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Unlocking the Wealth in Rural Markets
Kapur, Mamta; Dawar, Sanjay; Ahuja, Vineet R.Article HBS-R1406J-EIn India and other large emerging economies, rural markets hold great promise for boosting corporate earnings. Companies that sell in the countryside, however, face poor infrastructure, widely dispersed customers, and other challenges. To better understand the obstacles and how to overcome them, the authors--researchers with Accenture--conducted extensive surveys and interviews with Indian business leaders in multiple industries. Their three-year...Starting at €8.20
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Mumbai's Models of Service Excellence
Thomke, StefanArticle HBS-R1211K-EService and Operations ManagementThink you need exceptional employees, advanced IT, or rigid controls to build a high-performance organization? The dabbawalas of Mumbai prove otherwise. Six days a week, these 5,000 self-managed, semiliterate workers deliver upwards of 130,000 lunches from customers' homes to their offices with astonishing precision--negotiating the crowded city by train, bicycle, and handcart, without the aid of any technology or even cell phones. The 100-year-o...Starting at €8.20
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Building the Co-Creative Enterprise
Ramaswamy, Venkat; Gouillart, FrancisArticle HBS-R1010J-EStrategyThese days more companies are inviting customers to help them design products. Now a few are taking things further and including their other stakeholders-employees, suppliers, distributors, and even regulators-in "co-creation" efforts, too. By focusing on improving the experiences of everyone involved, such firms are achieving breakthrough insights, lower costs, new revenues, and new business models. Consider how this worked at France's La Poste,...Starting at €8.20
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Finding a Higher Gear
Mahindra, Anand G.; Stewart, Thomas A.; Raman, Anand P.Article HBS-R0807F-EStrategyThe Mahindra & Mahindra Group, one of India's best-known business houses, is trying to become bigger, more global, and more innovative-all at the same time. In India's post-economic-reforms gold rush, the group, whose 2007 sales were $6.6 billion, has invested in a slew of unrelated businesses, from aircraft manufacture to film production. The flagship tractor and SUV businesses are readying to make big bets in, respectively, the Chinese and U.S....Starting at €8.20
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The Problem with the "Poverty Premium"
Kay, Ethan; Lewenstein, WoodyArticle HBS-F1304A-EStrategyAccording to "bottom of the pyramid" theory, poor consumers pay much higher prices for most things than middle-class consumers do, meaning there's real opportunity for large multinationals to capture market share by offering high-quality goods at lower prices. But research on the ground in India shows that today, the poverty premium is often illusory. Companies need to be aware of how hard it is to compete solely on price.Starting at €8.20
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The Mass Power of India's Other IT Sector
Quadir, IqbalArticle HBS-F1212E-EInformation TechnologiesCell phones deliver an array of services--some for the first time--to India's vast population.Starting at €8.20
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Using Gifts and Trees to Make Recyclers of Indian Consumers
Bakaya, Ambrish; O'Connell, AndrewArticle HBS-R0909G-EService and Operations ManagementRapid advances in technology and enormously increased numbers of cell phones in use in emerging markets give urgency to Nokia's newly launched effort to expand its worldwide phone-recycling initiatives. Ambrish Bakaya explains, in this interview with HBR associate editor Andrew O'Connell. This HBR Spotlight article offers a framework for determining your company's green opportunities and an overview of what other organizations are doing with cle...Starting at €8.20
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Where Will We Find Tomorrow's Leaders A Conversation with Linda A. Hill
Hill, Linda A.; Hemp, PaulArticle HBS-R0801J-ELeadership and People ManagementUnless we challenge long-held assumptions about how business leaders are supposed to act and where they're supposed to come from, many people who could become effective global leaders will remain invisible, warns Harvard Business School professor Hill. Instead of assuming that leaders must exhibit take-charge behavior, broaden the definition of leadership to include creating a context in which other people are willing and able to guide the organi...Starting at €8.20
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Cocreating Business's New Social Compact
Brugmann, Jeb; Prahalad, C.K.Article HBS-R0702D-EEconomicsThis article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. Moving beyond decades of mutual distrust and animosity, corporations and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are learning to cooperate with each other. Realizing that their interests are converging, the two sides are working together to create innovative business ...Starting at €8.20
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When Failure Looks Like Success
Zolli, Andrew; Healy, Ann MarieArticle HBS-F1104Z-EService and Operations ManagementEfforts to bring clean water to Bangladesh by installing tube wells appeared to be a huge success, but over time they led to epic failures: widespread arsenic poisoning, a rise in crime and prostitution, a projected increase in diarrheal diseases as villagers resume using groundwater. Due to the highly graphical nature of the Vision Statement, we offer this reprint in color, PDF format only. We recommend printing it out in color to maximize its ...Starting at €8.20