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It used to be catalogues killing physical stores, then it was TV shopping and now it is online retail

Companies have been retaining unprecedented amounts of cash on their balance sheets, calling it "strategic" cash to distinguish it from the "operating" cash that is needed to run the business. Arguments for Strategic Cash: Save Taxes. Much of the strategic cash is typically held outside the United States. it avoids the incremental tax that will be levied due to the territorial system of U.S. taxation. Barring a tax holiday, this cash is effectively "trapped" offshore. Facilitate Acquisitions. Strategic cash provides more flexibility concerning the timing(respond with alacrity to opportunities) and pricing(vagaries of the financial markets) of potential acquisitions Facilitate Investments: Finance long-term reinvestment programs in the business—which is especially valuable to companies in capital-intensive industries (e.g., energy or telecom) or research-intensive industries (e.g., high technology or pharmaceutical) that are investing in projects with unce...

It is not easy to sell sports gear and accessories to a nation that does not have a sports culture and does not look beyond cricket. What is even more interesting is while sports viewership is huge, participation is low.  All the brands focus on the same sport. This is so different from other markets like Japan, Europe or the US where there are many sports and different brands identify with different sports.  Indian consumers are very demanding. Till the time they buy local brands, their expectations are low. But the moment they buy a pricier international brand, their expectations rise. For them, just the brand power does not work. The durability, functionality and comfort of the product are as important. This is very different from what is seen in other global markets where the brand gets a lot more credit by virtue of just its brand power. While Indian customers have become brand conscious, the brand differentiation is yet to come. Till as recently as two years ag...

Sony's makes a confusing catalog of gadgets that overlap or even cannibalize one another. It has also continued to let its product lines mushroom: 10 different consumer-level camcorders and almost 30 different TVs, for instance, crowd and confuse consumers. But offering customers a wide array of choices was fundamental to Sony's success in the past. Apple, on the other hand, makes one amazing phone in just two colors and says, This is the best. yet it's tremendously customizable. With so much of the experience coming from the software, not the hardware, consumers aren't using a product designed for them; it was designed by them. This is an especially powerful offering because it replaces the single moment of instant gratification—buying the perfect camera, TV, or phone—with dozens of such moments. Every time they install an app or download a song, users are getting a customized experience with an emotional impact on par with the one-time purchase of a product. A...