I began this year by writing about the challenges facing India this year as Trump’s tariffs take effect and cause a global economic slowdown, from which India too will not be immune. Then in February 2025, I wrote about the Indian Union Budget which I thought was desperate to push growth, including by cutting taxes… Continue reading Time for India’s Economy to Become More Competitive
Having just read the book, HBR’s 10 Must-Reads on Strategy, that I ordered from Amazon India, I am once again reminded of how central brands are to strategy. Not merely product brand strategy, but to corporate strategy. It’s something I have been thinking about for the past couple of decades that I have been unemployed,… Continue reading When Brands Can Guide Strategy and Execution
Some of you might have seen my posts on LinkedIn about a new book, The Corporation in the 21st Century by John Kay, that I bought and was reading recently. Actually, it was a review that I read in the Financial Times that prompted me to buy and read it. I must admit that I… Continue reading The 21st Century Corporation in the Rear-view Mirror
It sounds paradoxical to imagine creating abundance in what is likely to be a year of slowing economic output and growth across the world. We might possibly even be looking at a few years of slowdown, what with the Trump tariffs and the uncertainty surrounding them. But even in the face of slowing economic growth,… Continue reading Creating Abundance in a Year of Slowing Economic Output
It’s been a year since I last wrote about the Chinese economy. And it was as part of the global economy, that I was writing then. There are several reasons to turn our attention to China again: to see how the domestic Chinese economy is faring since it had gone into a serious slowdown, to… Continue reading Is China’s Rebooting of Its Economy Working?
Time to turn my attention to brands once again, after all the chaos and confusion that Trump’s tariffs have caused from the start of this year. I must say, though, that if companies have to raise prices of their goods in the US and elsewhere, it ought to be because of a superior dimension to… Continue reading Hardwiring Brands into Products and Services
The world’s most powerful financial elite, comprising finance ministers and central bankers converged in Washington DC last week for their annual Spring Meetings with the World Bank and the IMF. This follows on from the US elections last November where Trump was elected US President for the second, but not consecutive term. Usually, this wouldn’t… Continue reading The Global Economy Lacks Spring in its Step
When I read about the latest tranche of Vodafone Idea equity stake that the government of India is going to have to acquire, as spectrum auction dues get converted to equity, the first thought that occurred to me is “Oh gosh! Soon it will become a PSU!” And we all know the fate of our… Continue reading How Not to Allow Vodafone Idea to Go the Air India Way
We’ve been preparing for this ever since Trump’s election campaign in the US last year: higher tariffs across the board on all countries and all product categories. Now that it is here, the media cannot stop talking about it with its breathless reporting on the subject. No matter what type of media – newspapers, television… Continue reading Let Us Not Get Distracted by Trump’s Tariffs
The wars in Ukraine and in the Middle-East have raged on for years and there has been plenty of reporting on it. Not so much on their economies and how the countries are coping. At least I haven’t read or heard anything on the news about their economies, except at the start of the second… Continue reading While the Wars Rage On, Their Economies
Peripatetic Perch 