@TiEcon 2006: Confidence Is Key

TiEcon 2006 ended with the Valedictory Session featuring Dr. Subas Pani, Chief Secretary Govt. of Orissa, Naveen Patnaik CM of Orissa, Dr. Vijay Mallya, Chairman UB Group. The session was chaired by Arun Seth, MD-India, BT Worldwide. The morning of the last day at TiEcon had seen the attendance drop to half, but as the day progressed, more and more people turned up. By the time the final session began, the hall was full and there were quite a few people standing at the back. All for Vijay Mallya, I overheard someone saying.
Dr. Pani, in his speech mentioned that Orissa had a hard time getting Indian Airlines to fly from Bangalore and Bhubaneshwar, given that IT companies from Bangalore have made large investments in the state.
Mallya took stage and began by wondering why, even though they are brilliant at thinking and execution, Indians don’t go for the kill. Confidence, he repeated often, is the key. He spoke, from his own experience about how he and other entrepreneurs were targeted by VP Singh during what was called the ‘Raid Raj’. What did he do? We went ahead and bought the Berger Group and the 26 it had. They financed this by taking a loan, and everything Mallya owned was at stake. To cut costs, they replaced the so called expatriates with Indian managers, and once they were given the opportunity, they were empowered and excelled. The UB Group is very close now to finalizing a deal (Ed: rumoured to be the acquisition of White & Mackay). When they launched Kingfisher Airlines, it was their goal to change the consumer experience, and they were the first to introduce in flight entertainment. Now that others are upgrading their planes, Kingfisher will be launching live TV from the 1st of Jan, 2007, with an eye on the Cricket World Cup in West Indies.
Mallya emphasized the need for focusing on the consumer and experimenting. They launched Pune-Bangalore and Pune-Ahmedabad when others were ignoring it. Now they’re targeting different audiences – their research has shown that 75% of the people who visit Vaishno Devi are Gujaratis. Thus Kingfisher will now fly Ahmedabad-Jammu. Referring to the Chief Secretary’s remarks on troubles getting IA to fly between Bangalore and Bhubaneshwar, he said that Kingfisher will now fly between the two cities. I’m not sure if all this was pre-planned, or Mallya announced the flight at that moment, but if it was unplanned, he sure must have won some brownie points. As Naveen Patnaik, CM of Orissa took stage, some people (self included) shamelessly exited the venue.

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