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INDUSTRY WATCH

The Mobile Wallet- How Loyalty Could Spur Consumer Adoption of Mobile Payments: The rise of new technology viz. mobile phones and tablets, has turned the standard payments business model on its side and opened the door for non-payment entrants to provide payments services. Consumers have been slow to adopt mobile payments due to concerns, including privacy and security.

India- Autos Report: According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), Indian auto sales for December 2013 came in at 232,918 units, a decline of 12.9% y-o-y. The slowdown in the Indian auto market has made it necessary for industry players to adopt new strategies to weather the storm. Many big companies viz. Mahindra & Mahindra, Suzuki Motor etc. have now started following this trait.

The Indian Handloom & Handicrafts Industry- Heritage Weaves: The handloom sector of India is an important part of the country’s socio-cultural traditions. It has been sustained by transferring skills from one generation to another. The industry is largely a home-based one with everybody in the family contributing labor. India produces nearly 95 percent of the world’s hand woven textile. Thus, handloom reflects the country’s diversity, with each region having its own special patterns and weaves.

India: Mining Report: India has a wide range of globally significant mineral resources, ranking among the world's top five countries for its core competency commodity reserves of coal and iron ore. India’s mining industry will continue to be characterized by regulatory and bureaucratic hurdles, while corruption will stifle growth in an already poor operating sector. We forecast the country's mining industry to reach a value of US$55.4bn in 2018, growing at an average rate of 7.5% per annum.

Indian IT Services: Acceleration in growth rates of the IT sector, in general, is on account of improved business environment in the key markets, US and Europe, together contributing ~86% to the revenues of large Indian IT companies. Also, the development of new SMAC (social, mobility, analytics, and cloud) technologies and regulatory spends triggered a new tech spending curve in the sector, with clients committing more resources to the technology services/products.

ARTICLE ALERT

The leadership disease. . .and its potential cures: Leadership development and executive education have taken on increased prominence in recent years. The natural tendency is to approach the subject of leadership as a hierarchically-based process that is focused on higher-level individual leaders influencing lower-level followers. This tendency is consistent with myths surrounding charismatic and heroic visionary leaders who are often portrayed as single-handedly inspiring and directing their organizations to new heights.

Trial by fire: Once touted as a billion dollar business, the clinical trials industry is plagued by controversial issues. Clinical trials are a complex business that brings a number of disparate elements together. First, there is the pharmaceutical company which decides the drug to undergo clinical trials and either conducts it on its own or farms it out to a contract research organization.

Do Peer Firms Affect Corporate Financial Policy?: Peer firms play an important role in determining corporate capital structures and financial policies. In large part, firms’ financing decisions are responses to the financing decisions and, to a lesser extent, the characteristics of peer firms. These peer effects are more important for capital structure determination than most previously identified determinants. Furthermore, smaller, less successful firms are highly sensitive to their larger, more successful peers, but not vice-versa.

Outcomes and Benefits of a Managerial Global Mindset: Globalization and its associated challenges are compelling managers in multinational corporations to develop appropriate skill sets. An emerging body of research in international management has suggested that meeting this challenge requires the cultivation and development of a managerial global mind-set.

The Mobile Internet’s Consumer Dividend: Over 40-years of research on the effects of goal setting has demonstrated that high goals can increase performance by motivating people, directing their attention to a target, and increasing their persistence. However, recent research has introduced a dark side of goal setting by linking high performance goals to unethical behavior.


ARTICLE ALERT

MBA still most preferred postgraduate course choice in India
: Master of Business Administration is the most preferred post-graduate course choice in India, especially in metro cities, says a survey by university search engine IndiaCollegeSearch. Most of the undergraduates try to grab an MBA degree as the qualification holds a lot of promise and importance. Moreover, many believe that acquiring an MBA qualification is one of the best ways to get a better job.

Lights, camera, business schools: Many of the issues facing the film industry are bread and butter to business schools. For Sanjay Sood, associate professor of marketing at UCLA Anderson, brand management is central to the appeal of film. “Film companies. . . have to build a brand and get people to love it in a weekend. Where [MBA] students really can add value is in the online and social media aspects.”

Hindustan Unilever becomes the most preferred employer for B-school graduates once again: Hindustan Unilever, for the third year in a row, is the most preferred employer across all sectors for the 2014 graduating batch of B-school students, according to the Campus Track Business School survey 2013, conducted by Nielsen. The FMCG major also retained the 'Dream Employer' status for the fifth consecutive year and continued to be the top company considered for application by B-school students.

In India Inc, Gita is the new bible: Lord Krishna seems to be emerging as the new Peter Drucker of management in India. Krishna is the new guru at B-schools and boardrooms across the country as companies look to the scriptures for management strategies. SBI, NTPC and NHPC, MMTC are among the growing list of corporates looking up to the Gita to solve management labyrinths. From mind control to value-based management, motivation and leadership, it seems to have an answer for everything.

Male, single, 30, MBA, would like to meet: To understand a country’s values and culture you need only look to the lonely hearts pages in newspapers, where individuals advertise their qualities in the hope of attracting a partner. India is no exception. From caste and community to religion and complexion, matrimonial adverts reveal divisions and discrimination in this vast and complex nation. But there is something else that has become a prominent feature in classified adverts in India: an MBA.


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