Strategic tools for the practising manager

KIT

This week: The travel and leisure market in India

The demand for overseas travel is expected to grow by 8.8 per cent a year in real terms between 2004 and 2014.

Sixty per cent of Indian travellers have travelled abroad, of which 31 per cent have made a trip in the past six months.

Travelling abroad for holiday is more prevalent in the northern and western regions of the country.

Among the "super-affluent households", 63 per cent travel for leisure compared to a lesser 55 per cent among the "affluent households".

Sixty per cent of the travellers go on leisure trips, while the remaining 40 per cent on work-related.

South-east Asia is the most preferred destination for Indian travellers "" 43 per cent chose it over other destinations, followed by the US and Canada where 39 per cent spent their vacations.

China has been the least preferred holiday destination.

Indian travellers go on an average 12-15-day vacation, while business trips are shorter.

NUGGETS
Selections from management journals

Companies today must actively manage their corporate portfolios or face off against activist shareholders, private equity firms, and hedge funds eager to jump in and do so for them. Yet managing a corporate portfolio isn't what it used to be; it's no longer enough just to divest underperforming businesses and reinvest in better ones.

Companies must be "" or become "" the most natural owners of their businesses while balancing investment opportunities against their supply of capital, basing these moves on the predicted returns of current and potential investments.

The new dynamics of managing the corporate portfolio
By Lorenzo Carlesi, Braam Verster and Felix Wenger
The McKinsey Quarterly, Web exclusive, April 2007
Read this article at www.mckinseyquarterly.com  

The success of an executive team depends heavily on the relationships the boss has with his or her direct reports. Yet the leadership literature has had little to say about what is expected in those relationships "" on either side.

Larry Bossidy, formerly the chairman and CEO of Honeywell, and before that of AlliedSignal, shares what he calls "the CEO compact", detailing the behaviours a leader should look for in subordinates and what they should be able to expect in return.

A CEO's best people, he says, know when a situation calls for them to get involved. They generate ideas "" remembering that some of the best ones may sound crazy at first. They are willing to collaborate, putting the long-term good of the company above short-term goals of their divisions.

They step up to lead initiatives, even if the outcome is uncertain. They drive their own growth by exposing themselves to new people and ideas and by accepting demanding assignments.

And they sustain these behaviours in bad times as well as good. On the other side of the compact, the boss should provide clarity of direction; set goals and objectives; give frequent, specific, and immediate feedback; be decisive and timely; and offer an equitable compensation plan.

What your leader expects of you
By Larry Bossidy
Harvard Business Review, April 2007
Subscribe to the article at www.hbr.com

Disappointment Over AN early defeat in the World Cup has caused many in India to ask whether the game's business model is flawed.

According to faculty from Wharton, IIM and other experts interviewed by India Knowledge@Wharton, India needs to rethink the model for cricket.

The current model needs improvement in areas such as governance as well as the way incentives for players are structured. Some suggest that a privatised professional league for cricket might be the answer.

Cricket in India: It's big business but not businesslike
Knowledge@Wharton,
April 05, 2007
Read the article at http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu