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Showing posts from 2012

Hero's Supply Chain

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Hero is one of the world’s biggest 2 wheeler manufacturer.Its sales has touched nearly 46lakh in 2009-10 fiscal year.Now I always wondered what has contributed to the success of 2 wheeler.There may be numerous factors that contribute to the success .It may be first mover advantage that it had.It was able to connect with indian consumers and was a motorcycle was synonymous to Hero Honda.Models like Splendor,Passion was a blockbuster which contributed to the growth of company.Secondly,the technology back up that it had with Honda working with technology and tailoring or producing customized motorcycles for the Indian market.Thirdly,the most important and strong factor which I believe is the efficient and strong distribution network whether it be in terms of dealers,spare parts,authorized distributors. Supply chain network is one of the key strengths which contributed to the success of Hero.Companies manufacturing plants are supplied raw materials and components by more than

Starbucks enters into Indian coffee market

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Starbuck s a global coffee  giant which has its operations in nearly 60 countries enters India which makes the count 61.India coffee segment is scattered with global players like barista,costa coffee,Gloria Jeans  and etc.All these coffee giants are struggling to get their act together and have very poor margin in India.They are struggling to get their act together in order to impress consumers.The only successful player in this premium coffee segment in India is CafĂ© Coffee day.There can be various reasons contributing to the success of its growth.First mover advantage,ambience and experience itself  made it popular and has got higher market share than any other coffee Research shows that most of Indian consumers are youngsters and not the typical coffee consumers.So youngsters do not have the disposable income which means they cannot afford to spend a premium amount on coffee.India is mostly a tea drinking nation which makes the life of coffee giants more difficult.People pr

Mr Parker’s Entrepreneurship

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Businessman always see a vision that is far far ahead in others mind.Entreprneur is a person or so to say a visionary who identifies a need and puts his  competencies a produces a product/service.Entrepreneur take a very bold step when they start a business.They do not know whether their product will be successful or blockbuster or failure . I would like to elaborate a entrepreneur who is regarded as  true American or a American story.I am talking about Mr  Parker who has brought a blockbuster product “ Parker Pens ”.Parker pens is a trendsetter in pen industry.The story/idea from where “Parker pen” got invented is strange as well as ironic. Mr Parker was an ordinary clerk working in a shop selling fountain pens.Leaving this he had a inbuilt passion in exploring fountain pens.He used to help mechanics working in the department repairing fountain pens.He was very skilful and always used to work overtime and getting the job done.He used to cure defects that were present in fou

Murugappa on a branding spree

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Well if we have ride Hercules cycles ,ate Parry Sugar ,drank parry agro’s tea /coffee or have a chola insurance then Murugappa has touched our lifes significantly.That’s what group claims  and yes its bet comes true “Bet we have met”.Its true and amazing that a corporate house is into so mauch diversified business.Murugappa a Chennai based conglomerate which is into Engineering, Abrasives, Finance,   General Insurance, Cycles, Sugar, Farm Inputs, Fertilizers, Plantations, Bio-products and Nutraceuticals.   “Tatas of South” are market leaders in 28 businesses and has manufacturing facilities in nearly 13 states.Hercules  cycles,Parry Sugar,Coromandel and Cholamandalam are so strong in their own business units and almost market leaders.Child brands have become so popular and so strong that people have almost forgotten the parent brand.So after years of sleeping  Murugappa group wake up finally.Murugappa group on a branding spree.It is promoting  the brand with great pomp and show and

What does a PMO do?

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Project is a temporary endeavor which has definite start and end and also has assigned cost ,time attached to it.This is definition of a project .But now if you ask anyone in corporate irrespective of hierarchy all say there are no projects,there are no business.It is difficult times  business is going through.Then I wondered every IT company has a PMO (Project Management Office) .PMO looks after smooth transition of projects from initiation to migration in place.PMO also monitors  whether each project follows the Project Management practices and are also in accordance with want mentioned by client.Now I thought since each company has very less projects then what does a PMO do.But when I asked,enquired I was astonished that kind of work a PMO does . I also understood that the importance and significance of PMO in IT company.Some of functions that PMO does are:- 1.New projects launched:- PMO looks out for new projects that have been launched and also looks out no of pip

Logic of Logistics

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Ever wondered   what is the production cost of any item that we buy?Let it be cool drink,FMCG product or any other.Example normal coke bottle production cost is 3 to 4 rs.But it is sold at a whooping price of rs 12 in retailers place.Now question comes why?Why this much high price. Well the journey of rs4 to rs 12 is supply chain.Coke gets its ingredients from its suppliers and produce the beverage in their plant and then passed into the distributors from distributors it goes into retail store and then quenches the thurst of customer.So in this chain everybody adds   margin and the so high price.Logistics and supply chain involves the process of both inward and outward movement of goods from one place to another place.Logistic management is basically effective integration of right product,right quantity,right place,right time providing right value to the customer.As organizations are trying to be more leaner and giving emphasis on cost reduction logistic and supply chain is seen

Twitter Marketing

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As business becomes tough .Companies are searching new ways to market themselves. They are targeting cost effective means of marketing .Ad budgets are shrinked and much more importance to internet.Internet marketing has grown from strength to strength.Be it social media,company website and google ads are some of the effective means of making your presence felt.Be it in USA,India or China many people have access to internet .Facebook claims that no of users that have facebook account is almost equal to the combined population of India & China.This is a astounding fact that amount of people have access to Internet specially social media.Twitter made its debut in early 2004 and specifically targeted to the business community.To explain in simple sense Twitter is a online   social networking tool and a micro blogging site. Now question comes how to market yourself in twitter.Well to answer this every company would have a twitter page so when as a organization if you want to m

Fund your Film

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Film making has changed the way it is done.Bollywood celebrates its 100 years and in this 100 years it has changed from black and white to complete digitization and use of technology.Technology has became enabler in film making.Not to say it has became an integral part in film making.Before film is released audio release function takes place,trailer and also teasers are released .In this way the films are marketed and also craze is generated among people.Gone are the days when a film was used to make for all audience but know we have so many creative directors,innovative marketing and  films are made on radical and different subjects.Similarly ,there is also a paradigm shift in which films are produced and also it is financed.New way of financing is "crowd sourcing or crowd investment". With this common man can fund their own films provided if there is provision made by the director.  Well when we can a define crow d sourcing as a  collective effort of individuals who net

Broadcast yourself :now with a twist

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Well this tagline is the most appropriate for You tube.Youtube is basically a video sharing website where users can upload,share and view videos.Most of content which is uploaded in youtube is either uploaded by individuals ,corporations etc.You can find videos of all categories uploaded from various places in globe.Sport events,product launches,movies,seminars,software tutorials and you name it all are available in youtube.That’s why you tube has become so popular and so huge that Google acquired it on 2006.Youtube is now a google company.Google’s biggest revenue comes from  adwords.You tube after google acquired it understood the volume of business that you tube can generate it.Everyday one can see there are million of users upload videos on portal. In recent months we can see a new look of youtube has come into the market..Youtube website is loaded with ads.Companies are seeing new ways of marketing their products.Youtube is the latest addition into that.Firstly there are im

2012 medal count 6: can we increase it?

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Olympics is considered to be a pinnacle of sport.Olympics defines the careers of many sportspersons.New records are made new milestones are achieved and some really big defining movements of sportsman career are also achieved.India which is predominantly a cricket crazy nation never had the success in olympics.The nation was satisfied with 1 medal.There was no such coverage ,no build up etc.But a lightening like thunder came in 2008 where India won 3 medals which was beyond expectations of nation.This saw new heores arise in terms of Sushil,Vijender and Abhinav.They got accolades from every nook and corner possible. Indian contingent and everyone started taking olympics seriously.The new trendsetters left no stone unturned to promote their respective sport.This led to doubling their medal tally in London.But question lies is it enough in a huge populated country 6 medals are enough?.These questions remain unanswered.When we probe depper into this question we will find  out th

Nokia-Disconnecting People

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IT outsourcing is one of the pillars of Indian economy.Though it contributes only 10% to Indian economy.IT growth should be thanked to  India's telecommunication network.We should be happy to know that India is  the 3 rd largest in the world on the basis of its customer base and it has one of the lowest tariffs in the world enabled by the hyper-competition in its market. The handset industry in India has been an attractive destination for the global mobile phone manufacturers from the very start. Mobile phones in India  serve the growing communication needs.Nokia was one of the latest entrant and it created trust among people or so to say ”Connected people”.But now the connection is becoming weak  or so to say it is “Disconnecting people”. Nokia’s downfall is a classic case  of market leaders  downfall.Nokia entered very early into the Indian market.It has  delivered some really big blockbuster models like recharge phone Nokia 1100,Nokia xpressmusic and Nokia C5-03.

ERP is like a Baby

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Well attending a seminar enlightened me about ERP and essentials of ERP .The seminar focussed only on positives of ERP but there are lot of challenges in implementing ERP.Well one should understood that ERP is not a complete product rather it is a semifinished product that tries to automate both internal and external information systems.Previously ERP was used to integrate only basic functions in an enterprise but know it has increased to newer level were ERP is integrated with suppliers/vendors and also customers if  possible. Now question comes should every organization go for ERP?Organizations think that our business is not doing well lets go for ERP?Our records are too much paper work is more so lets go for ERP?Whatever may be the reason ERP implementation cannot be a solution.One should understand that above mentioned are problems in the process so if you go for ERP implementation it will just automate the process but not change the existing  process .Above questions nee

Mcdonald’s is a operation genious

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Operations management is a field which is related with the strategy of organisation which helps to optimize existing resources and get maximum output in cost effective and timely manner.Mcdonalds is one of those food chain corporations which has implemented operations management principles and got maximum revenue . Product : Mcdonald deals with hamburgers .So when it wanted came into India it had to study the indian market.Indian consumers have different taste and prefernces.So in order to understand the customer preference it had done market research in Mumbai where it found out that from a normal common man to a software engineer.Everybody is fond of eating Vada-pav .So it modified its product according to tastes and preference of  Indian consumers and served burgers with Indian flavours . Capacity planning : Demand is not easy to predict .There is always a element of error attached into it.When Mcdonald initially came to India it had opened only in New delhi and Mum

Ready to cook is growing

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Time and tide waits for none .So now people are living in such a hurry.They do not have time to take their timely meals also.Our cities are crowded while our traffic is increasing day by day.Cities is becoming more crowded.This busy life has given rise to a new segment growing so to say a  business opportunity. Well when we now walk into supermarket there are so many brands offering ready to cook.Specially noodles section is flooded with so many players .There are so many players who have quietly entered into this segment and giving a really tough time for market leader(Maggi) .Chings hakka noodles offering chinese touch while Sunfeast yippee noodles are an alternative while knorr soupy noodles have also satisfied the taste buds of people.These companies promoted their products aggressively by endorsements and many other campaigns. This led to the decline of market share of Maggi .Maggi quick to understand the importance of market and situation reacted swiftly.Now

Need of Succession planning

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Pranab Mukherjee has become the 13 th president of India.Being chosen the first citizen he was elated by the support given by his party members and others.The Indian presidential elections this time saw a political angle attached to it.There was lot of hype and   buzz for the candidature .But leaving Dr.Kalam nobody has done justice to the post.  Srimati Prathiba patil term was reigned with controversies and we can term it as controversial legacy.So what I want to convey here is great deal of planning and many other factors should be considered while choosing the first citizen of the country . Succession planning so to say helps in solving these issues.To define succession planning in a simple way it is a Succession planning   is a process for identifying and developing   internal people   with the potential to fill key business leadership positions in the   company .  Succession planning is a way where company can find out availability of experienced and  capable employees who