'Brand Assets as Force Multipliers'

Managing Coimbatore’s invisible assets

Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India, January 28, 2011

“With nearly three fourths of an entrepreneur’s asset base lying outside his balance sheet, is he really performing to full potential? “ This was the primary question raised by Ramesh Jude Thomas, CKO & President of EQUiTOR Management Consulting, the country’s leading international brand value advisory in a seminar entitled “Brand Assets as Force Multipliers” in association with the Hindu Business Line and Dr GRD College of Management

on 28^th of January 21, 2011 in the Dr. GRD College of Science, auditorium.

A collaborative idea that came out of discussions with Dr. K.K Ramachandran, Director of GRD College, Mr. Rajkumar from Hindu Business Line and Mr. Ramesh Jude Thomas this was a first of its kind in Coimbatore. Interestingly, this event took place in Coimbatore because no other city in India offers a unique blend of business energy and quite dignity. What was termed as “Entrepreneurial Elegance.” A traditional manufacturing hub, this city embodies the entrepreneurship spirit that took off post liberalization.

Over thirty entrepreneurs representing businesses ranging from textiles to transportation, poultry to photography took part in a very interactive three hour session on the campus. The deliberations centered around how intangible assets could drive much higher levels of performance, provided they are measured and managed like other assets. As the pioneers in the practice, EQUITOR Consulting were invited by the Hindu Business Line and Dr. GRD College of Management to conceive and execute this program in Coimbatore.

Mr. Thomas took the group through a wide body of global evidence and international best practice currently prevailing on the subject. It came as a surprise to most people when he said that “68% of the value of the Disney businesses came from the brand name alone.” But they also agreed that if TATA were to lose the rights to its brand name most of the group’s businesses would have a very hard time meeting its business plans.

But was this logic relevant to the small and medium entrepreneur in India? Mr. Thomas opened this debate by revealing that “between 26 to 41% of the FDI outflow from India is coming from the SME. Most of the money is being paid for the intangibles for the target firms abroad”.

So SMEs are already investing into intangible assets. Now the entrepreneur actively needs to measure and manage the intangible assets for realizing massive unlocked potential in his/her business.

The Hindu Business Line covered this on 18-Feb-2011. You can read the article by following this link:

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-others/tp-states/article1466187.ece 

High Performance Brand of the Year

This is the media coverage that appeared in the Economic Times, dated 7-Feb-11, Mon and is from the World Marketing Congress held on the 4th & 5th of February in Delhi. Ramesh Jude Thomas from EQUiTOR Management Consulting spoke in this platform.  

Besides, EQUiTOR with its reputation as the pioneers of Brand Valuations in India, were chosen as the knowledge partners of the R.K.Swamy High Performance Brand Award which was part of this platform as well.
 
EQUiTOR has used business data to analyse the performance of the brands that were nominated. In brief, as we have always believed in EQUiTOR, brands are business assets that need to be measured, managed and rewarded.