After Hyundai fiasco, will more auto companies admit to overstated mileage?

Hyundai Motor Co's admission that it overstated fuel economy claims on several of its top-selling cars has the industry worried, with speculation rife among executives and analysts at the Los Angeles auto show that more automakers may have to do the same.

Four weeks ago, Hyundai and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp conceded that they overstated the fuel economy by at least a mile per gallon on more than 1 million recently sold vehicles.

"I think we might see more of this," said Jake Fisher, the head of automotive testing at Consumer Reports. "There are other vehicles that don't really stack up to the EPA estimates."

Hyundai, which had centered marketing campaigns on superior fuel economy, says that so far its US sales have not been affected by the admission. But it has had to implement a compensation campaign that Moody's Investors Service estimates could cost them $100 million a year until the cars are scrapped. It also faces lawsuits over the matter.   
         

ravi kumar /pgdm 1st

Strategies adopted by Zensar Technologies to become a billion dollar enterprise in four years?

few months ago, Zensar TechnologiesBSE 3.30 % won the Porter Prize for the best strategy process in the IT & Communications sector — the first time the prize, named after strategy uber-guru Michael Porter was held outside Japan in India.

For the RPG Group firm, it was just further validation of its efforts to ensure that it was indeed relevant in a crowded sector.

The Porter prize was awarded to the company for 'creating a competitive advantage by aligning its strategy to customer centricity and continuous innovation' and vicechairman & CEO Ganesh Natrajan says that the company's focus has been on innovation since inception.

"When we started in 2001, we were a brand new software company with no reason to exist. We had to have a different point of view if we were to be taken seriously and do something different from our more established peers. We wanted to be a company clients would come to if they wanted to challenge the way they did software development," he says. The focus seems to be paying off.

Fiscal Cliff

What is the Fiscal Cliff?

• The fiscal cliff is a term referring to the effect of a number of laws which (if unchanged) could result in tax increases, spending cuts, and a corresponding reduction in the budget deficit beginning in 2013.

• “Fiscal cliff” is the popular shorthand term used to describe the conundrum that the U.S. government will face at the end of 2012, when the terms of the Budget Control Act of 2011 are scheduled to go into effect.

• It is meant to describe several big events, all fiscal in nature, that are set to occur in the U.S. at the end of the year.

These include:

ü The expiration of tax cuts initiated by Mr. Obama’s predecessor, at the   end of 2012, including current lower tax rates on capital gains, dividends, income, and estates

ü The expiration of stimulus measures like payroll tax cuts and extended unemployment benefits.

ü Spending cuts scheduled to be triggered automatically in January.

     RAZI ANWAR
PGDM 2nd year

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