It has been a little more than a year, since i moved to Bangalore in 2011, searching for better opportunities and a better future. And, after having spent a considerable amount of time here, i still do not know, what it is that i like and dislike about the city.
Given the fact that i do not accept changes in my life too easily, it was and it still is difficult for me to survive in Bangalore air. There are a lot of things that i appreciate about a typical Bangalore city lifestyle, yet there are many things that i wish could have been better, just like in any other big metropolitan city. To start with the good things, i feel the city is full of opportunities for young professionals and has so much to offer in terms of jobs, since it is a hot spot for setting up base in India by all the big MNCs. While the smaller towns lack the infrastucture and opportunities, the bigger cities like my own city Delhi is saturated, or the companies are just too obsessed with highly qualified, experienced people to join them.
The other thing that i like about Bangalore is the professional attitude of the people, and the very formal culture. It goes well with me, as i find a majority of people can speak English well and it is the common language for conversation.I also appreciate the fact, that women here are more independent and educated than in any other part of the country. Something that i do not find so common in Delhi, where women complete their education and get married to become full time house wives.
But Bangalore has a long way to go still. I can't stand the fact that it is a highly unplanned city and commuting is a big problem here. I myself end up changing three buses in the morning to reach my office, which is just some 9-10 km away from my home. Negotiating with Auto-rickshaw drivers is another headache as they seem to dictate their own terms/charges to drop you to your destination. The bus conductors would take money from you, but not give you a ticket for small distances. The ridiculous part is that the Bangalore International airport, that is supposed to connect the city with the rest of the country, is itself located somewhere on the outskirts of the city.
I sometimes feel that the city is too lonely and all bricks and Mortar, because you can't find any place to hang out on a weekend. All you see are the grand malls, which don't really excite me for a weekend getaway. The major Indian festivals are a low key affair. You can't find many good places to shop at reasonable price.The city does not have the concept of street shopping. Even for daily groceries, you have to rush to supermarkets, which are convenient, yet expensive.
Had career and money not been so important, i don't think i would have ever landed up in
Bangalore.
Every now and then, i miss my own city Delhi, which is a truly colorful city, more vibrant, a haven for cultural programmes and art lovers, a shopper's delight, with a rich Mughal History to boast of, and a lot many other things that you can think of doing on a weekend, given its close proximity to the hill stations and beautiful landscapes.If you are hungry, you don't necessarily have to rush to a KFC or McD to grab a bite, you can just stop by a street side dhaba or stall and have your fill.To top this all,I definitely don't ignore the fact, that it is crime capital of India, and people are known to be loud and harsh here, but that is just a facet of any big city that has a huge lot of Immigrant population coming down to earn daily bread (By immigrants, i mean people who work here as daily wage labourers, unlike in Bangalore which has an educated lot of immigrants to take pride of).
Still, i would like to thank Bangalore for the experience and exposure it has given to me, and making me more confident to face the unknown terrains. Its a good city in many aspects.
And, here's hoping to get back to my own city someday.
Here's my scorecard for the two cities :
Bangalore Delhi
Career Opportunities ***** Career Opportunities **
People ***** People ***
Culture*** Culture ****
Leisure ** Leisure *****
Shopping ** Shopping *****
The income statement of a company helps in evaluating the financial performance, by providing data pertaining to the revenues, costs and other expenses, involved in day to day business operations.
Whether for comparitive study of several firms or performing the trend analysis, the ratios are an important tool. Whether a company is into profit or loss, can be judged from the P/L a/c or the income statement.
Profit in layman's terms is Revenue- expenditure, It could be PAT or EBIT.
Here's a look at the key ratios that is calculated from the Income statement.
1) Profit Margin/ Net profit margin = Net Profit/ Net sales OR Net Income/ Net sales
Net income is a company's net earnings after deducting the Cost of goods, interest expenses and other expenses. The ratio measures how much a company actually earns from a unit of sales. A higher profit margin is a measure of higher profitability. However, when doing trend analysis, it may happen that Net income and net sales has increased in a given year, but the profit margin is low. This may appear when the costs have increased greater than sales. So by just comparing Net income and sales will be misleading, comparing the ratios and reasoning the underlying cause is important, for which ratio is used.
2) Operating Margin/ Gross profit margin = operating profit/ sales OR EBIT/ sales
Operating profit measures the earnings from the core operating activities of the firm after the variable costs are deducted. It measures what proprtion of earnings is left after paying for variable costs such as raw materials, wages etc. A high operating cost would imply that the company has sufficient margin to pay for fixed costs.
3) Interest coverage ratio = EBIT/ Interest expenses
It measures the ability of the firm to pay its debt obligations i.e the amount of earnings available per unit of Interest liability. The greater the ratio, the better is the ability.
4) P/E ratio or price to earnings ratio = MV of share/ EPS
The ratio measures the price that the investors are willing to pay for unit earning of the firm. The greater the ratio, implies that investors are willing to pay more for every single earning of the company.
5) Return on assets = PAT + interests / Average total assets
The ROA measures the ability of the firm to generate sales from the assets employed.
Just happened to stumble upon this advertisement for Pepsi feat. Michael Jackson.
I just wonder the entire line of magic it would have created for the Brand Pepsi ,during those days, when the pop generation was popping up. The appreciation in brand image, the cost , the increase in sales and revenues..
Somehow, today Coca Cola has emerged as the market leader ahead of Pepsi and other soft drinks brands.
A business entity raises capital primarily by two means--putting its own money or by taking loans from the bank or from the creditors. The capital raised through loans is categorized under the debt fund of the capital structure. While it may not be advisable to have all the capital requirements from the debt, for obvious reasons such as repayment of loans and interests within a short period of time , and the risk of losing the credibility in the market.
Owners equity is another source of funds for a company, which includes the money contributed by the founders, as well as the share capital ,which is the capital raised from the public by giving them ownership shares in the company itself.
Thus there are often two sources of Funds ,in the balance sheet : Share capital and debt,loans/ debentures.These are categorized under the liabilities.
One question that often arises is : which is more expensive? Equity or Debt .
Suppose a company wants to raise $ 100 dollars, should it issue 10 shares of $ 10 face value or should it take a loan from the bank at 10% rate of interest ?This is a hypothetical situation. The cost of debt here is the interest rate that the bank charges on $100 .
The cost of Equity on the other hand is the returns + risk premium . CAPM model is used to calculate the returns from a commpn stock.It links the Risk free rate, the risk premium and the beta or the risk factor of investing in a particular stock.
The formula for the cost of equity can be written as:
Cost of Equity = ((Dividend for Next Year + Stock Price Appreciation) / Current Share Price)) + Dividend Growth Rate
There are advantages/disadvantages of having debt financing/ Equity financing.
While equity financing dilutes the ownership rights in a company ,but on the other hand, there is no obligation to repay it in short term. Equity financing is however more expensive qualitatively, because unlike debt, Equity is not tax deductible and while debt is returned along with a fixed rate of interest charges, Equity is returned in proportion to the profits. The more the profit, the more has to be the dividends paid.
Equity holders also claim ownership rights in the company.
The ideal capital structure is evaluated using the WACC model or the weighted average cost of capital.
The model considers the D/E ratio, Interest coverage ratio and EBITDA to compute the ideal capital structure for any company. The default risk spread is used to rate the company on the basis of above parameters to assess the ability of the firm to repay debts. This way a company can decide the ratio of debt and equity in its capital structure.
Different industries have different D/E requirements and standards. A newly launched company might consider having more of equity financing,since it is unsure of its performance.
I wonder where has all the creativity gone from the advertising industry. Or is it just for the heck of creating an ad,that the ad agencies are taking inspiration from the bollywood songs of the 1970's and 80s era, so that there is not much of resources used( which in this case is the intellectual and creative domain of the mind) and an ad is created in minimal cost.
I dont usually like to be watching commercials in between the movies or TV serials, but it sometimes happen that i am too busy to switch channels between the commercial breaks, which otherwise has given me a chance to analyse and critically acclaim the ad works being made these days.
I really miss those days of intelligent, logical and innovative ads, which have left the imprints in the minds of people belonging to my generation.
There was a time,during the late 80s and 90s, when the advertisements were able to connect the brand with the audience emotionally. The typical household shown in the advertisements portrayed the middle class sentiments of a price conscious and value for money individuals. Like the famous Surf Ad, featuring a lady who lists out the benefits of Surf, emphasizing on the price which doesn't burn a hole in the monthly budget, and is thus an intelligent bargain for a middle class family.
The Hamara Bajaj campaign, connected to the dream of every middle class Indian, when a scooter was considered to be the elite possession by any middle class family. The Rasna ad tagline,which still lingers on the minds of people my age, who grew up watching it.The Liril ad, depicting the chirpiness of a young girl and connecting it to freshness. Every ad was unique in itself and delivered what an advertisement is supposed to deliver-- CLARITY, IDEA, CREATIVITY, BRAND VALUE ,the success of which can be measured by high brand recall measurement.
And what do we get to see today is a complete mosaic of mismatched ideas, which not just fail to deliver the brand proposition but also have low brand recall value.Even brands like Pepsi, has failed to get an impressive TV advertisement or a catchy tagline.Most of the ads these days are getting inspiration from the bollywood songs remixed versions.It all started with Coca Cola ad featuring Imran Khan, which was like a breath of cool air, but many similar ads followed the same route. The more recent being the TVS ad featuring Virat Kohli, and almost negligible script,just a remixed version of an old song in the playback.There are many more in the league such as Safolla, TVS scooty pep,etc. And some ads dont even have the logical coherence between what is shown and what the brand actually entails, such as an 5 second,ad by some cement company in which a damsel walks out of sea in a swimwear.
The advertisement industry seems to be run by over commercialization and consumerism, without any due consideration given to the creativity aspect.And i wonder, are we really short of creativity in the ad world,that majority of ads are created on the same platform
I just happened to receive an email alert from one of the national job sites here in India. My keyword for job search is Analyst / Research, and guess what, despite of several updations, i keep receiving irrelevant job postings on my email.This one which i received today was even more funny -- Business development analyst. What the heck? I dont need a "business development analyst" job, and by the way who calls this profile as that of an analyst? What sort of analysis does it require? Number crunching? graphs? statsistics? or is it just Number dialing on the telephone to potential customers?
This reminds me of one more thing-- how the companies, supposedly, small scale and non paying non-reputed companies try to lure the job seekers with cheesy flashy job titles-- Relationship manager / Business development manager / Customer services analyst/ Phone banking officer/ Sales manager / Area sales Manager and many more. When the truth is that these profiles do not have anything to do with analysis or managing. And the only person who reports to you is yourself. There are no sub ordinates, which otherwise the designation of manager implies.At the end of the day, you find yourself reporting to the MD about how many leads you have generated, how much sales and profit you bought to the company, and all that nonsense.
All these jobs just involve calling the clients,selling and bringing business. Thats it.
What irks me even more is that, the job sites keep sending such irrelevant jobs to me. I mean " Analyst" and not a marketing job, even if they think that it involves a lot of analysis, i am sorry, i am under qualified in that case. So please...stop sending me such jobs..its better to see no jobs, than seeing such jobs which i don't consider even a quarter of an actual analyst profile.
