| The eyewear market in India is estimated at Rs 2,700 crore and is projected to grow to Rs 6,100 crore over the next five years. |
| The market for eyewear is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 18-20 per cent. |
| Spectacles contribute to 80 per cent of the market, while the sunglasses contribute to the balance 20 per cent. |
| The organised segment contributes to 17 per cent of the overall market. |
| Within the organised segment, the share of the sunglasses category is around 40 per cent. |
| Department stores contribute to one-third of the organised sunglasses market. |
| NUGGETS Selections from management journals |
| Even among Internet companies, Google stands out as an enterprise designed with the explicit goal of succeeding at rapid, profuse innovation. Much of what the company does is rooted in its legendary IT infrastructure, but technology and strategy at Google are inseparable and mutually permeable "" making it hard to say whether technology is the DNA of its strategy or the other way around. |
| Whichever it is, Bala Iyer and Thomas Davenport of Babson College believe Google may well be the Internet-era heir to companies like GE and IBM as an exemplar of management practice. |
| Google has spent billions of dollars creating its Internet-based operating platform and developing proprietary technology that allows the company to rapidly develop and roll out new services of its own or its partners' devising. |
| As owner and operator of its innovation "ecosystem", Google can control the platform's evolution and claim a disproportionate percentage of the value created within it. |
| Because every transaction is performed through the platform, the company has perfect, continuous awareness of, and access to, the by-product information and is the hub of all germinal revenue streams. |
| In addition to technology explicitly designed and built for innovation, Google has a well-considered organisational and cultural strategy that helps the company attract the most talented people in the land""and keep them working hard. For instance, Google budgets innovation into job descriptions, eliminates friction from development processes, and cultivates a taste for failure and chaos. |
| While some elements of Google's success as an innovator would be very hard and very costly to emulate, others can be profitably adopted by almost any business. |
| Reverse engineering Google's innovation machine By Bala Iyer and Thomas H Davenport Harvard Business Review, April 2008 Read this article at www.hbr.com |
| In a global survey, consumers say that a corporation's performance in addressing the problems of the environment and climate change affects not only how much they trust the company but also whether they would buy its products. |
| Consumers also want companies to promote the public good by providing healthier and safer products, retirement and health care benefits for its employees, and much else besides. Their expectations vary by industry and geography. |
| Every business should think about the role environmental issues can and should play in strategy so that they can build trust among consumers and offer products and services that address their concerns. |
| Addressing consumer concerns about climate change By Sheila M J Bonini, Greg Hintz and Lenny T Mendonca The McKinsey Quarterly, March 2008 Read this article at www.mckinseyquarterly.com |
| Determining when and what technological innovation to adopt can be a bit like predicting the outcome of the stock market on any given day. Sony's recent win with its Blu-Ray technology over Toshiba's High Definition DVD is the latest example of a firm learning from past mistakes and capitalising on an existing product, the Sony PlayStation 3. |
| But if knowing when to adopt a new technology is tricky, how is a company to stay competitive? Experts at Emory University's Goizueta Business School discuss the role of strategy and luck in making the winning moves with new technologies. |
| Sony's Blu-Ray victory: Learning to catch the technology wave? Knowledge@Emory, March 12 - April 8 Read this article at http://knowledge.emory.edu/ The toughest leadership task for Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the board of management of Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, was engineering last year's breakup of Daimler and Chrysler. |
| But the experience taught him valuable lessons, such as the importance of making timely decisions and the need to avoid information overload. Leadership, Zetsche told his audience during a recent Wharton Leadership Lecture, isn't always "fun and games." |
| Driving lessons: Dieter Zetsche's experiences behind the wheel of Daimler-Chrysler and beyond Knowledge@Wharton, March 19 - April 1 Read this article at http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/ |
| Can you summarise your company's strategy in 35 words or less? Would your colleagues express it the same way? Very few executives can honestly say yes to these simple questions. |
| The thing is, companies with a clear, concise strategy statement "" one that employees can easily internalise and use as a guiding light "" often turn out to be industry stars. |
| Any strategy statement must begin with a definition of the objective, or the goal that the strategy is designed to achieve. Since most firms compete in a more or less unbounded landscape, it is also crucial to define the scope, or domain, of the business. Perhaps most important, companies need to have a clear sense of advantage "" that is, the means by which the business will achieve its stated objective. |
| Defining the objective, scope, and advantage requires trade-offs. If a firm pursues growth or size, profitability will take a backseat. If it chooses to serve institutional clients, it might ignore retail customers. If it derives its competitive advantage from scale economies, it will not be able to accommodate idiosyncratic customer needs. |
| Before developing your strategy and crafting your statement, you'll want to carefully evaluate the industry landscape. This includes segmenting customers and identifying unique ways of delivering value to the ones the firm targets. It also calls for an analysis of competitors' current strategies and a prediction of how they might change. The key is to find the sweet spot where the firm's capabilities and customers' needs align in a way that competitors cannot match. |
| Can you say what your strategy is? By David J Collis and Michael G Rukstad Harvard Business Review, April 2008 Read this article at Read this article at www.hbr.com |
| Problem customers can cost your business lots of money, but quickly ejecting them may not be the best way to relieve the burden. Vikas Mittal of Rice University, Matthew Sarkees of Penn State, and Feisal Murshed of Towson University, explore the ins and outs of customer divestment. |
| Using real-world examples, the authors show how deciding to end a relationship with a customer segment or individual can increase profitability, improve employee morale, address capacity constraints, and bolster a business strategy. |
| But divestment also comes with potential downsides for various constituencies, including employees and remaining customers, both of whom may wonder whether they're next. In addition, ethical and legal consequences always loom. |
| The right way to manage unprofitable customers By Vikas Mittal, Matthew Sarkees and Feisal Murshed Harvard Business Review, April 2008 Read this article at www.hbr.com |
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