COVER FEATURE

Integreon Managed Solutions, Inc.

- - Liam Brown

"Integreon has grown its business supporting highly demanding professionals despite competition from much larger, better capitalized and more deeply entrenched competitors."

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

CORPORATE STRATEGY

The art and craft of strategy

- - A V Vedpuriswar

The body of knowledge on strategic management is quite well-developed. Without a strategy, an organization is directionless and vulnerable to changes in the business environment. Strategy indicates what must be done to survive, grow and be profitable. This article sums up the evolution of thinking on strategic management, examines various trends and anticipates what lies ahead in the coming years.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

CORPORATE STRATEGY

The multisourcing strategy

- - S Jaya Krishna

The shift from mega outsourcing deals to short-term multi-vendor outsourcing practices is resulting in several shortcomings in the sourcing arena. Though multi-vendor outsourcing is a good cost-cutting strategy, in the absence of an effective governance mechanism it creates a mess within and outside the organizations amounting to business risk. An innovative operational strategy or model known as `multisourcing' offers the best approach and practices to effectively manage and control a portfolio of service providers.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

CORPORATE STRATEGY

Pharmaceutical industry : An evidence of India's growing intellectual capital

- - Ramya Sundararaman

Foreign investment brought in competition within the industry compelling the domestic players to make improvements in operation, reduce cost of production and increase quality. Indian pharmaceutical industry has shown tremendous progress in terms of infrastructure development, technology base and range of production. Indeed, it is this intellectual capability of India, demonstrated through R&D, that has found acceptance of India in the world markets. Several companies abroad are now keen on entering into strategic alliances so that they can benefit through India's expertise.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

GLOBALIZATION

Globalization and its impact on outsourcing

- - Padmaja Valli

Outsourcing has become a "buzzword" in the industry today. It is a strategic management tool that involves restructuring an organization around what it does best, i.e., its core competencies. Business in the earlier part of this century was vertically integrated. Global competition today demands rapid customer response and flexibilityvirtues that large and integrated firms find hard to cope with. Whether to function as a highly integrated organization or to design a smaller organization more dependent on outsourcing is a function of a firm's strategy and its markets.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Knowledge networks : Towards sustainable growth

- - N Janardhan Rao

In this complex and changing business environment, successful innovation is much more imperative by involving many people and processes. However, commercial success depends on effective and innovative networks.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Learning organization : An overview

- - Prof. Arunachal Khosla

The concept of `learning organization' is becoming an increasingly acceptable philosophy in all performance-driven organizations the world over. The only long-term competitive advantage of organization would be its ability to learn faster than its competitors. Learning organizations are characterized by total employee involvement in a process of collaboratively conducted, collectively accountable change directed towards shared values or principles. This would lead to improved internal communication, greater employee motivation, higher levels of customer satisfaction, besides fostering innovation, enhancing mutual respect and improved social interaction.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Emerging trends in team building : Outbound training

- - Dilip Dasgupta

Sharing common goals, ownership responsibility, mutual respect, collaboration and cooperation, trust and interdependence, free flow of communication etc., are some of the key requirements for creating great teams at the workplace. Great individual performance is not sufficient; the group must perform at a credible level. Several techniques have been tried to create elusive team spirit. Now, corporate executives are being exposed to adventure sports through outbound training programs which were originally developed to build leadership skills but have emerged as a favored tool used by HR people to create bonding.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

COMMUNICATIONS

Nokia : Sound of a squeeze!

- - Amit Singh Sisodiya

The Finnish mobile handset giant's latest results point to rising competitive pressure and a tough future. For Nokia, it was not all that bad. The Finnish mobile handset giant, which had reported its third quarter results for the fiscal 2006-07, continued its stellar performance. Its top line grew by a strong 20% year-on-year, while operating profits were up by 16%. The world's largest mobile handset maker's market share too improved significantly to 36% from 33%, a year earlier, and 34% in the second quarter of the current fiscal.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

CASE STUDY

Chiquita Brands International : Turnaround strategies

- - Sumeet Chaudhari and Vineetha

Chiquita Brands International is one of the largest producers and distributors of bananas in the world. In the 1990s, the EU regulations restricting banana imports into Europe hit the company hard as Europe had been its major market and it had invested heavily to increase production expecting an open market across Europe. Due to rising debts, despite divesting many of its businesses, Chiquita filed for bankruptcy in 2001. In March 2002, Cyrus Freidheim was appointed as the CEO and under his leadership, the company underwent a restructuring to reduce its debts and increase its revenues. However, Chiquita still faces the challenge of the new banana import regulations in Europe, which has been implemented since January 2006.

© 2006 IBS Case Development Center. All Rights Reserved.

BOOK REVIEW

Mergers : What Can Go Wrong and How to Prevent It

- - Patrick A Gaughan

Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As), which about a decade ago were mainly confined to the US, have now become an important strategic option used by more and more corporations all over the world, including the emerging economies where the deregulation of the economy has led to a growing number of M&A deals. Over the past four decades, there have been three merger waves in the US and every boom has experienced failures. However, instead of learning from past mistakes, corporations have been operating those mistakes decade after decade. This book analyzes reasons for failures of mergers, based on the findings of numerous research and case studies and gives valuable insights into how failures can be prevented in future by learning from past instances.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved