Innovation Can Only Bypass Competition.

As the globalization is in full swing all business has to withstand competitions in order to retain market position by retain and gaining its market share.
Fierce competition can eat away market share even all the sales can dry up. To sustain the market share the firms should bank on contemporary technologies or try to develop new technologies.

R & D pays a significant role in technology development and in turn product and service development enhancing the PLC of the product.
North American, European, Japanese MNCs were the first to come out innovative products with cutting edge technologies.

AT&T, GE,3M,Intel, Microsoft, Apple Computers,Google,Wall Mart and many more are great examples of North American Corporations which has dominated the world market with their world class products and services.

Japanese corporations like SONY, Toyota, Honda still dominates the world market with electronics, auto, ship building with cutting edge technology spending a significant amount in R&D.

Recently the European and the Japanese joint venture Sony Ericsson innovated a mobile phones with camera features eying the global market.

The Chinese too are spending a good amount of money for R&D and for innovation. Computer hardware outsourcing and electronic toy market are examples of Chinese dominance in the world market. With Chinese SEZ in right place and low production cost and economies of scales, China has become right destination for global manufacturing hub.

What about India, Indian companies now compete against the best of world class rivals , of course, that is the reason why they are taking innovation and spending on R&D much more seriously. Many of the Indian Brands making waves in Global market are parking a sizeable amount of money in R & D.

Tata Motors, Dr Reddy, HAL, Reliance, Sun Pharma, Cipla , Infosys,M&M are some of the Indian brands making wave in the global market.

Does R&D and innovation drive profitable growth and increases profitability?

This is a very debatable question, managing Innovation requires lot of investments, many a times R&D money can go down the drain. Marketing can be an expensive proposition too. Eight out of ten products fail to click. At times it proves to be an expensive gamble.

Self Confidence ,Determination And Guts To Take Challenge.

On the other day I was posting a comment on Prof Tammy Erickson’s post on Harvard Business Online , the topic was “The Changing Value of College Degrees”

This is really very interesting topic and a debatable topic,
do you really require a College degree to be successful in your life?


There are two aspects of college degrees, one if you are a professional, where degrees is a mandatory like for example doctors, lawyers, auditors and certified accounts professionals.

The other side there are smart guys, who picks up things on his way and applies in business and becomes successful, these are smart people who can do
Out Of The Box Thinking apply the knowledge from the experience that he has gathered, he is learning everyday.

These people are self-learners; self-learning can only be possible if you are self-motivated.Mr Bill Gates, Mr Steve Jobs, Mr Mittal are institutions by themselves.

Cognitive learning matters the most.Self Confidence, determination and guts to take the challenges matters the most.
Many a times Executional Excellence scores more and required more than Academic Excellence. Especially it is seen in the case of entrepreneurs.

Rather you require a mix of both is required very much to be successful in professional life.
This gentleman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakshmi_Mittal dropped out from post grad management from IISWBM, Calcutta,to join his business and today he is a big name in the global steel business and really speaking he has made India proud.


Mr. L.N.Mittal is considered to be one of the most successful management
student from the Indian Institute Of Social Welfare and Business Management, Calcutta.

Yes, in the initial days of your career you require a degree to get an entry to a big corporate but in the long run you have to prove yourself and your executional excellence matters the most because it the value addition that you have to do for your employer.

Apple is World's Most Innovative Company-BusinessWeek

In 2008 Businesweek-BCG has named the Apple Computers to be the most innovative company in the world .
Apple proved in the past that innovating and R&D really keeps you in the race while others cut R&D money positions a company very well against its competitors when things get back to normal.

Apple main success mantras are as follows;

1. Make the product king.

2. Make the customer king.

3. Break the marketing mold.

4. Fix your leaders and your plan.

Waiting eagerly to see new products from Apple’s Magic Box.

Chapman Alliance To Enhance Talent Management For Indian Corporate Executives.

It is a great news that the Indian corporates are now planning to hire and give job training to their executives to increase their productivity.

The U.S. based Chapman Alliance LLC famous for their innovative and research centric talent management solutions has come to India in Bangalore along with an Indian partner 7X24.

Bryan Chapman founder and chief learning strategist of Chapman Alliance LLC is very bullish about the Indian Market and it can grow 100% Y-O-Y.

Chapman Alliance LLC has got the expertise and experience in training executives in American Express, Coca-Cola, Kodak, Daimler Chrysler, Microsoft, Unicef, and others.

According to Mr. Karthik of 7 X 24 the Indian market is growing at 80% Y-O-Y.
The present executive training market in India is about Rs 2000 Crores( US$ 500 Mn ) per year.

Innovate or Perish. World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies includes India’s TATA GROUP & Reliance Industries .

A very interesting study recently came out in BusinessWeek about the most innovative companies in the world 2008, a joint study made by BusinessWeek-Boston Consulting Group .

Among the top Fifty companies two are Indian , Tata Group and Reliance Industries ranking 6th and 19th respectively.

Congratulation to Mr. Ratan Tata and Mr. Mukesh Ambani.

World is finding Indian companies are making footprints in global market place through innovations.

Definition Of Knowledge Professional And How To Manage Them Effectively For Higher Productivity.

This is in reference to my previous post regarding Elton Mayo’s “Sense of Belonging” knowledge workers /free agents and managing them effectively.

I made some further studies on this, as this can become a very common problem for all managers who are leading knowledge professionals or heading a team of high caliber cerebral workers.

I found an interesting article in
HBR,Issue March 2007
“ How do you manage people who don’t want to be led and may be smarter than you?’ ,
Leading Clever People by Prof Rob Goffee at London Business School in U.K. and Prof Gareth Jones at Insead.

I requested Prof Goffee regarding the definition of a knowledge workers/professionals, he preferred the definition by Peter Drucker...knowledge workers are those who know more about their jobs than anyone.

In successful organizations you need a unique combination of quality manpower and conducive environment for growth, nurturing and managing of talents for continuous growth, productivity and profitability.

It’s like Michael Schumacher and Ferrai for winning the Formula 1.
Its’ not only the machine which matters, but also equally important the man behind the machine and vice versa.

Prof Goffee and Prof Jones clearly mentioned in the above mention article seven characteristics which all clever people share and their leaders should know it before hand in managing the bunch of cerebral workers.

1. They know their worth. The tacit skills of clever people are closer to those of medieval guilds than to the standardized, codifiable, and communicable skills that characterized the Industrial Revolution. This means you can't transfer the knowledge without the people.

2.They are organizationally savvy. Clever people will find the company context in which their interests will be most generously funded. If the funding dries up, they have a couple of options: They can move on to a place where resources are plentiful, or they can dig in and engage in elaborate politics to advance their pet projects.

3.They ignore corporate hierarchy. If you seek to motivate clever people with titles or promotions, you will probably be met with cold disdain. But don't assume this means they don't care about status; they can be very particular about it, and may insist on being called "doctor" or "professor."

4.They expect instant access. If clever people don't get access to the CEO, they may think the organization does not take their work seriously.

5.They are well connected. Clever people are usually plugged into highly developed knowledge networks; who they know is often as important as what they know. These networks both increase their value to the organization and make them more of a flight risk.

6.They have a low boredom threshold. In an era of employee mobility, if you don't engage your clever people intellectually and inspire them with organizational purpose, they will walk out the door.

7. They won't thank you. Even when you're leading them well, clever people will be unwilling to recognize your leadership. Remember, these creative individuals feel that they don't need to be led. Measure your success by your ability to remain on the fringes of their radar.

Now what about Mayo’s “Sense of Belonging”.

Elton Mayo’s The Hawthorne Experiments were done with workers in Western Electric works they had low skills and the knowledge base required were also low.

In Hawthorne Experiments the employees of the Western Electric works were not typical high end knowledge workers of today. They lacked security, and on job learning and lateral movements were also not possible.

That’s why the “Sense of Belonging “was easier to inculcate when the opportunities were less, on job learning avenues were less.

Now with globalization and high mobility, on job learning, online learning and continuous value additions the “Sense of Belonging “has come down and specially with the knowledge professionals.

As knowledge is perishable, all smart knowledge professionals update themselves fast, otherwise they will be redundant in their profession or at workplace. Workplace, organizations should be learning place and will give enough opportunities to learn and value add to themselves and the knowledge workers can do wonders.

Please feel free to put your remarks on this topic.

I sincerely thank Prof Goffee of London Business School and Prof Marshall Goldsmith of Harvard Business School for giving valuable suggestions to me on this topic.

Marks & Spencer Group Plc With Reliance In Joint Venture In India.

After the world’s largest retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Sunil Mittal''s Bharti Enterprises, the entered in the retail space in India, it is the time Marks & Spencer Group.

The legendary British departmental store chain Marks and Spencer Group Plc. is set to open company-owned stores and expand Indian operations following a joint venture with the Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Retail Ltd.

The British company will hold a 51 per cent stake in the JV, to be named Marks and Spencer Reliance India Pvt Ltd, while the remaining stake will be with Reliance Retail.

Reliance Retail and Marks and Spencer will invest £29 million (Rs228 crore) to set up at least 50 stores over the next five years.

The new stores will be large format stores of around 20,000 sq ft.
A big time ahead for Indian retail industry, Tesco, Carrefour are all waiting in the ques to enter in to the new emerging growing market in India.

The ground will be not that easy as many Indian players particularly Future Group, West Side, Wills Life style, will give a stiff resistance to these retail JVs.