COVER FEATURE

Our mission is to emerge as a leader in the life insurance industry by offering affordable and a wide range of products to meet the various needs of our customers at different stages in their life

-- S Krishnamurthy

This issue presents an interview with S.Krishnamurthy, Managing Director and CEO, SBI Life Insurance, wherein he talks about the organization being a pioneer in ushering bancassurance in India and their vision to reach grassroot customers and their life insurance needs.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

BUSINESS STRATEGY

The essence of business models

-- A V Vepdpuriswar

Companies exist to create value and offer it to customers for a price. Indeed, the entire economy can be viewed as a universe made up of value producing, value consuming, and value trading entities. The process of creating and exchanging value in a profitable manner is what a business model is all about. The building blocks of a business model consists of choosing the right customer segment, identifying and meeting their needs more effectively than their competitors. This article attempts to understand what a business model is, what makes it sustainable and what happens when an existing business model is replaced by a new one.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

BUSINESS STRATEGY

Lenovo : Coping with globalization challenges

-- R Puratchimani

Lenovo, Asia's largest and the world's third largest PC maker, is aggressively pursuing its global ambitions. It has come a long way to achieve this position. This article discusses the various challenges faced in its globalization effort as well as its future challenges and opportunities. It also tries to answer whether it will succeed in becoming the largest PC maker in the world.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

BUSINESS POLICY

Corporate sustainability Management, policy and practice

-- V V Ramani

This article provides a multi-focal perspective on corporate sustainability and its importance to global economy. It explains how societal sectors like corporate, government and non-profit organizations in multiple geographic locations can contribute and measure sustainability. It also describes how these crucial concepts promote sustainable growth of the corporates.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

IT facilities management outsourcing

-- S Jaya Krishna

The strategic need to reduce Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), gain access to professionally managed IT services and leverage on advancements in technology are predominantly driving the IT-intensive firms towards Facilities Management Outsourcing. IT infrastructure management services including software development, application hosting, network management, web hosting, maintenance, data management, desktop upgrades, help desk support etc., alongwith IT-enabled services like bill presentment, DTP and imaging are the services being popularly outsourced. Three major abstract models viz., personnel, function and project are generally practiced in IT outsourcing, while the operational and delivery models are determined based on different factors such as type and nature of the services outsourced, operational and technical constraints involved, scope of IT services required, and number of service providers. Significant trends in IT outsourcing include practices such as Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT), transformation outsourcing, multi-vendor outsourcing etc.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Imperatives and challenges of aligning IT with business

-- Ravi Kumar Jain B

Information Technology (IT) has become an indispensable part of business strategy and business operations for organizations to thrive in extremely competitive markets. As such, aligning IT with business has gained prominence with the highest priority being attached to achieve the best value out of IT investments. Ironically, many organizations are unable to reap strategic benefits generated by aligning IT and business. Most of the earlier efforts by corporates to strike such alignment were largely unsuccessful. This article provides insights into what it takes to achieve efficient alignment of IT and business strategy of an organization.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

FINANCING OPTIONS

Private equity : Gaining momentum

-- N Janardhan Rao

Amidst robust economic growth and stock market conditions, India Inc. is reaching new heights and drawing a multitude of US and European venture capitalists and private-equity funds. They are eyeing a share of country's phenomenal growth benefits. It's a boom time for Private Equity (PE) players. Unlike in the past, PE investment is no longer confined to technology industry but is being witnessed across all the sectorsfrom media to retail to outsourcing. Around 30 domestic and international funds are targeted at the subcontinent for deals worth $4 bn in investments.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

CEO COMPENSATION

Robert Nardelli : Shown the door

-- Amit Singh Sisodiya

Robert Nardelli, the ousted CEO and Chairman of Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement specialty retailer, joins the league of the CEOs who have been shown the door in recent times by the Board and disgruntled shareholders. One more CEO makes an unceremonious exit. This time it is the turn of Home Depot's CEO, Robert L Nardelli to get sacked by the world's largest home-improvement retailing major's board, under pressure from angry shareholders. In the process, however, Nardelli joins the list of celebrity bosses who after earning iconic status suddenly fall from grace.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved

CASE STUDY

Nordstrom : The fourth generation expansion strategies

-- Sumeet Choudhari, Vineetha

Nordstrom, one of the largest specialty retailers in the US, was started as a shoe store in 1901 by John Nordstrom and his friend Carl Wallin in Seattle. When shoe business started to decline, the second generation Nordstroms diversified into apparels. Under the third generation Nordstroms, the company went public. The third generation of Nordstroms handed over the reins of the company to John Whitacre under whose leadership, the company witnessed a decline in profitability due to its decentralized buying structure and overall customer dissatisfaction. The fourth generation Nordstroms took over the company after Whitacre's resignation. They restructured the company, brought in new technologies, expanded into new markets and transformed the company into one of the largest family-run businesses in the world.

© 2006 IBS Case Development Center. All Rights Reserved.

BOOK REVIEW

Alignment : Using the balanced scorecard to create corporate synergies

-- Robert S Kaplan, David P Norton Reviewed by Prof. A Venkata Subramanian

The four Balanced Scorecard (BSC) perspectives financial, customer, internal process and learninghave enabled organizations to translate strategy into tangible objectives and measures. Their cause-effect relationships have been linked effectively using `strategy maps' as a tool. The book under review goes a step ahead and focuses on `aligning the organization to the strategy'. It also briefly examines the other two elements of the alignment process needed to create a `strategy focused organization' namely aligning the employees and management process/systems to strategy.

© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved