In every creative field—be it a scientist working in a laboratory, a journalist engaged in field work, an architect, a chef even— there comes a moment when a crossroad appears on the way ahead. The crossroad reveals itself only to the talented. In the case of the scientist or journalist, it will unveil itself to one who consistently produces high quality research himself or herself yet has the empathy to mentor youngsters. Someone who is accepted by peers as one of the best in the chosen area of

Co-founder of SustainAbility in 1987 (Chair from 1995-2005) and Founding Partner & Director of Volans, John Elkington is a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development. In 2004, BusinessWeek described him as “a dean of the corporate responsibility movement for three decades.”

As individuals, we are no less creative than others, yet, as a nation, our innovation output is not up to scratch. Indian techies are the mainstay of most technology organizations, yet India as a country ranks #57 on The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Innovation Index. In my recent book From Jugaad to Systematic Innovation: The Challenge for India, I explain this paradox and propose an agenda for change.

Understanding your ‘boss baggage’ frees you from acting automatically from a fear-based position and into discovering a reality-based approach to handling your boss.

Understanding your ‘boss baggage’ frees you from acting automatically from a fear-based position and into discovering a reality-based approach to handling your boss.

Bill Gates and Sachin Tendulkar were able to script their success stories because of familial support, congenial environment, recognition by peers, timing, opportunity and heritage, and most of all, sadhana.

Most businesses lay emphasis on profit without focusing on customers. The first and last role of an entrepreneur should be passion for customers.

The American businessman and statesman Benjamin Franklin once wrote that ‘time is money’. The words appear in his book Advice to a Young Tradesman, first published in 1748. Over the nearly two and a half centuries since, many people have come to appreciate the wisdom of this statement.

Perhaps no other field of human endeavor leverages dynamism and excitement better than sport. A sharp sporting mind knows when to step on the gas and tear away from competition, and it also knows when to release the pressure and relax, preserving energy for the next bout. But what happens when these attributes need to be fused together to return yields beyond immediate ‘sporting’ goals? How does a dynamic and excited mind deal with the risks that come with reckless speed and uncalculated ambitions in a game that involves as much cunning as skill—the business of sports? The case is written by Puneet Srivastava, with expert comments by Vipin Clement, Talent Development Manager (India Region), Cable&Wireless, a global telecom major.

In this exclusive conversation with The Smart Manager, based on his book, Reorganize for Resilience, Professor Ranjay Gulati, Jaime and Josefina Chua Tiampo Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, talks about how companies must adopt the outside-in approach to survive and stay ‘out’ of the jaws of commodity hell.

India and China are on the road to becoming the next economic superpowers. However, both must face a slew of challenges before they actually set about reshaping the world economic order.

Innovative thinking is not about pontificating on highly theoretical concepts and wasting a lot of money. It is a means of searching for and implementing a better way. That’s it. Nothing more

While Ford is credited with having invented the assembly line, what is less known is that this was but one outcome of their ‘price first’ innovation strategy. In a sense, innovation encompasses many things; it’s not just about superior products but also about enabling a larger number of people to enjoy the benefits of these products. Significantly, innovation is about change and yet, the more things change, the more they remain the same…

In a world where working market definitions often tend to be simplistic, managers must train themselves to look beyond what is conventional in order to tap fresh, new business opportunities.

Not surprisingly, a well received column and an essential The Smart Manager staple goes on to form the foundation of a recently published book. How did the column come about? What made it so enjoyable, so consistently readable? We attempt to find out.

Too many companies adopt a superfluous approach to ethics, disregardful of the fact that ethics is not about ‘looking good’ but critical for the survival of businesses at large.

Macro economic trends currently favour Indian businesses looking to grow internationally. Focusing on their communications is one area where they can improve their chances of success.

"Most governments are in hot pursuit of growth or soft landing policies to lessen the effects of recession and financial crisis. Spending in research and development (R&D) and the innovation it brings is often a target for growth. But what can be learned from China’s economic miracle, with scant R&D spending? SMU Cox Professor Maria Minniti and co-author Moren Lévesque shatter some myths about entrepreneurs, innovation and the growth of an economy – with lessons for policymakers."

The author of five books including LETS Make it Happen: a backgrounder on New Economics, Rajni Bakshi is a leading name in research on sustainable development. In this exclusive conversation with The Smart Manager, Bakshi speaks of her optimism about the West, her fears about India’s boorish resistance to knowledge, her respect for Spielberg, and how we must pay our ecological debt to the adivasi in Jharkhand – a grid as fascinating as any reckoning with the society vs market debate ought to be.

Should India view the global downturn as an opportunity for changing the way it does business, even as it pauses to focus on hitherto neglected aspects of the economy?

A recession means never having the chance to say you’re sorry. If you’re incharge of driving through one, software ‘dashboards’ are tools you may want to explore.

Failures almost always warrant critical analysis, but successes are never evaluated. K R Senthilvelkumar begs to differ.

"In times of financial crisis, companies should take a differentiated approach to managing trade credit. Instead of squeezing payments of suppliers, they would benefit by engaging in dialogue with the suppliers and arriving at a mutually satisfactory solution. This will not only ward off supply chain disruptions but will also generate goodwill and underline interest in the relationship."

Most managers spend most of their time dealing with short term pressures. However, firms and managers that focus entirely on the short term are in danger of becoming entirely reactive to events around them. They are no longer really in control of their own destiny. And decisions that may have looked right at the time may prove to be costly errors in the long run. Morgen Witzel explains the advantages of planning for the long term.

"Acts of terrorism have been affecting life in many parts of India for some time now. In recent years a new threat has also evolved in the form of orchestrated vandalism under the disguise of political or social protests. Many of these activities are disrupting businesses and affecting ordinary citizens. Given this scenario, what options do businesses such as Her Corporation – a nationwide retail chain - have for safeguarding its business interests, assets and people?"

It’s rare for managers, faculty, politicians and bureaucrats to be on the same page at the same time, but the recognition that design can enhance India’s competitiveness at every level has brought them together. Everyone is now looking at what the National Design Policy will deliver.

Worried about the slowdown? Don’t be. Simply follow these six steps to a bright future.

Design can change the future of India but our approach to design must change, urges NID’s former director, Darlie O Koshy. He outlines five steps to convert potential into concrete reality.

“Countering terrorism requires planning and strategic design,” says Major General Itzhak Eitan, a well known expert in anti-terrorism warfare.

A Gazelle or a firm which grows at 20% a year for at least four years in a row must cultivate certain winning habits…

Sanyal presents a fresh perspective on the story of India’s rise in the recent past

The International Business Division (IBD) of the Indian Tobacco Company (ITC) was in danger of being pushed into extinction…

Must Attend offers frameworks and processes to help CFOs contribute more to strategy development and value creation in their organization.

"If companies get it right, sustainability can be an important source of competitive advantage for them," advocates Morgen Witzel.

Is it possible to fight commoditization and win? Yes, says Kamran Kashani. If you can discover new opportunities to offer customers compellingly differentiated values aka values that they are willing to pay a premium for

The Smart Manager pays a tribute to Randy Pausch, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon, who passed away on July 25, 2008 out of complications from pancreatic cancer

“Increasingly, competitive advantage can be built or lost outside of markets,” says Professor David Bach, who was recently identified as a ‘future guru’ in the select Thinkers 50 list

"Market myths and conventional wisdom can lead business strategy astray," according to Brinner

A housing construction company wants to enter the infrastructure area but does it have the competencies to build ports, roads and airports?

Is success all about good management - or does history play a role too? The 60th anniversary of India's Independence seems a good time to ask this question. By Gita Piramal.

A recent dip stick survey of the quality of management education across key cities in India uncovered some uncomfortable facts.

“No great company becomes better without a clear articulation of leadership,” says Muthuraman, Managing Director of Tata Steel. Under his leadership, Tata Steel has established best practices, improve the brand and chase growth aggressively. As it readies for the future, KK Verma asks Muthuraman how it will create the next generation of leaders.

Power should not trickle down only vertically, but horizontally too. But beware of how you go about it, says Morgen Witzel.

“Hand him fish and you've fed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you've fed him for a lifetime.” The NGO, SEED/HiH has in 22 months set up 110,000 women with 10,000 micro-enterprises. Its five-year goal is to organize 1.5mn women and create 1.5mn jobs in Tamil Nadu, India.

While most of the marketing functions and almost all marketing activities in an organization have historically fallen to the divisional and SBUs, more firms are enhancing the role of marketing at the corporate level, says the leading profession of marketing, London Business School

Service excellence is about providing impeccable service to the customers that often exceed their expectations and make them an ardent fan of the company. Dabashis Sarkar identifies the elements of service excellence chain.

What is more important: Sales or Profit? If you think this is a foolish chicken and egg question, take a look at how world class companies do their sums, says Kellogg's School of Management Professor, Bala V Balachandran.

Forget mass advertising. Multi-channel marketing is the only way to attract today's fickle yet knowledgeable customers says the one of the world's foremost designers of data based promotions.

"Good companies will meet needs, great companies will create markets," says Philip Kotler, the guru of marketing. That's useful advice for Indian managers as they gear up to face global managers used to fighting in tougher markets than India. So what should you do? Read on ….

“Successful first-movers can, if they follow up their initial success, dominate their markets for years to come. But many first-movers fail,” says the leading management historian. Learn as Witzel explains the reasons for failure.

How companies can convert employees into brand ambassadors? Learn as Kevin & Jackie Freiberg, authors ‘Nuts’ and ‘Guts’, tell the story of how Southwest Airlines attracts and retains world class talent through its unique culture.

Kaikaku aims at a spectacular improvement in a short period of time in a focused area using a dedicated team. Dabashis Sarkar outlines the fives step approach which will help managers easily adopt this improvement tools.

Partnering with NGOs is not easy. But smart firms see opportunities where others see only threats. NGOs can be both, and the key is to leverage the upside and to mitigate the downside.

In an organization, conflict situations arise continually. This can be controlled, limited and sometimes even averted when personality is removed, says the vice chairman and managing director of Essel Propack.

How can innovation be nurtured in organizations that are already established and successful? That is the focus of Professor Vijay Govindrajan’s research.

Many companies adopt industry best practice to stay competitive. But high performing companies do more: they embrace unique ‘signature processes’ reflecting their values. It is these signature processes that engender energy that facilitates high performance.

People's cultural backgrounds influence their assumptions about how work and interactions with other people should proceed. Learn as IMD's Maznevski and Stefano provide a tool for understanding management behavior across cultures.

Quality, which so far has been a compliance and certification game, will suddenly propel itself into an enabler for business performance. And practitioners of quality will have to rise and get ready for the changes.

Society mistrusts managers and companies are on the verge of losing their legitimacy. “We are in a negative cycle due to bad management theories and thus we need to rebuild management theory,” says Sumantra Ghoshal.

Individuals become leaders either by accident or design. However in order to be effective they should have the drive, ability and constitution,” says Prof. Nigel Nicholson.

Charismatic leadership is a double edged sword. The forces that produce the very strengths of the leader may also give rise to the shadow side of charisma. Hence charismatic leaders must endeavor to develop a greater reflective capacity.

What makes leaders special; and why are there so few world class companies in India? The first question relates to the very nature of leadership. The second question is particularly relevant in India's changing business scenario.

Are you looking for specific and measurable media to calculate the impact of a new promotion? Use online advertising, advises the leading professor of marketing from the London Business School.

Traditional costing methods are being replaced by a new system. The new 'ABC' of accounting stands for activity based costing. It is a complex approach but when executed well, can give an accurate picture of product costs.

Are you planning to execute an improvement project in your organization? Then define the project criteria first. Incomplete definition of comprehensive project criteria is one of the key reasons why improvements fail to deliver value.

Making an international joint venture successful encompass managing a multiplicity of relationships. IMD’s Professor Bettina Büchel explains some of the most successful types of managing relationships.

The leading professor of leadership development from the Harvard Business School explains the effectiveness of strategy maps in drawing up a balanced scorecard and outlines five principles behind the creation of a successful strategy.

"80% of business outcomes are generated by 20% of activity. A leading management historian explains the concept of 80-20 rule, a valuable tool that helps managers to identify core customers and business.

To improve your profits, make cost a core competency. Define your drivers of profitability and don't monitor everything. Just ten numbers will be enough, B Balachandra the leading professor of accounting, Kellogg School of Management tells Gita Piramal.

80% of new projects fail due to execution problems. Here is a user’s guide for better implementation. Professor, Xavier Gilbert, IMD presents a user's guide that should help increase your chances of success.

Process management is a key role of organizational leadership and companies should invest sufficient time to reap its benefits. Debashis Sarkar, deputy general manager, ICICI Bank explains how to achieve excellence in business processes by focusing on elements that are often neglected.

Whenever there is a whiff of company corruption in the air, the French detain their corporate elite for questioning, the Americans wonder when the sex angle is going to emerge and the British commission a new report on the role and effectiveness of non executive directors

To be a strong leader on the run, you need a robust but quick method for diagnosing the critical elements for overall success. As a leader, you must see clearly what must be done and then ensure that others see it too, says Preston Bottger

Why do some firms excel at international development while others fail? Philip Rosenzweig explains the importance of devising the right strategy to enter new markets.

Thinking about a strategic alliance with your competitor: how deep a relationship do you want? Read Peter Killing’s advise on the type of alliance that will suit you the best.

Avoid miscommunication. Many conflict situations arise from miscommunication between people who have different ways of seeing the same thing. Martha Maznevski & Joseph DiStefano outline three basic principles of successful interaction

Are your old strategies failing to attract customers? Kamran Kashani advises on how to break with the past and create customer intimacy to win back customer.

How can you achieve significant growth in mature and highly competitive markets? Kamran Kashani outlines the advantages of brand innovation

Bosses stimulate better performance, improving working life and job satisfaction. To get better rewards give your boss a hand advises Jacques Horovitz

Do your people believe in the product or service they sell? Dominique Turpin explains how this could be the key differentiating factor between excellent and okay performance

Be your vendor’s most attractive customer and enhance your competitiveness. Carlos Cordón & Thomas E Vollmann provide tips on how to be your vendor’s most attractive customer and enhance your competitiveness

Morgen Witzel explains the concept of clusters, an economic phenomenon that sees large numbers of firms in related industries group together in a small area.

What are the skills that managers need to succeed in today's volatile global business scenario? What should b-schools do to deliver more value to their customers? A survey conducted by the London Business School reveals some home truths….

Hellmut Schütte, Dean Asia Campus, Insead digs into his rich experiences to share his view on a range of subjects. From whether there is a one-size-fits-all suit for management education to whether management education is keeping pace with the changing times.

Is your company treating ‘bad news’ as ‘good news’? Recent events have shown that information manipulation can cost a company dearly. But just what can the leadership do to ensure that red is seen as red?

Process improvements seldom happen by accident. They are an integral part of all quality programs. Debashis Sarkar argues that a well thought out plan must incorporate the ‘ACCEPT’ principles.

Do you really know what your customers want or are you giving them too much of what they don’t want? What ’better’ things are you doing to outclass your competitors? Increase customer loyalty by delivering the basics says Seán Meehan, Martin Hilti Professor of Marketing and Change Management, IMD.

Nursing a global ambition? Learn before you take the leap. Donald N Sull outlines a three step action plan for Indian companies with global ambitions.

For many organizations the number of complaints is a measure of the effectiveness of their quality processes and systems. Unfortunately this assumption is flawed. Debashis Sarkar explains the 5As of a complaint management system.

It is important to reduce the hype about teams. Thomas Lauda says, "Throw out the notion of 'building' the team. You cannot build authenticity that links people, and links you with the performance of others.

How long and how hard should an employee work in order to get a particular job done? Morgen Witzel explains the time and motion study tool for measuring the efficiency of work process and employees.

In an interview with Gita Piramal, Michael J Enright, Sun Hung Kai Professor, Hong Kong University explains, "For companies to take advantage of globalization they should figure out the optimal place in the world, slice up activities and locate each in its optimum location, tying it all up with modern information technology and management systems".

Special Advisor to UN Secretary General on Millennium Development Goals, Jeffrey Sachs says, "If India manages its economy properly, it will have one fourth the per capita income of the USA, resulting in an economy bigger than the US". Read on for more of his views in this discussion with Gita Piramal, Rajesh Jain & Atanu Dey.

Purchasing today is too important to be left to the purchasing department. Be the most attractive customer to your key suppliers and reap the rewards. IMD Professors Carlos Cordón and Thomas E Vollmann outline five easy steps to develop supplier 'attractivity'.

It is important that a family asks itself whether it is a family in a specific business or a family in business together. This is one way to avoid future discord, say Anthony Brewis and Simon Evans of Nean Wealth Advisors International.

Bright ideas can disappear into thin air before you know it. How can you convert them into cash when the suggestion box is dead. IMD professors William A Fischer & Andrew Boynton describes how to capitalize them.

Your company’s corporate identity should reflect your company’s value and should strike an emotional chord in your customers’ mind. If not, it becomes just an image and is not oriented towards corporate goals. Shombit Sengupta, the founder of Shinning Emotional Surplus, tells us how they created Wipro’s new “Rainbow Flower logo using the ‘Emotional Surplus’ strategy.

People feel better and work better when they know what their colleagues and bosses feel about their work. Morgen Witzel examines the popular HR tool, the 360 degree feedback which can make all the difference between a raise and resignation.

What can a CEO do to improve organizational performance when you cannot hire and fire? Not much, most would say. Yet Raghunath Anant Mashelkar, Director General, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has turned conventional wisdom on its head with the turnaround of India’s apical scientific research institution.

If you want international growth, you have to build these five capabilities says IMD professor Philip Rosenzweig

Right product, wrong price? Right place, wrong positioning? Don’t be caught out. Instead, watch your four Ps!. A guide for savvy marketers.

New research shows that when employee relationships are adult-to-adult rather than parent-to-child, companies cope better with competitive pressures. So how do you build this more agile and more flexible organization.

In the last of this three part series on HR issues and globalization, Kumar Mangalam Birla focuses on two pertinent questions, “We are a country of over a billion people, about one-sixth of humanity. Do Indians constitute the universe of talented people in equal proportion? And are we doing everything we can to help people be the best they can be?

Companies must learn to police themselves if they are not to lose their legitimacy and credibility in the eyes of society, warns Kumar Mangalam Birla, head of one of India's largest business houses

How well do you understand the dominant needs of those around you in the workplace, or what motivates them? Morgen Witzel studies the hierarchy of needs and how it is beneficial for marketers.

Stresses and strains in a family business arise from three hot buttons, reveals Manish Kejriwal & Vijay Mehra in a McKinsey study of fifteen Indian business families. What are these hot buttons?

Companies must learn to police themselves if they are not to lose their legitimacy and credibility in the eyes of society, warns Kumar Mangalam Birla, head of one of India's largest business houses.

Thinking of handing out a free service as an add-on value? Stop! When you give away a service for free, you could end up loosing customers to your competitors besides making your business unprofitable. Watch those guarantees!

How does your customer react to your advertising? Morgen Witzel explains how AIDA can help you improve your advertising campaign.

The CEO’s job is becoming harder by the day. How can you make it easier. Liz Mellon, an expert in leadership development with a special focus on the role of experiential learning, shows the way.

What work should a CEO concentrate on? People? Strategy? Shareholder value? None of the above come even close to the true answer. “The challenges a CEO faces have changed, so also the job. It is today more unstructured than earlier,” explains Kumar Mangalam Birla.

More than half the money spent on advertising is wasted. How can you improve your ROI (return on investment) and get more sales for less rupees? In a candid conversation with The Smart Manager, John Philip Jones reveals practical tips and advice on how to stop waste in advertising.

The relationship with your boss is probably the most important relationship you have at work. Boss management can stimulate better performance; improve your working life, job satisfaction, and workload. Give your boss a hand and reap the rewards.

Much has been written about how companies can go from good to great, but the reality is that most companies go from good to bad. Donald N Sull explains why highly successful companies fail to adapt to changing business environment.

CRM or customer relationship management is taught at most b-schools. But do teachers practice what they preach? “It’s a key strategy at ICFAI,” stressed A V Vedpuriswar, Dean of the ICFAI Knowledge Centre, Hyderabad.

There’s a huge invisible global market which modern marketing has ignored. Change your perspective and strategies to convert these invisible markets into visible returns exhorts Vijay Mahajan.

All human beings are driven by four basic needs say Nitin Nohria and Paul R Lawrence, two Harvard-based professors. Talent will always be attracted to companies with organizational cultures that nourish these needs. So what are these four drives and what would an ideal organization look like?

How does your company compare with others? What is ‘benchmarking’? Morgen Witzel explains the concept .

What should be the role of b-schools? To merely teach Western management practices from American text books? Or encourage graduates to become socially aware activists, able to help the organizations they work in to become useful local knowledge community centers? Ashutosh P Bhupatkar explains his vision of a new and radical form of management education for India.

Is your organization performing as well as it could? How long has it been since you measured its competencies? A guide to corporate conditioning by Alankar Karpe.

innovation is like virtue: most of us would like more like more of it but don’t know how to get it. By Morgen Witzel

The metal business needs to transform itself. Raj Bagri suggests a road map.

A cautious activist, Laura Tyson is all set to shake up the London Business School. What are her plans?

Companies spend huge amounts of time and money on becoming more efficient. But what is ‘efficiency’? Morgen Witzel explains the concept.

Lynda Gratton and her team monitored five companies for ten years to understand in-depth how organization cope with change. Armed with this path breaking research, Gratton shatters some basic myths about time

A fresh, vibrant culture is developing at HR college. Giving it a boost is its progressive Principal, Indu Shahani, who like her students enjoys music, dance and partying.

What do our CEOs think about their peers? Generally they are coy about speaking their mind in public. Here Davinder S Brar, CEO and Managing Director of Ranbaxy Laboratories, analyzes which Indian companies are world class and why.

Quality or quantity? Merit or equity? India’s university system is in turmoil and management speak is seeping into academia. A report by Arun Kumar Jain on a vice chancellor’s retreat at IIM-Lucknow.

Companies routinely exaggerate the attractiveness of foreign markets and that can lead to expensive mistakes. But can the impact of distance on business plans be measured: by Pankaj Ghemawat

In a world where knowledge is power and human capital supreme, technically India should be among the top ten nations in the world. But it is not. N R Naranaya Murthy proposes four tangible solutions.