Business strategy is one of the hottest areas of study
and research in B-schools. Getting to hear leading thinkers in this area is one
of the added privileges of studying at IIMB.
CSITM organized a talk by Dr. Mia de Kuijper, a Harvard
trained economist, few days ago. Apart from having held senior positions in
global giants like Pepsico, Shell and AT&T, Dr. Mia is also the author a
recent book researching successful business strategies - "Profit Power Economics: A New Competitive Strategy for Creating Sustainable Wealth".
In her talk Dr. Mia went into great depths to explain
the idea behind transparency and power nodes. She insightfully portrayed how
access to information is shattering the economic theories around information
asymmetry.. this beautiful Banglalink advertisement clearly brought out this reality. The 21st century business model needs new organization forms, she
stressed. The vertically integrated companies of the world are under serious
attack - AT&T can no longer debate if it has to 'manufacture' the phones it
sells - it simply can't!
I would remember this lecture for the many vivid
illustrations that Dr. Mia presented. In a short animation, she showed us the
growth of Wal-Mart super-center's across US geography which left the audience in
a wide gasp. She brought to life the 'idea' behind the birth of Pepsi's bottled
water 'Aquafina' - a massive challenge even for this soft-drink giant - to
produce uniform taste and quality water across the globe. And I dont think many
would know how capital intensive pepsico's snack-chips business
is..
For students of business like in PGSEM, where the focus
is on case-based learning, its always a great opportunity to listen to real life
practitioners. Many of the concepts and problems in those business cases come to
life. And our worldview of business continuously expands.
Finally, a 'Thank you' to Dr. Mia and CSITM for
this wonderful lecture.
