Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is not an easy man to get hold of unless your name is Oprah Winfrey. So we thought we&rsquo;d ask the newly-recruited Facebook India team for a firsthand account of their boss. Why now? Because, this has, after all, been a busy fortnight for him. The Social Network.

The geek who may inherit the earth

Business Standard

A few weeks ago I paid a maiden visit to Edinburgh and spent some very enjoyable days at the renowned annual Festival. I had the chance to pass by Adam Smith&rsquo;s grave at Canongate churchyard and admire his imposing statue outside St Giles Kirk (they call churches &ldquo;kirks&rdquo; in Scotland) in the Royal Mile. So when I was invited to review Nicholas Phillipson&rsquo;s new biography of Adam Smith, I gladly accepted the opportunity to learn more about this towering figure of the Scottish Enlightenment.

The famous Mr Smith

With their industry fast going paperless and e-oriented, publishers still insist that teleconferencing will never replace face-to-face business. Publishers just love meeting each other, especially at the Frankfurt Book Fair every October. It is the largest book fair in the world in terms of the number of publishers who attend. This year&rsquo;s fair, which started on October 6, ends tomorrow.

24 football fields, celebs and sekt

Treadmills in the washroom and panoramic views of the sea, memories of Julia Roberts, or furniture inspired by Sir Edward Lutyens.

Suite yourself

That Indian wines are made mostly from a select few &lsquo;noble&rsquo; French grape varieties is more a historical accident than design, and growers are still trying to determine which grape varieties are best suited for the Indian terroir.

It's not just French

After a delightful family holiday to south India in April 2010, British tourist Graham Andrew John was stranded with his family in Bangalore for a week, because of the volcanic ash cloud from Iceland&rsquo;s Eyjafjallaj&ouml;kull volcano.

Home in a hotel

    This company gets its name from the first version of Oliver Stone&rsquo;s Wall Street. It was started by two former Wall Street executives and fans of the film. They took one of the fictitious company names used in the movie to launch their business and also pay homage to the original film. Name it.

The Strategist Quiz (#170)

&nbsp;

    Hindustan Unilever and Procter &amp; Gamble on a Tide variant called Tide Naturals&nbsp;
    &nbsp;
    Saatchi &amp; Saatchi was founded by brothers Charles and Maurice Saatchi&nbsp;
    &nbsp;
    The term Specialty Coffee was coined by Erna Knutsen&nbsp;
    &nbsp;
    Kleiner Perkins Caufield &amp; Byers&nbsp;
    &nbsp;
    Catch, the table salt brand from the DS Group&nbsp;
    &nbsp;
    Reliance Industries&nbsp;
    &nbsp;
    Powerade from Coca-Cola&nbsp;
   

Answers to last week's quiz (#066)

The owner of several best-selling brands has identified the gaps in key segments well ahead of others.

Why Paras is a hot buy

Smartphone market leader Nokia with 34 per cent market share in India is feeling the heat of tough competition &mdash; not only from Apple and Research in Motion&rsquo;s (RIM) Blackberry, but also from home-grown phone makers which are offering feature-rich mobile phones at dirt cheap prices.

Nokia fights back in smartphones

Jez Frampton is the global chief executive of brand consultancy Interbrand. With 40 offices across the world, Interbrand is one of the largest in its space. Every year, the consultancy releases a list of the 100 best global brands - something that is keenly awaited by a number of corporate chieftains. Indian companies, however, have nothing to cheer about this year as no domestic brand has made it to the list - a trend that has been more or less the same since the first list was published eleven years ago. Frampton, who was in Mumbai recently, explained to Viveat Susan Pinto, why Indian brands have failed to make it to the august list.

Q&A: Jez Frampton, Global Chief Executive, Interbrand

Solar-powered phones, triple SIMs &mdash; tech-savvy citizens in rural India want it all, and are receiving it, too, from domestic brands.

Desi mobile makers answer Bharat's call

After music on the go, it is time for movie applications (better known as apps) for smartphones. These tiny mobile programmes that you can download from online stores will enable you to access film songs, pre-release videos, lyrics and several other features of a film on the go.

Get your films on your apps

Sabeer Bhatia, the man best known as one of the pioneers of online emailing after he co-founded Hotmail.com (and subsequently sold it to Microsoft), is on another mega project. One that just has the potential to steal the software giant&rsquo;s thunder.

'Hot male' Bhatia goes Live on Documents

The Indian Hotels Company, owned by Tata Sons, recently launched a new brand, Vivanta by Taj, in the upper upscale segment. The brand covers three new hotels in Bangalore, Goa and Maldives and 16 old properties in India and Sri Lanka. With this, the company now has put in place its brand architecture.

Room for all

The global recession of 2008-09 has brought in a major shift in the way companies are assessing their human capital needs. Monster India Managing Director Sanjay Modi says employers today want to make every hire count by finding the right skills for every job. They are not willing to hire and invest in people who are, say, 60 per cent there. Relevance has thus become a key parameter in evaluating hiring. Modi speaks to Amit Ranjan Rai on how jobs portal Monster India helps both companies and job seekers make the right choice.

Q&A: Sanjay Modi, MD, Monster India

Tata Motors is marketing its crossover vehicle, the Aria, through a viral campaign on the internet. With a reported price tag of Rs 12-14 lakh, the car will have a premium consumer base. Tata Motors Utility Vehicle Product Group Head Sunil Saxena says: &ldquo;The internet has become a necessary tool of research for any capital purchase, more so with the premium set of consumers that the Aria will address.

Tata Motors: Teaser trial

Lifestyle channel Discovery Travel and Living has been rebranded TLC, and it is now eyeing to become the country&rsquo;s top English entertainment channel. TLC currently leads viewership in the travel and lifestyle category with a share of 56.6 per cent (for January to September 2010, TAM data), ahead of rival NDTV Good Times which led the space last year.

Discovery Networks: Brand new TLC

The ethnic wear market for women in India is estimated at around Rs 40,000 crore.

KIT: The Ethnic wear market for women

Engage
Authors: Brian Solis and Ashton Kutcher 
Publisher: Wiley
Price: Rs 1,205
ISBN: 9780470571095.
Getting Naked 
Author: Patrick M Lencioni
Publisher: Wiley
Price: Rs 1,205
ISBN: 9780787976392.
Leading with Care 
Author: Mary Cantando
Publisher: Times Publication Books
Price: Rs 350
ISBN: 9788126525010.
Practicing Greatness 
Author: Reggie McNeal
Publisher: Times Publication Books
Price: Rs 295
ISBN: 9788126525027.
Social Media 101 
Author: Chris Brogan
Publisher: Wiley
Price: Rs 1,108
ISBN: 9780470563410.
The Three Laws of Performance 
Authors: Dave Logan and Steve Zaffron
Publisher: Times Publication Books
Price: Rs 395
ISBN: 9788126525072.
Marketing 3.0 
Author: Philip Kotler
Publisher: Wiley
Price: Rs 1,198
ISBN: 9780470598825.
101 Things I Learned In Business School
Authors: Michael W Preis and Matthew Frederick
Publisher: Hachette 
Price: Rs 595
ISBN: 9780446550284.
The Drucker Lectures
Author: Rick Wartzman
Publisher: Tata

The top 10 business bestsellers

The tag line for the new festive season campaign launched by Reliance Trends says &lsquo;sirf dikhne me mehenga&rsquo;, (it&rsquo;s expensive only by its looks). That just about sums up the brand strategy of the three-year old department chain of Reliance Retail.

Reliance trends: Holding the middle ground

- Find Specials News, Features, Analysis and more at Business Standard. Full coverage of Goafest 2014

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