Most new ventures, largely driven by poorly conceived business plans based on untested assumptions fail. However, there is a better way to launch new ideas—by discovering a business model that really works: a Plan B, which grows out of the original idea, builds on it, and once in place, enables the business to grow rapidly and prosper.

Most new ventures, largely driven by poorly conceived business plans based on untested assumptions fail. However, there is a better way to launch new ideas—by discovering a business model that really works: a Plan B, which grows out of the original idea, builds on it, and once in place, enables the business to grow rapidly and prosper.

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...

During a recession, premium brands may suffer loss of market share at the hands of cut price rivals. What strategy should they adopt to recover ground with the return of good times?

In an exclusive interview to The Smart Manager, Jack Trout, talks about his latest book, "In Search of the Obvious: The Antidote for Today's Marketing Mess", wherein he spells his mantra for marketers as searching for that one obvious differentiating idea rather than adding to the razzmatazz (read clutter) which already surrounds the marketing profession.

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

Why is it that many companies have initiated balanced scorecard programs only to stop short after the very first scorecard? Here is a low down on the essentials of sustaining a balanced scorecard program.

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

"Big moves, in the form of strategic shifts are pivotal points in the history of companies.However the risks of making a catastrophic mis-step cannot be ignored, because research shows that even the most successful companies have undertaken stupid big moves from which they have had difficulty recovering."

The concept of ‘organizational fitness for purpose’ has been around since 1978. Morgen Witzel, deconstructs and discusses the concept in detail…

Future Group, one of India’s leading business houses in the consumption space, uses design management and design led thinking as part of its core decision making framework to develop its consumer-centric business model.

Govind Shrikhande talks about the First Citizens Program

In today's overtly commoditized world, currently practiced sales techniques lie broken and ‘value creation selling’ is the way ahead, Ram Charan says in his latest book, What The Customer Wants You to Know. This book details a new approach to sales – which Charan calls value creation selling; a unique B2B sales process that works on discovering the customer's problem, how that problem affects it, and then seeking a solution that will add revenue to the client company.

Reliance planned to invest $7bn-$8bn in setting up retail stores that would cover 1,500 Indian cities and towns in the country. The company had already hired 6,000 managers for the new business. However despite these dramatic expansion plans, several questions remained.

Industree Crafts Private Limited, a natural fibre craft producer is at a crossroad. Though its products are well positioned vis-a-vis its competitors in the international market, it is unable to accept large export orders due to supply side constraints.

With giants like Wal-Mart and Reliance about to enter the Indian retail market, all eyes are on Pantaloon’s Kishore Biyani on how he will stay ahead of the competition. A sneak preview of the mind behind the strategy.

“The success of IKEA stands on radical innovation in two dimensions: a discontinuous leap in the value proposition and the rapid configuration of a unique value network,” says the leading professor of marketing from London Business School.

"The key to defending your leadership position is to continuously innovate with the proposition," says Urvi Piramal, Vice Chairperson, Piramal Enterprises. Any business for that matter whether traditional or contemporary, has to earn the right to exist.

As distribution channels continue to consolidate on a worldwide basis, the pressure on suppliers will only increase. How well suppliers are able to work with the powerful global members of distribution channel will determine the viability of their firms opines London Business School's Professor Nirmalya Kumar

There is a great deal of value in the concept of core competencies, but it is a mistake to see it as the end goal. They are instead a means by which the company seeks to reach its own goals. Morgen Witzel explains the concept of core competencies, its implications and drawbacks.