D.Murali

Chennai: The best opportunities are often close to home, says Peter Fisk in ‘Business Genius’ (www.wileyeurope.com). “When looking to grow, adjacent markets can offer the easiest, fastest and lowest-risk opportunities,” he suggests.

Blame it on the blinkered vision of managers, but it is common to find companies looking far before they look near, when considering geographical markets, Fisk rues.

His message is simple, therefore: consider entering a market nearby, with a similar culture, language or climate, before trying to conquer the US, or China. Also, before investing in new technological developments, “consider easier options such as adapting a men’s product for women, or a gift version of an everyday object.”

Where to compete is the first of the three components of a business strategy, the author proposes. “Focus can be further clarified by defining where not to compete, particularly when prioritisation reduces market scope.”

The other two components are ‘how to compete’ (that is, a clear articulation of market position relative to the key competitors), and ‘what to do’ (defining the way the organisation will sell its products and services).

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Communication illiteracy

It is common knowledge that only some CEOs do brilliantly when communicating and managing public perception, while the vast majority doesn’t. The roots of the problem are deep, discovers William J. Holstein in ‘Manage the Media’ (www.tatamcgrawhill.com).

“Most executives are not skilled at communicating with the media and don’t enjoy it. They often have put the wrong people in place to manage the public relations function because they have difficulty in identifying the right set of skills.”

The author bemoans that corporate boards don’t normally place a high priority on communications skills when hiring a CEO. He cites Spencer Stuart, an executive search firm, for the alarming finding – that not a single CEO of a Fortune 500 company has had significant job experience in media or public relations.

The normal pattern is that CEOs work their way up the ladder through engineering, finance, sales, manufacturing, or other routes, Holstein reasons. “The best CEOs today are those who have had years of experience in several of these silos inside the corporation so that they can speak the language of the different warring tribes. But not communications.”

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Collaborative logistics

Not too long ago, retailers were merely the passive recipients of manufacturers’ products, allocated to stores by the manufacturers in anticipation of demand. In contrast, today’s retailers are the active controllers of product supply in reaction to known customer demand, say Kerstin Gustafsson, Gunilla Jönson, David Smith and Leigh Sparks in ‘Retailing Logistics & Fresh Food Packaging: Managing Change in the Supply Chain’ (www.vivagroupindia.com).

Now, retailers control, organise, and manage the supply chain from production to consumption, and this is the essence of the retail logistics transformation that has taken place, the authors add.

As channel captains who set the pace in logistics, “retailers are now attempting to engender a more cooperative and collaborative stance in many aspects of logistics.” Reason: they realise that efficiency gains are currently possible “as channel gains (i.e. in association with manufacturers and logistics services providers) rather than at the single-firm level.”