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Mobile Cocooning - How Growing Reliance on Smart Devices is Influencing Consumer Behavior : In the recent years rapid growth has been noticed in the use of internet-enabled mobile devices that are capable of multitasking. The proliferation of smartphones and tablet has dramatically changed the global digital landscape and exerted a strong influence on all aspects of lifestyles and behavior.
The Indian Edible Oil Industry : The production of edible oils in India is dependent on the production and availability of oilseeds, either domestic or imported. Oils and fats are produced from vegetable and animal sources, with the former group declining in market share though not in production tonnage.
Bottled Water Finding the Profit Amidst the Volume : Fierce competition from local players, coupled with the rise of low-cost bulk and private label water, has put pressure on the global bottled water manufacturers. Still bottled water will continue to be the largest soft drinks category globally in total volume terms.
Global Employment Services : The employment services market consists of two kinds of service. Temporary staffing is where agencies supply workers to clients on a temporary basis, the workers remaining employees of the agency. Search and placement is where agencies recruit workers on behalf of clients. The global employment services market is fragmented and composed of a wide variety of companies of differing sizes, from small agencies through to large international organizations such as Adecco.
Automobiles: Two Wheelers – Ahead in the race : Going by the current trend of rising rural incomes with higher yields and minimum support prices, the outlook on two-wheelers is positive. Scooter share in the last three years has increased from 15% to 21% of two-wheeler volumes mainly driven by (a) growing acceptability of gearless scooters, particularly by women, (b) rising urbanization and increasing proportion of working women.
The Art of Assurance : When a company goes through a rebrand, success is often judged by how well the new brand is received by the public and, ultimately, how the change impacts market share and revenue. While important, these measures alone won’t sustain an effective brand change.
East Meets West : Toward a Universal Ethic of Virtue for Global Business : Eastern and Western cultures are irreconcilably different and that their members engage in fundamentally incommensurable ethical practices. This paper argues that differing cultures do not necessarily operate by incommensurable moral principles. On the contrary, if we adopt a virtue ethics perspective, we discover that East and West are always meeting because their virtues share a natural basis and structure. This article sketches the rudiments of what a universal virtue ethic might look like.
The Impact of Slack Resources on High-Tech IPOs : Research on organization slack has focused mainly on its effect in large publicly traded firms, but little work exists on the value of slack resources for other firms. Therefore, here, we address the question: Do slack resources matter in the case of initial public offerings (IPOs)? We argue that firms that possess financial, innovational, and managerial slack resources are sending a positive signal to potential investors regarding the quality of the IPO.
Ladies First : Women first entered the banking industry in the years after World War II, as entry-level and clerical officers. Even today, a large portion of women working in the industry belongs to employees at the junior officer levels. Even as public sector banks are in the initial phases of establishing diversity programmes, six women have risen to the top.
Be Yourself, but Carefully: How to be authentic without oversharing: The rise in collaborative workplaces and dynamic teams over recent years has only heightened the demand for "instant intimacy," and managers are supposed to set an example. But the honest sharing of thoughts, feelings, and experiences at work is a double-edged sword: Despite its potential benefits, self-disclosure can backfire if it's hastily conceived, poorly timed, or inconsistent with cultural or organizational norms—hurting your reputation, alienating employees, fostering distrust, and hindering teamwork.
Higher education reforms ready for roll-out : A marquee education scheme that aims to reform India’s higher education system, enhance enrolment and substantially change the funding pattern to higher education institutions in states is poised to be introduced after the finance ministry signed off on its funding. HRD ministry proposes to spend Rs.99, 000 crore as part of the scheme over the 12th, 13th plan periods.
Have academic incubators lived up to their potential? successes because of the engineering school’s tightly knit and magnanimous alumni network. With more than 1,000 start-ups incubated, the fact that only about 50 of them have been successful so far is not a good sign. : India has eight academic incubators, many of them attached to the premier IITs, Indian Institutes of Management and the National Institutes of Technology. The Technology Business Incubator (TBI) at Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani is big
B-Schools Add Muscle to Finance Labs : Top business schools like IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta and Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) Delhi are putting in place massive investments for expanding and setting up finance laboratories to aid research, enhance students’ proficiency in financial markets and assist them in placements. The finance labs at campuses are equipped with Bloomberg terminals and other national and international databases that provide real-time information on government securities, equity markets and capital structures.
New rules on CSR may bring placements cheer for B-schools : According to Forbes India magazine, the top 100 companies by net sales in 2012 alone will spend Rs.5, 611 crore on CSR activities, compared to the Rs.1, 765 crore that they are spending now. Both experts and administrators of B-schools said that in a tough economic environment, CSR could cheer up the placement season by creating demand for recruits. Schools too are re-energizing sustainability and CSR courses as a means to increase revenue.
Management lessons are just what the doctor ordered : With administrators under pressure to cut costs, physicians being pushed to work more collaboratively and new technologies in need of commercialization, the skills acquired on an MBA look increasingly relevant. For business schools able to offer the right courses, this is a big opportunity.
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