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Bottom of the Pyramid Spurs More Indian Ideas
We have the Nano, we have mastered the art of low-cost surgery, we know how to engineer sports utility vehicles at a fraction of the cost of a multinational corporation, we send spacecraft to the moon and launch satellites at a third of the cost, we have the world’s cheapest mobile phone, we’re the world’s IT champs… So why haven’t we been able to devise cost-effective ways of delivering education and healthcare to the majority of our people? This is ...
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- South Asia
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How customer focus is helping Bajaj Auto, ITC cut deeper
Mumbai: Visit any company website, or read any corporate brochure, the words "customer focus" invariably leap at you. What makes this a powerful trend is that it is not only restricted to the FMCG or the services sector. Now we have cement companies talking directly to end users on primetime television spots. We also have manufacturers of telecom cables and water pipes jostling for the customer’s mind space alongside cola majors. The foregone conclusion: customer focus is the n...
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- South Asia
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Mart With a Rural Heart
Previously the people of Illol village travelled to the nearest town of Himmatnagar, Gujarat, to buy a sachet of shampoo. But now they are able to buy it from the shop in the village,” says Nadeem Jafri, who has set up Hearty Mart — a chain of supermarkets in rural areas. Rewriting the rules of top-down retailing models, Jafri has chosen to target the ‘bottom of the pyramid’, as advocated by well-known consultant C.K. Prahalad. With a presence in little-know...
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- South Asia
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Godrej Consumer Looking for Acquisitions Abroad
Godrej Consumer Products Ltd. is looking for acquisitions worth up to $1 billion abroad as the Indian soap and hair color maker wants to sell its products in countries like China, Brazil and Nigeria, Chairman Adi Godrej said. "We won’t go for anything very tiny, but if the acquisition is over $15 million, we would look at it," Mr. Godrej told Dow Jones Newswires in a recent interview. "On the upper side, we would look at something up to maybe a billion dollars." He s...
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- South Asia
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Prahalad: We Need More Nanos, Amuls, Jaipur Rugs
When the corporate world is engaged in a debate over finding feasible solutions to come out of the current economic crisis, management guru Prof. C K Prahlad suggests innovative business models like Nano, Jaipur Rugs, Amul etc to move out from the crisis. While encouraging business leaders to adopt innovative ideas by referring to some of the success stories of top Indian companies, Prof. Prahlad said, “India has the ability to beco...
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- South Asia
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Seva and Grameen Partner on Eye Hospitals for Bangladesh
Seva and Grameen Bank are launching an unprecedented initiative to build a network of eye hospitals in Bangladesh, one of the world’s poorest countries where more than 650,000 people suffer from preventable blindness. In 2006, Seva staff and our partners from Aravind Eye Care Systems in India met with Yunus at Grameen headquarters in Bangladesh to further develop plans for what will be the largest single undertaking of its kind. "Basically, we’ll be taking our proven model ...
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- South Asia
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Nano Marks the Beginning of “Indian Century”
Even Tata Motors’ competitors are all praise for the nano. "It reflects India’s maturity in different fields," says P Balendran, vice-president, General Motors India. "Other countries and multinational corporations, who did not look at India seriously as an innovation destination, will view us in a different perspective." Advocates of the ’fortune at the bottom of the pyramid’ theory see it as a vindication of their views. "If you have a very large population which ...
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- South Asia
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Unleasing the Spirit of Enterprise
A fundamental characteristic of entrepreneurship is its capacity to generate employment, offer the promise of more income, and increase wealth. By doing so, it plays a pivotal part in providing individuals a platform from where they can aspire to a life in which their potential is realised. Over time, much of the developed world has risen to the challenge of crafting just such a platform, and the business corporation as we know it today is a critical component of this idea of advancemen...
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- South Asia