Thought for the Day

Marketing Glossary

Ambush marketing  A deliberate attempt by a business or brand to associate itself with an event (often a sporting event) in order to gain some of the benefits associated with being an official sponsor without incurring the costs ofsponsorship. For example by advertising during television coverage of the event.

Ansoff matrix  A model used in strategic marketing planning. The Ansoff Product/Market matrix model links marketing strategy with the general strategic direction of a business. It maps four potential product market strategies e.g. market penetration, product development, marketdevelopment and diversification on a matrix showing new versus existing products along one axis and new versus existing markets along the other.

Augmented brand  The additional customer services and benefits (“added value”) that are built around the core product or service offering

Available market The total group of customers who have an interest in a interest in a product or service, have access to it, and have the ability to buy it

Management Guru

AN ATMOSPHERE OF TOTAL EASE

KHURSHEED MERCHANT

Khursheed Merchant calls herself a coach because she sees her role as helping a player become more effective in her absence. She does not believe in motivational training because according to her, motivation is external and unless there is a corresponding internal shift, the change does not last. ''Improving and polishing personality to my mind is very off. A human being is so much more than a personality. Coaching brings about internal shifts by triggering insights, which later coalesce into behavioral and attitudinal changes just like that magic moment when we learn to balance on a bike.''

HR Article

The Value of Values Clarification 

Just Stop That Navel Gazing 

We walked in, individually, and in pairs.  Like many other branches, we had interpersonal conflicts, and many of us felt that even in with our small size, we weren't all pulling in the same direction.  It just seemed we were not on the same page of the book.

The manager, also a consultant, decided that what we needed was to share our values and beliefs, so that a) we could better understand each other (and thus, reduce conflict), and b) we could develop a "held-in-common" set of values and beliefs about what we did.  After a brief introduction, the manager asked us to complete a values clarification survey, that listed a number of  things on it, like honesty, teamwork, friendship.  We were asked to arrange these in some priority order...I think there were other parts to it, but can't recall.  After we had completed the thing, we went 'round the table discussing what we valued.  One person had listed love as his primary value, another teamwork, and yet, another independence.  It was a jolly time.

We trusted the facilitator enough so that we didn't question the process or the purpose, but you could see the somewhat perplexed looks on the faces of the people there.  We had real problems, and here we were talking about things so abstract that they had no relevance to our everyday life.  Nobody voiced this concern.

By the end of the day, we had discovered that we were all different.  Armed with this information, we could all now explain why someone else acted like a jerk.  The next day there was some brief discussion between employees.  "What was that all about?" one person said.  But, after a day or two, we simply forgot all about it.

Sound familiar? It's becoming more common.  A consultant or manager will get it in their head that problems can be addressed through a discussion of values and beliefs of the people that work there.  Some sort of retreat is set up, and a facilitator helps people to clarify what they hold dear.  The basic premise of the exercise is that a common set of organizational values and beliefs can be created that will guide individual and collective behaviour.  The reality is that almost nothing happens.

Business News

Millions of jobs at risk as ITIs fail to issue certificates even after 35-40 years

More than 1.4 million people are struggling to find or retain jobs because they are yet to get their certificates years after undergoing training under the government's main programme for imparting employable skills to school dropouts and illiterate workers.

Industrial Training Institutes, or ITIs, which operate under the joint supervision of the central and state governments, have failed to issue certificates even after 35-40 years in several cases, a labour ministry official told ET.

"There have been some recent cases, where we have issued certificates for ITI passouts from 1970s, as their employers were withholding their pension for failing to submit certificates promised at the time of hiring," said the official, who did not wish to be named.

Another senior official said state-run entities did not employ anybody without an official certificate while a few private firms granted employment on condition of submission of these certificates later.

"Public sector employers and entities like Delhi Metro need thousands of ITI-trained workers with technical and vocational skills, but do not employ people without official certificates. Some private firms hire such trained people on the basis of their marksheets, with the requirement to submit their diplomas as soon as possible," said the official.

States Slow in Clearing Backlog

There are over 8,000 state-run ITIs and about 2,000 private training institutes with a capacity to train 1.4 million persons as turners, fitters, welders and electricians, among hundreds of such trades and skills. The number of such institutes and the courses they offer for imparting employable skills have doubled over the past five years.

 According to the latest employment data for 2009-10, persons with diplomas, certificates, or one to two years of post-higher secondary education face the highest incidence of unemployment, at 9.6%, much above the 6.9% rate among graduates.

The 12th Five-Year Plan, which envisages a growth of 25 million in the country's 477 million-strong workforce by 2016-17, admits that "the increase in the volume of work" in issuing certificates has begun resulting in delays.

"Successful trainees have to wait for months to obtain certificates," it notes, advising the creation of an independent National Board of Trade Testing to avoid inordinate delays in certification so that the students get "speedy employment".

For the past two years, the labour ministry has been urging states to clear the backlog, even as it has begun moving to a new system to prevent a repeat of the mess. The process is quite cumbersome - the Centre sends blank certificates to states for filling in the student information received from ITIs and returning them to the Centre, which verifies the data, signs the certificates and sends them back to the states that in turn forward them to the ITIs.

"The certification system requires the signatures of both central and state government officials, so its efficiency depends on states. In many cases, even states are helpless as the private ITIs in their domain haven't maintained student records," an official said.

Business News

Reliance Communications tower arm in advanced talks for infrastructure sharing deal: Executive

 Reliance Communications Ltd's telecommunications tower arm is in "advanced" stages of discussions with three carriers for "a large" infrastructure sharing deal, a senior company executive told analysts on a conference call.

Mobile phone carrier Reliance Communications Ltd's telecommunications tower arm is in "advanced" stages of discussions with three carriers for "a large" infrastructure sharing deal, a senior company executive told analysts on a conference call.

Gurdeep Singh, chief executive of Reliance Communications' wireless business, did not give any further detail.

Singh said it was "premature" to comment on contours of any potential deal, when asked if the company was open to lease out its towers to Reliance Industries Ltd at a discount to market price.

Reliance Industries, controlled by Mukesh Ambani, holds 4G permits for all of India, and has long been expected to take Reliance Communications towers on rent to roll out high-speed Internet services.

Management Guru

USE THE INTUITIVE POWERS OF BODY AND MIND

BIMOL RAKSHIT

Head of the Indian chapter of the Silva Method of Mind Control, Bimol Rakshit believes that this method is an excellent adjunct to holistic growth of the human personality. Jose Silva who created this method said: ''It is an activation of the right hemisphere of the brain that controls creativity and intuition while at the alpha level (the subconscious level).''

Rakshit cautions those who practice the method and get good results to continue it. It is not a quick-fix method; people cannot adopt it for a short while and expect long term gains. ''The Silva Method is very effective, because through it, we learn to use the intuitive powers of the body and mind. My participants learn to use telepathy, clairvoyance and creative visualization.

Finance Glossary

ADX (Average Directional Index): Standard technical indicator that measures the strength of a trend.

Carry Trade: In Forex, holding a position with a positive overnight interest return in hope of gaining profits, without closing the position, just for the central banks interest rates difference.

Gap: A difference between the previous period's close price and the next period's open price. In Forex usually only occurs during weekends — between the Friday's close and the Monday's open price.

Jobber: A slang word for a trader which is aimed toward fast but small and short-term profit from an intra-day trading. Jobber rarely leaves open positions overnight.

Article

FAILURE DOES NOT MEAN THE END OF LIFE

As I write this article, certain important questions crop up in my mind -

• Who is responsible for turning a man into failure, others or  he himself?
• If one does not utilize the given opportunity, who is to be blamed, others or he himself?
• If one is leading an ordinary life despite being capable of carving an  extraordinary eventful life, who should be blamed, others or he himself ?
• Someone who does work half-heartedly and then he meets depression at the end, who  is responsible, others or he himself ?
• If one is a die-hard pessimist and terribly unenthusiastic towards life, who is to be   blamed, others or he himself ?
• Someone who is complacent and blames the whole thing on destiny, thereby ruining this precious life, who is to be blamed, others or he himself ?

It is my firm conviction that no other man can cheat you the way you cheat your own self  No one else is responsible for your failure except you yourself !

After facing few debacles and failures, one falls victim to inferiority complex and turns into a coward. He is unable to see that success and failure are the two sides of the same coin. And also that they are an inseparable part of  human life. He can’t even find the causes which bring his downfall so he brands himself as a loser. He starts believing that he was born to be a loser and that others are much better than him.

Friends,  I do not intend to delve deep into the reasons for mishaps and failures. I just want to tell you that despite everything that happened to you, however much an undesirable life was meted out to you, your world has not come to a dead end, a stop. Your value as a human being is still intact and unsevered. Nobody has the right to dump you as a piece of junk, nobody at all.

Thought for the Day

"I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying."

The truths of life are simple. The reasons why are frequently complex, a combination of many factors and logic, that can easily become misdirected, conflicting and and confusing, even within our own minds. And yet despite this, truth can often be intuitively discerned. This is universal truth that we can all access if we are in touch with our inner nature.

Marketing Glossary

Dogs

A term used in the Boston Group Matrix. Unsurprisingly, the term "dogs" refers to businesses or products that have low relative share in unattractive, low-growth markets. Dogs may generate enough cash to break-even, but they are rarely, if ever, worth investing in. Early adopters People who choose new products carefully and are often consulted by people from the remaining adopter categories Early majority People who adopt products just prior to the average person

E-commerce

The use of technologies such as the Internet, electronic data exchange and industry extranets to streamline business transactions

Endorsement

The promotion of some kind of product recommendation or affirmation, usually from a celebrity, implying to the potential customer that a product is good

Expansionistic pricing

Expansionistic pricing is a more exaggerated form of penetration pricing
and involves setting very low prices aimed at establishing mass markets, possibly at the expense of other suppliers. Under this strategy, the product enjoys a high price elasticity of demand so that the adoption of a low price leads to significant increases in sales volumes

Thought for the day

"Wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving."

The opening of our hearts is the greatest hope for the evolution of Mankind as we move into critical times.

Marketing Glossary

Cross-selling Using a customer’s buying history to select them for related offers, e.g. a car alarm for new car buyers.

Customer demand Consumer demand is a want for a specific product supported by an ability and willingness to pay for it.

Customer loyalty Feelings or attitudes that incline a customer either to return to a company, shop or outlet to purchase there again, or else to re-purchase a particular product, service or brand.

Customer need A need is a basic requirement that an individual wishes to satisfy.

Customer satisfaction The provision of goods or services which fulfil the customer’s expectations in terms of quality and service, in relation to price paid

Customer wants A want is a desire for a specific product or service to satisfy the underlying need.

HR Article

Personal Styles -- Time-Waster or Useful - Should You Join The MBTI Shuffle?

You can find them almost everywhere.  Myers-Briggs, Enneagrams,  leadership styles, learning styles, communication styles,  teaching styles, conflict management styles...all designed to  classify or label people so they can better understand themselves  and others.  More and more training vendors are using style  questionnaires as a basis for training and development.  The  question is:  are they really useful, or are they just fun  exercises akin to astrology?

Overview

Style questionnaires usually consist of a number of items.  Format may vary.  In some, you may be asked to choose one of two  activities (forced choice), while in others you may choose one  option from a set of four or five.  After you have completed all  of the questions, you tally up your scores to determine which  category of style is your most dominant. If it's a decision-  making/leadership style instrument, you may fall into one of the  following categories:  autocratic, consultative, participative or  laissez faire.  If it's a conflict management style instrument,  you may fall into the following:  avoider, confronter,  compromiser, or cooperator.  Generally, your results will give  you a "reading" of your preferred style, a secondary style, and  your least preferred style.

Advocates for the use of these kinds of instruments claim that  they will help you:

•  understand yourself better 
•  understand how other people see you  
•  develop style flexibility (eg. situational behaviour) 
•  understand others with different styles, and become more tolerant of stylistic differences 
•  build better teams