Strategic Thought Transformation - The IIPM Think Tank

E X E C U T I V E S U M M EA R YI E S
STRATEGY AND BUSINESS THIS QUARTER (JUL-SEP ‘06)
Google enchanted by MTV’s sweet music!
If Shakespeare was to describe the meaning of his statement, ‘If music be the food of love, play on,’ he would perhaps cite Google’s attraction to
MTV’s music as an illustration, albeit in the corporate sense. The two giants have entered into an advertisement revenue sharing
deal
that allows MTV to share its videos with Google and in return share the revenues that come from advertisements. Also,
the
website owners and bloggers would be allowed to post the MTV videos and will get a share of the revenue every
time a person clicks to watch the videos. Through this deal, MTV would be able to expand its online audience
and Google, on the other hand would benefit through increase in flow of traffic to its website. This move is
largely appropriate as this would provide a clear edge to the search engine giant as its competition with many
other search engines (like Yahoo, MSN and AOL) gets more intense by the day, and will position it better to fight
competition in the online video market.
The great Wall of Mart bows low!
The retail giant, Wal-Mart that was labelled as union-unfriendly by the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) witnessed thirty of
its employees (belonging to their branch in Quanzhou) set up their first union in China. Wal-Mart, whi-ch set foot on Chinese territory in
1996, currently runs 60 stores there and has always shown willingness to work in confirmation with Chinese laws. However, until some
time back, the ACFTU had been pressing upon Wal-Mart to form a trade union. The behemoth has plans of employing a work force of
around 150,000 people over the next five years.
Case of the unfriendly Fox
A case filed in the federal district court of New York during November 2005, has forced the Fox News Channel to pay a sum
of $225,000 as settlements. The case was filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of four women
employed with the network. They charged the network of supporting a sexually unfriendly work place where indecent language
was used by the advertising and marketing VPs in the New York office. The case also calls for the news group to modify
its anti-discrimination policy and train its managerial cadre to emulate the same.
A chilled treat from Ben & Jerry’s
Ben & Jerry’s is all set to serve its British customers with 150 ml and 500 ml tubs of fairtrade ice cream (a certification that the
farmers were paid the right price for their harvest). The ice cream will be stocked in cooperative stores and also in branches
of Britain’s third largest super market, Sainsbury’s. The ice cream will also reach customers in Ireland, Belgium & Netherlands
foraying into other countries later. The motive is to boost Britain’s fairtrade food market. In comparison to last year food
articles carrying fair trade logo saw a 40% jump in sales to $366.23 million.
Yum owns Pizza Hut, UK
Pizza Hut is now completely owned by Yum in the United Kingdom. Earlier it was jointly owned by Yum and Whitbread in
a 50:50 joint venture. Whitbread, which prefers investing in pub restaurants has parted with its 50% stake in Pizza Hut by
selling it to the former for $210.38 million. The group, which owns Costa Coffee and KFC will use the sale proceeds to clear
its outstanding debts. Whitbread has been keen to sell its stake in Pizza Hut since April this year. The deal is expected to be
concluded by the end of September 2006.
The big bucks rewriting history
There has been a new addition in the string of private-equity deals in America recently. Albertson’s, a grocery chain; Kinder Morgan, an
energy firm and Univision, a Spanish broadcast network figure among billion dollar deals. But the latest one stands to break all records as
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STRATEGIC INNOVATORS 2006
An IIPM Intelligence Unit Publication