Business Management Updates

Nokia India - Tapping the rural market

2008-06-28T01:53:00.000-07:00

Nokia, the Finland-based mobile phone maker is planning to come up with Internet-based services for the rural Indian market according to Nokia Corporation's President and CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo. This will help it to position itself effectively in the non-urban markets. The services to be offered (in Nokia's mid-level mobile devices as well) include micro-finance, distribution, agricultural services and after sales and support services.

Mobile penetration in India stands at 26 per cent at present and Nokia is looking at the micro finance initiative big time to increase the mobile penetration in India. Kallasvuo added that the initial cost of the mobile phone is a major hurdle to the Indian market which still has been untapped even though that India is adding eight million subscribers a month. Nokia India's Vice President and Managing Director D Shivakumar was of the opinion that price was not the parameter in the rural areas and people did value the brand. He ruled out coming up with a sub-Rs 1,000 (approx. less than 25 US dollars) handset for the rural market. Nokia is running pilots and trials to gauge consumer response in select markets.

Nokia's large distribution and nine language support in India should help it gain in the rural market where mobile penetration stands at six per cent in 2007 (three per cent in 2006). Nokia already has a head start on other mobile device providers with its programmes for farmers in India which include providing solutions from information on market prices for agricultural products to weather updates to financing options. Another challenge for Nokia is the rise of operators in emerging markets (like India and China) as market penetration increases. Operators already have more control in markets such as Europe and North America. Nokia, so far has taken full advantage of this, building its own distribution channel and selecting partners.

Meanwhile, Nokia Siemens Networks announced that it will be setting up a production facility at the SIPCOT Orgadam high-technology SEZ (Special Economic Zone) in Tamil Nadu to manufacture mobile phone equipment and other hardware products for the telecommunication equipment. Nokia Siemens Networks is a subsidiary of the Netherlands-based Nokia Siemens B.V. Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and several leading telecommunication equipment manufacturing companies have already set up their base in Tamil Nadu, India.

Related Reading:
Nokia's Business Strategy in India
Nokia to exit expensive Germany, move production to low cost countries
Nokia's Acquisition Strategy and Restructuring

Xerox Logo and Brand Makeover

2008-01-07T13:26:00.000-08:00

Xerox unveiled a new logo in what it claims is the most sweeping transformation of its corporate identity. Earlier in 1961, it had dropped “Haloid” from the Haloid Xerox name. The old logo was designed in the 1960s by Chermayeff & Geismar. This logo (the familiar block-capital-letter XEROX wordmark) has been considered largely inappropriate for the 3-D world of Internet and mobile-phone marketing canvases.

The new logo, created by Interbrand in FS Albert font, (xerox in small lower case letters) is accompanied by a red sphere, a small globe with intersecting graphic ribbons. The globe and the ribbons depict the global connections between Xerox's customers, employees, and other stakeholders. While the red color stays (people strongly associate with color red), the lower case font seemed much friendlier say company officials. Interbrand believes the new logo brand communicates innovation, forward thinking, flexibility, and enterprise. Interbrand will track consumer behavior toward Xerox and its products and communications in interviews, surveys, and focus groups to assess the impact of the new brand identity and mainly ROI on the new brand strategy.

Xerox brand strategy to unveil a new brand logo can be a great start to bring together or uniting employees around a new brand idea, and ultimately its customers. Long gone are the days when Xerox was associated mainly for its copiers. Xerox does not even make stand-alone copiers any more. Xerox has introduced 100 new products in the last three years. Xerox makes machines that both print and copy and is also into managing a company’s document flow services.

Wal-Mart stops Movie Download Service

2008-01-06T11:43:00.000-08:00

Wal-Mart's online video downloading service which began in February has been quietly canceled, less than a year after the site went live. Wal-Mart was the first major retailer to partner with all of the major Hollywood movie studios and TV networks to offer downloads the same day titles were released on DVD.

Hewlett Packard which provided the technology that powered this service decided to discontinue its services because the market for paid video downloads did not perform that well.

Toyota overtakes Ford Sales

2008-01-04T11:40:00.000-08:00

Ford has been second in sales to General Motors (GM) since 1931. But, for the first time since then (in 77 years) Ford Motors is not the second largest automaker in the U.S.. The 2007 sales figures put Japanese Toyota in the number two place. Ford's sales dropped 12.0% in 2007 to 2.57 million units sold. Toyota sold 2.62 million vehicles in 2007. This figure is 48,226 more that Ford. The Japanese automaker's sales were up 3.0%. This figure is boosted by the new Toyota Tundra pickup, which had a sales increase of 57.0%.

Restructuring at IBM

2008-01-04T11:25:00.000-08:00

IBM in big Restructuring move

In what is being said is the biggest realignment/restructuring in 15 years, IBM Corp. is restructuring its hardware division around customer types as compared to individual products. William Zeitler, head of IBM's hardware division said the restructuring changes would strengthen IBM's ability to sell technology to small and medium-sized businesses and to design products specifically for them.

IBM Restructuring Strategy - New Segments in Hardware Group

The realignment/restructuring at IBM will create four client segments:

Hardware for large organizations
Small and mid-sized customers
Industry systems in retail, telecommunications and health care, and
Microelectronics, serving buyers of IBM's custom microprocessors.

IBM will still report hardware revenue by product category.

Honda plans new manufacturing facility in India

2007-12-30T11:09:00.000-08:00

Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India(HMSI)has a manufacturing facility at Manesar in India. This manufacturing plant has already reached 80% of it's installed capacity of 1.2 million units per annum and is expected to reach it's full production capacity by 2010-2011.

Honda plans to start a second manufacturing plant to meet required production beyond 2011 considering the steady growth of Indian two wheeler market. A feasibility study will be conducted in 2009. Honda is presently the largest maker of Scooters in India. HMSI's CEO Mr.Shinijo Aoyama said that Honda plans to launch a new automatic Scooter specially designed for India.

News, December 2007

Dell acquisition of Software-as-a-Service provider Everdream

2007-12-30T11:02:00.000-08:00

Dell completed the acquisition of privately-held Everdream Corp., a leading provider of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions for remote-service management. Everdream is based in Fremont, Calif., with a second facility in Charlotte, N.C.

This acquisition enables Dell to extend remote management of critical IT assets from servers, storage, printers, etc. to desktops, notebooks and other end-user devices globally. Everdream products will continue to be developed for and offered through channel partners, and will also serve as the foundation for future Dell service offerings.

News release from Dell.

Dell gets serious about storage services

2007-12-27T11:20:00.000-08:00

Dell added to its storage services with the acquisition of UK-based storage consultancy The Networked Storage Company (TNWSC). Terms of the deal were not disclosed and the acquisition will not be final until closing conditions are met.

Dell spokesman James Gibb said, "The purchase of TNWSC adds further depth to our storage capabilities and can be exploited by customers to make better decisions on IT infrastructure, whether IP, SAN or Fibre Channel"

Chrysler and Nissan plan to cut costs together

2007-12-15T12:08:00.000-08:00

Nissan, Japan's third-largest automaker, and Chrysler are exploring ways to take advantage of the other's strengths to cut costs in an increasingly competitive automotive industry. Both Nissan and Chrysler stand to gain as Nissan can take advantage of Chrysler's experience producing large trucks while Chrysler can leverage Nissan's expertise in building smaller, fuel-efficient cars.

Nissan wants to capture pick-up truck segment in the U.S., which it has found difficult. Chrysler is the traditional No. 3 pick up supplier behind Ford Motor Co. and GM. While many analysts say that this is just a product level partnership, Nissan's CEO Carlos Ghosn still remains open to establishing a deeper alliance with a U.S. automaker. Last year, Nissan and its French partner, Renault SA, failed in a three–way alliance with General Motors Corp.

Dell changing direct-to-consumer sales model

2007-12-11T09:29:00.000-08:00

Dell - Changing its successful model (direct-to-consumer sales model)

In June this year, Dell Inc took its first step into retail stores when it announced that it would sell its personal computers at Wal-Mart stores in North America. Now, it has taken another by announcing that it will sell it's PCs at gadget outlet Best Buy Inc. in 10,000 stores around the world. Dell's foray into retail stores comes after decades of selling only via phone or Internet.

This move comes because consumers want to touch and look at their computers before buying. Personal computers are increasingly becoming an extension of a person's personality. Moreover, Dell lost its number one position to HP last year.

Dell also has deals with Bic Camera Inc. in Japan, Gome stores in China and Carrefour Group and Carphone Warehouse PLC in Europe.

Download Case Study on Dell's Supply Chain Management Strategy in pdf format.

IBM wins Vodafone's IT operations outsourcing deal

2007-12-11T09:15:00.000-08:00

Five year IT Outsourcing Deal

In a a 5-year contract aimed ar reducing costs and improving services, Vodafone's Indian joint venture outsourced all of its information technology-related work to IBM Corp. IBM earlier this year had announced a similar order from another telecom company, Idea Cellular Ltd.

Vodafone India's fourth largest mobile phone company already has outsourcing contracts with IBM for application development and maintenance services in many of its European and Australian operations.

This interesting trend of companies in India and western companies also choosing global companies with outsourcing centers in India is a result of the rapid growth of economy.

Nokia's Business Strategy in India Download Case Study (7 pages, pdf, 5 USD)

HP Green Environment Initiative

2007-11-29T22:11:00.000-08:00

PC Manufacturers HP, IBM and Dell are investing significant resources into developing recyclable Information Technology IT devices and energy-efficient manufacturing operations. Advanced Micro Devices AMD’s facility in Texas is powered completely by renewable energy. Hewlett-Packard HP is investing in wind and solar energy in the US and Ireland in an effort to reduce its carbon footprint globally.

SunPower will install 5,000 solar power panels in HP’s San Diego facility. HP aims to save $750,000 in power costs over 15 years. HP will also buy wind energy from Airtricity. Airtricity has wind farms in the US and Europe. This effort that will save HP $40,000 for fiscal 2008 in HP’s Irish facilities. The investment will reduce HP’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 40,000 tons, and make 90% of HP’s energy use in Ireland renewable.

Daimler Chrysler Merger

2007-11-29T12:39:00.000-08:00

Daimler Chrysler De-merger

In early 2007, Daimler sold 80 percent of Chrysler to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LLC for $7.4 billion. This strategic move ended a nine-year merger. Daimler can now concentrate on its luxury Mercedes brand and its truck business.

Daimler Chrysler Merger - Marriage made in heaven?

In 1998, Daimler and Chyrsler mwrged to form the Daimler-Benz and Chrysler Corp. in a $36 billion deal. At that time, then-CEO Juergen Schrempp described the merger as a marriage made in heaven. Since then, up-and-down earnings and repeated cost-cutting soured many investors on the effort to create a global auto giant.

Lenovo new European production facility

2007-11-29T12:26:00.000-08:00

After Dell, US based PC manufacturer opened a new production facility in Poland recently, Lenovo (Chinese PC vendor)has announced that it will also establish a factory in Europe. Lenovo plans to build a production facility in the Legnica Special Economic Zone (LSSE), close to the borders of Poland, Czech Republic and Germany. The move is aimed at supplying its European customers more efficiently and expand its production capacity outside its home market of China.

Earlier this year, Lenovo laid out plans for new factories in Mexico and India. Lenovo is investing around 20 million US dollars (13.5 million euros) in the European facility.

Management Training at GE

2007-11-28T21:40:00.000-08:00

Importance of Training Programs at GE

Training programs at General Electric GE are well recognized. Training programs began in 1956 at its 53-acre Crotonville campus about 35 miles north of New York City. The training program was aimed to train 1,500 top GE managers for a restructuring. This center is formally named the John F. Welch Leadership Development Center. The center features an 188-room hotel, complete with restaurant, ice cream bars and a helipad. Each year, about 10,000 GE employees and customers attend training programs. GE conducts about six such training programs for executives from the Asia region alone. The training course helps GE stays close to its markets around the world.

P&G unveils innovation center

2007-11-27T23:11:00.000-08:00

“Innovation is our lifeblood” - Alan Lafley, CEO, P&G.

Procter & Gamble P&G, US-based MNC and American consumer products giant, unveiled its innovation center, a 17,500-square-meter building in Geneva. The company has had a presence in Geneva since 1956. The innovation center is devoted to the creation and development of P&G’s new products and packaging. P&G’s center employs 850 of the company’s 2,350 workers in Geneva.

The building houses a “virtual creation” studio that will allow the company to test the responses of consumers before putting new products on the shelves. P&G has 23 worldwide brands with sales of more than $1 billion each, including such brands as Ariel and Dash detergent, Mr. Clean, Pampers disposable diapers, Gillette razors, Head & Shoulders shampoo, Duracell batteries and Braun electronic products.

P&G was originally founded in 1830s in Cincinnati by William Procter, a candle-maker, and James Gamble, a soap-maker. Since then, P&G has grown to become one of the biggest corporations in the world with annual sales of more than $76 billion and 138,000 employees. Geneva is a major regional headquarters for the P&G, overseeing its operations in 127 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Philips to acquire Lighting firm Genlyte Group

2007-11-27T10:49:00.000-08:00

Royal Philips Electronics based in Amsterdam announced that it would acquire the Genlyte Group for $2.7 billion. Genlyte, based in Louisville, Ky., makes lighting fixtures used mostly by companies. Philips said Genlyte had sales of around $1.7 billion in the 12 months ended Sept. 30. Genlyte’s work force is about 6,700 employees of which 6,500 are in the US.

According to Philips, the acquisition would reinforce its position in energy-efficient lighting. The acquisition would also allow it to surpass General Electric (GE) as the largest lighting company in North America. Philips hoped to sell new products, chiefly L.E.D.’s, (light-emitting diodes) to Genlyte customers.

Philips acquired Boston based L.E.D. maker, Color Kinetics in June for $688 million. In 2005, Philips acquired Agilent Technology’s half of their L.E.D. joint venture, LumiLeds, for $1 billion.

Expected lower costs of producing L.E.D.’s and with other advantages like being more energy-efficient and long lasting, L.E.D.’s will gradually replace both incandescent and fluorescent lights.

For More…read…
“Philips to Pay $2.7 Billion for Lighting Firm, The Associated Press, Nov 27, 2007.

Wal-Mart and The Salvation Army Partner

2007-11-26T12:27:00.000-08:00

Wal-mart, the largest retailer in the US announced its continued support for the nonprofit organization, The Salvation Army this holiday Christmas season. Wal-mart raised $30 million last season for The Salvation Army in red kettles outside Wal-Mart and Sam's Club locations.

Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott, will present The Salvation Army with a $1 million check on behalf of the Wal-Mart Foundation. In April this year, The Salvation Army honoured Wal-Mart with its Evangeline Booth Award for excellence in corporate philanthropy. Last year, Wal-Mart gave more than $270 million to local communities in the United States showing its continued committment to a philosophy of giving back locally.

For more read...

"Wal-Mart Partners With The Salvation Army to Ring in the Christmas Season,
PR Newswire. 11.26.07