The diesel engine industry is characterized by the presence of several large players with a large number of them being subsidiaries or having a technical collaboration with reputed international companies. The diesel engine manufacturing industry like the rest of the automobile industry, is characterized by very stiff competition, pressure on margins due to steep increase in all raw materials, increasingly demanding customers and stricter emission norms resulting in continuous upgradation of product profile.

The company is the market leader in the manufacture of High Speed Steel Cutting tools. It was faced with increasing competitive pressures on manufacturing lead times and service levels. Additionally it faced a pressure on margins due to rising cost of inputs and high inventory carrying costs. The company had developed facilities and capabilities at multiple locations in the city, which led to increase overheads.

The diesel engine industry is characterized by the presence of several large players with a large number of them being subsidiaries or having a technical collaboration with reputed international companies.

The tractor industry in India is highly fragmented and comprises of 14 players, including 3 MNCs. The Industry Supply Chain faces significant implied uncertainty of demand since it is influenced by monsoons and govt. policies.

The industry is characterized by the presence of a few manufacturers with global scales of operations, having technology partnership with key international players. Having large volumes is critical to being efficient in the procurement & manufacturing areas. For a player to be successful in the industry a competitive platform needs to be created – some of the key success factors include

The outlook for the Automobile industry has been encouraging in the last few years due to increasing demand driven by strong economic performance in the domestic front, higher disposable incomes, and increased government spending on roads and infrastructure. The increasing demand brings with it intensified competition and hence numerous challenges for automobile companies for survival.

Discrete manufacturers have found themselves squeezed in today's environment. Input costs have risen, but the market has not accepted price increases. Companies have often been forced to lower prices or increase promotions to stimulate demand. The result has been pressure on margins and hence material cost has been the key source of cost reductions

The Indian Automobile sector is doing really well for the last couple of years. The sales of automobiles have grown in double digits pushing up the demand in the entire supply chain. The future also looks promising, with a growing middle class and steady GDP growth. These positive developments have spelt good news for the auto ancillary industry, whose performance has started improving.

Every bank is rushing to get it’s share of the pie from all possible business opportunities. At the time of acquisition, the asset quality appears satisfactory. However, the worry in the mind of most bankers’ is that of consistency of the asset quality over a period of time. It is becoming increasingly clear that a risk-weighted bottom-line number that factors in the quality of the asset throughout its lifetime is the need of the hour.

The myriad of choices and innovative offerings in personal financial services have put a big smile on the face of the customer. The financial organizations, on the other hand, are faced with the challenge of meeting ever-growing customer expectations, while keeping cost under control.

Banks are always looking for opportunities to exploit their existing network and technology to enhance revenue. Now, as fee based revenue and sourcing of low cost funds become a priority for banks, Cash Management Services (CMS) offer an excellent opportunity to maximise value within existing parameters.

The past few years have seen India emerging as the principal hub for centralisation of processes of global majors in the banking and financial services. A few proactive players in the banking sector have already started exploiting technological advancements, networking of branches and common databases. The outcome - an emerging model of centralised operations and decentralised service which gives cutting edge advantage both in terms of reach and cost.

The banking industry in India is undergoing a major transformation due to changes in economic conditions and continuous deregulation. These multiple changes happening one after other has a ripple effect on a bank (Refer fig. 2.1) trying to graduate from completely regulated sellers market to completed deregulated customers market.

Every bank is rushing to get it’s share of the pie from all possible business opportunities. At the time of acquisition, the asset quality appears satisfactory. However, the worry in the mind of most bankers’ is that of consistency of the asset quality over a period of time. It is becoming increasingly clear that a riskweighted bottom-line number that factors in the quality of the asset throughout its lifetime is the need of the hour. Traditional Credit Monitoring, a legacy of the preliberalisation era, has unfortunately not been redefined to the changing times.

Given the low credit offtake, banks are increasingly focussing on retail assets as a growth area. The industry is witnessing stiff competition and a interest rate war among key players. This has resulted in a buyers market where the customer has a multitude of choices. Leading players have realised that interest rates are not a key source of competitive advantage. Also, the spread has been shrinking due to falling interest rates.

With lower credit offtake and shrinking margins, fee-generating non-fund based facilities have acquired a new importance. This has also meant increased competition in this market.

The past few years have seen various MNC and Indian Private Sector Banks compete with each other in the Credit Card Business. As consumer spending soars and Indian customers come to grips with the idea of purchasing on “credit”, banks are only too happy to satisfy customer needs for multiple credit cards. On the other hand, banks face the challenge of processing the repayments.

Operational Risk is one of the important arms of the risk management triangle – the other two being Credit Risk and Market (Treasury) Risk. Traditionally Operational risk has been captured in credit and market risk. Nevertheless, recent events in many countries indicate that if due attention is not paid to operational risk management, often a very large amount of loss may have to be sustained by a bank.

The landscape of banking has been transformed by Universal banking and Merger & Acquisition led growth of new generation private sector banks. Expecting better service standards, more and more customers are switching to what they perceive as more efficient and customer friendly banks.

Today the number of banks offering Payment at Par facility for Company issued warrants is many. These banks face many challenges in doing this business. Coordination across the various branches for receipt of warrants, reconciliation with the branch debits to the physical warrant receipts.

Thanks to the retail thrust given by most of the banks, there has been an unprecedented growth in loans – Home finance, autos, commercial vehicles, two wheelers, consumer durables, and personal loans.The market penetration is now extending the length and breadth of the country. Added to this challenge are the product variant requiring different service requirements of the customer such as variable interest rates, foreclosure, balance transfer, etc.

The past few years have seen India emerging as the principal hub for carrying out remote processing of both voice and data. Given the significant cost advantage that this strategy offers, this business volume is poised for a massive growth. A few proactive players in the banking sector have already started exploiting technological advancements, created a remote processing centre in India and moving many transaction processes to India. It is only a matter of time before others follow suit.

Today many institutions are aiming for complete endto- end automation of financial transaction processing, extending from automated tools to help support the investment decision through to the complete order and settlement cycle. By eliminating human involvement in routine transactions, the goal is for the marginal internal cost per trade to tend to zero.

“To spend is no longer a Sin!” declared the consumer pundits. The Financial World responded enthusiastically & intensified their sales efforts, trying to woo customers with their credit card offerings. Result- a market witnessing large growths in the card base & large number of players

Auto financing is an extremely competitive business in India, particularly since it is accentuated by the underlying stagnation in auto sales. Car sales and consequently financing (70% of the cars are financed) had a low growth in 1999-2000 and was flat in 2000-2001. While there was a movement upwards, (from economy models to mid size to premium) the number of new entrants into the economy segment has dropped.

In today’s market conditions, when wholesale credit off-take has slowed down, every business opportunity has to be grabbed, and that too quickly! The speed with which a Bank is able to appraise and disburse the money becomes the clincher in many a deal. No wonder then that almost every bank worth its name is grappling with the question, “How do we make our responses swift?”

The slowdown in the economy has lowered the credit offtake while falling interest rates only add fat to the fire. The new rules of the game make improving Operational Efficiency a critical lever for CEO’s to deliver higher returns to shareholders.

Six Sigma as a continuous improvement methodology has been widely accepted and adopted by leading companies who they have significantly benefited by this. Software companies have been slow in adopting Six Sigma as they are not sure as to how it will benefit them. There is a certain amount of scepticism in its adoption and the perceived conflict with the more commonly accepted standards prevents these organizations from embracing Six Sigma and benefiting from the same.

Outsourcing is today a widely accepted model and many organizations are centralizing financial processing, accounting and reporting processes spread across disparate regions in a single location. However, most organizations do not have a holistic plan or a long term strategy and the approach evolves over time. There is piecemeal migration of different activities over a period of time and the mindset is of moving people rather than moving work. This results in moving jobs to a remote location and the organization does not get the full benefits that could accrue from such an initiative.

The success in outsourcing business process operations to India has encouraged many firms to start outsourcing their high-end knowledge work as well. Cost savings, operational efficiencies, access to a highly talented workforce and improved quality are all underlying expectations in offshoring high-end processes to India

A recent study by Nasscom shows that the customers came to India because of the Potential in terms of Cost Arbitrage, stayed here because of Performance but will now look for Operational Excellence

The cement industry is teeming with competitors, the pie is getting smaller, big fish are eating the smaller ones, and there is no place for players who aren't ready to innovate, change and look at the current economic downturn as an opportunity. The future looks good - it is the present that needs attention. The only way an organization can survive this turmoil is by adopting the right approach.

This is the age of quick fixes, short cuts and laboursaving devices. To be successful in this scenario, it is necessary to come up with products that are not only convenient but also bring a certain degree of simplicity to the life of the user. Ready Mix Concrete (RMC) is one such product. What began as an effort by the cement industry to boost sagging bottom lines is now one of the best and most futuristic options for expansion and growth.

The Cement industry is a capital-intensive, high fixed cost proposition. The capital cost of a new Greenfield project could be about 3-5 years of revenue. • On the demand side, the cement industry in India faces an oversupply scenario and is prone to high demand variability across months and across regions. This is so, since, cement consumption is impacted by several macro-economic factors like monsoon, industrial growth, savings rate, interest rate, governmental policies etc.

This is the age of quick fixes, short cuts and laboursaving devices. To be successful in this scenario, it is necessary to come up with products that are not only convenient but also bring a certain degree of simplicity to the life of the user. Ready Mix Concrete (RMC) is one such product. What began as an effort by the cement industry to boost sagging bottom lines is now one of the best and most futuristic options for expansion and growth.

The call today is that businesses learn to earn the last paisa from their existing facilities. In a highly competitive market, where demand is typically less than supply, some companies in the ceramic insulator business find themselves blessed with a seller’s market. In such a scenario, utilisation of and building upon hidden capacity becomes critical for success. Companies cannot afford to run existing plants inefficiently with low capacity utilisation.

With the reduction of import duty over the years, industry is now open to global competition. Further the duty differential between final products and raw material (naphtha) is narrowing down, and companies are facing increasing pressure on margins. No sizeable capacity addition is expected globally in the next two years and demand is growing at a fast pace. This would result in narrowing of demand supply gap. A deficit of 5mmt and 4.5mmt of PE and PP is anticipated in Asia in the next two years

It is not uncommon that management attention and efforts are predominantly occupied by marketing issues, and understandably so! However, in their quest for earning the extra rupee, are they leaving out the money that is already on the table? The fact is, when competition is aggressive, every rupee counts.

Other than being FMCGs, what is common to industries that manufacture soft drinks, lubricants, haircare products? Bottling operations – the backbone of their supply chain. It is not uncommon that management attention and efforts are predominantly occupied by marketing issues, and understandably so! However, in their quest for earning the extra rupee, are they leaving out the money that is already on the table? The fact is, when competition is aggressive, every rupee counts.

The client, one of the leading dairies in Gujarat, was in the worst possible tight spot when it approached ECS: Its products were perceived to be of poor quality by the market. This problem was further compounded by the fact that the workforce lacked any perspective on the business, customer-relation and competition.

Indian entertainment and media industry is poised to grow at 19 per cent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR). The revenue within the sector is expected to reach Rs 83,740 crore by 2010 from the current Rs 35,300 crore.

The Indian Foods and Beverages Industry (F&B) offers a large opportunity with a market valued at 200 bn$ (almost 65% of the aggregate retail sales).

Emergence of new channels and proliferation of new products are putting tremendous pressure on the supply chain of FMCG companies.On the one hand where new retailing formats help increasing sales, on the other hand they also give opportunity to buyers to look at the product before buying it. This makes the freshness and availability of products a very important determining factor in sales proceeds. The critical success factor for the company is to modify sales and operations (S&OP) process to compress planning cycle.

The edible oil industry is growing at a healthy pace along with the rest of the economy. The growth has been accompanied by significant changes in the industry structure.Traditional manufacturers are moving up the value chain and focussing on retailing branded edible oil.

The domestic clothing market is estimated to be at Rs. 493 billion of which the share of ready-mades is Rs. 300 billion.The Indian apparel market has been growing at 4-5 per cent by quantity and 13% in value terms.The branded apparel market is estimated to be worth Rs. 150 billion.

In today’s competitive environment there is no room for error. Organizations must constantly look towards improving their internal processes and capabilities. Keeping this business requirement in mind one of the leading IT product and services company wanted to go in for a Six Sigma initiative.

Six Sigma provides the tools for continuous improvement on existing processes thereby helping sustain the SEI-CMM Level 5 and CMMi certifications

In recent years with the opening up of the sector and the entry of global giants the insurance industry is witnessing high growth and increased competition for a large share of the pie.

India, with about 200 million middle class households, presents a huge untapped potential for players in the Insurance industry. Saturation of markets in many developed economies has made the Indian market even more attractive for global Insurance majors.