KIT: The skill development education market in India

Strategic tools for the practising manager

The overall skill enhancement market is estimated at $2.52 billion and is expected to grow to $20.5 billion by 2018.

The current child skill development market is estimated at $740 million.

The IT training CAGR is about 45 per cent and will be $1.05 billion in 2013.

The vocational training market has the largest share of about 60 per cent, growing at 15-20 per cent a year.

Teacher training occupies the smallest share of about 1 per cent, growing at 60 per cent a year.

NUGGETS
Selections from management journals

Competing in volatile markets feels a lot like boxing: punches come from all directions; strategies change constantly; and one powerful blow could knock out your company at any moment. As firms fight their way through tumultuous times, they can learn much from boxing champions. London Business School professor Donald Sull outlines two fundamental approaches to mastering uncertainty — agility and absorption — using the classic “Rumble in the Jungle” between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman to illustrate them. Both capabilities can help companies survive turmoil.

Agility, exemplified by Ali, is the ability to quickly spot and exploit opportunities. It comes in one of three forms: operational agility, the capacity to seize opportunities to improve operations and processes within a focused business model; portfolio agility, the ability to shift resources out of less-promising units and into attractive ones; and strategic agility, the ability to jump on game-changing opportunities. Each kind of agility is enhanced by a distinct set of assets and leadership priorities.

Absorption, exemplified by Foreman, is the strength to withstand punishment and weather sudden shifts. Sull describes 10 ways that companies can build absorption, including capitalising on size, diversifying assets, and stockpiling a war chest of cash.

How to thrive in turbulent markets
By Donald Sull,
Harvard Business Review, February 2009
Read this article at www.hbr.com

Downturns offer a rare opportunity to outmaneuver rivals. But to do so, you must first systematically assess your organisation’s ability to weather the storm and take corrective action. David Rhodes and Daniel Stelter, of the Boston Consulting Group, offer a comprehensive approach to tackling this simultaneously defensive and offensive challenge.

To stabilise the business, companies must (1) protect their financial fundamentals by, for example, monitoring and maximising cash flow, managing customer credit risk, reducing working capital, and optimising their financial structure and financing options; (2) protect their existing business operations by reducing costs, increasing organisational efficiency, aggressively managing the top line, rethinking their product portfolio and pricing, reining in investment plans, and divesting noncore businesses; and (3) work to maximise their valuation relative to rivals by being proactive in their investor relations and favouring dividends over share buybacks.

Seize advantage in a downturn
By David Rhodes and Daniel Stelter
Harvard Business Review, February 2009
Subscribe to this article at www.hbr.com

Over the past 20 years, Titan Industries has reinvented the watch and jewelry market in India. The Bangalore-headquartered company is now making fresh inroads into the country’s huge “unorganised” retail sector — including corner shops, kiosks, street vendors and other single-proprietor venues — which traditionally has been dominated by cheap imports and low-quality domestic products. How does Titan — India’s leading watch manufacturer and the world’s fifth largest — plan to succeed in a market segment where bargain prices and cultural associations often outweigh brand cachet?

What makes Titan tick? Finding opportunity in India’s unorganised retail sector
India Knowledge@Wharton , January 23 - Feburary 5
Read this article at http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/