This week’s guest on Kiruba.TV is Manish Sharma, Panasonic India’s Marketing Head.  Kiruba.TV, is my podcast show where I interview achievers and top management professionals. This is a collaborative, crowd-sourced podcast show where you get to actively participate. If you have any questions for Manish, please leave them in the comment box below or mail them to me at Kiruba @ Kiruba.com. Alternatively, you can sms your question to 09841597744 or tweet it @Kiruba.

Here’s info about Manish Sharma.

As Director of Marketing, Manish Sharma has been formulating and implementing Panasonic’s marketing initiatives in India. He joined Panasonic in August 2008 as Product Head for VIERA range of Flat Panel Televisions and was subsequently elevated to Director of Marketing in April 2010. Manish comes with a rich 14 year experience and industry knowledge, having worked previously with electronic majors like LG Hotline, Samsung India & Haier India.

He has been instrumental in celebrity associations with Panasonic and endorsement of sporting events. With his understanding of Panasonic and the India market, he has helped the Panasonic brand to make it high on local flavor with a major youth connect.

Following the success of Bollywood star Ranbir Kapoor’s association with Viera brand of Panasonic Televisions, Manish introduced another Bollywood star Katrina Kaif to be the face of Panasonic’s Home Appliances range. Panasonic becoming the Official Electronics Partner for the Delhi Daredevils Team and the Indian National football team has marked Panasonic’s foray into sporting events. Also Panasonic signed Dia Mirza as the face for Eco ideas – CSR initiative. These initiatives have been instrumental in channel penetration and consumer excitement for Panasonic products.

I would like to make it even better by making sure we ask the right questions. I have said this many times that the best questions have always come from the viewers. So please continue to send in your questions and I’ll collate them all together. You can either leave it in the comment section below or mail them to me at Kiruba@Kiruba.com .

Here’s info about Prema Sagar.

Pic from Dell’s Official Flickr Page

Prema Sagar is the Principal and Founder of Genesis Burson-Marsteller.
Intrigued by emerging business opportunities in India, Prema established Genesis Public Relations in November 1992.

Prema launched the firm with just one client and one colleague, which today has grown into one of India’s most trusted communications firms in the country. In 2005, Genesis merged with Burson-Marsteller, the gold standard in public relations, to become Genesis Burson-Marsteller. In 2008, the firm was ranked the ‘India Consultancy of the Year’ by The Holmes Report.

Prior to setting up Genesis PR, Prema was the Editor-Publisher of Genesis – The City Guide, a travel magazine, and co-founder of Genesis Printers.

An alumna of the Frank Jefkins Institute, UK, Prema has played a leadership role in the industry as the Founding President of the Public Relations Consultants Association of India.

In recognition of her contribution to global public relations, Prema was invited as the only Indian on the global jury for the first ever PR Lions at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival 2009. She was earlier inducted into the ‘ICCO Hall of Fame’, the first Asian to receive this rare honour.

I met up with Seiji San at Canon India’s Headquarters in Gurgoan. Like a good Japanese man, he was extremely punctual and didn’t make me wait. He had requested for the questions and a briefing document on the interview well in advance… a sure sign that he is taking this interview seriously.

We had a 45 minute meeting of which the podcast interview lasted 20 minutes. Usually I try to keep my podcasts short but Seiji San was enthusiastically conversational. Have split the podcasts into two halves to maintain brevity. Do listen in. Seiji San has a heavy Japanese accent and some of you may find it difficult to follow the conversation fully. I’m working on transcribing the audio and will have the transcript put online soon.

Here’s a short brief about Seiji San.

Seji Hamanishi is the Assistant Director, ICP division of Canon India Pvt. Ltd. He has come on board the management team of Canon India after a successful stint at Canon Inc and Canon USA.

With 24 years in the company, Seji Hamanishi has a rich experience across divisions and has worked with Canon Inc. for Laser beam printers, Inkjet printers and Imaging products. He has also been widely regarded for his contribution to Canon USA and Amsterdam in his previous assignments.

Mr. Hamanishi is a photography enthusiast himself and is passionate about cameras.

Mohit Anand is the Managing Director of Belkin, Indian Sub Continent, which includes India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. He is a key leader for Belkin across Asia Pacific.

His focus areas include enhancing visibility, introducing customer centric product innovations, establishing strong retail partner relationships, streamlining distribution & supply chain logistics and overall, increasing the company’s market share.

Mohit’s previous assignment was as Senior Vice President at Channel [V]. He played an important role in building the channel into the country’s most sought music channel for the urban youth. Mohit spearheaded Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices division prior to his role at Channel [V]. At Microsoft, Mohit managed retail, media & entertainment partner relationships and also led the launch of Xbox360.

Acknowledged as one of the Top 50 young business leaders by Business India Magazine (2007), Mohit is also regarded as an Icon in the gaming industry.

About Belkin:

Belkin, a privately held company founded in California in 1983, is the recognized global leader in connectivity solutions.

Their products includes award-winning networking solutions, accessories for mobile devices,  such as iPod,  iPhone,  laptops and netbooks, as well as energy conservation products.

From a garage in Hawthorne, California, with two employees and sales of $100,000 for the year, Belkin has become one of the fastest growing companies in the world, with over 1,000 employees and sales topping $1 billion.

Questions for Mohit Anand.

• How big is Belkin? Tell me in terms of revenues and people strength. Both globally as well as in India.
• Explain your business model? I understand the key lies in distribution.
• Amongst all your products which ones are your best-sellers which gives you maximum revenues?
• How do you handle the competition from Chinese unbranded manufacturers who make similar products (with decent quality) at such cut-throat prices? Remember, Nokia ignored this and is now paying the price!
• Tell us about your marketing strategies. How different is marketing networking products like routers and accessories like iPad covers and stands?
• What are your expansion plans for the next 2 years?
• Mohit, talk us through your professional expeience and the various roles you have placed in Microsoft, Channel V and now at Belkin.
• What are the important experiences you have learnt in each of these stints?
• What are the achievements and high points in your professional life that you look back with a lot of pride?
• Name a couple of big challenges you faced in your life. More importantly explain how you overcame them and the key lessons learnt.
• Who are your mentors? Name important traits that you learnt from them.
• What are your hobbies and how do you manange good work-life balance?

Today, I’m having a conversation with Mr.Seiji Hamanishi, the person who heads the Camera division of Canon India.

Mr. Seji Hamanishi is the Assistant Director, ICP division of Canon India Pvt. Ltd. He has come on board the management team of Canon India after a successful stint at Canon Inc and Canon USA.

With 24 years in the company, Mr. Seji Hamanishi has a rich experience across divisions and has worked with Canon Inc. for Laser beam printers, Inkjet printers and Imaging products. He has also been widely regarded for his contribution to Canon USA and Amsterdam in his previous assignments.Mr. Hamanishi is a photography enthusiast himself and is passionate about cameras.

Here are the questions that I have lined up for him. If you have any of your own, please leave them in the comment section below or mail them to me at Kiruba@Kiruba.com .

• What is Canon doing to promote photography amongst youngsters?

 

• With the cameras in mobile phones becoming better, do you see this cannibalizing into the point and shoot market?

 

• How has been the reception for Canon’s DSLR range in India?

 

• What is Canon’s upcoming range of cameras? Any path breaking technologies?

 

• In DSLR market, Canon vs Nikon war is legendary. There has been no interoperability of lenses though. Do you foresee this changing?

 

• With 24 years in Canon, how have you kept yourself challenged in the job?

 

• In your professional life, what has been some of your biggest achievements?

 

• Tell about your biggest failures as well. More importantly the key life lessons you have learnt.

 

• How do you manage good work life balance?

 

• Who are your mentors? What are the key attributes you have learnt from them?

 

• What are your hobbies?

 

The video recording of this interview will soon be posted on http://www.Kiruba.TV

Interview With Vishy Shenoy On Guinness Record Initiative For Largest Apron from kiruba on Vimeo.

I caught up with Vishy Shenoy, the head of Ambadi, a division of the $3 Billion Murugappa Group. He is the brain behind the attempt to create the World’s largest apron.

In this video, I ask him why even attempt such an elaborate exercise. And his answers make sense. Ambadi is in the business of household apparels and aprons are their biggest export items. They mostly serve the overseas market and having a Guinness World Record to their name gives them a lot of credibility and brand recall. Its smart marketing.

Watch the video. It makes for an interesting conversation and has great marketing tips. We also shot lots of photographs from the Guinness World Record event.

This week, I’m getting P.R.Venketrama Raja   ( better known as PRV)  on Kiruba.TV, the podcast show for achievers.

PRV is the Vice-Chairman, MD and CEO of Ramco Systems.  He founded Ramco in 1989 and had grown it to be amongst the top 100 enterprise solution providers in the world.

Ramco is amongst the IT majors who focussed on product development along with their services business. Ramco is popular for its OnDemand ERP,  DecisionWorks (for enterprise analytics)  and VirtualWorks ( enterprise application assembly and delivery platform).

It would be interesting to hear about his entrepreneurial journey.

OK, for those of you  who don’t know, Kiruba.TV is a social media driven Interview show.  Questions are crowdsourced.  You can send across your questions for the interviewee via this blog, Kiruba.TV, Facebook, Twitter, SMS, Phone or email.  All the questions are collated together on Kiruba.TV and everyone is given due credit.

The best of the questions are selected and I ask the interviewee on your behalf.  The answers are published along with links to your Web 2.0 profiles. ( Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, blog etc).  So, when you ask your questions, please make sure to leave your Web 2.0 touchpoints.

How to send in your questions.

via Email : Just mail your questions to my email id Kiruba @ Kiruba.com with the subject line ‘Questions for Ramco CEO’.

via SMS : Send in your questions to my mobile number 09841597744. Be sure to include your name, twitter handle and your website or blog url.

via Twitter : You can send your questions by including @kiruba in your tweet.

via Facebook : On facebook I’m at http://Facebook.com/kiruba. Either send me the questions via FB mail or leave them on my wall.

via Voice : Record your question as an MP3 file and mail them to me. Or better still, host them on http://soundcloud.com and send me the link.

via YouTube : Record your question as video for PRV and send me the link. We’ll make sure to add your question to the list.

I look forward to your questions.

I will be doing a podcast interview with Steve Mills who has played a leading role in the growth of IBM Software Group since its inception in 1995. If you would like to join in by participating in this collaborative interview, please read on how you can do so at the end of this blog post. Meanwhile, here’s more info about Steve Mills.

In his current capacity, Steve is responsible for directing approximately 100,000 employees spanning development, manufacturing, sales, marketing and support of IBM’s Software & Systems Group that contributes over $40 billion in revenue, and powers more than 100,000 enterprises around the world.

Steve is a long time IBMer. He joined IBM in 1973 and has held various executive leadership positions over the years, spearheading the delivery of industry-leading products that provide critical business integration infrastructure.

How you can participate in this collaborative podcast.

By Asking Questions : Think of me as the bridge between you and Steve Mills. If you have any questions for Steve Mills, just ask. I’ll include the relevant questions to the list. I’ll ask Steve Mills your question on your behalf and when the interview gets published, you’ll get due credit for it. When your question appears, it will have your name, designation, Twitter/FB handle, and blog URL.

How to send in your questions.

via Email : Just mail your questions to my email id Kiruba @ Kiruba.com with the subject line ‘Questions for Steve Mills’.

via SMS : Send in your questions to my mobile number 09841597744. Be sure to include your name, twitter handle and your website or blog url.

via Twitter : You can send your questions by including @kiruba in your tweet.

via Facebook : On facebook I’m at http://Facebook.com/kiruba. Either send me the questions via FB mail or leave them on my wall.

via voice : Record your question as an MP3 file and mail them to me. Or better still, host them on http://soundcloud.com and send me the link.

via YouTube : Record your question as video for Steve and send me the link. We’ll make sure to add your question to the list.

I look forward to your questions and to spend quality time with Steve Mills.

Long ago, I realized the limitations of my intelligence. I also greatly believe in the wisdom of the crowd and that the collective intelligence of the audience is far greater than just one person. This is the reason why I went to Twitter and Facebook and said I’m interviewing a top boss at Nokia and if anyone had a question for her, I would ask her on their boss with full credit given to them.

Here is what I posted on both Twitter and Facebook.

Am interviewing Jo Harlow, Head of Smart Phones, Nokia at 4 pm S’pore time. Have any quest for her? Will ask on your behalf with credits.

Within a few hours, I had a treasure trove of questions and quite honestly I would never have thought of them myself. I may not be able to ask all the quetsions to Jo Harlow considering that it is a group interview wiht 6 other journalists from India asking her questions and another factor that we only have about 45 minutes of time with her.

So, I decided to publish all the questions here so that you can take a look at it for yourself. I will also ask Nokia to help answer these quetsions at a later point in time even if I’m unable to get answers for all these during the face-to-face interview.

Here are the questions with links to the awesome people who have asked them.

Nimit Jain (FB) : How is their business shaping up in India with new players like MicroMax, Karbon mobiles etc in the market?

Ramaswamy Alwarsamy (FB): Apple has just one smart phone and its easy for people to remember. Nokia has a wide array of Smart Phones, way too many to remember all. Is it a disadvantage having a wide portfolio a disadvantage?

Kannan Iyer (FB) : Nokia has been clearly facing a problem with the time to market. They announced the N8, but then the launch is much later and that can affect the mindshare that people may have . What is Nokia doing to tackle this?

Kannan Iyer (FB) : Everyone is talking about iPhone and Android. But there is also the enterprise phone market where RIM has been ruling and almost … See Morea monopoly. The E-series was the closest Nokia came to challenging RIM- what are the future plans to fight in the enterprise phone space?

Kannan Iyer (FB) : Nokia’s developer strategy – How is Nokia thinking differently to get more developers to build apps for the Ovi store?

Bharath Yeshwanth (FB) The i-phone has changed the user experience through its well designed software with no major changes to its hardware.The strategy adopted by Nokia to cater to different genres of users is through changes with hardware. Can we expect a phone soon that will shall be one fit for all?

Bharath Yeshwanth (FB): Today’s news report read “RIM shifts focus from execs to teens”. Can this be seen as a threat to Nokia’s sales numbers?

—————–

(from Twitter)

@BalaSN : Why maemo is not available in the lower range mobiles ?

@talaivar : What according to her would be “the” compelling reason for one to buy a Nokia smartphone? Price? Features? Ovi Store? Why?

@talaivar : Being late into the game, what are the short term goals for Nokia Smartphones division?

@RameshYanthra : When we will get Augmented Reality based browser in Nokia smart phones? ”

@dipanshubehl : When will Nokia let go of its S60 OS in its low end smartphones/touchscreens??

@dipanshubehl : Will Nokia extend its Ovi Music Unlimited to other phones as well?

@jainnimit : How is their business shaping up in India with new players like MicroMax, Karbon mobiles etc in the market?

@mrnitishkumar : 1. When now days, we have very capable hardware in smartphone, why Mobile OS like Symbian even with there latest versions, not supporting widely popular DivX and Xvid video codecs?To be noted that possibility is already shown by their own maemo os that supported all.

@mrnitishkumar : We understand that people could have difference of opinions, but still Nokia sold amazing number of Nokia N900 that shows how popular maemo went even when price was unaffordable to be a smartphone.

@mrnitishkumar : What’re major reason to back off from their first geniunely praised and at least twice faster OS than symbian? Just straitegic partnerships with Intel and Qt?

@adityarao310 : Is Nokia looking at competing with new phones which specialise in in-built ‘social networking features’ benq / corby .. If yes. how?

@kursed : Why is Nokia’s software support, for smartphones, so weak? Specially in firmwares.

@vams21 : Can you please ask her if its possible to bring Smartphones in India in the range of 10K ($200).?

@BaskarG : How will Nokia plan to differentiate itslef from the likes of iPhone and Android devices for the “emerging” market?

@prakup : With unlimited data plans being scrapped (proposed) what is the future for smart phones? Esp in a price sensitive market…

@achitnis : Ask her when the N900 will have an official Nokia supported Meego port. Don’t accept any evasive answers like “community supported”!

@anandan1982 : Most of Nokia’s high end phones face software issues in the long run. Can they do something to curb that?

@achitnis : Nevermind how Nokia will compete with Apple & Android – where does Nokia see A&a lagging behind Nokia, other than numbers

@max4974 : N900. Why did they soft launch this powerhouse product in India? Werent they confident of success in India?

@achitnis : Nokia’s numbers are in their established base/legacy. What is it that Nokia has now that A&a don’t, to stand out?

@max4974 : Will S60v5 users be able to port their devices to symbian^3? What other devices after N8?

@ankurdinesh : What’s next with Nokia which will lead them to next cycle of innovation?-the cycle which they started when they came to India

@bluethroat : Are smart phones making people dumb. They make people think and apply themselves lesser and lesser. Comment.

@max4974 : Is there any truth to buzz in community that Nokia might be towing with a limited windows 7 mobile foray?

@max4974 : What does Nokia genuinely believe is gonna be their WoW PRODUCT thats gonna help them gain traction in the US mobile market?

@sriganeshr : Can you ask Nokia executive what happened to Vertu. Is it in market and how is it doing. Was supposed to be the costliest phone!

@sriganeshr : A strategic Q. If they decide to create sub-brands? Hi-end phones by one name & lo-end something else. Might do good.

@msigeek : What is stopping Enterprises to adopt Nokia platform as a solution? Have they identified it and working towards it?
youmoveyoudie : Is Nokia planning anything new on mobile ads based on location services? its been there but not noticed.

Today at 3PM, we will have the privilege of having Rajan Anandan, Managing Director of Microsoft India, as the guest at ‘The Kiruba Show’.

‘The Kiruba Show’ is a podcast interview series with CEOs and top brass of Indian and international companies. The show follows a friendly conversational tone. You can find the old podcasts here and the new site will soon be launched with the fresh set of podcasts, which includes interviews with SAP MD, Jeffrey Archer and many.

I’m a firm believer that the collective knowledge of the audience is far higher than just any one individual. The show extensively uses Social Media to have the readers actively be part of the program. You have the chance to ask questions and we will pass it on to the CEO on your behalf. Due credit will be given. While asking the questions, your name and your profile will be mentioned. When the interview eventually gets published, your blog, twitter and LinkedIn profiles will be linked to.

Quite honestly, I’ve been meaning to give due credit to people who contributed with your questions and I plead guilty for not giving enough credit. That’s one area that I really will be working on correcting it.

If you had the chance to meet the MD of Microsoft India, what is the one question you would like to ask him? Here is how you can pass on your questions.

Twitter: Please send in your questions as Tweets with @Kiruba.

Comment on this blog post: Just drop your question to Rajan in the comment section below this blog post.

Facebook: Here is my facebook profile. Just write your question on my wall or send a private message to me.

Email : The simplest and most effective method. Send your question to Kiruba @ Kiruba.com.

SMS: Another effective method. Send your question to +91 98415 97744.

Look forward to your questions.