    Morgan Stanley bailed out this company in 1993 when its IPO for Rs 13 crore was undersubscribed. Name it.

Answers to last week's quiz (#199)

Business Standard

Are women ascending the corporate ladder in lockstep with men? While they are entering the while-collar workforce in big numbers and also making gains at the middle and senior management levels, they just aren&rsquo;t making it to the very top. Women today hold just 3 per cent of Fortune 500 CEO positions, and in the C-suite, they are outnumbered four to one. The case is not much different in India &mdash; the number of women on top can be counted on one hand. A recent research by the Center for Work-Life Policy, a New York-based think tank, reveals that women who are qualified to lead simply don&rsquo;t have the backing necessary to inspire, propel and protect them through the straits of upper management. &ldquo;Women lack, in a word, sponsorship,&rdquo; it says.

Q&A: Kerrie Peraino

United Biscuits wants to give a bigger thrust to its McVitie&rsquo;s brand in India, and recently roped in actors Bipasha Basu and Shriya Saran to promote the range. The company is doing what competitor Parle Products had done in the past: banking on regional celebrities to push the brand in key markets. Early this year, Parle Products had engaged Bhojpuri actor Ravi Kishan and Bengali actor Rituparna Sengupta to connect with consumers at a local level.

United Biscuits: Regional bite

With the government imposing a ban on direct, indirect and surrogate advertising of tobacco and alcohol products in India, such brands have found innovative ways to build visibility. The latest being Pernod Ricard&rsquo;s blended whisky brand Seagram&rsquo;s Imperial Blue which has launched a 90-minute film named after the brand&rsquo;s tagline &lsquo;Men Will Be Men&rsquo;. Marketing experts say this is a logical extension for Imperial Blue which has earlier used music CDs as a way to promote the brand. In the past, alcohol brands have also used product extensions like events, water, soda, fruit juice, apparels and even airlines to increase recall.

Pernod Ricard: The big screen way

ESSENCE OF GOOD MANAGEMENT
Author: K R Kim
Publisher: Biztantra
Price: Rs 549
ISBN: 9789350040089.
FREEFALL
Author: Joseph Stiglitz
Publisher: Penguin
Price: Rs 399
ISBN: 9780141045122.
THE MAN WHO SOLD AMERICA
Authors: Jeffrey L Cruikshank and Arthur W Schultz
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
Price: Rs 995
ISBN: 9781591393085.
SURVIVING THE STORM
Author: Dhiraj Nayyar
Publisher: Penguin Books India
Price: Rs 499
ISBN: 9780670085255.
ICC CRICKET WORLD CUP - 2011 OFFICIAL GUIDE
Publisher: Living Media India
Price: Rs 200
ISBN: 9786077636229.
OPEN SOURCE LEADER
Author: Sangeeth Varghese
Publisher: Penguin Books India
Price: Rs 499
ISBN: 9780670083268.
MANAGERS WHO MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Author: T V Rao
Publisher: Random House India
Price: Rs 299
ISBN: 9788184001372.
GEEK NATION
Author: Angela Saini
Publisher: Hachette
Price: Rs 499
ISBN: 9781444734096.
CONNECT THE DOTS
Author: Rashmi Bansal
Publisher: Eklavya Education Foundation
Price: Rs 150
ISBN:

The top 10 business bestsellers

The race for leadership in the digital advertising space is getting fiercer. While Yahoo is still the leader in the display space, Google has stepped on the gas.

Ad war in cyberspace

Coca-Cola is making a big song and dance about its bid to strike a chord with teenage customers. The cola giant&rsquo;s announcement on Friday to bring in Coke Studio, a music television series promoted by it, is a part of that initiative.

Coke Studio: Will the music work?

The law education segment presents a big opportunity as the country is short of approximately 2.5 lakh lawyers. There are over 32 million cases pending in various courts of India.

KIT: Law education in India

Hero Honda Motors has taken the next big step in building a new brand identity and developing its new brand communication. Close on the heels of bringing on board global brand and innovation specialist Wolff Olins to work on its new brand identity, the company has roped in a creative partner Law &amp; Kenneth (L&amp;K) to give shape to the communication for launching and establishing the new brand. Law &amp; Kenneth is India&rsquo;s largest independent brand communications firm, and is rated amongst the fastest growing companies in marketing communications.

Law & Kenneth to shape Hero Honda's new brand communication 

    This brand gets its name from Turkish meaning black stone. Recently it launched a limited edition version of its products inspired by Lord Venkateshwara of Tirupathi. Name the brand and the series.

The Strategist Quiz (#200)

Any dish that takes more than a minute to assemble would not find its way into this kitchen. While connoisseurs of fine dining will crinkle their noses at the thought, this is one of the factors that gives the world&rsquo;s largest selling fast food chain its size. McDonald&rsquo;s replicates the same efficiency, which does not detract from the taste, in its Indian market as well. How it laid the groundwork years before it launched its first India store in 1996 has been chronicled in detail.

The spice route

The London Book Fair last year was held under the shadow of the volcanic ash. This time it was gripped by existential fears about the future of the printed book and of the fair&rsquo;s venue, Earls Court exhibition centre, which faces demolition and development. The dire forecasts of the death of the printed book and the physical book shop were dismissed by some experts who tried to calm the fears sparked by two &lsquo;e&rsquo; words &mdash; &lsquo;e-publishing&rsquo; and &lsquo;e-retailing&rsquo;. The developing e-environment in publishing has excited the device and platform developers and the digital natives. This in turn made the publishers talk of new &ldquo;challenges and opportunities&rdquo;.

The future of books

Unlike any other major bike brand in India, there's a certain something that the Royal Enfield carries with it. Some refer to it as the the aura of Royal Enfield. Some, the Royal Enfield mania. While others refer to it as the Royal Enfield culture.

Enfield's royal ride

Seen these lines at gift shops? &ldquo;Lovely to look at, nice to hold. But if you drop it, consider it sold.&rdquo; With the arrival of Peoplemeter, it became possible, and then the norm, to publish television ratings on a very high level of granularity. From minutes, through half minutes, all the way down to single second intervals began to get reported.

The great 'break ratings' conundrum

Public sector undertakings (PSUs), which helped business schools ensure good placements in the last two years, are getting a raw treatment this year.

B-school students write off govt firms in good times

Creating meaningful differentiation to sustain customers&rsquo; preference for a product is becoming one of the biggest marketing challenges, with competitors taking little time to copy.

Value-added branding

The following commentary provides the headline changes and noteworthy developments in mobile advertising emerging from over 200 countries that we track each month. We also report on developments in the mobile games market, as a useful indicator of consumer demand for paid, free and freemium content.

Mobile internet revolution

Nikhil Uppal is elated. He is back after spending a day with Ajay Kaul, Chief Executive Officer, Jubilant Foodworks Limited and now he knows what it takes to be a leader.

A day out with CEOs

In a first, Madras University has given the first-right-to-placement to HCL Technologies for 1.5 lakh students in 120 colleges affiliated to the University. Subrat Chakravarty, HR Head- Business Services, HCL Technologies, tells Shivani Shinde that the collaboration is a step closer to creating a pool of skilled, job-ready talent.

Q&A: Subrat Chakravarty, HR Head-Business Services, HCL Technologies

You&rsquo;ve been offered your dream job but you are also unhappy with the contract terms. Negotiating for more might risk galling your future boss. But men still ask.

Women at work

Trouble at the family mill? Call in the chief emotional officer, says an INSEAD Knowledge analysis.

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