US ECONOMY: ON THE BRINK OF RECESSION

Did someone utter the ‘R’ word?
Facts are understated, statistics are being manipulated...
The optimism exhibited by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke can be compared with a student who hasn’t prepared a dime for an exam, yet is sitting for it quite convinced that the exam would be surely called off . Every ‘Ben’ speech now appears to be rhetoric as he tries to instill faith in the US economy and does some kind of damage control at home. While Bernanke tries to inject markets with optimism, his predecessor Alan Greenspan has become much more bearish, declaring in May that the US has a 2 to 1 chance of declining into recession. The endeavours of Bernanke along with some of the brokerage houses & investment banks deserve special mention, as every possible statistic that could have highlighted the negativity of the US economy has been hidden; and every dead cat that twitched upwards, whether in equities or in housing, has been publicised as if there is no tomorrow.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Indian version of Wal-Mart called Reliance Retail

What has been the strategy adopted by the two brothers after the split of June 2005? And how different have they been from each other? Mukesh clearly appears the more focused of the two – at least outwardly. Within weeks of the split, when he lost the lucrative Reliance Infocom to Anil, Mukesh and his team of strategic advisors drew up a blue print to launch an Indian version of Wal-Mart called Reliance Retail. More than Rs.250 billion was kept aside for the project. The launch has been on target, and despite many hiccups, teething problems and complaints of the consumer dissonance, there will be hundreds of Reliance Retail outlets across urban India even before the Bharti-Wal-Mart strategic alliance launches its first store sometime in 2008. The scale of this project is truly staggering; something that father Dhirubhai Ambani would have been proud of. It took Reliance more than 30 years to cross the milestone of generating Rs.1 trillion in annual revenues; and that too with the help of petrochemicals, petroleum, refining and intermediates. With Reliance Retail, Mukesh wants to cross the Rs.1 trillion annual revenue mark in just five years!

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Videocon units

Indeed, Videocon is a rare instance of a company that is focussing attention on being across the value chain... right from manufacturing to branding. The company manages multiple brands like Akai, Kelvinator, Electolux & Sansui, apart from their own brands – Videocon & Kenstar. On the other, it manufactures even glass and colour picture tubes for TVs. Dhoot feels that this is important, “A company, which wants to be at the top, has to pay attention to both. Like Samsung and LG is there – they are very strong in manufacturing, they are also very strong in branding.” And Dhoot also reiterates that the main focus of Videocon is not marketing and sales, but it’s R&D. The company has a huge research centre with 1,000 research employees. Besides, the company runs 17 manufacturing units in India. Dhoot begs to differ when Videocon is compared to the likes of Sony, Samsung & LG.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative

Apple unleashes iPhone...

... but the incumbents look hardly petrified of their new rival!!!
It is touted to be the most important launch in the global consumer electronics industry in the last 20 years. Some swear that it would completely alter what we perceive of a cell phone. Some even go to the extent of calling it the biggest telecom revolution since Graham Bell did his bit! It is the Apple iPhone, a product that triples up as a cell phone, a wide-screen iPod media player & an Internet Communicator. However, the most interesting aspect of iPhone is that the users can listen to their favourite songs, browse the Internet and make calls through the interactive touch screen.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2007

An IIPM and Professor Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist) Initiative