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COVER
FEATURE
Meet
The CEO
- - PV Kannan
"My
vision for 24/7 is to create an institution that has a highly
select list of customers with talented individuals serving
them."
© 2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved
COMPANY
IN FOCUS
AmBev:
The making of Brazil's global brewery
- - Ravi S Madapati
In
March 2004, AmBev, Brazil's top brewer, merged with Interbrew,
a leading brewer from Belgium, to create the world's largest
brewer, InterbrewAmBev (InBev). With a portfolio of more than
200 brands and operates in 21 countries spread over the Americas,
Europe and the Asia Pacific. Interbrew and AmBev had many
reasons to merge. For Interbrew, the merger meant access to
the Latin American beer market, identified as a region with
high growth potential, where AmBev has a dominant market share.
Inbev believes that its combined portfolio of global, regional
and local brands in the industry placed it in a strong position
to fully meet market needs.
© 2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved
LEGAL
SYSTEM
CEOs
in the IT domain: Beware!
- - Dr. PK Padhi, A Vijayshankar,
Is
our legal framework good enough in a rapidly changing environment?
How often have statutes in the IT sector evolved in sync with
the domain that they purport to safeguard? How watertight
are the laws in ensuring that while the guilty do not escape
from the vice-like grip of the law, the innocents are not
punished? The recent arrest of Avnish Bajaj, the Chief Executive
of Baazee.com, in the context of the students' sex scandal
has opened a Pandora's Box. The most prominent question that
has cropped up is: Is the Chief Executive/Head of a portal
completely responsible for all transactions/content displays
on the portal/website?
© 2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved
STRATEGY
Understanding
strategy
- - Saptarshi Purkayastha
If
strategy is so important for the very survival of the company,
then why do companies fail to have a sound strategy? The threat
to strategy, more commonly than not, arises from internal
deficiency of the company rather than the external environment
like changes in competition or technology. Due to the hyper
competition existing in the marketplace, managers today are
likely to imitate any activity of the competitors that will
differentiate their product/service. However, they do not
realize that such pursuits lead to being operationally effective
but not strategically efficient.
© 2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Global
entrepreneurship and value vision
- - V Gopala Krishna, K Raj Reddy
Entrepreneurship
is one of the most important dynamic forces that can help
shape the economies of nations today. Entrepreneurship gives
rise to new products and services or creates new value for
already existing products or services. Today, the largest
companies in any country are entrepreneurial in origin. Moreover,
without entrepreneurs it is impossible to imagine the rapid
economic progress of any developing country. Entrepreneurship
is an engine that provides employment to people while generating
wealth. For instance, in countries such as the Philippines,
Korea, Japan and China, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
comprise around 70% of the total labor force.
© 2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved
FINANCE
Venture
capitalism: An opportunity before Indian investors
- - V Padmaja Rani, Dr. Vijaya Kumar Gudep
Venture
capital is attracting the attention of Indian investors as
it is more attractive when compared to traditional sources
of financing. Venture capitalists finance those innovation
and ideas that have a potential for higher return on investment
coupled with high risk. In the broadest sense, therefore,
venture capital connotes risk finance as well as managerial
support. Research reveals that India is emerging as an exciting
market for venture capitalists. In India, this potential is
confined not only to Information Technology (IT); it is equally
relevant in several other areas such as biotechnology, pharmaceuticals,
media, entertainment, agriculture, food processing, telecommunications
and other services. This research article highlights the need
for developing a congenial environment for the growth of the
venture capital industry in India on par with such industries
in America, Europe and Asian countries like Japan, China,
Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia. This
article also throws light on the venture capital environment
in India and the challenges lying ahead.
© 2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved
STRATEGIC
PLANNING
Role
of scenarios in strategic planning
- - VV Gopal
This
article emphasizes the importance of scenarios in strategic
planning and examines how a company can build and sustain
competitive advantage by using scenarios. The author explains
a methodology for scenario construction and integration of
scenarios into strategic plans. Competent managers are not
necessarily effective scenario planners. Towards this end,
the author advocates developing an organizational culture
that promotes the concept of scenarios.
© 2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved
GLOBAL
BUSINESS
AT&T's
merger with SBC
- - Ravi Madapati
For
AT&T, merging with SBC represents the next step forward in
a series of mergers and break-ups that the company has been
going through since the early 1980s. For SBC, the combination
promises immediate global leadership in the enterprise segment
where corporations and governments require complex communication
solutions and services and access to advanced national and
global networks. SBC expects the AT&T deal to close in the
first half of 2006 after the US Justice Department, the Federal
Communications Commission, state public utility commissions
and foreign authorities give their approval.
© 2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved
CASE
STUDY
Lenovo's
globalization strategies
- - Vivek Gupta, Jaya D Sangtani
This
case describes in detail the various steps taken by Lenovo,
the leading PC manufacturer in China, in its effort to go
global. The steps include changing its corporate name from
Legend to Lenovo, sponsoring the 2008 Olympic Games and most
importantly, acquiring IBM's PC unit. The case examines the
need for Lenovo to globalize and critically analyzes the efficacy
of the above steps in the company's globalization plans. It
also highlights the challenges faced by Lenovo in its path
towards globalization.
© 2005 ICMR. All
Rights Reserved. For accessing and procuring the case study,
log on to www.ecch.cranfield.ac.uk or www.icmrindia.org.
BOOK
REVIEW
Seeing
What's Next
- - Clayton M Christensen, Scott D Anthony and Erik A Roth
There
is a flawed paradigm that decisions should be grounded in
solid analysis of data. When managers attempt to do something
that has not been done before, or when the future is going
to be different from the past, the paradigm breaks down. Data
is only available about the past. This book attempts to help
executives anticipate industry change, even when convincing
data is not yet available. A key message of this book is that
the level of one's insight is not strictly a function of the
level of one's access to unique or proprietary information.
Armed with the right concepts, anyone can produce insights
that surpass those of analysts with a more detailed knowledge
of the industry.
© 2004 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All
Rights Reserved. IUP holds the copyright
for the review. |
