Corporate Stories

HMT Watches

HMT, was an  iconic wrist watch brand that was a sought-after name until 1990s in India.. Many yesteryear,generations still remember the HMT watch they got as a farewell gift at their offices, from parents when they did well in exams or as a wedding gift. Old timers may recall that people had to wait for days to buy the most successful and the best selling   HMT models like HMT_Asha and HMT_Kanchan. The watchmaker shut down its operations and ceased watchmaking in 2014. Let us understand why?.

BSNL

Telephones were a part of the Daily lives in India until 2005. The government of India initially managed the so called “Telephone department”, its communication network and the Telephonic organization as a Body under Department of Telecommunications and later incorporated it under the name BSNL. During its peak, the BSNL and their telephone devices were ubiquitous on their presence, almost at every home and carried the necessary communication of the country. Once upon a time, BSNL’s capital expenditure was more than that of  Indian Railways and its profit was more than that of Indian Oil. The good old days did not last long and BSNL incurred magnificent losses post the entry of private players into to the Indian telecommunication space. Currently, Ministry of Finance proposed the complete closure of BSNL citing the same as unprofitable venture.

Rise and the fall of SATYAM COMPUTERS

Every time we use lie as an instrument to win our way towards our goal, we fail to comprehend how it will hurt us in the long run. When  recession in 2008, hit the world, India was not only going through a financial crisis but also an ethical crisis. Imagine a hypothetical scenario in the stock market where the very basic financials provided to you by a company are manipulated. This was what happened with Satyam Computer Services.Satyam Scandal unveiled the potholes that existed in the corporate governance of our country. The great stock market scandal which is known as the Indian version of Enron shook the entire country in 2009.

ENRON – An Energy Company

Enron is an American company ,which specialised in  Energy Trading and distribution. Enron was a highly productive and a bench mark company in the Energy sector generating astronomical figures of revenue(Around 5 billion dollars in 1995). The company was awarded as  "America's Most Innovative Company" by Fortune magazine consecutively  between 1996 to 2001. With all these star performances, the company filed for bankruptcy in the year 2001.

Concorde – An Aeroplane Company

Aeroplane is one of the most fascinating instruments that the Humans have ever built. A number of aeroplane companies have come up with interesting features which has added glory to this wonderful instrument. As the times passed, Some companies have touched the skies with their innovations and some vanished from the airspace. One such great company was “Concore Aviation” , which had glorious history and had an unfortunate ending in 2003.

Yahoo – The Internet Company

The case study of yahoo is an interesting context to learn , as what it feels like to be projected as a leader in an unexplored field and later loose to the competitors, who arrived late due to lack of business vision. In spite Yahoo loosing its position as an Independent internet company and getting acquired by Verizon, Yahoo continues to stay in the TOP 10 list of the world`s famous internet companies

Welcome to the PODCAST “Anthology of Corporate failures”.

BlackBerry- Phones

If your memories would be afresh, you would still be able to recollect the gleaming black devices called Black berry phones which were once darling of the rich and mighty during the early 2000s.The pioneer in bringing email services to handheld mobiles, with its trademark QWERTY keyboard, BlackBerry became an instant priced possession among the world leaders, corporate honchos,  rich and famous alike. Indeed, owning a BlackBerry device was once a status symbol, and BlackBerry addiction was a prevalent condition in the elite society then. Still, times changed and the manufacturer black berry devices lost its way and the company lost is business value and vanished from the consumer space. Let us case study “Black Berry” devices today.