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COVER FEATURE
Kochis Fitz/Quintile
-- Tim Kochis
"Kochis Fitz/Quintile is committed to provide completely unbiased, comphrehensive financial advisory services and world-class investment solutions for their clients on a thoroughly `open-architecture' platform."
© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved
ALPHA RESULT SECRETS
Learning how to break away to get alpha results
-- Stephen E Roulac
The likely success of a CEO in a new job may be predicted reasonably accurately based on his or her prior learning, educational background, experiences, success in multidisciplinary fields and passion for excellence as demonstrated in earlier assignments. According to the author, the field of bicycle racing has a surprisingly large number of lessons for achieving alpha results in the esoteric areas of investment management.
© 2008 Stephen E Roulac. All Rights Reserved.
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
How Indian firms can make better strategic choices
-- Aneel Karnani
The essence of strategy is to make controversial choices; this is the only way to gain a competitive advantage. Both strategy development and execution require making difficult choices and trade-offs often in the context of much uncertainty. Smart managers are bound to have opposing views given the nature of strategic decisions. This article presents a process for strategy development that can help managers surface this conflict, and then manage and resolve the same, thus resulting in more effective strategic choices.
© 2008 Aneel Karnani. All Rights Reserved.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Indian IT and ITeS industry : Emerging strategies in an era of appreciating rupee
-- Pankaj M Madhani
India has achieved remarkable success in the software industry. Software accounts 25% of the Indian export. The purpose of this article is to highlight the growth of the Indian software industry. More than two-thirds of the software industry's sales are due to export sales. The resources, including technical skills and cost competency have contributed to the competitive position of the Indian software industry. However, appreciation of the rupee against the US dollar squeezes margin of software firms. Various other factors such as attrition rate, wage inflation, competition, etc., also affects the performance of software sector. This article compares the Indian software market scenario with that of the Chinese market. It also underlines the emerging challenges for the Indian software industry and identifies various strategic options available.
© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
The evolving role of IT in business : From data entry to strategic planning
-- Ravi Kumar Jain
In the present information age, Information Technology (IT) has evolved as a crucial element of the infrastructure of an organization. From a routine data entry and automation applications to a high-level specialized enterprise applications, IT finds its place as a strategic tool in organizations. This article discusses how IT has evolved in its role in organizations over the last few decades, and the emphasis on the need for IT planning, alignment of IT plans with business strategy, and management of IT resources for generating better results.
© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved
MANAGEMENT EDUCATION
Kao Corporation : The transformation of a company to a university
-- Prof. Swarup Kumar Dutta
Under the direction of Yoshiro Maruta, Kao Corporation developed a management philosophy and organizational capability that wove continuous renewal into the fabric of the company's ongoing activities. He insisted that his managers view Kao not as a soap and detergent company but as an educational institution. Accordingly, he opened up the organization to its people invigorating the force of continuous learning. By creating a sense of stretch and organizational fit, he infused strategic alignment and challenge by creating dynamic processes and democratization of information. Kao was able to continuously give its employees their own voice and help them achieve their full potential. The company did not think of itself as a portfolio of businesses, their people not as mere factors of production, but it learnt that it is to be viewed as an educational institution and recognize that competitive advantage flows from people's ability to constantly enhance their knowledge and skills. As such the transformation of a company to a virtual university was complete.
© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved
CASE STUDY
Airbus's A380 : Stalled on the runway
-- Abhijit Sinha
The objective of this study is to understand the market dynamics of civil aerospace industry and to analyze competitive position of Airbus. This case gives a glimpse of global civil aerospace market, the trends, competitive fight between two competing aircraft manufacturers and two competing models from two manufacturers. It also discusses why Airbus lacked in project management skills, why it failed to meet the deadline of the delivery of its A380 model, and airlines operators' reaction about the delay. How Airbus planned to make over the image, the strategy adopted by Boeing to leverage the delay of Airbus and the future scenario of global civil aerospace market is also discussed.
© 2007 IBS Case Development Center. All Rights Reserved.
BOOK REVIEW
Success Built to Last :Creating a Life that Matters
-- Authors: Jerry Porras, Stewart Emery and Mark Thompson Reviewed by Dr. G Bharathi Kamath
This book tries to identify what successful people have in common, and distill it into a set of simple practices that can be used to transform ones life, company and career. The book is primarily a compilation of conversations with hundreds of achievers, be it billionaires, nobel laureates, celebrities, CEOs, Presidents of nations, and not so well-known unsung heroes. One thing common in all these individuals is that they made a difference in their lives as well as others and they were all ordinary people when they started this journey to success. This book teaches how one can remain successful after reaching the heights. It tries to figure out some common traits that successful people had in them.
© 2008 IUP . All Rights Reserved
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