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Book Review


 Play the game right

 By Anoop K Menon, NWC

 

Remixes tend to evoke mixed emotions. So do compilations. When Marketing Power Plays, a 178-page compilation of past articles of BusinessWeek landed on my desk last month, each piece supplemented by Lesson Plans, Power Moves, and Monday Morning boxes to boot, the cynical side of my cerebrum recommended a quick burial. On the surface, it looked like yet another attempt by the sales team to breathe life into the moribund shelf life of a weekly with circumscribed perspectives masquerading as “management lessons.” But in the end curiosity won.

The names that stare at you from the content page have Fortune 500 pedigree. But it’s the racy reporting style of the original BusinessWeek articles reproduced in each chapter that holds your attention. Most of the names aren’t entirely unknown entities in India, with a few notable exceptions like Russell Simmons, the third richest Hip-Hop entertainer in the US (current net worth estimate: $325 million) and The Albrecht Brothers of Germany who own Aldi, one of the biggest retailers in the world and cost strippers par excellence even vis-à-vis Wal-Mart. Interestingly, Aldi has found success not by stocking name brands, but by developing and selling its own products which allow the chain to keep costs low while maintaining tight control on quality—a learning that can be applied by India’s fast-growing retail industry.

The chapter on the transformation of HP’s Technology Solutions Group (TSG) with Ann Livermore at the helm is riveting. When Livermore took charge in early 2004, TSG had reported a disastrous quarter that pulled HP’s stocks down by 15 percent. Livermore’s action plan: Set up a ‘war room’ to address the operational problems. One of the outcomes was a radical reduction of time in generating prices for corporate deals, from two weeks to one day, through an integrated bid desk. Tidbits like these should flag up your curiosity if the somewhat dated feel of the articles slow you down in later stages. The 2006 timeline of the articles also present an open invitation to a ‘then and now’ indulgence.

Take the  Intel piece. In 2005, CEO Paul Otellini and his Chief Marketing Officer Eric B Kim unveiled their plans for a radical revamp of Intel before Intel patriarch Andy Grove. With the demand for microprocessors slowing down, Otellini felt it was time Intel de-risked its product portfolio by moving away from PC chips to making chips for new areas like consumer electronics, wireless communications and health-care. The ultimate goal: provide manufacturers of everything from laptops to hospital equipment with complete packages of chips and software. Grove approved, but did the strategy work for Intel?

The article was originally published in January 2006. Between then and now, Intel’s attempts to penetrate the market for mobile phone processors ended in the sale of that business to Marvell in 2006.  The much-touted Ultra Mobile PC seems to be a no-show; once captive customer Dell signed up with arch-rival AMD; top management was restructured, with huge layoffs below the line. Gains during this period—new business from Sun and Apple, and the acceptance of Core 2 Duo processors which industry watchers believe will vault Intel back to its leadership in high performance chips. While it’s too early to sit on judgment, current news reports indicate Intel could be regaining momentum.

But don’t let the 2006 timeline of the articles deter you. A quick Google interlude showed that almost all the protagonists have survived the scourge of time intact, the only notable exception being Jim McNerney, who left 3M and is now with Boeing.

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