Corporate strategy is not only about competition for an organization, but also about the relationships existing within them. The first paper, "An Investigation of the Differential Impact of Supervisor and Subordinate-Rated Leader-Member Exchange on Career Outcomes", by Magdalene Ang Chooi Hwa, Muhamad Jantan and Mahfooz A Ansari, augments the research of the past two decades, which is a quest to understand the interaction dynamics in employee-supervisor relationships, known as Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory. This research is based on a study sample of 229 employees and their 109 immediate supervisors from 63 organizations in Northern Malaysia. The central hypothesis is that the quality of LMX would have a differential impact on career outcomes, depending on whether it was rated by the supervisor or the subordinate. Assumption of different perceptions from employee and supervisor seems obvious, yet some of the results of this study are interesting. Some of the findings are: LMX appears to impact career outcomes differently, depending on whether it is viewed by the supervisor or subordinate; while supervisor-rated LMX significantly predicted salary progression and promotability but did not contribute to employees' career satisfaction, subordinate-rated LMX significantly predicted career satisfaction. The paper concludes that supervisor-rated LMX and subordinate-rated LMX are likely to influence career outcomes independently. Overall, though this study contributes more to the exchange relationships, the perceptual distortions can strongly limit the findings of this paper. Perhaps, more work is needed to make the findings empirical.

Strategy for real value generation is essential, and so is the strategy to create a positive market sentiment on value. The second paper, "Pursuing EVA Through Tata Steel's Perspective", by Ankit Kumar Gandhi and Prabina Rajib, outlines the essential initiative of Tata Steel to move on to the next level of competitiveness. Tata Steel, one of the great companies of the post-independent Indian industrial revolution, has grown into a global steel major today. To take the company into the future, this paper summarizes the policy changes aimed at gaining better responses from the share market. The company redefined its vision statement with Economic Value Added (EVA) and bolstered its goodwill amongst the existing shareholders and global investors. However, visualizing and modulating the impact of EVA at all levels of day-to-day activities and across the entire spectrum of employees was extremely difficult, if not impossible. One of the immediate benefits that EVA offered is the increase in accountability of managers as well as the operating staff.

Perception of a firm and its strategy is also a direct function of its brand. The third paper, "Strategies for Brand Godrej Interio: A Competitor Study and Customer Survey", by V Syam Nair, R Patnaik and P K Sahoo entails a detailed study of Godrej Interio products—Office and Home, its competitors, customer segment, satisfaction levels and brand awareness. This paper provides primary insights into the market with its primary survey on Interio customers, existing and prospect, and compares the findings with the offerings (value-added solutions) of competitors, such as BP Ergo, Featherlite, Durian, and so on. The paper works around three primary objectives: (i) To do a comparative study of Godrej Interio and its competitors—analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats; (ii) To do a survey for Interio products with focus on awareness, customer segments, customer perception, which will help in knowing new trends in the furniture market; and (iii) To study the brand image and customer satisfaction on the existing clients by doing client research to establish how some parameters such as design, ergonomics, aesthetics, price compare over brand.

Strategy, sometimes, warrants cooperation and integration through mergers, which can bring out the synergistic benefits of cooperation. The fourth paper is a case on Sime Darby group titled, "Sime Darby Berhad: The Birth of a New Malaysian Global Champion", by Saju Eapen Thomas. The case takes the cue from `Sime Darby Berhad', Malaysia's latest, diversified multinational which was formed in November 2007, carved out from the merger of eight listed companies belonging to three groups and was to become the largest listed company in Bursa Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange) with market capitalization over Malaysian Ringgit (RM) 50 bn ($15.36 bn). Sime Darby Bhd.'s half yearly results showed that operating profit before unusual items had increased by 66% over the previous year. The merger and integration processes were successfully completed by January 2008. This is where one is made to wonder whether it is the synergy accrued from the merger or just the stronger Malaysian Ringgit and the crude palm oil prices which is reflected in the excellent financial results and its buoyant stock prices. The case details the different activities taken up to enable the merger and looks into the synergies that accrue from this merger. The case is developed keeping in mind the need to help students understand the merger exercise and the organizational restructuring to be undertaken when two or more firms are merged to form a single entity. The author's note on the case is also given to incite deliberations and discussions.

Indian management seems to provide an answer to the wisdom of Aesop's Fables through its own stories, The Panchatantra of Vishnu Sharma, written around five centuries ago. The fifth paper, "Strategies for Power Acquisition from an Indian Management Thought: The Panchatantra", by C Chendroyaperumal outlines the management lessons from The Panchatantra. With the ever-increasing competition, the jungle law of `survival of the fittest' has been critical for all. In the modern organizations too, power (of the mighty lion) and politics (of the cunning fox) are very closely related to each other and determine the dynamics of the organizational behavior and individual human performance. This paper has identified some specific political strategies for acquiring power, as it attempts to bring to light and adds to the existing list of strategies, the boss-focused strategies for acquiring power spelt out in the Indian management thought with specific reference to The Panchatantra. This paper provides effective guidelines for organizational members to acquire power, since they seem to be very pragmatic, simple to use, relevant and applicable to all the organizations even today.

-- Rajnandan Patnaik
Consulting Editor