Charles Correa is widely acknowledged as one of the masters of contemporary architecture. This collection confirms that he is also a lucid writer who illuminates issues related to architecture and urban planning in important and interesting ways. It pulls together a number of his essays and lectures published or presented in scattered fora. Surprisingly, this mosaic holds together well. It is perhaps the closest we have got to a testament of the full range of his intellectual concerns about the built environment.

The architect as critic

Business Standard

The issue of leadership has been done to death. We all know that leadership is about being a catalyst of change, about giving people direction. We also know that leadership is different from management. Once, while conducting a session, I was asked by an over-zealous middle-manager on the fast track why management experts glorify leaders and leadership qualities. He went on to say that we have created a halo around the issue of leadership. It got me thinking and I carried the observation back to a fellow consultant, Dr Abhay Bhave. A former civil servant, Bhave is now engaged in developing leadership talent in the corporate sector. He has seen leaders in not just the corporate world but has worked with grassroots political leaders as well. His views took me by surprise. He agreed with what the manager had said. Leadership, he said, is an over-rated, highly theoretical paradigm.

Team leaders need not be strategists

Volkswagen&rsquo;s best selling rep car, the Passat has finally been Walter-ised. Walter Da Silva&rsquo;s signature touch has now made the otherwise staid looking Passat a rather more handsome machine. This 7th generation Passat follows a styling direction first seen on the Phaeton flagship, especially the front-end treatment.

Joie de vivre

As the construction of Metro networks gets underway in 10 cities, taking the tube could soon be a way of life.

A million journeys, now

It&rsquo;s that day of the year again when Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is on everyone&rsquo;s minds. This year, he seems to loom especially large in the imaginations of our contemporary artists, going by the number of shows &mdash; five at last count &mdash; pegged on the &ldquo;father of the nation&rdquo; that are on now, or due to open within the next month or so.

Father figure

Western texts on business policy and corporate strategy (say, Michael Porter) talk about processes internal to a firm and managing the external environment. &ldquo;External environment&rdquo; includes consumers, suppliers and competitors (existing or potential). Rarely does external environment include the government. Yet, in pre-1991 India, managing the government was the most important component of business policy. This was never a secret. Nor is it the case that in post-1991 India, management of government has disappeared. It has become less important for manufacturing, though it remains pervasive for services.

The return of The Polyester Prince

    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.

Answers to last week's quiz (#168)

Websites that appeal to every taste and hobby help create virtual hang-outs for the young.

Cyber children

    Name the two competing companies that had a public spat and went to court on the word &lsquo;naturals&rsquo; being used for one of their products.

The Strategist Quiz (#169)

First impression is the last impression, goes the old adage. And it holds true when it comes to gaming; or, to be precise, when it comes to motion-sensor gaming. There&rsquo;s certainly a &lsquo;wow&rsquo; factor to it, which explains the sudden rush of products from Sony and Microsoft in this category. Nintendo Wii already has motion-gaming consoles.

Make your Move

Be it Apple or Research in Motion (RIM), Microsoft or Google, all the big names in the world of technology are eager to enter your car&rsquo;s dashboard. RIM, maker of BlackBerry, has signalled its intention to cash in on this trend by buying QNX Software Systems &mdash; a key software supplier, to some of the world&rsquo;s leading car companies, including Volkswagen, BMW and Hyundai. Ford, along with software giant Microsoft, has already kicked off its electronics revolution.

Technology to smarten your wheels

Here&rsquo;s what keeps the entry-level SUV miles ahead of competition.

M&M's Bolero 'refresh'

Converting consumers into loyal buyers

Subroto Mukherjee, chief operating officer of Baskin Robbins (Saarc), talks to Sohini Sen and Sarmistha Neogy on his expansion plans, new launches and challenges before the industry.

Q&A: Subroto Mukherjee, Chief Operating Officer, Baskin Robbins

There&rsquo;s something in the air these days. I told this to myself a few days ago as I was taking a stroll on the Linking Road stretch in Bandra, late in the evening. The lights in the stores, smiling faces emerging with multiple shopping bags in their hands, store managers joking around with their employees and the entire hustle and bustle in the market, all contributed to a very happy atmosphere, perhaps insinuating us of the times to come. Strange enough as it may seem but I started feeling good myself. And then I decided to give it a thought.

There's Something in the Air

Zen Mobile, one of the several homespun mobile phones that have come up in the last year or so, is ready with its first television commercial with Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan. The TVC focuses on the long-lasting battery of its phones. Zen Mobile Chief Executive Officer Vaibhav Shastri says: &ldquo;We have a budget of Rs 25 crore for the October to December quarter, which will cover 360-degree activation across television, print and outdoor avenues. We had cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and Bachchan in mind. It took us three-and-a-half months to close the deal with Bachchan.

Zen Mobile: Zen and the art of selling

Godrej Interio, Godrej &amp; Boyce&rsquo;s furniture brand, is weaving in technology in its products and sprucing up its stores to drive growth. In a largely (90 per cent) unorganised market, but which is steadily seeing the growth of branded furniture, Godrej Interio is aware of the need for a national player. &ldquo;Branded home furniture is growing at 20 per cent but is only 10 per cent of the Rs 20,000-crore market.

Godrej & Boyce: Hi-tech furniture

In the last decade, Indian manufacturing companies have imbibed world-class practices in manufacturing management.

India's quality revolution

Nestl&eacute; has come out with a new campaign for its Nescaf&eacute; instant coffee with actors Deepika Padukone and Purab Kohli. The campaign unfurls a silent emotional play between two neighbours &mdash; one a celebrity, Padukone, and the other the guy next door, Kohli &mdash; and talks to the youth of urban India.

A brew for the young

Almost two years ago, Bharat Hotels took on a new identity, the Lalit. The global economic meltdown that followed hit hotels real bad across the world. India was no exception. But the industry is buzzing with activity one more time. Everybody wants to grow; large companies want to buy smaller ones, and white knights have become active. Budget hotels are mushrooming all over the country.

Q&A: Jyotsna Suri, CMD, Bharat Hotels

Tata Coffee will give up its brands to become a pure-play commodity company. Why? It is the ambition of most farm commodity companies to move up the value chain and sell branded products. Brands, after all, can improve profit margins and valuations. Seldom does a company give up its brands to become a pure-play commodity company. But this is exactly what Tata Coffee has done. Over the next few years, it will move its brands like Tata Caf&eacute;, Mr. Bean and Coorg (these brands may not be as popular as Nestl&eacute;&rsquo;s Nescaf&eacute; or Hindustan Unilever&rsquo;s Bru but have dedicated customers in certain pockets of the country) to group company Tata Global Beverages (earlier Tata Tea) so that it can focus on commodities. The strategy may look disruptive but has been well thought through.

Back to beans

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