"Anyone who sells a refrigerator to an Eskimo would lose that customer for life and probably the whole Eskimo market through negative word-of-mouth," says Jack Daly. His advice to sales managers: Do not sell. Help people to buy what they are looking for. Build relationships and earn the customer's trust. This will ensure sustained profitability and market share growth.

Structuring the family and business for successful creation, multiplication and preservation of wealth involves recognition of the capability and aspirations of the next generation and finding the balance between the two. It also requires constant nurturing, active participation in markets, clear planning and communication.

The Kotak journey is one of creating an institution based on the basic tenets of entrepreneurship, value creation rather than just size, trust and responsibility,” says uday Kotak, Executive Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Kotak Mahindra Group

A globalized world has resulted in changing the relationship between a parent company and its subsidiaries. In an exclusive with The Smart Manager, Vikram Sakhuja Group M ,CEO, South Asia, talks about how Group M serves its companies as incubator and collaborator.

Being able to act globally does not mean the ability to act everywhere in the world simultaneously. It means, instead, the ability to act anywhere in the world when an opportunity appears.

The manner in which Cognizant changed its business strategies, models and processes to stay attuned to the environment makes for thought provoking reading. Also read an exclusive interview with Lakshmi Narayanan, Vice Chairman, Cognizant Technology.

While organizations grapple with advances in ICT, globalization and the continuing tension between efficiency and flexibility there has been little corresponding progress in management theory especially strategy. Given this background Gita Piramal lauds CK Prahalad and MS Krishnan's The New Age of Innovation as crystal gazing at its very best.