SAB TV, the Sony channel which said &lsquo;Asli Mazaa SAB Ke Saath Aata Hai&rsquo; (The more the merrier, with a pun on &lsquo;SAB&rsquo;) in 2008, is now talking about the result of its repositioning as a comedy channel for the entire family. Its new campaign says &lsquo;Ab Bache Bache Ko Pata Hai Ki Asli Mazaa SAB Ke Saath Aata Hai&rsquo; (Even kids are aware of the brand&rsquo;s promise).

SAB TV: Family entertainment

Business Standard

All companies have a mission. Nivio, a tech start-up launched by friends Sachin Dev Duggal and Saurabh P Dhoot in 2004, has a noble one: To educate 100 million children. How? Through innovative computing. Duggal and Dhoot believe the only technology that can possibly help them to scale the numbers in a highly cost-effective way is cloud computing. That said, they also know such a feat would largely depend on how profitable their business will be.

Nivio: PC on the cloud

Ten years ago, IHHR Hospitality set up Ananda in the Himalayas near Rishikesh in Uttarakhand. It was India&rsquo;s first destination spa. Three years ago, in 2007, it came out with its Ista five-star hotel in Bangalore. (The name derives from ishta and sthan, which means sacred place in Sanskrit.) Later that year came Ista in Hyderabad.

Striking a balance

When Ajay Piramal sold his formulations business to Abbott in May this year for Rs 17,000 crore, he retained some divisions of Piramal Healthcare: Contract manufacturing, critical care, real estate and over-the-counter medicine (OTC) which can be bought without a doctor&rsquo;s prescription. The four together did Rs 1,700 crore in sales last year, the smallest contributor being OTC.

The OTC pull

India was not as battered by the financial collapse and global recession as were the larger Western economies. Prudent financial and banking policies, initially viewed as the work of a weighty, bloated and self-important bureaucracy, ultimately served to protect the economy reasonably well.

Thinking HR in good times

Ghari has outshined several multinational brands to become the second largest-selling detergent in the country. Here&rsquo;s how The Grand Trunk Road starts at Sonargaon in Bangladesh, cuts across Kolkata, Varanasi, Delhi, Amritsar, Lahore and Peshawar before it completes its 2,500-km journey at Landi Kotal in north-west Pakistan. In between, it passes through dusty Kanpur.

Watch out for Ghari express

IIM Kozhikode (IIMK) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Yale University to launch the Yale India Leadership program. This agreement will facilitate setting up a Centre of Excellence in Academic Leadership (CEAL) at the IIMK campus.

IIMK, Yale in tie-up for leadership programme

Service providers to stream content through 3G platform.

Virtual classroom on your mobile

Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business (ISB), in association with Massachusetts-based Marketing Science Institute (MSI), will organise a conference on &ldquo;Marketing in Emerging Markets: The Indian Experience&rdquo;.

ISB to hold emerging markets meet

The menace of fake degree certificates and forgery of mark sheets could soon come to an end with the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) finalising proposals for dematerialising such certificates.

Smart degree: Database to curb fake certificates

After closing down over 100 stores, the Birla group&rsquo;s retail venture is pushing private labels and slashing costs to achieve break-even.

When less is 'more'

The market is still small at Rs 35-40 cr, but is growing at 25% annually.

Golf-gear brands tee off in style

Raymond Weil, one of the last independent brands in the Swiss luxury watch industry, is widening its footprint in India. It is opening exclusive boutiques and shop-in-shops. Olivier Bernheim, President and CEO, Raymond Weil, shares his company&rsquo;s plans in an interview with Praveen Bose. Founded by Bernheim&rsquo;s father-in-law Raymond Weil in 1976, it recently set up its 100 per cent subsidiary in Bangalore.

Q&A: Olivier Bernheim, President & CEO,  Raymond Weil

Presidency College, a city based B-school, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mumbai based IDBI Bank to train its students in management.

Berhampur B-school ties up with IDBI bank for training

The first private player to launch 3G in India is averse to calling it a premium service.

Tata Docomo to play pricing game in 3G too

Bollywood divas are cashing in on the old advertising maxim: &ldquo;Women shop more, so women sell better&rdquo;. The trend is clear: According to TAM-Adex data, female actors led endorsements on television with 45 per cent share followed by male actors and sports persons at 42 per cent and 10 per cent share, respectively during the first half of this year.

Womanpower in endorsements

Three years ago, I was presenting the agency point of view to a client, gesticulating my hands passionately. Suddenly, I noticed my client was getting distracted &mdash; his eyes roving around me. I put my hands down, pen in hand, when he suddenly asked to see my pen. He felt it admiringly, particularly noting the star on the cap of the pen. &ldquo;A Mont Blanc,&rdquo; he asked smilingly. I had received the pen as a token of appreciation after a client workshop I had conducted.

Madhukar Sabnavis: Move up, brands!

    Which corporation is considered to be the first to use the technique of benchmarking in the late 1970s? It took all the key parts of business, from production to sales and maintenance, and measured them against their counterparts in other companies abroad as well as at home.

Answers to last week's quiz (#173)

    Recently, this brand had to revert to its original logo after users on social media sites rejected its new look. Name it.

The Strategist Quiz (#174)

Telecom operators are ready to roll out 3G or third-generation cell phone services in the country.

KIT: The 3G opportunity in India

Two years ago, 83-year-old Kerala-based Dhanlaxmi Bank decided to expand to the rest of India. For that, it needed an aggressive front-end workforce. The challenge was to bring the brand up to speed to connect with the rest of India, which would not relate to its tradition-laden banking history in Kerala. At the same time, the bank could not alienate its traditional customers either.

Page 575 - News