Case Study

Harley-Davidson Motor Company: Strategic HR Function 

Sometimes business success poses its own set of challenges. That was the experience of Harley-Davidson, the manufacturer of high-end motorcycles. Having recently celebrated its 100th anniversary as a company, Harley has enjoyed well-earned success in the marketplace. The company is known for the quality of its product and the loyalty of its customer base: Harley enjoys a 98 percent customer retention rate. The workforce, too, is extremely loyal. A sense of intense pride pervades the company. People want to work there, and the workforce has grown primarily from the inside, with existing employees bringing in friends and family to enjoy the good fortune of working for Harley-Davidson.

So what does a satisfied workforce do when the company must continue further along its journey to high performance and meet new challenges: competition from lower-priced competitors, and expansion into overseas markets? With so much going right for the company, why “mess with success”?

Corporate Social Responsibilty Projects by Birla Group

Cont….

Projects at Birla Group are planned after a participatory need assessment of the communities around the plants. Each project has a one-year and a three-year rolling plan, with milestones and measurable targets. The objective is to phase out their presence over a period of time and hand over the reins of further development to the people. This also enables them to widen their reach. Along with internal performance assessment mechanisms, the projects are audited by reputed external agencies, who measure it on qualitative and quantitative parameters, helping them gauge the effectiveness and providing excellent inputs.

The partners in development are government bodies, district authorities, village panchayats and the end beneficiaries — the villagers. The Government has, in their 5-year plans, special funds earmarked for human development and the people at Birla Group recourse to many of these. At the same time, they network and collaborate with like-minded bilateral and unilateral agencies to share ideas, draw from each other's experiences, and ensure that efforts are not duplicated. At another level, this provides a platform for advocacy. Some of the agencies they have collaborated with are UNFPA, SIFSA, CARE India, Habitat for Humanity International, Unicef and the World Bank.

Thought of the Day

Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about

Business News

• India second largest recipient of WTO aid
• Clinton arrives for strategic dialogue

The second rung of affluence

The heterogenetly that characterizes the modern Indian consumer has created a maze that marketers would like to unravel in order to target their products and services precisely. In this fortnightly series, Indicus Analytics presents the various facets in urban consumers, across geographies and socio-economic groups.

According to the five income-segment classification of the Indicus urban consumer expenditure spectrum, in the second rung of affluence, or the upper middle class, among urban Indian house- holds are those who earn between `5 lakh and `10 lakh annually. The population in these households comprises a little less than 10% of all urban households, but contribute around one-fifth of the total urban savings.

It is the upper-income segments that form the big savers of the country, with high- disposable incomes, making them attractive markets for financial products. They are also the spenders in the high value category, contributing to about 17% of urban consumer expenditure in India. While this share is approximately the same as the lowest two income segments, being a relatively smaller segment, expenditure per household would be relatively higher. Moreover, the type of goods and services consumed would, of course, be quite different across the income segments.

Food comprises a little less than one- quarter of the household budget; not just the basics, but vegetables, milk and milk products form important parts of the food basket.
Households in this segment also like to spend on processed food, experimenting with new items in the market as families look for new tastes, variety and convenience.
The largest component of the budget is, of course, miscellaneous goods and services, of which the prime components are travel and conveyance, consumer services and rent, each making up more than 12% of the total budget.

Travel is an important item to budget for in urban households, especially those who can afford to travel by air. Holiday destinations abroad,

Thought for the Day

“Remember that wherever your heart is

there you will find your treasure.”

Business News

·         Chatterjee to chair HPL board meeting

·         State FMs panel to pick chairman today

A Brief Overview of Futures and Options

Futures and options can be classified under the derivatives classification for financial instruments. The derivatives were in operation for many hundreds of years and have become significantly more popular during recent years.

This is despite the realization they carry on face a great deal of critique, with accusations that they cause the markets to be vulnerable to lack of stability as a consequence of insufficient transparency.

One of the chief benefits of investing in futures and options would be that the risks management is improved and while doing so liquidity levels will be increased. Values for futures and options will depend on a surplus asset and this is known as the underlying. Generally, this could be a stock or possibly the market index.

The alternative will be a derivative which gives a person the right to trade or purchase the underlying investment. There will be no accountability. There are a couple off forms of options, the put alternative and the call alternative. Call options will give an investor the authority to buy the investment, while the put option will be vested along with the right to trade this underlying asset.

A mutual agreement is involved and this called the alternative contract, which shows the amount for selling and buying the underlying asset. This option contract likewise provides the expiration date when the agreement won't be valid.

It is workable to exercise options in the European and American styles. For the American style, an option is oftentimes exercised before the expiry of the agreement while with the European style options might be exercised all through the expiration date.

Futures make reference to a tradable and standardized contract which will take settlement at specific rates and on specific date ranges. Futures are likely to be more risky when equated with options as it carries a responsibility to purchase. It is also possible to use commodities such as gas and gold as a way to settle a transaction.

Intorduction of Coporate personality ADITYA VIKRAM BIRLA

The grandson of the legendary G.D. Birla, Aditya Vikram Birla was one of the most inspirational and outstanding industrialists that India has ever had. His innovative ideas and marvelous abilities helped India to expand trade to foreign countries, thereby leaving an indelible mark on the corporate landscape. He was one of the first Indian industrialists to set up the largest multinational empire, thereby creating India’s first truly global corporation. Apart from carrying forward his grandfather’s legacy, he introduced the concept of “sustainable livelihood”, wherein he taught people to work and feed themselves and their families for lifetime rather than simply living on the food given. With this, he not only gained name and fame amongst the masses but also set an example for other businessmen to learn from him. With his magnificent and phenomenal efforts to develop his business across India and overseas, he became the new face of Indian business - professional, modern, and forward looking.

Smart Marketing, More Sales

It is time Indian firms’ move beyond mere sales and focus on marketing

The major Indian vendors who provide IT and BPO outsourcing have flourished in the North American market in recent years. Hundreds of smaller companies have jumped in to the market to follow in their wake. However second-tier companies that give prime importance to branding and marketing are doing much better than those simply trying to imitate market leaders with a "me-too" sales process.

Indian exporters have mastered execution and delivery. Most of these Indian vendors that I meet also understand how to "sell" in the global environment. But executives at these companies pay scant attention to branding and marketing; perhaps they believe that such activities are suitable only for consumer-oriented ventures. In making that assumption they hobble their sales teams into pushing too hard on price; this limits not only margins but also opportunities. Adding internally directed qualifiers like ISO 9000 or CMM certification are not enough. These processes are important for delivery but are at best a crutch in your marketing strategy.

Colorado-based Echostar Communications has over $5 billion in sales and 15,000 employees. Their former CIO, Ed Allwein, affirms, "Marketing is the strategic imperative for offshore companies. Once I've decided to go offshore, price isn't a significant consideration. I have already got the offshore discount, so quibbling about whether I am saving 40% versus 45% isn't very important compared to ensuring that my dollars won't be wasted." Allwein is now CEO of Active Sensing and is getting his software built in Delhi.