Marketing In A Flat World - 5 Of 6 ...Capital

Capital

In my last few postings, I have focused on ‘Innovation and creativity’ based on Survival rather than opportunity. The US has long been called the land of opportunity because the path was simple for the tough traveler: Intelligence, Hard work, Good Application, Catch the right opportunities and one will mostly lead a comfortable life – For the few who can break-out from the normal either in a corporate setting or as entrepreneurs, the multiplicative effect is enormous.

One thing however that underlies this path is there is rarely a fight for basic survival. Capital adequacy allows for the hygiene elements and creativity attracts capital. There is no need for ‘micro-finance’ in much of the Western world.

My earlier comments have indeed focused on and I strongly believe that scarcity creates innovation. India’s deep foundation and the global recognition of its management practices stems largely from being able to do a lot with a lot less.

However, capital is a very critical lubricant and enabler of the marketing and the business engine. Even so as India starts to see enormous scale and seizes opportunities that don’t just tap the domestic markets but creates global winners.

Capital is very capillary in its flow – it has a way to find its way to opportunities. With the India imagination having run and still running very high in global financial markets, capital has been easier to come by. Whether its tens of venture capital firms setting up shop in India, private equity firms looking for large transactions or it is corporate houses flush and looking to fuel further innovation or the ever growing public market appetite, it’s a reflection of the availability of resources that can help India experiment more, scale faster when required and satiate its global ambitions.

Marketers will have a tremendous role to play in this global onslaught. I was in India last month watching first hand the marketing mania around the Indian Premier League. The unilaterally acknowledged success of the franchise had one unilaterally acknowledged factor going for it – Capital ! Creativity, Exposure, Hustle, Mathematics, Creativity, all played a very important role in the success but without the financial might of the BCCI, Reliance, UB, Red Chilli Entertainment, DLF, Citi and the others, I am very certain that the impact would have been very different. Putting together a Billion $ tournament in a matter of a few months was a fascinating interplay of entertainment, marketing, entrepreneurism with capital serving as the epicenter.

Reliance investing over a $1Bn in Hollywood and Bollywood movies and buying out 100 cinema theatres in North America, Tata acquiring Jaguar, Bharti’s bid for MTN, the globalization of IPL is rapidly opening up doors for Indian marketers to play the global corporate game on one end. On the other hand, the keen eye of international corporate brands on the much vaunted middle class of India, the luxury segment and now also the waiting-to-explode the rural class of the country has opened up the corporate wallets like never before.

To be continued....