The history of Micromax (2011-12 revenue: Rs 1,978 crore), which ventured into the mobile phone market in 2008, is one of the most fascinating success stories in the Indian consumer electronics industry. In barely five years, the company has come to occupy the third position (by volume) in the mobile handset market in India and is at No. 12 globally. It leads the Indian tablet market with a share of 18.4 per cent, ahead of veterans Samsung and Apple. The Gurgaon-headquartered company owes its success not just to the ticket it puts on its products or the speed with which it puts new designs on the shelves but to how it has managed these two crucial product inputs by leveraging China. To be more specific, the labour cost advantage and the production flexibility that China offered.

Leveraging China

Business Standard

Itâ€™s important for companies to realise that mistakes will happen, but itâ€™s even more important to draw the correct lessons from those mistakes, Sachin Bansal tells Abhilasha OjhaWe have seen Flipkart grow into a formidable brand in a short time but it has received its share of bad press and negative feedback on some ads, including the one that showed two northeast children giving two others a pedicure. What is the trick for companies for brand â€œrebuildingâ€?As companies grow, challenges grow. When a company is small, not many people are paying it any attention. But as it grows, people (customers, the competition, media) sit back and start taking note. Clearly, then, companies have to act very responsibly, especially in understanding their offerings from the point of view of the customersâ€™ sensitivity. We at Flipkart understand that. With growth the responsibility becomes larger, and companies need to work on it constantly. Yes, we made s

Service, selection and price are the three pillars: Sachin Bansal

The campaignA campaign I am very proud of is Shriram Transport Finance Gets You Going, which was  released in 2007-08. The campaign aimed at building brand equity for STFC (Shriram Transport Finance Corporation) among the investor community. Its aim was to raise funds to give loans to first-time truckers and small truck operators for the purchase of used commercial vehicles.Why it is my best campaignThis campaign handles a truly important national issue  banking for the unbanked  in an evocative and sensitive manner. It shows the aam aadmi as optimistic, diligent and honest,  and demonstrates that he is not a risk. The other important thing is that the campaign is uniquely Indian in character and appeals to everybody across all regions, cultures and income groups.Brief to the agencyThe client asked us to build brand equity for Shriram Transport Finance primarily among the financial and investor community by making them awar

The campaign shows hard work always pays off

When a brand is small, it is easy to have control over quality.

To be a leader, you have to be ready to support failure: K. Ramakrishnan

Even until a few years ago corporate training programmes in India stood for elaborate off-site jamborees held typically in an &lsquo;easy&rsquo; year when the front-line managers were well on their way to meeting &mdash; or better still, exceeding &mdash; their agreed-upon annual targets. Many multinational companies and a handful of large local ones would ferry their employees to exotic locations, check them into swanky hotels to sit through fancy programmes designed specifically for those occasions. Once the employees were back in their offices and at their work stations the most interesting things wound up lost or forgotten&mdash;it was business as usual.

Measuring training effectiveness

A brand is the way a brand behaves &mdash; some brands can extend themselves to include other verticals; when they become successful, people salute them. Look at Virgin, for instance. The brand has a diverse portfolio with airlines, hotels, even islands.

Brands like Samsung and Apple inspire me: Ajay Bijli

It&rsquo;s not always easy to talk about favourite campaigns but yes, I agree that there are some projects that remain very close to your heart, even after you have moved on to doing different work. For me, one such campaign will be the one I worked on fairly early on in my career: a well-thought out, researched print campaign for Shoppers Stop, one of the biggest retail brands in our country.

'Creating black & white ads for a colourful retail brand was risky'

Tom Peters&rsquo; bestselling book, In Search of Excellence, focuses on eight parameters to measure the success of companies that are exceptional.

Companies can win even during an economic downturn: Jim Moffatt

Research indicates that 50 to 70 per cent of all joint ventures fail. The most common causes of failure cited by researchers are cultural differences, poor or unclear leadership and poor integration process. The failure rate is high, but how you go about handling the situation can mean the difference between an amicable split, where you run the business as you deem fit, and a messy separation, in which you wind up losing clients, resources or other critical assets.

Going solo

If you look closely, worldwide, this industry (telecom) has been dominated only by multinationals. When we started, I think more than anything else, everyone (including ourselves) questioned just how we could take on these &lsquo;giants&rsquo; with such deep pockets, backed by phenomenal R&amp;D base.

Flexibility is the biggest asset of an underdog brand: Rahul Sharma

What&rsquo;s the easiest way to ensure your best customers come back to you over and over again? Make them part of a loyalty programme. The concept is simple really: being a member earns them loyalty points and the more loyalty points they earn, the more rewards they unlock. The rewards could be in the form of giving them special benefits (no-queue payment/priority delivery, free parking), giving them first dibs, and most exciting of all, offering a range of freebies and special discounts.

The rewards of loyalty

While studies show that variable pay is being used successfully across the globe, many firms in India have failed to make it work.

Making variable pay work

It is midnight when Anurag Kashyap, sounding unbelievably perky, begins talking about Indian cinema, his need to tell and &ldquo;steal stories from the lives of everyone around me&rdquo; and Gangs of Wasseypur, which he describes as his &ldquo;most ambitious, most fun project&rdquo;.

Abhilasha Ojha