Sales and Marketing Process Outsourcing – Sales Pitch

Sales and Marketing Process Outsourcing (SMPO)

Top Reasons, why companies outside India and companies in India should outsource their Marketing, Communication, Lead generation and Demand Automation programs to India.

In today’s fast-changing, technology driven, digital media marketing landscape, the management of marketing function in organizations has become global. Now most of the marketing is done through new online, on-demand tools which can be used from anywhere across the world. Software as a Service model is steadily growing into organizations worldwide enhancing the online execution capacity of organizations. Also, these collaboration tools allow today’s marketers to sit in any part of world and deliver the same metrics which there counterparts in US or UK would be doing.

So why pay more? – May be language and cultural tone can pose barriers for companies outside India, however, this is a myth, as many of the organizations outside India have a good 20% staff which is Indian. Indians deliver far more superior quality of work than their US counterparts.

Companies outside India - Business Case for Marketing Outsourcing

Pay less and get more - An average email marketer in US or UK costs around USD 40 - 60K / Euro 25K - 40K annually. However in India you can get the same for 15-20K Euros. This person would be not just an email marketer but more than that. You would notice a higher level or business acumen and strong fundamentals in business.

Risk Mitigation – Considering you have low cost resources available, you can have more resources at the same time with lower cost and you will deliver much better results. Also, in case of attrition, you can still work efficiently as you had built redundancy.

Strong Talent Pool – A very strong talent pool is available in India. Not just that Indians are quick learners but also they ramp up their skills very fast. And due to a large population and stress given on education its always easy to get the right person who fits the bill.

Companies in India

From my experience in India. Most of the marketing departments anyways outsource there marketing activities partially to the agencies. However, due to lack of agencies which can provide integrated marketing which can cover Traditional and Digital marketing both, its very hard to retain one vendor.

Also, many small and medium enterprises hire people at low cost and the end product is shabby. In today's time if one individual was to know everything in the marketing domain with deep understanding of various media, buying behaviour and negotiations, agencies wouldn't have existed at all. However, this is not true. Hence, you need an agency which can deliver exactly what you need.

With a brilliant planning, media buying, creativity you also need a strong execution backbone and one think tank which looks ahead and keeps a track of market, competitors and more.

Mostly agencies do that and if they are not doing it yet, they should dedicate their resources in doing that.

With a setup like this, I see that the agencies can provide a detailed end to end branding and marketing setup to organizations. Also, the agencies need to come up with low cost marketing techniques to help the SME segment.

Today online media provides Low Cost Marketing solutions and that is what the Agencies need to look at. Coming up with market segmentation and offerings for low budget and high budget customers.

At last, I would say its always beneficial to outsource a majority of execution to an agency and spend more time in analysis and planning in house. A complete SMPO or Sales and Marketing Process Outsourcing company can come handy in India.

Naseba Announces the Winners of the Indian CIO of the Year Awards

Naseba Announces the Winners of the Indian CIO of the Year Awards

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, Thursday, June 12, 2008 -- (Business Wire India)
naseba, a leading international business information company listed on the Paris Stock Exchange, held the Indian CIO of the year awards ceremony in conjunction with the 2nd Annual CIO Strategies India forum. The ceremony took place on June 9th, 2008, at 7.30 pm at Grand Hyatt in Mumbai.

The Indian CIO of the year awards recognize the leading Indian CIOs. The winners were selected by a jury consisting of Ashwini K Sharma, Former CIO, SBI and Markus Bell, CIO Analyst. This year, there were four categories with five CIOs competing in each category. The winners are:

1.Nirvan Biswas, CTO, Midday Multimedia - New Comer Award

Nirvan was selected based on his ability to implement new technologies integrated in web 2.0 to achieve massive cost savings for the overall company. These approaches are reflected in a new layout to SOA integration, communication products integration with the possibility of waste and lifetime data transmission. He also established himself as a leading business management personality, setting out new benchmarking systems and integrating all business units in the IT Architecture.

2.Navin Chadha, CIO, TATA Teleservices - Innovation Award

Navin has over 18 years experience in the telecommunications sector and in storage solutions and is a member of the advisory council for Sun Microsystems and CME Technology Advisory Group. Navin is very innovative in his approaches in the sector. He implemented Microsystems Configuration Manager 2007 to improve customer services and increase dataflow on an extensive configuration and collection of components to integrate business requirements and the management of IT Infrastructure. He is a pioneer, as this is one of the largest projects that has been carried out and reformed to the needs of business, this will revolutionise customer handling, business integration and IT architecture management over the coming years.

3.Anita Pai, Executive Vice President, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Ltd - Leadership Award

Anita was chosen for her outstanding approach in risk management leadership in implementing new technology in the telecom space and integrating all over team and unit in the process. While leading ICICI Prudential IT, Anita established a vast IT communications system, which guarantees security, compatibility to the system requirements and remote access in a highly secure data sector. Besides the integration of the technology, she established herself not only as an IT manager but also as a CIO, managing training cost calculations and the overall information flow throughout the company.

4.K Radhakrishnan, Head IT, Henkel India Ltd - Lifetime Achievement Award

The choice for this candidate was not only based on his work at Henkel, but also on his innovative approach in production, sales, data management and e-trade alignment integration of customer handling on a national and international scale. By using tools, integrating the business units and achieving an outstanding example of how to manage outsourcing and ERP systems over time, he laid out a perfect example of lean IT. In addition, he integrated training and business information in communication and data management for companies of various industries. Mr Radakrishnan has set an example on how to successfully outsource international companies on the Indian market and advanced the Indian economy by developing production and communication to a new level, giving India a competitive edge over other competing economies.

“I have always kept my focus on “Leveraging on Information Technology to Enable the Enablers”. Having held various offices with top MNC’s in India for over two decades now, I have realized that success starts only when business and IT alignment is well orchestrated, and I just converted the opportunity entrusted to me which has been well realized in all terms, to get to this milestone. With this award, while I have a sense of recognition of the achievement, I do understand the expectation being set of doing more of IT for the time to come. Thanks to the Jury, Naseba and the other partners to the event!,” explained K Radhakrishnan.

“We are proud to have organized and hosted the first edition of Indian CIO of the year Awards during our CIO Strategies India forum this year. The Indian CIO of the year awards ceremony provided awarded CIOs the chance to inform their peers about the technology innovations they used in their projects to achieve greater success for their organization,” concluded Shannon Mackrill, the event producer, naseba.

Please click on the link given below to download the list of nominees.
http://image.exct.net/lib/fefd1271766107/d/1/nominees%20page.pdf

About the CIO Strategies India forum

Working in strategic partnership with Business Wire India, Exchange4media.com, NDTV Profit, Outsourcing 2 India and Smart Techie, the second annual CIO Strategies India forum, organized by naseba, gave the opportunity for up to 100 CIOs from Indian companies to learn about the latest trends in the IT industry, to source customized solutions from leading solution providers as well as to network with their peers.

For more information, please visit www.ciostrategiesin.com

naseba

Established in 2002, naseba produces business platforms focused on re-education, networking and most importantly increasing deal-making opportunities for executive clients. With offices strategically located in five cities around the world, naseba employs over 250 executives from more than 30 nationalities. naseba group went public on the Paris Stock Exchange on October 5th, 2006.

For more information, please visit www.naseba.com

Top Tips in Business Dressing for Men and Women!

What Makes an Organization’s Culture – Business Attire?

So the client rejected the proposal? You had a better service offering than the competitor? Still you lost it? Well you might want to look at OverDress Syndrome or PoorDress Syndrome of your company’s employees.

As simple as it sounds, has its own long lasting consequence. What kind of a organizational culture are you building? Casual or Professional?

Many companies struggle with the Business Attires in their organizations because they have people who are in customer facing role and some employees who are not. It would be anyone’s guess, every company has the same set-up. Obviously there will be some people who will not be in customer facing roles. Can this be taken as an excuse to let go a professional corporate culture and not to have Smart Dressing sense in the company?

The Importance of Proper Attire
Making the best possible impression is paramount. First impressions are made within the first 5 minutes of meeting someone. In other words, if you want to be taken seriously, dress appropriately.

OverDress Syndrome – Many organizations cater to government agencies, research labs etc. When a sales professional from organizations selling some stuff walks into such an organization where the government considers eating peanuts as the main course food and tries to match salaries accordingly, you do not expect flashy business suits. But people are very normally dressed. Though they are sharp in their own way! So if the sales guys walk-in all dressed up, in most probability you might just intimidate the person. And your sales impression right from the 1st meet is going to be “Expensive”.

PoorDress Syndrome – So you were visiting a another organization whose vision is to deliver high quality with world’s best technology to customers or may be the best financial asset management services etc and you went dressed shabbily or in a sloppy manner. You just killed your chance of getting your way across the customer’s heart, why? Coz, you didn’t even match the personality of the organization, personally, how will you match the same with your product or service?

So what should you do?

It’s simple, Learn the Customer's Dress Style

• Looking professional promises you a good first impression. Knowing what's expected takes a little research, a shopping trip, and a full-length mirror!
• Research the culture of the employer. A more conservative employer, e.g. accounting, finance, law, etc., will require more conservative dress.
• Look at the brochures, web sites, and employees of the organization to guide your dress style. What style of clothes is being worn by the people who work there? What image are they projecting with their clothing?
• Trust your instinct when picking your business attire. If you have to ask the question, "Can I wear this?" the answer should always be "no."
• Err on the conservative side when in doubt about what to wear.
• Avoid extremes: heels too high, skirts too short, blouses too low cut, ties or patterns too loud.
• Ask experts at a clothing store about the fit of your suit. You don't want it too loose or too tight.

Cost Vs Quality debate?

You are not expected to be able to afford the same clothing as a corporate CEO. However, everything should be clean, well pressed, and not show wear. Even the nicest khakis after 100 washings may not be your best choice for a reception. Carefully inspect new clothes for tags, and all clothes for dangling threads, etc.

Please someone explain this to me…BUSINESS vs. BUSINESS CASUAL ATTIRE

What is business attire? It is the written or unwritten dress code of an organization. Business attire suggests a formal, conservative dress style. Attention to detail, impeccable grooming, and a well-fitted suit are a must to make a lasting good impression. Business casual is a small step down from the formal business attire, but still business-like, appropriate and presentable in a place of business. Remember that the definition business casual attire should never be interpreted as casual.

Men's Business Attire

The Suit
• Choose suits neutral in color - charcoal, navy, gray, black, conservative stripes all work.
• The pant leg should touch the front of the shoe and fall just above the heel in the back.
• Pants can either have cuffs or not.
• The fabric of the suit should be gabardine or wool. Avoid cotton blends as they wrinkle.
• The suit jacket should be buttoned while standing and unbuttoned to sit. Do not button the bottom button of a three or two-piece suit.
The Dress Shirt
• If possible, have your shirt professionally laundered.
• Always wear a long sleeve shirt.
• The shirt's sleeve should extend beyond the suit jacket sleeves by 1/2 inch.
• Always wear an undershirt, as they give the appearance of a finished look; undershirt should be solid white.
The Tie
• Wear a conservative tie with subtle patterns or solid colors.
• Tie your tie to fall in the middle of your belt.
Socks, Shoes and Belt
• Wing tips or lace up conservative shoes are the most appropriate. Loafers can be used for business casual.
• Shoe color should match your suit or be of a darker color.
• Shoes should be in good condition and polished.
• Socks should match the color of your suit and cover your calves.
• Belts should be in good condition and match the color of your shoes.
Accessories
• Men should limit accessories/jewelry to 3 pieces.
• Accessories include watch, ring, handkerchief, lapel pins, cuff links, and tie tacks.
• Avoid bracelets, necklaces, and visible piercings.
Grooming
• Facial hair should be neatly trimmed (moustache, sideburns).
• Hair should be neat.
• Heavy cologne should be avoided. Soap and deodorant will allow people to remember you- not your scent.
• Nails should be clean and manicured(it's not gay).
Men – Business Casual Attire
• A sports coat creates a pulled together look in a business casual environment and eliminates the need for a tie. Pair up the sports coat with khakis or dark pants.
• Traditional dress slacks, khakis, Dockers, corduroys, wool flannel and linen slacks are appropriate with or without a blazer. Be sure to press them beforehand.
• Casual button-down oxford shirts are a great alternative to dress shirts, with or without a tie. Choose basic white, chambray or pinstripe.
• Oxfords and loafers in brown or black are a good match for khakis or corduroys.

Women's Business Attire

The Suit
• Choose a classic suit avoiding trendy suit styles.
• A skirt suit or pantsuit is considered appropriate attire.
• Skirt hemlines should be knee length or longer. Miniskirts are not appropriate.
• Color does not have to be limited to dark colors.
• Make sure the suit flatters your figure and is a good fit, not too tight or too loose.
• Jacket sleeves should fall 1/2 inch below your wrist.
The Blouse
• Blouses should be updated, but neither low cut nor revealing.
• Do not wear a camisole or see through blouse. (Your company's product/service should get the attention, not you!)
• Blouse should include sleeves.
Shoes and Hose
• Shoes should be pumps, flats or sling backs, do not wear shoes with open toes.
• Shoe color should be darker than your suit.
• Heels should be 1-2 inches; higher heels should be saved for after hours.
• Hosiery should be worn with a skirt to match your skin tone or suit.
Accessories
• Jewelry should be kept minimal and conservative.
Make-up and Grooming
• Makeup should be natural looking. People want to remember you, not your eye shadow.
• Nails should be clean and manicured.
• Nail polish and lip color should not be too trendy or bright.
• Hair should be clean, neat in appearance.
• Perfume should be applied very lightly if at all. A good soap and antiperspirant will allow people to remember you not your scent.
Women – Business Casual Attire
• Pantsuits are a wise choice for a business casual event.
• A classic sheath paired with a cardigan or a blazer in the same fabric and color is a good choice.
• Crisp, cotton shirts added to dress pants, khakis, or skirts make a casual outfit.
• Cardigan twin sets are also an easy way to present a more casual look while still looking professional.
• Jewelry, scarves and other accessories will add a polished finish to an outfit. Remember though, "less is more."
• Shoes should still be well-made and close-toed - no extremes. Flats are appropriate, platform slides are not.
• Hose are not essential for business casual, but recommended for shorter skirts.
• Knee highs or trouser socks are suggested with pants.

ALL - Unacceptable Attire
• Jeans or denim pants, shorts
• Leggings/stretch/stirrup/sweat pants, spandex or other form fitting pants
• Athletic shoes, hiking boots, sandals, slides or flip flops
• Flannel shirts or T-shirts
• Hats/caps

Checklist for Putting it All Together
Regardless of the occasion, dressing appropriately is one of the easiest ways to impress the potential employer.

􀀹 Hair: Should be clean and neat.
􀀹 Shoes: Should be in polished condition. Make sure heels are not worn.
􀀹 Details: No missing buttons, no lint; and don’t forget to remove external tags and tacking stitches from new clothes.
􀀹 Hands: Clean fingernails.
􀀹 Fit: Clothes should be clean, neatly pressed, and fit properly, neither tight nor baggy.
􀀹 Smell: Perfume or cologne should be used sparingly or not at all. No odors on clothes. Don't smell like smoke.
Trust your instinct when picking your business attire.
If you have to ask the question, "Can I wear this?" the answer should always be "no."

10 reasons why IIM Fees hike is justified!

Recently there has been a lot of discussion and rants on the IIM Fee hike. I strongly feel its a welcome step and IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Kolkatta and for that matter IITs fees hike is justified. Here are 10 reasons why this fee hike is justified?

1. Best Academicians cultivate Best Businessmen
   The best professors across the continent can be brought in and retained with better salaries and they will contribute in creation of best businessmen of future!
2. Infrastructure expansion: Why do you pay higher for your home?
   Better infrastructre, more facilities, more research and more credible and authentic content can be created for the benefit of society. The inflation has increased, the prices across the board in Bangalore have risen, why on earth do you pay higher prices to buy Home? If you can expect higher salaries then this hike is definitely justified.
3. Fewer Subsidies means more capital for primary and secondary education.
   Govt. can spend on subsidising PG education and help these institutions become autonomous. More fee will bring in more funds and this can help the government inturn to focus more on primary and secondary education.
4. Education loans are more freely available.
   Today more banks are willing to give education loans, also government has urged to reduce interest rates for education loans. So it's much easier to get loans and pursue education.
5. Scholarships for needy.
   The director of IIM B Pankaj Chandra has also announced the increase in the shcolarship package to 8 Cr to help the needy pay their fees. So it will be much easier for people.
6. Brand building for IIMs – Expansion to Newer Geos + More revenue.
   The Brand IIM can be taken to the other parts of world now and you can see more IIMs opening in other parts of world expanding the IIMs realm and brand and bringing more revenue.
7. Competing in the International arena.
   It will also help in branding exercise of IIMs to take them into multicultureal multi geographic arena. You can see IIMs focussing on expanding it's presence on the international scenario.
8. Building India Inc education brand as most premium.
   Premium brands need advertising and branding not just in a local region but also in international scene. SO obviously increased funds will help in brand building exercises and taking IIMs brand to the next level in turn making BRAND INDIA INC. visible worldwide!
9. New programs can be started and better learned society.
   Newer niche programs can be started, more industry can be supported with better and newer skills. More industry partnerships can be built! This will lead to a better, knowledgable, learned society that India has.
10. More industry interaction can be brought in.
    More industry programs means more industrial revenue. Also more industries will participate in funding and expanding IIM brand to various parts of India and aborad.

This increase in fee has a overall positive effect. Student and aspirants have to be educated more by IIMs and similar society associations on why it's important and how it will be beneficial in turn for them only!

Top Husband Management Tips from a Wife's Perspective

TOP husband management tips for that everlasting Happiness...*
*Courtsey, my wife, as a guest blogger.

Being a young wife, not too young by the traditional Indian Standards, but definitely young by the modern Indian standards has its own quirks. On one hand, the older relatives who were married much earlier than you were, can't quiet understand "what your problem is" - with cooking, running the house, work-life balance, husband and most importantly - not feeling the need to reproduce immediately.

The younger ones who are note yet married, can't understand "what your problem is" either - with an indulging husband, good job, and no children.But what is the problem indeed? How does one manage their husband and in the process their happiness in the marriage. From my brief experience into a marriage this is what I have figured (maybe subject to change on better experience):

TOP ways to manage Husbands and Happiness

One: Never for a moment let the husband know the eternal truth - that you are smarter than your husband. Constantly keeping him under the belief he is "Mr. know" all will do good things for his ego and even better for your wardrobe.

Two: Great cooking - cooking is no rocket science. What with all the numerous websites with recipes on everything from boiled rice to paneer makhni kurma masala. And thanks to Google, just key in the name with the all important word "EASY" and there you have it - A way to get dinner ready in 45 minutes and an enthralled husband.

Three: Subtly reminding him about forthcoming important occasions (birthday - yours and his, anniversary, Valentines Day & any other day you feel like recieving a gift) is vital to ensure you are not disappointed on those occasions. Begin well a month in advance. Every trip to the mall should include pointing to the things you adore and gushing over all the Jewellery / shoes / bags. Lapse of memory by the husband then cannot be given as an excuse when the occasion arises. But be subtle and do not nag

Four: Give him some time alone with the boys. Irrespective of how much men claim not to gossip, exchanging notes with his married pals will have him see how fortunate he is to have you - the ego boosting, great cooking, no nagging wife.

Ode to Prof Ranjan Das - IIM C | The Strategy Academy

Ode to Prof Ranjan Das The Strategy Academy

I just finished my last blog entry and saw this Google Adsense ad of The Strategy Academy on my blog. And the first thing I remembered was Prof. Ranjan Das.

Anybody who would have studied at IIM Calcutta couldn’t have missed one personality on campus: Prof. Ranjan Das.

The One man who is passionate about education and strategy, and who with his charismatic leadership has helped so many leaders worldwide to excel in there careers. He has finally fulfilled his dream of entrepreneurship and started his own college, The Strategy Academy at this age.

I remember the time when he last spoke to me addressing the class and mentioning about his new venture of the Strategy Academy where he wanted to show the world a new path of why Strategy is important and how it is relevant in today’s business. He categorically said, you need to identify and challenge the status quo and finally move ahead to the desired state.

This is a perfect example of how leaders stand by there words and how Prof. Das has converted his vision into reality.

Hats off to you sir!

What’s The Future - Series | Part - 2 - PUSH/PULL Marketing is DEAD ? And 4Rs of Marketing

PUSH Marketing is DEAD(?) PULL marketing is Dead too(?)-4Rs of Marketing

According to a recent survey on advertising messages through various media, on an average working day where you travel in the morning to your office, spend a full day in office to the time you go back and sleep after watching your favorite TV channel in the evening, you are most probably going to be targeted by approx. 3000 marketing messages.

Knowingly or not, you get subjected to these messages in forms of Billboards, Radio Jingles, TV ads, Online banners, Emails, etc. These can be friendly, unfriendly, solicited, unsolicited, relevant, irrelevant messages which you would have to go through. Almost all the marketing messages come through well crafted marketing campaigns where a huge amount of time and money is spent.

However, how many of them have the “Engagement Value” perceived for the targeted audience?

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit's survey report, of sales and marketing executives worldwide, more than 80% of the executives believe that they lost the sales because they couldn’t engage their prospect enough to get them interested to buy. While it is challenging to engage prospects in the communication process, marketers are using newer techniques on their websites like, videos and rich media to engage their audience. However, the report says 47% of respondents suggested that it’s really difficult to measure how the engagement mechanism affected the purchase behavior, among the gamut of activities in the engagement process.

If it was 1950, it would have been easier to get someone to endorse the product and broadcast the message to everyone. This PUSHing the message technique worked, when people had no clue about their personal choice of “media” and their choice of “time” to access that media. However, this pushing the message across has created the biggest challenge for the marketers of this age where we have to become over cautious to choose:
- 4 Ws of marketing

• what to market?
• whom to market?
• when to market?
• which media to market through?
not only these Ws, but also how often to market.

In today’s world, consumers are essentially the sellers too. People turn to existing customers to influence their own buying behavior. So pushing the message out is completely DEAD. Is that a conclusion? PUSH marketing is really Dead? YES and NO.
YES – You can’t expect the sales through pushing the message out.
NO – You can still expect the sales through pushing the right message out.
NO contd.: - Right message defined – So, now we know, that people are buying based on other consumer’s opinions, so let’s push the other people’s opinion crafted in the manner we want, to the consumer and help them make that buying decision. The right message is the message which has the engagement value, an existing customer’s voice and a perceived need, buying urgency and a definitive benefit in it.

Is pull marketing Dead? - Yes and NO
Yes - When everyone tries to pull the customers/prospects, then you don't know if your pull worked or not.
No - Definitely the pull marketing is the future however, customer centric behviour with the following 4 Rs approach definitely can be a great marketing strategy of Future!

A complete Paradigm Shift
4Ps --> 4 Rs
Dictating --> Listening
Researching --> Understanding through analytics
Push --> Community opinion building
Broadcasting --> Interest based Targeting

Recently I saw a presentation from Matt Langie on 4 Rs of marketing. The basic idea is as follows:

4Ps of marketing – Product, Price, Place, Promotion used to take prospects from the buying cycle moving from Awareness, Interest, Desire and Action. However, in today’s world of marketing, consumers are interested in listening to the crowds or their closed group while making a buying decision.

This has lead to the New approach of consumer centric marketing or 4 Rs of marketing - Reveal, Reward, Respect and Retain

1. Reveal – Understand your prospects and customers recent traits and past history to come up with a planned, targeted, focused, need based marketing effort.

Various tactics: -
• Monitoring unique visitors
• Online engagements
o Voting
o Surveys
o Referrals
• Referrals from other websites

2. Reward – While you gather valuable information from customers it’s essential to reward them and keep them engaged to buy more, profess more and keep them delighted.
Various Tactics: -
• Reward the customers to engage them more into your brand.
• Ask for their opinions
• Appreciate them on your online forums
• Give out some special coupons
• Give out something which they are definitely looking out for. etc.

3. Respect – A very well crafted, targeted, engaging campaign over time will build respect for your Brand. This gained respect with customers is something which will help you engage with other prospects.

While you are listening to the consumers, you are hearing what they would like just apart from your products and what values do they stand for. This is something which you can leverage to further engage with audience (customers and prospects) to further enhance the adoption.

4. Retain – Stimulate interactions with products through fun and imaginative extensions of the concept.

The basic idea is keep’em engaged.

HALT.
This brings me to a basic communication concept of networking, keeping the conversation on-going and reaping the benefits over and over again. Will talk more about it later.
CONTINUE…

A 360˚ view of the visitors or interactions:
-Listen – Survey, Onsite search, Website
-Learn – Offline Data + CRM
-Act – Email, Direct mail, Behavioral targeting

Question: How customer profiling with this 360 degree approach helps?
Answer: You can build a profile of a customer with demographics; likings etc and leverage that data for targeted marketing.

Tying it back to the Idea - Give the right information to the right audience at the right time, the way the want it and how often they want it.

To be concluded...

Loyalty and Employee Attrition Rate

In recent times I have been reading about "Employee Loyalty" and "Employee Attrition Rate". A lot of organizations worldwide face this challenge of employee attrition, where they hire the best and the brightest in the industry. However, after 2-3 years of stay in the company and learning things people think they know everything and they decide to move on.

Well I do not agree to this behaviour, however, reflecting on my previous job hops it's strange that unknowingly I myself have done the same. "Unknowingly" yes, unknowingly...when today I reflect upon my previous 5 years I see having changed 3 companies already. Which essentially means 1.5 yrs on an average is what I stayed with those companies and I didn't realize till now until I think about it...that, I too moved on thinking I know everything. Strange but true. Well then just a month back I was thinking after a review meeting and hearing something very important from my Boss..."I have to think long term and what I was demanding is a very short sighted demand."

I felt a little disheartened and unsatisfied. However, I then went back to home and started talking to my wife about it and she said...hold on....come out of your present thinking and look at it objectively. Yes, I realized, I was unpractical for a moment and unreasonable too and that's when I decided, ok, let me introspect. Well I don't know it all. I need to learn a lot. And this is the right place and is in the right time over here. So let me re-look at the way I am looking at things.

Hey, I just moved out of the feeling of "disloyalty" which was developing in me...and yes it helped me grow as a person.

Question: What is "loyalty" anyways?
Dictionary: The act of binding yourself (intellectually or emotionally) to a course of action

Answer: Infosys CEO Narayan Murthy once said:” Love Your Job But Never Fall In Love With Your Company, Because You Never Know When It Stops Loving You."
Well, I am not sure in what context he said that, however, an interesting statement from a company's CEO who runs a company of over 60,000 employees.

So does that mean you should be loyal to your work and nothing else?
Well, I feel if I am loyal to my work, I am loyal to the people who assigned me the work. I am loyal to the people who thought I would be the right fit to do that job. I am loyal to the company who decided to hire me to do that job. I am loyal to my family to whom I promised I will earn and give them a good life.

So does that mean I should be loyal to my work and my company and my family always? Well answer is YES. However, I have 2 questions to ask readers...

What about my company being Loyal to me?
Where does this disloyalty actually arise?

Is it a One-Way-Street? That I keep being loyal to my employer and my employer can take a decision to let me go whenever they want to? Isn’t that disloyalty to the employee that you decide to let some one go and don't even bother to inform him about it, if, any corrective action can be taken?

There were days in my country, India, when people use to join one company and retire from the same company in there entire career. Why doesn't it happen again? Well, it's a 2-way street now. Both employers and employees are disloyal to each other OR is it that we don't communicate enough? Is it that, if we have our issues, we do not communicate them well in advance, to find a solution? I am not sure...what are the reasons...but I feel it can be corrected.

As I always say, communication is the KEY to success. If people communicate with each other about their feelings, about their opinions and what they think is right and wrong, these "Disloyal" situations can be avoided.

However, I have another question:

Question:Have we become so impatient and eccentric that we don't have the time and patience to talk and be honest?

Answer: May be yes. We do not have patience to help people. We are bothered about our own growth. We are bothered about "what's in it for me?” So essentially, it's neither the employer being disloyal to the employee, nor the employee being disloyal to the company. It comes down to Individuals. We as individuals are responsible for our actions and our decisions. And if we are taking these decisions based on our attitudes towards looking at things, as self centered people, we are more or less bound to take irrational decisions.

There are so many companies out there, which have survived for over 100 years. Have they had people taking decisions based on there attitudes and self centered behavior, today, those companies would have died, because, the success of companies is due to the people who work there.

So what does this all mean? - Loyalty is nothing but an individual's decision based on his attitude? Yes, I feel so, and if that is the case, I, as a person should spend most of the time on keeping my attitude the best and I can make most of the work done well, and I can be "Loyal" to my work, my company, my family. I need to communicate and help others communicate about any issues. I need to keep the channel open and try to keep my attitude positive and healthy always.

I can always sit and talk about it instead I will take action and work on my attitude and communicate whenever required.

Lastly, a healthy positive communicative attitude from an employer and employee can help solve these attrition / loyalty / disloyalty issues easily. Nobody should wait, instead start acting on this.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think about it.

Human Assets Expansion Congress 2007

www.humanassetsindia.com 19th - 20th November 2007 MUMBAI

Leading Business Information Company, www.naseba.com, is holding Human Assets Expansion Congress in India.

Innovative strategies in retention, attrition management, training and development, HR MIS systems, Performance and leadership management and more...complete Human Asset management is all what the Congress discusses.

Human Assets Expansion India is a C-level, strategic executive congress, which provides the opportunity for HR directors to meet with global industry suppliers and industry experts in a true business-to-business environment. With prescheduled one-to-one business meetings and educational sessions that are strictly limited to upper-level executives providing them a Real-Life Case Study Format with Ultimate Networking Opportunities.

Key Discussion Topics

• Innovation in Talent Retention, Development and Growth
• Back to Basics: Human Asset Management
• Defining and installing new values, attitudes and behavior within an organization
• Challenges of handling changing aspirational management of the new generation
• Leadership Challenges


Quick Links

• Event website
http://www.humanassetsindia.com
• Complete Agenda
http://www.humanassetsindia.com/index.html?pagecode=agenda
• Complete list of speakers
http://www.humanassetsindia.com/index.html?pagecode=speakers
• Event Testimonials
http://www.humanassetsindia.com/index.html?pagecode=testimonials
• Registration page
http://register.humanassetsindia.com
• Contact page
http://www.humanassetsindia.com/index.html?pagecode=contact


Key Speakers 2007

• JN Amrolia, Executive Director, Ashok Leyland
• Dr Anadi S Pande,VP of Corporate Planning & Strategy,Hero Honda Motors
• Muralidhar Rao, President & ChiefOperating Officer,NIS Sparta
• Sudheesh Venkatesh, Head of HR,Tesco
• Dr. Chandra Mauli Dwivedi,Group President Human Resources,Financial Technology Group
• Joji S Gill, Head of HR,Microsoft

What previous year's attendees said…

"Very impressed. I would be more than happy to present at any of
naseba's event functions."
HR Director, Honeywell

"This event is the perfect way for direct communication between
solution providers and those seeking development within their
companies."
HR Director, Gulf Air

"Great platform for knowledge and best practice sharing on the
available HR tools to streamline processes and make HR more
effective."
HR Director, Siemens

For any queries contact Charan Varghese - Project Director

email: charanv@naseba.com

tel: +91 80 30280562 - fax: + 91 80 30280555 http://www.naseba.com
____________________________________________________________

What is naseba?

A lot of people have been asking me recently, what is naseba? Well here is your FAQ answered...

Q) What is naseba?

A) The word naseba comes from a Japanese idiomatic expression: "when there is a will there is a way." naseba can be translated, "if you make it happen." naseba is Business Information (BI).

We are committed to provide BI to the entire online community without them paying any charge for the same. We are a product company and our products are Strategic Business platforms like Congresses, Forums, Conferences or Expos.

Q) Is naseba Event Management Company?

A) NO

We produce, promote and host our own strategic business platforms using a conference, congress, expo or forum format - depending on the market - with the ultimate focus on ‘knowledge expansion’, ‘networking’ but most importantly maximizing ‘deal-making’ opportunities for all our executive clients.

Q) How are you unique from other similar events companies?

A) Let me answer this in bulleted format:

We are into providing you with Business Information for your strategic decision making.

We don’t host someone else’s events.

We host our own Strategic Business Platforms for business information exchange.

We give commitment in our contract, in black and white, the target number of people attending our event.

Pre-scheduled One-to-One business meetings.

A complete delegate directory with contact information & pre-course questionnaire to help you uncover the needs of the prospective client in advance.

Open business meeting to ensure you do not miss out on meeting any delegates you would want to meet.

Table sponsorship opportunities to maximize your visibility.

Limited numbers of suppliers to ensure you are not surrounded by your rivals.

Hope this makes us as a “unique” company!

Q) What products does naseba have?
A) naseba provides 4 streams of international products:

Travel & Tourism Series - 10 strategic congresses focused on maximizing networking and deal-making opportunities for Travel & Tourism professionals.

CXO Strategies - designed exclusively for CXOs by CXOs providing a UNIQUE mix of best practice and knowledge sharing in a problem-solving environment.

Global Expansion Series - a dynamic two-day platform created for busy decision makers to conduct business in their respective infrastructure sectors through prescheduled, one-to-one business meetings interwoven with re-educational sessions and the ultimate networking parties.

Knowledge Expansion - a conference format with a networking approach, focused on dynamic re-education for busy upper-level executives who do not attend vendor-driven conferences.

Q) How old is your company, some company history details?

A) In order to climb to the next level and expand more aggressively - further proving to make things happen - naseba did a reverse takeover of MM Finance, a company listed on the Marché Libre of the Paris Stock exchange - therefore, on October 5th, 2006 naseba proudly went public.
Since inception in 2002, naseba has expanded its portfolio of worldwide executive congress and forums to 60 annual strategic B2B platforms covering 26 different industries.

As a leading global business information company with headquarters in Monaco, naseba has offices strategically located in eight cities around the world and employs over 200 executives from more than 30 nationalities.

We are multicultural, dynamic and focused on making it happen.

I have joined naseba

I have joined naseba last week. I joined as a Marketing Director for the India and Middle East markets. I am accompanied with my colleague Zafar who brings in his extensive experience in Middle East market. My role would be to work along with Zafar to set-up a marketing department for the company and help generate leads and generate revenue. I am reporting to Liam Findlay, CRM Director, who has envisioned this entire department.

naseba is Business Information.

naseba producec, promotes and hosts strategic business platforms using a conference, congress, expo or forum format - depending on the market - with the ultimate focus on knowledge expansion, networking but most importantly maximizing deal-making opportunities for all our executive clients. naseba is listed on the Paris Stock Exchange.

The word naseba comes from a Japanese idiomatic expression: "when there is a will there is a way."naseba can be translated, "if you make it happen."

As a leading global business information company with headquarters in Monaco, naseba has offices strategically located in eight cities around the world and employs over 200 executives from more than 30 nationalities.

naseba is proud to be working in partnership with many leading press groups and local authorities such as BBC World, CNBC, Financial Times, Time, Al Arabiya, London Convention Bureau, the Principality of Monaco, the Abu Dhabi Government and the City of Prague, just to name a few.

I feel highly motivated with our CEOs statement: "The secret to our success is that we understand that all participants, both sponsors and executive delegates, must have a return on their investment - whether that investment is time or money. Our high rebooking rate of both executive delegates and sponsors is proving that we are delivering this ROI to our clients.” Scott Ragsdale, Chairman and CEO.

Organization Citizenship Behavior

Organization Citizenship Behavior

“No employee in any organization is indispensable, every employee’s efforts to become indispensable brings foreword the citizenship”

In today’s competitive world we see the biggest challenge in front of a Leader would be managing and motivating people in an organization. People are one of the most important drivers of the business and no business leader can ignore this fact. People, who can be technology enablers, technology managers, sales enablers or sales managers, everyone needs to be motivated.

Another challenge faced by Leaders is to align the entire company to the business objectives. This is a major challenge posed to any Managing Director; HR Manager; Delivery Managers; as failing to align people in your company would essentially mean a Hay-wire execution which results in inability to meet business targets. This challenge of People Motivation and Alignment leads us to find out innovative techniques to achieve the same.

In my article below I run you through an innovative leadership technique which, out of my experience and interaction with business leaders from Fortune 100 companies has shown success.

Organization Citizenship Behavior or OCB is one human behavioral technique under research for improvisation in many institutions worldwide as well as tried and tested approach in many Fortune 500 companies. OCB is one way in which there is a direct involvement of the business leaders with the people in his company. There is an open communication channel and there is a clear understanding in every individual of their role in the organization.

You might wonder how come Citizenship is being talked about in respect of an organization. Essentially citizenship is considered in terms of States or Countries; however, there is a striking similarity between a state and an organization. Driven by a Leadership with values and distinct goals in mind, any state, works for the development of its citizens. In addition to providing rights to the citizen, it can motivate its citizens to contribute to there duties. Similarly, in an organization, driven by a strong leadership and distinct values one can help every individual to understand his or her roles importance in the organization and by fulfilling the basic rights of freedom of work it can drive them to go beyond there call of duty by making them the Citizens of the company.

What this leads to is, creation of a “Citizen” and not an “Employee”. Having a lot of employees in the company is not a great thing and not enough, what matters is how many citizens have been grown in the organization.

It’s a proven fact that any Citizen of the Company would perform much better than any employee. Every citizen would take decisions which are aligned with the company’s business objectives. The strategy and execution would work hand-in-hand delivering higher productivity, and increased business revenues.

I would categorize Citizenship behavior in an organization in two parts:
Self inculcated citizenship behavior
External Driven Citizenship behavior

Self inculcated citizenship behavior:

Such behavioral occurrences are due to an Individuals’ high understanding of the organization and personal belief in ideologies of the organization. The urge to get benefited on a long term basis for any individual drives them to co-operate as well as contribute. Thus drives a citizenship amongst themselves and peers to achieve long term goals and bring in long term discipline.

This behavior is not comfortably supported by an organization until the individual makes an extra effort to educate and influence others. The individual needs to communicate the same within a smaller group and hence find ambassadors to promote the same.

As an organization, starts seeing the benefits of this behavior, starts encouraging the cause and hence motivates the individual and the organization on a whole. This is the time when the individuals taking these initiatives creates a higher value for themselves in the organization and become indispensable.

External Driven Citizenship behavior:

In this kind of behavior, individuals are motivated by the management to inculcate an additional responsibility where they create enough awareness and need, to become a citizen of the organization rather than just being an employee.

Creating this culture in an organization requires additional efforts to educate all employees, to motivate them further and align them further with the company goals and objectives. To find ambassadors to promote this behavior, a strong sense of understanding is required along with a crafted communication message.

Organizations which are able to achieve such feats really have individuals working with them who are very passionate and committed. Such initiatives are then passed on from management to the employees and the employees finally become the ambassadors of the cause. This creates a lot of value for the managers. The ambassadors who practically implement such initiatives again draw enough attention from management and get recognition for the same.

Various ways which can lead to having lots of citizens in an organization can be as follows:


Leader Spending Time with Citizens
v Every Leader should spend enough time with its citizens to communicate the business goals of the organization.
v Spending time helps people understand, what is expected out of every individual, to achieve the business goals
v It gives freedom to the individuals to take creative decisions keeping in mind the business goals
v It again helps them to verify the decisions and check if they align well with the objectives
v As well as the leader should explain the importance of Contribution to the company as the next step to Learning

Citizens spending time to see the Bigger Picture
v Every citizen having understood there role in the organization should try to spend time in coming out of that frame and should try to understand the bigger picture.
v Post understanding the basic elements of there role the citizen should try to look at the importance of there role and how to improve and enhance productivity.
v Learning is a life long process, to emerge as a successful citizen there should be a focus on contributing to the company.

As an employee in an organization try to think
Am I Indispensable in this company?
If your answer is Yes try to do things which moves you closer to become a Citizen and
if your answer is No, you need to learn a lot more!