BUSINESS SCAN

One stop-shop: The UB liquor terminus 		SPIRITS
Booze boutique
The UB Group’s spirits and breweries division has embarked upon a pioneering concept in liquor and beer marketing by launching an exclusive boutique in Bangalore--The UB Terminus.
It is the first retail liquor and beer showroom of its kind in the country and will sell the entire range of UB products. On its shelves will be mega brands like Bagpiper whisky, McDowells’s No. 1, Black Dog, Black and White Scotch whisky.
TIE-UP
Channel partners
Hardware major Digital India and Advanced Micronic Devices (AMDL) have announced a strategic business alliance for the distribution of Digital’s range of Intel-based products.
According to Digital’s managing director, Som Mittal, the partnership with AMDL is the result of increasing focus on selling through channel partners. Eighty per cent of Digital’s PC business is operated through distributors and resellers.
The products that come under the agreement include its leading edge Prioris Servers, ranging from entry-level work group servers to high-end multi-processing On-line Transaction Processing (OTLP) servers. AMDL will also distribute Digital’s much acclaimed notebooks--the HiNotes--and its full range of Celebris and Venturis desktops.
MANAGEMENT
Centre for excellence
Detergent giant Nirma is making its debut in providing and promoting management education in India. The Nirma Institute of Management (NIM) is a major initiation by Nirma Education and Research Foundation (NERF) to promote excellence in management education and research.
The institute at Chharodi near Ahmedabad, is the brainchild of the legendary king of detergents--Karsanbhai Patel. NIM will have on its board S.K. Lalbhai of the Lalbhai Group and J. Dewan chief justice (retired) of Gujarat High Court. The institution, with its own campus and hostel, will have a state-of-the-art library and a computer centre.

Top Class: The refurbished
seats in Cathay Pacific 		AVIATION
Cathay gets stylish
All Cathay Pacific business class flights operating to India are being upgraded. Besides extra seats, there will be phones, faxes and more entertainment channels on the personal TVs.
The upgrade follows Cathay’s re-launch of the business class in India in 1995 with a more personalised service and a new seat having an adjustable winged headrest, an inflatable lumber support and a choice of two footrests.
The airline sources say that the re-launch was well received by passengers. The Travel Trade Gazette Asia has voted Cathay’s Business Class the best in Asia. Cathay Pacific flies four times a week from Mumbai to Dubai and the same number of times for Mumbai to Bangkok and Hongkong.

Spreading tentacles:
Uday Kotak 		PERSONALITY
Breaking all barriers
He believes in the new organisational concept of ‘fractal corporation’. And true to his belief, financial emperor Uday Kotak is planning to hive off his empire, Kotak Mahindra Finance (KMFL), into fractals.
Fractals, a term coined by IBM mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot, means that one discovers the same image repeated within, at smaller scales. In other words, applying the philosophy of the parent company to its new entities.

Kotak, 37, is all set to spread his tentacles in six new directions. These include carving out separate companies from the existing operations and luring in foreign partners for entering new growth areas. Probably, Kotak will be treading into life insurance, consumer durable financing and promoter funding.
Kotak’s success is largely attributed to his ability to jump and land right into cups that are full of pie. All his moves are made with amazing speed and they have always clicked. Not surprisingly, when most of the finance companies are lurching, Kotak is ready to call the shots. KMFL has made profits and ensured enough capital inflows that it can invest in new areas. As of today the company is worth Rs 300 crore and is expected to touch Rs 600 crore in three years with a net balance sheet total of Rs 3000 crore.
The USP of the company is its Hydra-like ability to multiply randomly. This has helped the company get a firm toe-hold in the tough world of financial business. Kotak believes that if you are in a business then you should place yourselves in the top three. For now Kotak is trying to change the Kotak Mahindra outlook and is all set to make the capital market his domain.
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