What role do luck and chance play in a success story? Not much. While luck is dicey, success can be achieved by the disciplined application of certain simple and time-tested processes.

It could be a scene straight out of a comic strip. Except that the characters look too perfect to be called cartoons. And then you watch them, as the story unfolds. We bring you a behind-the-scenes account of the brilliant ZooZoo campaign, straight from the horse’s mouth.

On a philosophical plane, selling financial news may appear as an attempt to make credible what is essentially a speculative business. How does India’s first international business news joint-venture negotiate this challenge?

In an industry that is known for its king sized egos, Sam Balsara’s story is a refreshing lesson on how a down to earth and self effacing approach can catapult an organization into the big league.

Ramesh Iyengar waxes eloquent about his lifelong tryst with direct marketing and putting the customer on center stage…

Recently I read an article titled “The Trouble with Brands” in the Summer 2009 online issue of “strategy + business” which highlighted the decline in the value of brands to consumers. The article interested me since I had, for some time, begun to wonder if the era of brands was on the wane and what, if anything, could be done about it. One answer, as provided by the authors John Gerzema and Ed Labar, may lie in ‘energized differentiation’ by brands. The authors say that consumers sense that high-energy brands have vision and are more experiential and responsive. Therefore, such brands enjoy greater loyalty, pricing power and brand value as a percentage of firm value.

Six starry eyed NID graduates dared to walk the road less traveled. Here is how they successfully tamed the ‘Elephant’.

Zee led the entertainment revolution in India with its enticing mix of songs and movies. However it stumbled in the early 2000s. As the Indian media group makes a recover and once again inches up the ratings to threaten the multinationals, The Smart Manager spoke to Subhash Chandra about the events which shaped him and his determination to succeed.

“The emergence of a new distribution channel will always cause disruption and shift in the marketplace. Before switching over from the old to the new managers should assess how the new channel will affect their companies existing channels, customers and competitors,” says the leading professor of marketing from the London Business School.

“Any question that has even the tiniest element of measurement in it, is going to create problems of trying to deliver the impossible,” says Benjamin Zander, the author of the best selling book, The Art of Possibility.

Multinational companies are breathing down your neck. Indian companies need to learn how to be competitive to succeed. Professor George Yip, London Business School explains the positions that emerging market companies can adopt in the open economy. Get ready to globalize.

“You never know enough, the consumer is always there to help you know better and more," believes Agarwal. He relives the transformation of the Dainik Bhaskar group

We have more than 40 channels across the world. And everywhere we want to be perceived as a local brand, says Charles Chau. Stay tuned as he reveals his secrets.

Subhash Chandra journeyed twice through the valley of death, in 1996 and 2002. He explains the similarities and the differences, and the impact on Zee TV.

CEOs are always under fire from forensic analysts and hungry stakeholders, but even the Ambani brothers don’t have to endure the burning, raw red hot spotlight that beams relentlessly on Sourav Ganguly, India’s cricket captain. Why is the shy Bengali with the big maharaja attitude a good leader?

Conventional wisdom talks of economies of scale. But in today’s world, perhaps we should be looking at economies of learning and knowledge says Sir Martin Sorrell, founder of one of the world’s largest advertising groups.

Ranjan Banerjee takes a look at ‘the learning organization’ and the management gurus who evolved the concept.

Senior vice president at Star and controller of programming of Star’s classic movie channel, the 32-year old decides which move we are going to see tonight, by Radhika Piramal.

When one program is hugely successful, what strategies can rival broadcasters pursue? Here’s a fresh look at what Sony, Star and Zee ought to be doing. By Bharat Anand