Centres Of Excellence

To focus on new and emerging areas of research and education, Centres of Excellence have been established within the Institute. These ‘virtual' centres draw on resources from its stakeholders, and interact with them to enhance core competencies

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Faculty

Faculty members at IIMB generate knowledge through cutting-edge research in all functional areas of management that would benefit public and private sector companies, and government and society in general.

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IIMB Management Review

Journal of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

IIM Bangalore offers Degree-Granting Programmes, a Diploma Programme, Certificate Programmes and Executive Education Programmes and specialised courses in areas such as entrepreneurship and public policy.

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About IIMB

The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) believes in building leaders through holistic, transformative and innovative education

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International by Design : In Conversation with Dilip Kapur

Volume 20, Number 1 Article by J Ramachandran & Shubha Patvardhan March, 2008

International by Design : In Conversation with Dilip Kapur :

In a span of three decades, Dilip Kapur, Founder-President of Hidesign, the premium designer leather products company, has transformed a home-run enterprise of handcrafted leather bags into an international business with a rapidly expanding footprint. The company’s portfolio of products is now available in over 800 stores across the world – a remarkable journey for an enterprise that had its beginnings as a hobby. The born-global Hidesign, being the first Indian leather manufacturer to enter the international markets on the strength of its own brand, had to contend with a number of challenges that included issues linked to its origin. Hidesign, after a serendipitous start, managed to overcome these disadvantages by ingeniously partnering with entrepreneurial individuals and institutions. Hidesign’s achievement is rare as it operates in consumer markets – other Indian firms that compete in the advanced markets of the world essentially participate in business-to-business markets – in the highly volatile fashion industry, catering to international customers and not the Indian diaspora. This interview traces Hidesign’s journey from being a hip, alternate brand to an ‘affordable luxury’ brand, selling at top end departmental stores all over the world, as well as at its own stores in India and elsewhere; revealing in the process how brand identity evolves and what it takes to create an exclusive luxury brand.

What provides an interesting twist to Hidesign’s journey is that Kapur was not formally trained – either in designing or managing a business. He navigates by instinct through this maze by skilfully managing the design mix, product positioning and continuous learning. He displays a remarkable ability to discern strategic inflection points and, more importantly, act on insights gained from interaction with the environment.

A Teaching Plan is available to subscribers

Reprint No 08103c