Tuesday, April 24, 2007

IIPM Knowledge Centre > B & E Editorial

The future is here

When I started Planman Consulting in 1996, my biggest division then was the research and analysis division. It had 5 of the most brilliant toppers from IIPM. We had a dream to start a world-class business magazine. It was the first division to close down too! Dreams, however,have this habit of re-surfacing. They did, when I met this 19 year old exceptionally talented BBA topper at IIPM named Siddharth Nambiar. I have always believed in the abilities of intelligent, young business graduates and Siddharth fitted the bill perfectly. Siddharth’s drive and his willingness to take up this project got us rolling. We were soon sitting on the mission impossible - to bring out a first-of-its-kind business and economy magazine. I immediately asked him to first book the name, Business & Economy. When we approached RNI, we were disappointed to realise that the name had already been booked. But it was pleasant to get to know later that day that the name had been booked years back by us only!

Then started the tougher part. The hunt for world class people – and the rejection associated with being rejected by the people we wanted. And finally falling back on our internal support system. In walked A. Sandeep with a promise to do it all alone. Prasoon also decided to join in. We three were batch mates at IIPM too, so the tempo started building up. The excitement reached top gear when Sutanu took up our offer. Finally, we had someone to bring in industry expertise. Mouli Marur brought in the world class design. Prashanto, Abhimanyu and Satyajit added the remaining elements of excitement.

When you have a world class team, the rest of the job becomes easy – especially if the people are passionate about the dream ahead. Time flew... passionate, smiling and capable new people joined in and worked with utmost sincerity... and we reached the last week before the launch and suddenly 24 hours a day was not enough. The lovely, lively and smart team worked through the nights to bring out this first issue of a revolution. Because what you hold in your hand right now is a never seen before, Indian, world-class business and economy magazine. Each story, each column, each analysis done with just one aim in mind – to give you an intellectually stimulating experience. In these days of dust-bin-ization of the consumer with unlimited bombardment of relevant and irrelevant news from multiple sources, we realise the only reason you would want to read a magazine is when it gives you incisive and insightful analysis done by supremely competent people. And that’s what B&E stands for (ninety percent of our editorial people are MBAs. They understand business best and their analysis is impeccable). It’s time you start reading a business magazine that adds meaningful value to your precious time. Its time you realise - the future is here.