It was back in November 2001 that Bajaj Auto launched the Pulsar brand with a 150cc motorcycle. Another 180cc motorcycle was quickly added to the Pulsar family about a month later. Naked yet smartly styled, the Pulsar twins made college kids lust and level-headed married men rethink their priorities. There has been no let-up on the growth of the Pulsar range ever since. Soon both versions were revamped with DTSi technology and styling tweaks. The hunger for speed grew with the addition of the 200cc motorcycle, and, ultimately, the big daddy in the form of the Pulsar 220 and its streetfighter version. It is the introduction of the P220, as it is popularly known, that made famous &lsquo;The Fastest Indian&rsquo; tag.

Small wonder

Business Standard

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, Nokia&rsquo;s president and CEO, faced a tough 2009. Though profits and revenue continued to improve, they were consistently below shareholders&rsquo; and analysts&rsquo; expectations. Part of the challenge came from stiff competition from Apple and Research In Motion&rsquo;s BlackBerry in the lucrative smartphones category in the more mature markets.

Nokia's smart call

The aim is to reduce pressure and conduct placements in a relaxed manner.

IIM bangalore, Calcutta may change placement process

Brands are the largest intangible asset in a company&rsquo;s balance sheet, the gap between its book value and the market value. These are built painstakingly over years by companies. They give them the competitive edge, help act as an entry barrier for new players and offer an anchor of trust to the consumer. Brands are holier than thou. They have a sacrosanct position in corporations.

Challenge old brand wisdom

US-headquartered Georgia Tech University, which offers post graduate and research programmes, has revived its bid to set up campuses in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. A delegation that met Chief Minister K Rosaiah recently assured it would make efforts to start classes this year from temporary premises.

Georgia Tech revives plans for AP campuses

Year 2009 was disastrous for management schools. Tier-II B-schools bore the brunt of the whiplash of the global recession. Even the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Indian School of Business (ISB) were not spared the rod. Major recruiters stayed away from the campus and many IIMs and even ISB had to defer the placement season.

Management school placements end on good note

    This 100-plus-year-old brand got its name after the son of one of the founders was struck by a word while listening to psalm (45:8) in the church. Name it.

The Strategist Quiz (#148)

What works right once might not work at all the next time.

No formula, please

Businessmen and society have a strangely contradictory relationship. The economic activity they generate can be an agent of social transformation and progress &mdash; a quick look at the changes in Indian society in the last two decades would be one indicator. Yet, businessmen in themselves are rarely conscious promoters of social progress.

Kanika Datta: Steel and power

Calcutta Business School (CBS), a S K Birla institute, is investing Rs 75 crore in building its management school.

CBS to invest Rs 75 crore in infra

The schism in the ad industry has come to the fore with the controversy over the Goafest awards.

AD fest or War fest?

The jury is out on whether India has a big enough audience willing to shell out big bucks for a piece of their favourite celebrity.

When celebrities co-create brands

A majority of premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have not performed well in the 2010 QS Asian University Rankings released today.

IITs slip in Asian university rankings

Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge is doing his bit to take forward his party&rsquo;s (Congress) aam aadmi agenda. That explains the revival of efforts to push through a two-decade-old legislation, Participation of Workers in Management Bill, 1990, which was put in cold storage after its introduction in the Rajya Sabha.

Shyamal Majumdar: Tea, towels and toilets

The sportswear giant is targeting a bigger share of both the lower and upper ends of the market.

Reebok straddles mass and class

GENDERSELL: HOW TO SELL TO THE OPPOSITE SEX
Authors: Judith C Tingley and Lee E Robert
Publisher: Simon &amp; Schuster
Price: Rs 843
ISBN: 0684864371.
THE WEALTH OF NATIONS
Authors: Adam Smith and Andrew Skinner
Publisher: Penguin
Price: Rs 796
ISBN: 0140436154.
SEVEN STAGES OF MONEY MATURITY 
Author: George Kinder
Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Pub
Price: Rs 796
ISBN: 0440508339.
BUFFETOLOGY
Authors: Mary Buffett and David Clark
Publisher: Simon &amp; Schuster
Price: Rs 796
ISBN: 0684871718.
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN THE NEW ECONOMY
Author: Rick Blunt 
Publisher: iUniverse
Price: Rs 843
ISBN: 0595167241.
TESTED ADVERTISING METHODS
Authors: John Caples and Fred E Hahn
Publisher: Prentice Hall Direct
Price: Rs 843
ISBN: 0130957011.
ALL THE RIGHT MOVES
Author: Janis Landis 
Publisher: iUniverse 
Price: Rs 843
ISBN: 0595001092.
ZIGLAR ON SELLING AUTHOR: ZIG ZIGLAR
Publisher: Jaico Publishing House
Price: Rs 175
ISBN: 8179925870.
RED-HOT COLD CALL

The top 10 business bestsellers

A little-known fact about FM radio is that 20 per cent people hear it on the mobile phone rather than radio sets. Radio companies and mobile service operators have woken up to the possibilities this convergence opens up. Bharti Airtel, the country&rsquo;s largest mobile telephony company, and Radio Mirchi have come up with Mirchi Mobile which provides Airtel customers 12 regional Radio Mirchi stations irrespective of where they live in the country.

Bharti Airtel / Radio Mirchi: Radio calling

    He is a Formula one racer and is now being called &ldquo;Richard Branson of Asia&rdquo;.

The Strategist Quiz (#149)

The caf&eacute; market in India is estimated at $150 million (Rs 678 crore).

KIT: The cafe business in India

A young boy collects clocks of all shapes and sizes through the day in a single-minded surreptitious way. He doesn&rsquo;t want to give away his intent before it is time. Next morning, his parents wake up to a cacophony of alarms, all those clocks he had collected go off at the same time. Their child waits by the bedroom door with a pair of sneakers: A wake-up call for his dad to go jogging. This is the inaugural campaign of Max Bupa, the latest entrant in the health insurance sector.

Max Bupa: Get your health on track

The consumer electronics major has entered the cutthroat mobile telephony market and is confident of acquiring 100 million subscribers in three years.

Page 652 - News