Strategic tools for the practising manager

KIT

THIS WEEK: INDIA'S APPAREL EXPORT MARKET

India's textile and apparel exports stood at $117 billion in 2005 compared to $97 billion in 2004.

In the post-quota period, Indian apparel exports have registered a growth of 19 per cent, but gain is merely $2.5 billion. During the same period, China's apparel exports rose by 21 per cent, thereby gaining $20 billion.

India still remains a small player in the global textile and apparel trade.

Its share increased from 2.98 per cent in 2004 to 3.32 per cent in 2005.

T-shirts and ladies' blouses continued to be the top two export categories in 2005.

The big opportunity for India lies in tapping the intra-Asia and Asia-to- Europe trade through regional trade agreements and deeper penetration.

Selections from management journals
NUGGETS

Never a fad, but always in or out of fashion, innovation gets rediscovered as a growth enabler every half dozen years.

Too often, grand declarations about innovation are followed by mediocre execution that produces anemic results, and innovation groups are quietly disbanded in cost-cutting drives.

Each generation faces the same vexing challenges "" most stemming from the tensions between protecting existing revenue streams critical to current success and supporting new concepts that may be crucial to future success.

In this article, Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter reflects on four major waves of innovation enthusiasm she's observed over the past 25 years.

She describes the classic mistakes companies make in innovation strategy, process, structure and skills assessment, illustrating her points with a plethora of real-world examples "" including AT&T Worldnet, Timberland and Ocean Spray.

A common process mistake is when managers strangle innovation efforts with the same rigid planning, budgeting, and reviewing approaches they use in their existing businesses "" thereby discouraging people from adapting as circumstances warrant. Kanter offers practical advice on avoiding such traps.

Innovation: The Classic Traps
Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Harvard Business Review,
November 2006 Issue

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