A lot of times we who are in the business of marketing and advertising get too comfortable in the box that is marketing and advertising. We get comfortable. We settle down and like old soldiers we tell stories of the marketing campaigns we waged. Those tales become our reference points, later they turn into guideposts and finally they calcify into rules that are etched into stone tablets. Lest that happen we have to listen to voices other than our own, to the opinions and lessons learnt from people who are not experts in our biz or any other biz for that matter. In fact, be a little wary of experts because they have mastered the thing they do so well, they don&rsquo;t know how to do it differently. I prefer to rub elbows with the experiences of interesting people who have done interesting things at interesting times.

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Business Standard

US-headquartered Harvard Business School (HBS) has decided to have a classroom of its own in the country for its executive education programmes and Indian corporate chiefs Ratan Tata and Anand Mahindra are said to be helping it find one.

Harvard seeks space for classroom in India

    While he was the technical advisor to UN in India, he conceived the mechanism to strip away unwanted tape recording noise. He patented this invention on his return to London. Identify him and the technology he invented.

Answers to last week's quiz (#135)

    D J Keymer was its first name, then it changed to BOMAS and then S H Benson.

The Strategist Quiz (#136)

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THE SEVEN STAGES OF MONEY MATURITY
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KNOWLEDGE

The top 10 business bestsellers

The size of the packaged food market in India is estimated at $10 billion and is expected to reach $20 billion by 2014, while the share of packaged food in the food and grocery market is expected to touch 5 per cent by the same time.

KIT: The packaged food market in India

SpiceJet has launched its first series of television commercials. The five-film campaign uses reverse testimonials to drive home the airline&rsquo;s services. Each film describes the travails of a non-SpiceJet traveller. With gentle irony, the voiceover guides the viewer through each character&rsquo;s situation; the film ends with the message that this person always had the choice of flying SpiceJet, which could have solved his problem.

SpiceJet: High-value carrier

Mahindra &amp; Mahindra launched the Gio, its sub-one tonne compact truck, some time last year. By then, it was no secret that a one-tonner to take on Tata Motor&rsquo;s Ace would follow. The Maxximo, the Ace-challenger, was unveiled in the Auto Expo at Delhi in January. It has now been launched. The Ace sells almost 9,000 every month. There is very less room for error.

Mahindra & Mahindra: Maxximo challenge

There is little disagreement that emerging markets such as China and India will be the key drivers of the world economy in the days to come. Jagdish N Sheth, Charles H Kellstadt Professor of Marketing at Emory University&rsquo;s Goizueta Business School and a renowned scholar on global business, goes a step further. He says emerging markets will also be the growth drivers for other emerging markets. Sheth also sees a role for public sector enterprises in India on the global stage. In Delhi for the launch of a compilation of his work, called Legends In Marketing: Jagdish N Sheth, he spoke to Amit Ranjan Rai on his current areas of work in marketing and global business.

'PSUs will emerge as global competitors'

Burger giant McDonald&rsquo;s is all set to roll out its latest web delivery initiative.

A click away

LG wants to be known as the brand that enables enrichment of life. Here&rsquo;s the plan.

Playing it softly

The company&rsquo;s new small car, to be launched in 2011, will provide the company a much-needed second pillar of business after the City.

Honda's 'small' move

Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business (ISB) says it plans to provide graduates from other B-schools guidance and financial support for interesting entrepreneurial ideas as part of its strategy of finding and grooming entrepreneurs.

ISB to groom entrepreneurs from R&D units, B-schools

The late Suresh Mullick, who was one of the pillars that made Ogilvy &amp; Mather the creative powerhouse that it is today, often described S K (Mani) Ayer as a gifted all rounder.

'The Gary Sobers of the ad world'

&lsquo;Simple living, Ayer thinking&rsquo; was the title given by my ex-colleague Anvar Alikhan to a book that was presented to Mr. S.R. Ayer at the time of his retirement. These four words truly capture the basic principle on which Mani led his life and influenced the lives of those who worked with him at Ogilvy &amp; Mather.

Simple living, Ayer thinking

The fight for marketshare in the branded packaged milk segment has intensified in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) with Mother Dairy trashing Amul's claim that it is the new leader in these areas. Mother Dairy says that it sells 2.8 million litres per day and not 1.45 million litres per day, as indicated by Amul. The latter had said on February 16 that it was leading in the branded packaged or pouch milk segment in Delhi and NCR with sales of over 1.5 million litres per day.

Mother Dairy turns the heat on Amul

Specialty coffee chain Gloria Jean&rsquo;s Coffees, which silently entered India two years ago via a master franchise agreement with Citymax Hospitality, a company controlled by the Dubai-based retail group Landmark, is looking to ramp up operations now. From the current nine outlets, the intention is to scale up to 25 and then 100 by the end of 2013. This will see the privately-held coffee chain, which has 917 outlets globally, go to 16 cities from the current four.

'There may be a shakeout'

Your academic credentials are impeccable and your track record in the organisations you have worked so far is brilliant &mdash; in short, you are one of the &ldquo;listers&rdquo;, jargon used by companies for somebody who is already on the elevator to the floor where the corner office is located.

Shyamal Majumdar: Looking for a coach?

Management gurus often talk about the role of youth and new ideas. Nigel Portwood, who left Penguin to take charge as the chief executive of Oxford University Press five months ago, may be a case study in the making. Not because a 44-year-old is running a 522-year-old organisation, but because of the way he is embracing the digital age and trying to &ldquo;outrun the change&rdquo;. Suveen K Sinha caught up with Portwood on his first visit to India in the new job and is still out of breath.

'The pricing of e-books is not sustainable'

In an official press release, the institute was quoted as saying, &ldquo;CAT 2009 result declaration has been deferred to the end of February 2010.&rdquo; Previously, IIMs had said results would be declared on January 22, but had to be postponed due to the extension of test dates.

Declaration of CAT 2009 results deferred to February end

Deloitte, TAS and Feedback Ventures &ndash; regular recruiters at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) &ndash; offered consulting and general management roles on Saturday to kick off Cluster Two at the premier business school&rsquo;s final placements.

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