November 30, 2008
Bizaholic Thought of the Day 30/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 29, 2008
Keep Non-believers Out of the Team
Posted by Bizaholic | 11:02 PM | Leadership, Team with 0 comments »Bizaholic Thought of the Day 29/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 28, 2008
Bizaholic Thought of the Day 28/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 27, 2008
Budgeting For Mistakes To Encourage Risk Taking
Posted by Bizaholic | 10:30 PM | Management with 0 comments »Bizaholic Thought of the Day 27/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 26, 2008
Bizaholic Thought of the Day 26/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 25, 2008
Keep It Simple Stupid And Act Fast
Posted by Bizaholic | 11:09 PM | Business, Management with 0 comments »Bizaholic Thought of the Day 25/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 24, 2008
Monday Blues: Irrational Exuberance That Led To Economic Panic
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Monday Blues with 0 comments »On a closer look, this panic is not unjustified. Four years of economic boom gave a sense of everlasting prosperity in the minds of corporate honchos. In the economic wonderland they forgot about the laws of business cycles. It seemed that the merry go round is meant for eternity. And with this sense of irrational exuberance, many irrational decisions were taken. With the economic slowdown in sight, suddenly reality has started biting and stupidity of some of the decisions taken in during economic exuberance is looming in front.
Here is a snapshot of such rash decisions based not on merit but on assumption that India will always wallow in unprecedented economic prosperity:
One company, a strong market leader in domestic market, suddenly gets an urge to conquer the whole world all at once and decides to enter dozens of markets (some on the back of acquisitions) on the hopes of funding the global aspirations on domestic cash cows. A logical and measured response would have been to win a continent before spreading wings to other continents. Instead the company decided to spread its wings too far too soon and without the financial muscle power or the talent with global expertise. Now when heat is on, there seems to be a burning sensation on the back!
One company was so happy with the economic boom that it started hiring like maniac. Positions were created at will, sometimes with just hazy ideas about what the people in these positions would do, in the vain hope that more people would bring more business. Suddenly, there were too many people and too little work. Something that was done earlier by one person was being done by a couple of people. A classic case of 'work expands to fill people available.' And when economic slowdown is in sight, suddenly manpower cost seems too high and cost cutting in every sphere, whether justified or not, is the new rule of the town!
One company got so engrossed in the magic of economic boom that it started diversifying in unrelated sectors, that too without necessary expertise. It even lacked serious commitment. Entire diversification was based on a hope that the magic of economic boom would convert every stone into gold. When the economic virus is threatening to strike, the core business is feeling the heat and suddenly cash seems to have developed a bottle-neck!
Look around and such cases of irrational exuberance during boom time are scattered across corporate arena. Global liquidity crisis may not hit India as hard as these seemingly economic goldmine turned monsters can.
Bizaholic Thought of the Day 24/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 23, 2008
Strengths Matter More Than Weaknesses
Posted by Bizaholic | 9:32 PM | Human Resources, Management, Organization with 0 comments »Where is the place for strengths of the employees? Very few organizations focus on the strengths of their employees. A big majority of them remain preoccupied with the weaknesses of the employees.
Research has shown that excellence comes from leveraging strengths and working on to make our strengths stronger. Weaknesses are present in every individual. But focusing on converting weaknesses into strength is mostly a futile exercise. At most, weaknesses can be managed around to transform them from a liability to a neutral form where they neither adversely affect performance nor add any significant value. Development of an individual or an organization only comes from playing to the strengths and continuously focusing on them.
The best thing about strength is that everyone has some areas of strength. The key is identifying those areas of strengths and finding out ways to leverage them. Similarly, everyone has some areas of weaknesses. The key is to identify them and try to stay away from things that require these weaknesses as strengths.
But despite strong backing from research, organizations are yet to embrace a strength focused performance management system. They are still weakness centric and despite all the efforts in converting a weakness of an individual to strength, they fail miserably because nature of things can't be changed. Have you ever succeeded in straightening the tail of a dog? Wise men know it can't be done so they don't bother about it. What they bother about is how to utilize the dog in the best possible way despite that curvy tail!
Bizaholic Thought of the Day 23/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 22, 2008
Bizaholic Thought of the Day 22/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 21, 2008
Becoming A Leadership Driven Organization
Posted by Bizaholic | 8:49 PM | Leadership, Management, Organization with 0 comments »Under-led and over-managed organizations are breeding ground for a large majority of organizational problems. Leadership driven companies are often more resilient in blending themselves with their economic environment and emerging out stronger. On the other hand, management driven companies tend to operate in a reactionary mode. So, leadership development throughout the hierarchies becomes imperative.
Any work profile involves both leading and managing. It is the proportion of leading vs. managing that determines whether a person is leadership driven or management driven. To deliberately develop a leadership driven culture, an organisation must map the proportion of quality time that each of its executives spends on leading and managing. It could be developed on the lines of a personal score card and can be made part of the performance appraisal system. By rewarding people who lead more and manage less, one can create an incentive for people to become more leadership oriented.
At the same time, people who are managing more and leading less should be coached on systematic development of some key leadership traits. They should be exposed to the virtues of mentorship, desired behaviour invocation, delegation with accountability, independent thinking, role modelling, holding everyone to high standards, change, challenging the status quo, focusing on strengths, creating synergy, and getting the best out of people. With a systematic on the job coaching, the proportion of leading vs. managing can be positively influenced for such executives. This can go a long way in gradually moving a management driven organization to become leadership driven.
Bizaholic Thought of the Day 21/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 20, 2008
Sales Management - Small Issues, Big Problems
Posted by Bizaholic | 7:50 PM | Sales Management with 0 comments »Bizaholic Thought of the Day 20/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 19, 2008
Bizaholic Thought of the Day 19/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 18, 2008
Measuring Impact of Manpower on Business Growth
Posted by Bizaholic | 10:39 PM | Human Resources, Management, Organization with 0 comments »Bizaholic Thought of the Day 18/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 17, 2008
Monday Blues: Once You Succeed, Beware!
Posted by Bizaholic | 7:00 AM | Monday Blues with 0 comments »Bizaholic Thought of the Day 17/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 16, 2008
Marketing Chutney: Killing A Giant
Posted by Bizaholic | 7:00 AM | Marketing Chutney with 0 comments »First, you must have a good product or service to start with. Without this, you are on crutches.
Second, be very clear that you are not going for a full frontal war with a giant. You would, in all likelihood, be overwhelmed by the giant in a frontal war.
Third, identify the weak spots of the giant. There are always a few weakest links, though hidden by the sheer powerful appearance and invincibility of the giant. These could be consumer segments, customer service, geographical market segments, trade relationships, and many more.
Fourth, concentrate your resources at the weakest links with the clear intention to overpower the giant in these areas. While on mission to wreak havoc on weakest links, try to outnumber your resources by 3:1 or more. The weakest links have to hammered down in one go in a swift action before the giant has time to salvage the situation. This is a critical path to giant killing.
Fifth, after having successfully invaded the weakest links, try to find out small but profitable customer or market segments which are too small for a giant's attention. Building on a few such segments could add some strength in the fight with the giant.
Sixth, maintain movement with swift action. When you are successfully profiting from ignored smaller customer or market segments, the giant is bound to notice your actions and may feel like joining you for some action. So you have to keep moving from one ignored segment to another till the time you can keep finding them. This way the giant has too many open fronts on smaller customer or market segments which are insignificant for it leading to diffused focus.
Seventh, after gaining some ground in your battle with the giant, start becoming disruptive. Do something with your product, service, or strategy that the consumer's eye balls pop out. Disruptive offerings or strategy often surprises the giant and gives you the attention of consumers.
Eighth, constantly surprise the giant. Do the unexpected. Get the giant in a reactionary mode. It's like dictating the giant what to do next. Let it play your game with your rules rather than the other way round.
Ninth, with all your actions try to confuse the giant. The more you confuse it, the more it scratches its head, the better it is for you. Too much confusion often leads to lunatic actions. In this case, it would result in concentration of focus on too many arenas of insignificance and complete diffusion of focus in its areas of strengths and vital customer and market segments.
Tenth, with the giant in a state of lunacy, slowly start eating into its main customer and market segments much like termites. With some luck and consistency, over a period of time the giant tree with huge branches may become a small heap of mud hill.
Sounds simple, isn't it? In reality, it is one of the toughest plans to execute and requires courage, consistency, guts, tenancy, out-of-the-box thinking, a great team, and an inspiring leadership to stand on the dead body of a giant.
Bizaholic Thought of the Day 16/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 15, 2008
Bizaholic Thought of the Day 15/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 14, 2008
Management Wisdom: Hiring Decisions - Quality or Quantity?
Posted by Bizaholic | 8:28 PM | Management Wisdom with 0 comments »Bizaholic Thought of the Day 14/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 13, 2008
Bizaholic Thought of the Day 13/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 12, 2008
- Product Managers being asked to share their PCs i.e. one PC for two Product Managers. Don't gasp in disbelief as this is a real life happening from one of the respected companies in India. Will this help cut cost or will it cut productivity?
- Guidelines for travel for managers - Avoid travel and if you have to then preferably use trains instead of plane even if it means spending 20 hours on train! Isn't it cutting cost at the cost of forcing your people to become idle on their productive time and exposing them to undue physical stress?
Bizaholic Thought of the Day 12/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 11, 2008
Does Premium Pricing Mean Premium Product?
Posted by Bizaholic | 8:41 PM | Marketing with 0 comments »Bizaholic Thought of the Day 11/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 10, 2008
Monday Blues: Is Social Networking a Threat To Online Recruitment Services?
Posted by Bizaholic | 7:00 AM | Monday Blues with 0 comments »To make it less dramatic, some of the social networking sites like Linkedin are real threat to the survival and growth of online recruitment services. With the increase in number of people who are active on social networking sites, these sites have become a large sea of resumes. Who needs the paid services of online recruitment services when one can access endless quality resumes from across the globe for free? All one needs is time and willingness to separate diamond from coal.
Linkedin can be the real party spoiler for online recruitment services. With 25 million users worldwide including 1 million in India, it has the potential to dig the grave of online recruitment services like Monster, Naukri, Jobsahead, etc. Linkedin has the added advantage of the depth and range of talent that is active on it. People from CEO level to a management trainee are available on Linkedin. Another advantage of searching for talent on Linkedin is that you can learn a lot more than the resume. You can get to know what others feel about the person (check recommendations), who the person knows (his connections), and the depth of expertise of the person (check Q&A section). When these information are cross checked with information generated from the virtual profile of the person on other social networking sites (Facebook, Orkut, Myspace, etc.), it can provide a fair idea of the standing and capability of a person for a job profile.
The biggest advantage of social networking sites vis-Ã -vis online recruitment services is that the former not only provides the resume but also other relevant details of the person (who he knows, what he feels about a subject, how he talks online, what groups he is associated with, and what other activities he is involved in. All these help in much better preliminary evaluation of the candidate.
So what should online recruitment firms do? The simple answer is – evolve. Online recruitment services are still operating in the web 1.0 world while social networking sites are operating in web 2.0 world. While social networking sites are dynamic and interactive; online recruitment firms are static with predominantly one-way communication. If online recruitment firms wish to compete with social networking sites in recruitment space, they must evolve fast and provide a more user friendly and interactive platform for the recruiter and prospects to know one another better.
Let's see how this saga unfolds in near future. But odds seem to be in favour of social networking sites!
Bizaholic Thought of the Day 10/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 9, 2008
Bizaholic Thought of the Day 09/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 8, 2008
Bizaholic Thought of the Day 08/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 7, 2008
Don't Forget Your 'Small People'
Posted by Bizaholic | 9:53 PM | Human Resources, Management with 0 comments »Bizaholic Thought of the Day 07/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 6, 2008
I have been closely following his campaign since last 10 months and feel that marketers can learn a lot from Obama.
Here are a few instant lessons in marketing as successfully demonstrated by Obama.
- Start with a good product. If you don't have a good product, marketing can't help.
- Differentiate your product in market and rise over clutter. Obama's political theme of hope and change was something having universal appeal and it differentiated him from the rest of candidates in the field who were running with routine election issues.
- Create a brand signature that resonates well with the USP of the brand. Obama's brand signature was 'Yes we can' and 'Change we can believe in'.
- Create a tribe around your brand who eat, breathe, sleep, and live the brand.
- Give the ownership of the brand to your customers. As a marketer, act like a guide and moderator but allow customers to be the real brand owners.
- Keep your communication consistent. Wavering on communication is a signal of weakness.
Conventional wisdom is not sacrosanct. Dare to go against accepted rules. Rules are meant to be broken. Obama's decision to invest in marketing in traditionally Republican states forced Republicans to spread their resources across American political arena and not confine themselves to a few "battle ground states." - When faced with a problem, don't shy away from acknowledging it. Fight the bull by the horn. Obama's famous speech on race demonstrated this.
- Focus on customer acquisition. Even in a cluttered market you can establish your brand if you find new customers in hordes. Obama's strategy to bring the youth in mainstream politics worked on this principle. He ensured addition of millions of voters by activating the politically dormant youth to participate in political process.
- Be present everywhere. Obama's strategy to use every marketing channel – electronic media, print media, digital media, buzz marketing, and word of mouth – to spread his message worked well to create awareness about him among all target audience.
- Explore full potential of PR to spread your brand message.
- When attacked, never get defensive. Instead go on offensive by playing to your strengths.
- Give the credit of your brand's success to your customers. Let them feel that the brand is their baby.
Bizaholic Thought of the Day 06/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 5, 2008
Bizaholic Thought of the Day 05/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 4, 2008
When Hiring, Go With The Attitude
Posted by Bizaholic | 9:12 PM | Human Resources, Management with 0 comments »Bizaholic Thought of the Day 04/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 3, 2008
Monday Blues: Economic Downturn To Hit India
Posted by Bizaholic | 7:00 AM | Monday Blues with 0 comments »Bizaholic Thought of the Day 03/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 2, 2008
Does Your Knowledge Management System Suck?
Posted by Bizaholic | 2:06 PM | Knowledge Management, Organization with 0 comments »Here is a list of few indicators to signal problems with knowledge management system in an organization;
- More of a fad or a feel good system rather than a well conceptualized system, taking into consideration unique present and future needs of the organization, with clearly defined objectives to help the organization evolve and grow continuously.
- Lack of clearly defined metrics to evaluate value addition by knowledge management system.
- One-way system i.e. a non-collaborative and non-interactive system that hinders in knowledge sharing.
- Excessive secrecy defeating the very purpose of knowledge management. To make any knowledge management system work effectively, it must follow a rule of thumb to share 90% of the stuff with 90% of its people. Knowledge shared is knowledge gained.
- Lack of training for employees about the features, relevance to their job and the organization, and value aggregator and multiplier aspects of the system.
- Documentation of routine stuff in the knowledge management system.
- Too many complicated procedures to make it user unfriendly.
Bizaholic Thought of the Day 02/11/2008
Posted by Bizaholic | 6:00 AM | Management Thoughts with 0 comments »November 1, 2008
Marketing Chutney: Will Political Marketing Arrive In India?
Posted by Bizaholic | 7:00 AM | Marketing Chutney with 0 comments »Well, his entire political marketing strategy revolved around the following pillars:
- Universal message of hope to transcend across religion, community, socio-economic conditions, age, and sex. Particularly in times of distress, the message of hope and grassroot empowernment gelled well across various segments of the population.
- Engaging segments of population, particularly youth, which are generally disenchanted by politics. Taking an idealistic high ground, making the whole political campaign fashinable, and communicating in the language of youth worked well to bring a large segment of population, which in normal circumstances is aloof to politics, into his fold.
- Using the power of digital marketing to create an enthusiatic tribe of followers and convert a political campaign into a change movement. Dominance over virtual world ensured that the message kept spreading like a wild fire. It also helped in encouraging many members of the virtual community to volunteer for building physical communities around the movement at grassroot level.
- Using the power of Internet technology to turn drops of political contribution into an endless ocean of money to fund the entire campaign.
- Expand reach and multiply frequency by supplementing the predominantly digital and 'word of the mouth' marketing effort with tradinational media vehicles like TV and radio.
- High penetration of mobile telephony in urban as well as rural areas. India has >300 million mobile subscribers (includes GSM as well as CDMA subscribers)
- Growing internet usage (>50 million Internet users)
- Low involvement of urban youth in politics.
- Growing percentage of youth in population distribution.
- Rising aspirations of people, particularly in smaller towns and rural centers.