Strategic tools for the practising manager

KIT

THIS WEEK: THE SPORTS GOODS MARKET IN INDIA

The sports goods market in India is estimated to be Rs 527 crore. The category consists of health and fitness equipment, sports equipment (cricket bats, badminton racquets, tennis racquets and so on), sports bikes and so on.

The market is growing at 20-25 per cent a year.

Seventy-eight per cent of the Indian sports goods market exists in the top 784 urban centres. A- and B-type cities (the top 119 cities) together contribute 51 per cent of the total sports goods market.

The Indian sports goods industry, particularly for sports equipment and sport bikes, is dominated by local manufacturers as India is an established manufacturing base for sports equipment.

Health and fitness equipment is a fast-growing category, particularly in AAA- and AA-type cities. This category has seen a rapid increase in imports. About 40 per cent of the high-end sports and fitness equipment sold in India, such as tread mills, is imported.

Sales of sports goods, particularly fitness equipment, also happen through tele-shopping networks, mainly due to the absence of organised retailers in the category.

Most consumers (62 per cent) prefer to buy sports goods from specialised sports goods retailers located in the nearest market.

Selections from management journals
NUGGETS

For executives running global companies, the challenge of keeping abreast of events in markets around the world is mind-boggling. The problem is not a lack of information "" it is having the time and energy to process the information.

How should executives prioritise their time to ensure that it is focused on the countries and subsidiaries that need the attention? Which markets should they emphasise, and which ones can they allow to fall off their radar screen?

The authors researched executive attention at global companies for five years, interviewing 50 executives at 30 corporations including ABB, Dun & Bradstreet, Nestle and Sara Lee.

They found that executives end up prioritising a handful of markets at the expense of the others, but they don't always select the most promising ones. Because executive attention is so limited, executives tend to focus on the home market or on "hot" markets, always at the expense of other opportunities.

Managing executive attention in the global company
By Julian Birkinshaw, Cyril Bouquet and Tina C Ambos
MIT Sloan Management Review, Summer 2007 issue, Volume 48, Number 4
Subscribe to the article at http://sloanreview.mit.edu/smr/

Now that India is playing an ever larger role in the world economy, the issue of corruption, in both the private and public sectors, is coming into sharper focus. Two scenarios are possible: as India's multinational corporations develop both economic and political muscle, they may act as a broom, sweeping corruption from the economic sphere.

On the other hand, entrenched practices may prove the stronger force and corruption could end up being a significant brake on India's economic rise.

In India, will corruption slow growth or will growth slow corruption?
Knowledge@Wharton, August, 2007
Read the article at http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/

As the forces of proliferation gather strength, companies will need to redefine the way the marketing function performs its critical tasks and broaden the role of the chief marketing officer.

Today, many CMOs have narrowly defined roles that emphasise advertising, brand management, and market research.

In the years ahead, companies will need their CMOs to lead far-reaching change efforts, shape their public profiles, help manage complexity, and build new capabilities. CEOs have a role too: helping CMOs to set priorities and drive organisational change while fostering closer connections between them and other senior executives.

The evolving role of the CMO
The McKinsey Quarterly
Number 3, 2007
Subscribe to the article at www.mckinseyquarterly.com