KIT: India's textile and apparel industry

Strategic tools for the practising manager

THE GLOBAL TEXTILE and apparel trade stood at $550 billion in 2007 and is expected to grow to $805 billion by 2015.

THE TEXTILE AND and apparel industry in India was $52.5 billion in 2007.

OF THIS, $32 BILLION accounts for the domestic market and the rest $20.5 billion for exports.

ABOUT SEVEN product categories account for 75 per cent of textile and apparel exports, with women’s suits, ensembles, jackets, dresses and so on accounting for the largest share.

SEVEN MARKETS account for 75 per cent of textile and apparel exports — the US market being the largest at 32 per cent.

NUGGETS 
Selections from management journals

ARE WOMEN RATED lower than men in evaluations of their leadership capabilities because of lingering gender bias? No, according to an analysis of thousands of 360-degree assessments collected by Insead’s executive education programme. That analysis showed that women tend to outshine men in all areas but one: vision.

Unfortunately, that exception is a big one. At the top tiers of management, the ability to see opportunities, craft strategy based on a broad view of the business, and inspire others is a must-have.

To explore the nature of the deficit, and whether it is a perception or reality, Insead professor Ibarra and doctoral candidate Obodaru interviewed female executives and studied the evaluation data. They developed three possible explanations.

First, women may do just as much as men to shape the future but go about it in a different way; a leader who is less directive, includes more people, and shares credit might not fit people’s mental model of a visionary. Second, women may believe they have less license to go out on a limb.

Those who have built careers on detail-focused, shoulder-to-the-wheel execution may hesitate to stray from facts into unprovable assertions about the future. Third, women may choose not to cultivate reputations as big visionaries. Having seen bluster passed off as vision, they may dismiss the importance of selling visions.

Women and the vision thing
By Herminia Ibarra and Otilia Obodaru
Harvard Business Review
January 2009
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WHILE SHOPPING MALLS once epitomised America’s consumer society, new Wharton research suggests that these days, shoppers find the mall environment predictable and uninspiring, plus it’s hard to park and there aren’t enough restaurants. The research, conducted by Wharton’s Jay H Baker Retailing Initiative and The Verde Group, offers mall developers some suggestions on how they can respond to consumer complaints — without spending a lot of money.

The mall pall: Have America’s biggest shopping centres lost their allure?
Knowledge@Wharton
Read this article at http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/ IS CHINA LOSING ITS lustre as a location for low-cost production? The answer may be yes, according to a recent survey by AmCham (the American Chamber of Commerce) Shanghai and Booz Allen Hamilton, called “China Manufacturing Competitiveness 2007–2008.” The report found that 17 per cent of its surveyed companies have concrete plans to move manufacturing capacity to other countries.

What are the reasons for the erosion of China’s competitive edge? And why do some manu­facturers continue to excel in China? China Knowledge@Wharton talked to the experts, one of whom concluded: “The days of low-cost manufacturing are increasingly coming to an end…. The game has changed.”

New Challenges for foreign producers: ‘China’s manufacturing competitiveness is at risk’
China Knowledge@Wharton
Read this article at http://www.knowledgeatwharton.com.cn/

AS COMPANIES AROUND the world have lost significant market valuation, they are revisiting their growth projections and bracing themselves against a worsening outlook. These difficult times require organisations to take a closer look at the current composition and capabilities of their workforce, determine their short- and long-term workforce needs and make more informed decisions about the talent they need to survive and, eventually, thrive.

Organisations will need to take an integrated approach to their talent management activities, and more tightly link their planning, recruitment, development, motivation and retention processes.

The new economic environment: A strategic workforce perspective IBM
Institute for Business Value
Read this article at http://www-935.ibm.com/serices/us/gbs/bus/html/bcs_whatwethink.html