| News |
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:00:02 EST How to Manage Gen U: Generation Unretired As the recession forces more older workers to postpone retirement, a major shift is under way in the makeup of the U.S. labor pool
| Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:00:02 EST Special Report: Managing the Unretired 
| Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:44:28 EST Proxy Contests and Shareholder Slates Bev Behan asks former CalPERS governance chief and current Shamrock Capital Advisors exec Dennis Johnson how he chooses boards to target and what to consider if you're asked to join a shareholder slate
| Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:30:23 EST Essential No. 3: Marquee Customers Your best customers can do more than just buy from you. They can help you fuel growth by serving as an extension of your salesforce
| Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:20:31 EST Essential No. 2: Market Segments Target a high-growth market segment within a large market, advises David G. Thomson. You can even find a segment within a market that is otherwise stagnant
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Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:25:47 +0530 Bharti Airtel profit disappoints; Africa provides silver lining NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Bharti Airtel Ltd disappointed investors by posting its eighth straight quarter of falling profits as the world's No. 5 mobile carrier by subscribers was hit by higher tax and interest costs, though its nascent but key Africa business improved. 
| Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:54:12 +0530 Chai cafes woo coffee fans in urban India NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A first-time visitor to New Delhi might think Indians are addicted to coffee. There are at least 10 coffee shops in Connaught Place, the city's financial and commercial hub, most within sight of each other and doing well. 
| Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:09:07 +0530 Orissa villagers subsitute medicine cocktail for alcohol, 24 killed BHUBANESWAR (Reuters) - At least 24 people died and more than a dozen fell sick in Orissa after they consumed cough and cold medicine as a substitute for liquor, officials said on Wednesday. 
| Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:20:04 +0530 Three Karnataka ministers resign over porn scandal NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Three Karnataka ministers resigned on Wednesday after television channels aired footage of them apparently watching pornography on a mobile phone in the state assembly. 
| Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:50:44 +0530 Car sales head for first annual fall in 10 years NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Annual car sales in India are likely to drop for the first time since 2002 in the fiscal year ending March after January sales fell short of expectations, an industry body said. 
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Tue, 18 Jan 2011 19:00:48 GMT IIMB's global certification programme The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland (Smith) and the School of Management, Zhejiang University (Zhejiang, China), jointly announced the launch of a global senior management programme that will have business leaders traveling to each country to learn the keys to successful innovation in each market.
| Sun, 16 Jan 2011 19:28:27 GMT Cashing in on skills These are just three of the 18 joint ventures with the private sector that the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has formed in its over one year existence.
| Sun, 16 Jan 2011 19:25:08 GMT The Strategist Quiz (#184) Name the rap song and the group that is linked to the fastest civil airplane in the world? This song became number two in the US Billboard Hot 100 last year.
| Sun, 16 Jan 2011 19:22:02 GMT The top 10 business bestsellers DECISION POINTS??Author: George W Bush??Publisher: Virgin Books??Price: Rs 999??ISBN: 9780753539668.??IIMA - BUSINESS BOOKS - MANAGERS WHO MAKE A DIFFERENCE: SHARPENING YOUR MANAGEMENT SKILLS??Author: TV Rao ??Publisher: Random House India??Price: Rs 299??ISBN: 9788184001372.??REACH FOR THE SKIES??Author: Richard Branson ??Publisher: Random House??Price: Rs 599??ISBN: 9780753519868.??MAKERS OF MODERN INDIA??Author: Ramachandra Guha??Publisher: Viking ??Price: Rs 799??ISBN: 9780670083855.??THE BIG SHORT??Author: Michael Lewis ??Publisher: Penguin UK??Price: Rs 599??ISBN: 9781846142574.??CONNECT THE DOTS??Author: Rashmi Bansal ??Publisher: Eklavya Education Foundation??Price: Rs 150??ISBN: 9788190453028.??IIMA - BUSINESS BOOKS - BUSINESS AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: PROTECT YOUR IDEAS??Author: Anurag K Agarwal ??Publisher: Random House India??Price: Rs 299??ISBN: 9788184001402.??THE ART OF CHOOSING??Author: Sheena Iyengar ??Publisher: Little Brown ??Price: Rs 499??ISBN: 9781408702949.??THE
| Sun, 16 Jan 2011 19:19:55 GMT KFC: Serve hot Snacking is largely about fun and to ride on the fun aspect fast food company KFC has added an innovative new product on its menu chicken popcornsmall morsels of boneless chicken, battered and fried. Indeed, the company has shown a lot of aggression over the past one year, adding new products and opening new outlets.
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2012-02-07T22:27:47Z The 5 Whys
Eric Ries, entrepreneur-in-residence at Harvard Business School, explains how to find the human causes of technical problems.
| 2012-02-07T19:01:47Z Walmart Broadens ROI for Green Power At the recent GreenBiz Forum in New York, I was surprised by an on-stage interview with Fred Bedore, an executive from Walmart. I've followed the greening of the retail giant fairly closely for years, so I wasn't expecting a lot of new information from Bedore, Walmart's Senior Director of Business Strategy and Sustainability.
But amidst a seemingly scripted set of responses on Walmart's supply chain and operational greening efforts, the discussion took an interesting turn. When addressing the company's aspirational goal of using 100% renewable energy, Bedore said two noteworthy things.
First, 75 percent of Walmart's California stores now have "some kind of renewable energy system." Renewables are still providing only a tiny percentage of the company's total electricity demand, but it's definite progress. And the commitment to green energy has helped Walmart take third place on the U.S. EPA's latest list of the top 50 renewable energy buyers.
Second, Bedore spoke about how Walmart thinks about its investments in green power:
"There is an ROI calculation on all sustainability investments like on all projects, but...we look at where the investment gets us. [For example] the longer term payback on solar helps us get to scale down the road."
In essence, Bedore was saying that Walmart recognizes that it can help take the solar market to scale, thus lowering its costs in the future. It also recognizes that, in the meantime, operational managers will gain valuable experience and knowledge about how to optimize the new power systems. The company can also reap the immediate variable cost benefits of free power.
In short, Walmart has tweaked its ROI requirements for green power initiatives to reflect more of the big picture.
Of course, investing in projects with a hard-to-measure payback — such as a new marketing campaign or entry into new geographic or customer markets — is a normal part of business strategy. And making choices that do have measurable, but longer-term, strategic value should be par for the course as well. So it shouldn't be a surprise that Walmart is doing this.
But in my experience, this larger view of a company's goals has in recent years taken a back seat to a relentless pursuit of quarterly earnings. We worship internal rates of return (IRR) to our detriment.
When it comes to green projects, this narrowly-defined measure of "payback" is particularly destructive. The typical (but evolving) view is that all sustainability initiatives are either an expense and/or should only happen if they meet the strictest hurdle rate. For years I've made the case that companies should shift their decision-making and investment criteria to take into account intangible and longer-term benefits that are missed in normal IRR calculations. But only a handful of leaders do this consistently.
For their part, Walmart execs have said repeatedly (and justifiably proudly) that all their sustainability projects thus far — such as dramatically improving the energy efficiency of stores and the fuel efficiency of the distribution fleet — have met normal ROI requirements. Bedore said as much...until he added the critical caveat that in the case of green power, Walmart bean counters were looking beyond the near-term payback.
Investments in renewables are an important case where this kind of flexibility of thinking is required. The actual cash payback periods are getting shorter, but they rarely meet the typical 2-year (or so) ROI required by most large companies.
But green power initiatives yield other important benefits, from reducing risk by lowering reliance on volatilely priced resources to enhancing brand value by putting visible symbols of green commitment on stores. These paybacks are real, even if they're hard to measure, and they need to be accounted for strategically when considering the ROI on green projects.
We need a lot more flexible thinking going forward. Hurdle rates are important to provide some means of comparison between projects competing for capital. But an internal rate of return cannot be a straitjacket.
If the lords of low cost recognize the strategic value of green investments, so can the rest of us.
| 2012-02-07T18:49:00Z Three Lessons for Social TV You may have noticed something was missing throughout the nation's most social sporting event of the year. The Super Bowl in-game broadcast had zero social media TV integration.
With more than a billion people on Facebook and Twitter alone, many of them watching the game, this was a missed opportunity. Why did NBC and the NFL miss the boat? Likely, the common internal social media struggles got in the way. Incorporating social media into the epic annual broadcast would have created adversity internally. It's not the way they've always done it and, therefore, it's uncomfortable.
But while the network and league lost an opportunity to innovate the viewing experience, many advertisers took advantage of integrating social media within their pricey ads. By doing this, the advertisers garnered more reach and engagement.
Slapping Twitter handles and Facebook URLs on the TV screen, however, is no longer enough for socially-savvy television. Social media users can now dictate the outcome of live TV shows, create its content, and most notably, impact ratings. Throughout the succinct two-year history of social television, successes and failures have taught practitioners three valuable lessons:
1. Keep it organic. The golden rule of social media is to deliver value when, where, and how your audience wants to receive it. With Social TV, the audience is providing value right back. Naturally, viewers are talking about their favorite (or least favorite) TV shows and sporting events. So, let them talk back when, where, and how they want to. It not only provides a temperature on opinions and sentiment, but also extends content into a perpetual conversation with social media keeping the buzz alive even after the show is over.
For example, The X Factor realized that their highly enthusiastic following on Twitter had strong opinions about the show's contestants. Viewers didn't necessarily care if the TV show itself was listening to their opinion; they were naturally sharing their thoughts, feelings, likes, and dislikes in the interest of a social viewing experience with their peers. After monitoring this behavior and listening to viewers, The X Factor became the first show ever to harness that conversation's inherent power and let viewers vote via Twitter direct message. This provided a convenient and direct means for loyal viewers and tweeters to voice their opinions in a meaningful yet official way.
2. Offer low-barrier engagement. It's not a new concept for television shows to host contests highlighting viewer submissions. However, with the evolution of Social TV, the entry process is now far more accessible.
Jimmy Fallon is one of the pioneers of this concept. In the prehistoric age of social TV, Fallon trail-blazed by providing Twitter hashtag prompts to viewers and airing the most creative and hilarious responses on-air. Why was this so innovative? It kept the viewers in their own space. Fallon's call-to-action required little effort; a simple, witty one-liner in a tweet could be your chance at late-night stardom.
What was the benefit for the TV show? Viewers were now entertained at an incremental level. They were participating with the show — and invested in the next evening's show — to see if their tweet was highlighted within the broadcast. Simply said, they were elevated one notch up on the loyalty ladder. Many of the hashtags even became trending topics, which garnered accelerated awareness for the innovative hashtag game and even more paramount, the show itself.
3. Measure and share real-time results with viewers. TV networks and shows can put their finger on the pulse of viewer engagement before, during, and after a show airs. It's traditionally believed that word of mouth is the most influential form of marketing. Consensus matters because it saves time and provides clarity. In the same way we look for book or music recommendations from friends, we turn to social media to hear about the next big thing. Traditional media outlets are becoming valuable editors of the social media space, using their expertise to tell their viewers what they should be consuming according to general consensus. This strategy also proves valuable to advertisers who can make more informed decisions about when, where, and how they want to advertise on TV.
As the 2012 presidential election approaches, voters will be keeping their eyes on their own network's opinions more than political pundits or government officials. Said pundits and officials should, therefore, provide a new form of value by packaging and delivering these organic results to their audience.
It's important to note that experimenting leads to best practices. The entertainment offering is only limited by the imagination of the producers.
| 2012-02-07T15:39:25Z Making Bad Analytics Good in China The virtues of analytics are well known. From supply chain to marketing and even employees, if you can measure, you can improve. But how do you proceed when you have bad data?
Recently, I sat in a meeting in the adidas offices in Shanghai, listening to our market research firm present some puzzling information. We'd commissioned a market share study, and the numbers sounded way off. If what the firm said was true, then the sportswear industry — and therefore our business — was twice as large as we knew it to be based on what we shipped. We use a reputable firm, and its numbers were clearly capturing something we were missing.
In all the years that I've worked on similar analyses, I've never seen such a challenge. Used to being inundated by real-time analytics and having to be painstakingly deliberate about what data was used when, I'd never faced such uncertain information when it came to the basics of market sizing. In developed markets, Nielsen panel data, IRI reports, and other syndicated, standard metrics, are always there ready to buy.
Unfortunately, this information is hard to come by in an emerging market like China. Only 20% of the country's retail market is organized like a WalMart or Carrefour, versus 85% in the US. Imagine coordinating hundreds of thousands of the tiny retailers, most of which don't have computer systems, to accurately record purchases by consumers. To add to that, many of these retailers resist systems that limit their ability to participate in the "informal economy."
The result is that if your company wants data, it'll have to create it by commissioning large-scale market share studies intended to cover the entire industry — and country. And even when this data comes in, as highlighted above, it's still tricky to figure out what it means.
So what to do? Well, like any analysis, it comes down to 1) what is measured and 2) the assumptions. We think the following tips also apply to those working in markets like India, where the coordination problem is even worse, with only 6% of organized retail.
What is measured
1) Ask ruthlessly simple questions. Focus on the number of users or simple purchase measures so when results come back, it's easier to check your intuition. Keep things in absolute terms to help identify problems that get obscured when discussing percentages. For instance at P&G, Joe's team simplified its goal to calculate the number of users who would buy a particular product in the first year, which focused the team's research to the absolute number of consumers to target and the number of stores they needed to have distribution in. Percentage growth year-on-year of one retail channel over another was interesting, but not as critical. Simple absolute terms also kept tangible metrics at the forefront of every discussion.
2) Calculate the counterfeit. If your business is in certain consumer goods products, there is likely a significant counterfeit element. This turned out to be an important factor in our analysis at adidas. Our market research firm asked consumers what they recently purchased, what the brands were, and at what price points. Often in lower-tier cities and the further you go west, consumers believe they're buying official adidas or Nike merchandise, but it is in fact counterfeit. Since they still report it in the study as being the official brand, the result is that recorded purchases far exceed actual shipments. It's difficult to unravel, but you can use the average reported price points versus sales in each tier or region to try to understand if that's what's at play.
The assumptions
3) Explore every piece. With any research, accurate answers hinge on a myriad of assumptions and factors. Age, gender, income, population are the basic ones. But even with these, you use and modify a statistical range. In China, with seven tiers of cities and sample sizes of 10,000 to represent over a billion people, each factor has a big impact. Dig into all of them until you understand how even a small tweak can transform the final number.
4) Question the data. Culturally, the Chinese are not comfortable with or used to intensely scrutinizing or debating what's presented in these cases. Things are often taken at face value. It takes coaching and patience to overcome this resistance to disagreement. Help local managers who understand the market to ask detailed questions thoughtfully and systematically.
We as managers are often counseled to balance data and intuition. But in China, it takes a fair bit of intuition just to get to the data. More than anywhere else, you'll need to rely on strong partnerships, flexible thinking, and persistent digging to get even close to the "truth" of the market.
This post is part of the HBR Insight Center The Next Generation of Global Leaders.
| 2012-02-07T14:40:25Z Wanted: Idea Fusers It's become pretty much common knowledge that great innovation springs from the ability to pull two unlike things together to create a beautiful third. Steve Jobs famously shifted a paradigm when he fused calligraphy with technology to create the Mac's graphical user interface. Many great inventions fuse something very simple, cheap and widely accessible — say, a small piece of paper — with something expensive and complex — say, a medical laboratory test — to come up with a marvelous solution, such as George Whitesides' postage-stamp sized diagnostic tool.
And though not always disruptive, many innovations spring from the fusion of business models. Consider Rent the Runway, a mashup of high-end fashion and Netflix-style rental scheme. Sometimes a fusion of two ordinary objects creates an interesting, if not necessarily beautiful, third: Kristen Murdock makes cowpie clocks from dried, varnished cowpies and, well, clocks. Apparently they're selling like hot ... pies.
As Hal Gregerson and Jeffrey Dyer, authors of The Innovator's DNA, have observed, the ability to associate unlike ideas is fundamental to innovation: "Overall, associating is the key [innovative] skill because new ideas aren't created without connecting problems or ideas in ways that they haven't been connected before." But I wonder — why is it so difficult for companies to hire and promote people who are good at associative thinking?
I find this strange. After all, lots of corporations pay big money to consulting companies like IDEO and Jump Associates — firms that hire people from very diverse disciplines, and who specialize in this kind of associative thinking — to help them innovate. So why don't more companies do the same thing?
Back in 1997, HBR authors Dorothy Leonard and Susaan Straus identified part of the problem in an article called "Putting Your Company's Whole Brain to Work." They pointed out that managers who dislike conflict — or value only their own approach — actively avoid the clash of ideas, and so they like to hire "comfortable clones" of themselves. They also note that managers have trouble getting "detail guys" to appreciate the "concept man" and vice-versa, resulting in unconstructive arguments and stalled projects. And of course, too many companies are still organized in silos. But I think there's another, deeper reason creative thinking is so difficult to come by, and it has to do with education.
Our society values specialists. If you want to get anywhere, young people are told, you have to zero in on a rarified area of study like, say, stochastic process analysis or bromhidrosis and become really, really good at it. The best-paid people in the world, after all, are experts who know more than anyone else about their elected field of study. Unfortunately, when highly focused professional practitioners put fences around their fields of expertise, they spend most of their time one-upping each other, and they certainly don't spend much of it collaborating with people who aren't like them. That kind of thing may produce deeper bore-holes, but it seldom produces works of genius.
Meanwhile, the past 30 or so years has seen a huge decline in liberal arts and humanities education. Liberal-arts schools are struggling, and people with such degrees are devalued in the marketplace; those who might want to major in English or Philosophy are told by parents and guidance counselors they will never get decent-paying jobs (and for the most part, the parents and counselors are right). The devaluation of generalists has produced lots and lots of business majors who may know how to put together a spreadsheet but who can't think broadly enough to put unlike ideas together.
Now, take a good look at the people your company hires. Do they come from all kinds of different backgrounds and experiences? My guess is that there may be a diversity policy on the books, and that there are people of different genders and races. But we need more diversity than that. We need much more intellectual diversity, and we need to find ways to put unlike ideas together in new ways.
Still, there are some wonderful firms and people out there that are working on creating great fusions and beautiful thirds. If you are working on creating fusions within your organization, tell me how. I'd appreciate your letting me know, because I want to write more about this topic.
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