Look closely and you will find a smart idea at the heart of any successful, smart brand. However, the days of building a mega brand based on one smart idea appear long gone…

Vijay Govindrajan expounds upon the concept of “reverse innovation”—the strategy of innovating in emerging markets and then marketing these innovations in developed markets as alternative ideas.

Can excellent service recovery create happier customers than if there was no service failure in the first place? Should managers focus on providing excellent, error-free service upfront instead of relying on service recovery later? This article delves deeper into the service recovery paradox to uncover certain truths...

Can excellent service recovery create happier customers than if there was no service failure in the first place? Should managers focus on providing excellent, error-free service upfront instead of relying on service recovery later? This article delves deeper into the service recovery paradox to uncover certain truths...

Contrary to popular perception mass customization is not about achieving a Utopian state, where the company creates or produces goods or services to order.

Success in a fashion led business is a magical mixture of good design, a deep understanding of the brand and what it represents, continuous interaction with consumers to spot trends, seamless processes to allow swift design-to-market production, besides a forensic eye on costs and inventory control as the Titan case study illustrates.

From an R&D support center for a mainframe systems company, Tata Elxsi has metamorphosed into a provider of comprehensive design solutions for customers across verticals and across boundaries

A pioneer in the Indian non-stick cookware market, Nirlep understood that if it had to introduce non-stick technology in India it had to adapt to the Indian way of cooking which was very traditional.

To meet the challenge of designing and developing fifty new products every year for both homes and offices, Godrej Interio taps young international and Indian freelance designers for fresh and innovative design ideas.

Ergo, India’s premier office furniture manufacturer, puts design at the heart of its business and has developed sophisticated processes for customer led design

Deepika Jindal, the CEO of Art d’ inox, has established an organization where design is the primary driver of business. A pioneer in stainless steel lifestyle product design in India, her company, Art d’inox, literally stands for ‘the art of stainless steel.’

As every manager knows, there is no single road to success. Experience can however inform us of what works and does not work. In this special issue, The Smart Manager presents ten best practices from some outstanding design led companies.

A globalized world has resulted in changing the relationship between a parent company and its subsidiaries. In an exclusive with The Smart Manager, Vikram Sakhuja Group M ,CEO, South Asia, talks about how Group M serves its companies as incubator and collaborator.

A chaotic world buzzing with tens of hundreds of media and entertainment choices poses a real challenge in terms of engineering meaningful brand engagement with consumers. Gowthaman talks about how MindShare is going about achieving the task.

"New research on brand extension indicates that reasons for failure are not new and always point in the same direction: limited differentiation and value for consumers, too many me-toos; not enough brand building, too much brand borrowing, and too much brand milking," says IMD's Professor of Strategy and Marketing, Dominique Turpin

“The service process needs to be synchronized with the service task and the service standards so that the service encounter remains pleasurable for all concerned,” says IMD’s Professor Roger Schmenner.

In a public service organization, steeped in tradition and customs, it is difficult to implement modern procedures to improve customer satisfaction. Find out how in a popular pilgrimage town in India, the temple management used a combination of process orientation and information technology to dramatically change the pilgrims’ waiting experience.

For any corporate social responsibility initiative to succeed, the will and the money aren't enough. In order to succeed factors such as institutionalized listening, involvement, execution and monitoring processes should be as well defined as in any business model.

Technology can become a hindrance instead of an advantage unless it seamlessly integrates the organization with its customers. Ananda Mukerji, CEO and Managing Director of ICICI OneSource describes how his company uses technology to get closer to the customer.

Few companies make it past the first generation. Thomas G Bata, Chairman, BataGroup outlines initiatives taken by his 110 year old company to maintain its leadership position as a market driver.

If you join a family business, you don’t need to look for a job, right? Not always. After graduating from the London School of Economics, Nitin Bhayana returned to Delhi to discover that there was no opening for him.