Labdhi Bhandari: Difference between revisions

Bhandari was recruited straight out of IIM Ahmedabad by [[Hindustan Lever Limited]]<ref name="labdhibhandari2">{{cite web|url=http://www.labdhibhandari.org/2009/04/r-gopalkrishnan-remembers.html|title=Reconstructing LRB: R. Gopalkrishnan remembers...|publisher=labdhibhandari.org|accessdate=15 January 2014}}</ref><ref name="labdhibhandari3">{{cite web|url=http://www.labdhibhandari.org/2009/10/a-1985-interview-with-lrb.html|title=Reconstructing LRB: A 1985 interview with LRB....|publisher=labdhibhandari.org|accessdate=15 January 2014}}</ref><ref name="slrao">{{cite web|url=http://www.slrao.com/Labdi%20Bhandari%2013%2011%202009.doc|title=Labdi%20Bhandari%2013%2011%202009|publisher=slrao.com|accessdate=15 January 2014}}</ref> in 1967 to work in their marketing division. At HLL, he was the product manager of [[Surf (detergent)]]<ref>http://www.labdhibhandari.org/2014/05/hrishikesh-bhattacharyya-remembers.html</ref> during India's first detergent war,<ref name="ReferenceC">http://www.labdhibhandari.org/2014/08/detergent-wars-surf-vs-sway-circa-1969.html</ref> where he played an important role in defending Surf's leadership position in the Indian market against Swastik Oil Mill's Sway detergent.<ref name="ReferenceC"/> Later he headed the Client Services Group of the Marketing Research department as the youngest Senior Manager in the company, in which role he did the early market research that led to the development of [[Liril]].<ref name="labdhibhandari4">{{cite web|url=http://www.labdhibhandari.org/2009/04/k-s-srinivasa-murty-remembers.html|title=Reconstructing LRB: K. S. Srinivasa Murty remembers...|publisher=labdhibhandari.org|accessdate=2014-04-04}}</ref>

In 1972, Bhandari was recruited by [[Ravi J. Matthai]] to the faculty of his alma mater, the [[Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad]]. The institute sponsored his doctoral studies through a Ford Foundation grant and he earned his PhD in 1976 from the [[Columbia Business School]] working with Prof. John U. Farley<ref name="indiatimes">{{cite web|url=http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/why-indians-make-best-marketing-brains/articleshow/1381344.cms|title=Why Indians make best marketing brains - The Economic Times|publisher=economictimes.indiatimes.com|accessdate=2014-04-04}}</ref> and writing a dissertation on [[Social Marketing]].<ref name="labdhibhandari3"/> His dissertation, entitled ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=UlMUAQAAIAAJ&q Communications for social marketing: a methodology for developing communication appeals for family planning programs]'', won the Honorable Mention in the John A. Howard/AMA Doctoral Dissertation Competition in 1976.<ref name="themarketingfoundation">{{cite web|url=http://themarketingfoundation.org/howard_recipients.html|title=American Marketing Association Foundation - Howard Recipients|publisher=themarketingfoundation.org|accessdate=15 January 2014}}</ref> He is considered a pioneer of social marketing in India by his colleague Prof. [[Anil Kumar Gupta]].<ref name="dnaindia">{{cite web|url=http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column-building-institutions-of-excellence-1480266|title=Building institutions of excellence &#124; Latest News & Updates at Daily News & Analysis|publisher=dnaindia.com|accessdate=2014-04-04}}</ref>

In 1976, Bhandari returned to the faculty of [[Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad]] where he was acknowledged as an excellent teacher by his students and colleagues<ref name="labdhibhandari.org">http://www.labdhibhandari.org/2009/03/dr-v-raghunathan-remembers.html</ref><ref>http://www.labdhibhandari.org/2009/10/dr-vasant-mote-remembers.html</ref><ref>http://www.labdhibhandari.org/search/label/the-teacher</ref> and, in time, described as the 'star' of the marketing faculty <ref name="labdhibhandari.org" /><ref>http://www.labdhibhandari.org/2012/11/kapil-kapoor-remembers.html</ref><ref>http://www.labdhibhandari.org/2008_06_01_archive.html</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">http://www.labdhibhandari.org/2009/02/prof-sudas-roy-remembers.html</ref> and the leading marketing academic in the country.<ref>http://www.labdhibhandari.org/2009/03/harsh-mariwala-remembers.html</ref> He served as the Chairman of the Marketing Area, of the Management Education Program (MEP),<ref>[http://expressindia.indianexpress.com/fe/daily/19980929/27255914p.html Financial Express: Sign up for the oldest executive plan<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> and of Management Development Programmes. He was also the first Chairman of the Kasturbhai Lalbhai Management Development Centre, and was responsible for the first major upgrade of its facilities.<ref>http://www.labdhibhandari.org/2015/07/mr-s-santhanam-remembers.html</ref> He also served on the second Committee for Future Directions and chaired the Institute's Task Force on International Management. In 1986, he won a research award from the Colgate Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia where he spent a summer.<ref>{{cite news | title=US Grant for Indian | newspaper=Times of India | date=20 April 1986 | page=9 }} Bennet, Coleman & Company Ltd.</ref> According to [[V. Krishnamurthy]],  then Chairman of the Board of Governors of [[IIM Ahmedabad]], Bhandari was in the running to succeed Prof. NR Sheth as Director of the institute in 1989 after his name was prominently proposed by both the faculty and the alumni.<ref>http://www.labdhibhandari.org/2014/10/dr-v-krishnamurthy-remembers.html</ref> He had been sounded out about the likelihood of his selection just before his death in 1988.<ref>http://www.labdhibhandari.org/2009/03/shyam-sunder-remembers.html</ref>

Bhandari was a highly sought-after management consultant.<ref>http://www.labdhibhandari.org/search/label/the-consultant</ref> His clients included [[Citibank India]],<ref name="labdhibhandari6">{{cite web|url=http://www.labdhibhandari.org/2009/05/jerry-rao-remembers.html|title=Reconstructing LRB: Jerry Rao remembers...|publisher=labdhibhandari.org|accessdate=2014-04-04}}</ref> [[Hindustan Unilever]], [[Marico]],<ref name="indiatimes2">{{cite web|url=http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-02-28/news/47740329_1_ram-charan-business-model-distributors|title=Marico Chairman Harsh Mariwala shares a lifetime of learning - Economic Times|publisher=articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com|accessdate=2014-04-04}}</ref>  [[Crompton Greaves]], [[ITC (company)]],<ref>http://www.businessworld.in/more-magazine-opinion-columns/legacy-teacher#sthash.tijAbLQD.dpbs</ref> [[Lipton]] India, Madura Coats, Blue Star India, State Timber Corporation of Sri Lanka,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=lh_uDQDQQGwC&lpg=PA121&dq=%22Professor%20Bandari%22%20marketing&pg=PA121#v=onepage&q=%22Professor%20Bandari%22%20marketing&f=false Adventures in Management: A Saga of Managing in a Developing Country - Kenneth Abeywickrama - Google Boeken<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> [[State Bank of India]], [[Hindustan Motors]], [[Automobile Products of India]], [[Tea Board of India]],<ref name="ReferenceA" /> and [[Steel Authority of India]]. He served on the Board of directors of [[Enfield India]],<ref>http://www.labdhibhandari.org/2009/03/n-ramanathan-remembers.html</ref> [[EID Parry]],<ref name="labdhibhandari5">{{cite web|url=http://www.labdhibhandari.org/2009/10/mv-subbiah-remembers.html|title=Reconstructing LRB: MV Subbiah remembers...|publisher=labdhibhandari.org|accessdate=2014-04-04}}</ref> [[Semi-Conductor Laboratory]] and the [[Cement Corporation of India]]. Through his consultancy work, he mentored future corporate leaders like Harsh Mariwala of [[Marico]] and [[Jerry Rao]]. He also served as a consultant to the [[Commonwealth Secretariat]] for the management of public enterprises among its member countries.<ref>The Parliamentarian, volumes 69-70, 1988, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Great Britain</ref> He was a nominated member of the advisory group on Consumer Industries appointed by the [[Planning Commission of India]]. In the year of his death, he was nominated by the Ministry of Commerce as a member of the Steering Committee of the Trade Development Authority of India and the National Committee on the Long Term Strategy for the Development of the Tea Industry and Chairman of the sub-committee on Marketing and Export of Tea.<ref>IIMAlumnus magazine, 1989 issue</ref>

Bhandari's main body of research focused on the role and influence of marketing issues in socio-economic development and poverty alleviation. For his doctoral work, he developed a methodology based on the ECHO technique devised by Richard Barthol and Gary Bridge, for identifying value-based communication appeals that were likely to influence people's attitudes and beliefs about family planning, and which could form the basis of a marketing campaign.<ref name="Bhandari1976">{{cite book|author=Labdhi Pat Raj Bhandari|title=Communications for Social Marketing: A Methodology for Developing Communication Appeals for Family Planning Programs|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_UlMUAQAAIAAJ|year=1976|publisher=Bhandari family|id=STANFORD:36105035781447}}</ref> After returning to the [[Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad]], he focused on issues of consumption in developing countries, especially among the poor. In a series of papers,<ref name="docs.google.com">https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B11fcdhr49lbOE5DV0F3ak12MzQ</ref><ref>https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B11fcdhr49lbSFRPaTYwaTBSc00</ref><ref name="drive.google.com">https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B11fcdhr49lbajlVRFhCMGgxMUk/edit?usp=sharing</ref><ref name="Dholakia, R. R. 1988">Dholakia, R. R., Sharif, M., & Bhandari, Labdhi (1988). Consumption in the Third World: Challenges for marketing and development. Marketing and development: Toward broader dimensions, 129-48.</ref> he and his colleagues showed that the consumption of the poor masses, apart from just being dependent on their disposable income, was also constrained and influenced by the marketing system of the country which included the activities of various institutions, the distribution network, policy etc. Bhandari analyzed the consumption needs of the masses in India and showed that they were not being adequately met either by public or private firms in the organized sector, or firms in the small-scale or cottage industries sector as was intended by government policy, even for products that they could afford.<ref name="docs.google.com"/><ref>Bhandari, Labdhi, & Vora, MN (1976). Indian Distribution System: Role of Private Trade. In Public Distribution Systems: Evolution, Evaluation, and Prospects, ed. N. Dholalda & R. Khurana (New Delhi: Oxford, 1979), 42-60.</ref><ref>Bhandari, Labdhi (1976). Meeting Consumption Needs of Masses: A Proposal for a Public Sector Marketing Corporation. In Seminar on Public Distribution System, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Also published in Vikalpa</ref><ref>Bhandari, Labdhi & Vyas, V. (1978). Public distribution of non-food essential commodities: the needed innovations." Round Table on Public Distribution of Essential Commodities: Policies and Problems, Indian Merchants Chamber. Mimeo.</ref> In later work, he highlighted the biases of planners in thinking of the poor mainly as producers and the consequences of such a bias for poverty alleviation. He was one of the first to put forth the view that it was crucial to consider the poor as consumers when making policy for development, because their quality of life is more directly linked to their consumption activities rather than their income or productivity.<ref name="drive.google.com"/> Bhandari's research contributed to, and was part of, a development in marketing that was represented by the International Society of Markets  and Development.<ref name="Dholakia, R. R. 1988"/><ref>http://ismd.org/?page_id=20</ref>

</ref> and the international marketing of tea.<ref>https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B11fcdhr49lbRzlwTkc4RlNFZzA/view?usp=sharing</ref>

He died in the crash of [[Indian Airlines Flight 113]] in Ahmedabad at the age of 40. The [[Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad]] instituted an endowment in his memory.<ref>IIM Ahmedabad 27th Annual Report, 1988-89</ref> This endowment has sponsored the IIMA Conference on Marketing Paradigms for Emerging Economies, which also awards the Labdhi Bhandari best paper award.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/icmee2015/bestpaper.php |title=6th IIMA CONFERENCE ON MARKETING IN EMERGING ECONOMIES<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=5 April 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407085152/http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/icmee2015/bestpaper.php |archive-date=7 April 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="business-standard">{{cite web|url=http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/iim-a-to-host-5th-intl-conference-on-marketing-in-emerging-economies-113010800187_1.html|title=IIM-A to host 5th intl conference on marketing in emerging economies – Business Standard|publisher=business-standard.com|accessdate=15 January 2014}}</ref> Classroom 3 at IIMA has been named the Prof. Labdhi Bhandari classroom in his honor. <ref>https://www.ndtv.com/education/iima-invites-funding-support-for-conservation-and-restoration-of-louis-kahn-infrastructure-at-herita-1667957</ref> The IIMA Alumni Trust has also instituted a scholarship in his memory.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/users/webrequest/files/25jan12_GJC.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=16 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140912051245/http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/users/webrequest/files/25jan12_GJC.pdf |archive-date=12 September 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Bhandari is the subject of the [http://www.labdhibhandari.org/ Reconstructing LRB] biographical project.<ref name="labdhibhandari"/>