VRIO is an acronym of Value, Rarity, Inimitable and Organisation. It is a framework of business analysis developed by Jay Barney in 1991 in his work Firm Resources and Sustainable Competitive Advantage.

In this framework, competitive advantage is explained. An organisation which is able to differentiate its product from its competitors, it is said to have its competitive advantage. At the root of this advantage is the differential value as against the competitors. This is conveyed to the desired target audience.

The components of VRIO model are discussed here.

Value (V) : Value is determined by an organisation’s ability to use resources and capability to exploit opportunities. It is to be seen whether it can ward off threats in the market. Further, whether these put together become the strength or the company. If the organisation fails to cash on opportunities and ward off threats, it could become its weakness. This varies from industry to industry. An organisation has to exploit change — technological, demographic cultural and economic. It has to adapt to the organisation’s environment.

There are five threats which are to be addressed — the threat of buyers, the threat of suppliers, the threat of new entrants, the threat of rivalry and the threat of substitutes. Michael Porter has explained these in his Five Forces model.

Rarity ( R ) : If an organisation has an exceptional capability it can lead to a competitive advantage. An organisation can have a valuable resource or capability, that is unique. An organisation’s resources and capabilities must have short supply and persistence over a period of time. It ensures circulation cycle and constant demand.

Imitability ( I ) : The ultimate object by having valuable and rare resources is to prevent imitation of an organisation’s products by others. It makes an organisation a leader, a pioneer, and gives it a first mover advantage. That constitutes a competitive advantage. An organisation gains when its products are difficult to copy. Even the time taken to imitate and cost of imitation matter.

Organisation (O) : Efficient resource management supposes timely availability of resources and that too economically. This includes all resources — financial resources, production resources. IT and natural resources. After attaining, value, rarity and imitability, it is time to consider systematisation of resources. It sustains the competitive advantage. Management control, reporting system and compensation policy play a vital role here.

Internet connections in India crossed 50 crore mark in 2018. In India, according to TRAI, there are 56 crore narrow and broadband connections, as of September 30, 2018.

Of the 56 crore connections, 36 crore or 64 per cent are in urban areas and 19.4 crore or 36 per cent are in rural areas. Just five states — Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh including Telangana, Gujarat and Maharashtra account for 20 crore or 36 per cent of all in internet connections in India.

Bharat Net Project has connected 1.1 lac gram panchayats. Out of 56 crore (560 million) total internet connections, 54 crore are through mobile phones and the remaining 2 crore through broadband. The 54-crore mobile connections represent a subscriber-base of 35 crore. The 2-crore broad- band connections are also estimated to be a part of those 35 crore subscribers.

Digital Infrastructure

To provide broadband for all and leverage technological advances such as 5G and IOT, we have to build up high-quality infrastructure. High-count, bend-and-pressure resistant optical fibre networks, quality towers and Wi-fi hotpots are significant contributors towards future-proofing India. Almost 65 per cent of the country is yet to get online. India encourages connectivity.

We have to consider 5G wireless tower technology. These promote faster downloads and large amounts of data. These are smaller and more compact than the traditional towers. They are more energy-efficient and aesthetically pleasant.

5G will give a big boost to the setting up of smart homes and smart cities. It is proposed to set up 5 million Wi-Fi hot spots by 2020 and 10 million by 2022.

It will stimulate the make in India policy too.

TV happens to be expensive channel for advertisers. The top companies afford it, while the smaller and emerging companies cannot. There is an innovative way to make it affordable for smaller companies.

It is called media-for-equity (MFE). Here the media company or the broad- caster trade its unsold advertising inventory in exchange for equity in the advertising company. The broadcasters can also mentor the smaller companies with their expertise in brand manegement . MFE concept is gaining traction world wide. There could be an offer to sell advertising inventory in return for a percentage of online retail sales. There could be exchange of pure equity or a combination of cash and stock.

Broadcasters can also offer digital inventory or they can restrict it to TV. It is to be seen what role the media company plays in the investee company. They can think of an intermediary to carry out this deal.

In many countries, media measurement is privatised. It is owned by broad casters, advertisers, media agencies and radio stations. Since the 1990s, online has been added. Online measurement of computer, mobile and tablets is done. TV is measured in terms of live, time-shifted and replay. Radio audience is measured. This is done through a panel. TV replays are through personal recorders and there is video-on-demand viewing. It is called time-shift or replaying.

By 2016, there is measurement of four screens. There is a new technological system to measure online. It is video census measurement. The participant channels embed SDK — a sort of counter or cookie in their apps. It captures the census data, i.e, how many people are watching. It does not measure viewership. TV viewership is about the people reached weighted by the time spent. The measurement is through panels. The four devices are tracked based on census plus panel data.It is a hybrid system.

Advertising is sold differently on TV, desktop or the phone. Online ad inventory is sold without time spent. They are thinking of online metrics being offered in terms of GRP. Ad server economics relies only on demographic targeting. There should be a push for behaviour-based targeting.

It is difficult to work with international platforms who do not accept SDK on their site. Efficiency is measured in terms of clicks or cost per acquisition. In video, one has to measure image building and awareness. Here data about reach and demographics is required. These metrics cannot be given by the company that sells advertising.

Digital ad spends in India in 2018 stood at Rs. 11,630 crore, projected to reach Rs.15470 crore in 2019 and Rs.43,500 crore in 2023. (KPMG report). Overall digital advertising is estimated to grow at 30.9% CAGR till 2023. Revised rates of digital platforms are likely to contribute to this growth.

Masthead of YouTube is its most expensive property. It currently costs Rs. 75 lac ( and which was Rs.42 lac in 2018). In 2019, it is likely to cost Rs.1.4 crore. HotStar charges Rs.11 lac for a mast head banner on its home page. SonyLiv has priced its masthead at Rs.5.2 lac. Voot asks for Rs 6.5 lac. All these rates are negotiable, and regular advertisers get a discount.

Inventories are sold as per cost per thousand views, cost per thousand impressions (CPM) and cost per click (CPC).

YouTube charges Rs.400 per thousand views. HotStar’s CPM or per thousand views are Rs.235. During cricket matches the CPM goes up to Rs.600. Voot is priced at Rs. 280 per thousand views, but the rates go up during Big Boss. During IPL, there are sponsors, who are assured a certain number of impressions.

Digital is growing on two counts — more advertisers and more impressions. Digital allows more targeted advertising, reducing wastage.

The traditional structure of the agency is not working. There is rapid expansion of the digital footprint. The new model of the agency must be lean, agile, capable and responsive. An integrated structure of collaborative relationships has emerged. These days digital and CRM units are acquired. They must be integrated to the main agency. Though there are tectonic shifts, still the ideas occupy the centre stage in creating values. Even today clients seek ideas that can help them grow in turbulent environment. It is a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world.

Strategic planning including data and digital, ideation and creativity, business development and production co-ordination are as usual there. They are supplemented by special purpose teams. There is a team of subject matter experts which acts as an advisory board. Production services can be outsourced.

The output is going to get increasingly non-standard. Anywhere on the value-chain, there could be strategic intervention by the agency.

It is wrong to believe that leaders are created naturally. There is talent crunch. Manpower will have to be sourced from diverse pools — art schools, business schools, competing business organisations and elsewhere. These leaders require nurturing and grooming.

Commission system is sought to be replaced by fee system. It is promoted as fairer way of remuneration. In many cases, it has degenerated as a cost-saving measure. There should be more higher level or senior level engagement. Remuneration should move upwards. It should be enough to sustain talent and invest in R & D capabilities.

Beyond traditional media, there are possibilities of conversations, messaging and transactions. These days AI is available to analyse data. Storytelling is getting richer. Many more touch points. Establishing a brand is a huge challenge. It is a tightrope walk to balance the budget between conversations and media sweet spots. There are opportunities of monetizing personalisations. Media channel planners will help optimisation of the touch points.

These are early days for the new model of the agencies. It will take some time to settle down. Then it will work as well-oiled machine. Emerging models will crystallize into lasting structures over a period of time.

Total expenditure on in-cinema advertising is just 1-2 percent of the total ad spends by brands. There is potential here to grow. The earnings from in-cinema advertising adds to the revenue basket of the cinema halls, especially when ticket and food products revenues are a flash point. In-cinema advertising is big non-ticket revenue, apart from food and beverages (F&B). It is the fastest growing revenue stream for multiplexes, and contributes 35-40 percent of their overall revenue. It grows at a CAGR of 15-17 per cent. In-cinema advertising is targeted advertising in select geographic areas for specific weeks around key movies. It suits the captive audience and the marketing calendar. Due to digitisation of processes the whole thing has become transparent. Cinema ensures uninterrupted viewing. Earlier, marketers were supported to speak to individual screens and send everything physically to them. There was a lead time of 10 weeks before the campaign. It now takes less than three hours. Earlier, the campaigns were month-long. There are no restrictions now — they could run for a couple of days or weeks. The commercials earlier were 60-seconds long. These days, they could be 5-15 seconds long. In cinema, the audience is not remote-empowered. The audience is mostly 15-35 age-group. It is an attractive medium.

Fintech is short for financial technologies. These disrupt the traditional financial services such as mobile payments, money transfers, loans, fund raising and asset management. It has come up in a big way as the digitisation has gained momentum.

In India, people are open to fintech. Out of the various banking channels, Gen Y and tech savvy customers, prefer mobile phones. Still, these is a long way to go to realise its full potential.

Banks borrow money, to lend it to the needy. Here traditional banks compete with fintech terms. Banks use data analytics to target the potential customers and customise their products. Without or with less human intervention, banks will provide quick services by using AI and robotics. It is faster to open accounts and process loans by digitisation. Banks can collaborate and co-invent with fintech firms. Though fintech firms are strong technologically, they have yet to gain trust among customers. Banks must also develop robust risk management tools and techniques.

The issue :

0 Whether social media firms are merely platforms that are not responsible for what is on them.

0 Whether they are media firms with a right to edit and curate content.

Under the IT Act, clause 9 intermediaries guidelines have been issued. Intermediaries are WhatsApp and Twitter. Under these guidelines, they have to remove any information/data the moment they get to know the information is unlawful in any sense. Here they are expected to deploy technology-based automated tools or appropriate mechanisms for identifying and removing or disabling public access to unlawful in any sense. Here they are expected to deploy technology-based automated tools or appropriate mechanisms for identifying and removing or disabling public access to unlawful information or content.

Tracing where a message originated from is a part of intermediaries guidelines. Here the issue of privacy comes. Is this a breach of privacy or not?

The users’ posts number in millions daily. Authorities often threaten to hold media companies to account for these posts. It is akin to punishing telecom companies for a crime hatched during a phone call.

Executives of social media could be summoned by parliament after significant evidence of serious privacy violations and outsiders meddling in the polls.

Social media must comply with local laws. Any platform with over 5 million users or specifically notified by the government must be incorporated under the Indian law and have a registered office in India. Such an entity must have a nodal compliance officer in India for coordination with law enforcement agencies and monitoring compliance under law.

The surveillance and censorship should not violate privacy and anonymity of social media users. Private sector intermediaries should not be asked to perform censorship and surveillance. Any take downs must be on the basis of court orders, or orders by senior officials. There should be a provision for appealing against the take down.

This biopic was made on a bold judge Ramshastri who sentences Raghobadada Peshwa. It was made by Prabhat, and was released in Central and Plaza in Mumbai and Prabhat in Pune on 30th June, 1944. 75 years have since then passed and this is Amritmahotsav Year of the movie. Gajanan Jahagirdar enacted the role of Ramshastri. When the movie was being planned in 1942, V Shantaram left Prabhat, and so the responsibility of direction came to Vishnupant Damle and Sahebmama Fattelal. The screenplay was by Shivrampant Washikar. Gajanan Jahagirdar, apart from acting, took the responsibility of direction too. Fattelal acted as Raghobadada. Bapusaheb Bendre acted Narayanrao. The child Ram was enacted by Anant Marathe. Ramshastri ran for 27 and 30 weeks in Mumbai and Pune respectively. Its Hindi version was released all over the country. It has been shown in the festival circuit.