KIT: This week: Cold chainsin India

Strategic tools for the practising manager

THE INDIAN COLD
chain market is worth $2.6 billion.

THIS MARKET IS
expected to grow to $12.4 billion by 2015.

UTTAR PRADESH AND
West Bengal have 65 per cent of the total installed capacity of cold storage.

COLD CHAINS ARE USED
primarily for fruits and vegetables, meat and marine products, floriculture, dairy products, ice creams and confectionery.

AN INVESTMENT OF $5
billion is required over the next five years in order to meet the estimated increase in capacity.

NUGGETS Selections from management journals

MANY SHAREHOLDAR Many shareholder advocates see the financial collapse and resulting economic woes as stunning proof of their long-held claim that too often the wrong people are in charge of top corporations — and that attacking this problem demands an overhaul in corporate-governance regulations. But not everyone sees governance as the culprit, and some warn that a kneejerk attack on established corporate practices could backfire.

CEOs and market woes: Is poor corporate governance to blame?
Knowledge@Wharton, December 10-23
Read this article at http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/

THE WORLD IS STILL reeling under the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, but it seems that someone forgot to tell LG and Samsung. Sales of the two South Korea-based conglomerates were 35 to 50 per cent higher in India in September and October 2008, compared to the same period last year. Over the past decade, both have consistently seen double-digit growth rates and are convinced they will maintain, if not surpass, those levels in coming years as well — an optimism that is shared by industry watchers. How did LG and Samsung entrench themselves so successfully in India?

Korean conquest: How LG and Samsung won over the Indian market
India Knowledge@Wharton,December 12-25
Read this article at http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/

THE EMPOWERED consumer is no longer a vague concept, but a reality that is changing the face of commerce. As companies across the world, and across many industries, vie for the eyes, ears and mouse clicks of these engaged and empowered consumers, there is no turning back. The smartest companies are figuring out how to tap into this energy to increase revenues and spur growth. As tempting as it is to reflect longingly on the good old days when companies had the upper hand in managing customer relationships or to discuss how to return to those times, it is not worth the trouble. Those days are gone forever.

Customer energy: The empowered consumer is revolutionising customer relationships
A T Kearney, Business issue papers
Read this article at www.atkearney.com

EHAT DID ENRON, WorldCom, and Tyco all have in common? Accounting abuses on a grand scale and massive financial deception from the very highest levels of management. As investors lost billions of dollars, the earnings management game with its fuzzy math and earnings magic came under fire, and stronger, sweeping legislation was enacted to reform American business practices.

Discounted diapers and stockpiles of soup
Based on research by Craig J Chapman and Thomas J Steenburgh
Kellogg Insight, December 2008
Read this article at http://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/

MAKING QUALITY decisions is an intricate tapestry of experience, inquiry, and judgement that converge to form solutions. According to Michael Sacks and Steve Walton, professors at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, there are strategies that can be adopted to make the process more effective.

The art of making quality decisions
Knowledge@Emory, December 10 - January 13
Read this article at http://knowledge.emory.edu/

Can a company improve its bottom line by pricing its products incorrectly? The answer is yes, in certain cases, according to recent research conducted by Kellogg professors.

Seeing profit despite misunderstood pricing strategy
Kellogg Insight
Read this article at http://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/