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INTERVIEW
Floral Tycoon
: Pocketful of Posies
A true entrepreneur is one who sees opportunities where others see problems. It's all about conceptualizing
and creating a niche.
- - Vikaas Gutgutia, Founder and CEO, Ferns N Petals
Ferns `N' Petals (FNP), India's first branded and only organized flower retail chain, was established in 1994. FNP came
a long way from being a small 200 sq ft outlet in South Delhi has grown to be a Rs. 60 cr venture today. It enjoys a
complete monopoly in the organized flower sector, with a head count of 1,000 employees. Apart from undertaking orders
for designing for weddings and corporate functions, it also supplies flowers to the hotel industry. The company also
supplies flowers to the hotel industry and major clients include: The Taj Group of Hotels, the Grand Group, Oberoi Hotels &
Resorts, Sheraton Hotels & Resorts and InterContinental Hotels. It has tie-ups in Holland, China and Thailand for flowers
imports like Orchids and Hydrangea, while the other flowers are sourced from
Karnataka, Maharashtra and HP. The company
has 80 self-owned outlets across 34 cities of the country. It has also ventured into event management and e-commerce,
with flowers being integral to each.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
COVER STORY
From MBA to MBL: Reinventing the MBA
-- Didier Marlier
MBAs are driving the world And if that is true, we (the author is an
IMD graduate) should seriously start challenging the purpose, process and content of
our graduate programs. We MBAs led the world to its worst crisis since 1929. We
have allowed, short-term profit and have taken greed and deception to be the values
that drive some of our most powerful businesses. We are still unable to come up with
a convincing response to the world's poverty, unsustainable and
damageable growth. This article suggests radically new ways to look at our MBAs and
executive education.
© 2009 Didier Marlier & The Enablers Network. All Rights Reserved.
COVER STORY
Future of MBA
-- Chetan kumar Tiwari
This case study tries to bring out both sides of the coin that what could happen
to an MBA student in future 20 years down the line coming out with a degree in
his hand. It looks into the present and tries to correlate the things in the
broader spectrum for students with an MBA degree in hand.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
COVER STORY
MBA-HR Specialization: A Campus Placement Perspective
-- Bholanath Dutta
B-Schools need to understand the changing role of HR in the present-day
economy and train the students accordingly to update their skills.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
COVER STORY
Destination MBA
-- Vissapragada Srinivas
Smart MBAs are dedicated, studious and focused on their destination, and
their intended career paths are very clear cut. They have the tenacity to cling on
until they achieve success and are pro-active in seeking what they want.
Modern organizations strongly believe that teamwork is of the essence. In many
instances, it has been proved that effective team members make better decisions and
can devise new ways to perform tough tasks. Prudent MBAs know that one's
attitude influences the behavior of one's peers. So, brand new MBAs need varied job
skills and dexterity to demonstrate their dynamism in undertaking hard
business pursuits.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
CAREER PLANING
Impression Management and Career Enhancement
-- Sweta Banerjee
Impression Management is an important process in the present day
internal dynamics of an organization and if practiced carefully and efficiently,
both management and employees can benefit from it immensely in as far as
the careers and career enhancement are concerned.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
CAREER PLANING
Mukund's Career Dilemma - Part II
-- M Bashyakar and Mohandas J Menon
This article reconstructs a real-life situation observed by one of the authors.
The names of the characters have been changed to protect their identity.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
GENERAL MANAGEMENT
Recession: A Great Opportunity for Innovation
-- Ninu Susan Abraham
The year 2008 has spelled doom for the global business community. Many
global giants, like the automobile giant, General Motors, that had ruled the world in
many sectors, were reduced to approaching the US Federal Reserve with a
begging bowl. People have suddenly lost faith in investment gurus like Warren Buffet
and Alan Greenspan. Their predictions of the stock markets suddenly seemed to
go wrong and the markets crashed, with little or no sign of recovery. But despite
all odds, some in the field have tried to make an opportunity out of these
difficult times, while the others were merely blaming all and sundry for their woes.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
HR
Cross-cultural Management
-- Asmita Jha
Cross-cultural management helps an organization to deal with people
coming from different cultural backgrounds. Managing workforce diversity is a
big challenge for organizations. To manage a diverse workforce, a manager has to
do an in-depth study to understand the expectations and needs of each
individual. Previously, it was thought that workforce diversity leads to garbled and
distorted communication. But, today, many organizations have realized that diversity is
an asset, which can enhance organizational effectiveness.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Avoiding Wastage During Recession: Need of the Hour
-- Ponnamma MN
Cost cutting has become the order of the day, be it in a family or in
an organization. More often than not, it is observed that the line of
difference between useful necessity and expensive wants is too thin for an anxious head
of the family or organization to take note of. What one needs to understand is that
the money spent on waste needs to be curbed. For this, one has to understand
what waste is.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT
Personnel Management
-- CT George
Personnel Management is a multidimensional dynamic concept which
indicates the dignity of the individual as being paramount. Each person is different
from others and that an individual naturally attempts to enhance his or her
personality, self-development and self-esteem amongst colleagues and friends.
© 2009 IUP. All Rights Reserved.
BOOK REVIEW
What They Teach You at Harvard Business School: My Two Years Inside the Cauldron of Capitalism
-- Philip Delves Broughton
Reviewed by Rajnandan Patnaik and PK Sahoo
Business education at HBS - is it a rat race or is it a quest to excel in the world
of business? Written by an alumnus of the HBS, this book captures the
business study, methods, systems, paranoia, deadlines, hard work, personal mortgages
- loans and finally life at HBS from a student's perspective.
© 2008 Philip Delves Broughton. All Rights Reserved. IUP holds the copyright for
the review. | 
