Market Needs Sheela Ki Jawani

Hey Hey, I Know You Want It But You

Never Gonna Get It


Tere Haath Kabhi Na Aani


Maane Na Maane Koi

Duniya Yeh Saari, Mere Ishq Ki Hai Deewani


Ab Dil Karta Hai Haule

Haule Se, Main Toh Khud Ko Gale Lagaun


Kisi Aur Ki Mujhko Zaroorat

Kya, Main Toh Khud Se Pyaar Jataun


(What's My Name, What's My

Name, What's My Name)


My Name Is Sheela


Sheela Ki Jawani

Before you wonder what Sheela Ki

Jawani is doing in a discussion on the Indian IT market let me

put in the proper context. The year 2010 has been one of the worst

years for Bollywood. Movie after movie, made with huge budgets,

flopped badly at the turnstiles. Conventional story lines have become

pass`e, conventional way of conducting movie businesses have proved

to be turkeys at the box office-there was a need for innovation if

producers and financiers have to make money out of Bolloywood. The

result is innovations like Sheela ki Jawani or Munni

Badnaam Hui; irrespective of whether the movies worked or not,

catchy songs promoted aggressively through various media much before

the release of the films have worked wonders financially. Tees

Maar Khan is yet to release, but Sheela Ki Jawani has

ensured enough eyeballs and financial windfall for the producers,

even if the movie now bombs at the box office-that's the innovation

I am talking about. When the going got tough for Bollywood, at least

some enterprising producers/marketeers have devised innovative routes

to sustain their businesses during these bad times.

As the year comes to a close, the IT

market too is in dire need of such innovations. Unlike Bollywood, it

was definitely not a Dabanng year for the channel. After all,

2010 has again proved to be a challenging year for most partners.

Increasing commoditization of most hardware products, diminishing

margins, perennial credit crunches, principals going on a direct

retail route, piracy and counterfeiting-the challenges have been

manifold and seemingly insurmountable. Cornered and pressurized, 2010

was the ripe time for partners to devise innovations like Sheela

ki Jawani to revive their businesses, now that it had become

certain that conventional way of channel market dynamics need a

complete makeover for sustainable businesses in the future. It's not

that some partners have not tried anything on these lines, but 2010

at least did not see anything spectacular like a badnaam Munni

or a jawan Sheela from the IT marketplace that could leave a

lasting imprint on the business.

For one, some partners started look at

online more seriously in 2010 eye. The first push, expectedly came

from the national distributors and as a natural corollary many of the

channel partners were compelled to go partly on the online route. In

fact, Ingram Micro's style="text-decoration: none;"> size="3"> style="font-weight: normal;">b2b

website for resellers had been a resounding success in FY10 in

improving transparency and reducing costs of doing both stock sales

and run-rate business. The more visible innovation was many of the

partners foraying into non-IT areas. The definition of IT, as a

result, got gradually expanded in 2010 and included telecom (mobile

phones, mobile Internet devices etc.), consumer electronics

(intelligent LCD TVs) and even niche areas like physical security and

surveillance products. The convergence of the IT channel fraternity

with the telecom channel, consumer electronics channel or more niche

channels, as a consequence, could come closest to being IT channel's

style="text-decoration: none;"> size="3">Sheela color="#000000"> face="Times New Roman, serif"> style="font-style: normal;">

during 2010.


There

are still a lot of missing innovations-fixing the DoA and warranty

ambiguities, targeting the government sector, focusing harder on

retail. Hopefully these and more innovations will be brought up by

partners in 2011, just as Bollywood, I am sure, would find its newer


style="text-decoration: none;"> size="3">Munnis color="#000000"> face="Times New Roman, serif"> style="font-style: normal;">

and style="text-decoration: none;"> size="3">Sheelas color="#000000"> face="Times New Roman, serif"> style="font-style: normal;">.