Engler Named Business Roundtable CEO

WASHINGTON—National Association of Manufacturers President John Engler has been appointed chief executive of the Business Roundtable, a group of leaders of the nation's biggest multinational companies, often tapped to advise the White House on policy.
Mr. Engler, a former Republican governor of Michigan and friend of George W. Bush, will be succeeded at the manufacturers' group by its executive vice president, Jay Timmons, a former Republican staffer and fund-raiser.
Mr. Engler, 62 years old, succeeds John Castellani, who had tried to work with the Obama administration on the stimulus, health care, cap-and-trade and other initiatives.
The twin appointments place GOP-leaning leaders at the helm of the capital's three most influential business groups: the Roundtable, NAM and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Medvedev joins scramble for India’s business

Like his peers, Mr Medvedev heavily promoted the complementary nature of his economy to India and pushed for a “modern” engagement across sectors including pharmaceuticals, defence and space technology.“I believe that trade between us does not nearly reflect our privileged partnership,” Mr Medvedev observed. “India is a comfortable partner especially in energy.”
He and Manmohan Singh, India’s 78-year-old prime minister who enjoys a high international standing as a statesman and a development economist, agreed a target of doubling bilateral trade to $20bn within five years to re-energise deep ties forged in the decades after India's independence

These now face competition from warming relationships with western powers, and the regional dominance of the Chinese economy.
Mr Obama, in a warmly received address to India’s parliament, described India as “emerged” rather than an emerging power and market.
They have also addressed India’s concerns about security in south Asia, and the threat of extremism from Pakistan and Afghanistan.

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Medvedev joins scramble for India’s business

Barack Obama, the US president, left India with more than $10bn worth of deals to help create jobs at home; Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, this week claimed $16bn worth of new business in a global scramble to do business with one of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

In return, the leaders of the United Nations Permanent Five countries have offered recognition of India’s standing as the world’s largest democracy and pledged their support for India playing a greater role in multilateral institutions, particularly a future seat at the UN Security Council.

Describing Moscow as a “major energy power”, Mr Medvedev on Tuesday stressed Russia’s role as a key energy supplier and an uncompromising stand on terror to single out his visit from the overtures of others. Among 15 agreements, he signed a pact to align India’s oil and gas companies with powerful Russian state-owned energy companies, like Gazprom, and an agreement to supply two nuclear reactors.

 

 

Medvedev joins scramble for India’s business

Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s president, has closed a remarkable chapter in Indian diplomacy during which five of the world’s most powerful leaders have flocked in quick succession to New Delhi seeking new business and closer political alignment.
The leaders of the UK, US, France and China preceded Mr Medvedev’s arrival on Tuesday with strong bids to take advantage of India’s fast-growing economy and give greater recognition to the country’s rising global stature.

Accompanied by some of their largest business delegations, they have struck deals to supply India with energy and military equipment. They have also sought ways to integrate Asia’s third-largest economy more fully into the world economy, and promoted its role in the governance of the global financial system.

Are you networking with the right people?

I met someone last week at one of my regular networking groups. When he explained what he did I advised him that the group may not be great for him and his business. He sold cosmetics and the group was made up of professionals and providers of business services.

He said, rightly, that everyone there either used or knew people that used the types of products he sold. I said that was true, but they were all there because they shared the same target market. They were not selling directly to consumers of domestic products so the best network for him would be with others selling directly to the same domestic consumers.

Successful networking is all about building relationships with the right people. A good place to start when selecting a networking group is to find one where the other members sell to the same target market as you.

Good Networking!

Dave Clarke

Something about Tata

Noel N. Tata has been one of the most reclusive business honchos in India. And he insists that it's his nature that makes him that way-and not a desire to keep a low profile. To our pleasant surprise, we found Tata an extremely engaging conversationalist, as he went about debunking common theories and wisdom about organised retail- a business he lives and breathes. Excerpts from his first full-length interview:

BT: But if your competition has 100 hypermarkets and you have 12, then he can call the shots?
NT: It's not that straightforward. Even at 100 hypermarkets, you will have less than 1 per cent of the large vendors' turnover. Scale alone does not bring profitability. If you have six or eight or 10 players all growing-they are all getting scale as well. If one of them decides that I am going to pass on my better margin to the customer, what do you do? You have to do the same and then that margin would disappear. Along with scale, customer service, location, pricing, product mix, availability are extremely important. If a customer comes with 100 items to buy and he only walks away with 60, he won't come back.

BT: One often wonders why Croma was created outside Trent. There's a perception that Bombay House felt Trent wasn't moving fast enough.
NT: At the time Croma was envisaged, we had our hands full with our own expansions. We had expansion plans for Landmark (books and music), expansion plans for hypermarkets as well as for Westside. Also, consumer durables (which is what Croma retails) is a completely different business. So, it was the right decision (to have Croma outside Trent). It possibly wouldn't have grown as fast as it has if Trent had tried to start it as another retail format. We are doing something else in the lifestyle area (with Westside). My sense is that it's only in India that retail is considered one industry. Nowhere in the world is the gamut of retail considered one industry. You don't treat manufacturing as one industry. You have cement, or automobiles or steel, each having its own competencies, each having its own quirks… so why does media or analysts treat retail as one industry? Also, the DNA of an organisation selling luxury is very different from the DNA of an organisation selling value.


BT: But your pace of expansion would seem slow…
NT: Our view is that retail, which appears on the surface to be a simple business, in reality is not. It is a business in which details are extremely important, where the front end needs to treat the customer as an individual even as the back end needs to be able to procure in bulk and get economies of scale… We grow our formats in stages. In Stage I, we open a pilot store to check customer reaction. In Stage II, we open 3-10 more stores to check for location advantage/disadvantage and for further fine-tuning to get a line of sight to profitability. Only once we are confident that the format can deliver profitability do we go in for further expansion.

Something about Tata

Noel N. Tata has been one of the most reclusive business honchos in India. And he insists that it's his nature that makes him that way-and not a desire to keep a low profile. To our pleasant surprise, we found Tata an extremely engaging conversationalist, as he went about debunking common theories and wisdom about organised retail- a business he lives and breathes. Excerpts from his first full-length interview:

BT: So, do you feel you have done enough with Trent or you could have moved faster?
NT: Our aim has always been profitable growth. We have pursued growth with profits rather than growth for the sake of it. You must also remember that we were a publicly listed company when we started, compared to many others who were or still are private companies in their growth phase. We had thousands of shareholders. We have never missed a dividend in all these years.

BT: Do you think some of the first movers have inherent advantages because they built their stores when real estate prices were really low?
NT: I think on that particular point, in terms of real estate prices, you are right. Having said that, our view is that if you are in fashion, you are only as good as your last collection. You have to be constantly delivering the right fashion. Being first and then not keeping it up in terms of collections won't keep you in business for a long time. On the hypermarkets side, if you are not first and if you are coming second or third or fourth, you have the ability to see what the competition has done, analyse their weaknesses and develop stores that are superior. I am not so fussed about first mover advantage.

Something about Tata

Noel N. Tata has been one of the most reclusive business honchos in India. And he insists that it's his nature that makes him that way-and not a desire to keep a low profile. To our pleasant surprise, we found Tata an extremely engaging conversationalist, as he went about debunking common theories and wisdom about organised retail- a business he lives and breathes. Excerpts from his first full-length interview:

BT: It's 10 years now that you have been with Trent. What do you see yourself doing in the future?

NT: There is so much more to do now at Trent that there is little time to think about anything else. Usually, I am on a six-and-a-half-day week. The rest is time left for family and often if I have to visit a place like Nashik or Pune to look at a store, a Sunday is the best day to go for it. So, I have little time left after that. And retail is a detailed business-you cannot get away from it. You have to keep revisiting your stores. Even on a holiday I might see a little shop somewhere doing something special and I start thinking-now we can do that, too. This is a business I have a passion for and I feel I am lucky to have had the opportunity to work in this business. Each of the top five players in hypermarkets can build a business worth more than Rs 20,000 crore in the next 20 years.

Something about Tata

Ernest Hemingway famously bestowed the honour of the ugliest word in the language to "retirement." At the House of Tatas, however, retirement has few connotations of revulsion; rather it is being greeted with a well-thoughtout big-picture strategy for succession planning. Ratan N. Tata (72) is slated to hang up his boots in three years but, before that, a clutch of his trusted lieutenants at Tata Sons will be calling it a day. Syamal Gupta (75), RNT's close friend and a Director on Tata Sons (who joined Tata Steel -then Tisco-as a trainee engineer at 21) retired in August 2009. Also likely to take his final bow soon at Tata Sons-the key promoter company of the group-is Vice Chairman N.A. Soonawala (73), one of the most visible faces in the larger Tata companies, as Director on various boards. If two other Tata Sons stalwarts, J.J. Irani (73) and R.K. Krishnakumar (71) also step down by 2011 and 2013, respectively, it would complete a generational shift at Tata Sons.

Something about Tata

Unassuming, minimally-dressed, soft-spoken, and notoriously lowprofile, it's easy for Noel Tata to get lost in a crowd. If you had to do a SWOT on the Trent CEO, count such anonymity as his biggest strength. He can stroll into his retailing formats, take in customer behaviour and accordingly make changes in his merchandising strategy. More excitingly, he can stride into rivals' retailing formats, figure what they're doing right, what they're doing wrong, and accordingly get back to his drawing board.
Year: 2008. Trent decides to flag off its first hypermarket in Bangalore, in Koramangala. The location: Some 500 yards away from where a competitor has set up a similar format. This, according to the industry buzz, is one of the rival's star performers. Noel decides to pay a visit. He walks in and quickly soaks up its advantages-the location is immaculate, and every product is stacked in a manner that pleases the eye.