'Blind adoption of US business models risky'

For those looking to replicate the Wal-mart model of retailing or that of major American business houses unconditionally in India, experts are sounding a word of caution.

Though the bottomlines of most of the bigger American companies may have doubled or even tripled in the last few years, studies conducted in the US show that the brand equity of some of these companies have taken a hit on the back of over-marketing or poor HR policies.

Sharing these details from his book on marketing, Rajendra Sisodia, professor of Marketing at Bentley college, Boston, US, said while business schools in India take up models of profitable American companies as case studies, it is pertinent to note that less than 2 per cent of investors think the top CEOs are trustworthy owing to their disregard for environment conservation.

He was speaking at the Nirma International Conference on Management (NICOM) 2008 organised by the Nirma Institute of Management (NIM).

"Business in the US has rarely been held in such low esteem as it is currently as there is a greater awareness for the damage done to the environment by such companies. In order to cut costs, employees at the lower levels are asked to work only for certain hours so that they are not eligible for employee benefits," said Sisodia while speaking on 'Strategies and Trends in Management : A new economy Perspective.'

In a poll conducted in the US in 2005, 90 per cent of people opined that big companies have too much of influence on the government, which was up from 83 per cent in 2004, he said.

He also spoke of the need to understand how the ageing population in the US and Europe could impact companies like Nike, whose target audience is youngsters.

"The ageing population means that more and more people are now looking at brands like New Balance, which speaks more of spiritual development rather than physical development," said Sisodia.

In 1990, New Balance was the 12th largest sneaker company in the US and has moved to the third position by 2003 on the back of its emotional brand positioning appealing to older people who form the bulk buyers.

Satish Naralkar, MD and CEO of NSE IT, a 100 per cent subsidiary of NSE, said that the company had already aligned with bourses in Europe and Sweden and was looking at more such alliances abroad.

Nicom will see sub-themes like marketing information system; value creation; value delivery in marketing and managing marketing communications.