The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry organized a Management Development Programme on “Winning in Fiercely Competitive Markets” on 24th June 2016 at Hotel Novotel, Rajarhat, Kolkata.

The programme was aimed at managers at middle and senior levels in the organization and from various functional areas who are involved in (or provide support to) development of business level strategies, formulating and implementing marketing and sales strategies, strategic analysis of markets and their re-segmentation.The objective was to expose them to the concepts, tools, and live examples from leading organizations.

The programme was designed by Prof Ranjan Das, Professor of Strategy, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Leadership who was also the sole faculty of the programme. Prof. Ranjan Das is Chairman, The Strategy Academy. Some of the participants were Mr. Pronab Chatterjee (Regional Head – India East – Technology Business, Oracle), Mr. Debabrata Mitra (Seahorse Group), Mr. Partha Sarkar (Chief Operating Manager, Exide Industries Ltd.), Mr. Rakesh Anand (Head Sales, Tata Steel Ltd.) Mr. Mitrajit Bhattacharya (Sr. Manager Sales, Shapoorji Pallonji and Company Pvt. Ltd.), Mr. Gautam Karmakar (CEO – Trishul Shalya Pvt. Ltd.) and many more.

Key topics of the programme which were explained by Prof. Ranjan Das were:

• The changing world of business during the last few years, challenges faced by companies and actions most companies take to survive and grow.

• Characteristics of fiercely competitive markets against the backdrop of volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous [VUCA] business context.

• Winning strategies in fiercely competitive markets -I:

• Retain market share in declining markets

• Grow in markets when markets do not grow: need for a new line of thinking

• Convince customers to buy products under difficult market conditions

• Fight the low cost rivals

• Winning strategies in fiercely competitive markets -II:

• Develop an AGILITY TO SPOT short lived opportunities and act before the window closes

• Develop ABILITY TO ABSORB and create a buffer to withstand any “punishment” that opposing forces may mete out

• Avoid ‘red ocean’ traps

• Innovate the business model

The programme on Winning in Fiercely Competitive Markets provided a perspective on strategic challenges faced while doing business in highly competitive markets, caused primarily due to excess capacity and frequent recessions. This facilitated discussion among participants on the options available at the firm level to achieve competitive success even when overall economy and sentiments in general are subdued.