This article is a teaser-- read it; and tell me if you'd like to read more... and I'll be happy to write... and if some of you folks write more on this topic; comment-me and I'll be even happier to read more...am new in in blogosphere; and in time, I'll clean up my act, edit my posts & get all neat & clean!!!
This article is pure opinion... no intention of slander or misinformation here.
Hey Folks...
What does a guy say of a series of events that forces Hutch out of one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world ?
What does a person say of a bunch of petty businessmen that think they can go back on every committment-- break every agreement in spirit if not in letter--- think they can do whatever the hell they want, without worrying about the consequences on the market ?
That's the hutch-essar-vodafone story for you.
In a nutshell; Hutchison acquired the mobile operations of a Indian operator called Essar-- owned by a family called the Ruia family.
Stuff was mostly hunky dory and there was a massive boost in service quality... but that was only until the Ruias realized what the true value of Hutch might be... and started twisting the levers... till finally Hutch decided to exit the Indian market.
Vodafone bought them oput... paid a premium for the controlling stake even though on paper the ruias still owned 30%+ of Hutch... let the Ruias stay on as the Indian partner because Indian law demands the presence of a Indian partner-- and thought there's not much bad if the Indian partner's cash lies parked there--- grows in value as time passes.
But then ; boom!!! a couple of billion arent enough for the Indian partner... demands Vodafone recognize that it's 30% stake gets it a say in management matters!!!
And boom... I guess that's how business gets done in India and in certain other parts of the world... if there's a reason lots of folks on orkut write their view as 'strongly authoritarian' then this is the approach the think beneficial.
My only worry is what now for folks like me who're customers of hutch's Indian operations ?
Is the bar for service going to get lower ?
Are us folks who're disgusted with other players like Airtel and Reliance... think Hutch is what multinational-level-service-quality means going to be forced to lower their expectations ?
Do you wanna see more where this article came from; hear more abt the telecom scene in India ?
Write in with your comments and I'll be happy to expand upon this skeleton of a article and fill you in maybe dole out a crash course on what it means to do business in India, in China and in the Arab World!!!
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