Rooted Maps

Pankaj Ghemawat is currently a Professor of Global Strategy at IESE Business School and Between 1983 and 2008, was on the faculty at the Harvard Business School where, in 1991, he became the youngest person in the school's history to be appointed a full professor.

In this article he writes of how we can shake up our thinking by looking at the world from the perspective of a particular country, industry, or company. He introduces the concept of “Rooted” maps and how they can help one unearth hidden opportunities and threats.

Maize: A wonder crop?

Maize is being given importance, both by farmers and seed companies with overt support of some state governments. An interesting plug is that it is the crop of the future.

A lot of farmers are turning to it entranced by the higher productivity of hybrid varieties. While it may be good for individual farmers, the question is whether it is good for our food security. The reason Food Security comes into play is because Maize is a commercial crop that is not used all that much as a food crop. Now with the shrinking acreage of millets and other staple foods of small farmers on account of the generous subsidies given to maize this issue is definitely one that has to be debated.

Lurking behind this issue is the issue of GM Maize being introduced in India once farmers are sufficiently enamoured of Maize. Here is a detailed report on these issues. And another one on the maize issue in Mexico.

Burgernomics

Burgernomics is based on the theory of purchasing-power parity (PPP), the notion that in the long run exchange rates should move towards the rate that would equalise the prices of an identical basket of goods and services (in this case, a burger) in any two countries.

THE Big Mac index "invented" by The Economist in 1986 is a fun way of checking whether currencies are at their “correct” level and is a tool to make exchange-rate theory more digestible.

For the first time, they have included India in their survey. Since McDonald’s does not sell Big Macs here in India, The Economist has taken the price of a Maharaja Mac for its calculation. It indicates that the rupee is 53% undervalued and therefore the Implied PPP of the US dollar would be Rs 20.70 only.