Volume 18, Number 1 Article by Thillai Rajan A March, 2006
Managing Business in the 21st Century – A Handbook : Edited by Anindya Sen and P K Sett, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2005, pp. 291, Price: Rs. 575 (cloth). :).
The velocity of change in the business environment has increased notably in the last few years. The key features of the business landscape today are: increased liberalisation and opening up of global markets, widespread use of information technology in day-to-day operations, and increased competition in the marketplace. To succeed in an environment where the pace of change is constantly accelerating, businesses have to adopt new tools, techniques, and management practices. This book is a good collection of such business ideas and practices that should form a part of a successful managers’ tool kit.
The book is structured in fifteen chapters, each focusing on a specific topic. Though each can be read independently, depending on the interest of the reader, the sequence of the different chapters facilitates the flow of thought. The book starts by focusing on macro economic topics such as globalisation and the new economy, followed by topics in strategy and strategy implementation, and functional areas such as finance, marketing, operations, human resources, organisation structure, systems, processes and accounting. The chapters in the book largely address the questions of what, why, and how in each of the topics covered. For example, the chapter on Relationship Marketing explains what is meant by the term, its importance in today’s context, and the tools and measures needed for the implementation of relationship marketing programmes. Though the book throughout is peppered with anecdotal and illustrative examples, the impact would have been higher if the authors had included strong case studies that highlighted the benefits and costs of implementing these ideas.
The highpoint of the book and the one that differentiates it is the treatment of the concepts – a combination of academic rigour and relevance to the current business environment. For example, in the chapter on the New Economy, the author goes beyond mere definition to illustrate the various features that exist in the new economy and its impact for business. E-commerce is commonly acknowledged as a product of the new economy. Any business entity today has to leverage the power of e-commerce to improve productivity and stay competitive. The author cites the powerful example of three competing US automobile majors (GM, Ford and Daimler-Chrysler, whose supply chains total almost US$250 billion) that have collaborated in the area of e-commerce to derive productivity benefits, establishing a company to handle auto parts transactions from suppliers.
In the chapter on Supply Chain Management, the discussion is appropriately focused on demand side uncertainties. Highlighting the startling difference in inventory levels between India (45-50 days) and USA (~14 days), despite India being a smaller country, the author stresses the potential for improving supply chain performance in India. Indian companies would need to benchmark themselves against global best practices to be competitive. Given the recent incidents of corporate fraud, it is appropriate that the book ends with a chapter on Corporate Reporting for Corporate Governance. Highlighting the importance of transparency to improve accountability, the author indicates that transparency and accountability together impose a discipline that improves the quality of decision making. Most companies today are in the process of transition from a regime of minimum disclosure to full disclosure largely to meet the compliance requirements of the regulatory agencies. However, there are companies like Infosys who have taken the lead in voluntary disclosure of information. Such initiatives can go a long way in increasing transparency and thereby improving corporate governance standards, which is critical today to regain investor faith in the management of large corporations.
Given the nature of this volume, an exhaustive coverage of each of these topics would be beyond the scope of the current text. It goes without saying that the coverage of each topic is like the tip of the iceberg. If the reader is sufficiently interested in any of the topics, he may find it helpful to look at some of the specialised books (for example, Robert Kaplan et al, The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action, HBS Press, for a detailed analysis of the Balanced Scorecard concept; Paul Gamble et al, Knowledge Management, Kogan Page, for a detailed treatment of knowledge management) that provide a more comprehensive coverage of the topic.
Some drawbacks of the volume include the lack of an extensive bibliography for many of the chapters and the presence of a few editorial errors (OTC is listed as Over the Centre instead of Over the Counter). However, the objective of this book has been to provide the reader the essence of each concept, in which the editors and the authors have succeeded admirably
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