In 2008, the Publicis Groupe chose to bring its media and digital agencies under one brand, VivaKi. But, little did it anticipate the downturn later in the year. However, VivaKi emerged from the crisis with more brands under its wings and is now making inroads into India. Rishad Tobaccowala, the chief strategy and innovation officer, discussed with Sayantani Kar designs for India.

Q&A: Rishad Tobaccowala, VivaKi

Business Standard

Digitation can even change business models, says Ram Charan.

Social media: Firms still in trial & error mode

Chris Thomas is the chairman &amp; CEO of Omnicom-group-network BBDO in Asia, West Asia and Africa. He is also the chairman of Proximity, the direct and CRM (short for customer relationship management) arm of Omnicom. Thomas spoke to Viveat Susan Pinto on his plans for both BBDO and Proximity in India.

Q&A: Chris Thomas, Chairman & CEO of BBDO

Some of the biggest consulting names are among the top recruiters at campuses.

Scorching summer for consulting at B-schools

Universities today, in India and elsewhere, are built on the industrial or &ldquo;Fordist&rdquo; organisation principles that Henry Ford employed to manufacture his Model T cars in the early 20th century.

Ajit Balakrishnan: Rise of the post-Fordist university

The 4P&rsquo;s of marketing &mdash; product, price, place and promotion &mdash; laid down by marketing guru Philip Kotler don&rsquo;t seem to be enough for today&rsquo;s marketers. Consumers exposed to a host of media are compelling companies to think of more ways to engage them. The second day at Ad Asia dwelt on the edgy rules of engagement that are driving industries to their future.

Marketing honchos dwell on edgy rules of engagement

Amidst the economic blues shaping up in the West there is something to cheer for students in the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore. IIMB, a premier management school in the south, said its placement season for 2011 was off to a good start.

IIM-B placement season takes off 

He is considered one of the gurus of social media marketing. The Atlanta-based The Coca-Cola Company&rsquo;s chief marketing and commercial officer, Joseph Tripodi, in Delhi for the Ad Asia summit, speaks to Surajeet Das Gupta and Viveat Susan Pinto about the new marketing world and its relevance to India.

Q&A: Joseph Tripodi, The Coca-Cola Company

The topic of &lsquo;Uncertainty&rsquo; which prevailed over discussions on the first two days of AdAsia 2011, seemed to make way for possible solutions on the concluding day of the event. Key speakers deliberated on how this could be achieved. While a few attempted to answer the question through &lsquo;spirituality&rsquo; and &lsquo;collective consciousness&rsquo;, others emphasised on how to nurture good ideas.

An uncertain future with big ideas

OMD, one of the largest media agencies to rival Group M&rsquo;s billings worldwide, has been late to the India party. Now, it is staring at an integration with the homegrown media units of Mudra after a majority stake purchase by its parent company, Omnicom. Mainardo de Nardis, the OMD Worldwide CEO, explains to Sayantani Kar why he is very happy with OMD India.

Q&A: Mainardo de Nardis, CEO, OMD

With the third highest billings in the country, Maxus India has been one of WPP&rsquo;s star media agencies in the country, apart from Mindshare. In fact, it has charted a way that is unlike most agencies. It became a top performer in India before it gained traction in global markets. Kelly Clark, CEO, Maxus, tells Sayantani Kar that this is one of its differentiators.

Q&A: Kelly Clark, CEO, Maxus

The top 10 business bestsellers

The women&rsquo;s footwear market is estimated to be Rs 8,000 crore which is projected to grow at a CAGR of 10 per cent to reach Rs 12,900 crore by 2015. Of this, 65 per cent is the unorganised segment and the rest 35 per cent, totaling Rs 2,800 crore, is the organised segment.

KIT: Women's footwear market in India

    According to business history, China was the largest economy in the world from 1500 AD to 1890AD, but its run at the top position was interrupted briefly in 1700 AD by another country. Name it.

The Strategist Quiz (#226)

&nbsp;

    Who invented an approach to measure competitive sales results that made the concept of &ldquo;market share&rdquo; a practical management tool?
    Arthur C Nielsen
    &nbsp;
    What is common to the world&rsquo;s first practical wrist watch made in 1904 and the presidential aircraft used by the Brazilian government?
    Both are named after Santos Dumont, the Brazilian Aviation pioneer
    &nbsp;
    Who said &ldquo;Success is 99 per cent failure&rdquo;?
    Soichiro

Answers to last week's quiz (#225)

The recurring labour unrest at the country&rsquo;s largest passenger car maker Maruti Suzuki clearly shows effective dispute resolution should be a strategic priority for Indian corporations, say analysts. Four leaders present their views.

Lessons from Maruti

Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (IIMK) has completed the summer placement process for the 15the batch of its flagship PGP programme comprising 343 students. IIMK continued to maintain its 100 per cent&nbsp; placement record with over 100 firms making internship offers spanning across all verticals. The process saw the participation of over 35 firms that took part for the first time in addition to the other regular companies. Many of the firms made&nbsp;a record number of offers, the highest over several years.

IIMK sees record offers this season

The relaunch of Duke&rsquo;s is a part of the food &amp; beverage major&rsquo;s strategy to check strong local players from taking away the pie.

Pepsi plays regional card

Robert Senior, is the chairman of Publicis-Groupe-owned Saatchi and Saatchi&rsquo;s worldwide creative board, was in New Delhi for Ad Asia. He spoke to Sayantani Kar and Priyanka Singh on the emerging trends in advertising.

Q&A: Robert Senior, Chairman, Saatchi and Saatchi

India has over six million blind people and over 50 million malnourished children. It also has one of the highest rates of maternal deaths at childbirth in the world. Just some statistics that highlight the shortcomings of the healthcare sector in the world&rsquo;s second most populous nation. But there is hope in the form of some private ventures that are addressing these problems and are establishing global standards for cost, quality and delivery. In the first of our three-part series on sustainability, Sachin Joshi writes about LifeSpring Hospitals, a network of maternity and child-care hospitals that provides high-quality, low cost maternal services to low-income women with clear and transparent pricing.

A spring of hope

Industrial lubricant manufacturer Mobil has consolidated its line of energy efficient products, Mobil SHC, under a single umbrella with a separate identity and logo. Mobil SHC, the premiere line of synthetic lubricants for industry, was launched in India earlier this year.

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