Imagine you are a business leader operating a decade from now. Your organization has become the unassailable leader in its market. How did this happen? In years past, you were competing head-on with several other players. Each time you tried to move ahead, your competitors kept up with you. You watched what they did, and if you noticed them doing something new, you would try it out yourself to make sure they didn’t build a lead over you. But now, you have left your competitors behind. Your organization has been able to command higher margins and win business more easily.…

While production of edible oil continues to be in full swing due to its being an essential commodity, manufaturers are finding it hard to reach consumers at the retail level. Lack of workers to pick up stock from distributors, transport problems and shortage of packing material are among several factors that have led to branded edible oils struggling to reach retail stores, forcing consumers to opt for unbranded ones. “Only 20-25 per cent retailers are being reached. This is because While supply chain issues from factory to distributor level have largely been sorted, the…

Start generating leads and getting customers. All it takes is a $50 investment. April 15, 2020 2 min readDisclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners. When you’re launching a business, nothing is more important than building a customer base. You don’t need to have worked in the advertising or development branch of Google or Facebook to know that. One of the quickest and easiest ways to get started without…

Premium collection by non-life insurers took a hit in March, owing to the Covid-19 disruption and the subsequent lockdown. The monthly gross direct premium contracted 10.7 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 15,785 crore, from Rs 17,673 crore in March 2019. However, for the whole of FY20, gross direct premium for non-life insurers grew 11.7 per cent (YoY). In absolute terms, premium collected by general insurers was close to Rs 1.89 trillion in FY20, against Rs 1.69 trillion in FY19. The YoY premium growth in FY19 (against FY18) stood at 12.5…

At a time when there is extreme cautiousness around banking stocks and analysts are downgrading their rating on the sector, not sparing even the frontline names, ICICI Bank stands out as an exception. For one, it hasn’t received any downgrade thus far and all analysts have a positive rating (a few have ‘hold’) on the stock, according to Bloomberg polls. Also, seen in the larger context of one-year price correction, ICICI Bank’s 17 per cent decline fares better than HDFC Bank or Axis Bank’s 24 per cent and 45 per cent fall, respectively. That ICICI Bank…

April 14, 2020 15 min read This story appears in the April 2020 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe » Burger King had a big announcement to make: It was removing artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives from its Whoppers. But the company was in a bind. The other burger chain had already, how shall we say, McDone the same thing. If Burger King simply ran ads pushing its fresh food, that wouldn’t have much impact. At worst, it would be seen as trailing its competitor. What could it do to steer the conversation? Burger King’s marketing team started confabbing on WhatsApp, their…

On the eve of the biggest soccer match of his coaching career, Tottenham Hotspur’s manager dropped a bombshell. It was May 7, 2019, the night before Mauricio Pochettino’s team played against Ajax Amsterdam in the UEFA Champions League semifinal; the coach declared that if Tottenham won the trophy, he would leave the London club. “It should be fantastic, no?” Pochettino said. “Close the five-year chapter and go home.” Reporters asked him if he was joking (he wasn’t), and fans were stunned. Tottenham won the semifinal but lost the final, and Pochettino stayed. In the matches after the final, the team’s…

The lockdown extension on Tuesday till May 3 will prove to be a bad hangover for liquor companies, even as their stocks bounced back recently amid expectations of some relaxation in rules governing store reopenings/distribution and a sharp fall in valuations. After falling 26-35 per cent over a month until March, the share price of major liquor players — United Breweries (UBL), United Spirits (USL), and Radico Khaitan — has gained up to 18 per cent in April, outperforming the 4-per cent rise on the Nifty FMCG index. However, there are downside risks, which could play…