For a girl could there be anything worse than to find herself in a bad hair day! No wonder brands are finding an opening in the woman discomfort zone leading them to introduce niche hair care products. A more recent offering in the personal care segment is hair serum, a product which is designed to make tresses lustrous and shiny. L&rsquo;Oreal Paris has now extended its personal care brand to hair serum.

Smooth selling

Business Standard

The Taj Hotels joined hands with the Swiss hospitality institute, Glion Institute of Higher Education for online education for the Taj's managerial level employees. Twenty five middle and senior level managers will be be a part of the online MBA programme in hospitality management provided by the Glion Institute will cost $34,000 per student for the course. The course, which is usually for two and a half years, would stretch to a duration of four years for the Taj employees and would be fully sponsored by Taj.

Taj Hotels partners with Glion Institute for online MBA for its employees

It is not possible to predict the long-term impact of the new admission format on the coaching classes. However, it is certain that coaching classes will try to adapt themselves to the changed format by altering their syllabi and style of teaching. Giving equal weightage to board results will prompt them to include other subjects as well.

Student's corner

Most private institutes say they are in for a good season with offers for summer jobs picking up, despite fears of a global slowdown and job cuts.

B-schools cheer return of companies

Functioning from the premises of the Ordinance Factory in Medak, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, expects to move into a 580-acre permanent location by July 2013. The institute aims to become an R&amp;D destination and is involved in collaborative partnerships with local industries. IIT-H Director Professor Uday B Desai talks about his future plans with B Ramakrishna.

Q&A: Prof Uday B Desai, Director, IIT Hyderabad

In a recent survey, leading marketing and advertising professionals hailed the anti-corruption campaign led by Baburao Hazare as a favourite. It successfully competed against the usual favourites like Vodafone&rsquo;s &ldquo;Zoozoos&rdquo;, Cadbury&rsquo;s &ldquo;shubh aarambh&rdquo;, Airtel&rsquo;s &ldquo;friends&rdquo;, Pepsi&rsquo;s &ldquo;change the game&rdquo;, among others. This, at one level, shows that professionals are also citizens and relate to these issues.

Madhukar Sabnavis: Lessons from brand Anna

The firm has launched two new products in skincare and breakfast cereal this year. The big question is whether the latest brand extensions will succeed.

Problem of plenty for Marico

She-change for Xylys

After a two-year fall in those taking their computer-based Common Admission Test (CAT) for entry, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) have recorded a 0.5 per cent increase in the number of registrations this year. This, however, is much below their expectation of around 10 per cent more.

CAT registrations up a tad after 2-year dip

It&rsquo;s what made Apple famous. &lsquo;1984&rsquo; wasn&rsquo;t just about personal computers. It was more personal than that.

Ad that changed the world

Hitesh Dhingra, co-founder and CEO, Letsbuy.com, is a serial entrepreneur who also co-founded India&rsquo;s first contextual online advertising network. Amanpreet Bajaj, co-founder and COO, has been a web entrepreneur since he was in college, founding a youth portal in 1999 while pursuing an undergraduate degree in Information Technology from Delhi University. They spoke to Alokananda Chakraborty about the direction in which e-commerce in India and Letsbuy.com are headed. Excerpts.

Q&A: Hitesh Dhingra & Amanpreet Bajaj, letsbuy.com

Peter Sondergaard, senior vice-president at Gartner, thinks Indian service providers are capable of dealing with the shift mainly because of their broad understanding of business processes.

PC architecture should give way to mobiles 

The $500 million BR Punj group has a problem. While its various group companies are involved in a wide range of businesses &mdash; manufacturing air conditioners (ACs), chillers, heat exchangers, radiators among a host of other things, besides information technology and housing projects &mdash; the retail customer doesn&rsquo;t have a real &lsquo;connect&rsquo; with it.

Reaching out 

In an increasingly global business world, where teams work across borders, understanding different work cultures is the key to success. Three leaders and their experiences.

Across cultural boundaries

The uniform segment in India is approximately $2.86bn and is growing at a CAGR of 11.21per cent.

KIT: Uniform Work wear Segment in India

The top 10 business bestsellers

Tata Sky wants to shed its premium tag and has launched a new television campaign to drive home the point.

Method in the madness

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    Which company&rsquo;s corporate headquarter is located in a building called &lsquo;Day one south&rsquo; and why is it named so?&nbsp;
    &nbsp;
    Which car launched in India is literally &ldquo;full of energy, life, and enthusiasm&rdquo;?&nbsp;
    &nbsp;
    For marketers, what does the &lsquo;HoReCa&rsquo; segment consist of?&nbsp;
    &nbsp;
    Who was the first Indian to work with Cadbury in England, its home country?&nbsp;
    &nbsp;
    Owing to the furore

The Strategist Quiz (#222)

    This brand is amongst the top 20 on Facebook in terms of number of fans.

Answers to last week&#39;s quiz (#221)

The phone maker seeks to protect market share via budget smart phones, dual-SIM devices and more.

Nokia fights back

Cobra Beer, a company founded by NRI peer Lord Karan Bilimoria, has undergone a full brand redesign to emphasise both Cobra's premium positioning and world beer credentials, whilst retaining its Indian heritage.

Page 622 - News