IIPM: October 2008

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

At the world's end...

If only the world was flat, Ushuaia, (pronounced as u’swaia) the southernmost city of the world would have marked the end of its territory…and, who knows, sailing further south, a little across the Atlantic would have been a usual route to enter the rest of the celestial world. Well, that’s

how quixotic and imaginative this South American city tucked between mountains and the Beagle Channel of the Argentine region, Tierra del Fuego can make you! The magnificent mountain scenery with the channel in the backdrop isn’t merely a feel-good feature but has a functional value of saving Ushuaia from the severe cold as well. While the temperature here has never been so tolerable that one can move freely without clothes, the indigenous inhabitants (Yamanas, now extinct), until the 19th century moved around stark naked in the biting cold to hunt for sea lions and swam in the chilling cold water to catch shellfish. In fact, they would fall sick when they wore clothes at the insistence of the missionaries! Another facet of the recent history, though unpleasant, was the prison built in this far, faraway land where any further journey led to the dead cold of Antarctica. Now a museum – Mueseo Maritimo – this suffocating prison is another example of how most of the virgin places of the world have evidenced some of the most telling tales of human kind.....Continue

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

Read also :-

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Poll khol!

How polls are becoming a national pastime

The voice of a RJ came over the radio, “A list of new seven wonders is being made, would it be right if the Taj Mahal was not on the list? Don’t let that happen, please cast your vote on these numbers right

now!” This was the appeal that could be heard across all radio stations in India about a year ago, when Indians were suddenly and explicably gripped by ‘wonder frenzy’. Determined to get their ‘worthy’ contestant in the final list, it became a national mission for all to cast their vote multiple times, and exhort others to do the same. It was as if an international version of Indian Idol was being played, with Indians rallying behind their beleaguered contestant. The efforts paid off, Taj was on the list when the results were declared. Amid enthusiastic back-slapping and bouts of self-congratulations, it was forgotten that the poll was conducted by an obscure ‘for-profit’ organisation from Switzerland, which had no backing from any international body! After receiving a ‘cut’ from more than 100 million votes cast world over, New 7 Wonders Foundation (which had conducted the polls and had pledged to donate 50% of the proceeds to conservation of monuments of the world) quickly declared that it had hardly earned anything from the ‘world’s largest poll on record’ and hence was unable to fulfil its obligation. As for the grand poll, once the voting frenzy subsided, no one remembered the results, save for the fact that ‘Taj made it’!...Continue

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

Read also :-

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

These eleven remind you of 300

The BCG report elaborates how MNCs struggle in RDEs like India, win-win partnerships are the best option

We admired their supreme fighting skills

as depicted in the Hollywood flick 300, as they resisted a much larger Persian army that came in scores. Fact is that Spartans were indeed phenomenal warriors. It is said that the world learned a lot from their fighting techniques. Cut to the 21st century corporate world, the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) seems to have identified some such Spartans in the RDEs (Rapidly Developing Economies) of the world! In its latest report titled ‘The BCG 50 Local Dynamos’, BCG has highlighted 50 such companies from ten key RDE countries like China, India, Brazil et al, which have successfully resisted competition, both from MNCs as well as state owned companies in their respective domestic markets. Eleven companies from India have been identified as among the 50 dynamos like Bharti Airtel, Titan (from Tata), ITC Limited, ICICI Bank et al as leading the pack, ranking it second in the list. China ranks number 1 with 15 companies in the list.

“Proper supply chain management, local understanding and above all, market penetration are factors, which help these domestic companies to stay far ahead of their foreign counterparts,” explains Sushil Dungarwal, Senior Analyst, FICCI. Agrees Harit Shah, Analyst, Angel Broking, who feels that, thanks to the local expertise, once the companies have “proper execution skills in place, the job is already half done.”...Continue

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

Read also :-

Friday, October 03, 2008

Easyday’s for bharti?

Learning from the Reliance experience, the Bharti-Wal-Mart combine is kicking off its retail operations in a low-key manner

Learning from other’s mistakes is a sign of true wisdom, it is said. Sunil Bharti Mittal-led Bharti Group seems to be

exhibiting the same as it braces itself for the first roll out of Bharti Retail stores in the country during the first week of April, where it is expected to invest $2-2.5 billion by 2015 and employ around 60,000 people. But interestingly, the planned launch is hardly a fitting trailer to what this prolific venture between the Indian telecom czar & the $204.20 billion Bentonville retail behemoth Wal-Mart is planning to achieve in the Indian retail space.

The most obvious reason is that Bharti seems to have learnt its lessons from what Mukesh Ambani had to face with his retail endeavour (or shall we call it a debacle?), which, ironically has been given the tag of the Indian Wal-Mart due to its aggressive, high profile expansion plans which invited the ire of several middlemen and unorganised retailers. Surely, as the name of the proposed chain – Bharti EasyDay suggests, even the tag Wal-Mart is being avoided. After all, Bharti would also not want a furore at the Centre.....Continue

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

Read also :-