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.

Holding all the Aces

Business Standard

PricewaterhouseCoopers, the tax and advisory services firm, has changed its branding to &ldquo;strengthen and modernise&rdquo; how it represents its worldwide network to its clients, its people and the communities in which it operates.

PwC reinvents itself with new branding initiative

Dipak C Jain was 17 minutes into his first presentation as dean of Kellogg School of Management when the world changed. This was 8.17 am Chicago time, an hour behind New York.

BS People: Dipak C Jain

The premium sportswear market now has one more player &ndash; Italian lifestyle brand Fila. This would be the $1.5-billion brand&rsquo;s second innings in India as it had earlier entered into a licensing agreement with Cravatex eight years ago.

Fila begins second innings in India

Direct-to-home (DTH) major Tata Sky made headlines last week &ndash; first, for Aamir Khan playing the role of a milkman in its new commercial, and second, for kicking off a price war.

New signal from Tata Sky

Your brand is in the midst of a huge controversy sparked by security concerns over one of its most attractive features. That&rsquo;s a good enough reason for your customers to shy away from your products. So what else can you do apart from trying to convince the government against banning the service? Ask Research in Motion(RIM), makers of Blackberry phones.

Blackberry goes from men to boys

Nadathur S Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL), at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB) has announced the launch of Next Big Idea, a business plan competition. It is sponsored by the National Science &amp; Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB) under the aegis of the Department of Science &amp; Technology, Government of India and Intel.

Entrepreneurial cell at IIM-B starts biz plan contest

Entrepreneurial cell at IIMB starts biz plan contest

Traditional ads still dominate, but quite a few are going off the beaten track.

The power of disruption

The move stumped many who saw actor Malaika Arora Khan&rsquo;s dance number doing much more to Zandu&rsquo;s brand equity than all its other ad campaigns put together.

Dabangg  moment for Zandu Balm

Back in the day, we called it public service advertising.

Cause marketing comes of age

    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.

Answers to last week&#39s quiz (#167)

    Sales of a personal-care brand have shot up after its name was used in a song of a recent Hindi movie. Name the brand and the movie.

The Strategist Quiz (#168)

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The top 10 business bestsellers

The institute will start with a business school that will offer a diploma programme.

Duke University plans to set up campus in India

Mahindra &amp; Mahindra is set to launch its range of motorbikes by this month-end. It had launched scooters last year, leveraging its Kinetic purchase. With incumbents well-entrenched in the market, Mahindra &amp; Mahindra has started on an offensive even before the launch. &ldquo;It had to go aggressive with a bevy of bikes because it has to break the clutter,&rdquo; says PricewaterhouseCoopers Leader (automotive practice) Abdul Majeed.

Mahindra & Mahindra: The Italian job

Business schools across the country are gearing up for a greener furture &mdash; setting up the infrastructure for recycling waste and reducing carbon footprint.

Business schools venture into greener pastures

The Institute of Clinical Research, (ICRI) plans to invest around Rs 35 crore this year on restarting its Dehradun campus and upgrading its communication network.

ICRI to invest Rs 35 cr in expansions

It&rsquo;s a fact: The recession has given way to a fitful economic recovery. Companies are once again looking to grow, and they know they need the talent to do it. Beyond that, the future is less certain, and nowhere is uncertainty more evident than in talent acquisition.

Turn Agile

Haier of China entered India in 2004. By then, Korean consumer electronics giants LG and Samsung had established themselves firmly in the country. As a result, the going was tough for Haier from day one. In 2009-10, it reported a turnover (net of excise) of Rs 350 crore. With the size of the consumer electronics market pegged at Rs 30,000 crore per annum, this translates into a market share of 1.2 per cent &mdash; just a drop in the ocean. Pranay Dhabhai, who brought Haier to India and is now associated with Akai of Japan, says this was because India was just a distribution business for the Chinese company. &ldquo;All decisions on the initial product offering were taken in China at the head office in Quindow,&rdquo; says he. The added challenge was the perception of Chinese products. Three brands from across the Great Wall had come to India during those years: Haier, Konka and TCL.

Against all odds

Toyota will step into the mass market with the Etios by the end of the year.

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