Strategic tools for the practising manager

KIT

THIS WEEK: THE FASHION JEWELLERY MARKET IN INDIA

The fashion jewellery market in urban India is estimated at Rs 1,320 crore a year in value terms for SEC A and B consumers in the age group of 15-25 years.

Non-precious jewellery accounts for 43 per cent of this market in value terms, while the balance 57 per cent is absorbed by semi-precious jewellery.

In volume terms, the market is dominated by non-precious jewellery at 84 per cent, while semi-precious jewellery makes for the balance 16 per cent.

Roadside hawkers are the preferred option when it comes to buying fashion jewellery.

Department stores are seen to be fast catching up in the semi-precious jewellery segment.

This market is dominated primarily by unorganised traders and unbranded products.

Although OF LATE, brands are making an entry in this segment, they are still limited in number and reach.

Selections from management journals
NUGGETS

The software and information technology-enabled services industries together constitute almost 25 per cent of India's exports. The $40-billion industry is expected to grow by a fourth to almost $50 billion by the end of fiscal year 2007-08.

But the recent appreciation of the rupee coupled with slowing economic growth in the US "" the biggest market for Indian software and allied service exports "" has battered stock prices of Indian software exporters.

Is the sunrise sector in for a reversal of fortune? To assess the outlook for 2008, India Knowledge@Wharton presents an overview of two panel discussions and related observations from a recent entrepreneurial summit in Delhi. The panel discussions were titled "Investment Trends in Technology" and "Is the Party Over? The Future of BPO/KPO."

Reversal of fortune: How will Indian IT and BPO firms cope with a global slowdown?
India Knowledge@Wharton, January 25 - February 07
Read this article at http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/

C K Prahalad, author of The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid; Eradicating Poverty through Profit, has long championed the notion that business "" rather than government handouts "" represents the most effective solution to poverty.

In a keynote speech at the recent summit, he noted that India must pay more attention to entrepreneurship, which he described as "the essence of development". Several speakers at the conference discussed how their companies are using Prahalad's "bottom of the pyramid" approach to deliver services or products to poor people.

C K Prahalad: "The poor deserve world-class products and services"
India Knowledge@Wharton, January 25 - February 07
Read this article at http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/

In Harvard Business Review's annual survey, experts from different fields talk about the ideas and trends that will make an impact on business. Stan Stalnaker heralds a peer-to-peer economy in which consumers become consumer-producers. Tamara J Erickson dissects the expectations of Gen Y workers.

Another writer recommends a prescription for avoiding misdiagnoses in decision making. Another expert, Michael Sheehan, warns not to resort to the tools of competition when it is really opposition that threatens your company.

Others dwell on topics such as a brain-friendly workplace that applies modern science to daily performance; the minds of "honest" people when they cheat; the cybercrime service economy; if online games are preparing the 21st-century workforce; the history of broadcasting for wisdom about competing in the metaverses of the internet; how true to yourself you'll be in the virtual world; the advantages of socially responsible lobbying and so on.

Breakthrough ideas for 2008
Harvard Business Review, February 2007
Read this article at www.hbr.com

In developed nations, the workforce is ageing rapidly. That trend has serious implications. Companies could face severe labour shortages in a few years as workers retire, taking critical knowledge with them. Businesses may also see productivity decline among older employees, especially in physically demanding jobs.

The authors, partners at The Boston Consulting Group, offer managers a systematic way to assess these dual threats "" capacity risk and productivity risk "" at their companies.

It involves studying the age distribution of their employees to see if large percentages fall within high age brackets and then projecting "" by location, unit, and job category "" how the distribution will change over the next 15 years. Managers must also factor in both the impact of strategic moves on personnel needs and the future supply of workers in the market.

When RWE Power analysed its trends, the company learned that in 2018 almost 80 per cent of its workers would be over 50. What's more, in certain critical areas its labour surplus was about to become a sizeable shortfall. For instance, a shortage of specialised engineers would develop in the company just as their ranks in the job market thinned and competition to hire them intensified. Reversing its downsizing course, RWE Power took steps to increase its supply of workers in those key positions.

The authors show how companies that face talent gaps, as RWE Power did, can close them through training, transfers, recruitment, retention, productivity improvements, and outsourcing.

They also describe measures that companies can take to keep older workers productive, including workplace accommodations, revised compensation structures, performance incentives, and targeted health care management. The key is to identify and address potential problems early.

Managing demographic risk
By Rainer Strack, Jens Baier and Anders Fahlander
Harvard Business Review, February 2007
www.hbr.com