Vishal Krishna Businessworld, May 17, 2010 The outskirts of Bangalore, home to many large hypermarkets, see a lot of frontier action in retail. Recently, the Raheja Group’s hypermarket, HyperCity, opened a store in Mahadevapura, where the likes of Future Group’s Big Bazaar and the Jubilant Organosys-owned Total already enjoy a loyal clientele. But nobody was more anxious about fresh competition than the manager of More, which also has a store here. As it turned out, “Our sales were not affected in the weekend in which the new store opened in our catchment,” says Kapil Agarwal, More’s vice-president, operations hypermarket (south),…
REVIEW: BEATING THE COMMODITY TRAP: Richard D'Aveni (Harvard Business Press) In his latest book, Professor Richard A. D’Aveni focusses on a topic that most businesses should be acutely concerned with: the problem of commoditization. In interviews he has accurately described commoditization as “the black plague on modern corporations” and “a deadly disease that’s spreading like crazy”. Certainly, if one had to pick the ultimate nightmares to keep CEOs awake at night, commoditization would definitely be among the top of the list. Specifically, given the economic uncertainties around the world in the last couple of years, business leaders who are…
Pradipta Mukherjee / Kolkata Business Standard, April 15, 2010, 0:26 IST Cigarettes to hotel major ITC entered the consumer products business in 2007. In three years, it has managed to corner a two per cent market share. But ITC feels that's no mean achievement for a late entrant. The consumer and personal care products market is highly competitive, dominated by well-entrenched brands from companies such as Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Procter and Gamble, L'Oreal India, Dabur India and Cavinkare. The lion's share is with HUL, whose brands - Lux, Dove, Sunsilk and Clinic Plus - have about half the market. Some…
Kamya Jaiswal Money Today , April 1, 2010 As they wrap the refrigerator for delivery, you can't help feeling smug. For one, despite loud protests by the salesman, you wrangled a 10 per cent discount on the price. The extra-large freezer also seems a smart pick; after all you throw beer parties regularly. The extra Rs 2,500 for a three-year extended warranty is another good move. You won't have to pay a rupee if some part goes in the next three years. What's more, it is a fivestar refrigerator, so your annual electricity bills will be much lower. Sounds like…
Last week, Starbucks unveiled its strategy for profitable global growth, having taken approximately US$ 600 million out of costs in since January 2008. About 3 years ago in a leaked memo, chairman Howard Schultz had raised concern about how, in the race to scale and to become consistent, Starbucks was losing sight of all critical things that had made it successful in the first place. ("The Commoditization of the Starbucks Experience - Soul Searching by Howard Schultz"). In January 2008, Schultz took on an active role as CEO in a bid to stem the rot ("Leadership Change at Starbucks -…
Speciality Restaurants expanding into high-margin QSR and cloud kitchen spaces - @devangshu shared his perspective on the opportunities and realities of managing a diverse "house of brands" in the food service sector #India #strategy #diversification
Geopolitical friction has again sparked renewed concerns over inflation and rising input costs for FMCG companies as @itmeansjustice @whysnavi write. @devangshu commented.
