“Business Today” is one of the glamorous business magazine that covers the way business is done Today - note the stress on word Today is intentional and apt.
Arun Poorie, the Editor-in-chief, has much to be proud of as it is the largest selling business magazine in India. This has much to do with the major overhaul that was undertaken a few years back (2000 is my guess). Since then BT has achieved a glamorous look and feel, a sincere attempt to make the boring business news pleasure to read and simple enough to comprehend. Then again the prices were reduced to Rs.10. Well it clicked and sales of BT soared several times. It now finds a comfortable place in the briefcase of every business savvy person, on table of CxO (where x = F, O or/and E) and of course drawer of study table of aspiring management student.
«« ABOUT THE MAGAZINE »»
The magazine runs from 120 to 154 pages of excellent glossy paper. The quality is superb! The layout and presentation of the articles, placement of advertisements, graphics, statistics is commendable DTP work. Never does the articles appear crammed but on the contrary are well spaced out, thus making reading it a pleasure. Also the price tag of Rs. 10 is well thought of. But honestly speaking, if you know the meaning of “value” as used in finance parlance, I feel that BT’s value is much higher than Rs. 10.
«« ABOUT SUBSCRIPTION »»
It’s a fortnightly whose subscription rates are as under:
1 year – 26 issues – Rs. 215
3 year – 78 issues – Rs. 780
5 year – 130 issues – Rs. 1300
Thus 3 and 5 year issues seems to be priced same as the newsstand price. What’s the benefit? Assured gifts like Telephone, Digital diary, travel bag + entry into a lucky draw for another set of prizes. But there are some aspects about subscription which are worth noting:
(1) Being a subscriber not exactly privileges you. You will get a copy delivered nearly 2 to 3 weeks after it is available on the newsstand. Arrggghhh!
(2) You are given a subscription number, part of which makes you eligible to access https://business-today.com and the web-exclusives or the archives. Please maintain their “thanks-for-subscribing” letter. Why? It is the only evidence of your subscription that has the number on it. That’s why. No no, your magazines do not come in any plastic bag or envelope with your number, name and address. It is loosely delivered by some courier agent. Now you get it!
«« REGULAR FEATURES »»
Editorial: A one page article that provides a good place to begin reading the current issue.
Jobs Today: Not of much help to me as it mostly caters to top management levels.
Personal Finance: Covers nice tips on insurance, investments, savings, PF, MF etc.
Book Review: Do you need an explanation on this?
People: I love this part. It briefs us on people from India Inc and their successes. You will find me here, one day.
Columns: Interesting views put forth by Mahesh Murthy, Kiran Karnik, Pradeep Kumar etc.
Trends: Is IT sector heading north? Is Biotech the next big thing? Will consumers have conditional access to CAS? Is old economy still the best bet? How strong is the rupee? Is power measured in VAT? Is UB group spirited enough? What is Infosys’s new ADRess?
A close look at answers to this will point towards the trends in the economy and business ideologies. BT presents these as short half page to full page articles. If you are an investor, you know its importance already.
Features: It has some of the best businesses and business practices covered through 4 to 5 articles of 2 – 4 pages each. BT takes you inside Reliance Life Sciences lab (heard about it?), HDFC’s main vault, Wipro’s Conference room, ABB’s switchgear factory, Murthy’s bungalow, ICICI’s BKC building, Chennai’s Tidel Park, IIM-C’s campus and all the right places where you wished to go. Each tour helps you grasp the business situation, basic fundamentals behind the successes, reasons behind the failures. Somewhere in your brain cells, you retain this wealth subconsciously and it will surprise you when you make that correct decision in your own daily problems at work.
«« MY FAVOURITE »»
Cover Story: While it is understandable that you feed that what the taste buds demand like MUL’s IPO, Tata’s retirement, RELIANCE’s aggression, Alagh – Wadia duel and can expect the likes of Premji, Ravi Uppal, Mallya, Adi etc., to be on cover page, BT has surprises up their sleeves. So you find articles like “New Entrepreneurs”, “CFO’s Day Out” as cover stories. I am sure the issue featuring India Inc’s First Wives has outsold itself. This is also probably what makes it irresistible business capsule…(like Onergy..!..analogy inspiration from Spookay).
Case Game: In fact the entire BT Managing is one interesting read. It covers live examples of management fundamentals actually implemented at work place…like say Railway catering, Mumbai’s Dabbawala etc. Management students are often found debating over likely approaches and actions based on query in Case Games. (But I believe Business World started it…not sure though). Really stimulating.
«« BT’s UNIQUENESS »»
One up for BT over its closest competitor Business India is that BT coms out with “Special Issues” more than often. It teams up with AT Kearney, Indica Research, Stern Stewart and such other consultant or research organisations to bring forward some amazing and useful researches (that even corporates use for their advertsing)…such as Best B-schools in India, the recent Best Managed Indian companies, Best Wealth Creators, survey on Consumer Spending, Salary Survey, Top 500 Indian companies, Top 10 banks etc.
Some researches are like once in 4 years like “Top 10 Indian cities”.
«« OVERALL »»
I highly recommend BT.