This issue includes topics ranging from supply chain relationship in automobile makers with complexity of conglomerates, usage of web-based strategic management software for teaching business students, opportunity to target bottom of the pyramid market for cigarette companies, a quest to create a learning organization through convergence of ideas and paradigms, and a study on strategic sourcing, creating a marquee for business strategy. This issue is an attempt to bring out some strategic perspectives from different functions that are modern and deviate from the traditional management approaches for business.

The first paper, "An Investigation of the Kaisha: A (Strategic) Study in Partner Management", by Carolan McLarney, Ed Chung and Sheila A Randolph, is built on case study-based research on buyer-supplier relationships and procurement operations of a Japanese automobile manufacturing firm's American subsidiary. Kaisha in Japan refers to a `large company'. The Japanese buyer-supplier relationships based on "keiretsu" (which refers to a uniquely Japanese form of corporate organization that works on an intimate partnership between government and businesses) seem to have translated into the automobile company's American operations, which reconfigured the structure and relationships to compete more effectively on a global scale. This paper examines different aspects of the keiretsu supplier relationship model, the arms-length model and the cooperative buyer-supplier partnering models and how each is utilized within the Kaisha's procurement operation. The research uses primary data, in the form of survey and interviews of Kaisha suppliers, and secondary data through various published articles and reports. The paper also highlights the fact that in the absence of a clear strategic supplier management program, the Kaisha could not achieve a sustainable base for competitive advantage in terms of cost, quality and product delivery.

The second paper, "International Business Strategy: An Innovative Teaching and Learning Approach", by Basil Janavaras, Emanuel Gomes, Punyadip Cheema and Suresh George, confirms the expected benefit of a management consulting software, a web-based strategic management tool called the Global Marketing Management System Online (GMMSO) as a learning tool for learners and practitioners that can enhance critical thinking, decision making and business strategy research skills. One of the most modern and pressing challenges for international business faculty is to port the real world into the classroom training environment. The consulting software is shown to hold the answer by providing a real and simulated platform that makes the users to perform analyses regarding the firm's situation, position in market, offerings, competition from a strategic perspective to develop an online business plan that has international scope. The purpose of this research is to share pedagogical experiences of the software and student's learning feedback. The finding establishes the GMMSO software as a potential pedagogical tool in business strategy learning that furthers the project-based learning model. The research goes on to claim that "the GMMSO, unlike the commercially available simulation games on strategy, is a real management tool that provides a comprehensive, systematic and integrative strategic planning process design to guide students through the corporate decision making process."

The third paper, "A Strategic Study on the Potential Entry of Cigarette Companies' into the Indian Bidi Industry", by Mukesh Taneja and R Patnaik, highlights the potential opportunity for cigarette companies to explore a huge untapped market in India albeit with some structural, environmental and competitive challenges. The study is based on the premise that the Indian tobacco industry, though somewhat organized, is losing a strong opportunity in a cost-sensitive market segmentthe `bidi' segment, which is primarily unorganized and thus enjoys cost advantages in the form of no taxes or duties. The research provides a base for Indian cigarette companies to enter the `bidi' market through a viability study, benefits and pitfalls, and brings in experiences from the international tobacco industry. The research uses the qualitative approach of event-history analysis that involves systematic identification of critical events in the longitudinal development of the industry. The findings suggest `bidi' market to be a large market (considerable size), with high scope for product extension and social responsibility towards poor `bidi' workers. The research also highlights the possible competitive reactions of the existing players (politicians, lobbyists and worker's unions) in the `bidi' industry.

The fourth paper, "Organizational Learning: Crafting a Strategic Framework", by Feza Tabassum Azmi, draws upon various literary works and paradigms on learning organization to propose a strategic framework for organizational learning with people-strategy matrix and learning prerequisites. The modern organizational need towards constant revitalization in learning has now become a necessary base for competitive advantage, as a result of which creation of a learning organization seems to be the only answer. The research starts with a review of dominant organization learning thoughts across different era, introduces the learning iceberg concept that shows some laddering issues in creating a strategic framework, and then goes on to establish a people-strategy matrix for a clearer comprehension of a learning strategy. Finally, the paper discusses some learning prerequisites, including cultural and legacy issues where internalization of transformational learning takes time and can be built on iterative small moves rather than large ones.

The fifth paper, "Strategic Sourcing: Need for a Disciplined Approach", by S N Mookherjee, is a study on organizational sourcing of resources that creates efficient value chains, which in turn is instrumental in building competitive advantage. Sourcing has gone beyond the functional activity of supply chain and means much more strategically across the value chain, in the modern global scenario. The feature suggests that firms desiring flexible and resilient value chains need to look at the sourcing of each activity of the value chain. This paper outlines outsourcing that has become strategic in nature, with core functions such as design, manufacturing, human resource, research and development, marketing, and logistics, which are moved offshore to get the best cost/value for that function. It argues how strategic sourcing helps business to create more efficient value chains, process improvements, and function improvements, to create a superior competitive position in the market.

- Rajnandan Patnaik
Consulting Editor