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Some helpful folks at the FOX Business Network have sent me a link to a clip of Anand Mahindra being interviewed at Davos. He delivers some interesting views on how the Mahindra & Mahindra Group of companies is organised - it's a 'federation not a conglomerate'.

And the dramatic setting for the interview - the backdrop - is about as good as it gets.

Did you know Mahindra is going to be making Embraer-style jets? It has picked up cheap aerospace company assets in Australia. An advantage with conglomerates is that they can be in a position to quickly add value to a new business through utilising synergies/infrastructure with other parts of the group. Mahindra fingers are clearly going into quite a few pies these days. 

Can't be a bad life for Anand Mahindra washing up at places like Davos to do a bit of PR and marketing (I like his candid comments about getting his IT services company in front of international big business leaders).

Anand Mahindra in Davos

Some helpful folks at the FOX Business Network have sent me a link to a clip of Anand Mahindra being interviewed at Davos. He delivers some interesting views on how the Mahindra & Mahindra Group of companies is organised - it's a 'federation not a conglomerate'.

And the dramatic setting for the interview - the backdrop - is about as good as it gets.

Did you know Mahindra is going to be making Embraer-style jets? It has picked up cheap aerospace company assets in Australia. An advantage with conglomerates is that they can be in a position to quickly add value to a new business through utilising synergies/infrastructure with other parts of the group. Mahindra fingers are clearly going into quite a few pies these days. 

Can't be a bad life for Anand Mahindra washing up at places like Davos to do a bit of PR and marketing (I like his candid comments about getting his IT services company in front of international big business leaders).

Anand Mahindra in Davos

The problems Toyota is having with alleged 'unintended acceleration' related to mechanics - as opposed to the floor mat problem - in the US sound reminiscent of what some may recall as a similar problem for Audi in the 1980s. Except that Audi's 'similar problem' back then - exposed on an influential US TV programme called '60 minutes' - turned out not to be a mechanical problem. The TV programme had misled (it turned out to be driver error connected with the positioning of the pedals), but such was the hullabaloo, that Audi sales in the US subsequently collapsed and took a decade to recover.

The difference this time with Toyota may be that there is actually a mechanical fault with sticky accelerator pedals. The publicity will be a big worry for the company, but at least it is now acting. And if a car company addresses the issue openly, quickly and sorts it out, doesn't that actually improve its image? Can it be turned around into a positive, public relations disaster avoided? Maybe, but Toyota's hitherto squeaky clean  reputation for industry-leading quality - a massive selling point for the brand - is taking a dent.

US: Toyota stops some model sales, suspends output