KIT: Strategic tools for the practising manager

THIS WEEK: THE INDIAN PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY

The Indian pharmaceutical industry is the fourth largest globally, in terms of volume, and 13th largest in terms of value.

In terms of volume, it accounts for about 8 per cent of global pharmaceutical sales, while in terms of value, the figure is a mere 1 per cent.

India's small share in value is due to the relatively low prices of bulk drugs in the country.

The industry is highly regulated, essentially on patents, price and product quality.

It is expected to post healthy sales growth in the short to medium term, largely on the strength of exports.

Mid-sized companies are likely to derive significant revenues from contract research and manufacturing.

The R&D allocations of the prominent players in the domestic pharmaceutical industry have increased recently to 6-8 per cent of their annual sales in 2005, from about 2 per cent during the late 1990s.

KIT by Technopak Advisors

NUGGETS
Selections from management journals

Of all the meetings top executives attend in a year, none is more important than the strategy off-site, where the most essential conversations for the future of the business occur.

Yet, it is the rare management team that can say its strategy off-site truly changed the way the business is run. At best, participants do some vague direction setting and work on team-building skills; at worst, they write off the retreat as a waste of time and resources.

It needn't be like that. From their two decades of experience designing and facilitating strategy off-sites in companies large and small around the world, the authors have distilled a set of best practices that businesses can use to make the most of this annual opportunity.

Essentially, the problem with most strategy off-sites is that they're insufficiently structured. People think that if you schedule a meeting, invite top leaders, and block off units of time to discuss big subjects, the rest will take care of itself. Oddly enough, only rigorously designed meetings give rise to truly candid strategy discussions.

Off-sites that work
Harvard Business Review Bob Frisch and Logan Chandler
June 2006 Issue

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With more and more advertising vehicles crowding today's marketing environment "" including traditional print, television and radio ads, product placements, Internet buzz, viral campaigns and cell phone messaging "" marketers have new opportunities to reach vast pools of potential customers.

But the tangle of options also requires a successful marketing plan to take into account the nature of the product, its durability in the public's mind and the advertising budget needed to make it all work.

As Wharton professor David Bell notes, "It's very hard to find the one big lever that can reach a whole lot of people in a way that is cost-effective."

Knowledge@Wharton asked four Wharton marketing professors how they would go about launching two hypothetical products, a summer blockbuster movie and a cell phone.

If you were in charge, how would you market these products?
Knowledge@Wharton
May 13 - June 13

Read the article at
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/