption during the lockdown
months.

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b) Market Overview

In the country, there are around 4,450 EdTech start-ups serving diverse areas such as K-12,
vocational and professional training/skilling, and school/college educational operations. While
Indian players dominate the K-12 and competitive examination segments, multinational players are
focusing on reskilling, vocational training, and certificates.

c) Key Policies

SWAYAM- This effort aims to achieve the Education Policy's three cardinal goals of access,
equity, and quality. The goal of this program is to help students who have been unable to participate
in the mainstream knowledge economy overcome the digital divide.

DIKSHA - Another effort that acts as a National Digital Infrastructure for teachers is DIKSHA.
DIKSHA makes use of existing highly scalable and flexible digital infrastructures while keeping
instructors at the center to ensure that they are well equipped to provide students with a high-quality
education.

ATMANIRBHAR ABHIYAN- The Government of India introduced the E-vidya program to

encourage multi-mode access to digital education as part of this endeavor.

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 d) COVID Impact

EdTech start-ups are aiming to capitalise on the opportunity in the education sector — schools,
colleges, coaching institutes, and more — by filling gaps in educational access or providing online
learning sessions. As more schools move online and rely on virtual classrooms, EdTech B2B
services and solutions will become more popular, just as enterprise tech tools have become more
popular in the last six months.

e) Industry Trends

• Teacher-centered education is giving way to a more teacher-student model. Smart classrooms

make education more visible and egalitarian for all students in a setting that is like a real classroom.

• Several institutions and colleges in the higher education sector have devised creative solutions to
deal with the impact of Covid-19. Certain colleges have provided students with the option of
'education on demand,' in which students from all over the world can record their online classes
(rather than attending them live) and watch them at their leisure.

• Because of the lack of a personal touch for students, the UGC has asked universities and colleges
to take some crucial steps to protect students' psychological and emotional well-being during these
trying times.

• Several private companies offer online coaching and training for a variety of higher education,
vocational, and professional courses. Such private actors might pool their resources and collaborate
to share learning infrastructure and experience, allowing students to benefit from improved online
learning opportunities and technology.

• Indian boards are also doing their part to promote educational continuity. The CBSE is pushing
schools to use digital learning platforms to continue teaching and learning and to give information
to students online. They've also developed CBSE Shiksha, a podcast that will help schools
communicate important information to their teachers, students, and parents.

Pharmaceutical
a) Overview

The Indian pharmaceutical sector supplies over 50% of the global demand for various vaccines,
40% of generic demand in the US and 25% of all medicine in the UK. Market size increased by
17.7% annually. Expected to reach ~US$ 130 billion by 2030.

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 Expected to grow at a CAGR of 22.4% in the near future. India is the largest producer of vaccines
worldwide, accounting for ~60% of the total vaccines as of 2021. The Indian Pharma industry
generates a trade surplus of over $11 bn.

b) Trends
Artificial Intelligence - AI & ML is accelerating the drug discovery & development processes.
Start-ups are exploring the use of these technologies to address the challenges like automation and
optimisation of the manufacturing processes and designing effective marketing and post-launch
strategies.

Big Data & Analytics - The large volumes of data available throughout the drug discovery and
development process require high-performance systems to analyse data properly and derive value
from it. The advancement in analytical techniques is also turning historical and real-time data
available with pharmaceutical companies into valuable assets for predictive, diagnostic,
prescriptive, and descriptive analytics. Analytics techniques are used on all medical data sources
like patient records, medical imaging, hospital data, etc.

Real-World Data - Real-world data (RWD) and real-world evidence (RWE) are transforming
innovations in the pharmaceutical industry. RWD includes patient health status, treatment data, and
health reports collected routinely. This is enabled by the Internet of Things (IoT), sensors, and
wearables restructuring the way the pharma industry is functioning.

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 c) Pharmaceutical Value Chain

d) Sources for in-depth analysis and further reading

https://www.ibef.org/industry/pharmaceutical-india.aspx
https://www.makeinindia.com/sector/pharmaceuticals

Automotive
a) Overview
In terms of market size, the Indian passenger car market was valued at US$ 32.70 billion in 2021,
and it is expected to reach a value of US$ 54.84 billion by 2027 while registering a CAGR of over
9% between 2022-27.
India is currently shifting focus to electric cars to reduce emissions. In terms of electric vehicles
(EVs), in Q3 FY22, sales reached a new high of 5,592 units. Overall, in 2021, 329,190 EVs were
sold in India, indicating a 168% YoY growth over last year's sales of 122,607 units. A report by
India Energy Storage Alliance estimated that the EV market in India is likely to increase at a CAGR
of 36% until 2026. In addition, a projection for the EV battery market is forecast to expand at a
CAGR of 30% during the same period

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b) Trends

c) Overview

Maruti Suzuki India Limited is India’s biggest car maker with more than 42.75%
Passenger market share in the passenger vehicles segment in FY22. The company recorded
Vehicles passenger vehicle sales of 1,165,483 units in FY22. Maruti Suzuki’s passenger
vehicles sales stood at 176,306 units in September 2022.

Tata Motors was the market leader in commercial vehicles segment with about 42.23%
Commercial market share in FY22. It is present in multiple segments like cars and utility vehicles,
Vehicles trucks and buses, defence vehicles, and electric vehicles. The company has extended
its presence internationally through joint ventures (JV) like the strategic alliance with
Fiat and Marcopolo.

Hero MotoCorp and Honda are the top two players in the two-wheelers segment, with
Two Wheelers market share of 35 % and 25 % respectively In September 2022.

Bajaj Auto is a leader in three wheelers with 57 % market share. Piaggio Vehicles is
Three Wheelers the second leader in three wheelers with 24 % market share.

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 d) Key Policies
The Government of India encourages foreign investment in the automobile sector and has allowed
100% foreign direct investment (FDI) under the automatic route. Some of the recent initiatives
taken by the Government of India are –

• Battery Swapping Policy: The biggest highlight of the new budget for the automobile sector
was the announcement of the new battery-swapping technology. This will benefit the entire EV
industry, and the development will enable OEMs, charging infrastructure companies, and EV
component manufacturers to install battery-swapping stations across India.
• PM Gati Shakti Yojna: The Finance Minister further announced that the country's National
Highways would be expanded by 25,000 km in 2022-23 under the Prime Minister's Gati Shakti
Plan. An allocation of Rs 20,000 crore for infrastructure projects gives the commercial vehicle
sector a much-needed boost as it was severely affected due to the pandemic.
• National Logistics Policy: The Policy lays down an overarching interdisciplinary, cross-
sectoral, multi-jurisdictional and comprehensive policy framework for the logistics sector. The
policy complements the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan. While PM Gati Shakti National
Master Plan is aimed at integrated infrastructure development, the National Logistics Policy is
envisaged to bring efficiency in logistics services and human resources through streamlining
processes, regulatory framework, skill development, mainstreaming logistics in higher education
and adoption of suitable technologies.

About CONSIG – The Consulting Club of SJMSOM

CONSIG assists students of SJMSOM in gaining knowledge and skills required in the consulting domain,
along with providing insights into contemporary consulting practices. The club offers a platform for
budding consultants to interact with industry stalwarts through seminars or speaker sessions. To sum up,
CONSIG seeks to build competencies in the field of consulting through the following:

a. Regular Workshops
b. Industry Interactions
c. Live consulting assignments and competitions

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 d. Training and problem-solving sessions for guesstimates and case interviews

Apart from preparing the students for consulting jobs, we also conduct quizzes and several interesting case
study competitions for the complete growth of an individual, thus helping one to formulate and present their
ideas in the best possible way.

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 ECONOMICUS - The Economics Club

What is Economy

An economy is a large set of interrelated production, consumption, and exchange activities that determine
how scarce resources are allocated. The production, consumption, and distribution of goods and services
fulfill the needs of those living and operating within the economy, also referred to as an economic system.

It is divided into two parts, namely Microeconomics and macroeconomics. Micro economy deals with how
the individual responds to Incentives and makes decisions. Microeconomics shows how and why different
goods have different values, how individuals and businesses conduct and benefit from efficient production
and exchange, and how individuals best coordinate and cooperate. Microeconomics provides a more
complete and detailed understanding than macroeconomics.

Macroeconomics is a branch of economics that studies how an overall economy, the market, or other
systems that operate on a large scale behaves. Macroeconomics studies phenomena such as inflation, price
levels, economic growth rate, national income, gross domestic product (GDP), and changes in
unemployment.

Careers in Economy

The journey one our famous RBI governor Raghuram Rajan started as an Engineer, but it was his MBA
from where he built interest in the Economy and pursued it further. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) door
is always open for any MBA graduate through RBI Grade B exams. RBI has separate vacancies for master’s
students where one must compete only with master’s students of specific domains. Another opportunity is
through the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), where the recruitment procedure is almost
similar but requires a proper understanding of economic policies and finance.

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Economy and Policy

The nation's economic growth gets an additional boost when the government policies align with its
Economic goal. The stock market, the barometer of the economy, always responds to a significant policy
change. Government policy is something that will determine the behavior of individuals and industries. For
example, taxes on fixed deposit interest and no tax on long-term capital gains in a mutual fund encourage
everyone to invest in the market rather than FD. The policy of tax rebates on interest in home loans
encourages individuals to buy homes as early as possible. The economy is deeply related to policymaking,
and they go hand in hand to create a better society and living standards for all.

Law of Supply & Demand

Two fundamental economic theories are combined in the law of supply and demand to explain how changes
in the price of a resource, good, or service impact its supply and demand.
Supply grows as the price rises, but demand drops. In contrast, supply is constrained when the price falls
and demand increases.

Law of Demand

● All else being equal, the law of demand states that demand for a commodity fluctuates inversely
to its price. In other words, as the price rises, so does the degree of market
● Buyers' spending on a specific product or commodity is restricted since they have limited
resources; hence higher costs lower the amount desired. In contrast, as the product gets more
inexpensive, demand grows
● As a result, demand curves slope downward from left to right. The income impact refers to
changes in demand levels as a function of a product's price compared to purchasers' income or
resources

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Law of Supply

● Price variations for a product are related to the amount offered by the law of supply.
● Unlike the law of demand, the supply connection is direct rather than inverse. The more the
price, the greater the supply. All else being equal, lower prices imply a lower supply.
● Higher pricing encourages providers to supply more of the product or commodity, given that
their costs rise slowly. Lower prices cause a cost squeeze, which reduces supply. As a result,
supply slopes are sloping upward from left to right.
● Supply restrictions, like demand constraints, can limit a product's price elasticity, but supply
shocks might induce an extreme price fluctuation for a vital item.

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Exceptions to the Law of Supply & Demand

● Giffen/Inferior Goods: One example is Giffen items, which are often low-cost staples also known
as substandard goods. When incomes improve, demand for inferior items falls as people trade for
higher-quality ones. However, when the price of an inferior good rises and demand rises due to
customers purchasing more of it in place of more expensive alternatives, the substitution effect
transforms the commodity into a Giffen good.
● Veblen Goods: Veblen products are luxury items that increase in value and, as a result, produce
more significant demand levels as their prices climb since the price of these luxury goods signifies
(and may even raise) the owner's status.

Market Equilibrium

● The equilibrium price, also known as a market-clearing price, is the price at which demand
equals supply, resulting in a market equilibrium agreeable to both buyers and sellers.
● Supply and demand in quantity are balanced at the point where an upward-sloping supply curve
and a downward-sloping demand curve connect, leaving no surplus or unfulfilled demand.
● The form and location of the corresponding supply and demand curves, which are influenced
by various circumstances, determine the level of the market-clearing price.

Elasticity

A product’s or good’s elasticity is determined by how much demand changes when the price rises or falls.
An inelastic product is one that people continue to buy even after the price changes. The elasticity of an
item or service varies depending on the number of close replacements available, its relative cost, and the
period since the price change happened.
Elasticity is an essential economic indicator, particularly for sellers of products or services, since it reveals
how much of an item or service purchasers consume when the price of the good or service varies. When a
product is elastic, a change in price causes a rapid change in the amount required. When a good is inelastic,

30
the demand changes little, even when the price of the commodity changes. An elastic good experiences a
rise in demand when the price lowers and a reduction in demand when the price increases.

Utility Theory

In economics, utility is derived from the notion of usefulness. An economic good is beneficial to the degree
that it can satisfy a consumer's demand or need.

Ordinal Utility: The ordinal theory of utility proposes that people may arrange or rank the usefulness of
distinct discrete units of economic commodities.

Cardinal Utility: Utility is represented as a measurable or cardinal feature of the economic products
consumed by a person. Economists use a unit called as a "util" to represent the amount of psychological
pleasure generated by a certain item or service for a subset of people in various conditions to aid in this
quantitative assessment of satisfaction.

Marginal Utility: The increased utility acquired from consuming one additional unit of an item or service
or the additional use that a person has for an additional unit. Eg: First, Apple can give one 5 utils, Second
can give 3 utils etc.

Cost

Fixed Cost: A fixed cost is an expense that is required to pay that is generally time-related. A great example
of a fixed cost is a corporation’s monthly rent for office space and/or manufacturing facilities.

Variable Cost: Variable costs are determined by a company's output volume. For example, ABC
manufacturers may have to spend $10 to produce one unit of goods. As a result, if the firm receives a huge
purchase order during a particular month, its monthly expenses will increase proportionally.

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Gross Domestic Product

GDP is the total monetary or market worth of all completed products and services produced within a
country's boundaries in a certain period. It is a complete assessment of a country's economic health since it
is a wide measure of domestic production. GDP is generally estimated on an annual basis, although it is
also calculated every quarter.
A country's GDP is calculated by considering all private and public consumption, government expenditures,
investments, additions to private inventories, paid-in building expenses, and the international trade balance.
When the entire value of products and services sold by local producers to foreign nations surpasses the total
value of foreign goods and services purchased by domestic consumers, a country's GDP rises. A country is
considered to have a trade surplus when this circumstance happens. A trade imbalance happens when
domestic consumers spend on foreign items exceeds the total amount of money that domestic companies
may sell to international customers.

Types of GDP

Nominal GDP: Nominal GDP is a measure of economic output in an economy that takes current prices
into account. In other words, it does not account for inflation or the rate at which prices rise, which might
exaggerate the growth statistic. All products and services counted in nominal GDP are evaluated at the
prices at which they are actually sold that year. When comparing various quarters of output within the same
year, nominal GDP is utilised. When comparing two or more years' GDP, real GDP is utilised.

Real GDP: Real GDP is an inflation-adjusted measure of an economy's output in a particular year, with
prices maintained constant from year to year to isolate the influence of inflation or deflation from the trend
in output over time. GDP is prone to inflation since it depends on the monetary worth of goods and services.
Rising prices tend to boost a country's GDP, but this may not always represent changes in the number or
quality of products and services provided. Thus, merely looking at an economy's nominal GDP might make

32
it impossible to identify whether the figure has climbed due to a genuine increase in output or simply
because prices have risen.

GDP Per Capita: GDP per capita is a measure of GDP per individual in a country's population. It denotes
that the quantity of output or revenue per person in an economy might reflect average productivity or living
standards. GDP per capita can be expressed nominally, in real (inflation-adjusted) terms, or in purchasing
power parity (PPP) terms. In its most basic form, per-capita GDP indicates how much economic output
value can be assigned to each individual citizen. This also translates to a measure of overall national wealth
since GDP market value per person may easily be used as a metric of affluence.

Formula for GDP

GDP=C+G+I+NX
where: C=Consumption
G=Government spending
I=Investment
NX=Net exports

● Private consumption expenditures or consumer spending are referred to as consumption. Customers

spend money on goods and services.
● Government spending includes both government consumption and gross investment. Governments
spend money on things like equipment, infrastructure, and salaries. When both consumer and
corporate investment fall dramatically, government expenditure may become more important
relative to other components of a country's GDP.
● Private domestic investment or capital expenditures are referred to as an investment. Businesses
spend money to invest in their operations. A company, for example, may purchase machinery.
● Net exports are calculated by subtracting total exports from total imports (NX = Exports - Imports).
Net exports are the commodities and services that are produced by an economy that are exported
to other nations fewer imports acquired by local customers.

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Gross National Product & Gross National Income

The gross national product (GNP) measures the total output of individuals or organizations born in a
country, including those headquartered outside. GNP does not include foreigners' domestic production.
Another indicator of economic growth is gross national income (GNI). It is the total of all revenue made by
a country's citizens or nationalities (regardless of whether the underlying economic activity occurs
domestically or abroad). GNP and GNI have a connection analogous to the link between the production
(output) method and the income technique used to compute GDP. GNP uses the production method,
whereas GNI employs the income approach. GNP calculates a country's domestic income plus indirect
business taxes and depreciation.

Inflation

Inflation is a price that results in a loss of buying power over time. The average change in the price of a
basket of selected goods and services over time might show the rate at which buying power declines. The
increase in pricing, frequently stated as a percentage, signifies that a unit of money buys less than it did
previously. Inflation is distinguished from deflation, which happens when prices fall but buying power
rises.

Types of Inflation

● Demand-Pull Inflation: Demand-pull Inflation happens when an increase in the supply of

money and credit causes the public demand for goods and services to rise faster than the
economy's capacity to produce them. This boosts demand and drives up prices.
● Cost-Push Inflation: Cost-push inflation is caused by price increases in the manufacturing
process inputs. When new money and credit are routed into a commodity or other asset markets,
the prices of all sorts of intermediary items rise. This is especially noticeable when there is a
negative economic shock to critical commodity supplies.

34
 ● Built In: Built-in inflation is linked to adaptive expectations or the belief that present inflation
rates will persist in the future.

Price Indices

Wholesale Price Index (WPI): It measures and records variations in the prices of items throughout the
phases before retail. While WPI goods differ per nation, they often cover things at the producer or wholesale
level. Cotton costs for raw cotton, cotton yarn, cotton grey items, and cotton garments, for example, are all
included.
Consumer Price Index (CPI): It evaluates the weighted average of costs for a basket of essential products
and services for consumers. Transportation, food, and medical care are among them. CPI is derived by
averaging price increases for each item in a predefined basket of products based on their relative weight in
the overall basket. The prices considered are the retail pricing of each item as they are available for purchase
by ordinary citizens.

Unemployment

Unemployment refers to a scenario in which a person actively seeks a job but cannot find it. Unemployment
is seen as an essential indicator of economic health. The unemployment rate is the most often used metric
of unemployment. It is derived by dividing the number of jobless persons by the labour force participation
rate.

Types of Unemployment

Frictional Unemployment: This form of unemployment is generally temporary. It is also the least difficult
in terms of economics. It happens when individuals shift employment willingly. It takes time to locate
another work after leaving a firm. Similarly, graduates just starting to hunt for job contribute to frictional
unemployment.

35
Cyclical Unemployment: Cyclical unemployment refers to the volatility in the number of jobless
employees that occurs during economic ups and downs, such as those caused by variations in oil prices.
Unemployment rises during recessions and falls during times of economic expansion.
Structural Unemployment: Structural unemployment is caused by a technical shift in the economy's
structure in which labour markets work. Workers moving from jobs that are no longer needed may become
unemployed due to technological advances.
Institutional Unemployment: Long-term or permanent institutional conditions and incentives in the
economy cause institutional unemployment.

Fiscal Policy

In India, fiscal policy is the guiding force that assists the government in determining how much money it
should spend to promote economic activity and how much income it must receive from the system to keep
the economy functioning correctly. In recent years, the role of fiscal policy in achieving rapid economic
growth has grown, both in India and worldwide. One of the primary objectives of the Government of India's
budgetary strategy is to achieve rapid economic growth. Fiscal policy, like monetary policy, controls a
country's economy. The government of a country manages the flow of tax income and public expenditure
to guide the economy through fiscal policy. If the government collects more money than it spends, it
operates in a surplus; if it pays more than it receives in tax and non-tax revenues, it works in a deficit. The
government must borrow either locally or from abroad to cover increased expenses. Alternatively, the
government might draw on its foreign exchange reserves or create more money. The goal is to help make
more productive capital accessible to the people, free up some income for consumers to spend elsewhere,
and encourage businesses to invest. At the same time, the government may tax firms and individuals less,
receiving less money.

Monetary Policy

Monetary policy is the process through which a country's monetary authority, typically the central bank or
currency board, manages either the cost of short-term borrowing or the cash supply, with an emphasis on
inflation or the loan charge to ensure currency strength and general faith in the currency. In India, Monetary
policy is handled by the Reserve Bank of India.

36
Types of Monetary Policy

Expansionary Monetary Policy: If a country has a high unemployment rate, particularly during a crisis
such as a slowdown or a recession, the country's monetary authority, which is generally the central bank,
might pursue an expansionary policy aimed at enhancing economic growth and expanding economic
activity. As part of expansionary monetary policy, the succeeding monetary authority frequently reduces
consumer interest rates through different methods that make money-saving comparatively unfavourable
and supports market spending.
Contractionary Monetary Policy: Contractionary monetary policy is when a central bank utilizes
monetary policy instruments to combat inflation. Because inflation is a sign of an overheated economy, the
bank must reduce economic growth to keep the situation under control. As a result, conflicting monetary
policy may result in slower economic development and more unemployment, although it is frequently
essential to control inflation.

Instruments of Monetary Policy

Repo Rate: The repo rate is the interest rate the RBI lends commercial banks for short-term loans (less
than 90 days).
Reverse Repo Rate: The reverse repo rate is the rate at which the RBI holds all banks' excess deposits.
Bank Rate: It is the rate at which the RBI grants commercial banks long-term loans (lasting more than 90
days).
Cash Reserve Ratio: The RBI requires every bank to maintain this % of total deposits. It must be paid in
cash only. The RBI does not pay interest on its reserve money. It might range from 0% to 15%. The RBI
announces the CRR in its monetary policy.
Statutory Liquidity Ratio: The percentage of a bank's total deposit that it must maintain with itself. It
might be in cash or liquid assets such as gold, foreign currency, government bonds, etc. According to the
RBI's monetary policy, it might range from 0% to 40%.
Open Market Operations: It refers to the buying and selling government securities between the RBI &
banks. 

37
Role of RBI:

RBI is the central bank of India. India has two primary financial services regulators-SEBI (regulating the
capital markets industry) and RBI (regulating the banking industry). Below given are the core functions of
RBI:

1. Issuer of Notes
2. Bankers to the Government
3. Banker’s Bank
4. Controller of Credit
5. Custodian of Foreign Reserves

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

● Headquarters - Washington, D.C., U.S.
● Managing Director - Kristalina Georgieva
● According to the International Monetary Fund (www.IMF.org): Article I of the Articles of
Agreement sets out the IMF’s primary goals:
○ promoting international monetary cooperation
○ facilitating the expansion and balanced growth of international trade, promoting
exchange stability
○ assisting in the establishment of a multilateral system of payments
○ making resources available (with adequate safeguards) to members experiencing balance
of payments difficulties

World Bank
● Headquarters - Washington, D.C.
● President - David Malpass.
● The World Bank’s two closely affiliated entities—the International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA)—provide low or no-
interest loans and grants to countries with unfavourable or no access to international credit markets
● Besides acting as a financier, the World Bank also provides analysis, advice, and information to its
member countries to enable them to achieve the lasting economic and social improvements their
people need

38
 ● Another of the Bank’s core functions is to increase the capabilities of its partners, people in
developing countries, and its staff. The Bank has set up links to a wide range of knowledge-sharing
networks to address the vast need for information and dialogue about the development

World Trade Organization (WTO)

● Headquarters - Geneva, Switzerland
● Director-General - Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
● The World Trade Organization (WTO) is the only international organization dealing with
global trade rules between nations. Its primary function is ensuring trade flows as smoothly,
predictably, and freely as possible.
● Trade friction is channeled into the WTO’s dispute settlement process

Russian Oil Export Ban

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a ban on exporting Russian Ural grade crude oil to G7
countries, the EU, and Australia, effective February 1, 2023. This will primarily affect countries that have
implemented a price cap of $60 barrel on the oil prices over Moscow’s “special military operation” in
Ukraine.
This price cap was implemented to cripple the Russian economy amid the tensions between Russia and
Ukraine. The Ural grade oil has been trading around $55 USD while the brent oil is constantly hovering
over $85 USD a barrel. With Russia being the second-largest oil exporter in the world, this decision can
have far-reaching consequences for global energy supplies, especially in the EU, which is already facing
an energy crisis.

India-Australia Economic Cooperation & Trade Agreement

India and Australia have brought into action a free trade agreement on 29th December 2022 to benefit both
countries in terms of trade in goods and services. Through this trade agreement, Indian goods will access
Australian markets with zero customs duty. This includes all labour-intensive sector products like textiles,
jewellery, footwear, furniture & many engineering products.

39
The ECTA is expected to create 10 Lakh more jobs and generate $10 billion USD over 5 years through
additional exports, while more than 1 lakh students are expected to benefit through a post-study work visa.
The agreement has removed the possibility of any discrepancy about the use of the Double Taxation
Avoidance Agreement for taxation that occurs during the trade of goods and services between both nations.

Basic Questions:
1. What is inflation, GDP, trade balance, etc.?
2. What is the fiscal deficit? What is its trajectory post-COVID?
3. What does India import the most and export the most?
4. How has the value of the Indian Rupee fluctuated in comparison to the dollar?
5. What are the reasons for increasing oil prices?
6. Where does the world bank get money from?
7. Difference between the World Bank and IMF.
8. What are the highlights of this year’s budget?
9. How is the digital rupee different from Bitcoin?
10. What is India’s GDP, and which sectors are its significant contributors?
11. What is the difference between FDI and FII?
12. How to calculate the GDP of a country? What is the difference between GDP and GNP?
13. What is the law of demand and supply? What factors shift the demand and supply curve?
14. What is price elasticity?
15. What is the difference between fixed and floating exchange rates?
16. Explain the difference between monopoly, oligopoly, monopolistic and perfect competition?
17. What is the difference between microeconomics and macroeconomics?
18. What is the difference between Monetary and Fiscal Policy?
19. What is the Difference between Economies of Scale and Diseconomies of Scale?
20. How do you define hyperinflation?
21. India-China bilateral trade and impact of LAC Stand-off?

Advanced Questions:
1. Why do you think the Farm Bills were withdrawn? What were their implications?
2. What was the taper tantrum? Why is it not happening again now that the Fed is poised to hike rates?

40
3. What is a K-shaped recovery? What should we do to combat inequality?
4. What is your view on cryptocurrencies and NFTs? How is an NFT different from an actual painting?
5. What are your views on the disinvestment and privatization of PSUs?
6. What happened in Harshad Mehta Scam?
7. What other scams have severely affected the stock market and economy?
8. Role of NBFCs in the Indian Economy.
9. What is the Sovereign Debt Crisis of Europe?
10. What was the subprime crisis of 2008?
11. What was the reason for hyperinflation in Turkey?

Essential Topics for Interview Preparation: GDP, GNP, HDI, Inflation, Hyperinflation, Deflation,
Stagflation, Unemployment, Fiscal Deficit, Exchange Rate, Budget, Current/Capital Account, Quantitative
Easing, Giffen goods, Big Mac Index, CPI, WPI, Recession.

For further read, refer:

a. www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain
b. www.investopedia.com/
c. www.economictimes.com
d. www.moneycontrol.com
e. www.bloomberg.com
f. https://zerodha.com/varsity/
g. https://finshots.in/

About Economicus- The Economics Club of SJMSOM

The Economics Club of SJMSOM, IIT Bombay - Economicus aims to create a platform and environment
that provides students with opportunities to explore and understand the role of economics and its concepts
in the varied domains of the corporate world. Club wants to better understand how the business environment
and economy are closely interlinked together and work together hand in hand to create a better society and
living standards for all. Economicus publishes book reviews, newsletters, and blogs regularly, organizing
events like quizzes, article writing competitions, etc.

41
Follow us @Economicus Newsletter | Economicus team | Substack

@https://www.instagram.com/economicusclub_sjmsom/

@Economicus- Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management | Facebook

@(13) Economicus (@Economicus_IITB) / Twitter

@https://www.linkedin.com/company/economicus-sjmsom-iit-bombay/

and do visit our website for more details Economicus (google.com)

References:

● Microeconomics Definition, Uses, and Concepts. (2022, May 2). Investopedia.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/microeconomics.asp
● Law of Supply and Demand in Economics: How It Works. (2021, November 8). Investopedia.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/law-of-supply-demand.asp
● Gross Domestic Product (GDP): Formula and How to Use It. (2022, September 30). Investopedia.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/gdp.asp
● Cash: Definition, Different Types, and History. (2021, January 18). Investopedia.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cash.asp
● How to Profit From Inflation. (2022, September 18). Investopedia.
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/080813/how-profit-inflation.asp
● Law of Demand: Latest Law of Demand News, Designation, Education, Net worth, Assets. (n.d.).
The Economic Times. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/l/law-of-
demand/profileshow/19490886.cms?from=mdr
● Utility in Economics Explained: Types and Measurement. (2022, May 30). Investopedia.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/utility.asp

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● Inflation for Dummies. (2022, June 7). Investopedia.
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/073015/understand-different-types-
inflation.asp
● What Is Unemployment? Understanding Causes, Types, Measurement. (2022, December 8).
Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/unemployment.asp
● Monetary Policy vs. Fiscal Policy: What’s the Difference? (2021, April 28). Investopedia.
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/100314/whats-difference-between-monetary-policy-
and-fiscal-policy.asp
● Marrow, A., & Soldatkin, V. (2022, December 28). Putin bans Russian oil exports to countries that
implement price cap. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/putin-bans-russian-oil-
exports-countries-that-imposed-price-cap-decree-2022-12-27/
● https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1889525#:~:text=Did%20you%20know%20that%20India,
on%2029th%20December%202022
● https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/economics-econometrics-and-finance/international-
monetary-system
● International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International
Development Association (IDA): Resolution on the Establishment of the Heavily Indebted Poor
Countries (HIPC) Debt Initiative Trust Fund | International Legal Materials. (n.d.). In Cambridge
Core. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-legal-
materials/article/abs/international-bank-for-reconstruction-and-development-ibrd-and-the-
international-development-association-ida-resolution-on-the-establishment-of-the-heavily-
indebted-poor-countries-hipc-debt-initiative-trust-fund/3E568B1A5FAE342E57E918708E7AECF4

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 HUMANe – The HR Club

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

Human Resource Management (HRM) is managing people in organizations. It began as a discipline during
the Industrial Revolution, when studying the human aspect of business became possible for the first time.
Critical contributions to the field include the introduction of the concept of Scientific Management by
Frederick Winslow Taylor and the Hawthorn Experiment by Elton Mayo. HRM involves effectively
utilizing human resources to achieve organizational objectives within set constraints.

Human Resources (HR) manages an organization's personnel, including recruitment, selection, training,
and compensation. The concept has evolved from multiple disciplines, including psychology, sociology,
and anthropology. The term "Human Resources" was coined in the 1960s as labour relations and concepts
such as motivation, organizational behaviour, and selection assessments began to gain attention. Today,
HR management (HRM) encompasses all activities related to managing an organization's workforce,
including acquiring, retaining, training, appraising, and compensating employees, as well as addressing
labour relations, health and safety, and fairness concerns. In the current industry, HR managers are also
using new tools like big data, machine learning, and AI to better cater to the needs of employees and support
rapid skill development.

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Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory, also known as the Motivation-Hygiene Theory, was proposed by
behavioural scientist Frederick Herzberg in 1959. The theory states that certain job factors lead to job
satisfaction, and others prevent job dissatisfaction. Herzberg suggested that these factors can be divided
into "motivators" and "hygiene factors.” Motivators are those elements of the job that give a sense of
achievement, recognition, and personal growth and include factors such as challenging work, opportunities
for advancement, and autonomy. On the other hand, hygiene factors are those elements of the job that are
necessary to avoid dissatisfaction but do not necessarily lead to satisfaction. These include salary, working
conditions, and company policies and administration. According to Herzberg, to be genuinely motivated
and satisfied, employees must have both motivators and hygiene factors present in their job.

STAR Approach

The STAR method is a structured approach for answering behavioural-based interview questions. It stands
for Situation, Task, Action, and Result. It helps you to present your answer in a clear and organized manner,
highlighting specific examples of your past experiences and the skills you used to achieve a particular goal
or overcome a challenge.

This approach helps the interviewer better understand your problem-solving skills, decision-making
abilities, and the impact you have had in your past roles.

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STAR → Situation, Task, Action, Result

• Situation refers to a specific event, challenge, or project you have faced. It is the context
in which your actions took place and should be described in detail for the interviewer to
understand the background and scope of the situation. It should include information such
as when and where the problem occurred, who was involved, and the goal or objective. For
example, you could describe a situation in which you led a team on a tight-deadline project
or had to resolve a customer complaint.
• Task refers to the specific responsibilities or objectives you were assigned to accomplish
in the described situation. It's the focus of the case, what you had to do, your role, and the
goals you had to achieve. It should clearly state what was expected of you, what you had
to accomplish, the challenges you faced, and the objectives you were trying to reach. In
some cases, the task and the situation can be very similar; in that case, it would be OK to
use them interchangeably while describing.
• Action component of the STAR approach refers to the specific steps or actions you took
to address the situation or task. It should detail the strategies and methods you used to
accomplish your objectives and overcome challenges. It is essential to be specific and
provide examples of your actions and how you implemented them. For instance, you could
describe how you delegated responsibilities to team members, communicated with
stakeholders, or used specific tools or resources to solve a problem. It is also essential to
explain how you overcame obstacles or challenges.
• Result component of the STAR approach refers to the outcome or impact of your actions
in the situation or task described. It should demonstrate the tangible results you achieved
and be specific and measurable. It should show how your efforts have made a difference
in the situation and the impact of your actions. For example, you could describe how you
increased sales by a certain percentage, reduced response time to customer complaints, or
completed a project within budget and ahead of schedule. The result should highlight your
accomplishments and demonstrate your value as a candidate.

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NOTE:

When answering behavioural interview questions, you must provide recent and relevant examples of the
position or role you are applying for. This will help to demonstrate your current skills and abilities and
show the interviewer how you have used your experience in a similar context.

Also, it is an excellent idea to prioritize the most current and impactful situations to give a better impression.

In some cases, the task may be complex, and it may be more effective to use the R-S-T-A-R (Result-
Situation-Task-Action-Result) approach. This approach allows you to lead with the result and the impact
you had and then provide the context and details of the situation, task, and actions taken to achieve that
result. Emphasizing the development twice can leave a lasting impact on the interviewer and help them
better understand the value you can bring to the organization.

CAR Approach

The CAR (Challenge-Action-Result) approach is another popular method that can be used to structure
responses to behavioural interview questions.

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The CAR approach is similar to the STAR approach but focuses more on the problem-solving aspect of the
situation. It involves describing a specific challenge or problem, the actions you took to address it, and the
results or outcome of your efforts.

• The Challenge component of the CAR approach refers to the problem or obstacle you
faced; it should be clear and specific and describe the issue you encountered and its impact.
• The Action component of the CAR approach refers to the steps or actions you took to
address the challenge or problem. It should detail the strategies and methods you used to
overcome the problem and how you implemented them.
• The Result component of the CAR approach refers to the outcome or impact of your
actions in the situation or task described. It should demonstrate the tangible results you
achieved and how your efforts have made a difference.
STAR and CAR approaches are good ways to structure your answers in an interview but choosing the one
that best fits the question, and the situation you describe is essential.

Some of the typical roles and responsibilities of HR managers in an organization: -

• Talent acquisition (staffing): This involves recruiting, interviewing, and hiring

employees for the organization.

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 • Organization Talent Development: This involves identifying and developing the skills
and abilities of current employees to help them progress in their careers and improve their
performance.
• Compensation and Benefits: This involves designing and administering compensation
and benefits programs for employees, such as salary, bonuses, and health insurance.
• Industrial Relations: This involves managing employee relations, including union-
management relations, collective bargaining, and employee grievances.
• HR Analytics: This involves using data and analytics to measure and track the
effectiveness of HR programs and policies and to make data-driven decisions.
• HR Consultants: This involves providing advice and support to managers and employees
on various HR-related issues, such as employee relations, talent management, and
compliance with labour laws.
• Change Management: This involves planning and implementing organizational changes,
such as restructuring or introducing new processes or technologies, and managing the
impact of these changes on employees.
• Learning & Development: This involves designing and delivering training programs for
employees to help them acquire new skills and knowledge and improve their performance.

The responsibilities of HR managers may vary depending on the size and type of organization. Still, these
are some typical roles that an HR manager may be responsible for.

Questions

1. Introduce yourself? (This is a golden chance the interviewer provides for the candidate to drive the
interview in the desired direction. The candidate should be prepared for every subsequent question
from the initial introduction. It is best to be honest and not makeup things.)
2. Why MBA? (Should have a clear answer to this question. Candidate should be prepared for
subsequent questions)
3. Why SJMSOM? (Tell them why this institute in particular)

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 4. Tell me about one thing that is unique or remarkable about you.
5. What are your career goals, and how do you plan to achieve that? (Have an answer for both short-
term and long-term goals)
6. Did you face any situation of ethical dilemmas?
7. What are your strengths and weaknesses? (Know about your weaknesses, strengths, and your
achievements)
8. If not taken into this college, what will your plans be?
9. According to you, what is the quality of a good leader, and if given a chance to select a team, what
will you look for in the team members?
10. What is the difference between a leader and a manager?
11. How do you think an MBA degree will add value? Can you elaborate on the reasons behind
changing your career path? (Give concise and exact reasons)
12. What is your single most significant achievement so far? Why do you consider it to be your most
significant achievement? (Try to give relevant instances, preferably related to leadership skills)
13. What are your hobbies and interests? (You are expected to have general knowledge about the
hobbies and interests you mention. For example, if your hobby is reading books, you might be
asked questions about famous books, their authors, and other relevant things)
14. What three changes would you like to implement in your past institute/workplace? How would they
solve the problems faced by you? (Make sure not to portray your previous institute in a negative
light)
15. What do you consider your biggest failure, and what are the learnings you got from it?
16. What motivates you to put forth your best effort?

Witty questions that might come your way:

1. Is it okay to miss deadlines?

2. What is the meaning of your name?
3. Situational Questions (Sample question: If you were the CEO of XYZ firm, what would you do to
improve its market share)
4. Mention three consecutive days that end with 'day' (but not the days of the week)

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Other topics to brush up on:

1. Graduation subjects if you are a fresher and work-related project if you have work experience.
Research the latest happenings in your field of study or work because you may face questions about
those topics. (It is recommended to have a good hold on 2 of your favourite subjects from
graduation)
2. Know the institutions you have been associated with so far. (For example, the founding members
of your college/institution, headquarters location of your workplace, etc.)
3. Questions on current affairs (Be thorough with recent current affairs and make sure to have some
opinions about the same)
4. Have some knowledge about the organization where your parents are working currently
5. Also, know about the recent happenings in your state and the states that you have lived in (Be aware
of the current affairs in your state and at the national level. Know about the approximate statistics
of these places, such as the population, area, famous landmarks, etc.).
6. You can expect questions about the geography, history, etc., of the B School whose interview you
are sitting for.
7. Knowledge of the significant historical events post-independence in India. A certain amount of GK
about world history would be helpful too. (For example, the history of the McMahon line, the
number of wars India has had with its neighbours, etc.)

For WAT, have a structured approach. Refrain from complicating the language. Keeping it simple and easy
gives an advantage.

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 MARKTRIX – The Marketing Club
What is Marketing?

Before getting into the world of Marketing we should get an idea as to what it means. Let’s start off with
some definitions.
The renowned father of marketing Dr. Philip Kotler defines marketing as “a social and managerial process
by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products
and value with others”
Famous Austrian-American consultant Peter Drucker says that “Marketing is not only much broader than
selling; it is not a specialized activity at all. It encompasses the entire business. It is the whole business
seen from the point of view of the final result, that is, from the customer’s point of view. Concern and
responsibility for marketing must therefore permeate all areas of the enterprise”
And lastly, the American Marketing Association defines it as “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions,
and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for
customers, clients, partners, and society at large”
These definitions at first might appear to be quite complex, however, on close viewing, we can see some
common aspects. Terms such as “value”, “customers” or even “products” are common to most definitions
and something that people tend to think about whenever discussing marketing. These thus, have to be
explored in greater detail.

Marketing vs. Sales

In Drucker’s definition, we see the concept of sales being introduced. He discusses how marketing is
broader than sales. What exactly is selling and how are the two intertwined?
Cambridge Dictionary defines sale as “an act of exchanging something for money”
Marketing is indeed a much broader process in comparison to sales. Marketing deals with understanding
consumer preferences, their needs, wants, and demands, designing a product offering around it, and
communicating value to customers. It is a much more long-term initiative than sales, which are focused on
the last point of exchanging a product for money in the transaction process. Because of its short-term nature,
sales often utilize a push strategy to convince customers to buy at a particular price. Sales revolve around
a product and making sure that the product is available, visible, and affordable in the eyes of the customer
(through the proper channels). Marketing aims to increase brand recall and improve engagement with a
company.
Try and think about the role of marketing and sales when you go to buy tea in your neighborhood
supermarket

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Needs, Wants, and Demands
Often during our conversations, we use these terms interchangeably, however, in the world of marketing
they have their meanings distinct.

Needs
Needs are something that is fundamental requirements. They can never be created. Let’s say the need for
food, warmth, or shelter. Needs themselves can be classified into various types using Maslow’s Hierarchy.
As per this hierarchy, certain needs are more fundamental than others.

As a marketer one needs to be aware of which need their company’s product offering caters to (e.g., Esteem
needs- iPhone or Safety needs- HDFC Life). How do these needs decide by an individual’s unique
motivations, assumptions, beliefs, and biases translate to their perception of a product offering? Here too,
we can classify needs into the following:

• Stated need: What the customer asks for

• Real need: What value the customer wants to derive
• Unstated need: What the customers expect implicitly from the offering
• Unexpected need: What might delight the customer if provided, as these are not expected
• Secret need: Another unexpected need that might boost the perception of the customer

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Wants
Wants are a satisfier of a need dictated by a person’s preference or choice. This preference can in turn be
dictated by a myriad of factors, primarily among them being their cultural and socio-economic background,
as well as individual nuances. Wants aren’t essential but have quite a bit of flexibility associated with them.
As an example, if you were to go from Point A to Point B your first choice might be a bicycle in the
Netherlands while it might be a car in the USA.

Demands
A demand is a satisfier of a want backed by purchasing power and a willingness to buy. A person needs
nourishment, wants a burger, and demands a McDonald’s Big Mac. Only if they can pay for it. If
affordability comes into question, then a want might never transition to demand but remain a desire. One
must be aware of the fact that customers view products as a bundle of utilities and demand the one which
they believe will satisfy them the most.

The Marketing Workflow

Marketing like all other business functions follows a workflow that starts with a company analyzing the
market (researching about their immediate environment, whom they can serve as well as business
partnerships that they can build). This is followed by STP (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning) which
will be discussed in further detail. The company must then focus on capturing value by deciding on its
marketing mix and then sustaining the value.
Let’s start off by analysing the market.

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Customers
We decide who the purchasers of our offering will be

Company
We look inwards to see whether the product ethos and characteristics align with our mission and vision
statements, allocative resource capabilities, strengths, and perception

Competitors
We look outwards to see our offerings in comparison to those offered by other companies and whether our
value differentiation is strong enough

Collaborators
We look to identify possible candidates for developing long-lasting business relationships in order to form
a sustainable product strategy through collaboration

Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning

Segmentation
This step encompasses the process of forming various customer groups based on geography (country
/region/ state/ province), demography (age/ gender/ education level/ occupation/), behavior (what they buy/
how often/ what they browse) or their psychography (lifestyle/ activities/ hobbies/ opinions). Segmentation
can also rely on other criteria for diving the market into smaller sub-markets; however, it is essential that
the segmentation criteria have the following:

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 • Measurable
• Substantial
• Accessible
• Differentiable
• Actionable
Targeting
It is the process of focusing marketing efforts on one/some sub-segments that have been identified after
segmentation and resonate the most with our product/service offerings. The ideal customer segments should
be actively growing, highly profitable, and should have a low cost of acquisition (customer acquisition cost,
CAC). The criteria worth consideration here are size, profitability, and reachability. Targeting can occur at
the level of mass (generally adopted by big companies)/multiple segments/niche/individuals.
Customization at the individual and mass levels has become commonplace among the marketing strategies
of companies.

Positioning
It is the target market’s perception of the product’s key benefits and features relative to the offerings of
competitive products. A product should occupy a unique position in the minds of consumers for which
PODs (Points of Difference) and POPs (Points of Parity) with competing product offerings have to be
identified. Often a perceptual map is utilized for understanding positioning and strategizing accordingly.

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Marketing Mix

The 4Ps and later on the 7Ps (focused on service marketing with the added aspect of intangibility) help a
company formulate a holistic marketing plan around its product offering.

Product
It encompasses the goods/services offered by a company to its customers. Multiple factors should be
considered when designing a product for the market and assessing what its performance will be in the
market. The criteria used for the assessment can be variety, quality, design, features, brand, packaging, and
services. There are both tangible and intangible qualities of a product that should be considered

Promotion
It encompasses all the activities used to communicate value and convince customers to purchase a
product/service. It includes advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and public relations. Since value
is being communicated to both internal (upper management) and external stakeholders (customers and
investors) as well as business partners (vendors and distributors) there is a need for practices to be
informative and reinforce a positive image for the brand.

Price
The amount of money that a customer pays for a good/ service has to be dealt with a lot of care. Pricing
decisions also include what type of discounts can be provided or what the payment period might be.
Multiple pricing strategies can be thought of for a product offering. Some common ones are:

• Competition-Based Pricing
• Cost-Plus Pricing
• Dynamic Pricing
• Freemium Pricing
• High-Low Pricing
• Hourly Pricing
• Skimming Pricing

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 • Penetration Pricing
• Premium Pricing
• Project-Based Pricing
• Value-Based Pricing
• Bundle Pricing
• Psychological Pricing
• Geographic Pricing
The overall pricing strategy might be a mix of the ones stated above. However, the major philosophy that
has to be taken into consideration while pricing an offering is that one can price something at any point
above its cost and lower than its net perceived benefit from the point of view of the customer. Sometimes
a company might even decide to sell its products at a loss i.e., lower than its cost to gain more market share
(loss leader e.g., Jio).
Customer Perceived Value =
Total Perceived Benefits – Total Perceived Costs

Benefits could be in terms of added functionality/

emotional association/ other psychological benefits,
while costs can be in terms of money/ time/ energy/
other psychological costs

Place
It encompasses a set of activities that makes the product available to customers. Multiple channels of
distribution and selling can be employed per different customer groups.

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Multiple things should be considered when deciding on what our place of selling shall be which includes
channels, coverage, assortments, locations, inventory, transportation, and logistics.
3 more Ps

People
In the service industry in particular people form a major part of the marketing force which includes and is
not limited to salespeople, upper management, the labor force, etc. It is essential to have competent,
trustworthy, and efficient people who are aligned with an offering’s value proposition.

Process
The process of delivering service to a customer is extremely important in the overall marketing plan as it
will dictate a customer’s perception and overall experience.

Physical evidence
Although the majority of services are intangible, companies often provide physical evidence to showcase
that a transaction has taken place (e.g., a bill/ receipt after a haircut). This reinforces the fact that despite its
intangibility a physical product has been delivered.
4A and 4C models
The 4A model of marketing is much more recent as compared to the 4/7Ps and takes the customer’s point
of view into consideration. What does a customer consider before deciding on their purchase? The 4A
model states that these are Acceptability, Affordability, Accessibility, and Awareness and is frequently
deployed in rural markets. The 4C model doubles down on the customer’s point of view by looking at how
a customer wants to interact with and decide on their purchase. The 4C’s are Customer, Cost (the overall
cost to a customer instead of just the price), Convenience (how effortless it is for a customer to purchase a
product), and Communication (not a promotion but two-way communication wherein the customer feels
heard).

PLC and the Diffusion of Innovation models

A Product Life Cycle (PLC) is the length of time from a product first being introduced to consumers until
it is removed from the market. It is broken into four stages: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline.

59
Introduction
This is the phase when a new product is first brought to the market. Sales are low and creep along slowly.
This phase includes a substantial investment in advertising & a marketing campaign to make consumers
aware of the product & its benefits.

Growth
Demand begins to accelerate and the size of the total market expands rapidly. It might also be called the
“Take-off Stage”. Demand grows, production is increased, and availability expands.

Maturity
As a product matures, it enters its most profitable stage, while the costs of producing and marketing decline.

Decline
The product tends to lose consumer appeal & sales drift downward because of the increased competition as
other companies emulate its success, sometimes with enhancements or lower prices.
Another model that tracks the adoption of an offering over its life cycle is Everett Rogers’s Diffusion of
Innovation model. Most companies have the biggest difficulty in crossing the chasm and for their new
products to enter the mainstream market

Go-To-Market Strategy

The go-to-market strategy, also known as the GTM strategy, is an action plan that details how a company
will connect with customers and acquire a competitive advantage. By considering factors including value
propositions, price, promotions, and distribution channels, it seeks to provide a roadmap for delivering a
good/service to the final user.
Steps to follow in a go-to-market strategy are as follows:

• Define the Target Market

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 • Define the Product
• Define the Value Proposition of that product
• Select an appropriate Pricing Strategy
• Devise the Distribution Channels to be used
• Plan Marketing and Promotion Strategies

Push and Pull Marketing

Push marketing refers to pushing your brand in front of your potential customer or making it accessible to
the general public, whereas pull marketing entails putting in place and implementing strategies that
automatically draw consumer interest to your products and services and develop a loyal customer base.
Relationship Marketing
Relationship marketing is a branch of customer relationship management (CRM) that prioritizes long-term
involvement and customer loyalty over immediate objectives like client acquisition and individual sales.
Relationship marketing, also known as customer relationship marketing, aims to establish deep, even
emotional relationships between a company and its customers that may result in recurring sales, unpaid
word-of-mouth advertising, and customer data that might produce leads.
Its benefits include Higher Customer Lifetime Value (CLV, a measure of how much profit a business can
earn from the average customer over the course of their relationship), reduction in marketing and
advertising spending, and a stronger organizational alignment around the customer.

Product Mix

The full range of goods and/or services that a company provides is referred to as its product mix, often
known as its product assortment or product portfolio. Product lines, which are connected goods that
customers frequently use together or perceive as related goods or services, make up a product mix.

61
It involves the following dimensions:

• Product Line: A product line is a collection of products in the product mix that are closely
connected, either because they perform similar functions, are marketed to similar client
segments, are sold through comparable channels, or are offered at comparable pricing
points
• Product Width: The quantity of product lines that a corporation offers is referred to as
width or breadth
• Product Length: Length refers to the total number of products in a firm’s product mix
• Product Line Depth: It refers to the number of variations within a product type
• Product Line Length: It refers to the number of variations within a product line

Try and decipher the product mix chart for HUL

Assessing Growth Opportunities

Multiple models can be used to assess growth opportunities and assess the performance of strategic business
units. These are:

BCG Matrix
By examining market growth and product market share, BCG Matrix assists businesses in analysing growth
potential and further assists in making decisions regarding where to invest, where to discontinue, and where
to develop goods. Each business inside a company is categorized into one of four groups: Cash Cows, Stars,
Dogs, and Question Marks. The main issue with the BCG matrix is that it uses a fixed segregation
percentage of 50% relative market share of the market leader and 10% CAGR and simultaneously does not
take into consideration how poorly performing SBUs contribute to the organization overall.

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The BCG matrix considers two parameters:

Market Growth
This dimension is used as a proxy measure of the attractiveness of the market, with high-growth markets
being seen as more attractive and offering more potential and opportunity.

Relative Market Share

Relative market share is used as a surrogate of competitive strength. The larger the firm’s market share,
relative to its largest competitor, the stronger the firm is in the marketplace.

Four Blocks in BCG Matrix

Dogs: If a company’s product has a low market share and is at a low rate of growth, it is considered a “dog”
and should be sold, liquidated, or repositioned. Products in this category don't generate much cash for the
company since they have a low market share and little to no growth.
Cash Cows: Products that are in low-growth areas but for which the company has a relatively large market
share are considered “cash cows,” and the company should thus milk the cash cow for as long as it can.
Stars: Products that are in high-growth markets and that make up a sizable portion of that market are
considered “stars” and should be invested in more. In the upper left quadrant are stars, which generate high
income but also consume large amounts of company cash.
Question Marks: Questionable opportunities are those in high growth rate markets but in which the
company does not maintain a large market share. Question marks are in the upper right portion of the grid.
They typically grow fast but consume large amounts of company resources.
The usual movement SBUs follow is from Question Marks to Stars to Cash Cows.

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GE Matrix
The GE matrix was developed by McKinsey and Company consultancy group in the 1970s. The nine-cell
grid measures business unit strength against industry attractiveness. Whereas the BCG matrix is limited to
products, business units can be products, whole product lines, a service, or even a brand. Therefore, this
version is considered an improvement over the BCG matrix.

Industry attractiveness is dependent on a number of factors that can be assigned different weights. These
factors include but are not limited to Market size, growth, profitability, pricing trends, entry barriers, and
competitive intensity. Similarly, competitive strength is dependent on strength of assets and competencies,
market share, customer loyalty, and profit margins.

Igor-Ansoff Matrix
Businesses utilize the Igor-Ansoff Matrix, also known as the Product/Market Expansion Grid, to examine
and plan their expansion strategy. The matrix illustrates four growth-supportive techniques and assesses the
risks involved with each one.

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The four strategies of the Ansoff Matrix are:

1. Market Penetration: This focuses on increasing sales of existing products to an existing

market. In other words, a firm is aiming to increase its market share with a market
penetration strategy.
2. Product Development: In a product development strategy, the firm develops a new product
to cater to the existing market. The move typically involves extensive research and
development and expansion of the company’s product range.
3. Market Development: In a market development strategy, the firm enters a new market with
its existing product(s). In this context, expanding into new markets may mean expanding
into new geographic regions, customer segments, etc.
4. Diversification: In a diversification strategy, the firm enters a new market with a new
product. Although such a strategy is the riskiest, as both market and product development
are required, the risk can be mitigated somewhat through related diversification. Also, the
diversification strategy may offer the greatest potential for increased revenues, as it opens
up an entirely new revenue stream for the company.

Porter’s Five Forces

An industry's vulnerabilities and strengths can be ascertained using Porter's Five Forces, a model that
identifies and examines five competitive forces that affect every industry. The structure of an industry is
typically identified using the Five Forces analysis to develop corporate strategy.
• Competitive Rivalry
• Potential of new entrants into the industry
• Supplier Power
• Buyer Power
• Threat of substitution

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Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is promoting goods and services to customers using digital means. This type of marketing
involves using websites, mobile devices, social media, search engines, and other similar channels.
Advantages of Digital Marketing
• Wider reach
• Lower cost
• Personalisation
• Increased conversion rates

Disadvantages of Digital Marketing

• Huge competition
• Dependability on Technologies
• Privacy and Security concerns

Note that there is a minor difference between Digital Marketing and Online Marketing. While Digital
Marketing incorporates all the channels discussed above, Online Marketing restricts itself to Internet-Based
Marketing only.

Essential Keywords that every Digital Marketing Beginner should know:

• Organic Marketing
Organic marketing refers to bringing in potential clients to your company through natural means
rather than through paid advertising. It aids in generating free visitors for your website.

• Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Search engine marketing (SEM) is a method of promotion and advertising to help an organization’s
content rank higher among search engine traffic. SEM's primary objective is to increase website
traffic. It might be paid with the use of Pay Per Click (PPC) or organic with the use of Search
Engine Optimization (SEO).

• Google Trends
Google Trends is a free tool that examines the most popular Google searches based on many
variables, including locations, nations, and languages.

• Impression
A customer's viewing of the advertising is referred to as the impression made in digital marketing.
Every time a client views an advertisement, such interaction is referred to as an impression.

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 • Click-Through Rate (CTR)
The ratio of people who click on a link to those who see the page where the link is located is known
as the "Click-Through Rate." It aids in determining a website's and online marketing campaign's
level of success.

• Cost per Click (CPC)

Cost per Click is the price or cost advertisers pay for each click in the Pay-per-Click marketing
campaign.

• Cost per Acquisition (CPA)

Cost per Acquisition (CPA) is the amount that marketers pay for each new consumer that they
acquire through a marketing campaign. Getting a new consumer who is willing to pay for your
goods and services is known as acquisition.

• Conversion
It refers to an audience response to a goal or aims you have set for your website or advertising
campaign. The conversion rate is the proportion of conversions to all visits to your website or
advertising campaign.

• Churn Rate
The churn rate is the number of customers lost during a specific time period.

• A/B Testing
A/B testing, commonly referred to as split testing or bucket testing, compares two iterations of a
website or app to see which one performs better.

Modern Marketing Fads

• Viral Marketing
Viral marketing aims to spread knowledge about a good or service from person to person using
email, the internet, or word-of-mouth. The aim of viral marketing is to get people to spread a
marketing message to their friends, family, and other people in order to rapidly increase the number
of people who receive it.

• Guerrilla Marketing
Guerrilla marketing is a form of advertising that draws in target audiences by utilizing "guerrilla"
warfare techniques or the element of surprise. This type of marketing is very efficient at generating
publicity because it uses an unusual and creative presentation to arouse surprise or awe.

• Moment Marketing
It is a marketing strategy that concentrates on reaching out to clients at the crucial moment (when
they are already searching for a solution to an issue that your brand/business can address).

• Green Marketing
Green marketing focuses on selling products and services based on their environmental benefits.

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• Database Marketing
Database marketing is a form of direct marketing. It involves collecting customer data like names,
addresses, emails, phone numbers, transaction histories, customer support tickets, and so on. This
information is then analysed and used to provide a tailored experience for each consumer or to
attract future customers.

Latest Marketing News

• 9 campaigns that boosted the mood in 2022

https://www.marketingdive.com/news/best-marketing-campaigns-2022-advertising-
creativity/638371/

• Neilson’s Cross-platform product launch

https://www.marketingdive.com/news/nielsen-cross-platform-measurement-ratings-
streaming/639608/

• Johnnie walker’s focus on women empowerment

https://www.marketingdive.com/news/johnnie-walker-lilly-singh-female-
empowerment-alcohol-marketing/639257/

• Marketing during the World cup and amid Political strife

https://www.marketingdive.com/news/budweiser-world-cup-marketing-controversy-
qatar/638927/

• Coca-Cola’s Sustainability initiative with “ Recycled Records”

https://www.marketingdive.com/news/coca-cola-recycled-records-sustainability-
mark-ronson/638717/

• VIM Dishes Out A Powerful Message In A Campaign Loaded With Sass And Wit
https://mad-over-marketing.com/vim-dishes-out-a-powerful-message-in-a-
campaign-loaded-with-sass-and-wit/

• Reliance digital’s latest campaign emphasizes an important message: technology is

made for you, so get to know it better.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CnOcD67vOU-/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D

• Vivo’s Campaign on human relationship

https://www.instagram.com/p/CmtBSc1PE8B/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

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 • Happiest Place on the internet
https://www.instagram.com/p/CmoEKNDvX6A/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y%3D

Follow us:

Contact:

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 OPERA – The Operations Club

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

Operations Management is the business function responsible for planning, coordinating, and controlling the
resources needed to produce products and services for the company. It can also be defined as a system that
transforms the inputs (Materials, manpower, information, finance, time) into outputs that deliver values to
the consumers most efficiently and effectively. Operations management aims to maximize the efficiency
of goods production and services that effectively fulfill customer needs. OM includes strategic, tactical, and
operational decisions.

• Strategic decisions include determining the size and location of manufacturing plants, deciding
the structure of service or telecommunications networks, and designing technology supply chains.
• Tactical decisions include plant layout and structure, project management methods, and equipment
selection and replacement.
• Operational decisions include production scheduling and control, inventory management, quality
control and inspection, traffic and materials handling, and equipment maintenance policies.

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4 V’s of Operations:

The 4 V’s of Operations Management are - Volume, Variety, Variability, and Visibility. Any process can
be categorized based on these criteria. E.g., Whereas fast food joints deal with large volumes, luxury car
producers like Rolls Royce deals with low volume. Again, most service industries, like restaurants, typically
have greater visibility than consumer goods industries.

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Supply chain management is the management of the flow of goods and services that involves the movement
and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and finished goods from the point of origin to the
point of consumption.

SCM is also called the art of management of providing the right product at the right time, place, and cost
to the customer.

Supply Chain Strategies:

1. Push Strategy: Push strategy relies on modeling customer demand forecasts and pushing as many
goods onto the market as possible. The companies foresee the demand long before it arrives and plan
production and inventory to meet their needs. For example, winter clothing reaches the retailers at
the end of summer so that new stock is in the shop as soon as winters arrive.

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2. Pull Strategy: Pull Policy is based on customer orders. It helps the company generate the number of
required items. In business, production and distribution depend on demand. An example of a pull strategy
is McDonald's, where they prepare burgers after receiving an order.

Trends Shaping the Future of Supply Chain Management

• Artificial Intelligence and Automation

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 • Increased Focus on Sustainability
• Customization
• The Internet of Things
• Digitization
• Risk Management and Resiliency
• Increased Visibility
• Circular Supply Chain

Read more here

Difference between Operations and Supply Chain:

The supply chain is sourcing and moving raw materials and the finished product. Operations management
is the part in the middle where the product is created from the raw materials. The supply chain is how you
source raw materials and get the finished products to customers. Operations is how you process the raw
materials to convert them into finished products.

PLANNING AND FORECASTING

Planning is establishing objectives and formulating, evaluating, and selecting the policies, strategies,
tactics, and actions required to achieve them. Planning can be of two types: short-term/operational planning
for up to one year and long-term/strategic planning for more than one year.

Forecasting predicts future sales or demand of products or services to schedule production, staffing, and
inventory levels. Forecasting can use different methods depending on the available data.

Quantitative forecasting- We can use this method when historical data is available. Mathematical models
will be used to understand the patterns and create projections for the future.

The Quantitative forecasting methods can be of two types:

Time-series Models - Some examples of time series models include the Naive method, Simple moving
averages, weighted moving averages, and exponential smoothing.

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Causal Models- Simple regression and Multiple regression are two Causal Models

Qualitative forecasting- We will use this method when fewer data is available. This is often subjective in
nature, and expert opinion is considered. Some of the techniques include Consumer surveys and
comparative analysis.

Links
• https://www.planettogether.com/blog/current-challenges-for-operations-management
• https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/operations/articles/global-robotic-process-
automation-report.html
• https://www.bcg.com/en-in/capabilities/operations/conquering-complexity-supply-chains-
digital-twins
• https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/operations/articles/blockchain-supply-chain-
innovation.html
• https://www.supplychain247.com/paper/the_ecommerce_supply_chain_overcoming_growin
g_pains/retail

LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT

The process of managing how resources are bought, stored, and transported to their eventual destination is
referred to as logistics. Logistics management is the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the
efficient, adequate flow and storage of goods, services, and related information from the origin point to the
consumption site to meet consumer requirements. Logistics management entails a variety of elements, such
as:

• Selecting appropriate vendors capable of providing transportation facilities

• Determining the most effective transportation routes
• Determining the most competitive delivery method
• Utilizing software and IT resources to handle related processes proficiently

Logistics management aims to deliver the proper internal or external client with the correct quantity of a
resource or input at the appropriate time, location, and condition. The major types of logistics are:

• Inbound logistics
• Outbound logistics
• Reverse logistics
• Third-party logistics

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Inbound Logistics:
Inbound logistics is the process of transporting items from suppliers to a warehouse and subsequently to a
manufacturing facility to be manufactured. Raw materials, tools, parts, office equipment, and supplies are
examples of inbound logistics.
Outbound Logistics:
Outbound logistics is transporting finished goods from warehouse inventories to customers.
Example: For a furniture manufacturer, inbound logistics would involve wood, glue, fabrics, screws, nails,
paint, and safety glasses, while outbound logistics would involve the finished furniture.

Reverse Logistics

The process of moving products from the end customer to the supplier is reverse logistics. It consists of the
following steps: collecting, inspection, sorting, reconditioning, and distribution.

Products that are carried out using reverse logistics are recycled or repurposed. The goods are picked up
from your address by the company. As a result, the process of getting the product from your side to the
company is known as reverse logistics.

Third-Party Logistics

The sole goal of third-party logistics is to move goods from one location to another. It makes no difference
if the transaction is between a consumer and a seller or vice versa. They accept responsibility for getting

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the goods to the correct locations at the appropriate times. Instead of spending time overseeing delivery
services, it enables firms to concentrate on their core competencies.

Supply chain management is challenging because there are numerous moving elements and complications,
even though the supply chain appears linear. Some businesses divide the supply chain upstream and
downstream to streamline their operations.

The upstream supply chain is the supply side supply chain, supplier->manufacturer. Whereas the
downstream supply chain is the demand side supply chain, manufacturer->final customer

INVENTORY MANAGEMENT

Inventory management is placing orders, holding items, utilizing them, and then selling them on behalf of
a business. This covers the administration of things such as raw materials, processing parts, finished goods,
and their storage and processing.

One of a company's most significant assets is its inventory. An organization's raw materials and finished
goods are the heart of its operations in industries with high inventories, including retail, manufacturing,
food services, and others. When and where inventory is needed, a shortfall can be very harmful.

In addition, inventory can be seen as a liability (if not in an accounting sense). The danger of spoilage, theft,
damage, or changes in demand is higher when there is a large inventory. Inventory must be insured, and if
it is not sold in a timely manner, it may need to be destroyed or sold at a discount.

Types of inventories

• Raw materials: Materials typically bought but have not yet been used in production.
• Work-in-progress (WIP): Goods or parts that aren't raw materials but aren't finished goods.
• Finished goods inventory: A finished good that is prepared for sale is nonetheless recorded as an
asset by the business.
• MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Operations) supplies: These materials are used in the production
process but are not ultimately visible in the finished goods.

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 • Cycle Stock: The quantity of inventory anticipated to be used over a specific time frame. The
interval between orders (for raw materials) or between production cycles is frequently used to
describe the period (for work in process and finished goods).
• Decoupling stock: When a process' input rate is higher than its predecessor's output rate, which
could lead to a decoupling between them if stock is not maintained, this stock is held.
• Anticipation Stock: This inventory is retained in case demand spikes due to ambiguous consumer
wants or unanticipated seasonal changes.

ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING (ERP)

An ERP system automates all company activities by establishing a uniform structure across the board. ERP
handles links to external stakeholders and streamlines information flow between all corporate functions.

Any firm that wants to collect precise data, including those that want to monitor areas like sales, inventories,
or finances, can use ERP systems. ERP is increasingly being utilized in various industries, including
healthcare, e-commerce, and nonprofit work. It is prevalent in manufacturing and production-based
domains. Advantages of ERP system:

• Increased efficiency and automation

• Increased accuracy
• Better interdepartmental collaboration
• Improved data security
• Easier regulatory compliance

QUALITY MANAGEMENT:

Quality management oversees all activities and tasks that must be accomplished to maintain a desired level
of excellence. This includes determining a quality policy, creating and implementing quality planning and
assurance, and quality control and improvement.

Digital transformation has become the hottest buzzword of this decade. New technologies and tools are
supporting the transformation journey of companies, big and small as they compete to get a bigger slice of

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business in a fast-paced competitive environment. Yet is it enough to smooth a company's transformative
process? Can a standalone technology implementation remove a bottleneck in the production process or
support troubleshooting a service design flaw? Although digital transformation fast-tracks a company's
growth, it must be equally supported by quality control and business transformation management methods.

Keeping in tune with emerging markets and processes, the American company Motorola developed a new
concept of quality management process in 1986. Over the years, it has been refined and polished into a
sound theory of principles and methods aimed at business transformation through a clearly defined process.
This finished product is Six Sigma.

Six Sigma:

Six Sigma is a set of management tools and techniques designed to improve business by reducing the
likelihood of error. It is a data-driven approach that uses a statistical methodology to eliminate defects.

The etymology is based on the Greek symbol "sigma" or "σ," a statistical term for measuring process
deviation from the process mean or target. "Six Sigma" comes from the bell curve used in statistics, where
one Sigma symbolizes a single standard deviation from the mean. If the process has six Sigma’s, three
above and three below the mean, the defect rate is classified as "extremely low."

The graph of the normal distribution below underscores the statistical assumptions of the Six Sigma model.
The higher the standard deviation, the higher the spread of values encountered. So, processes where the
mean is a minimum of 6σ away from the closest specification limit are aimed at Six Sigma.

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Six Sigma Methodology:

The two primary Six Sigma methodologies are DMAIC and DMADV. Each has its own set of
recommended procedures for business transformation.

DMAIC is a data-driven method to improve existing products or services for better customer satisfaction.
It is the acronym for the five phases: D – Define, M – Measure, A – Analyse, I – Improve, and C – Control.
DMAIC is applied in the manufacturing of a product or delivery of a service.

DMADV is part of the Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) process used to design or re-design different product
manufacturing or service delivery processes. The five phases of DMADV are: D – Define, M – Measure,
A – Analyse, D – Design, and V – Validate. DMADV is employed when existing processes do not meet
customer conditions, even after optimization, or when it is required to develop new methods. It is executed
by Six Sigma Green Belts and Six Sigma Black Belts and under the supervision of Six Sigma Master Black
Belts. We'll get to the belts later.

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The two methodologies are used in different business settings. Professionals seeking to master these
methods and application scenarios would do well to take an online certificate program taught by industry
experts.

Sigma Sigma (with DPMO Percent Percentage Short- Long-

level 1.5σ shift) defective yield term Cpk term Cpk
1 −0.5 691,462 69% 31% 0.33 −0.17
2 0.5 308,538 31% 69% 0.67 0.17
3 1.5 66,807 6.7% 93.3% 1.00 0.5
4 2.5 6,210 0.62% 99.38% 1.33 0.83
5 3.5 233 0.023% 99.977% 1.67 1.17
6 4.5 3.4 0.00034% 99.99966% 2.00 1.5
7 5.5 0.019 0.0000019% 99.9999981% 2.33 1.83

Capability Indices:

Process capability is the ability of the process to meet the requirements set for that process. Capability
indices determine process capability concerning variation and proximity to the target. They are used for
continuous data and are unitless statistics or metrics.

Cp

• It is the potential capability indicating how well a process could be if it were centered on the target.
This is not necessarily its actual performance because it does not consider the location of the
process, only the spread. It doesn't consider the closeness of the estimated process mean to the
specification limits.
• It compares the width of two-sided specification limits to the effective short-term width of the
process.
• The specification width is the distance between USL and LSL.

80
 • To determine the process width, Six Sigma practitioners defined any process’s effective limits as
three standard deviation limits from the average. In a normally distributed population, 99.73% of
the variation is within ± 3s of the Process Average and therefore considered as process width.
• Cp only compares the width of specification and process; therefore, any change of process average
isn’t accounted for in Cp.
Cpk:

• It is the resultant process capability as it not only considers variation but also the location of the
data by considering the closeness of the mean to the target and specification limits.
• It compares the width of the specification and the width of the process while also accounting for
any change in the process average (location of central tendency)
• Rule of thumb: Cpk >1.33 indicates that the process or characteristic is capable in the short term.
• Values less than this may mean variation is too wide compared to specification, or the process
average (location) is away from the target or a combination of width and location.

𝑈𝑆𝐿 − 𝐿𝑆𝐿
𝐶𝑝 =
6

𝑀𝑒𝑎𝑛−𝐿𝑆𝐿 𝑈𝑆𝐿−𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛
𝐶𝑝𝑘 = min⁡( , )
3 3

DPMO vs. DPPM:

DPMO = Defects per Million Opportunities; A measure of quality performance calculated as:

DPMO= 1,000,000 x amount of defects/number of units x number of opportunities per unit

DPPM = Defective Parts per Million;

A measure of quality performance. One DPPM means one (defect or event) in a million or 1/1,000,000. To
calculate, for example, let’s say you had 25 pieces defective in a shipment of 1,000 pieces. 25/1000= .025
or 2.5% defective. 0.025 X 1,000,000 = 25,000 PPM.

81
It is important to remember that DPMO and DPPM may or may not represent the same thing. A defective
part can have one or more defects, and a part can have one or more opportunities. If ONE part has 1,000,000
opportunities for a defect, and one defect is found, making the entire PART defective, it is possible to have
a 1 DPPM with a DPMO of 0.000001. Typically, most products (and services) have more than one
opportunity of going wrong, which leads to the following example:

If I manufactured two items (wristwatches and pencils), it is obvious the watches have more opportunities
for defects. Therefore, if DPPM were lower on my watches, it would be grossly unfair to say it was worse
than my pencils. To gain an apples-to-apples comparison, I would then use DPMO to consider the
complexity of the watches and to evenly balance it on a scale with the pencils allowing for better
assessment.

Lean v/s six sigma?

Six Sigma focuses on reducing process variation and enhancing process control. Lean— known initially as
lean manufacturing and now broadly accepted as lean enterprise— drives out waste (non-value-added
activities) through value stream mapping and promotes work standardization. Six Sigma practitioners
should be well-versed in both lean and Six Sigma methodologies. Most practitioners advocate
implementing lean first to remove wastes and standardize processes, then implement Six Sigma to reduce
variability and make the process efficient. Effectiveness before efficiency.

Bottleneck:

Bottlenecks determine the throughput of a supply chain. Recognizing this fact and making improvements
will increase cash flow. A bottleneck (or constraint) in a supply chain is the resource that requires the
longest time in the operations of the supply chain for certain demand. Usually, phenomena such as increased
inventory before a bottleneck and insufficient parts after a bottleneck are often seen. Statistically, since
fluctuations are inconsistent, the phenomena (excess inventory and insufficient materials) do not always

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occur. In the case of hiking, a bottleneck means the slowest member in walking. An interval between the
bottleneck member and the one before spreads and narrows with the one after.

An important thing about bottlenecks is that bottlenecks determine the throughput of a supply chain. If a
bottleneck person in hiking can walk faster, the speed of the whole group will increase. Similarly, if the
capacity of a bottleneck in a supply chain improves, the throughput will increase. From the definition of
bottlenecks, the operating rate of non-bottlenecks is below 100%. If so, the operating rate of non-
bottlenecks will increase only within 100%, even if the bottleneck’s capacity increases and the throughput
increases. If the operating rate of non-bottlenecks exceeds 100%, it means that the bottleneck place is moved
to the place of non-bottlenecks.

If bottlenecks are not recognized enough, you will miss a chance to increase throughput. There are many
cases where energy is used for a small cost cut, and an opportunity for a large cash flow is missed due to a
lack of recognition of bottlenecks. Cost per hour on a bottleneck equals the loss of one hour for an entire
supply chain and the loss of the throughput of an entire supply chain.

Theory of Constraints (TOC) explains why recognition and management of bottlenecks will increase the
throughput of a supply chain, use machines efficiently, and increase profit significantly. If increasing the
capacity of a bottleneck operation incurs 0.1% of the total cost, the rest, 99.9%, can be spent to increase
throughput without incurring extra cost.

Time and energy may be spent only on cost reduction, and as a result, only the improvement that can be
made is to decrease the operating rate of a bottleneck from 80% to 60%, and no improvement is made on
cash flow. If a production division thinks that cost variance due to capacity utilization in standard cost
accounting is not their fault, they only think about partial optimization.

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Bullwhip Effect:

The Bullwhip Effect occurs as orders are relayed from retailers to distributors, wholesalers, and
manufacturers, with fluctuations increasing at each step in the sequence. i.e., the variability in demand is
magnified as one moves from the customer to the producer in the supply chain.

According to research by BIS economists, the bullwhip effect occurs when "supply chain participants react
to perceived shortages by ordering more, ordering earlier, and hoarding inputs.". When examined in
isolation, this type of reaction is prudent and rational. However, it can lead to aggregate effects that are
ultimately self-defeating.". As a result, such behavior exacerbates shortages and raises costs. However, a
closer look at individual supply-chain breakdowns demonstrates that "bottlenecks" are not just a uniform
pressure down the supply chain.

Instead, we have seen commodity demand swing as pressures arose at various places along the supply chain,
leading to significant price swings." In other words, the bullwhip effect caused some commodity and input
prices to skyrocket, only to plummet later. The BIS cites the price of iron ore, lumber, and coal and the cost
of shipping containers as examples. Prices skyrocketed and then plummeted in each case as capacity grew
faster than demand.

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Kaizen

Kaizen refers to business activities that continuously improve all functions and involve all employees, from
the CEO to the assembly line workers. Kaizen is a term that refers to ongoing or continuous improvement.
The definition of kaizen comes from two Japanese words: ‘kai,’ meaning ‘change,’ and ‘zen,’ meaning
‘good.’

The Japanese philosophy was first introduced by Toyota in the 1980s and has since been adopted by
thousands of companies around the globe. This lean transformation encourages an improvement culture
that gradually increases quality, efficiency, and profitability.

The Kaizen process can be summarized into four steps, i.e., PDCA (Plan-
Do-Check-Act). Each step entails as follows:

85
Plan – define your objective and how you’ll achieve it.

Do – implement the plan and make any changes required to ensure it works.

Check – evaluate the results and identify opportunities for improvement.

Act – adjust based on what’s found in the previous step.

The benefits of Kaizen are as follows:

• Continuous Improvement of product or service leading to better customer satisfaction.

• Improving quality, productivity & efficiency leads to process improvement and hence can have a
competitive advantage.
• Encourages and engages employees at all levels while discussing and finding solutions. It also
improves team working skills.
• People are encouraged to share ideas and suggestions. Thus, the information doesn’t stay in silos.
• Finding solutions to problems continuously also enhances creativity.

Kanban:

Visual system for managing work as it moves through a process. Work items are represented visually on a
kanban board, allowing team members to see the state of every piece of work at any time.

Kanban aims to identify potential bottlenecks in your process and fix them so work can flow through them
cost-effectively at an optimal speed or throughput.

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5S

87
Step Name Japanese term Explanation

1. Sort Seiri (tidiness) Remove unnecessary items from each area

2. Set In Order Seiton (orderliness) Organize and identify storage for efficient use

3. Shine Seiso (cleanliness) Clean and inspect each area regularly

Seiketsu
4. Standardize Incorporate 5S into standard operating procedures
(standardization)

Assign responsibility, track progress, and continue the

5. Sustain Shitsuke (discipline)
cycle

SOURCING

Sourcing is the process of vetting, selecting, and managing suppliers who can provide the inputs an
organization needs for day-to-day running. Sourcing is tasked with researching, creating and executing
strategy, defining quality and quantity metrics, and choosing suppliers that meet these criteria. Sourcing is
concerned with creating sources through which the supplies an organization needs can flow through.

PROCUREMENT

Procurement is obtaining or purchasing goods or services, typically for business purposes. Seven Stages of
Procurement involve:

Stage 0: Needs Recognition

Stage 1: Purchase Requisition

Stage 2: Identify Suppliers and Float RFQ (Request for Quotations

Stage 3: Solicitation Process (Includes Appraising Quotes and Negotiation)

Stage 4: Evaluation and contract.

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Step 5: Order management.

Step 6: Invoice approvals and disputes.

Step 7: Record Keeping.

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EOQ Model

• Economic order quantity (EOQ) is a company's ideal order quantity to minimize

inventory costs, such as holding costs, shortage costs, and order costs.
• This production-scheduling model was developed in 1913 by Ford W. Harris and has
been refined over time.
• The formula assumes that demand, ordering, and holding costs remain constant.

Carrying or Holding Cost per Item (Cc)

Costs incurred due to holding Inventory at various stages across the supply chain.

a. Storage Costs – Space/Land for storing the inventory, Personnel Costs for safety and management
of inventory
b. Risks Costs – Insurance, obsolescence, damage, pilferage costs
Thus, Cc 𝖺 Inventory(Q)

Ordering Costs (Co)-Per Order Cost

Costs involved in placing an order. Includes,

a. Purchase Order Costs

b. Transportation Costs and others
Thus, Co 𝖺 1/Inventory(Q)

AIM – “Since the Cc and Co are oppositely related with the Inventory (Q), any Inventory Model aims to
find the optimum balance between both.”

Basic Terminology
• Co – Cost of placing one order
• Cc – Annual per-unit carrying cost/holding cost
• D – Annual Demand
• Q – Per Order Quantity

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 • P – Cost Price per Item

Total Cost
• Annual Ordering Cost = Co x (Total no. of orders annually)
= Co x (D/Q)

• Annual Carrying Cost = Cc x (Average Inventory)

= Cc x (Q/2), i.e., Average of the Sawtooth Curve

• Annual Mfg. Cost = P x (Annual Demand)

=PxD

Total Cost = Co x (D/Q) + Cc x (Q/2) + P x D

Total Quality Management (TQM)

A core definition of total quality management (TQM) describes a management approach to long-term
success through customer satisfaction. In a TQM effort, all members of an organization participate in
improving processes, products, services, and the culture in which they work.

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• TQM can be summarized as a management system for a customer-focused organization that involves
all employees in continual improvement. It uses strategy, data, and effective communications to
integrate quality discipline into the culture and activities of the organization. Many of these concepts
are present in modern quality management systems, the successor to TQM.
• Customer-focused: The customer ultimately determines the level of quality. No matter what an
organization does to foster quality improvement—training employees, integrating quality into the
design process, or upgrading computers or software—the customer determines whether the efforts were
worthwhile.
• Total employee involvement: All employees participate in working toward common goals. Total
employee commitment can only be obtained after fear has been driven from the workplace, when
empowerment has occurred, and when management has provided the proper environment. High-
performance work systems integrate continuous improvement efforts with normal business operations.
Self-managed work teams are one form of empowerment.
• Process-centered: A fundamental part of TQM is a focus on process thinking. A process is a series of
steps that take inputs from suppliers (internal or external) and transform them into outputs delivered to
customers (internal or external). The steps required to carry out the process are defined, and
performance measures are continuously monitored to detect unexpected variations.

Lean
Lean is a set of management practices to improve efficiency and effectiveness by eliminating waste. The
core principle of lean is to reduce and eliminate non-value-adding activities and waste.

Toyota has developed its production system around eliminating three enemies of Lean:
1. MUDA (waste) can be defined in eight types, seven defined by Toyota and non-utilized skills.
2. MURI (overburden) can result from Mura and from removing too much Muda (waste) from the
process. When operators or machines are utilized for more than 100% to finish their tasks, they are
overburdened.
3. MURA (unevenness) can be found in fluctuations in customer demand, process times per product,
or variation of cycle times for different operators.
The eight-lean manufacturing mudas can be remembered using the acronym DOWNTIME.

1. Defects
2. Overproduction

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3. Waiting
4. Non-utilized talent
5. Transportation
6. Inventory
7. Motion
8. Extra-processing

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Common manufacturing principles

Different principles can be applied in manufacturing. Some products are manufactured according to
forecasts without specific sales orders. While some products’ production starts only after the reception of a
sales order. Push and pull systems influence the triggering of output. There are also other ways of
classifying the type of production. Production can be structured according to the following principles:

• Make to Stock (MTS)

• Assemble to Order (ATO)
• Make to Order (MTO)
• Engineer to Order (ETO)
Make to Stock (MTS) Make to Stock (also called Build to Stock) means that order processing is based on
demand forecasts. Products are produced in stock. The MTS manufacturing principle has the highest degree
of standardization. Compared to MTO, ATO, and ETO, it is the most forecast-driven but is most suitable
for selling standardized products in large quantities. Especially for everyday goods, inventory levels can be
kept low since they enable highly reliable forecasts. The order is forecast-driven in the areas of
development, design, procurement, production, and final assembly. From the distribution area onwards, the
process is ultimately order-driven.

Assemble to Order (ATO) The manufacturing principle of Assemble to Order is also known as Configure
to Order. It is to cater to Individual customer requirements in production. Assemble to Order is suitable if
the stock of finished goods is to be kept low and there are several variations of a product at the same time;
in the areas of development, design, procurement, and production, forecasts determine production. So,
production or the final product is customer-specific, i.e., order-driven.

Make to Order (MTO): This manufacturing principle is that sales orders trigger production. In this, Stock
levels are kept relatively low, which means that the fulfillment of customer requirements is often associated
with longer delivery times, i.e., high lead time. The sales order is forecast-driven in the areas of development
and design. The areas of procurement, production, final assembly, and distribution are order-driven.

Engineer to Order (ETO) In the Engineer to Order manufacturing principle, the development and design
process is triggered directly after receipt of a customer order. The development is partly forecast-driven,
and partially order-driven. The areas of design, procurement, production, final assembly, and distribution
are generally order-driven in Engineer to Order. This manufacturing principle is particularly suitable for
customer-specific products. The degree of standardization is lowest due to individual production.

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Nomenclature in SCM:

1. Logistics: The time-related positioning of resources to meet user requirements.

2. Inventory: A term used to describe all the goods and materials held by an organization for future
sale or use a list of items held in stock.
3. FIFO: First in, first out is a method of cost lot tracking where items are valued and sold in the order
they were purchased.
4. LIFO: Last in, first out is a method of cost lot tracking where your most recent purchases are sold
first. It works exactly opposite to FIFO.
5. Landed Cost: The total cost of ownership of an item. This includes the cost price, shipping charges,
customs duties, taxes, and any other charges that the buyer bore
6. Bill of Material: A listing of components, parts, and other items needed to manufacture a product,
showing the quantity of each required to produce each end item.
7. Demand-Driven Supply Chains: This is where a supply system is in direct response to a single
point of demand. All the components across a supply chain are synchronized to meet the demand
that it is trying to fulfill
8. Transit Time: The time taken to move goods physically between different locations in a supply
chain or laterally to another facility.
9. Turn Around Time (TAT): The total time taken to repair a component at the repair location,
including waiting time but excluding transit time.
10. Reverse Logistics: The requirement to plan the flow of surplus or unwanted material or equipment
back through the supply chain after meeting customer demand.
11. Cycle Time: Cycle time is the time gap between two consecutive outputs from a process, as defined
by you and your customer. This term is predominantly
12. Lead Time: Lead time represents the time between the moment the customer places the order and
the moment he receives it.
13. Bottleneck: A bottleneck (or constraint) in a supply chain means the resource that requires the
longest time in operations of the supply chain for certain demand.
14. Back Ordering: A practice of placing a purchase order to a supplier for a product that’s temporarily
out of stock in your warehouse and has already been ordered by your customers.

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15. Bullwhip Effect: The Bullwhip Effect occurs as orders are relayed from retailers to distributors, to
wholesalers, to manufacturers, with increasing rate at each step in the sequence that is placed order
is magnified as compared to actual demand as one move from the customer to the manufacturer in
the supply chain.
16. Cross-docking: A method by which a business owner can ship goods they have received from
vendors to their customers with little to no storage time. This method typically uses a single dock
or a platform that has the best access to both cargo loading and unloading areas so that the goods
unloaded from one set of the truck can be reviewed, sorted, split into groups based on different
destinations, and then loaded into another set of trucks for delivery. This method is typically used
for perishable goods with a short shelf life and goods affected by temperature.
17. Benchmarking: The process of comparing performance against the practices of other leading
companies to improve performance. Companies also benchmark internally by tracking and
comparing current performance with past performance. Benchmarking seeks to improve any
business process by exploiting “best practices” rather than merely measuring the best performance.
Best practices are the cause of best performance. Studying best practices provides the most
significant opportunity for gaining a strategic, operational, and financial advantage.
18. ABC Analysis: Pareto analysis applied to a group of products to apply selective inventory
management controls. The inventory value for each item is obtained by multiplying the annual
demand by unit cost, and the entire inventory is then ranked in descending order of cost. However,
the classification parameter can be varied; for example, it is possible to use the velocity of turnover
rather than the annual demand value.
19. Economic Order Quantity (EOQ): In fixed-order quantity systems, the size of an order minimizes
the total inventory cost under a given set of circumstances and is obtained by trade-off analysis
between the cost of placing an order and the cost of holding stock.
20. Enterprise Requirement Planning (ERP): A further extension of MRP II whereby a single
system embraces and integrates all aspects of business operations into a single database application.
21. Just-in-Time (JIT): A dependent demand inventory control philosophy that views production as
a system in which all operations, including the delivery of materials needed for production, occur
just at the time they are needed. Thus, stocks of material are virtually eliminated.
22. Pull System: A system where orders for an end item are pulled through the facility to satisfy the
demand for the end item. An example of a pull system is the JIT Kanban process.

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 23. Push System: A system where orders are issued for completion by specified due dates, based on
estimated lead times, or where the flow of material in a product structure is controlled and
determined by the lower levels.
24. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID): The attachment of transponders (which may be read-
only or read/write) to products, as an alternative to linear bar codes, to enable product identification
some distance from the scanner or when out of the line of sight.
25. Safety Stock: The stock held to protect against the differences between forecast and actual
consumption and between expected and actual delivery times of procurement orders to protect
against stockouts during the replenishment cycle. In calculating safety stock, the account is taken
of such factors as service level, expected fluctuations of demand, and likely variations in lead time.

Sample Questions:

1. How do firms reduce inventory costs?

2. What’s the difference between Operations and Supply chain Management?
3. What is JIT, and what are its advantages?
4. How do you choose between different suppliers?
5. What is Value Analysis and Value Engineering? Explain its process.
6. Explain work-study and method study with examples.
7. What do you understand by poka-yoke and heijunka?
8. What are different forecasting techniques?
9. Examples of Push and Pull type supply chain, any example of an industry that follows both push
and pull type supply chain.
10. How would you explain six sigma to a 7-year-old?
11. What is Six Sigma? Why is it six and not five or four?
12. Why is DPMO considered for the calculation of six sigma and not DPM?
13. What are MTTR and MTBR? Express Equipment Availability in terms of MTTR and MTBR.
14. What do you understand by lean? What are the wastes covered in lean?
15. What is vertical integration in strategic management?

Opera club wishes you all the best for the WAT/PI process!

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Reach out to us @ opera@sjmsom.in

Follow us @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/opera-sjmsom/

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 PRODIGY – The ProdMan Club

Greetings from Prodigy Club, the flagship ProdMan club of SJMSOM, IIT Bombay. Given below is some
preparatory material for the product management domain. We hope you find it useful for your interviews,
and we hope to see you at SJMSOM. All the best for your interviews!

Product

A product is an item or a service offered on the market and designed to meet the needs or wishes of
customers.

In terms of product management, it is the result of management activities that provide users with unique
opportunities. Those opportunities then offer value to users.

E.g., Spotify, education, consulting, WhatsApp, etc.

Product Management

Product management is the process of strategically directing every stage of the product lifecycle, from
research and development to testing and positioning. The goal is to build technically feasible products that
fulfill both user needs and business objectives.

Product management happens at the intersection between business, technology, and user experience.

Roles of a PM

● Understanding and representing user needs.

● Monitoring the market and developing competitive analyses.
● Defining a vision for a product.
● Aligning stakeholders around the vision for the product.
● Prioritizing product features and capabilities.
● Creating a shared brain across larger teams to empower independent decision-making.

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Seven basic product management processes

1. Finding the problem you want to solve: The first step involves figuring out which user pain
points your product could address.

Ideas can come from user feedback, issues with current tools you offer, gaps in the broader market, or
business needs and goals.

2. Questioning the problem: In this stage, they run user interviews and competitive analysis to
understand how solving the problem identified in the first step could help their product meet user goals.
These involve creating customer delight and organizational goals like profitability.

3. Testing possible solutions: Post identifying the right problem to address, the PMs work with their
team to generate ideas for product solutions.

4. Defining a solution: When a viable solution has been identified, it’s time to define a clear product
vision. Product managers should create a clear roadmap and set KPIs to measure progress.

5. Get cross-functional buy-in: It involves convincing stakeholders from different departments to

support and allocate resources to your product ideas.

6. Build a Minimum Viable Product: Create a simple version of the product with basic features and
release it onto the market to test its functionality. Based on the results, further steps can be taken.

7. Guide execution: Finally, the product manager leads the development and engineering teams through
executing the product vision.

Five skills to thrive in product management

1. Deep research

2. Knowing where to prioritize

3. Empathy for users

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4. Storytelling

5. Inspirational leadership

Agile product management

It is an adaptive approach to product strategy planning and implementation where teams align to achieve
product goals.

Pros and cons of agile product management

Pros

• The work sprints and workflows in the agile lead to faster review and response cycles
• The entire method provides greater flexibility and speed
• It facilitates better user understanding throughout the product lifecycle

Cons

• It involves multiple approval workflows, which can be chaotic if not organized in the initial
stages.
• There’s uncertainty and lack of predictability about when you’ll see results

Key differences between product managers and project managers

Product Manager’s Functions Project Manager’s Functions

Researching Breaking down large initiatives into tasks

Setting product vision Planning project timelines

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 Communicating vision to stakeholders Allocating project resources

Developing a strategic plan Monitoring and tracking task completion

Creating and maintaining the product roadmap Communicating progress to stakeholders

Overseeing and driving development Ensuring project completion in a set timeframe

Product Mix

A successful product mix strategy has four dimensions:

Width: Total number of product lines a company offers.

Length: Total number of products in a company’s product mix.

Depth: Total number of product variations in a product line.

Consistency: Indicates how product lines relate to one another.

Product Life Cycle

It is the amount of time a product goes from being introduced into the market until it's taken off the shelves.

There are four stages in a product's life cycle, i.e., introduction, growth, maturity, and decline.

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Gartner Hype Cycle

It provides a graphic representation of the maturity and adoption of technologies and applications and how
they are potentially relevant to solving real business problems and exploiting new opportunities.

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PM Frameworks

CIRCLE Framework

● Comprehend the situation

● Identify the customers who will benefit from this product
● Report the needs of the customers
● Cut through different priorities and select the highest priority feature or customer group
● List all solutions
● Evaluate the tradeoffs through analysis

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 5W’s & H

● What is it?
● Who is it for?
● Why do they need it?
● When is it available?
● Where is it available?
● How does it work?

AARRR

● Acquisition — How users find you

● Activation — An initial experience great experience?
● Retention — Do they come back and re-visit over time?
● Revenue — Can you monetize any of this behavior?
● Referral — Do they like it enough to tell their friends?

Product Owner

A product owner is a key participant in the product development team. They often provide direction,
ensuring that an agreed-upon set of features is built and released throughout the project's life cycle. Product
owners take on diverse responsibilities, such as:

● Setting priorities
● Providing insight into user needs
● And managing team and stakeholder expectations

Product owners must also understand their customer's needs to meet them. The skills needed to be a product
owner position include:

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 ● Understanding business goals
● Creativity
● Analytical thinking
● Leadership
● Management skills
These core skills and competencies are crucial for any product owner in product development or as a Kanban
product owner.

What is a product roadmap?

A product roadmap is a graph that illustrates work, milestones, and goals across time, similar to a Gantt chart.
In the same way that Gantt charts are used to illustrate a project plan and schedule, product roadmaps are used
to visualize a product plan and timeline and facilitate teams to use the launch plan template for success.

The purpose of a product roadmap is to document and communicate the high-level work and objectives of a
product plan, as well as to show progress to date and work remaining. Sharing your product roadmap with your
team and other stakeholders, you help keep everyone on the same page about the product’s progress and goals.

Roadmaps are also helpful in assessing change requests, as they help you see how new functionality or a change
in requirements will impact the overall product plan.

Your product management roadmap is a "living document" that must be updated throughout the product life
cycle. As work progresses and changes occur, the roadmap must reflect this new information to keep
stakeholders updated.

Who designs a product roadmap?

Typically, a product manager designs the product roadmap. Product managers are responsible for overseeing
and managing the entire product life cycle. Their focus is on the high-level product strategy and plan, and the
product roadmap is essential.

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While the product manager is responsible for designing the product roadmap, they don’t complete product road
mapping alone. To ensure that all the essential information is included in the roadmap, the product manager
must collaborate with key stakeholders to brainstorm and prioritize features and requirements.

What goes into product roadmap planning?

• Defining your product strategy and vision
• Define measurable objectives
• Define who your audience is and how far out you want the roadmap to go.

What are KPIs?

Key performance indicators show whether the business achieves its predetermined goals and objectives. KPIs
are used to quantify the success and failure of product goals.

KPIs measure the performance of the business or product in line with elements such as revenue, cost, usage,
customer satisfaction rate, and more.

Product teams set goals and identify specific, measurable KPIs to help ascertain progress. They can brainstorm
and set up five to six KPIs to document and monitor regularly.

What are metrics?

A metric is a specific number or data-centric criteria that teams use to track the success of a product or business
activity. Product teams use metrics to detect risks, set goals, and make effective decisions. KPIs track
measurable business outcomes, while metrics track workflows and processes. While every KPI is a metric, all
metrics are not KPIs.

Here’s a product metrics and KPIs example:

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Metrics: Active product users is a metric that represents the number of regular customers that use the product.
It can indicate growth, revenue, and other important insights.

KPI: An achievement of a 25% increase in users year over year is an example of a KPI. Let’s say that a
significant business objective was to increase revenue by a certain amount within a financial year. A 25%
increase in users indicates that more paid users have adopted or joined the platform, signaling that the
organization is closer to achieving this objective.

Key metrics for product management

These key product management metrics and KPIs can be used to measure product and process performance.

Net promoter score (NPS)

NPS quantifies customer satisfaction with the product. Imagine your customers answering this question: Would
you recommend this product/service to a friend/peer?

Promoters are existing clients who can promote the product through positive reviews or word-of-mouth
recommendations. Leverage these positive experiences using interviews and case studies.

Consider the time it takes to adopt a product or feature that's just been introduced. The NPS also includes the
percentage of users adopting the new feature and how often they engage with it.

Retention rate

Retention rate is a key metric that tracks the percentage of active users compared to the total users for a specific
period.

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SaaS companies or organizations with a subscription-based model commonly use it. To maintain a reasonable
retention rate, companies must consistently meet customer expectations and deliver immense value.

Churn rate

The churn rate is the percentage of customers that leave a company or unsubscribe from a platform within a
specific period. Every product-focused company (SaaS companies, in particular) intends to increase retention
while reducing customer churn rates.

Customer satisfaction rate

Every company wants its customer satisfaction rates to be the highest. High customer satisfaction rates imply
that a company can deliver what customers want across the buying journey.

From attracting customers to delivering the product to post-sales service, customer satisfaction rates rely on
users being happy with the entire process.

Quantifying customer needs and preferences can act as a benchmark when identifying customer satisfaction
scores. A detailed analysis of customers' inputs and feedback can help determine what users want and need
from a company's product or service.

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 SYSTEMATICS – The Systems and Analytics Club

Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is the delivery of different services through the internet. These resources include tools
and applications like data storage, servers, databases, networking, and software. Companies that provide
cloud services enable users to store files and applications on remote servers and access all the data via the
internet. This means the user is not required to be in a specific place to gain access to it, allowing the user
to work remotely.

Cloud computing can be both public and private. Public cloud services provide their services over the
internet for a fee. On the other hand, private cloud services only provide services to a certain number of
people. These services are a system of networks that supply hosted services. There is also a hybrid option,
combining public and private services elements.

Cloud computing is not a single piece of technology. Rather, it's a system primarily comprised of three
services: Software-as-a-service (SaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), and Platform-as-a-service
(PaaS).

a) Software-as-a-service (SaaS) involves the licensure of a software application to customers. Licenses are
typically provided through a pay-as-you-go model or on-demand. This type of system can be found in
Microsoft Office's 365.

b) Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) involves delivering everything from operating systems to servers and
storage through IP-based connectivity as part of an on-demand service. Clients can avoid the need to
purchasing software or servers and resources in an outsourced, on-demand service. Popular examples of
the IaaS system include IBM Cloud and Microsoft Azure.

c) Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) is considered the most complex of the three layers of cloud-based
computing. PaaS shares some similarities with SaaS, the primary difference being that instead of delivering
software online, it is a platform for creating software that is delivered via the internet. This model includes
platforms like Salesforce.com and Heroku.

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Advantages

• Lower-cost computers for users: There is no need to purchase powerful and expensive equipment to use
cloud computing since all the processing is not at your local computer but in the cloud. Since the application
runs in the cloud, not on the desktop PC, that desktop PC does not need the processing power or hard disk
space demanded by traditional desktop software.

• Better performance: Since no programs or files are loaded on the local PC, users will not experience delays
when switching on/off their computers. The internal network will be much faster since no internal traffic
will occur.

• Less IT infrastructure costs: The IT department of large organizations could experience decreasing
expenses in regard to infrastructure with the adoption of cloud computing technology. Instead of investing
in larger numbers of more powerful servers, the IT staff can use the computing power of the cloud to
supplement or replace internal computing resources.

• Fewer maintenance costs: Maintenance costs also will be reduced using cloud computing since both
hardware and software maintenance for organizations of all sizes will be much less. For example, fewer
servers are necessary for the organization, which means that maintenance costs are immediately lowered.
As to software maintenance, there is no software on the organization's computers for the IT staff to maintain.

• Anywhere access to your documents: When you are in the cloud, there is no need to take your documents
with you. Instead, you can access your actual PC from anywhere Internet access is available.

Disadvantages

• Internet connection is required: It is impossible to work if your Internet connection is down. Since you
are using the internet to connect to your "cloud PC," if there is no Internet connection, you simply cannot
connect.

• Stored data might not be secure: Data is stored "in the cloud."

• Your data is 100% in the cloud: All the data you have until now on your local PC is stored in the cloud.
Theoretically, data stored in the cloud is safe since a cloud hosting company uses several ways of backup
in order to ensure that, in any case, the data will not be lost. However, if your data is missing (even one in
a million), you have no physical or local backup.

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Material for additional reading:

1) https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-is-cloud-computing-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-
cloud/
2) https://www.interviewgrid.com/interview_questions/cloud/cloud_basics
3) https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/computerbasics/understanding-the-cloud/1/
4) https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/issues-in-cloud-computing/?ref=lbp

Product Management
What is a Product?

A product is any item or service you sell to serve a customer’s need or want. In Digital terms, any
app/website which you use can be defined as a Product.

A product can be divided into features/sub-features, and for each such feature/sub-feature, there can be
dedicated product teams handling that feature.

Product Examples: Netflix, WhatsApp, eBooks, Games, etc.

What is Product Management?

Product management is the job of looking after a specific product within a business. Product management
is done differently from one business to the next. It depends on the size of your company, whether you
work with software, physical products, or services, and if you’re selling to businesses or consumers. Any
great product addresses a user's need and solves their pain points. E.g., Google+ failed because it didn’t
address any latent user need/pain point. Guides use of latest/relevant tech to solve the customer problem
and sets the vision for UX to make it usable for users. E.g., Orkut failed because of a miserable UX. And
obviously, the product needs to bring in money for the business to be viable or have the backing of VCs.
WhatsApp would have probably failed had it not gotten acquired by Facebook because users in the
developing world wouldn't have paid the annual fee for it.

Product Management Life Cycle:

1. Innovation: Producing and collecting new ideas, identifying the most attractive ones, and
developing a customer proposal

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 2. Analysis: Determining whether or whether there is market demand, drafting high-level
requirements, and justifying the investment
3. Development: The product has been designed, built, and tested. This is an iterative process with
Agile software development, and there may be numerous sprints - each preceded by further
customer discovery and analysis.
4. Go-to-Market: Trials, finalizing the proposition, and ensuring that the company is ready to market
the product are all part of the launch preparations.
5. In-Life: The emphasis is on selling, tracking performance, and resolving any issues.
6. End-of-Life: In the End-of-Life stage, a product is discontinued when it is no longer needed.

How to solve a Product Management problem?

Steps:

1. Define a Goal

a. Acquisition
b. Activation
c. Retention
d. Monetize

2. CIRCLE Framework

a. Comprehend the situation

b. Identify the customers who will benefit from this product
c. Report the needs of the customers
d. Cut through different priorities and select the highest priority feature or customer
group,
e. List all solutions
f. Evaluate the tradeoffs through analysis

3. Define some metrics to track the success of your product (e.g., App downloads, Customer traffic,
Daily/active users, etc.)

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Blockchain
What is Blockchain?

Blockchain is a decentralized, distributed, and immutable digital ledger that can store and record everything
of value, not only financial transactions. Although it was created as a technology for the cryptocurrency
Bitcoin, it is now employed by businesses in various industries.

The purpose of Blockchain is to enable the recording and distribution of digital data without the ability to
modify it. In this sense, a blockchain is a foundation for immutable ledgers or transaction records that can't
be changed, erased, or destroyed. Blockchains are also known as distributed ledger technology because of
this (DLT).

Blockchain increases trust, security, transparency, and the traceability of data shared across a business
network — and delivers cost savings with new efficiencies.

Examples of Bitcoin and Ethereum are popular examples of blockchains.

What are Blocks in Blockchain?

A Blockchain is made up of several blocks that include financial transaction data. Each block has a
timestamp, transaction data, and a one-of-a-kind hash pointer that connects it to the block before it. All the
blocks come together to form a Blockchain.

What is the difference between Bitcoin and Ethereum?

● Ethereum is a smart contract platform, whereas Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency.

● Ethereum employs Ether instead of the SHA-256 algorithm used by Bitcoin.
● The block time for Bitcoin is 10 minutes, while Ethereum's block duration is roughly 12-14 seconds.
● Unlike Bitcoin, which has yet to be labeled as 'scalable,' Ethereum is extremely scalable.

What is encryption?

Blockchain ensures a safe and secure data ecosystem, which it accomplishes through encryption.
Encryption is the technique of encoding or subtly altering data before it is sent over a network by a user.
Only the sender and receiver know the key to decipher the encrypted code, ensuring data safety and security.

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What are the most widely used cryptography algorithms?

Some of the most extensively used cryptographic algorithms are:

● RSA
● AES
● Triple DES
● Two fish
● Blowfish

Explain the Public key and Private key.

A public key is a cryptographic key that allows all users/peers in a Blockchain network to receive funds in
their wallet. This key is an alphanumeric string that is unique to a specific node or address. On the other
hand, a private key is an alphanumeric phrase used to encrypt and decode data in conjunction with a public
key. This key is kept by a single person who is also the key generator. The data in the generator's wallet
will be jeopardized if anyone else gets their hands on the private key.

What are the security issues in Blockchain?

● Routing attacks
● Phishing attacks
● Transaction Privacy leakage
● 51% attacks
● End-point Vulnerabilities

What are the applications of Blockchain?

● Smart Contracts
● Electronic Voting
● Cloud Storage
● Supply-Chain Communications & Proof-of-Provenance
● Paying Employees
● Financial exchanges and money transfer
● Healthcare

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Robotic process automation (RPA)
What is RPA?

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is the process of automating corporate procedures with the use of robots
in order to reduce human intervention. Robots are robotic beings that mimic human behavior. A process is
a set of stages that leads to a specific outcome. For instance, the process of making coffee or preparing your
favorite dish.

Any process carried out by a robot without human intervention is referred to as automation.

When we put all of these phrases together, we get Robotic Process Automation, which is defined as the
mimicking of human behaviors to conduct a sequence of stages that leads to meaningful activity without
the need for human participation.

What are the tools for RPA?

RPA Tools are software developed by vendors that allow you to set up processes to be automated for your
organization. RPA vendors include Blue Prism, Automation Anywhere, UiPath, WorkFusion, Pega
Systems, and many others in today's market. The most popular being UiPath, Blue Prism & Automation
Anywhere are the market leaders.

Where can RPA be used?

RPA has been applied in departments as diverse as finance, compliance, legal, customer service, operations,
and IT in industries like but not limited to financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, the public sector,
retail, and far beyond.

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Source: https://www.laserfiche.com/ecmblog/what-is-robotic-process-automation-rpa/

Internet of things (IoT)

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of interconnected and internet-connected objects that can gather
and transmit data without the need for human intervention across a wireless network. A connected medical
device, a solar panel, a connected automobile with sensors that alert the driver to a variety of potential
issues (fuel, tire pressure, required maintenance, etc.), or any object equipped with sensors that can collect
and transfer data over a network can all be considered a 'thing.'

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Source:https://bignerdranch.com/blog/what-the-internet-of-things-means-for-your-business/

Which technologies complemented the development of IoT?

Developments in a variety of technologies below have made IoT a reality:

Access to low-cost, low-power sensor technologies: Affordably priced and dependable sensors are
enabling more manufacturers to use IoT technology.

Connectivity: A slew of internet network protocols have made it simple to link sensors to the cloud and
other "things" for fast data transfer.

Platforms for cloud computing: Cloud platforms are becoming more widely available, allowing
organizations and consumers to acquire access to the infrastructure they need to grow up without having to
handle it all themselves.

Analytics and machine learning: Businesses can acquire insights faster and more simply thanks to
developments in machine learning and analytics, as well as access to diverse and large volumes of data
stored in the cloud. The advent of these linked technologies continues to push the frontiers of IoT, and IoT
data feeds these technologies as well.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and Natural-language processing (NLP): This enabled the
development of IoT devices (such as digital personal assistants Alexa, Cortana, and Siri) due to advances
in neural networks, making them more appealing, inexpensive, and feasible for home usage.

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Enterprise Resource Planning
ERP stands for "Enterprise Resource Management," which refers to the centralized process of obtaining
and arranging corporate data using a software suite. ERP software consists of systems that automate
business processes such as production, sales quoting, and accounting, among others. ERP streamlines
business operations across different departments. ERP solutions help businesses manage their resources
better, whether it's raw materials for production or resource staffing hours.

Types of ERP

Any ERP software that is installed directly in-house is referred to as on-premises ERP. These solutions
are intended for enterprises of all sizes, but they may be better suitable for small and medium-sized
organizations.

Open-Source ERP, like any other open-source software, allows for the inspection, alteration, and
improving a business's ERP source code. Using an open-source ERP allows the organization to tailor the
application to their specific needs.

ERP Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is provided over a Cloud-hosting service rather than on-premises
deployment and is referred to as cloud-based ERP. This option, which is appropriate for large organizations,
allows viewing real-time data as long as there is Internet connectivity.

Hybrid ERP refers to enterprise resource planning systems that combine on-premises and cloud-based
functionality.

Web 3.0 and Metaverse

Web 3.0 is the upcoming third generation of the internet where websites and apps will be able to process
information in a smart human-like way through technologies like machine learning (ML), Big Data,
decentralized ledger technology (DLT), etc. In Web 3.0, data will be interconnected in a decentralized way,
as opposed to our current generation of the internet (Web 2.0), where data is mostly stored in centralized
repositories. Web 3.0 will be born out of a natural evolution of older-generation web tools combined with
cutting-edge technologies like AI and Blockchain, as well as the interconnection between users and

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increasing internet usage. Where Web 2.0 was driven by the advent of mobile, social, and cloud, Web 3.0
is mainly built on three new layers of technological innovation: edge computing, decentralized data
networks, and artificial intelligence.

Web3 enhances the internet as we know it today with a few other added characteristics. web3 is:

• Verifiable
• Trustless
• Self-governing
• Permissionless
• Distributed and robust
• Stateful
• Native built-in payments.

In web3, developers don't usually build and deploy applications that run on a single server or that store their
data in a single database (usually hosted on and managed by a single cloud provider). Instead, web3
applications either run on blockchains, decentralized networks of many peer-to-peer nodes (servers), or a
combination of the two that forms a crypto-economic protocol. These apps are often referred to as apps
(decentralized apps), and you will see that term used often in the web3 space. Extending the discussion
about Web 3, the term Metaverse has been used everywhere lately. A metaverse is a network of 3D virtual
worlds focused on social connection. Access points for metaverses include general-purpose computers and
smartphones, in addition to augmented reality (AR), mixed reality, virtual reality (VR), and virtual world
technologies.

Resources for additional reading

1) https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/web2-vs-web3/
2) https://blockchainhub.net/web3-decentralized-web/
3) https://www.wionews.com/photos/from-metaverse-to-nft-here-is-all-you-need-to-know-
about-tech-buzzwords-of-2021-439134
4) https://www.ft.com/partnercontent/crypto-com/nfts-the-metaverse-economy.html

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Project Management
Project management is a collection of proven techniques for proposing, planning, implementing, managing,
and evaluating projects, combined with the art of managing people. It is the application of knowledge,
skills, tools, and techniques to a broad range of activities to meet the specified requirements of a particular
project.

While there are many project management techniques and tools, there are considerable differences in
applying these methods to different projects. For example, a large, complex, multiyear construction project
is very different from a 12-month ISO 9001 quality management system implementation or a three-month
process improvement and machinery upgrade project.

Stages of the project planning process

The life cycle of a project has five stages.

Stage 1: Visualizing, selling, and initiating the project

An effective way to get buy-in for a project or idea is to link it to what is important to the person or group
you are approaching and demonstrate that you are openly soliciting their input. By doing so, they can help
shape the concept.

Stage 2: Planning the project

Assuming the project concept and feasibility have been determined, the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle
(see figure below) is directly applicable to project planning and management.

Stage 3: Designing the processes and outputs (deliverables)

When the project is approved, the project team may proceed with the content design along with the persons
or items needed to implement the project. The design process includes defining the following:

● Measurements
● The monitoring method
● Status reporting protocols
● Evaluation criteria
● Design of the ultimate processes and outputs
● Implementation schedules

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Stage 4: Implementing and tracking the project

The project design team may also implement the project with the help of additional personnel. A trial or
test implementation may be used to check out the project design and outputs to determine if they meet the
project objectives.

Using the planned reporting methods, the implementation team monitors the project and reports on its status
to appropriate interested parties at designated project milestones. Interim results may also be communicated
to interested parties. The implementation team makes any course corrections and tradeoffs that may be
necessary and are approved.

Stage 5: Evaluating and closing out the project

The implementation team officially closes the project when the scheduled tasks have been completed.
Usually, evaluations are done to determine the following:

● Objectives met versus objectives planned

● Actual tasks and events scheduled versus planned
● Resources used versus planned resource usage
● Costs versus budget
● Organizational outcomes achieved versus planned outcomes, any unplanned outcomes
● Effectiveness of project planning team (optional)
● Effectiveness of implementation team (optional)
● Team’s compilation of project documents, evaluations, and lessons learned

The project is then officially closed out. Participants are recognized for their contributions, and the team
disbands.

For some projects, many organizations find value in a post-implementation assessment of the outcomes
achieved from implementing the project. This may occur several months after project completion.

Further, Reading –

● What is Project Management? Project Planning Process | ASQ

● What is Project Management? Definition & Terms | TeamGantt

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 ● Microsoft Word - ProjectManagementFinal

DevOps
A compound of development (Dev) and operations (Ops), DevOps is the union of people, processes, and
technology to continually provide value to customers.

DevOps enables formerly siloed roles—development, IT operations, quality engineering, and security—to
coordinate and collaborate to produce better, more reliable products. By adopting a DevOps culture along
with DevOps practices and tools, teams gain the ability to respond better to customer needs, increase
confidence in the applications they build, and achieve business goals faster.

Teams that adopt DevOps culture, practices, and tools become high-performing, building better products
faster for greater customer satisfaction. This improved collaboration and productivity are also integral to
achieving business goals like these:

● Accelerating time to market

● Adapting to the market and competition
● Maintaining system stability and reliability
● Improving the mean time to recover

DevOps and the application lifecycle

DevOps influences the application lifecycle throughout its plan, development, delivery, and operation
phases. Each phase relies on the others, and the phases are not role specific. In a true DevOps culture, each
role is involved in each phase to some extent.

A. Plan
In the planning phase, DevOps teams ideate, define and describe features and capabilities of the applications
and systems they are building. They track progress at low and high levels of granularity—from single-
product tasks to tasks that span portfolios of multiple products. Creating backlogs, tracking bugs, managing
agile software development with Scrum, using Kanban boards, and visualizing progress with dashboards
are some of the ways DevOps teams plan with agility and visibility.

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 B. Develop
The development phase includes all aspects of coding—writing, testing, reviewing, and the integration of
code by team members—as well as building that code into build artifacts that can be deployed into various
environments. DevOps teams seek to innovate rapidly without sacrificing quality, stability, and
productivity. To do that, they use highly productive tools, automate mundane and manual steps and iterate
in small increments through automated testing and continuous integration.

C. Delivery
Delivery is the process of deploying applications into production environments in a consistent and reliable
way. The Deliver phase also includes deploying and configuring the fully governed foundational
infrastructure that makes up those environments. In the Deliver phase, teams define a release management
process with clear manual approval stages. They also set automated gates that move applications between
stages until they're made available to customers. Automating these processes makes them scalable,
repeatable, and controlled. This way, teams who practice DevOps can frequently deliver with ease,
confidence, and peace of mind.

D. Operate
The Operate phase involves maintaining, monitoring, and troubleshooting applications in production
environments. In adopting DevOps practices, teams work to ensure system reliability and high availability
and aim for zero downtime while reinforcing security and governance. DevOps teams seek to identify issues
before they affect the customer experience and mitigate issues quickly when they do occur. Maintaining
this vigilance requires rich telemetry, actionable alerting, and full visibility into applications and the
underlying system.

Further Reading –

● What is DevOps - Explained | New Relic

● What is DevOps? - DevOps.com
● What is DevOps? DevOps Explained | Microsoft Azure

Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0 refers to a new phase in the Industrial Revolution that focuses heavily on interconnectivity,
automation, machine learning, and real-time data. It is commonly known as the fourth industrial revolution.

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Manufacturers are integrating new technologies, including the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing
and analytics, and AI and machine learning, into their production facilities and throughout their operations.
Analyzing the large amounts of big data collected from sensors on the factory floor ensures real-time
visibility of manufacturing assets.

Industry 4.0 concepts and technologies can be applied across all types of industrial companies, including
discrete and process manufacturing, as well as oil and gas, mining, and other industrial segments.

https://manufacturingglobal.com/smart-manufacturing/what-industry-40

Edge Computing
Edge computing is a distributed computing framework that brings enterprise applications closer to data
sources such as IoT devices or local edge servers. This proximity to data at its source can deliver strong
business benefits: faster insights, improved response times, and better bandwidth availability.

Why edge computing?

The promise of cloud and AI was to automate and speed innovation by driving actionable insight from data.
But the unprecedented scale and complexity of data that are created by connected devices have outpaced
network and infrastructure capabilities.

Sending all that device-generated data to a centralized data center or to the cloud causes bandwidth and
latency issues. Edge computing offers a more efficient alternative: data is processed and analyzed closer to
the point where it's created. Because data does not traverse over a network to a cloud or data center to be
processed, latency is significantly reduced. Edge computing — and mobile edge computing on 5G networks
— enables faster and more comprehensive data analysis, creating the opportunity for deeper insights, faster
response times, and improved customer experiences.

Drawbacks of edge computing

1. One drawback of edge computing is that it can increase attack vectors. With the addition of more
"smart" devices into the mix, there are new opportunities for malicious attackers to compromise
these devices.

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 2. Edge computing sites are usually remote, with limited or no on-site technical expertise. If
something fails on site, it would not be easy to get it fixed quickly.
3. The physical security of edge sites is often much lower than that of core sites. An edge strategy
must account for a greater risk of accidental situations.

Digital Twin
A digital twin is a digital representation of a physical object, process, or service. The technology behind
digital twins has expanded to include large items such as buildings, factories, and even cities. It can be used
to replicate processes to collect data to predict how they will perform. It uses simulation, machine learning,
and reasoning to help with decision-making.

How Does Digital Twin Technology Work?

The life of a digital twin begins with experts in applied mathematics or data science researching the physics
and operational data of a physical object or system to develop a mathematical model that simulates the
original.

The twin is constructed so that it can receive input from sensors gathering data from a real-world
counterpart. This allows the twin to simulate the physical object in real-time, in the process offering insights
into performance and potential problems. The twin could also be designed based on a prototype of its
physical counterpart, in which case the twin can provide feedback as the product is refined; a twin could
even serve as a prototype itself before any physical version is built.

Applications:

Digital twins are already extensively used in the following applications:

Manufacturing operations

Since digital twins are meant to mirror a product’s entire lifecycle, it’s not surprising that digital twins have
become ubiquitous in all stages of manufacturing, guiding products from design to finished product.

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Automotive

One example of where digital twins are used in the automotive industry is to gather and analyze operational
data from a vehicle to assess its status in real time.

Healthcare

The medical sector has benefitted from digital twins in areas such as organ donation, surgery training, and
de-risking of procedures. Systems have also modeled the flow of people through hospitals and tracked
where infections may exist.

Disaster Management

Global climate change has had an impact across the world in recent years, yet digital twins can help to
combat this through the informed creation of smarter infrastructures, emergency response plans, and climate
change monitoring.

Smart Cities

The digital twin can also be used to help cities become more economically, environmentally, and socially
sustainable. Virtual models can guide planning decisions & offer solutions to the many complex challenges
faced by modern cities.

AI and ML
AI: Artificial intelligence (AI), also known as machine intelligence, is a branch of computer science that
focuses on building and managing technology that can learn to autonomously make decisions and carry out
actions on behalf of a human being.

ML: Machine learning (ML) is a sub-topic of artificial intelligence (AI) that focuses on building
algorithmic models that can identify patterns and relationships in data. In this context, the word machine is
a synonym for a computer program, and the word learning describes how ML algorithms will automatically
become more accurate as they receive additional data.

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Difference between AI and ML:

Artificial Intelligence Machine Learning

The goal of AI is to simulate natural intelligence The goal of ML is to learn from data on certain
to solve complex problems. tasks to maximize the performance of the
machine on this task.
It leads to developing a system to mimic humans It involves creating self-learning algorithms.
to respond and behave in the circumstances.
AI leads to intelligence or wisdom. ML leads to knowledge.

For more info, please: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/understanding-the-differences-between-

ai-machine-learning-and-deep-learning/

Types of Artificial Intelligence:

There are seven types of AI categorized across two groups.

The basic classification is done based on the capabilities and functionalities of AI.

For more info on each of these classifications, please visit

https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/artificial-intelligence-tutorial/types-of-artificial-intelligence

Types of Machine Learning:

Machine learning contains a set of algorithms that work on a huge amount of data. Data is fed to these
algorithms to train them, and on the basis of training, they build the model & perform a specific task.

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These ML algorithms help to solve different business problems like Regression, Classification, Forecasting,
Clustering, Associations, etc.

For more information pertaining to ML methods:

https://www.cardinalpath.com/blog/forecasting-with-machine-learning-techniques

Based on the methods and way of learning, machine learning is divided into mainly four types, which are:

1. Supervised Machine Learning

2. Unsupervised Machine Learning
3. Semi-Supervised Machine Learning
4. Reinforcement Learning

Hierarchy of various domains related to AI and ML

Latest trends in the world of AI and ML

● Metaverse by Meta: https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/77823

● Video by The Verge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zbQhb2siHs
● Boston Dynamics: https://spectrum.ieee.org/how-boston-dynamics-is-redefining-robot-agility

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Note: This material is to provide an overview of mentioned technologies, and we strongly encourage you
to explore them further and their applications in various business functions and industries.

Past Experiences for IT Enthusiasts:

Experience 1:

Profile:

B.Tech. ECE

24 months of Work Experience as a Software Engineer

Questions:

1. What is an ERP system? Briefly explain the CRM system and the difference between ERP and
CRM.
2. What are the challenges 5G technology will face in India?
3. Briefly describe Cloud computing. How is it different from edge computing?
4. As a consultant, for Companies that have existing IT infrastructure, would you suggest the cloud,
why, and what model?

Experience 2:

Profile:

B.Tech (Hons.) ECE

Ten months of Work Experience in the RPA domain

Questions:

1. What is RPA? What are its applications in Automobile Industry?

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 2. Automation leads to layoffs which cause unemployment. So will you support the automation of big
firms? Why?
3. What is your view on Smart Cities? Is it feasible in a country like India?

Experience 3:

Profile:

B.E. EEE

20 months of work experience as a Business Analyst

Questions:

1. What is the difference between Business Analyst, Data Analyst, Data Engineer, and Data Scientist?
What are the job responsibilities?
2. What is NO SQL and SQL? what is a relational database? What are the different types of joins, and
how do they work? How to mention a Join in excel, Tableau & MicroStrategy?
3. Who are the different cloud providers? Who is preferred for what type of organization? Advantages
of Tableau over PowerBI

Experience 4:

Profile:

B.E ECE

32 Months of work experience as a Data Engineer & Business Analyst

Questions:

1. What is the difference between Data Analyst, Data Engineer, and Data Scientist? What happens in
a scrum call? ( profile based)
2. Does India have a lot of service-based IT companies? Why so? How can this be changed?
3. How are businesses leveraging technology and analytics to drive growth?

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What does SJMSOM, IIT Bombay offer for Systems enthusiasts apart from courses in the
academic curriculum?

System@tics is the systems and analytics club of SJMSOM, which provides a platform for systems
enthusiasts to share their knowledge, learn contemporary concepts and ideas, and understand the IT
industry. The club's vision is to enhance the interest and skills of the students and make them competent in
the dynamic industry. System@tics club aims to nurture and encourage exposure among students to
technology and analytics relevant to the managers of tomorrow.

System@tics club wishes you all the best for the WAT/PI process!

Reach out to us @ systematics@sjmsom.in

Follow us @ https://www.facebook.com/systematics.sjmsom.iitb/

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 E Club – The Entrepreneurship Club

What is entrepreneurship?

Entrepreneurship is the ability and readiness to follow a passion along with any uncertainties to make a
difference by developing, organizing, and running a business enterprise.

Entrepreneurship is, at its core, about following one's passion, playing to one's natural skills, and making
a difference in the world by forming a company. An entrepreneur is someone who develops new
possibilities and finds solutions that have the potential to transform the world. In response to a perceived
opportunity, entrepreneurship might form new organizations or design a strategy to reinvigorate current
organizations/companies.

Why entrepreneurship?

• Choosing to leave the boring life of an employee behind and embracing the exciting life
of a business owner.
• Gain early autonomy by managing your organization's highest levels.
• The satisfaction of creating jobs and making a positive contribution to society.
• The invaluable experience of managing a company from start to finish.
• Willingness and ambition to take risks to create a new firm
• High level of learning from real-life experiences

Important topics for interview preparation

• B-plan
• Venture Capitalists
• Angel investors
• Startup India
• Unicorns
• Budget 2022 on startups
• Startup IPOs
• National Startup Day
• Latest merger and acquisition news of startups
• Government policies for startups
• SINE IIT Bombay

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Key terms in entrepreneurship

I. Start-up: A start-up is a young company founded by one or more entrepreneurs to develop a unique
product or service and bring it to market.

II. Incubator: An organization designed to accelerate the growth and success of entrepreneurial
companies through an array of business support resources and services that could include physical space,
capital, coaching, common services, and networking connections.

III. Accelerator: A business accelerator is a program that gives developing companies access to
mentorship, investors, and other support that help them become stable, self-sufficient businesses.
Companies that use business accelerators are typically start-ups that have moved beyond the earliest
stages of getting established.

IV. Venture Capital: Venture capital is a form of private equity and a type of financing that investors
provide to start-up companies and small businesses that are believed to have long-term growth potential.
Venture capital generally comes from well-off investors, investment banks, and any other financial
institutions.

V. Angel Investor: An angel investor (also known as a private investor, seed investor, or angel funder) is
a high-net-worth individual who provides financial backing for small start-ups or entrepreneurs, typically
in exchange for ownership equity in the company.

VI. Valuation: Valuation refers to the process of determining the present worth of a company or an asset.
It can be done using several techniques.

Stages of startup financing

I. Early-stage Financing

a. Seed Financing: Seed financing is provided for product development & research and to build a
management team that primarily develops the business plan.

b. Start-up Financing: After initial product development and research is through, start-up financing is
provided to companies to organize their business before the commercial launch of their products.

c. First Stage Financing: Is provided to those companies that have exhausted their initial capital and
require funds to commence large-scale manufacturing and sales.

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II. Expansion Financing

a. Second Stage Financing: This type of financing is available to provide working capital for the initial
expansion of companies that are experiencing growth in accounts receivable and inventories and are on
the path of profitability.

b. Bridge Financing: Bridge financing is provided to companies that plan to go public within six to twelve
months. Bridge financing is repaid from underwriting proceeds.

c. Acquisition Financing: As the term denotes, this type of funding is provided to companies to acquire
another company. This type of financing is also known as buyout financing.

Business model canvas

• Key partnerships: Note the other businesses or services you’ll work with to run your business. Think
about suppliers, manufacturers, subcontractors, and similar strategic partners.

• Key activities: List the ways your business will gain a competitive advantage. Highlight things like
selling direct to consumers or using technology to tap into the sharing economy.

• Key resources: List any resource you’ll leverage to create value for your customer. Your most important
assets could include staff, capital, or intellectual property. Don’t forget to leverage business resources that
might be available to women, veterans, Native Americans, and HUBZone businesses.

• Value proposition: Make a clear and compelling statement about the unique value your company brings
to the market.

• Customer relationships: Describe how customers will interact with your business. Is it automated or
personal? In-person or online? Think through the customer experience from start to finish.

• Customer segments: Be specific when you name your target market. Your business won’t be for
everybody, so it’s important to have a clear sense of who your business will serve.

• Channels: List the most important ways you’ll talk to your customers. Most businesses use a mix of
channels and optimize them over time.

• Cost structure: Will your company focus on reducing cost or maximizing value? Define your strategy,
then list the highest costs you’ll face pursuing it.

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• Revenue streams: Explain how your company will make money. Some examples are direct sales,
memberships fees, and selling advertising space. If your company has multiple revenue streams, list them
all.

Questions:

During an interview, if starting a venture comes up, you should expect these questions

a) What idea of business do you have? Explain your B-Plan (Business Plan)?

b) What is your Business Model?

c) Why do you think your idea is a viable idea? Is there a social issue you are trying to solve?

d) Marketing Perspectives Terms: USP, Target Market, Break-Even Point, Customer Acquisition Cost

e) Who is your major target customer, and how do you identify them?

f) Who are your major competitors? What will be the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) of your
product/company?

g) What are the major hurdles you might face? What are the opportunities available?

h) When will you reach the Break-Even Point?

i) What are some highlights in Budget 2022 you think would incentivize the startups?

j) Do you have enough capital to start your venture? If not, then what are your source of funding?

k) Are you thinking of approaching any Venture Capitalist (VCs) or Angel Investor?

l) Pitch your idea to me, assuming I am a potential investor.

m) How would the change in behavioral habits due to Shark Tank India’s success alter the startup
ecosystem in the country?

Generic questions

a) What are the different types of funding?

b) What is the difference between the Venture Capitalist and Angel Investor?

c) What inspires you to start your own venture?

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d) Which is your favorite start-up and why?

e) Who is your favorite entrepreneur? Name a few top entrepreneurs who have done MBA.

f) What are the different qualities an entrepreneur should have?

g) How do you think startups can contribute to a $5 Trillion economy?

h) Famous startups name & its founder.

i) Role of incubation centers. How do you think SINE Ecosystem or any other incubator will help you in
your entrepreneurial journey?

About E-Club

To acknowledge the entrepreneurial spirit within the college, SJMSOM's Entrepreneurship Club (EClub)
was formed in 2007 by a group of students passionate about entrepreneurship. A business school is the
perfect brewing pot of a unique set of potentially world-changing ideas, and E-Club was formed with the
sole objective of taking these from ideas to implementation. The campus of IIT Bombay provides the
perfect ecosystem and adequate resources for an entrepreneur to kick start their journey. E-Club is an
enabler for these hustlers who have been bitten by the proverbial bug of entrepreneurship; E-Club
organizes various guest speaker sessions and workshops to give a first-hand sneak-peek into the world of
entrepreneurship. Initiatives like Alumpreneur Talks, E-talk, E-Conclave, Pitch Perfect, and Startup
Gurukul provide an opportunity to be guided by the best of mentors across the globe and set you on the
path to success. Students who are not ready to take the plunge but still willing to experience the feeling of
working in the dynamic environment of a startup, E-Club ties up with startups across the country to
provide projects and internships to the students, where they can apply their management lessons in real-
world situations.

Follow us on: LinkedIn || Instagram || Facebook

Reach us at eclub@sjmsom.in

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 Annual Budget 2023-24
The Union Budget contains details about the projected receivables and payables of the Union government
for a particular fiscal year. The budget division of the department of economic affairs (DEA) in the finance
ministry is the nodal body responsible for producing the budget. It is presented through the Finance Bill,
and the Appropriation bill has to be passed by Lok Sabha before it can come into effect on 1 April, the start
of India's financial year. The budget is a much less detailed document than it used to be, as taxes on goods
and services are now decided by the GST council. Nonetheless, it is still an essential document that direction
for the country’s annual economic trajectory. It is very likely that the questions related to budget sessions
will be asked in interviews. Here are some key highlights of budget 2023 that will help you in your
interview:

Saptarishi
The budget's seven priorities were envisioned by the administration as

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Projections
The government's total receipts, excluding borrowings, for 2023-24 are estimated at Rs 27.2 lakh crore.
Meanwhile, the estimated total expenditure for the year is Rs 45 lakh crore. The net tax receipts are
forecasted to be Rs 23.3 lakh crore. The fiscal deficit, which is the difference between total receipts and
total expenditure, is estimated to be 5.9% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). To finance this deficit,
the government plans to borrow Rs 11.8 lakh crore through net market borrowings from dated securities,
with a gross market borrowing estimate of Rs 15.4 lakh crore.

Personal Income Tax Restructuring

The government is proposing to implement a new Common IT Return Form and has plans to increase the
grievance redressal mechanism as part of its efforts to enhance the services and convenience for tax payers.
Additionally, the Personal Income Tax rebate maximum has been raised from the previous Rs. 5 lakh to
Rs. 7 lakh, meaning that individuals subject to the new tax system who earn up to Rs. 7 lakh would not be
required to pay any tax. The tax structure in the new personal income tax regime, which was implemented
in 2020 with six income slabs, will change by cutting the number of slabs to five and raising the tax
exemption cap to Rs. 3 lakh, offering a significant relief for all taxpayers in the new system.

Agriculture
To support agri-startups in rural areas, an agriculture accelerator fund will be established. With an
investment of Rs 6,000 crore, a sub-scheme of the PM Matsya Sampada Yojana would be established to

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aid fishers, fish vendors, and MSMEs. Farmers will have access to decentralized storage space for their
produce. A new program called PM Program for Restoration, Awareness, Nourishment, and Improvement
of Mother Earth (PM-PRANAM) will be introduced to encourage states and UTs to encourage the balanced
use of chemical and natural fertilizers. To support 1 crore farmers in switching to natural farming, 10,000
bio input resource centers and a network for distributing micro fertilizer and pesticide production would be
established.

Infrastructure
The government has announced a 33% increase in its capital expenditure on infrastructure, bringing the
total to Rs 10 lakh crore. This includes the allocation of Rs 15,000 crore over three years under the Schedule
Tribe Mission for safe housing and road infrastructure development. Additionally, 100 transport
infrastructure projects with a focus on last and first-mile connectivity will be taken up as a priority with an
investment of Rs 75,000 crore, with Rs 15,000 crore coming from private sources. To support these efforts,
the government is also establishing the Urban Infrastructure Development Fund through the use of priority
sector lending shortfall.

Healthcare
Open-source digital public infrastructure for insurance is expected to create significant opportunities for
the sector. The government is planning to establish 100 labs for developing applications using 5G services,
which will cover a wide range of fields including health. Additionally, a mission to eliminate Sickle Cell
Anaemia by 2047 will be launched, and a new program to promote research and innovation in
pharmaceuticals will be initiated. Furthermore, the government is supporting multidisciplinary courses for
medical devices in existing institutions to ensure a steady supply of skilled manpower for medical
technologies.

Readings and References:-

● HIGHLIGHTS OF THE UNION BUDGET 2023-24. (n.d.). Retrieved February 5, 2023, from
https://pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1895315
● https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/doc/bh1.pdf

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Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management
IIT Bombay

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