Tag: Business

China’s Evergraned some relief for jittery markets

China's Evergrande says will make a scheduled payment | Bankruptcy News | Al Jazeera

China’s Evergrande to make security coupon installment, some help for jumpy business sectors

China Evergrande Group’s principle unit today said it would make a bond coupon installment on Sept. 23, offering some alleviation to unsteady business sectors that had been anxious over feelings of trepidation that a default of China’s No. 2 designer could swell through the worldwide monetary framework. U.S. stock fates, the yuan and the danger delicate Australian dollar rose, while place of refuge resources like the yen and U.S. Depositories slipped.

Hengda Real Estate Group said in an assertion it would make the coupon installment on its Shenzhen-exchanged 5.8% September 2025 bond on schedule on Sept. 23.

The declaration comes as Evergrande, when the nation’s top-selling engineer, inches more like a vital cutoff time for a premium installment on a dollar security, with monetary business sectors tense even as financial backers and examiners made light of the danger of its inconveniences turning into the country’s “Lehman second.”

While worries about the overflow from a chaotic breakdown annoyed business sectors on Monday, U.S. stocks were level on Tuesday and Chinese offers opened strongly lower following a two-day public occasion. Be that as it may, China’s property file later recuperated misfortunes and was up over 3%, while banking stocks were down around 3%.

“There’s been a reasonable bit of worry about the chance of virus,” investigators at New York-based Bespoke wrote in an exploration note on Tuesday. “In any case, so far that worry isn’t appearing in pieces of the credit advertises that have served well as warnings for more extensive credit crunches previously.”

WHY DIAMONDS ARE SO EXPENSIVE ?

Diamonds are allotropes of carbon like graphite. But, the difference between them is tremendous. What makes diamonds so costly ? Well some might say that the extraordinariness, challenges in mining, toughness, cut, clearness, shading, and carat of diamonds make them costly and popular. Gold and silver are likewise uncommon, mining them is additionally troublesome however why just diamond is so costly ? Why people give diamond ring when they propose one another ?

Why Are Diamonds So Expensive? – EVEVIC JEWELRY

A few years ago it was not a trend to give diamond rings while proposing. There are many stones rarer than diamonds. They are costly as a result of a company called De Beers. Each diamond you find in this world comes from this company not because diamonds are very rare to find. There are numerous diamond mines in this world however this organization don’t let those diamonds to arrive at the market.

At the point when supply of a specific item is less however demand is high, this outcomes in making that item more costly. This company made the stock of diamonds exceptionally less. But, how ? Few years back diamonds were found only in India and Brazil. But then it was also found in Africa and that too in very large quantity. De beers was also one of the company which found a lot of diamonds in Africa. But the other mines company started selling diamonds because the supply of diamonds were increasing which can make them less expensive. They were in loss. De beers would have also done that but instead it started buying those diamonds by taking loans and because of that it became the owner of all mines in Africa. It became a monopoly and a monopoly does what it wants. Soon when other mines company discovered diamonds in Serbia and other countries De beers bought all of them. It became owner of all the diamonds in the world.

Yet, De beers never let people to realize that they have diamonds in exceptionally huge amount because then people won’t buy it. They restricted the stock of diamonds which made them uncommon. They further began promoting diamonds by giving statements like “A diamond is forever”. Because of this, the interest of people towards diamonds increased and they became expensive.

RESOURCES:

2. https://francisalukkas.com/why-are-diamonds-so-expensive-5-reasons/

OREO — GLOBAL BRAND

OREO IN INDIA- LAUNCHING AND ESTABLISHING A GLOBAL BRAND IN INDIA USING INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS EFFECTIVELY

INTRODUCTION

For most of its 100 years existence, Oreo was consistently America’s best loved cookie, but today it is a well established global brand. Mondelez International moved it into emerging markets quickly learning the rules of success in these unfamiliar markets, changing and refining the brand strategy and ultimately triumphed in winning over customers. This is the case demonstration how Oreo brand’s successful entry into the Indian market was well orchestrated using the Communication Mix elements such as Advertising, Sales Promotion, Events and experiences and Public relations to establish the brand during the launch phase and subsequently stabilizing the brand in India.

MARKET BACKGROUND AND BRAND STRATEGY

Market was present in India by chocolates, beverages and candy categories. The company entered into Rs. 17,000 crore as a competitive India Biscuit with their lead brand Oreo in 2011. It entered into the Cadbury brand in India as it is the strongest brand in India, and initially focusing on awareness and rapid trials. The key objectives of the launch were

  • Gain a 1% share of the Biscuit category in the first year.
  • Build awareness, 40% trials and 40% repeat purchase in priority markets.

OREO BRAND ADVERTISING AND COMMUNICATION

Communication and advertising have been consistent across many markets as the customer and the brand truths remain the same. The company focused on the “moments of togetherness” proposition for Oreo in India, with the television forming the main medium of communication. In addition, other media platforms were tapped as well. It also presented with the digital media as well as with the Facebook page,adding fans at a rapid rate. It created “oreo togetherness bus” which toured cities and made togetherness concept. It made a strategy with the consumer preferences with the brand.

ADERTISING THEME: BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER THROUGH THE OREO RITUAL OF TWIST, LICK AND DUNK -‘TLD’

Rituals play an important role in the lives of Indians, and they follow them with zeal and enthusiasm. Rituals also help in bringing people together. So, this created an opportunity for Oreo to bring familiar in the families together. The twist, lick and dunk became a platform to concept with the people beyond the product, and bring about taste, joyousness and family bonding.

Oreo’s communication message focused on creating,

1. A RITUAL OF PLEASURE for the child, centered on the joy of consumption

2. A RITUAL OF EMOTION for the parent, that sparks these slowed messages of togetherness and enhances the bonding between child and parent.

HOW THEY ABLE TO DO THIS?

COMMUNICATION STRATEGY 

 We would see in the ice cream biscuit segment, mothers are the buyers. Kids are the majority of the consumption. It warms the mother’s heart by seeing the joyous moment in their kids eyes.

Unlike the mother, father spends less time with their kids and so the twist, lick and dunk concept grasped the opportunity around the people. The Oreo dunked into the Indian hearts. 

THEY WON THE HEARTS

Oreo has been able to get a vey firm foothold in the highly competitive biscuits market in India by creating compelling differentiation at every level- in product offering in store in the tradtional and Modern trade channels by leveraging a unique consumer insight, addressing desires of them and establishing a new ritual. Marketing is all about creating differentiation and they won the hearts of the people by doing that and they are now the highly crowded and fiercely competitive biscuit market in India.

MTR FOODS – A MARKETING MARVEL

MTR FOODS-A MARKETING MARVEL

MTR foods is a successful company due to their continuous marketing activities by focusing on what the customer requirement is! It is a marketing oriented company and also shows the legacy by catering the needs of customers and providing their matching products.

Any company or business unit is successful in strategy when it is able to map its internal resources with external environment and create value for customers in the process of revenue of the company. MTR is the legacy of MARKETING STRATEGY THINKING in the food industry for seven and a half decades. 

It is a marvel because it has the ability to stand in the environmental demand drives that dominates food industry with the appropriate marketing mix

EVOLUTION OF MAVALLI TIFFIN ROOMS:

The MAVALLI TIFFIN ROOMS commonly called as MTR foods is the brand name of food related Enterprise located in India. Having it’s origin in Banglore, it has a restaurant now in Lal Bagh Road, Banglore and in 6 branches of the city, as well as Singapore, Dubai and  Muscat. This restaurant was closed in the period of Indian Emergency which was in mid of 1970 when the food control act was made profitable to serve food items until it reopened in 1984. This made the beginning of the entry into the convenience and instant food business, in sense a turning point. MTR foods is also the first company in the world to have frozen dosa, which can be heated and eaten. It is believed that MTR is the one who brought the  Ice cream vending machine to India.

MARKETING MIX PERSPECTIVE OF MTR FOODS

Product – Marketing Mix

MTR foods is a food product company offering a diversified range of packaged food products. It includes items for breakfast, meals and in between meals like Frozen foods. It innovates continuously based on the products which matches the customers needs, wants and demand. The framework of customer vs product matching of this company can be understood as marketing Marvel Company.

Place – Marketing Mix

Place in marketing mix means distribution or channel for selling the products. It spreads it’s business from Banglore, exports to several countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Mauritius, Japan, Middle East, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, United Kingdom, Canada and United States. Their products are easily available in supermarkets, hypermarkets, discount rates, convenience stores and grocery stores. MTR foods have also launched it’s E commerce platform from Banglore as a venture to move with changing times.

Promotion – Marketing Mix

Promotion is a tool in marketing to make the customer aware, inform and create a positive attitude towards company and products. The tool is advertising, personal – selling, sales promotions and publicity. It has organized sampling activities at popular places and launched several campaigns. 

Price – Marketing Mix

Price is the last one marketer but it is difficult when compared to all marketing elements. MTR foods are estimated as rupees 700crore company with growth rate at 18%CAGR. Its export is nearly 20% and sales in Southern states to 60% of its total revenue. It has launched it’s web portal as much needed initiative to earn larger profits to cut down distribution costs. 

Win Marketing, be a Marvel!

HOW TO DELIVER ORAL REPORT AND BUSINESS SPEECHES?

DELIVERING ORAL REPORT AND BUSINESS SPEECHES


MASTERING FORMAL SPEAKING

Oral communication becomes one of the most important skills in the corporate world. Even there is a much more demand for our writing skills where we write in blogs, E-mails, other special networking opportunities demand us even more where communication becomes basic there. According to some estimates, Speakers address audience an astonishing 33 million times each day, and business people give a presentation of about an average of 26 presentations a year.


REPORTING ORALLY

Oral Reports often have audience too, they may be a progress report to the clients or the informational reports to the community or Government groups. In this broadest sense, an oral report is any objective presentation of facts and their interpretation using the spoken word. Finding what audience expect from us is the important part – To speak without interruption for a certain amount of time and delivering useful and timely information as they spend their time to get a better information. So, winning them need a perfect delivery of communication.


ANYWHERE ANYTIME

THE FIVE CANONS OF ORAL COMMUNICATION

INVENTION

It refers to the process of generating ideas and content for the good situation. Before one is going to deliver a specch, he/she needs to collect iformation through varied sources. Gaining new information through research, ideas through brainstorming, analysing and synthesizing the applicable one are the important parts of invention. This requires creative and critical thinking skils where one needs to be clear to give a logical and comprehensive process.


ARRANGEMENT

It defines that any Knowledge is a Knowledge where it is structurally defined. The speech should not be in arguments alone but also the delivery of facts should be properly arranged so that the audeine can think of the particular value. The important divisions include The introduction, The partition, The narration, The confirmation , The refutation and finallly with the conclusion.


STYLE

The most difficult thing is how to attract the audience and make them consider our proposal when they have equally compelling reasons from our competitors. Our Language and sentence structure shouold be unique and out of style also formal with the absolute one. 


MEMORY

Today, when the power point presentations  have become a norm and a helping presuaders present their pitches easily and comprehensively to their target audience across the world, this is significant which is memory and cannot be undermined. Making mind maps always helps one to define the exact things what he/she is willing to say.


DELIVERY

Delivery refers to the form of speech. This content has to be presented in a good form and here the delivery skills such as body language, facial expressions, hand gestures, Eye contact, space management, voice modulation, clarity of expresssion and things should be made clear. We all know these cannot be ignored, but can be gained if we practise it regularly.


“SPEAK SO THAT I MAY KNOW”

Consumer Rights and Responsibilities

 In the highly competitive and profit-driven business world, Consumer Rights play a key role to protect them from any kind of unfair trade practices. It also protects the consumers from the unsafe or dangerous products that can harm their health and well-being. The Consumer Protection Act of 1986 aims to give consumers rights to fight any injustice. The Act has gone through some changes over the years, the latest change took place in 2019. 

The Consumer Protection act aims to provide easy compensation to those affected by any injustice, and encourages the consumers to speak up and take action against it. It covers all the goods and services by all the public, private and cooperatives, except some exempted by the government. The Act promotes settlement of consumer disputes. 

What are Consumer Rights ?

Right to safety: It provides the consumers safety against goods that are hazardous and have the potential to affect life and property. Consumers should emphasize on the quality and safety factors of the product before buying it. Quality marked products such as ISI, AGMARK, etc. should be prefered. 

Right to be Informed: It consists of the right of the consumers to be informed about the quality, purity, standard, and price of the goods properly. Before deciding to buy, the consumers must consider knowing all of this information related to the product. 

Right to Choose: This includes the rights to access the variety of goods and services at competitive prices, wherever it is possible. With the case of monopoly markets, it refers to the right to be assured of good quality at a fair price. 

Rights to Consumer Education: It includes the rights of the consumer to gain the knowledge and become an informed consumer. It is extremely important to be informed, because most of the exploitation takes place with the advantage of lack of awareness and ignorance among the consumers. 

Right to be Heard: This means that consumers have the right to raise or represent their concern and interests at various consumer forums to ensure their welfare. The consumer’s interests will be given due consideration under this right. 

Right to seek Redressal: It is one of the most important rights of a consumer to seek redressal against any unfair trade practice experienced by them. It can help them to have a fair settlement or get the required compensation. They can also take the help of the consumer organisations in the process of seeking redressal. 

In case of any trouble or injustice, the consumers can file a complaint within two years of buying the product. The details of the problem should be mentioned in the complaint along with relevant bills and receipts attached to it. The written complaint should be submitted to the consumer forum for further action. 

As a consumer, it is our duty to be aware about the rights and responsibilities before buying a product or service, in order to avoid any injustice or exploitation.


Project Pegasus: Unfolding The Cyber Spy

Project Pegasus has been in news for quite some time. Project Pegasus is an investigation about the Software Pegasus, in which 16 Media Institutes participated to expose the truth behind Pegasus. India is also one of the country whose name came out during the investigation. So What is Pegasus?

Pegasus is a spying software developed by an Israeli Technology Firm, NSO. According to NSO, the software is used to hack into the phones of their target and keep an eye on their every step. The data collected through this process can be sold to the government of a country and not to any individual or firm.

Pegasus recently became a hot topic not only in India but all around the world. It is not the first time Pegasus has came in news. But why is it highlighted now in India along with the whole world?  

Pegasus came in news after an investigation was done by 16 Media institutions from all around the world. This was initiated by a Not Profit Organisation from Paris along with Amnesty International. The project is called Project Pegasus.

Pegasus is known to infect the phone and can capture every single thing around the subject. It takes control over the phone and collects data about every single thing done by the subject. This software can be really useful to track down criminals and can be helpful to stop them. But is it really used for that?

The investigation in Project Pegasus revealed something else. The investigation revealed OVER 50,000 names that were either being tracked or were people of interest for any future assignment. In India, a list of 300 people was released. The list contains names of more than 40 journalists, 3 opposition Leaders, and two serving ministers. Former and Current Head of Security Organisation is also on this list. It is also said that the phone that was registered in the name of a serving Judge of the Supreme Court is also on the list.

 There has been no statement by the Indian Government on the issue and this can problematic. It is yet not clear if all the numbers in the list are hacked or not. It is concerning regarding privacy and the fundamentals of democracy.

It can be clearly termed as misuse of power and can have a bad effect on citizens. it is really important to take strict actions against it.

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

 UNDERSTANDING COMMUNICATION

COMMUNICATION MATTERS

Communication is so important in business, because business need people with good communication skills and our people need business. So, both are interconnected with one another. While communication has always been the Central to business, the nature of work today presents special communication challenges.

MEANING IS MIND

‘WE SEE THE WORLD AS WE ARE NOT AS WHAT THE WORLD IS’, stated by German philosopher Nietzsche. The statement comes true by that there is no meaning in signs, symbols, clues and objects around us, the meaning is just vested in the mind coming to us from uniqueness which is the result of experience. Programming by external environment fixes our mindsets, perspectives, biases, preconceived notions and beliefs. The audience can make sense and interpret the world around them only through individual filters.

CONTEXTS OF COMMUNICATION

The relationship of communicators also forms an important context of communication. 

Organizational contexts: The Organization to which your audience belongs – priorities, circumstances, slow or fast in pace of work can be strongly influenced by the way the message is going to be delivered.

Professional Contexts: Different professionals have different perspectives. Being aware of the internal and external ones makes you identify the priorities.

Personal Contexts: It all depends upon the current circumstances. Who you are, success, failure relationship, financial ups and downs, state of health and the physical environment all can affect communicative act. If you are aware eg. The intended recipient of your message is under stress or having a bad day, you can adapt your communication accordingly.

ADAPTATION

Choose the best words for your message. Adapting your message to one reader requires care, but addressing many needs to be considered carefully. In general, use familiar words for better understanding. Avoid words that are stereotyped by age. Avoiding words that are typecasted with the disabilities and negative descriptions. Understand an adapt to the different generations of people in the workplace.

IS NOT WHAT YOU SAY BUT HOW YOU SAY

Use positive words. Because people generally prefer positive to negative feelings, positive words are usually best for achieving your message goals. This is not to say that one should not use negative words, rather to use. Such words are powerful, and you will sometimes want to use them. They create some kind of effect to the opposite party.
Focus on what you do, it employes what one achieves the goal and desired effects. Do more than expected. Too many of us, however, stop switch simple messages, we include only bare essentials. 
Use the three major techniques for emphasizing the positive and the de-emphasizing the negative.  The three most important managing emphasis is structured one, position, sentence. Make sure that you built these kinds of things properly and achieve your objective in business.

 

        FOLLOW ETHICS WIN COMMUNICATION

Business Ethics

Business ethics are the moral principles that act as guidelines for the way a business conducts itself and in its transactions. The law often guides business ethics, but at other times business ethics provide a basic guideline that businesses can choose to follow to gain public approval. The practices mostly revolve around matters involving corporate governance, insider trading, bribery, discrimination and corporate social responsibility. The same guidelines that individuals use to conduct themselves in an acceptable way, in both personal and professional settings, apply to businesses as well. Following business ethics ensures that the public receives fair treatment.

The concept of business ethics began in the 1960s as corporations became more aware of a rising consumer-based society that showed concerns regarding the environment, social causes, and corporate responsibility. The increased focus on so-called social issues was a hallmark of the decade. Since that time period, the concept of business ethics has evolved. Business ethics goes beyond just a moral code of right and wrong; it attempts to reconcile what companies must do legally versus maintaining a competitive advantage over other businesses. the most recent and continually developing aspect of ethics is the third piece – the idea that companies are building business ethics into the core of their companies, making them a standard part of their operational blueprint. As the world continues to grow more political and more politically correct, an increased focus on proper business ethics and strong adherence to them has become ever more the norm. Buisness ethics also keep workers safe, help trade and interactions between companies remain honest and fair, and generally make for better goods and services.

Buisnesses display ethics in several ways. If a customer comes into a store looking for a product that meets very specific needs, it’s important to provide them the best product for the situation described instead of upselling them or encouraging them to buy a product that won’t meet their needs. However, it is important to ensure that this “customer first” attitude does not unintentionally result in the unethical treatment of employees.

If a company is faced with a public relations crisis, companies should call a meeting and address the problem directly with their employees. It’s important to truthfully describe the situation as it unfolded, present solutions, and accept criticism humbly.

If an employee notices that management tends to hire the same type of person (race, caste, gender etc.), they may suggest getting employees more involved in the hiring process. This will introduce different perspectives to the hiring process and increase the possibility that different kinds of applicants will be selected for a position.

These are some ways that companies practice business ethics.

THE VOLKSWAGEN NOBODY KNOWS!

You must have heard of the fact that companies are contributing to environmental degradation , though they don’t want to do that but no one can deny to the fact that they are indirectly into it. But their are many greedy companies who , without even taking concern of the environment are contributing to degradation of it . Volkswagen is one among such companies , let’s see what they have done .

VOLKSWAGEN AG , known internationally as the Volkswagen group is a German multinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Wolfsburg , Germany . In the early 1930s, cars were a luxury – most Germans could afford nothing more elaborate than a motorcycle and only one German out of 50 owned a car. Seeking a potential new market, some car makers began independent “people’s car” projects – the Mercedes 170H, BMW 3/15, Adler AutoBahn, Steyr 55, and Hanomag 1.3L, among others. The Volkswagen emission scandal began in September 2015 when the US Environment Protection Agency issued a notice of violation of clean air act to Volkswagen group . According to the agency Volkswagen intentionally developed a software named TURBOCHARGED DIRECT INJECTION (TDS ) diesel engines , to active their emission control only at the time of testing in the labs which causes vehicles Nitrogen output to met US standards , BUT in reality emits 40 times more nitrogen in air in the real world .

They developed this software in 11 million cars of which 500,000 were in US only . Research were done & a group of scientists detected that there is additional emission in road test . Within the first day of investigation the stock price of VOLKSWAGEN fell in value by one by one third . Its CEO Martin Winterkorn resigned from his post & many officials were suspended .

In April 2016 , Volkswagen announced to spend $18.32 billion to rectify the emission issue & in January 2017 , Volkswagen pleaded guilty to criminal charges & after investigation process , in April 2017 , US government ordered the company to pay $2.8 billion as criminal fine for breaking rules of nitrogen emission . The total cost of the scandal costed $33.3 billion in fines , penalties , & financial settlements & buyback cost of VOLKSWAGEN .

This proves that the greediness of one company can bring harm to whole ecosystem . As business is a part of society , business should perform function to bring peace in the environment by not polluting it . It should serve the mankind & society as well. Volkswagen by realizing their mistake pleaded themselves guilty shows that one the mistake is done you should work to rectify it instead of hiding it .

Taj – the strongest hotel brand

In its annual report ‘Hotels 50 2021,’ Indian Hotels Business (IHCL), the biggest hospitality company in South Asia, has revealed that its famous brand, Taj, has been recognized as the world’s Strongest Hotels Brand by Brand Finance, the world’s top brand evaluation consultants.

The most valued and powerful hotel brands are recognized in this study worldwide.

“For the Indian hospitality sector, this is a proud occasion on the world stage. Taj being named the Strongest Hotel Brand in the World is a tribute to the constant confidence that our guests have shown and that our staff has personified day-to-day warmth and honest care. We continue our commitment to raise the global premium hospitality experience and to provide all our stakeholders the enchantment of Tajness “Puneet Chhatwal, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the Indian Hotels Company, stated.

Out of 100, Taj got an overall brand strength index of 89.3 with the AAA’s matching consumer acquaintance, staff satisfaction, and reputation as well as its world-class customer service.

Source: businessstandard

Digital Marketing and Its Types

Marketing their products and services is a very important thing for any business and company. Through media outlets such as television, newspapers, and FM radio, some companies market their products directly to homes and attract customers. But despite such marketing methods in this technological world, a method called digital marketing is becoming very popular.

What is this digital marketing? How many types are there? we will find out in this article.

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is the process by which a company or business makes their products available to the public through the Internet, marketing them, and attracting customers to sell their products. 

In the 21st century, people have been using the Internet more and more actively, especially for a few years. Knowing this, every company knows the needs of the people and adopts the strategy of marketing their products and services through the internet.

You do not need to have vast coding or programming knowledge to enter this digital marketing field. A certain amount of coding knowledge is sufficient. Not only that but an important requirement is to have the ability to understand what customers expect and what their need.

Types of Digital Marketing

1. SEO


SEO is Search Engine Optimization. A business or company will have created a website for them. That website should rank top in search engines like Google. This means that if you search for the name of the company or their products on Google, their website should come in the top rank. To do this, they use keywords or tags when creating the company’s website, and use some coding techniques to bring the website to the top. Not only that but only if the keywords are updated frequently will the company be able to rank in the top rank in the search engine.

2. SMM

SMM is Social Media Marketing. Any company would have created an account for them on social media. I.e. media like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. They will often update on social media like this about their products. This will increase the chances of attracting customers and selling the product easily.

3. Email Marketing

Every company, they will advertise their products to their customers via email. Each company will advertise their products to their customers via email. For example, if we enter into a website it will ask you to sign up or login. If we put our email ID in and sign up, they will know our email ID. Through this they often advertise their products and services to us via email. 

4. Content Marketing

A company will create blogs and videos about their products and services on their website. When customers see all of this, there is an attraction to their products. So the chances of that company making progress are high.

5. SEM

SEM is Search Engine Marketing. SEM can be said to be the paid version of SEO. A company will pay for their website and make it rank top in the search engine. The company will publish their website on Google AdSense. When customers search for a keyword related to that company on Google it will come up in the top of the search engine.

6. Pay Per Click Ads

It’s something everyone knows. When we enter in to certain websites, apps, we are shown some ads there. Those advertisers will publish their ads on Google AdSense. Related ads will be displayed according to the needs of the customers. Advertisers will pay Google AdSense based on how many customers click on the ads.

7. Affiliate Marketing or Influencer Marketing

A company will select people who have a lot of followers on social media and tell them about their products and services. Tell to people about their products. If someone buys the company’s products through that influencer, the company will pay a certain amount of commission to that influencer. We’ve all seen some of the biggest actors talking about certain products on their social media.

Shilpa Shetty, Raj Kundra and their company Viaan Industries fined Rs 3 lakh by SEBI in insider trading case

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has imposed a penalty of Rs 3 lakh on Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty Kundra, her businessman husband Raj Kundra and their company Viaan Industries for violating insider trading rules.

Kundra, Shetty and Viaan have been fined for a three-year delay in the disclosure of an allotment of preferential shares.

In 2015, Viaan Industries had made a preferential allotment of 500,000 equity shares. Of this 1.28 lakh equity shares each were allotted to Kundra (referred to as Ripu Sudan Kundra) and Shetty, the promoters of the company.

According to SEBI’s Prohibition of Insider Trading Rules, 2015, the promoters had to disclose this transaction to the company within two days if it exceeded Rs 10 lakh in value. The company, in turn, has to relay this disclosure to the stock exchanges within two trading days.

In this case, SEBI said the value of the transaction was Rs 2.57 crore each and the disclosures pertaining to the 2015 transaction were made only in 2019.

In reply to a notice from the regulator, Shetty and Kundra acknowledged the mistake and said it was not done with malafide intent.

However, the SEBI adjudicating officer Suresh B Menon refused this explanation and imposed a fine.

Moneycontrol has reached out to Shetty and this copy will be updated when she replies.

Kundra could not be reached as he is police custody in an unrelated case. He was arrested on July 19 for allegedly making, publishing, and distributing pornography. Earlier a Mumbai court rejected his bail plea.

The Ponzi Scheme

What is it?

The Ponzi scheme is an investment fraud and one of the most infamous white-collar crimes in history. It is named after Charles Ponzi, the historical scamster who was best known for his financial crimes in the early 1900’s. He was from Italy, but it was after he moved to America that he started his fraudulent activities. The scheme he developed involved conning investors into giving him millions of dollars, and then paying them returns with other investor’s money. Investors were promised that in consideration of their investment, they would receive large returns of up to 50% in 45 days, or up to 100% in 90 days. Instead of paying these investors out of the actual profit of his business, Ponzi paid these investors by further borrowing from new investors. The investors were inclined to accept these deals as it was investment with seemingly high returns and little to no risk. In this way, Ponzi created a chain of borrowing and repaying from various investors, in the process pocketing some of the money from each transaction for himself.

The Ponzi scheme seems to be the prefect con, with the scammer earning large amounts of money, and the unsuspecting investors also satisfied with their exponential returns. This 100-year-old scheme is so well planned that is made use of even by today’s white-collar criminals. The prime example is Bernie Madoff, who in 2008 was caught operating the largest Ponzi scheme in history. Not all the Ponzi scheme cases are big enough to make the headlines, as some white-collar offenders run this scheme to a small extent. However, it can be said without a doubt that this scheme is one of the most standard, but also effective white-collar crimes a criminal can commit. However, investors are now becoming increasingly aware of these schemes, and there are also several anti-fraud agencies monitoring investment activities. Some of the basic parameter’s investors must identify to avoid falling into a Ponzi scheme are;

  • High returns with little or no risk
  • Overly consistent returns
  • Unregistered investments
  • Unlicensed sellers
  • Issues with paperwork
  • Secretive, complex strategies

The presences of all these features means that there is almost certainly a Ponzi scheme being run. It is evident from these features that it is investors dream to have such characteristics in a business, which is the primary reason why it is so tempting for many investors to fall prey to this scheme. However, over the years, corporate investors have come to realise that if it seems too good to be true, it often is.

Bernie Madoff Case

Many people are of the view that white-collar crimes are more serious than normal crimes committed on a day-to-day basis. Normal crimes are high-risk, low-reward situations such as shoplifting or robberies, wherein the perpetrator is taking a large risk in order to secure a relatively small reward. White collar crimes, on the other hand, are low-risk, high-reward situations. Such perpetrators commit crimes which generally go unnoticed for long periods of time, until some thorough investigation takes place or some questions are raised. In this time, they can earn exponential amounts of money as a result of their offences. We can take the example of Bernie Madoff here, one of the best-known white-collar offenders of all time. He committed the largest financial fraud in the history of the US, which involved around $65 Billion. Madoff had been committing corporate fraud and it was going unnoticed, with his career continuing on for about 20 years even after he committed such serious offences. This is evidence to the nature of white-collar crimes as being low-risk, high-reward crimes. It was only in 2008 that he was apprehended by federal authorities, and pleaded guilty to 11 federal crimes. He also admitted to operating the largest private Ponzi scheme in history. Hence, he was sentences to 150 years in prison in 2009 (the maximum for a person his age), for spending 20 years of his career defrauding clients and committing other federal felonies (including securities fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, theft from employee benefit plan, and many more). In February of 2020, Madoff’s lawyer pleaded for compassionate release of Madoff from prison, citing health and wellness issues (kidney failure and deteriorating health). However, this bid for release failed and Madoff continues to serve his prison time.

Madoff did not sound remorseful when interviewed in the years after his crimes, but he does show some self-awareness. “It wasn’t like I was being blackmailed into doing something, or that I was afraid of getting caught doing it,” he continues. “I, sort of, you know, rationalized that what I was doing was OK, that it wasn’t going to hurt anybody.” This is a prime example of neutralization of crimes by a perpetrator.

Warren Buffet

Warren Buffet is an American buisnessman, investor and philantrophist. He was born on 30th August 1930 in Nebraska. He developed an interest in the business world and investing at an early age including in the stock market. He is the current CEO and chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, a very successful holding company. They hold shares of other companies to form a corporate group. Buffet is considered one of the most successful investors today with a net worth of over $100 billion. He is the 9th richest man in the world.

Buffett started his education at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania before moving back to go to the University of Nebraska, where he received an undergraduate degree in business administration. Buffett later went to the Columbia Business School where he earned his graduate degree in economics. He began his career as an investment salesman in the early 1950s and formed Buffett Associates in 1956. Less than 10 years later, in 1965, he was in control of Berkshire Hathaway. Recently, Buffett began collaborating with Jeff Bezos and Jamie Dimon to develop a new healthcare company focused on employee healthcare.

Buffett follows the Benjamin Graham school of value investing. Value investors look for securities with prices that are unjustifiably low based on their intrinsic worth. There isn’t a universally accepted way to determine intrinsic worth, but it’s most often estimated by analyzing a company’s fundamentals. Like bargain hunters, the value investor searches for stocks believed to be undervalued by the market, or stocks that are valuable but not recognized by the majority of other buyers. He’s not really concerned with the activities of the stock market at all. Rather, he looks at each company as a whole, so he chooses stocks solely based on their overall potential as a company. Holding these stocks as a long-term play, Buffett doesn’t seek capital gain, but ownership in quality companies extremely capable of generating earnings. He isn’t concerned with whether the market will eventually recognize its worth when he invests. He is concerned with how well that company can make money as a business.

Before investing Buffet analyses the company’s performance, its debt, profit margins and whether its a public company. The answers to these questions help him make his investing decision. Buffett’s investing style is like the shopping style of a bargain hunter. It reflects a practical, down-to-earth attitude. Buffett maintains this attitude outside of work too. He doesn’t live in a huge house, he doesn’t collect cars and generally does not live a lavish life. This is what made him so successful.