What makes Corporate Jungle different ? by Rupak Agarwal @ www.rupakagarwal.com

A few days back, I was  addressing  a team of Management Trainees from premier B schools. As I reflected on how life in different in the corporate jungle from my college days, I could think of 5 lessons corporate life has taught me in the last 22 years of my corporate journey. I would sum that as CAPPED and hopefully will help people just stepping into the corporate world with some insights as they prepare for their journey

C ollaboration - All through our student life we have been taught how to excel in a competitive environment. We compete and excel in school, run the rat race to get into the best college, compete against lacs of students to get into select seats at premier B schools. We get into a corporate environment from a B school knowing that we are amongst the top 1-2% of the population and then after a few months we suddenly find we  no longer as successful and winning at every step as we have been so used to. The difference is Collaboration Vs Competitiveness. In the corporate world, one needs to develop skills to collaborate with colleagues and ensure the strengths of each individual is capitalised for a win

A sk  - Like me, every new B school graduate has the dreams of sitting in a cabin, directing people, telling them how to do as they get into the corporate world. There is a big picture in my mind and I will tell my team this is what you should do, this how you will find results...In effect we end up directing. But many times inspite of very clear cut directions, the expected results does not come. Why? The reason I have learnt is that as the task becomes more creative and complex which requires conceptualization, simple directing does not give results. One has to get buy in. People like to speak. They like to answer questions. Therefore, Ask intelligent questions. Know in your mind what you want done but lead people to that by asking them questions and leading them to say in their own words what you wanted to tell them. the magic then happens. They feel it is their idea and execution happens with energy and enthusiasm leading to desired results. The habit to develop is asking intelligent questions Vs simply directing

P resentation - As I kept stepping up the ladder, I saw that some of my colleagues even though they were technically or academically so brilliant, were more successful. there were people who carried an aura around themselves, an awe factor, a personal charishma - people who were very successful. What is it that separated these people? I realised that one common trait that distinguished such leaders was their Presentation skills - the way they spoke to a group of people - extempore, confidently, getting across complex things in very simple ways, the way they dressed exuding a personal charishma. One of my bosses who was extremely successful and is currently South East Asia Head of one of the largest telcos gave me this mantra - Impeccable presentation Skills

PE ople - Many a times I have seen people who are extremely brilliant but skill struggle to touch sussess in the corporate jungle. All through student life, our success is largely dependant on our own skills. In the corporate world to my mind only 15% of success can be attributed to our technical skils and 85% to people skills. I have seen that often people don't get fired because they are incompetent but because someone in authority does not like him. Yes, no one can choose his boss but anyone who can manage his sphere of influence - peers, subordinates and superiors equally well is a sure shot success in this corporate jungle

D etailing - As we step from B school to corporate, almost everyone starts with a feeling - I am a born manager, I can lead people. Very soon reality starts hitting - you start getting fooled, a barrage of problems - why it cannot be done hits you from your team, false promises which at the end of period does not materialize. I have realised that Detailing for a leader is an extremely critical skill - peel the onion till you get to understand the basic issue, get to the bottom of the pyramid. I have found success in say defying expected routes while on a market visit. The sales teams will prepare and want to show you, what they want to show you. Can you decide which market, which route you will take while on a market visit and defy expectations. Get into real issues - feel the reality yourself, avoid filtered information.

To sum up, I have found 5 mantras for someone just stepping into the corporate world which if developed early can lead to better success

C - Collaboration Vs Competitiveness mindset

A - Asking Intelligent questions vs directing

P - Presentation skills to energize people around you

PE - People skills vs technical skills

D - The Art of detailing to feel the pulse

For more details write in to rupak.agarwal@gmail.com

DECODING VALUATION & VALUE CREATION..JPS

From the Crucibles of JPS Customer Value Academy
                                Just Plain & Simple                               
                                ….. Helping Create Customer Value

Business, is philosophy, an approach, a mindset and does not just follow the empirical rules of mathematics.

While in Math, 1+1 =2. in business it can be anything but true, mostly.

It was quite obvious all over. Practical observations confirmed the validity of such a phenomena. Management Gurus & literature continued to reinforce the effects of synergistic operations. Related expansion and diversification made sense. Unrelated diversification would naturally tend to be less efficient as there would be consumption of effort, resources, time (energy ??) towards keeping the unrelated parts of an enterprise together ….. different particles (?) to be held together by the application of external energy. Unless each particle or business in this case, of its own volition, gives up some of its own energy and contributes to The Bonding Energy !! But this ‘contributory’ Bonding Energy or Force never really happens without the so called ‘Common Thread, Knitting, Synergy or Interest, that can lead to A Clear Differential Advantage’ and gain for all units. If The Kinetic Energy of each unit is higher than The Bonding Energy, they would tend to move apart releasing this energy into the environment, somewhat like in a nuclear ‘fission’ reaction. However, if The contributory Bonding Energy is higher, due to a ‘common interest or desire to stay’ together, you get a unified organisation where ‘Whole is greater than the Sum of Parts’ !!

Primarily, organisations exist only for two reaons 1) To create Value for The Customers & 2) To create Return on Investment for the Owners ….. and in that order. In social organisations also these remain valid, but maybe expressed as 1) ) To create Value for the Beneficiaries & 2) To create a ‘Surplus’ through efficiencies.

The world is one continuum of energy, represented by different frequencies manifesting as particles. The higher the frequency of a ‘wave particle’, higher is its mass as manifested in the ‘particle’. Business units also replicate such energy continuums and particle duality in a similar way. When they resonate with the same frequency they are one particle of existence. Different frequencies will have them vibrating as separate particles, obviously connected by a weak energy flow, which exits in the cosmos in any case, between diverse entities as well. What then is the purpose of ‘applying autocratic force’ to have them together ?? Doesn’t everyone love to be a free body !!?? Well the only two reasons to be together are 1) We build greater Value for The Customer together and/or 2) We operate in a manner that our operations gain from each other. Under these conditions, particles (business units) contribute the very essential Bonding Energy and ‘Whole is greater than  the Sum of Parts’, as that is the only reason that makes sense for these particles to stay in ‘dance’ together !! In the absence of these conditions the system will become less efficient as there would obviously be an energy loss rather than a gain, by forcing togetherness.

That brings me to another version of this 1+1 mystery. Over the last few years, just before the recession hit, ‘valuation’ was in vogue !! Every new start up or even existing organisations started talking ‘valuation’. Rather than Creating Value for The Customer, Valuation became the buzzword. It was indeed confusing to every one on the street!  How do valuations shoot up like this ? . This was, when someone mentioned ‘Sum of parts is greater than the Whole’. Now what does this mean ??  while till then it was considered that the ‘Whole is greater than the Sum of Parts’ logic. Concepts like 'Replacement Value', potential realization that could accrue of the footfalls/ site traffic were to be monetised were very much in vogue.

‘The Bonding Energy’ should be contributed willingly by constituent particles only, towards efficiently aggregating together in the collective sefishness of “1) We build greater Value for The Customer together and/or 2) We operate in a manner that our operations gain from each other 1) To create Value for The Customers & 2) To create Return on Investment for the Owners …..  in that order”. That is the key towards ‘Whole is greater than the Sum of Parts’ !! In cases where ‘Sum of Parts is greater than the Whole’, it is not that ‘Whole’ is less. It is just that the full impact of ‘Whole’ was never realised and nurtured to ‘flower and blossom’. Eureka !!

No wonder when businesses get reduced to being seen as distinct particles, with no ‘Bonding Energy’, when they have no reason for being together in the first place, ‘Sum of parts will be higher than the Whole’. It is this irony, driven by ‘Valuation’ rather than ‘Value Creation’, compounded by greed and short term results that lead to businesses being managed as MF portfolios rather than with an approach of ‘organisation building’ and ‘Value Creation for The Customer’. Value for the Owner is a natural outcome.

That is one flaw that the famous BCG matrix can lead to. Businesses are seen as delinked, independent entities in this approach, without looking at the ‘synergistic’ or ‘complimentary’ roles they may actually be playing in the ‘dance’. This race for ‘Valuation’ rather than ‘Value Creation for Customer’ in some cases gets particularly pronounced in the ‘portfolio’ treatment and approach followed by some PEs. However, it is an area of caution only. Airtel and Max are cases where PE support, without losing track of Customer Value Creation led to extremely positive results. Quick valuations and selling off of parts of organisations like cattle or treating multiple organisations as merely elements of a portfolio, can be obstacles in organisation building or in creating value for the customer or even for the owners ….. examples of this also are many. This can be dangerous at any stage in an organisation’s development, but sometimes quick valuations expected in early growth stage can ring a premature death knell for your business ….. delivering a ‘still born’.

I realised that  :

• 1+1=2 is maths; can also be used by business accountants
• ‘Whole is greater than the Sum of Parts’ is sound business approach, philosophy, mindset
• ‘Sum of Parts is greater than the Whole’ is a Value Mirage in the search for Valuation.

STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP-LESSONS FROM THE UNIVERSE-JPS

From the Crucibles of JPS Customer Value Academy
                                Just Plain & Simple                               
                                ….. Helping Create Customer Value

I could be bound in a nutshell & count myself a king of infinite space.

                                                                             – Shakespeare, Hamlet

Where else could we get learnings on Globalisation, or should I say Universalisation, than the example of the Universe itself. Starting from The Big Bang & expanding to its current state ….. & still expanding !! The origin was a very high concentration of mass & energy hugely compacted into a small space, probably smaller than an SME. Was it this energy of God, The Leader, that was The Driving Force, Passion & Desire which drove Him to create history ? While it got Him to create The Big Bang & to lead the Universe to where it is, He used Good Orderly Discipline (Operating Principles) to guide the progress over time & space.

Lessons then, are many. The starting point of the journey has to be a Deep Passion, A Strong Desire to take on the challenge of expansion or, depending on the scale, Globalisation; only the variables & complexity increase. No matter what the current size of the organisation, a huge accumulation of energy is a must to be able to start on the path. It is essential that a Leader has the Drive & the Vision which leads & guides the organisation towards the future. We have examples like Ranbaxy, Dr,Reddy’s to name a few, though not SME’s now, but demonstrating the impact of such energy. In the absence of this, the initial energy can burn out. The initial energy has to last & last to ensure that the organisation has enough fuel at all times ….. The Entrepreneurial Drive.

A Leader then, is ‘a person who Leads’ & Leadership is the ‘ability to be a Leader’.
What then, is ‘Good’ Leadership ? Fundamentally, at the most basic level, the element of ‘going in front’ is an essential requirement to be fulfilled. A Leader is also expected to have, depending on the field of operation, Business, Functional or Domain knowledge, specific to the area of operation. A good definition of  Leadership that I came across is ‘A Leader is someone you choose to follow, because you know that he/she can take you where you want to go, but cannot go alone’. This definition goes beyond just ‘subject expertise’ & ‘going in front’, to highlighting ‘choice’ & ‘desired direction’ on behalf of the followers as well ….. It allows for a conscious human being to make an active choice & to determine his/her future direction….. so much a part of The Indian Ethos !! The question then is about options available to be able to make a choice, rather than having to choose from whatever is available.
However, talking of Good Leadership, there is also the concept of ‘Situational’ Leadership. According to this, the approach should be changed depending on the context or situation. An approach valid in one situation, may not be valid in another. So, a slightly broader view, encompassing more variables is proposed. Now what is the context that is generally kept in mind when choosing a Leadership approach ? Very often, even when this is followed, the context remains very narrow ….. confined to one circumstantial dimension only i.e. a variation in approach/action just based on situations & events or maybe depending on who the Leader is or what geography or domain he/she is involved in. Leadership should look at a much wider context ….. social, economic, psychological, physical ….. a holistic systems approach. A Bangalore city prospering in IT ignores the context of infrastructure or social inconvenience that maybe building up due to another variable that gets totally left out of the equation. While Delhi booms in real estate & infrastructure, social stress, intolerance, crime & road rage create a bulge and distortion of the picture at another place.
Good Leadership, at the cutting edge, is Life itself !! Like in life, a Dynamic Balance of various aspects has to be maintained ….. between yin & yang, masculinity & feminity. Good Leadership needs to attain a balance between social, economic, physical & psychological variables. In most situations we see one dimensional excellence at the cost of various other dimensions. The result is a time bomb ticking somewhere else. Depending on which area one is responsible for, one would maximise indices depicting performance in that dimension, sweeping the dust out from ‘my house’ onto ‘the neighbour’s front yard’. This does not really ensure a healthy, all round effort. Inflation & other pressures build up as a result of ignored variables, not built into the equation. A chain is as strong as the weakest link …..
In the corporate world, to some extent ‘The Balanced Scorecard’ approach deals with such a situation, though not fully. Alongwith stakeholders’ financial interests, it encourages measurement on the people, customers & process dimensions as well ….. definitely an approach in the right direction, but still needs broadening of the scope to include impact on society, environment & nature.
Neglecting any one dimension is like ‘leakage’ of energy from that ‘weakest’ point in the nuclear reactor ….. !! Balanced, well rounded development, ensuring that social, economic, psychological, physical & environmental interests are in a Dynamic Equilibrium is the challenge in India today. Such a balance will ensure ‘Ananda Tandava’, which India has taught the world over ages.
Alignment of a billion ‘charged ions’ in a Laser Head, needs application of a high voltage of Leadership Qualities of Truth, Integrity, Ethics, Humility, Inner Strength, Transcending of Self & Passion ….. And once it happens it can LEAD to a Highly Powerful Laser Beam ….. !! 

While the Good Lord was probably ‘born’ with all Leadership skills, these can be surely developed in lesser mortals like us, to be able to leave the same kind of blazing trail. There are enough lessons from the expanding universe & the field of business too to learn from.

While the Universe continues to expand, it remains one unified whole. This ‘oneness’ ensures that there is a ‘commonality’ of character in all its components. The purpose, mission, values of an organisation also need to have a shared acceptance. The same energy flowing through all the divisions and subsidiaries. The Leader has to ensure that all elements of the organisation are bonded together by a common energy, the gravitational pull which keeps the Universe as One. We don’t have a ‘breakaway’ component of the Universe deciding to go its own way, creating its own ‘New World’. The common nature of things, the characteristics & the gravitational attraction ensure that different parts operate in a huge cosmic show. . Leaders in this show, need to demonstrate Inner Strength & Maturity & hence Transcend themselves. Tatas have demonstrated this again and again over their long history. In the recent past, companies like Microsoft, Google have given ample illustration of how organisations can leap into globalisation successfully and over relatively short periods. Scale does not matter then. In the absence of this bonding and shared purpose & values, the different parts of an organisation will never be able to work as one organisation. The implications of this are many. The case for a shared, all pervasive energy in the organisation is so strong, that even at the cosmic level, scientists once believed in the presence of an all pervasive ether to carry electromagnetic radiation.

Another interesting lesson is, that the way the Universe is expanding, even though at tremendous speed, it actually moves out stage by stage. We have yet to learn of a part of the Universe jumping out ahead, beyond the edge of the Universe, into ‘darker spaces’ leaving the rest of the Universe behind to catch up. Really speaking, the principles of adjacency, related expansion, laying a foundation & then moving on further are relevant when globalising. At each stage, knowledge of the market & having a global mindset are key. The Leader has to do a risk-return assessment while taking these calls. Lakshmi Mittal’s expansion, while balancing & weighing these factors, is a classical example. Moving to adjacent domains, whether in terms of geographies or choosing which products to move with or with how much adaptation, all should be governed by the principles of adjacency, related & synergistic expansion. These principles come into play while making decisions on market entry through acquisitions, alliances or the greenfield route. It definitely is more effective & efficient. Resources are always limited & a good judgement, in economic terms, is to allocate limited resources among unlimited demands. The Strategic Choices are then based on a risk-return estimation. Needless to say, the principle of adjacency allows an efficient, effective, productive & low cost option. The more distant the next phase, the more energy & resources it will take. A question that needs to be answered is how much gain & at how much cost ? The net has to be positive. The Universe, with all its so called Unlimited Resources, still decides to expand out in adjacent, next outer domain !!

At each stage of expansion, The Leader has to be conscious of Adapting the organisation & its constituents to be ready to embrace the next phase, leading to a one whole again. There will be differences still, like different particles vibrating at different frequencies. With the global scale of operations, different particles, the subsidiaries may not vibrate at exactly the same frequency due to local situations. However, it is important to match & adjust frequencies to allow resonance to occur. Reading the pulse of the market & recalibrating are needed at all times. Skills at managing local teams across a global canvas are to be developed. Local leaders may have to be developed at various locations. While the subsidiaries should vibrate in total resonance within themselves, to have a high level of operational efficiency with least wastage of energy & resources, there has to be an all pervasive wave engulfing all the subsidiaries, which has a uniform frequency. This is where the wave particle duality comes into play. If there is no wave engulfing all subsidiaries with a common frequency, they will move away like separate entities, the corporation becoming an agglomeration of particles doing their own dance, the only reason for staying together being like that of a portfolio of Mutual Funds, being managed for balancing financial returns. The organisational fabric withers away. The common purpose gets lost. This wave engulfing all subsidiaries with the same frequency is open, candid & continuous communication, leading to alignment of goals, cultivation of trust & clarity of team objectives while maximising benefits of requisite grouping of differentiated knowledge, competence & skills. Group meetings, regular communication, collaborative efforts play an important role. Organisations get leaders from across the world to meet in offsite resorts, sometimes by rotation across subsidiaries to build this common bond. Familiarity builds, understanding & empathy increases. In the absence of such a unification, a higher level of entropy in the system can lead to chaos at the micro level, with the macro organisation losing its appearance and character. No wonder one finds companies like Infosys, TCS, GE having a certain character, wherever they operate across the world. This wave engulfing the entire organisation helps to preserve the organisational DNA. At a subatomic level, the nucleus has a mass lesser than the sum of the particles that are bound together. This mass is converted into the energy that bonds the subatomic particles together & this is the energy that is unleashed in the explosion of a nuclear device. Not only internally, an energy exchange with the ecosystem external to the organisation brings in the many benefits of networking.

To make it all happen The Leader has to ensure Empowerment, Accountability & Execution Excellence. There have to be certain immutable, unquestionable principles & norms of operation of the organisation in place. Systems & processes have to be designed accordingly. These ensure that there is disciplined approach & thinking across the organisation, while different parts operate smoothly, with the required autonomy & in line with organisational objectives. Measures and Rewards should be designed to encourage desired behaviour of collaboration & knowledge sharing. Light has the same speed for all freely moving observers. The laws of nature appear the same for all freely moving observers. Only relative motion, which implies adjustments & adaptation due to local variances remain important.

While the Universe is many many years old, light from our distant past is still reaching us. We need to tune into the right frequency to catch the microwave radiation just reaching us from those days. The spectrum of that radiation shows the characterstics of our heritage. So also, after the SME has treaded on the path of globalisation, values, DNA, culture, character & purpose should be passed on through folklore, anecdotes & documented learnings, to keep that energy of initial The Big Bang alive leading to Infectious Enthusiasm over the space-time continuum!!

APOORVE- DIGITAL MEDIA MARKETING- MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR ADVERTISING INVESTMENT..

Digital Marketing Strategy:

The world is changing at the speed of thoughts. The digital landscape has created a virtual world where physical boundaries have disappeared. The leading companies around the globe are prominently investing more and more resources to ensure a strong presence in the virtual world. “Every consumer-facing business absolutely had to be experimenting in virtual worlds if it wanted to get the attention of the under 30s” [Richards, 2008].

All the top organisations around the globe are now coming up with their digital marketing strategy to leverage the power of social media. The digital marketing outlines all brand communications through various social channels, setting up content for attracting qualified leads, talent, selling and executing a vision, from delivering stand alone projects to integrated campaigns, developing brand presence, tracking online and delivering brand email.

Why is it important
The key areas of responsibility for Digital Marketing include:

 Creating an online brand and visibility
 Means to attract the highest quality talent.
 Managing communications and maintain an online marketing campaign
 Knowledge Sharing by creating content that has the ability to create a viral effect
 Use the digital landscape to more effectively carrying out the business objectives
 Attracting Qualified leads.
 Create a social media presence.
 Driving results by bring more traffic to the company website using SEO. To increase the number of pageviews, unique visitors, average time per visit and stickiness factor for website.
 Review and analyse the performance using web-analytic tools. Understanding the visitor patterns and customer behavior. Setting business goals and tracking conversions.
 Creating a social media presence and growing online reputation.

Understanding the customer

The hardest thing to buy in the twenty first century is the attention of the consumer. You cannot buy user attention, you have to earn it. As long as you offer something incredibly exciting people are going to promote it. If it made sense to them, they will share it. You cannot beg user attention; you need to command it by sheer quality.

Any digital marketing campaign is driven by content. The first step of the marketing campaign is to create compelling content.

Who is your customer? What are his needs? Address them and create contents that help the customer in engaging the customer, if possible solve some of his problems. Build a rapport with him by providing him something he needs and make him come back to you with more expectations.

Top companies invest their resources in creating core content built around the customers.  These organisations are creating blogs, articles, presentation, templates to help customers.

The proverbial saying goes like content is the king. What you promote must promote itself.

The digital media presence is influenced by people. The famous analogy that works with digital media is that it should not be 100% of one person’s job but 1% of 100 persons’ job. Everyone is important to the campaign for bringing in the desired results.

Steps to ensure a successful Digital Marketing Campaign

Once the target audience is identified, the following steps can be taken to create a high impact digital marketing campaign. The idea is to create a campaign that promotes itself. Here is a look at the different digital channels and avenues that are used by the top organisations in the world for a successful digital marketing campaign.

1.       Authority Core Content:

The content should pull the visitors. It should be sticky, relevant and have the ability to go viral. It should make an impression and retain the visitors. People should find value in sharing the stuff.

What is the content that you are offering?

Essays, How-to articles, Tip sheets, Checklists, Guidebooks, Interviews
Audio/video podcast: downloadable audios/videos
Blogs, Articles, Infographics: Information with graphs/charts.
e-Books: Something that people can share.
Presentations: Strategy presentations and how to guides
Press releases and newsletters
Widgets: Links that can be embedded.
Blog Posts: There is a detailed description of blog section below.

The companies maintain information pool and volunteer to share information with their customers. This creates an information pool that attracts users and qualified traffic.

2. Social Media Marketing
Creating a social presence for the organisation on different social media networks. This helps an organisation maintain online reputation and build brand awareness. When creating a profile for the company, the following needs to be considered:

Viral Market: How viral is the content?
Regularly updating the content is a must.
Leverage two way conversations and interact with your audience.
Building Followers on LinkedIn, Face Book, twitter etc.
Contests and special offers for enticing the users.
Identifying influencers and getting them to promote your campaign.

3.      Leverage Online Communities for your organisation
The successful organizations leverage online communities for discussions, expert opinions, customer feedback and various presentations. Working with Online Communities enables posting information on discussion forums and get live feedback. Some companies participate and involve in online/offline seminars and conferences also. This helps in attracting talent as well as business leads. These are communities which can bring quality traffic.

4.      Referral Marketing
What is in it for those who refer your organisation? A lot of companies use free gifts to those who follow and refer the organisation using social media networks like FB, twitter, pinterest etc. This helps in building the momentum and traffic initially. What does your customer get when he makes a recommendation for you? Organisations give free bees to generate good recommendations.

5.      Use article directory submissions & content distribution networks
There are plenty of content sharing websites where content can be distributed. The idea is to accumulate backlinks, bring brand awareness and get qualified traffic on the company’s website. Some of the websites wherein members can post stuff are as follows.

Leverage the power of free content distribution and article submission directories to get quality traffic. Some of the most popular websites for sharing content are as follows:
http://www.scribd.com/
http://www.docstoc.com/
http://issuu.com/
http://ezinearticles.com/
http://calameo.com/

6.      Blog
Business blogs that convey a purpose generates quality traffic and leads. The key question is what are you trying to convey to the potential customer? Building a niche is tough. Most effective bloggers do not talk about their products/services but about the common industry issues and the problems. They convey to the users how their product/service can solve those problems. Another great way is to invite industry leaders for featured posts and interviews on the website.

Make a list of 10 most common questions that the prospective customers will ask. Address those questions by creating articles and giving detailed answers to those questions. When this is repeated for a period of 3 months, it will generate a good information base to attract potential clients. Making the content interesting and appealing is paramount.

      7.      Search Engine Optimisation
Search Engine Optimisation is the art of influencing search engines in order to improve rankings and secure top positions for keywords. SEO can improve website rankings, boost brand awareness, drive high quality website traffic and increase conversions. Here is a brief introduction on what you can do with it:
i) Technical SEO and data analysis: Any SEO project requires data analysis in the form of keyword research, traffic measurement and goal evaluation.
ii) Content creation: In many cases, SEO activities require large amounts of new content in the form of articles, infographics and other images. So a creative mind is a must on your SEO team
iii) Link building: Because back links can play a tremendous role in your website's rankings, SEO teams should have at least one person who will pursue link-building opportunities and generate back links.

iv)  Web development: In addition to back links, a number of other variables figure into
SEO, including site speed, internal linking and navigation, and content indexing. All design and development aspects that have a high impact high on search results will be implemented during website development.

Broadly speaking the SEO can be divided into two categories

A)  On Page SEO: This will be implemented during design/development of the web pages.
B)  Off Page SEO: This involves all promotional activities outside the design of the website. This area involves link building, registering with directories relevant to the industry and getting more content for search engine listing.

Identifying Keywords for which contents need to be created. Share content, blogs, articles links to drive traffic. Google Analytics: Define goals using analytics. This is an excellent tool for gauging your website traffic, their conversion ratio and goal conversion etc.

8.      Inorganic Promotion
Outsourcing the contents to agencies which can take care of the PR related activities for your organisation. These agencies typically promote content on social media like twitter, FB, youtube and other content sharing sites. These agencies can help us reach a minimum level of user impressions.

9.      Email Marketing:
Identify the Core content that needs to be circulated. Sharing useful content, taking the user feedback and surveys. Encourage discussion and two way communications using emails. Can use Auto responder setup. The free offers on the website can be posted via emails or RSS auto responders to ensure that you are in touch with the prospects.

Email can be circulated for creating brand awareness. Readers can post their feedback, inputs and suggestions, which can be posted on the website. The updates and latest developments can also be posted to the users who sign up with the company.

10.  Mobile Marketing
Mobile Marketing involves communicating with the consumer via mobile device, either to send a simple marketing message, to introduce them to a new audience participation-based campaign or to allow them to visit a mobile website. Many successful organisations successfully employ mobile sms marketing strategy to promote their schemes. Some companies also use mobile apps for disseminating information and contents for quality leads. Creating the website which can be navigated using mobile phones. Create an SMS marketing campaigns that offers something to the users and calls for some action. It could be a discount coupon, free gift or a voucher that the customer can redeem.

11.  Tools to measure Success of Digital Media Campaign
The following tools are useful in gauging the performance of digital media campaign. A successful Digital Media campaign requires regular upkeep and requires monitoring the user trends and traffic analysis.  It should keep track of PPC and other strategies for achieving the conversions. What people are saying about you? What all things are happening around you in social media? Some of the Tracking Tools that can be used for measuring success of the campaign are as follows:

Social Media: http://www.icerocket.com/
Web Analytics: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools and  http://www.google.com/analytics/
SEO Analytics: Google analytics, Google webmaster guidelines and many analytics tools are available for managing SEO.
Online Reputation and Management: http://socialmention.com/
Know the top influencers in your field: http://tweetlevel.edelman.com/
How far your message has traveled and impressions: http://tweetreach.com/

     These tools are excellent to monitor the digital media presence and progress of a company. It is important to have social mentions for creating a brand. No brand campaign today is complete without the inclusion of a digital media marketing plan. Whether it is the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, the corporate blogs of the fortune 500 companies or start-ups, everyone is looking to create an online brand presence.

     You cannot buy user attention for long, you have to earn it. When you offer something incredibly exciting, people will promote it. If it adds value and makes sense to them, they will share it. You cannot beg user attention; you need to command it by sheer quality. This is how great brands flourish in the 21^st century. 

TIMELESS PRINCIPLES OF ORGANIZATIONAL SUCCESS- Apoorve

          EVOLVING TIMELESSLY

Most businesses are built around problems; the bigger the problem it solves, the bigger the business it builds. A great company is the best investment for the future generations. It takes courage to build an enduring organisation that caters the needs of people and society.  It is intriguing that some organisations have been in existence for centuries while others last for less than a decade. What differentiates the companies that stay vibrant and alive from those that die early? Why some organisations scale and transcend the limit of time whereas others fail to expand? What does it take to build an organisation that constantly evolves with time? 

Building an organisation is a tough job, really tough one. Building one that stands the test of time is even tougher. It seems interesting, yet the most successful companies that stand amidst economic downturns, fast changing business scenario, competition and conflicts are governed by timeless fundamentals. These fundamental principles enabled these companies to evolve with time and endure during adverse situations. Here is a look at some of the governing principles that the greatest organisations follow: 

1. Vision:
A visionary company is built around principles. The underlying core ideology or the vision of the company is the foundation on which the organisation grows. While adapting and evolving as per the market needs, the brand values remains consistent. Coca-Cola has been in the market since 1886 and performed remarkably well maintaining its brand positioning.

2. A great workplace with best practices:
The best organizations are built around frameworks and systems. These companies are built around processes and frameworks that enable them to scale, replicate businesses and stay as market leaders. Some of these large incorporations have well structured and documented processes that made it possible for them to create a global footprint for a sustained period.

3. Method over Charisma : Great organisations are built on methods rather than individual brilliance. These systems are incorporated into the heart of their business and responsible for their strong positions for long time. They focus on knowledge sharing and building a continuity culture. These organisations like 3M, coca-cola, GE etc have processes in place that make succession planning smooth.

4. Building Trust : Trust is built when customers are able to derive value from companies’ products and services over a sustained period of time. An amazing success story in recent times is that of Amazon. It started in 1994 and has redefined the way people purchase things. The trust has been built steadily by empowering the user with the power of informed decision making and feedback. Ethical approach, value driven culture, concern to society, sincerity of purpose, unquestionable integrity make these organizations, a great companion to repose your trust on and make them the first choice to deal with, for any of your requirements.

5. Realistic Approach through marketing: Great companies are ever vigilant to keep track of the changing market. They not only adept to changes but also create a viable market through proper channels. Corning, a manufacturer of specialty glass products for last 160 years, analysed the fast changing market opportunity. They are now one of the major suppliers for smartphone and tablet screens.  Most of the old companies do not evolve with time but the leaders emerge even stronger by creating opportunities.

6. Innovation and understanding the dynamics of the market: Creating an environment that promotes and encourages experimentation. Great innovations are results of endless experimentation and great companies prove it time and again. 3M started as a mine and failed miserably. The first president could not get a salary for 11 years. Yet with time it became one of the most innovative companies, with more than 60,000 products to its credit. 

7. Satisfaction of the customer: Any business revolves around the customer. The idea is to make the customer happy with the best products and services. Innovation that does not provide value to the end user is not worth it. GE has introduced goodwill and customer satisfaction program wherein GE Six Sigma black belts/management experts assist their customers in streamlining processes, cutting costs and resulting in optimized businesses for their clients, all free of cost. No wonder GE leads the pack among companies that score high on customer satisfaction. Technology giants like Google, Amazon are other great examples of companies wooing the customers by the excellent services.

8. Execution Excellence: Successful organizations master the practice of translating thoughts and ideas into actions with speed, accuracy and cost effetiveness. This ensures that they are always ahead in the game with respect to their competitors in reading the market and in doing what is needed to always lead the same. Always, challenging the limits, continuously striving for excellence, never resting on past laurels are some of the hallmarks of thriving organizations.

9. Sustainable Development: Successful Organizations are always conscious of the fact that they are meant to exist for generations and hence their strategies and tactics revolve around the long term nature of their outlook. They are environmentally conscious and always adopt the TBL (Triple Bottom Line) approach of caring for People, Profits and Planet. It is not just the profit alone that is the reason for existence at ethical, thriving and successful organizations. Environmentally friendly policies that will enable us to pass on a more habitable planet to our offspring, taking care of the society and working for the development of the people by focusing on corporate social responsibility will lead to a tremendous goodwill for the organization and higher valuations leading to sustained growth for the business.

Top organizations are built with timeless principles. What is needed is the top leadership to influx a need for improvement and growth. The most important thing is to stay ahead of your competition by constantly making changes to suit the demands of the market. The most successful organisations of the world are built around innovation. The business leaders not only innovate but also seize the market opportunities. They create a culture of continuous innovation and stay ahead of the competition by being different.

What is Culture in an organisation?- SHIV

Before we understand the term culture let us look at what successful organisations are made of. Almost all management thinkers and writers have agreed that the human beings in an organisation and theway they intercat is the key aspect of culture and which more often than not is a Key Success Factor.

In today’s world, if anything is in shortage it is Quality manpower!!. This is especially true in large populations especially from countries with diversity like India!!. Sounds contradictory, the more there are people to recruit from, the tougher it is to choose the right kind!!.

Each employee brings 4 distinct characterstics to an organisation – Knowledge, Skills, Attitude and Habit.

Knowledge – How to do things

Sills – How well to do things

Attitude – How the employee comes across to others while carrying out his tasks

Habit- How he normally does things.

The first two are more easily available and highly democratised with the advent of more schools, colleges and the internet. The last two are the more difficult ones to get and are the key ingredients to culture.

When the older companies were set up , the workforce – both “labour” and “management” were from similar socio economic backgrounds . You were slotted as manager or managed based on your education/knowledge and skills alone and the attitude and habits were more similar than diverse. Hence culture got built more easily in older companies in the yester years. It is more difficult today.

Attitude and Habits differ based on the socio economic backgrounds of people.

Habits are usually very difficult to break and a smart organisation leverages on the habits of effective people to make it an organisation habit and later on it becomes the culture of an organisation. A great example can be seen in Asian Paints, one of the top 10 paint companies in the world and it is totally Indian. It is Asian Paints culture to take detailed notes in all meetings whether with dealers or otherwise. The action points are clearly highlighted and the same is reviewed int he next meeting. This is a habit and now is a part of the culture of the company. The culture is one of being mindful of even the smallest detail and hence the company is just and plain efficient and therefore dominant in its operations!!

Attitude is a more individualised trait and is even more difficult to leverage on for creating a successful organisation. Asian Paints recruits over 200 fresh graduates from top management and engineering schools as trainees every year. To ensure that the individual’s attitude “gels” with the overall company’s attitude without affecting his individuality, Asian Paints had this great training program for a year whereby every trainee starts off at the lowest level in the function he is assigned to. For example, a sales management trainee starts off as a salesman in one territory where he is an under study to the regular sales officer. He travels by the same conveyance and eats the same food and stays at the same hotel as the sales officer. This as we used to call it “grinds all inflated egos to the ground” and generates an attitude to help others and understand the real “market”. Later on when the trainee manages the sales teams, he knows their issues and problems and is able tot take effective decisions without any “false” attitude. Anybody who does not make the “cut” is clearly reassigned or eased out after the first round of promotions. This has created a culture of friendliness, apolitical approach that has made Asian Paints what it is today. 

What is the Real Brand of a company?- SHIV

Often the term Brand is loosely used to describe the name of the products that the company sells or offers to the customers. Brands like Surf, Crest, Apple, Windows, which are well known are often confused with the respective products Detergent, Toothpaste, Computer and Operating System respectively. But Brands are much more than that.

In the following examples let us look at what the real brands are:

Surf – Stands for whiteness, purity, cleanliness, dependability, ease of use etc.

Crest- Freshness,  Health, sparkling, clean, confidence etc.

Apple- Good looking, cutting edge technology, sleek, dependability, cool etc.

Windows – dependability, familiarity, multiple uses, ease of use etc.

We can list many more examples but we want to look beyond the obvious. Our experience in being associated with  various brands such as Apollo Hospital Care, Apcolite from Asian Paints, Ray Ban, Swarovski etc. has shown that the real brand is the one that is unseen.

Successful brands and by extension, Successful Organisations, have one common characteristic – Passion. Passion in manufacturing the products without a flaw (visible or perceived) , passion in the packaging and passion in ensuring that the goods reach the user in the way the creator envisaged it to be. 

In a leading brand of Crystal, the brand was in the centre of everything. When the goods were packed and shipped from a single warehouse in Europe, they were packaged individually in gift boxes with a protective sponge in them. Then they were packed in a cardboard carton and wrapped in waterproof film. The water proof film was wiped clean before sending to the stores.” It was not necessary” ,said many but the credo in the organisation was that when you sell beautiful products you need to present it in his finery even when it is being handed over to a delivery boy. That is passion and hence brand for you.

Painting is a messy affair and paints are messy “stuff”. When the house is being painted, it is topsy turvy with everybody’s nerves on edge!!. Routine gets affected and people just wish the whole “ordeal” gets over!! To make things easier, Asian Paints has extended the brand to not only making innovations in the products – faster drying, less smelly etc but also has offered a complete painting service- keeping the consumer delighted. The Brand Apcolite or Brand Asian Paints stands for efficiency, high quality and great service driven by one passion element that the founders of the company envisaged – joy of painting. Asian Paints success story is well documented.

Sunglasses have made the journey from eye protection goggles to fashion statements over the years. As it is the most visible accessory on a person, it needs to communicate to the world at large as to who the wearer is!!. A successful brand like Ray Ban managed to do that by not only developing styles but also packaging them in apt sunglass cases!!.  Something like a sunglass case is often seen as an appendage and not as an extension of the brand’s personality. The Signet – a dressy model and the General – named after a World War II Hero- had special sunglass cases which reflected the design. But that is not all – Sunglasses can also accentuate the mood in which the wearer is. A case in point is another model called “Predator” – a very clubby and fashion forward model of those times which reflected the aggressive but stylish persona of the urban male!!. All in Black, these were the signature models of the Men in Black!!.

The lesson from all this is that the passion in creating the whole persona of the brand is essential to a successful brand and thereafter to a successful organisation.