The premium anti-ageing skincare market has just seen a slew of launches, courtesy a 40% growth in the past year.

Selling youth

Business Standard

Big players say the new ones won&rsquo;t survive. Celebrity or talent management is seeing a host of new entrants &ndash; a few well-known names and others rank newcomers. The reason: celebrity endorsements in India amount to roughly Rs 4,000 crore per annum. Predictably, Bollywood and cricket stars have the lion&rsquo;s share.

New entrants shake up celebrity management

Jet Airways is reportedly planning a brand consolidation, reducing the currently used three brands, Jet Airways, the full-service airline, Jet Lite &amp; Jet Konnect, both low-cost airlines, down to two. It was mentioned in the reports that the brand to be killed was Jet Lite, and if the plan goes through, Jet Lite&rsquo;s operations would be run under the brand Jet Airways Konnect. Let us see the merit in this decision.

Jet Lite vs Jet Airways Konnect

In the 18 months that Arvind Jadhav has been the chairman of state-owned Air India, he has faced more than one crisis. Recently, the independent directors on the company&rsquo;s board demanded the removal of Pawan Arora, the boss of Air India Express, the low-cost arm of the airline, for misrepresenting facts.

Air India&#39;s last chance

It could be an early Christmas for students at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) this year. The final placement process, which kicks off on December 1, is expected to be a season of bonanza, with recruiting companies queuing up once again after a two-year lull.

Students expected to be spoilt for choice

When Hindustan Unilever (HUL) chose to give a tongue-in-cheek response to Procter &amp; Gamble&rsquo;s &lsquo;Mystery Shampoo&rsquo; teaser campaign on hoardings across Mumbai, the spotlight fell on the brand it selected for the purpose &ndash; Dove.

Dove flies high; Pantene waits in the wings

US-based Timex Group has virtually withdrawn from the sub-&#39;1,000 watch market, which was once its mainstay. The company thinks the &#39;4,000-plus segment is now big enough as Indian consumers are willing to pay a premium for making a style statement.

Changing times: Timex enters Titan territory

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) may have got the nod from the IIT Council to teach medicine, but barring IIT-Kharagpur (IIT-Kgp), none of the IITs will venture into full-time medical education in the near future.

Full-time medical courses fail to enthuse most IITs

A productive interface between industry and academia, in the current era of a knowledge driven economy, is critical. And this idea appears to have taken deep roots in Kolkata.

Industry-institute interface takes root in premier Kolkata varsities

Students aspiring to take the Common Admission Test (CAT) this year may find it easier to navigate through the computer-based CAT. Prometric, the US-based agency that is conducting the exam, will release practice tests for the candidates in two weeks.

Practice test for CAT 2010 in 2 weeks

    This American brand is often called &ldquo;The Voice of Authority&rdquo; and all its products are designed by Italian designers. Name it.

Answers to last week's quiz (#166)

    A dingy boat made its appearance on an advertising hoarding in one of the metros in 2009. It was used when the street got flooded; now the brand has made it a social initiative and has extended it to nine other cities. Name the brand.

The Strategist Quiz (#167)

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Andy Grove 
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The Leadership Challenge
Authors: Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner 
Publisher: Wiley 
Price: Rs 379
ISBN: 9788126506491.
Stay Hungry, Stay

The top 10 business bestsellers

T A Pai Management Institute (TAPMI), a Mangalore-headquartered management school, has launched the India Blue Ocean Strategy Research Centre in collaboration with Blue Ocean Strategy Regional Centre, Malaysia, to train corporates, students and faculty members for various management schools.

TAPMI sets up R&D unit in 'Blue Ocean Strategy'

India&rsquo;s total cigarette production is valued at &#39;22,000 crore, of which 12 per cent is exported.

KIT: The cigarette industry in India

After three editions of the hugely-successful Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), Sony TV has bought the rights for the show this year (earlier it was with Star Plus). The channel aims for 100 per cent growth in its advertising revenue during the fourth season of KBC. Besides getting Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan (the host for seasons 1 and 2) back on the hot seat, the channel will tweak the format of the game-show a bit, while keeping the DNA of the show intact.

Sony TV: A brand new KBC?

Mobile service provider Idea Cellular launched its new campaign &mdash; &ldquo;Kyunki bolne ke liye bhasha ki zarurat nahi hoti&rdquo; (break the language barrier) &mdash; towards the end of August. The television commercial is under its popular &ldquo;What an Idea, Sirji!&rdquo; series that demonstrates the power of telephony, but this time it&rsquo;s taken the language route.

Idea Cellular: Bright Idea

American Express is in a hurry to gain scale. It is in talks with banks, private as well as government-owned, to issue credit cards to their high net worth customers. Some innovation in the mobile space is under way. Companies have been handed out virtual plastic, which their employees can use to book air tickets and hotels. And there is rapid expansion to new merchant establishments which accept its cards &mdash; fuel stations, grocery stores, utilities and so on.

Earning its credits

Many organisations underestimate the value and necessity of learning during turbulent times. We learned the hard way that it is not to be forgotten in our experience with Satyam Computer Services. Preparing for a crisis goes far beyond a traditional risk management plan.

Developing a 'lights on' strategy

Talent executive Ed Cohen was chief learning officer and Priscilla Nelson global director of people leadership at Satyam Computer Services when its iconic founder, Ramalinga Raju, confessed to long-standing accounting fraud and was subsequently jailed.

Q&A: Ed Cohen & Priscilla Nelson

Tata Motors is fortifying its light commercial vehicle portfolio to take on the competition. Will it suffice? In May 2005, Tata Motors had launched the Ace, a small truck of 0.75 tonne. The company had studied the market for three-wheeler goods carriers for a while and had concluded that small transporters were ready to switch to a mini truck. It made them look good in their peer group. The Ace was economical and versatile.

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