Mirror Exercise for Business

The Thought
Mirror Exericise is used effeciently in Yoga to get into a sense of deep meditation. It is considered tough because its simple, as atleast 7 days are required, to actually get used to this simple exercise. All one is expected is to hold the mirror in hand, and look into own eyes.
The Same exercise must be used by today’s Business to realize what lies ahead for them, and what garbage they are carrying.
Mirror Exercise for your Business
1. Sit with all your HOD’s and ask them to share whatever they wish to share with the heads about the Organization and the future they see.
2. After you jot down each views, give them a white paper and ask them to draw the image of what they expect to see the company become in next 1 year. Ask them to be specific, they can do detailing like, drawing the Logo in a new way.
3. Next give them few A-4 pages and ask them to go to their department subordinates and instruct them to write an essay on how they see company to grow in 1-2 year, and what role they plan to take in the stage 2 years from now, and ask them to submit it seal packed to HR tomorrow.
4. All the HOD’s are supposed  to write their own Essay and submit it to the HR next day. Take a break for a day, and analyze the contents and see the most repeated words.
5. Jot down the 10 most Used words from each department and once you do that, you are sitting with a Pool of data to create magic for your employees.
Yes, as I discussed in the last Post, Transformers, Lost Souls and Fence Sitters, you will be able to clearly identify and distribute the employees into three categories.
Once you have done this Mirror exercise, do get in touch.
The Next few steps will help you transform not only the company but your self too.

Transformers, Lost Souls and Fence Sitters

There are three Basic kinds of people in an Organization/Group.

One are Transformers:
Transformers, although few in numbers , but are always looking for new ways.
They can be recognized by the fire in their eyes, and the length they wish to travel inorder to complete a project in hand. Usually these transformers need constant feeding, and appraisal, and since they are difference creator, good organizations provide them with enough resources and advantage to help them perform better for the rest.
Lost Souls: are usually those bugs, who constantly feed negative data about the group or the organization.
They are unhappy, because they are always doing benchmarking.
Benchmarking means, they are in constant flux to find out resons why transformers are growing, and why they are given advantage, without analyzing self.

They are the parasites, who feed on other aspects, but they are required, in the group, to ensure, Transformers feel priveledged.


Fence Sitters: highest in number when it comes to organization,, are people who are neutral.
They listen to both Transformers and lost souls but ensure that they keep mum at the right time.
They beleive in "Wait and Watch" strategy, and if you count on them, you are better dead than alive.

Now the idea:

A great organization understand how to use these three forces effectively, a great CEO, knows how to value the Transformers in the organization, by providing them all the necessary benefits to help the system run.
A great HR understand to treat the Transformers well, by constantly giving them the desired resources within the organization, so that they feel enhanced at work, and takes care of the Lost souls, to ensure minimum Negative Flow.
What kind of CEO and HR are you????

DECIDE, Whom you give more importance,

The Transformers, The Fence Sitters or the Lost Souls.

Your decision can change your company.

The Curse of Knowledge and Changing Definition

"Once we Know something its hard to imagine what it was like not to know it."

Thats what is the Curse of Knowledge

How hard it is to beleive that Life existed without Internet.
In fact, today, we are atleasst aware about the fact, because our parents, belong to the generation which are not very accustomed with internet, but imagine, the next 25 years. or may be 15 Only.
This next generation, might never visit, "Library", in the Life, or the definition of Library will change forever in dictionary.

Today, Library is defined as,

a. A place in which literary and artistic materials, such as books, periodicals, newspapers, pamphlets, prints, records, and tapes, are kept for reading, reference, or lending.

b. A collection of such materials, especially when systematically arranged.

c. A room in a private home for such a collection.

d. An institution or foundation maintaining such a collection.

 

The technology will change this to something like this.

a. A digital, virtual space, where all the materials wrote till date, are arranged topic wise, and co-relation wise( a mathematician is needed), and one can utilize this for reading, reference and research.

b. A collection of such materials, which shall be available to you with one click.( or by intimating your interest before hand)

c. A special touch system, in your hand.

The only issue is don't get nostalgic about the definition "Library", and the image which we associate it with.

Now, as a Marketer are ou ready for this changing definition, and is your business aligned enough to tackle this Curse.

Who can be the next Google, is it Wolframalpha.com.

 

Chill..........

Piracy is not Killing Music or Movies

The Thought

One constant ad which keeps on popping now and then is the stop Piracy ad.

Piracy of Movies/music and, the hero/Heroines go on pushing and pleading to us, to stop watching the pirated movies.

You know why they do it, not because, they really want you to enjoy a great quality movie.
They do it because they have still not figured out how to stop you from doing it.
Now, let me share a secret with you.
Piracy is not at all killing Music or Movies, instead its Piracy which has promoted it.
More number of people have watched the movies, have listened to more music, than they ever used to do.
So, Piracy has actually promoted great Music and Movies.
The problem which these people want to tell you, but never have the guts to share it with you is
" Piracy is killing Music/Movie Industry"

Its the industry, the money makers who are uncomfortable with the growth of people getting entertainment at such a cheap cost.
Its these people who are not able to crack the model in which they can push people to buy their products.
Movies, is one of the most perishable products, and if you drive traffic by the teasers and by other small details.
Let me share one more secret, Rajshree productions, ( The fame behind Hum Aapkey hain Kaun, Vivaah Likes), are constantly trying to dig the net and remove the pirated movies.
Its a hard joke, all they can do is stop the ones which are currently on and are under your jurisdiction.
Imagine the kind of Manpower is required to maintain that check.
So in fact, they are actually building and promoting a totally new Job Role.
 Employees work will be to dig the internet and find new links so as to D-Link them.
and There will be huge money, but, still, the objective will remain the same.

Piracy is not Killing Music/movies, in fact, its Promoting them.

Its the Industry which have no idea how to figure out the massacre' .
So Next time, some actors/Actress tells you, to push on great quality, it makes sense, but if they say, Don't watch pirated movie because its Bad,
go ahead and Download it through any Torrent.

Blue Ocean Droplets

If you are a Management student or in a Business, you must have heard the term,

"Blue ocean Strategy", a very famous book written by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne.

The Blue ocean droplets illustrates the high growth and profits an organization can generate by creating new demand in an uncontested market space, or a "Blue Ocean", than by competing head-to-head in the existing Market. 

The idea proposed in this post is about the little changes to be done in the New domain of your work.

Little small changes creates phenomenol results. Its these changes which brings the oceanic change in your organization.
Take for example, a case in office.Only heads sit and discuss ideas, and thoughts, If the same thing is given in form of a competition to the whole of employees, they will think hard to get the award and moreover the rcognition attached with it and will also
give the best results for you.
Just give people the recognition, drop a few Blue droplets here and there from the ocean, and see how your employees create a new areas of growth.

Enigma at Office

How will you behave if you know a thing is done wrong, still have to do it.
What will you say, if you know that whatever will be done today will decrease your worth in office.

Enigma is a defined as One that is puzzling, ambiguous, or inexplicable.
its a speech which is perplexing, like a riddle,
and most often than not, the boss communicates this way.
That is probably one big reason behind Email been sent across, to communicate something to the person sitting next to you at office.

Why? because 
We are more concerned about whats happening in the life of a person who is in the facebook and is far away, than the guy who is sitting next.
Thats probably the reson you tend to waste more time trying to figure out the other than yourself.Next time you are faced with enigma, instead of seeking email as the solution,
try sitting down with a pen and paper with the concerned person.

You will be more clarfied, relieved and give better results.

But Sir...

But Sir, is one of the most common used word in the professional language.

More often than not, one faces a situation where you face one of the two things:

1. The idea your boss gave about the new campaign is awesomely bad, and after long time, you have agreed to hear that deep down voice which always say "Don't say it", and are in the process of gathering courage to say it ornamentally.
You start with "But Sir....".


2. You put your hard work and dedication to a project, which is accompained with lots of sleepless night,
black coffee, no fun, but hard core work, and when you take it down to your boss with just one glance he says
"Well Rework", and it comes out abruptly,
" But Sir..."


All of us face this situation, and mostly follow the pattern, and remain dejected.
The Solution," Change your proposal".


Whenever you feel that you must utter "But Sir", do one thing.

"STOP".



Now for a minute think, what do you want out of this cases.
Your But sir, will aggrevate the situation, rather than minimize it.
Start using the power words.
" Sure Sir, I will rework on it", say this and just wait for the right time.
Most often, you will not even need to change the report, because the problem is not with the report, it is with the Timing.
Know the best time and you will crack the biggest deal in seconds.If the time is not right, then wait for it, or else, push yourself to bring the right time.

Patience pays.

and for Case 1, dont tell the disadvantage with the idea of your boss,
instead tell, how can the new idea solve the problem of the consumer/person in context.

The retail of Heaven and Hell

The Thought

Does Heaven really exist, or the Hell itself. What can Marketers learn from the two.

"Heaven and hell are the state of minds"- you will hear this intellectuals saying and discussing, when a common man, starts refraining from the so called bad activities to avoid the condition after death.
So beautifully the priest has led the world to beleive that, heaven is a higher state,
and hell, which denotes, pain and pessimism.
The Marketer needs to understand that Heaven and Hell, has to be never given in Wholesale,
insted must be provided in retail.
After drinking a glass of wine, the same Human being living in India, next morning feels sorry,

while the person in Europe feels nothing about the last night act.


Why because purposefully certain aspects are fed into the mind, and this is what we call
"Conditioning".




If you know the conditioning of your "Employees/customers", you can work around the concept of retail Heaven and Hell.
Praise an employee ( Heaven), and then, next day give him more work ( Hell).
But if you can wrap this more work in the paper of "Heaven", you have done the task.


Think how you can woe your consumer in this way.

The Independence Race- Case of Ujjawal Jwellers and Nirman TMT

The thought

We all celebrated independence day of India, yesterday.

With every working executive witnessed flag hosting, two ideas flew freely and like a virus for sure.

1. One more Sunday- Gone.

2. This year every Festival is on Sunday.

 What the system has led us to beleive is the fact that its the scracity which makes us want more and yearn for  it. Scarcity of freedom, led us to yearn for independence.
Scarcity of holidays led us to yearn for it.
So now if you again want your country men to value the independence, create a scarcity of it.
Now obviously I do not mean that take away the independence, but rather stop only doing the same old, Lal Kila rituals.
Do something which makes me feel the freedom?Hmm Like
Oki,
like
1. Can you allow a free entry to cinema hall to most people, and show them some great movie.
2. Can you have a free, Fly an aeroplane by answering few questions, and see whats the human is capable of contest and make people fly first time in life.( Kingfisher, here is an idea for ur business- No one ever forgets the first things in life.)
3. Can you give me a party of freedom, where the 12:00 o clock midnight, I can dance as much I want, then early morning, I can ensure to give people food as much as they desire to eat, and touch the lives of thousands of people.

If independence stands for 1st, the very first day of our freedom, there are endless opportunities for a Brand to gel with it and create the difference.

The Case





Ujjwal Jwellers, and Nirman TMT along with some local FM channel partnered at the city of Raipur,
and hosted the biggest flag of the city at a place called "Shahid Smarak".

Well what have they got out of this?
How many people care about the flag been hosted by Ujjwal Jwellers or Nirman TMT, and even if they hear about it will they buy the product?

Why Independence day is not a Celebration like any other festival, but rather seems as a tough task to  complete, and a National Holiday?
No they won't because, the target customers are no longer interested in these issues.

Instead if Ujjawal Jwellers could have hosted a small Fashion show, ( the industry they belong to, jwellery and fasion), where only hand made products was shown by some good enough models,
they would have automatically got the media exposure, and the right target audience could have been buzzed by their name.

If Nirman TMT, could have distributed, Baloons, the Tri colour ones, to one school, along with their name on it, and asked them to make a "Chain of Youths", they could have buzzed the right sentiment, of building a chain of youth.
Every parent whose child was involved in the process could have directly become involved, and then
they could have given a beautiful certificate of participation to these students.




Imagine what this could have done for the brands like Ujjwal Jwellers or, Nirman TMT.

But then these are tough things to do, and the easiest thing for todays marketer is
to buy ad space in some media channel and go on expecting a very high return.
I call this a blind race,

Just because we have made it though, its not necessary to continue to do it.

and its "WE" who can change it.

PDTS VS PDTP

The Thought

This is not a Jargon existent in the world of Business. Its something which we do, but rarely think.PDTS doesnot stand for Pharmacy Data Transaction Service neither PDTP stand for Peer Distributed Tranferred Protocol. This is not a technical blog for computers, but a very highly technical blog for the Business today.

Today, lets me define PDTS and why I craft this jargon.

PDTS- Passionate Desire To Survive

Most of the people at the Job perform at this level. Its aching to see, but most of the people are performing in offices around the world to survive. They do the daily Job, and clinge so much to the already existent systems they have worked, that they never see the great opportunity which change brings with it. They continue to condemn people who bring fresh ideas at work, they crib, plot, and have egos.
On the Other Hand are

PDTP- Passionate Desire To Perform

Few people live with a passionate desire to perform. They fight for the change, because they are the Change Agent, its these people who bring the new thoughts, fresh air in the system but to do this, they have to go through lots of resistence and politics.And they do fail, but they ensure to fail forward. No wonder, its these people who become the leaders in one among the organizations they work for, or lead the field.

Ask yourself, which category you fall into.


Do this small litmus test.


1. Whenever a New project is given by someone in the team, I go ahead and find out reasons how this project can be successful.

YES                              NO


2. Whenever a New project stands at the point of failure, I never crib, " I ALREADY SAID, THIS WON'T WORK, NO ONE LISTENED TO ME, NOW SEE".


 YES                             NO

3. I always look out for ways to Share the new knowledge I get exposed to share it with my peers and subordinates, and ensure that they perform at highest Level of their expertise.


YES                              NO

4. For me the Most important thing is to Complete the Project, even if the Winner badge goes into my Subordinate or co-workers. I perform my role Well.


YES                             NO


5. I never take credit of any one else work, rather, If I get someone work in my project, I ensure to bring him/her in the lime light, and share more than they gave.




YES                            NO.




If the answers to all this Questions is YES, you belong to the category of PDTP, and even if you get one
NO, you are a Slightly PDTS.


Kindly be honest with yourself while answering this question.
Because its not about your organization or your current position at the organization.
Its about YOU.
Be a Brand.

ICICI & the Banking system

The Thought

Banks in india push for new accounts. But as human, we rarely change the bank even if the scheme is lucrative enough. So, its advantageous for banks, to have customers open a new account with them, thus ensuring a locked in money. But what strategies do they follow to get new customers, and what will work in this changing scenario.

SBI atm's became a bit slower than usual last thursday. May be, SBI was doing only "Banking"( as in banking our money) and nothing else. So I switched on to HDFC ATM.
Now HDFC has a ATM system, where they ask you to put the card inside a machine, and not swap it. One big point of interaction problem, because, with endless stories out in the market that the card doesnt comes out, still, being an early adopter, I tried my luck.
After 4 minutes of wait and the whole process, HDFC ATM sent me the card back, saying transaction not possible. I thought, the poster they have put on the doors of every ATM that they accept cards from all Banks, will stand the test of time. But, No issues. The guard was a good fellow, pursuaded me to ICICI, and here the story started.

Everything went fine, but when I came out, there was this man in tie, started waiting for me to get out completely.
Then he started.
" Sir, do you have an account with ICICI", ( well most probably if I am using an ICICI atm, mostl probably I am having an account with them.
To test the waters, I said "No".He said, "Sir, great schemes have come up, I can tell you".
Me, " I am bit in a hurry, buddy", may be some other time".
He," Sir, no problem, I will come when you will be free, give me your contact number".
Me," What are you paid".
He, " Sir, usually our pay ranges from 15,000 Rs-20,000 Rs.".

Now here is the problem.

PROBLEM 1: Interruption.
No customer goes to ATM to get interrupted. In fact, the very idea of an ATM is to minimize the talks and have a smooth transaction.

PROBLEM 2: Take Permission
You can take permission to interact with me, even for the first interaction.
So something to make me interested in your services?

SOLUTIONS:
How about a New Campaign:
ICICI spend crores of Rupees, in buying ads in electronic media, print, digital. Instead of spending this money, why not use it better.

Have a campaign called, " Advantage ICICI".or more colloqual " Paisa dega ICICI".
Whenever a customer,  new or old drops in to your ATM and makes a transaction.
You Pay them an amount more than the amount he asked for.
Like if the amount withdrawn is 5000, you pay them 5010, Rs.
Or better,
Just Joined a Job, submit your details in any ICICI bank outlet, with your Joining letter, and get a free "Advanage account".
The free advantage account will help you earn MORE AND SAVE MORE after a initial period of 3 months.
You can deposit a Minimum 10,000 rs and once 3 Months crosses, for each transaction, based on the amount you have saved, you get the bonus.
Like if you deposited, 1 lakh Rs and withdraw 5000, YOU GET 5100 rs. ( 100 Rs Extra)
Any Bank, YOU.
Deposit More, Withdraw Less,
With ICICIYou Save More, Withdraw More.
This idea needs further refinement, but only if you can come up with a Pull strategy, you can do a great Brand building, and bring prosperity for your Business.

Case Study and Analysis

The Thought:

Creative Communications strategy

The Objective: To ensure Brand recall in the minds of key clients, consumers and Media planners, enabling them to remember Zee 24 Ghante Chhattisgarh.


The Opportunity: In the Week 32 of TAM, ( Television Audience Measurement ), The top 4 programs in TRP belonged to Zee 24 Ghante CG, and 6 out of 10 top programs were from us.
5 th spot was taken by Star News, followed at 7th by India TV etc.

The idea: We wanted to showcase that the top 4 programs belong to us, so for that, we tried to look out for the objects, history, or common aspects which relate with "4".

Finally, after discussion, we decided upon the 4 Kings of the Cards.

Hence utilized the idea as you can find in the creative emailer below.


CLICK THE IMAGE TO WATCH WHAT THE EMAILER HAS

Zee 24 Ghante Emailer Week 32 Designed by Abhinna

 The Benefit:

a. Brand Recall.

b. Free of Cost ( almost, excluding internet charges)

c. Ability to reach large audience

d. Creative work to grab attention.

Abilities

The Thought

What is the ability, and what is the need to enhance it?

Most often than not, you will face a problem of not being able to deliever the results as expected. Most often the problem will be with the definition of expected results. But whats so common to see is employees rushing in to job rather than defining it.
Try giving a new employee, heading a project. The way he/she plans and fine tune things, will tell you more about them than an interview. Ask them to solves real Business problems.
Yes, 99 will fail in this test, but one , The 1 will pass.
Thats the person you wish to have in your team. Thats the guy who will get the most reward.

Doing a job well, defines your execution, but planning a job well, and knowing the delievery standards,
helps you fine tune your plan, eventually helping you grow.

Most often you will face with hard decisions and tough calls from work life.
Things will never move the way you want them to, every day cannot be a great day. Let's face it.
But every day can be a great day to learn a new thing. To work on New aspects of your self growth.
But most often we get into the nitty gritties of not able to see the opportunity, but to remember the bash we got from the bosses.

But only those who realize their abilities, make use of such time as an opportunity to upgrade themselves.
Remember, every one has less time, the quicker and the finer recieves the cake, and

Ability might not give you the first break, but it will surely take you higher.

26 year Young Vs 16 year Old

TheThought

The generation gap, which used to stand at 20+ years has now come down to 10 years. 
A ten year elder person, is similarly confused and surprised with a 16 year youths wants and desire  as a parent used to be with the child.

What the implications of this is and how can you as a marketer/brand manager use this to your advantage?

Period. Agree that there are things, which a 26 year old cannot figure out about the 16 year old today.
If you see the comparison, what will strike most is the way the change has taken place.
During the year 2000, a 16 year old person, wished to be like a 26 year old person, who was considered financially free, and was one among the most respected and desired in the community.
Certain aspects which helped this 26 year old to be a brand used to be, gadgets, like walkman, Sports shoes which were although limited but were able to make a mark and leave impression. So for a 16 year, this freedom was an ultimate form of desires.

Consider now, a 16 year, has much more than what a 26 year old used to have, and that's why you will witness a 26 year old wondering, " how do they behave yaar?".
You will surely have a cousin or nephew/niece, who must be doing certain things in school, which you could have never dream of.
Consider this case, a close friend of mine narrated this about her nephew.
When in school, teacher taught this little kid, to write "A", letter, and then went on to ask to write this
"10 times", he gave a incredible answer.

" Wah! khud ek baar likhe ho, aur mujhsey 10 baar likhney keh rahe ho", as in " You have written it just once, and asking me to write 10 times".

The implications of these changes are plenty and as a marketer you have an advantage if you can understand it. Let me share few:

1. In the coming age idea of fun, can never be satisfied or limited. No longer games, game zone, etc are going to give them a pump. Only something huge, magnificent, something called a purple cow, is going to take their attention. So, if your business is not doing something remarkable, extremely outlandish, your efforts are useless.

2. Innovation is the only aspect which will provide the unfair advantage. If its not innovative, its non existent for me.

3. Wow, so Cool: the term used by a 26 year young,
    Wow, so Hot; is the term used by a 16 year old.
Choose whom you wish to woe.

4. Give them an Option to share it with friends, until you do that, you are never going to be able to reach the critical mass.

5. Involve, but do not forget to Evolve. ( much more on this coming in next post).


Happy getting attention.

Jadoo Tona

The Thought

India is a Beautiful land, and with varying culture what has kept us binded is the concept of "One Supreme God", and a spritual quest to know ourselves. 

But as said, that with the presence of Positivity, Negativity makes its way, similarly, certain un-explainable beliefs systems tend to exist. Jadoo Tona, is the hidden belief of a Human thought process, which essentially transcend your way of thinking and make you beleive that certain particular actions or things can attract good luck or charm. What are the reasons behind this belief and how can it be utilized in Business aspect?

Jadoo Tona, or Jadu Tona, has been a common working ground in every religion or cast. Basically it is believed that, it began with the presence of priest, or Pujari, who propogated themselves as the messenger of god.
To counter this particular position, the messenger of Evil came into play.
Generally, the term Jadu tona is associated with the performance of one particular set of  actions,
actions which are predesigned to persuade one specific person to act as expected.
Humans have this inner desire to have a power over the person, and Jadu tona, was one such instrument which came into existence.

For aeons, people have understood this inner need and insight of playing with the insecurity of people, specially woman and thats why, the Progression of Jadu tona, has continued till date.

But what can Businesses learn from this concept. Well, quite a many things.

1. UNDERSTAND THE NEED AND INSECURITY

Jadu- Tona, is based on playing with the insecurity along with need to have power over the person. Similarly, a brand must define what need and/or insecurity it is going to fulfill and what power does the customer will have when they buy your product, over others.
Will they be able to do a task quickly, will they be able to create a difference in life of people around, will they make the customer look more smart.


2. MAKE IT A LONG PROCESS, EXTEND IT IF NEEDED


The people who do Jadu Tona realize that the longer they keep the customer in the spell, the better they have the chance to extract advantage. Businesses must realize that the more they can keep the customer involved with them, the better they have the chances to turn them into brand ambassadar. So, the learning is, the real selling starts after selling the product.

3. INVOLVE PEOPLE ALONE, AND GIVE THEM A REASON TO CHECK THEMSELVES

This idea goes against the current prevailing thought of Social media. The Jadu Tona guys knew, that only when they give customer a hearing alone, where they can share their darkest of secret, they will have the edge. Where today's concept of marketing is about involving people, the Jadu Tona Concept is to involve them in doing multiple things, and showing them results. Once they have experience the results themselves, they are spell bound to the guide.


4. MAKE THEM "SECRET WORD OF MOUTH" MEMBERS

You must have noticed, when two ladies talk about a third lady, and if its something secretive which they are discussing about the third lady, they by default make their voices pitch low, even when the third lady is at someother place, some other town. 
The Reason is based on human psychology, and knowing this can be a boon for the business.
Next time, if you can give "REFER A FRIEND" option to your clients, either give them an incentive, or give them an experience which they will love to talk about.

5. DON'T CHEAT

This goes beyond the concept of Jadu Tona. With no laid out scientific reasons, it becomes tough for the mind to understand and beleive that the system which these people talk about is true.
But, science in itself has been putting efforts, based on beleif that it is trying to decode what exists but cannot be explained. 
Businesses need to realize that, if they take the easier route of cheating, and cutting corners without taking responsiblity of action, no jadu Tona, will ever help them create the impact their Business demands.

So Honesty is not the Best Policy, in fact
it is the Only Policy. 

The Critic

Critics are everywhere. You find them cribing, saying bad about you, and trying to make you feel insecure.

They laugh at your efforts, they make you feel low, and go extra mile to ensure you are hit.

What to do when you face one?

Recently, one of my blogpost attracted my long lost friend critic of mine -who is currently based in Mumbai- to write some beautiful words. here what the person wrote:

1 comments:

Dumb said...

Bitch....check your spellings and grammar to start with. Now I do believe in that saying I read the other day..."Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one"....Oh!....get a life!!!

August 6, 2010 5:43 PM  

 

The Person, who was highly annoyed with my Post on "Feed-BACK form of Hotel Mayura"

 went on to use abusive language.To ensure that the identity is not revealed, the person, went on to create an id "Dumb". and wrote the comment. :)

Now, the learning.

 

1. You can never stop people from feeling insecure, if you are good at something, and they will use their ways to fulfill their insecurities. Comments, problem creation, idenity hide, are some of the steps they are bound to take to satisfy their sense of insecurity. Let them do it.

Thats the best they can do.

2. They do not realize that they waste more time of their precious life, trying to criticize others than to put it into some constructive efforts to better their own life. May be that's one reason they never get enough of life, and need booze, drugs, job hoppings, and are never satisfied at work. Do you really care about such a human being.

3. One sure shot way to ensure that you are doing good, is not to have followers, but to have critics. Until few people are dissatisfied with your work, you will never make an impact. So presence of a critic must always be welcomed.

So the Sum Up:

How many of you know the Best Critic of the World? 

Well, No one,because, there is no Best Critic in the world.

 

But, Critic also teach you some good stuffs, which one must not let go.

I thank "DUMB", for highlighting that I must improve on my Grammer, and above all, I thank "DUMB" for dedicatedly following my blog, increasing my hits and ensuring I learn.

 

 

Next time you face a Critic,

Smile.. because their future is worse than Hell. 

 

 

In case you want to go through the comment of my critic, and wish to leave yours, kindly visit

 

Feed-BACK form of Hotel Mayura

and scroll down to comment.

 

Objective of your Business

An organization depends upon the Obejctive and the planning which goes towards achieveing this objective. If you have a well defined plan, you have the chance to execute it better and thus fulfill your objective. But still we see most plan fails, most ideas dying. Why does this happen?

Planning is the core of any idea. If you have not planned your objective, your idea is bound to fail.
But most often, organization keep on working towards either execution or planning.

And then when the envitable happens- The Failure, organizations look for the person to blame, and the people at the top identify one of the weak lamb and fire him.

The two points worth noting is

1. If the person who is to be fired, is a weak Lamb, cross check the HR, and identify, why the process of selection was not right, and whether enough efforts were put to cross check the person.
2. If the person has not improved over time, what was his boss doing since long.


The objective of every organization now is not only to earn profit,
but it must be make Life's.

4 Creative Emailers Designed by Me

The Thought

Creative Emailers are the necessasity in whichever business you are. With Media as a Business, we always need to be innovative and on our toes, because, Marketing is about Innovation now.

This post consists of 4 Top emailers designed by Me, which created huge waves when sent across the circle.

Hope you Like them.

Feed-BACK form of Hotel Mayura

Yesterday, went with the family for a dinner. One of the Star rated hotels, things went on fine, but what struck most was the feedback form. Here is my take on it.
Hotel Mayura, the feedback form had a specific, preplanned line.

" Thankyou for visiting our restaurant. We would like your valuable suggestions as a feedback to improve our services & upgrade ourselves.".

Then the problem started.

Few alarming coloumns:
Tel No.: Who the hell holds a Telephone number, and why you want me to contact at a number where I am usually not available.
Date of Visit: You want me to put the effort of writing today's date. Can't you do that for me.
Outlet: Now, how many understand what to write in an Outlet and even who does, who remember about it.
Server: What does that mean, as In Server address, or the name of the waiter.
Table No.: You want Customer to remember which table they sat on.


If not, atleast write down : To be filled by office.

Then came the question round.
1. How Often do you visit Ocellus?
Options was, This is my first Visit, Weekly, Monthly, Once in a Blue Moon.
What do you want me to think about this question?
Will writing Weekly, give me some benefits, or once in a blue moon give me some bad experience.


Then there were usual questions on dining experience, even they were not well framed.

I pity how business do not understand the value of attention.
3 minutes, of undiluted, valuable, nutritious attention, offered to you to know about yourself and your restaurant, and improve,  & businesses waste this absolute valuable chance of making an impression.

Solution:

1. Ask for my card as I enter, or My Good Name. Device a strategy to know my name. Check out My Car, Indians have the habit of writing the name, behind the car, or ask my driver. Atleast he will tell you, who am I.

2. Have a Form printed exclusively for me, with my name, if you lay hand on my card, then my address and contact number. 

3. I am going to stay for next 45 Minutes for sure, you have enough time to get a feed forward ( sorry I do not prefer word feed back), and make a customized form for me.

4. Give me an Option of writing some comments, please, if the customer wants to speak, thats the best thing available for you.

5. Don't ask ridiculous questions.  Ask questions which makes sense for your business.

Can you write, 

" This fine food for you was specially prepared by our "Chef Malhotra". In case you wish to leave a comment for him, or want to connect with him, kindly drop in your comment with contact, and our Chef would be happy to contact you".

Have a list of 20 Housewifes in this domain, and then call them during a weak time of restaurant.

Ask your Chef to share few tips and recipies, make them highly delighted.

At the end you have 20 Biggest Word of Mouth agent, who will go far ahead than filling your tables, and making your brand.

They are going to connect with you.

Please, dont be lousy, make your customer feel awesome about his/her time.

Just Answer One question.

The Thought

What is that one question if you could ask everytime, can dramatically improve your performance at work? What is the objective of your business/ you? What is that which you are aiming for?

You may be in retail business, or into media, you might be manufacturing steel, or a doctors treating patient.
With endless webpages on mission statements, and how to make a unique vision statement, businesses tend to miss that, if it has to be unique statement, it cannot be found on net.

In today's world, do what you want to earn profit, but all the business or you exist here for just one thing.

"Making things Easy for customer or people to work with you". Period.

You may be a local retailer, your objective
making it easier for people to get the daily stuffs, near and quickly in the best rate possible.
You may be a Salon, your objective
making it easier for people to re-fresh their looks/or refreshen up and ensure other people talk about it
You may be a Media industry, your objective,
making it easier to find the news the customer wants to find, and do it quickly.
You may be a Educational Institute, your objective,
making it easier for students to upgrade all their skills, and do it better and faster than others.


You see, facebook, why it has eaten up the share of Orkut.
Simple, once you know the buttons, its easier to do things in facebook than it is to do in Orkut.

You see Linked in, less and less people visit it, although the proposition they offer,
" Connecting with professionals" is very powerful.
The reason, its hard to navigate.

So if you are in a Business and wish to do something valuable, just answer one question

" What one thing that I do which will make things easier for my customer or people to work with me".

Remember,
Its the powerful questions which matter most.

The fight of Time

The Thought

How often are you charged with not being able to complete all the work and assignment given to you.What do you do if you have to say, "Sir, I was not able to do". Whats the better way to answer.

Oki. Now this post is not about giving you a trick about how to avoid and take shortcuts in projects.
This post will help you prioritize better and develop the ability to say "NO", because, when you say
"No" to unimportant things, you say "YES" to important ones.
The world moves in a frenzy, and before you realize, you will have more tasks to do, and less time to complete it. The better you get at doing the work, the more you are desired in the organization, and then lesser time you get to satisfy the wants of each stake holders.
People start cribing, creating trouble for you, but you need to go on performing. It's these times when you have to say "NO".
So the Big question, When I say "NO", will my boss take it positively or will put it as a remark
"He was not been able to perform". Whats the solution to it?

Well, the solution is simple.

Next time take two tasks at hand, One which you can do, and the other you can't finish in the deadline alloted. Yes, you have to be visionary for this.
Put your best efforts in both the task, but ensure to complete atleast one, on time, and with the slightly higher standard than expected. If you can do so, you now stand on an opportunity of gold. What is left now is , ability to convey the message correctly across.

Starting your proposal as,
"I was given two task, this and this, but I was not able to do ONE", will never give you advantage".
Instead.
First go on elaborating, the completed task. Take your time, and explain the various intricacies of the task.Your objective must be to recieve a positive "YES", or an expression of "Well done" from your boss.
Once you get that, this is the time.
Use minimum amount of words to tell, why you could not compelte the Task 2, and how you plan to complete it with the new deadline.

You will be amazed by the acknowledgement, that, even your boss is logical, and understands your problems.
remember, the Boss is not the problem, the problem is your communication.
Enjoy.

Guilt as Motivation

The Thought

Did you notice, you now do the work you never wanted to do? Are you aware that you are constantly upgrading yourself towards doing things which you never liked? 

What threat does this system lies and how you can bypass this?

The guilt is defined as a cognitive or an emotional experience that occurs when a person realizes or believes—accurately or not—that he or she has violated a moral standard, and bears significant responsibility for that violation.
Since ages the people in power have realized this concept and have used it efficiently to ensure that the workers continue to push themselves towards generating more work, in turn more profits by constantly upgrading themselves and this is done by the power of guilt.

Lets see how this scheme is constructed.

1. The person in power will walk upto you and will whole heartedly introduce in front of everyone that you are now the head of the Project X. Or if you are in a College, they ensure that you are now The head of the students, or assignment leader.

2. Then instead of clearly telling you the expectations and outcome, will ask you to improvise and think upon the output and propose a report.

3. And the person in power is smart enough because he has figured out what exactly the output he looks for and has identified the key pitfalls. So he will continue to encourage you to do more task, improve it, till you cross the deadline of time and project stands at the verge of failure.

4. Since you were the head of the project, you are clearly the victim who had the whole responsibility to accomplish the results. Now you are the Guilty of the crime which you never did, but were made to do.

5. The time is right, the rod is hot, the person in Power hits the rod hard, by either of the two ways.
a. Bringing in the person whom you are not comfortable working with, and making him the head for the project.
b. Having a closed door meeting with you and giving you one last chance to prove your metal.

Voila. The work is done. Now all the person in power has to do is, to just Monitor your pressure and ensure that you are getting enough words of Wisdom and appreciation for work.
By this way, he takes all the benefits and praise, for getting one more project successful.
The important part is, either you grow or the New team leader, but for sure, The person in Power will grow.

How can you by pass this.

Simple, If you can define the outcome and objective better than the person in power can define, you are going to be the king. The person in power will always search for you, no matter where you are and what you do.
So next time, you are given the project, instead of telling yourself about the benefits this project will have for you, define the benefits that the person will have from your project and then define the outcome.

Remember if you don't know where you are going, you will reach somewhere, but not where someone else wanted to reach.

The Biggest Challenge

The Thought

Everyday is a New battle, and it starts right from the time you put that snooze button to defer by 5 more minutes.

We start the day thinking that the challenge is going to be at the workplace, or at college.

But what exactly is the Biggest challenge?

Welcome to the workplace ( your office or Classroom). Is the biggest challenge for you is
To pass the time from 10:00 AM- 7:00 PM, or to remain awake in the ever boring, increasingly un valuable lecture of a professor.
Or your biggest challenge is to work with highly talented work force, but who are not ready to put their best at work.

Imagine, if your biggest Challenge is
1. To provide more opportunity to the talented workforce in your office.
2. To foster Co growth, and create an atmosphere where people look ahead to bring their best and shine.
3. To either remove the non hardworking and/or ensuring they start putting efforts, and not use a downloaded  presentation without quoting the source.
4. To witness and motivate the team to run towards common Goal and track them.


If you can imagine it, you can do it.

5 Steps to New Ideas

Where do the ideas come from? What you must do to ensure New ideas keep visiting your brain?

Ideas are what going to keep you ahead in competition. Its the power of these ideas which creates the Magic and makes a difference in your life. May it be business or Personal Relation, an idea can help you get all that you want. But most people complaint of not being able to get the ideas, its because, one must be receptive enough for ideas.
Follow these simple 5 steps to get great ideas

1. Write a daily thought diary. This must essentially be your observation and insights you have recieved throughout the day.

2. Have a 10 minute Own Self reflect time before you sleep, and as you get Up.
Just don't push yourself and come out of bed,, instead be awake and make a list using your brain.

3. Discuss one mad, stunningly, great thought with one close friend or co-worker, and ask for opinion.

4. Read an article or a Book other than your own industry, it will make you refreshed along with new thoughts will creep in.

5. Be at Peace with yourself, and see the light of Joy.
Make some Pictures of what you want to be, or like. It will help you in Long way in creating the necessary image.