Category Archives: Business

A Question of Timing – More Answers

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How do you ensure that you launch your new product at the right time?

My immediate answer to this question from an eager MBA student described factors such as overall business plans, product readiness, competitive launches, and seasonal cycles. What many of us tend to ignore is that successful timing of a new product launch is very often not within the control of the company. Yes, you can set a deadline and get your internal team to stick to exact timelines, you can even get suppliers to adhere to your timeline, but the market is constantly changing.

This means that the risk of a timing error is always present.

There are ways to mitigate that risk. These include conducting a soft launch rather than a much-trumpeted splash, executing a phased rollout rather than an all-out launch, engaging in activities that win customers over a period of time rather than in the first go, and staying in the market for longer than you initially planned to.

Conducting a soft launch often goes against the grain of current thinking, where movies are launched with much hype in order to capture as much revenue as possible in the opening weekend. Using every possible channel to publicise is the norm. However, a slow process of selling through a limited set of channels, encouraging word of mouth and building consumer pull might be a better option if the risk of timing error is serious.

Executing a phased rollout could mean enhancing your offer over a period of time. India’s only profit-making airline IndiGo launched with a single aircraft, with a plan to add one new plane every six weeks. A similar option is to launch the offer in a few selected markets at a time, although the goal might be to serve the national market.

Engaging in activities that win customers over time means that while the launch itself might be low-key, the company is in the market for the long run. This requires being consistent, and if communicated well, will lead to loyal customers. It also requires a set of success metrics that are not necessarily the typical ones of awareness, trial, usage and repeat purchase. It also might mean staying with the market for longer than you initially planned to, so that you tap into favorable conditions when they arise.

Very easy to say, not so easy in practice. But then again, the answer to the question of perfect timing lies with the team behind the launch.

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A Question of Timing

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How do you ensure that you launch your new product at the right time?

We had neared the end of my lecture to a class of first year MBA students: an hour of what to expect in b-school and an hour on the success and failure of a new product launch, covering the gamut of Ford Edsel to New Coke. It struck me that, quite naturally and somewhat disappointingly, I did not have a “right” answer to that question.

The timing of a new product launch is often determined by factors such as overall business plans, product readiness, competitive launches, and seasonal cycles. The 10-year growth strategy might have specific time points for particular new launches. The new product development team would have certain limitations and capabilities that determine when the product would be ready. The new product might be launched quickly in order to be the first to market, it might be launched later in order to take a competitive launch head on. Several product categories such as consumer goods are in higher demand during particular times of the year, and launching them then would make the most business sense.

But what do you just before the rains if the technology for your new umbrella is yet to be transferred from China? What if your R&D department has gone through multiple rounds of development but is nowhere near a good product, with only two more months to go before your scheduled deadline? What if your competitor got there faster?

The real world includes delays and uncertainties, risks and new developments. Timing the launch of a new product is not always within the control of the company. More on this in my next post ‘A Question of Timing – More Answers.’

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The Mantle of Confidence

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One fine day came a mail addressed to me by name, and it was from a classmate of mine from b-school. I was thrilled – oh, so A has shifted to a new role with the Tatas, I thought. It was an invitation to participate in a blogger contest by Tanishq for their newly launched brand Mia for workwear jewellery. (Find out more at the Mia website.) I realized very soon that this A was not my classmate, but that didn’t reduce the enthusiasm any bit, because by then I had watched the Mia TVC as well. There was something in the bold, smart and confident protagonist which struck me – I could see a little bit of me in her. And so, here goes…

*

Just like bad hair days, there used to be bad attire days. Those were days when I would stand in front of my wardrobe, choose clothes for the day, put them back, pick others, put those back, and after a couple of rounds of this, settle for something safe. Something that wouldn’t draw too many comments in the day’s meeting, or distract from the serious business at hand.

But I always felt there was something untrue about dressing down, because it stopped me from looking as beautiful and confident as I felt about my work. And so, one day, I decided to take a little risk: I wore a puff-sleeved pink shirt to a meeting where anyone who knew me would have expected a staid grey striped shirt. Because I felt beautiful in it, and it was the real me.

That day, I was harking back to something I had wondered over two years ago as I started a career in business strategy consulting: why shouldn’t a woman look her best when she is doing her best at work? This question came back to me as I watched the Tanishq Mia TVC. If you are a woman professional or have women professionals at your workplace, you might want to spare 60 seconds to watch it.

Megha, the protagonist, is told not to wear attention-grabbing gold earrings in a client meeting. But in a flash of confidence which lets her be true to herself, she decides to go into the meeting with the earrings. Her boss is not too happy, but Megha’s presentation of her work goes so well that she (the boss) changes her mind. As Mia wearers, both of them are confident of their work and the value they bring to the table; their relationship is one of mutual trust, of confidence that recognizes confidence and tolerates differences. Even when they both wear Mia, their choices are very different, and yet equally elegant. Even when there is difference of opinion, the two of them understand each other.

Megha embodies what I call wearing the mantle of confidence. The mantle could be an item of clothing or an accessory, it could be a pen or a notebook, it is anything that acts as a repository of confidence. It helps the woman do her work well, be it preparing a document for a meeting, having an important conversation with her team, or presenting before a client. And this is what it means to be beautiful at work. After all, confidence and beauty are inseparable, and a balanced mix of beauty and confidence is what all of us value as poise. The poised woman is smart and confident; she knows it and she will show it.

Like Megha, I too prefer short hair that doesn’t have to be touched. While she wears her Mia earrings, I have a gold chain and locket. There was a time when gold was off limits for women professionals in Western attire, but those days are passé. Today’s workplaces are no longer about pale shirts and dark suits. When women are around and they feel confident, they will wear what they like, with effortless ease. They set norms and lend legitimacy to what they do simply by being themselves. They know that diversity is about being unique and confident, and they give others – both men and women – the confidence to be themselves. They tolerate differences and bring out the best in others.

So nowadays, on bad attire days, when I feel like putting the clothes back and picking others, I ask myself the reason. If it has anything to do with appearing more staid and less beautiful than I feel inside, I don’t change my choice. Instead, I wear what I choose and let my confidence carry me through the day.

The Extraordinary Lives of Ordinary People

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1. The Lady to Libya

“After 6 months, I will get a family visa, I can bring my children also…” She is a nondescript woman in salwar-kameez on her way to Delhi. It’s her story that merits mention. She is headed to Libya, as a nurse in a government hospital. The agency that arranged for her job and visa will pick her up in Delhi. “There are six of us from Kerala, some others from other places. The important thing is to somehow get through the first six months. After that I can bring my family.” Her husband and two children, aged three and one-and-a-half, will manage on their own till then.

“I have to go there and learn Arabi. Don’t know what the food will be like. But what bothers me is how the children will live without me.” Her soft eyes fill up in a moment, but then the tears go back in.

2. The Serious Young Lad

He sits clutching his bag, trying to be casual, preoccupied with something. “There was a death in the family – illness and old age, so nothing unexpected, but the date was unexpected. So I had been running around a lot for the arrangements.”

He has spent six years in the same company, a bank, after graduating with a degree in Math. He likes his life – a 9-5 job, some football, some volunteering – he is glad that he has a life outside work. “My job is changing now, I have to get sales and not just make sure that things are running smoothly.” He is with a group of management graduates now, who have experience in other banks. “Those guys are paid more simply because they have an MBA. What do they do differently?”

3. The Studious Cabin Attendant

She is studying for an exam on flight safety. As a cabin attendant, she has to give an exam every six months. The tests are more than academic. “We have to watch our weight – we can’t be overweight. We can’t be underweight either, because then we might fall ill. They give us time to come to the right weight, so it’s ok. It’s difficult when you eat food like this all the time,” she says, pointing to the sandwich.

The job pays well, but “the glamor is not as high as it used to be.” It is hard work as well, with 25-30 flights a week on average. “After five years on the job, you are not allowed to be a court witness. Because when you take so many flights, you tend to lose your memory. Your memory becomes unreliable.”

4. The Loving (?) Mother

The mother, the 6-year-old son and the 8-year-old daughter have all got middle seats. The children have settled down nicely in their seats, but the mother is restless. “Do you mind shifting? My daughter is very uncomfortable sitting alone. She wants to sit with me.”

The son stares at the mother across the aisle, with an uncomprehending look. The daughter turns back from where she is sitting with an open paperback novel – her discomfiture arises from the loud voice of her mother and the embarrassing topic of conversation. She wishes her mother wouldn’t make a scene, it’s only a couple of hours after all. But sometimes mothers miss their children more than the other way round and possessively try to allay imaginary worries.

5. The Entrepreneur’s Daughter

She is like any other college student, living with friends in a hostel. But her sights are set high. “I want to do an MBA abroad and then return to work in the family business.” Her father built up a pharmaceuticals company, and the responsibility to run the business will soon be on her shoulders.

The expectations are high – the father has won an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur Award for his work. The Award that let her spend a week at Stanford learning about running the family business. And made her more confident of her decision to learn business right after undergraduate studies, unlike many of her classmates. The father is an entrepreneur, but the daughter has to be a manager.

P.S.: All the above are snippets of conversations with fellow travellers on flights…

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Interesting Stuff from Around the World – Edition 1

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This time you get to read some interesting observations, picked up over the past few days from the news and from conversations. Not surprisingly, the post is littered with more links than usual.

1. To work from home or not

Marissa Mayer created ripples when she announced through an internal memo Yahoo’s decision to seriously discourage working from home. Industry bigwigs have not finished decrying the decision. However, there are some benefits to working at a central office, and these benefits are lost when working from home becomes the default. Chance encounters and conversations do have their value. Penelope Trunk’s blog has a post which provides views in support of Mayer’s stand.

Here’s my take on the idea of working from home: see what you and the team want to achieve in terms of innovative ideas, productive undisturbed work, personal time off and so on, and use working from home as one of many tools to attain a good mix of these goals. The important point to keep in mind is that in demanding jobs, especially those which are not 9 to 6 jobs, the company cannot say “you are responsible for the work, the company does not care about your personal time” because if a company draws out the best in you, it is obliged to help you find the best in yourself by helping you find space for personal life. In any case, companies must realize that the most motivated and best performing employees require flexibility simply so that they can continue performing well, as this article says.

2. The oath of the who???

The Oath of the Vayuputras. That’s what every cat and dog I know is reading these days. I’m curious but having very recently laid hands on Love in the Time of Cholera, there’s no way I’m jumping on the Amish Tripathi bandwagon now. The point here is what this book has achieved, and I don’t mean spreading the reading habit or developing English language skills.

Instead, what I’m referring to is the fact that many of my friends have pre-ordered online a book for the first time in their lives. Before The Oath, they had always carried out one of four options: bought pirated books on the roadside, bought books from Landmark and Crossword, ordered books from Flipkart, ordered ebooks online. Now for the first time, they have pre-ordered online a book, that too not an ebook. I think there is a shift in consumer behavior here.

3. Paying for email

A radical idea came along in an article by angel investor Esther Dyson in the Mint the other day – instead of free email and the consequent spam, get the sender to pay and the recipient to set the price for reading email. After all, each email requires the receiver’s attention, and I’d certainly be glad if there was a way I knew the sender was sufficiently invested in the matter to warrant my attention.

Regarding questions like how the pricing would work or the complexity of the system, I agree with the author: these are operational questions, they would get sorted out over time. When people are ready to pay for what they find valuable and/ or scarce, it makes ample sense for them to pay for someone’s attention. But then again, bring money into play and you risk bringing inequality where there was only inaccessibility.

Changed but Still the Same (Notes from a Homecoming Trip to Wimwi)

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After the awe of seeing the red bricks subsided, one of the first feelings I remember from my day of arrival at Wimwi* is the intense disappointment on seeing the dorm* room allotted to me – old, nearly unfurnished, paint flaking off and falling to the bed along one entire wall. Dilapidated, in one word. To think that this was what I had “achieved!” I was immediately and very kindly allowed to change my room. And after that first day, I don’t remember ever having had a chance to reflect on the quality of my accommodation.

<Before we proceed any further, some comments are in order. In this post I have used terms commonly used at IIMA – these are indicated by * at their first occurrence and explained at the end of the article. This post is also on the longer side, so please be warned. But if it is as much fun reading as it was writing, you wouldn’t notice the length.>

Going back to campus after a hiatus of a year and a half, the overwhelming sense of homecoming eclipsed all other feelings. The dorm room I got this time was no better, but time had changed my perspective so much that campus felt like a nature resort. And the days passed by in a rush. I strongly suspect that time runs at a different speed at Wimwi. Time is also scarcer, and hence more valuable and more valued, at Wimwi than anywhere else in the world.

Fences and facilities

I noticed that the campus seemed demarcated by fences in an attempt to keep away the stray dogs, a vain attempt because the gates of the fences usually remained open. Indeed, there is something about an academic institution that makes spirits far freer than in an organization that pays a salary for working, for keeping your ideas to yourself and for doing what you are told. In the latter, the chaos of enterprising free human minds is mercilessly reined in by rewarding subordination.

It was heartening to see the new sports complex, with an indoor badminton court – so what if it was not equipped with the best of lighting? And the SAB, the Student Activities Block, which has been a long time coming; the new super posh dorms of rooms with attached bathrooms – a rare luxury for the students of Wimwi; two more ATMs, in the right places; more, and yet inadequate, signboards to indicate directions to dorms and facilities in a campus that seems like a maze even to seasoned residents.

Food and fauna

I spotted more eating joints – the expensive but healthy Joos has been relegated to the realm of memories and only the space remains, as if awaiting a new occupant; there is Falafal (think Hindi not Lebanese) aimed at the same I-care-more-about-health-than-wealth customers (I exaggerate, of course); a Nescafe right near the girls’ dorms; an enlarged Nescafe in the new campus. And KLMDC* still sells home-made cookies, these are still just as popular; the fruit vendor still enjoys a monopoly; tiffin deliveries take place as usual, of packed lunches that look unhygienic but taste genuine like only home-cooked food does; the food in the student mess has expectedly gotten worse over the years and subscription seems to have fallen each year.

The animal kingdom at Wimwi has not diminished even one bit. At Falafal, a bold squirrel approached till the seat opposite mine, and stood poised to land in my plate with its next jump. I threw a yellowed neem leaf to the floor and the squirrel, well-trained as it must have been from numerous titbits thrown by residents, ran towards the leaf. But very soon it was back, and this time I broke up a corner of my bread slice and offered that. The squirrel sniffed around, but could not (deliberately did not?) spot the meal, and returned to its pose, again ready to jump onto my plate. In the meantime, another squirrel grabbed the bread piece and ran away. I have a feeling that squirrel one often helps its brothers this way. In the land of RG-giri* this was a refreshing sight.

Reading, living and studying

The best-kept secret of the Wimwi campus, VSL, or the grand old Vikram Sarabhai Library, is still majestic and well-maintained. It hasn’t lost its charming effect on me – within minutes of entering the welcoming silence, I noticed and picked up Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’ in the new arrivals section and Peter Drucker’s ‘Adventures of a Bystander’ in the shelves, both of which I had been planning to read.

In dorm 3, the same old almost shelf-less fridge reigns over the pantry, but the new microwave oven has stolen the spotlight from the old one; the basement, known lovingly among current and former residents as the dungeon, still has some of the least wanted rooms and the most well-bonded group of residents; the erstwhile cleaning lady has been moved out, but the mildly servile attitude has remained, now shown by the new cleaning lady.

There is no more a WAC run* because electrons run faster and the Internet has taken over the work of fast feet. But Turnitin* does its job just as skillfully. And the 2.30pm surprise quizzes are back in the system (after having been displaced when first year classes were held in the afternoon as well because a new section of students had been added), with the additional caveat that the announcement comes only at 1.45pm! All those who thought it was a good idea to skip lunch because of (the possibility of) a quiz might consider eating because the suspense would not be broken before 1.45pm.

Outside the classroom

For students, placement is still the ‘top of the mind’ question. Professors, as has been the norm, show no recognition that the third slot* is the “killer slot” with classes in full swing, placement talks to be attended and placement preparation to be carried out by fachchas and fachchis* who are only just about getting used to the system. Some courses are no longer being offered but others are being offered in two sections due to overwhelming demand from students. Professors, I am glad to notice, are still sensible and high-thinking as they were in my time! The FPM* students have not moved out but they have moved on, just as I have, and they talk as easily of research as I would of client meetings.

That there was no Onam celebration on campus this year was surprising and unpardonable. Malayalis the world over are known for two things – for quickly bonding with fellow Mallus and for celebrating Onam wherever they are. The best aspect of such bonding, perhaps the one aspect that allows a seemingly insular relationship to flourish, is that the resulting group is very open to non-Mallus. Of course, only those who try joining the group will realise the warmth of the welcome they will receive. In my batch, our Spam* treats often included a friend who hailed from another state in South India.

Outside campus, there’s a flyover under construction, heralded by traffic jams and dusty roadsides; wayside eateries have moved to give way, but the taste of the roadside poha has not reduced one bit! Good old Ahmedabad is still the same – reckless driving on the roads; sarees worn the Gujarati way; a well-functioning BRTS (unlike in Delhi); and the winter approaching slowly, with its cold fingers reaching the dorm 3 dungeon first.

On the way back to the hustle and bustle of consulting life, I realised how true the cliché was: you can take the Wimwian out of Wimwi but you cannot take Wimwi out of the Wimwian!

-~-

The jargon

Here’s my attempt at describing the meaning of the slang terms that have crept into the post. Naturally, it is impossible to convey the complete sense of any slang. I haven’t given away much of the reasons for the terms, although there are traditional reasons for every term, nor have I expanded abbreviations. The terms are listed in the order in which they appear in the post.

Wimwi: IIMA

Dorm: A standalone set of 30-40 single rooms that has a culture of its own

KLMDC: The management development centre in the heritage campus (aka the old campus)

RG-giri: A kind of unhealthy competition prevalent among students of Wimwi, especially in the first year

WAC run: The process of running from dorm to classroom in order to submit in time a printed copy of a particular written assignment in the first year

Turnitin: The software that detects plagiarism

Slot: Half of a term; six slots make a year

Fachchas and fachchis: First year students

FPM: The doctoral programme

Spam: The Malayali students group

This Too is Guerrilla Marketing!

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What happened at the end of a recent panel discussion on ’empowering adolescent girls’ as part of the annual conference of the Indian Philanthropy Forum can only be termed “guerrilla marketing”, although it might not fit the conventional definition of the term. We were an audience of about 200, three-fourth of this being women, from relevant organisations, business schools, the press and others. Given that the event happened at the Taj at Colaba, Mumbai (you know why you know the Taj), the audience was an appropriately privileged set.

The panel had just finished its discussion and it was time for questions. Suddenly, a lady in the front takes the mike, and says (and I quote verbatim):

“Hello everyone, I am Aparna Piramal Raje.” Oh ok, the name sounds familiar, I think. “I studied at Harvard Business School and I speak up because that’s what they have taught me at Harvard Business School. I am lucky to have been born in the family I was…” She then highlights some very commendable points on empowering women, such as holding “two half shifts” instead of one single shift on the shop floor, in order to enable women employees to balance work with family needs.

All is well and good, and it seems that she would end her words soon and pass the mike. However, we are in for a surprise. APR holds up and waves a newspaper. I cannot decipher the name from where I am sitting, craning my neck. She says, “If you really want to empower women, read a newspaper whose editor is a woman.” The logic isn’t very clear to me, but no explanation is forthcoming. “Both Mint and <another business newspaper> are edited by women.” (She took the name of the other paper, but I no longer remember accurately what I heard.) “Between the two, Mint has more ethics. And so you should all read Mint.”

With that, APR’s monologue is done.

You don’t believe this happened?! I agree, the whole story does sound incredible. The audience did not utter a word. The mike was passed and the next question taken up. While leaving the hall, I noticed that on a table beside the exit were placed a pile of free copies of Mint. Mint does not figure among the “key supporters” of the conference as listed on the Forum’s website.

I later found online that APR is a columnist for Mint, and dare I say, a very loyal one too.

Now what do you think of this?! Here was a “guerrilla” who struck audaciously to “market” her product. Was it right? If it was not right, was it wrong? Why even bother? Right or wrong, it’s an interesting world!

Is the IIM Land Bank a Non-Performing Asset?

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The 5-acre London Business School churns out about a 1000 graduates a year and is ranked among the top MBA programmes in the world. Unlike this, the IIMs are doing a pitiable job while occupying considerably more than 100 acres of land on average. This is the gist of a once-recent article by Nirmalya Kumar in the Economic Times. Needless to say, it is easy to take issue with the arguments laid out in the article.

From the way Kumar puts forth his thesis, it appears that the IIMs are sitting pretty on a pile of scarce resources (much the way the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Kerala discovered itself to be doing, though the hue and cry seems to have eased with time). The direct conclusion here is that acre for acre, the IIMs could easily carry out better capacity utilisation, to use management lingo. But is this really possible? Or desirable?

For one, an institution is not defined by the spread of the campus or the number of buildings. Instead, institutions are about the ecosystems they create in order to enable learning, research and other objectives. This might sound hollow to cynics, but having spent two activity-packed years at one such institution, I can vouch for the fact that the residential system makes a significant impact on the campus experience. Indeed, the “dorm culture” and “bonding” between the 30-odd residents of a dormitory are inextricable from the campus memories of those who call IIMA their alma mater.

Compare this to the setup at LBS – no residences, not even a self-contained campus, and buildings spread out in a part of the city. In fact, according to the student at LBS who described this to me, some of the main features of the campus (if a disparate set of buildings could be called that) are the classrooms, discussion rooms for the indispensable group work, and the library.

I couldn’t help wondering what my life at IIMA would have been without the badminton courts! Perhaps students at LBS live in off-campus residences where the amenities are far better than what could have been offered by the campus if it had attempted to. Moreover, it would be fair to assume that commuting, especially during late hours, is easily done in a city like London. Unlike this, the transaction costs of commuting, in terms of lost time, pollution, stress and so on, are significant deterrents in most places in India, leading to a less wholesome MBA experience for non-resident students.

That brings me to my next point, a tad more controversial perhaps, in favour of residential campuses. Although the formalized atmosphere of meeting rooms and libraries is conducive to intellectual discussion, there is something to be said for the less formal, more relaxed discussions that happen in dorm rooms or other campus hangouts such as the students’ mess and the night-canteen. But then again, an institute that caters to students with significant work experience might prefer to provide them a life that is closer to work life rather than campus life. This side of the argument gains credibility from the fact that IIMA’s one-year MBA program for executives, which accepts candidates with substantial work experience, is conducted at a more formalized level compared to its flagship two-year program.

For more views on this topic, check out this post by Prof. T.T. Ram Mohan of IIMA on his blog.

Ultimately, there are merits to both models, specific to their individual circumstances. Comparing the IIMs with European b-schools and exhorting them to squeeze more out of the land they stand on not only is unfair but also, to some extent, fails to take into consideration the rationale for establishing a self-contained campus in the first place. In spite of the “sprawling” campuses (as Kumar puts it, although the term itself is questionable), the IIMs have had to work hard to ensure that students did not suffer due to inadequate infrastructure when the intake was increased significantly as a result of the implementation of quotas for OBCs. Having mentioned the one topic that is synonymous with endless debate, non-existent rational discussion, and ever-postponed bold action, let me end this post right here!

Time for Some Return-Free Risk

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Even as S&P downgraded its credit rating for the US, there has been no evidence of a “flight to safety” that stock markets usually witness at the drop of a hat. After all, when safety of the so-called safest asset, the US treasury bill whose rate of return is often considered as the risk-free rate of return, itself becomes questionable, where do investors go?

The reaction of financial markets to the downgrade can be interpreted to some extent as throwing good money after bad, or perhaps lending more of your money only to keep your debtor afloat, so that at some point in the future, you can recover your first loan, your second and further loans, and interest on all of them. (This reminds one of how Ninja loans were built up to unsustainable levels in the US in the not too distant past.)

Prof. Jayant R. Varma of IIMA, as expected, has an interesting take on this issue – that US Treasury assets might be Giffen goods. Giffen goods, in economics, can be loosely defined as goods for which demand rises even as the price rises – which is the inverse of a typical demand curve.

<Alert: Jargon ahead!>

Prof. Varma explains that “in a pure mean-variance optimisation framework, [the US Treasury bill] can never be a Giffen good.” However, “in a more general expected utility setting, [it] can be a Giffen good.” In the former, for both low and high levels of risk tolerance, the investor will hold less of the safe (as compared to risky) asset when its risk level increases. Hence the safe asset is not a Giffen good.

Unlike this, in the latter case, the risk aversion increases as the risk level of the safe asset increases. This means that more of the safe asset will be purchased even as its risk level rises. Ergo, the Giffen good situation, which could explain investor reaction to the US credit rating downgrade. Prof. Varma’s subtle sense of humour also presents itself on occasion: “In keeping with the spirit of the times, the expected return on the safer asset is zero – instead of a risk free return, it represents return free risk.”

Having said this, my understanding of the field is limited. So if you have read on till here, it might be worth taking a look at the link cited earlier. The article is interesting, and not just for MBAs or the finance world.