COVER FEATURE

I believe that investment horizons should be return driven rather than time-limited.

- - Gul Teckchandani

SUN F&C, which began its operations in India in March, 1995, was one of the first set of private sector (predominantly foreign) mutual funds to be awarded a license. Nikhil Khattau was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of the SUN F&C Asset Management (I) Pvt. Ltd. He began with a single office in Mumbai and a starting team of five people. SUN F&C's primary objective is to create one of India's leading asset management organizations through an uncompromising focus upon quality in all aspects of product innovation/development, investment management and investor servicing.

© 2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved

FINANCE

Buoyancy in post-VAT revenue

- - K Prashant Babu

The post-VAT scenario appears to be in mixed colors. After the introduction of VAT, no sector has expressed any negative feelings. The manufacturing sector is very happy because of input credit available to it. Even in the case of pharmaceutical industry, the manufacturers are pro-VAT. It is the distribution channel with special reference to certain sectors that were hitherto getting huge commission on their sales that now have to be foregone to some extent due to transparency in the VAT. Though the wholesale and distribution sectors are not overwhelmingly happy with VAT, they are satisfied. The retailers too have not expressed any negative feelings about VAT. The consumers who are the ultimate payers of VAT do not mind whatever may be the system, but want transparency and simplicity.

© 2005 K Prashant Babu. All Rights Reserved.

INNOVATION

Leading through innovation

- - Pradip Sinha and Sujoy Dutta

The success of any organization in today's dynamic and highly competitive business environment, irrespective of its nature and size, depends on how fast it innovates and evolves touching the expectations of customers. Failing to innovate will lead companies to nowhere.

© 2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Employee motivation

- - Smita Kulkarni

Balancing the demands of the changing market with the demands of the employees for reasonable treatment and respect is becoming increasingly difficult. Loyalty to a company, which came naturally in the past, from an employee's perspective seems to be diminishing in today's business world. Restructuring, downsizing and layoffs from mergers and acquisitions becoming the order of the day, employees don't feel they have the job security as they did in the past. The result has been that people are more open to other opportunities. And motivation of employees for higher levels of performance becomes difficult when all the rules have changed and the simple exchange of loyalty and commitment does not exist anymore. In times like this, effective management of human resources is very critical.

© 2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved

STRATEGY

Of Stars, Cows and BCGs

- - Saptarshi Purkayastha

The cows, dogs, stars and question marks of the growth-share matrix have become a part of the strategic management literature. Common sense says that we should kick the dogs, cloister the cows and throw our money at the stars. They have become so frequently used that oversimplification has resulted in many problems. To avoid these oversimplifications, we should recognize that the dogs may be friendly, the cows may need a bull now and then to remain friendly, and excessive investment in stars may result in their burning out.

© 2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Corporate social responsibility: Merck, Vioxx and the future

- - Subhashish Ray

Just being socially responsible for the sake of it (and not for profits) can create immense discomfort to companies and the industry as a whole. Merck, which strove to follow its own lofty standards, is finding out the true cost of being socially responsible. The company is facing billions of damage payment to patients, who have suffered heart problems as a side effect of using its drug Vioxx.

© 2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved

TECHNOLOGY

Artificial Intelligence in business applications

- - K Venkateswara Rao and PSV Suryanarayanamurthy

To understand the concept of Artificial Intelligence, we need to explore what intelligence is and what relation does it have with human intelligence. Intelligence is the computational part of the ability to achieve goals in any kind of activity. Various individuals, animals and machines have varied degrees of intelligence and intelligence is not confined to human beings alone. With the advancement of technology, human intelligence can be spanned to machines also by feeding them with sophisticated programs.

© 2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Ranbaxy

- - VV Gopal

Ranbaxy is unique in the Indian context wherein the promoters have displayed an extremely professional attitude in drawing a clear demarcation between ownership and management. This article revolves around the crux of CEO succession planning, which involves the process of identifying a person who is professionally competent to don the mantle of a CEO, as against an individual occupying the top slot by virtue of being the heir to a majority stakeholder.

© 2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved

COMPANY IN FOCUS

Cisco Systems in 2005

- - Ravi S Madapati

Cisco reported that sales for the last quarter increased by 12%, to $6.1 bn, slightly short of Wall Street estimates in February 8, 2005. Many analysts believe that this might be the first step in a marked slowdown in both revenue and profit growth of the company. In spite of these concerns, Chambers remained optimistic. Chambers told analysts in December 2004 that Cisco would soon unveil four more initiatives that it thought could eventually become $1 bn businesses. Among the focus areas were network management software to help companies make more efficient use of their computers and storage gear, and applications for Internet telephony, such as videoconferencing.

© 2005 IUP. All Rights Reserved

CASE STUDY

Honda's marketing strategies in India

- - Vivek Gupta and Yamini Aparna

The case discusses the marketing strategies of Japan-based Honda Motor Company Limited (HMCL) in India. Though HMCL had entered India way back in 1984 through joint ventures with leading two-wheeler companies, the company established its wholly owned subsidiaryHonda Motorcycle and Scooter India Limited (HMSI) in October 1999. Within a couple of years, after the launch of its successful products including Activa, Dio and Eterno, HMSI had emerged as the largest scooter company in India. The case describes in detail the product, pricing, distribution and promotional strategies of HMSI. It briefs the challenges faced by the company and its recent foray in the motorcycles business in India. It also includes a brief note on the Indian two-wheeler industry describing the leading players and their marketing strategies.

© 2005 ICMR. All Rights Reserved. For accessing and procuring the case study, log on to www.ecch.cranfield.ac.uk or www.icmrindia.org.

BOOK REVIEW

Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy

- - Matthew R Simmons

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia reveals very few details about its reserves, production rates and costs. Energy planners the world over base their calculations on many assumptions rather than verifiable information. Sooner or later, the worldwide production of oil must peak, but many oil experts claim that the peak is far off in their belief in the superabundance of Saudi Arabia's oil resources. The author challenges this belief through a detailed review and analysis of over 200 documents relating to the problems faced in the Saudi Arabian Oilfields. The author concludes that the twilight of Saudi Arabian oil is much nearer than expected. The global economy can function after oil supplies peak but not in the same manner in which we live today.

© 2005 Matthew R Simmons. All Rights Reserved. The IUP holds the copyright for the review.