German luxury brand Montblanc has been known for generations as a maker of high-end writing instruments. In the past few years, it has expanded into accessories such as luxury leather goods, watches, jewellery, cufflinks and so on. It operates in over 70 countries and sells its products primarily through exclusive boutiques. Montblanc President (Western Hemisphere) Karl-Heinz Handke, who&rsquo;s been responsible for the company&rsquo;s expansion the world over, speaks to Amit Ranjan Rai about the brand&rsquo;s values and its growth.

Q&A: Karl-Heinz Handke, President (Western Hemisphere), Montblanc

Business Standard

People and organisations with character have a strong sense of values. Having a sense of values means being guided in your thinking and actions by an inner core of standards and abstaining from what you consider wrong. What creates and drives strong values within an organisation? The following book extract from &ldquo;Managers Who Make a Difference: Sharpening Your Management Skills&rdquo; by TV Rao discusses how a sound value system can be established within a company. It is second in the four-part series of extracts from IIM Ahmedabad Business Books.

Nurturing organisational values

When I first started working, I was in advertising. A decade later, I&rsquo;m in marketing communications.

Existential evolutions

A bevy of deodorants is challenging Axe&rsquo;s dominance in the market.

Can Axe retain its effect?

Due to long hours at work, Sampreet Dhingra, a 31-year-old graphics visualiser with a leading games development company, shops online for gifts for her family. She reasons: &ldquo;Since I spend 10 hours on my work computer every day, I might as well buy my festival gifts online. More so because I don&rsquo;t find time once I am at home.

Personal browsing @ work

Cyber criminals use their best schemes during holidays to trap the web surfer &mdash; this New Year is going to be no different.

Beware! Cyber criminals are on the prowl

As the year comes to an end, you might have noticed a rise in the number of scam mails that promise free goodies for a harmless click on an embedded link. If you do not take necessary precautions, you could become a victim of hackers who have cast their net to steal your identity and sell your private information for malicious purposes.

Antidote for your PC against virus

Last month, discount retail chain Megamart opened its 175th store. That&rsquo;s in keeping with the Arvind Retail firm&rsquo;s promise of occupying 5,000 square feet of new space every week, or 2.6 million sq ft a year.

Megamart, Loot bet big on aspirant shoppers

In a bid to capitalise on the growing trend of eating out, Pizza Hut, the flagship brand of US-based Yum! Restaurants, has switched to an affordable casual dining model from a quick-service format. In the process, its popular pizza express delivery, part of the quick-service format, has been hived off into a separate unit.

Pizza Hut changes tack

Imagine this scene: It&rsquo;s late at night, so late that it&rsquo;s almost the next day. There is a closed gate, and outside if you could see a never-ending line of people, sitting there, eagerly waiting for the time to tick by and experience.Ask a college kid in USA to guess what that was, and the answer would be: that&rsquo;s the line for getting the first pieces of Apple IPad.

The aura of Brand Rajni

Mobile number portability (MNP) that allows a mobile subscriber to retain his/her existing mobile number despite changing the mobile operator, is finally available in India starting yesterday.

The number game begins

Who says Apple&rsquo;s App store is the only platform to make money from mobile apps &mdash; that&rsquo;s a question application developers have begun to ask. Apps (short for applications) are programmes like games or utility tools that can be run on smartphones.

Ovi Store clicks for Nokia

Agilent Technologies, an international measurements company, moved into its new 1,800-workstation facility in Manesar near Gurgaon in March this year. The staff there provide administrative support services to the company&rsquo;s international operations.

Not building as usual

The Aga Khan Award for Architecture this year was won by five projects including a school built as a bridge uniting a Chinese village, and the restored center of Tunisia&rsquo;s capital Tunis. The revitalisation of a Saudi Arabian valley, a Spanish museum and a Turkish factory also share the biggest prize in architecture.

Places to interpret

India-born British sculptor Anish Kapoor&rsquo;s first solo show in India opens today. Much anticipated, this will showcase a representative range of his oeuvre.

Shock and awe

Ever heard of the bobbing duck? A bathtub toy that mothers leave floating around to humour babies? Those cheap, cheerful ones that you just can&rsquo;t sink, hard as you may try. What&rsquo;s more, every time you see one it reminds you of your early days. It has a sense of naivet&eacute; to it and yet it&rsquo;s something, you just can&rsquo;t outgrow.

State out of the market

Two back-to-back centuries and Harbhajan is letting his bat do the talking.

Try this for size!

Kiran Kumar Reddy was an efficient wicket-keeper batsman who captained Hyderabad&rsquo;s under-22 team in the early 1980s. The team included Mohammed Azharuddin, who recalls that he played his first Test against England in 1985 with the kit presented by Reddy. Around this time, Reddy&rsquo;s interest in cricket began to flag. He never played Ranji Trophy. However, the other interest which began to consume him, politics, saw him take oath as Andhra Pradesh&rsquo;s chief minister on Thursday. Reddy may still be interested in cricket. In 2006, he did not say no when Shivlal Yadav, now BCCI vice-president, and D S Chalapathi, Hyderabad Cricket Association&rsquo;s secretary, requested him to be nominated as HCA&rsquo;s vice-president.

A few good men

Like soccer, chess is played pretty much everywhere and Europe is the leading continent.But unlike soccer, Asia is pretty competitive although Europe is the powerhouse. A half-dozen former Soviet Republics guarantee professionalism. Along with the Philippines, the rise of the PRC, Vietnam and India, has raised standards considerably. The Chinese are top contenders in the women&rsquo;s Olympiad and nobody would be surprised if they managed a podium finish in the open.

CHESS (#654)

Srinivas Krishnan drives the car that Toyota has engineered specifically for us &mdash; the Etios.

Finally

I am going to purchase a new hatch and my budget is around Rs 4 to 5 lakh. I have short-listed the Chevrolet Beat and the Maruti Suzuki Ritz petrol. My monthly mileage is low, limited mostly to city driving and the occasional highway cruising. I personally like the look of the Beat, but am not sure about its engine performance, while the looks of the Ritz are a concern, although its performance is really good. All of this has made me confused especially since it will be my first car.

Two much

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