Do you have a happy order book? If not have you been careless about keeping track of your old customers? Do you wait for a customer to come in or be proactive in approaching her?These probably may be some of the cliched questions you have come across on your quest at the various seminars organised for the Small and medium enterprises. Marketing that is searching, identifying, satisfying, delighting and keeping up with customers remain the most important challenege for the SME sector.
I have often faced this question while at trhe ice breaking meetings with family held organisations i approach for business. Most realize that there are many things that they would like to improve in their businesses but how should they approach & fix the problems.
Well first of all select a prticular goal you would like to achieve faster but do not know which direction to head. Would it be possible to grow both top and botom lines in tandem? Would it be possible to scale up operations withour defining the span of control leading to less clear division of the task within an orgaanisation.Let us begin at the beginning. Take help to structure of your organisation. This may help you to discover underutilised assets and overlapping & conflicting jobs.
Well an enterprise has the principal purpose of delighting the customers which leads to higher value for all the stake holders. A great organisation never takes its eyes off its customers. Investers need only monetary benefits, that a delighted customer may provide in any quantum.
June 25, 2009
June 23, 2009
A communicative India
Aren't we a country of people eager to talk and talk, but we revere the silent ones. Just see what happened to the talkers in last elections, and the silent ones kept standing in the end. Talking is no virtue in India
May 8, 2009
Dishonest B schools- taken from yahoo on May 08, 09
"But perhaps the most troubling studies reveal that M.B.A. students are more likely to cheat than other students. As found by Donald McCabe, a professor of finance at Rutgers University, and Linda Trevino, a Cook Fellow of business ethics at the Smeal College of Business at Penn State University, 56% of M.B.A. students admitted that they cheated in class, versus 47% of non-business students. McCabe and Trevino compiled data from 2002 through 2004, studying 5,331 students, and published the results in "Academic Dishonesty in Graduate Business Programs: Prevalence, Causes & Proposed Action."
But what can be done? Pfeffer says that business schools can improve their quality by taking their eyes off their rankings, which have become like the sword of Damocles for many. The problem with this, he says, is that the rankings are poor indicators of school quality. Also, schools often rate their faculty by how often and where they publish their academic work, which is again a poor indicator of actual quality of scholarship, let alone what is taught in the classroom. Also, schools need to account for how well their grads do over the lifetimes of their careers, versus the present focus on starting salaries"-yahoo.com on May 08,09.
I have experience of learning and teching at b- schools in India. The above observations are correct. Most teachers in b-schools have never experienced any commercial activity accept reading about it. It is crazy. Teacher without any industry experience would begin discussing the real marketing issues and asks fresh college grads about their opinion. It is crazy. How can one teach something without experiencing it in real life, withour practical experince.
But what can be done? Pfeffer says that business schools can improve their quality by taking their eyes off their rankings, which have become like the sword of Damocles for many. The problem with this, he says, is that the rankings are poor indicators of school quality. Also, schools often rate their faculty by how often and where they publish their academic work, which is again a poor indicator of actual quality of scholarship, let alone what is taught in the classroom. Also, schools need to account for how well their grads do over the lifetimes of their careers, versus the present focus on starting salaries"-yahoo.com on May 08,09.
I have experience of learning and teching at b- schools in India. The above observations are correct. Most teachers in b-schools have never experienced any commercial activity accept reading about it. It is crazy. Teacher without any industry experience would begin discussing the real marketing issues and asks fresh college grads about their opinion. It is crazy. How can one teach something without experiencing it in real life, withour practical experince.
May 6, 2009
April 15, 2009
How the politicians find out what people want
Political parties in a democracy are answerable to the electorate goes the cliche, but do our parties undertake any scientific research to enumerate the priorities of the masses? Well in Indian democracy leaders assume that majority of the people do not vote on a rational basis. Those leaders are right as the results of elections indicate.
Majority still vote for caste, religion, regional and ideological orientations. Economic issues do not seem to motivate the masses to vote in large numbers. But how do the parties find out what the people are thinking in their constituency? Politician in India seems to go by judgement approach and expert panel opinion taken from experts from within the party.
I have undertaken a focus group exercise in the youth segment to unravel their mind and the issues that they think are extremely important for the nation. The list in the order of priority is given under;
1. Population: Surprisingly no political party has talked about it in 2009 elections. What can the electorate do? Population growth remains the most critical issue that is slowing down the growth of India.
2. Respect for talent: Most participants feel that there is no room for talent & talented individuals in India. Youth is perturbed that the talented individuals do not stand a fair chance of achievement in our society. People still give too much importance to other factors over the talent of an individual. Students believe that it stifles the growth of talent, consequently growth of country.
3. Corruption: Why we have accepted bribery and corruption as part of life in India? Corruption weakens the country but no party seem to make it as an election issue and has offered no solutions to curb corruption in public life.
4. Economic policy: Major political parties do not present a clear cut industrialisation plan that could create jobs for the educated. All parties make similar noise about their economic policy.
5. Removal of poverty: Youth do not find mention of how much growth in per capita income would the political party would like to achieve in their tenure of five years.
Majority still vote for caste, religion, regional and ideological orientations. Economic issues do not seem to motivate the masses to vote in large numbers. But how do the parties find out what the people are thinking in their constituency? Politician in India seems to go by judgement approach and expert panel opinion taken from experts from within the party.
I have undertaken a focus group exercise in the youth segment to unravel their mind and the issues that they think are extremely important for the nation. The list in the order of priority is given under;
1. Population: Surprisingly no political party has talked about it in 2009 elections. What can the electorate do? Population growth remains the most critical issue that is slowing down the growth of India.
2. Respect for talent: Most participants feel that there is no room for talent & talented individuals in India. Youth is perturbed that the talented individuals do not stand a fair chance of achievement in our society. People still give too much importance to other factors over the talent of an individual. Students believe that it stifles the growth of talent, consequently growth of country.
3. Corruption: Why we have accepted bribery and corruption as part of life in India? Corruption weakens the country but no party seem to make it as an election issue and has offered no solutions to curb corruption in public life.
4. Economic policy: Major political parties do not present a clear cut industrialisation plan that could create jobs for the educated. All parties make similar noise about their economic policy.
5. Removal of poverty: Youth do not find mention of how much growth in per capita income would the political party would like to achieve in their tenure of five years.
April 11, 2009
Role of media in election spin !
Just the other day i have been asked to comment on the role of media in elections. Well media like anyother other industry has had commercial plans, though it has to abide by ethics as its influence on the lives is more prominent than fmcg or durable firms. Media do influence the public opinions. Thats why during elections they become target of election managers seeking to spin doctor the public opinion in thier own way.
Media organisations world over take sides in political process depending on various factors including commercial considerations. We too are no different. Moreover the elections are being held in recessions times when the leading media companies have already suspended thier standard tariffs to encourage the advertisers to bring in advertising revenue. It is not unusual for media in such trying times to make commercial compromise.
Ethically media are obliged to ward off spin doctors and never allow the political players to use news and views coloumns for promoting thier agenda. But reality is much different. Media organisations willingly peddle political info for revenue. Electronic media in particular seem to be jostling with each other to garner maximum revenue for carrying blatantantly biased political info for one party or other.
Media organisations world over take sides in political process depending on various factors including commercial considerations. We too are no different. Moreover the elections are being held in recessions times when the leading media companies have already suspended thier standard tariffs to encourage the advertisers to bring in advertising revenue. It is not unusual for media in such trying times to make commercial compromise.
Ethically media are obliged to ward off spin doctors and never allow the political players to use news and views coloumns for promoting thier agenda. But reality is much different. Media organisations willingly peddle political info for revenue. Electronic media in particular seem to be jostling with each other to garner maximum revenue for carrying blatantantly biased political info for one party or other.
February 26, 2009
India Shining to Incredible india, Elections 2009 in the Slumdog Country
We are in 2009 election season in India. The print media, electronic too, has got a God send savior in the form of political parties/politicians that are raring to spend big bucks in these turbulent economic times. They are geared to spend any money so that it could impress the citizen voters to vote in their favour. Therefore the newspapers are replete with huge adverts daily about the glorious achievements of the politicians and their parties.
The political class in office has the luxury & good fortune of spending public money on adverts that eulogise their leaders and parties. Oh, well, they have a right to inform public about their achievements. But about their responsibility? Don't they have a duty not to spend public money on promoting their political agenda? well this topic is well left to the public to debate. Let us look at the marketing of the political parties and politicians.
India loves its heros more than any other country. Since we don't have many heroes therefore we keep on inventing them regularly. A politician becomes a hero when s/he gets a z- security cover and gets to sit in luxury hotels and cars etc. How many of our great leaders have good solid education is a point of discussion? Mr LK Advani and others who wish to lead our poverty stricken country could never have hoped to a clear the IIT or IIM or AIMS entrance test? Our leaders do not take public service as work or profession. They treat it like a lifestyle. That's why India remains a slumdog country.
When you see the adverts of various state and central government carrying numerous photographs of their leaders announcing some foundation stone ceremony, inauguration or some ubiquitous public meeting by the name of rally how do you expect the reader to respond? Aren't all the adverts looks and feel the same? And if all the adverts are the same what response they would get? apathy!
When would the political parties and politicians let the professionals do their job of creating political adverts, like you have it in the developed world and stop pretending that they know it all? Till then we would have huge adverts in papers that treat the advertiser and their cronies as the target audience without enlisting an iota of interest by the fence sitter undecided voter whom political adverts aim to target.
Same messages, same layout, similar pics but by different political parties during election campaigns can only convince a voter that now the politicians have started to use the powerful tool of advertising. This would certainly not lead to change of behaviour and attitude. We have so called media advisers and ex-journos turned politicians doing the all important work of deciding how to target the citizen voters during elections. Their claim to such work is the knowledge they have gained by hearing jargon during various presentations served to them by agencies looking for their account. would we learn? perhaps never.
In the west centuries old political parties go for re branding, and all set up their respective war room full of top grade professional to plan and execute this all important task of getting to the seat of government so as to implement their own programmes in the interest of the nation as per their different perspectives.
I would recommend some political party to actually democratise the process and content of political advertising. Why can't a party be brave enough to stop publication of their leader's pics in government funded adverts? And during election campaign too they could keep those pics to the minimum and show the comments of the opinion leaders in sports, films, academia and other public celebrities endorsing the good work done by their party? It is time to bring in professionalism in very sphere for real progress of the country and rid us of the stigma of being a slumdog country. Someone listening !
The political class in office has the luxury & good fortune of spending public money on adverts that eulogise their leaders and parties. Oh, well, they have a right to inform public about their achievements. But about their responsibility? Don't they have a duty not to spend public money on promoting their political agenda? well this topic is well left to the public to debate. Let us look at the marketing of the political parties and politicians.
India loves its heros more than any other country. Since we don't have many heroes therefore we keep on inventing them regularly. A politician becomes a hero when s/he gets a z- security cover and gets to sit in luxury hotels and cars etc. How many of our great leaders have good solid education is a point of discussion? Mr LK Advani and others who wish to lead our poverty stricken country could never have hoped to a clear the IIT or IIM or AIMS entrance test? Our leaders do not take public service as work or profession. They treat it like a lifestyle. That's why India remains a slumdog country.
When you see the adverts of various state and central government carrying numerous photographs of their leaders announcing some foundation stone ceremony, inauguration or some ubiquitous public meeting by the name of rally how do you expect the reader to respond? Aren't all the adverts looks and feel the same? And if all the adverts are the same what response they would get? apathy!
When would the political parties and politicians let the professionals do their job of creating political adverts, like you have it in the developed world and stop pretending that they know it all? Till then we would have huge adverts in papers that treat the advertiser and their cronies as the target audience without enlisting an iota of interest by the fence sitter undecided voter whom political adverts aim to target.
Same messages, same layout, similar pics but by different political parties during election campaigns can only convince a voter that now the politicians have started to use the powerful tool of advertising. This would certainly not lead to change of behaviour and attitude. We have so called media advisers and ex-journos turned politicians doing the all important work of deciding how to target the citizen voters during elections. Their claim to such work is the knowledge they have gained by hearing jargon during various presentations served to them by agencies looking for their account. would we learn? perhaps never.
In the west centuries old political parties go for re branding, and all set up their respective war room full of top grade professional to plan and execute this all important task of getting to the seat of government so as to implement their own programmes in the interest of the nation as per their different perspectives.
I would recommend some political party to actually democratise the process and content of political advertising. Why can't a party be brave enough to stop publication of their leader's pics in government funded adverts? And during election campaign too they could keep those pics to the minimum and show the comments of the opinion leaders in sports, films, academia and other public celebrities endorsing the good work done by their party? It is time to bring in professionalism in very sphere for real progress of the country and rid us of the stigma of being a slumdog country. Someone listening !
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