Strategic tools for the practising manager

KIT

The total value of the bags market in urban India for youth is estimated at Rs 1,470 crore in 2007.

The market for office bags is 26.5 per cent of the total bags market and is valued at Rs 390 crore.

The total volume of the office bags market in the urban India is estimated at 0.14 crore units a year, which is 10 per cent of the total market for bags.

On an average, men spend Rs 1,790 per unit on office bags, while women spend Rs 1,885 per unit.

Most consumers prefer buying office bags from organised multi-branded outlets (36 per cent) or exclusive brand outlets (29 per cent).

Forty-eight per cent consumers prefer buying office bags shopping at malls.

*Age group 15-25 years (SEC A & B of urban population)

NUGGETS
Selections from management journals

Almost 70 percent of executives around the world say that global social, environmental, and business trends are increasingly important to corporate strategy, according to a McKinsey survey.

Yet relatively few companies act on the global trends they think will affect them most; among those that do act, only 17 per cent report significant benefits.

One reason might be underinvestment in trends. For instance, many companies that pursue growing consumer segments in emerging markets build operations there but don't develop lower-cost products.

Companies that don't act on trends they think will be important cite a shortage of skills and resources, higher strategic priorities, or a lack of possible responses to these trends.

How companies act on global trends: A McKinsey global survey
The McKinsey Quarterly, April 2008 Read this article at www.mckinseyquarterly.com

Ask any CEO or senior level executive what his or her biggest challenge is, and the answer is almost always finding and keeping good people. Yet most executives fail to manage their company's needs in a way that recognises the unpredictability of the global marketplace.

In a book titled, Talent on Demand: Managing Talent in an Age of Uncertainty, Peter Cappelli, director of Wharton's Center for Human Resources, proposes a new approach to this issue based on applying the principles of supply chain management to people. He spoke with Knowledge@ Wharton about talent management, including the challenges of managing employees in a recessionary economy.

The talent hunt: Getting the people you need, when you need them
Knowledge@Wharton, April 16, 2008
Read this article at http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/

Vigilant leaders are those who make a practice of being abundantly alert and deeply curious so that they can detect, and act on, the earliest signs of threat or opportunity. They seek to nurture equally vigilant employees by modeling such behaviour and by providing incentives for managers to look for