Persistent Performance Partnership

Q. What should CEOs do to ensure HR of their support in carrying out these functions smoothly?

A. First, they should start treating HR as a partner. They should give them the platform to speak on behalf of employees at the executive level and involve them in the business strategy and other important decisions that are taken in the company.

CEOs should also invest in the HR team to build themselves. In IT companies, usually all investments are made in training the technical people and there remains a want of efforts in helping people in the HR department.

Sometimes, HR team also needs exposure; they need to attend conferences and participate in business forums. A CEO should encourage them when they approach him with such requests. It is essential to understand that HR is not a support function and they are the business partners that help in meeting business goals.

Q. Do you think that the IT industry has fully explored the HR potential?
A. People are the real assets of IT companies and the company’s competency depends on the people they have. It is essential to recognise the importance of a good team and it is only good HR that can take care of the resources. Thus, we give a lot of importance on HR operations and invest in employees.

Q. How can the CEO assist HR in building the employer brand?
A. The CEO must assist HR in terms of creating an employer brand. At Persistent Systems, the HR team has a lot of ideas on how they can help. Mostly, they need encouragement and investment.

As far as the company’s overall brand strategy is concerned, the HR plays an integral part in it. The CEO should work along with the HR and provide it with whatever it needs to help the company develop a good brand within the employee community, and even outside the company.  Click here to read full interview...

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Superwoman of Group Buying

Flaming enthusiasm, backed by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success. Mrs. Anisha Singh, founder and CEO, Mydala.com, knew this well when she started the enterprise in December 2009. Her concept to start a group e-shopping by launching Mydala.com is today one of the leading web portals that offer immense opportunity to its customers to shop with ease while saving the big buck. With a Masters degree in political communication and an MBA in information systems from American University, Washington DC., Mrs. Singh, at just 21, joined the Clinton administration at the National Women’s Business Association. Here she helped women entrepreneurs raise funds for innovative women-led businesses. She then worked at Centra Software in Boston before returning to India and establishing Kinis (Software) Solutions, a provider of customised e-learning solutions to clients across US and India. “I was travelling back and forth for my first business, but after a period of time, my presence was not required 24x7 as things started to settle down and were taken care of by a management team. It was then that I started to think about what else I can do,” says Mrs. Singh, who feels that Indians have entrepreneurship inherent in them as is proved by the large number of hotels and motels being run by Indians throughout the world. Then Mydala.com happened.

She says, “I was working for 18 hours every day while setting up Mydala. In fact, I was in office till 10 pm before going to the hospital at 2 am to deliver my baby and attended my first business call after only four hours. I was back in office just 10 days after becoming a mother.” The hard work was worth it. Mydala.com is today one of the leading names in the realm of group buying. It currently has associations with 2000 plus merchants across Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad and has created savings for users to the tune of over INR 2 crore till date, she says. It offers deals from restaurants, saloons and spas and a host of other services at discounts ranging from 40 to 90 per cent. Just within two years of its launch from Delhi, it has a remarkable subscriber base of around one million. Click here to read more...

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What needs to be done?

Two types of solutions to the problem of groupthink have been suggested.

1. Solutions that seek to insert particular processes into meetings with the aim to ensuring effective debate and discussion. Organisations should set up several independent groups, working on the same problem. The board should invite outside experts into meetings to discuss key issues. Each member should discuss the group’s ideas with trusted people outside the group (That is, a coach or mentor). First, and not surprisingly, simply having a debate helps, as can extending the time available for discussion. Likewise, assigning at least one group member the role of devil’s advocate can affect decision-making positively.

2. Insight solutions that focus more on helping teams understand how they make decisions and the politics and biases involved.

Harvard Business School’s Professor Emeritus Chris Argyris says, simply creating debate is of uncertain use when the issues involved are potentially threatening or embarrassing to the participants. His method involves engaging executive groups collectively and individually as a coach/facilitator, giving them feedback, challenging their thinking and using focused exercises to help them reflect on how they operate. Click here to read more..

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Rajeev Narang (Vice President - HR, Tech Mahindra ltd.) explains why The Employee Graduate Scholarship Programme was his Best Decision

The success of the programme can also be measured with the significant drop in the attrition rate. It has come down to more than one-fourth for the BPO as compared to the overall attrition. Participation in pursuing the work integrated learning activities is greatly encouraged. These programmes are conducted in a collaborative environment with various premier national and international educational institutions. There are several objectives behind these activities; some are stated below: 1. Stable resourcing for existing business needs over four years. 2. Higher profile resourcing for future business needs in large numbers. 3. Value addition to fresh and experienced graduates. 4. Concurrency of learning opportunity and work experience. 5. Acquisition of post graduate degree in engineering. While there are various opportunities involving financial demands, some are fully funded by Tech Mahindra, some are partially funded, and others are conditionally funded. Currently employees can pursue these programmes from: BITS, Pilani; British Telecom – University College, London; IIT, Mumbai; and, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. Click here to continue....

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Fun@Marketing - Marketing samaritans

The National Final of BMW Golf Cup International 2011 held at the DLF Golf and Country Club, Gurgaon was a huge success and its winners will participate in the World Final of the BMW Golf Cup International 2011 which is scheduled to be held in Singapore starting March 5, 2012. An exclusive, invitation-only event, the BMW Golf Cup International 2011 is an amateur golf tournament series designed for customers, prospects and opinion leaders and provides the right mix for an exclusive social interaction. India is one of 50 participating countries at the World Final of BMW Golf Cup International 2011 which is a global series with 1,000 qualifying tournaments involving 100,000 players. The BMW Golf Cup International 2011 has three categories, A (for handicaps up to 12), B (for handicaps 13 – 28) and Ladies Category (for handicaps up to 28). The winners, runners-up and second runners-up of the individual handicap categories qualify for the National Final. The winners in each of the three handicap categories in the National Final qualify to take part in the World Final of BMW Golf Cup International 2011. During the tournament, participants also had the opportunity to win the Hole-in-one offer and win a three night / four day leisure trip to New Zealand. Hole-in-one is an extraordinarily tempting offer, but one that most pros have yet to take up. Phew! Marketing with a human touch indeed.

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

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Advertising - Hotspots and Rankings - International Curry

Some international campaigns succeed in creating momentously historic landmarks in the global advertising playfield. 4Ps B&M brings to you a review of one such stellar campaign that was active during the fortnight ending November 17, 2011

Couldn’t get better!

Advertiser: Contrex (Nestlé)
Ad Title: Contrexperience
Category: Ambient

4Ps TAKE: Given our record of analysing and closely monitoring dozens of benchmark ambient campaigns fortnight after fortnight, we have no qualms in admitting that we haven’t come across a single ambient campaign, which can be compared to this one. In fact, we might not see something better than this for a long time (or maybe not, considering the ability of world class creative minds to continue to surprise and enthrall). So here we go with what the act looks like. Contrex is a French brand of mineral water owned by Nestlé Waters since 1992. The water has high calcium content. The company claims that the properties of this water speed up metabolism, hence burning calories. This helps people consuming it lose weight. The brief given to Marcel (the advertising agency) was clear – by the time the campaign folds, everyone who has witnessed and/or participated must perceive Contrex to be a brand, which facilitates a healthy lifestyle. In summary, the creative guys had to keep it simple & impactful. This was more challenging as the process of simplifying consumer experience is rather complicated. The creative guys booked a crowded locality and developed an interactive 3D projection using cycles and a neon male stripper! 10 cycles were placed in front of a building along with bottles of Contrex mineral water. Soon, a crowd gathered and volunteers started cycling, To everyone’s surprise, the movement of the pedals powered a 3D projection in the form of a male stripper. The harder people cycled, the more the projection danced and stripped, revealing a well toned body. In the end, the stripper came out with a display board, which declared that the cyclists have lost 2000 calories. The punchline goes, “Slimming doesn’t have to be boring.” Well, those of us who have been trying as hard as possible to lose that flab will quite well agree. It’s just amazing to see how the event unfolded. And we insist, please log on to YouTube and watch the video – it’s a rare delight for advertising aficionados.

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48 hours to go; govt in a huddle over Ramdev fast

With Baba Ramdev refusing to call off his plans to go on an indefinite hunger strike against corruption from Saturday, the government is meeting once again to try and find a solution. Sources have told NDTV that a team of Cabinet ministers will also meet him again today to break the deadlock. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held an emergency meeting with senior Cabinet ministers last night too to discuss how to deal with the yoga guru. This after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Tourism Minister Subodh Kant Sahay met Baba Ramdev for over two hours at the Delhi airport. The leaders briefed the PM on their discussions with Ramdev and are also understood to have discussed his proposals and ways to defuse the crisis.

Despite government's assurances on its seriousness of tackling corruption and black money, Ramdev has said he will go ahead with fast at Ramlila Maidan in Delhi. "Till there is 100 per cent agreement on all issues and a decisive stage is reached, the fast will go on," the yoga guru said. He is insisting on concrete measures. His plans have put the government in a spot as he claims crores of people will join his 'satyagraha' against corruption.

After the meeting at the airport, Sibal said, "Baba Ramdev raised significant national issues. We listened and responded to him. We agreed to have dialogue in next couple of days. I am sure we will take all those issues into account." Baba Ramdev in a separate gathering also said that he had written three letters to the Prime Minister in connection with his demands to tackle corruption. He also called for the need for fast-track courts at the Central and state level to try cases of corruption. The yoga guru also added that social activist and anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare would join his hunger strike. "I give him full support," Anna Hazare said when asked if he supports Baba Ramdev. Anna Hazare will come to Delhi on June 5 to participate in the agitation to be launched by Baba Ramdev. Mr Hazare said ministers are approaching Baba Ramdev to spoil his movement.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had written a letter to Baba Ramdev to appeal him call off his proposed fast. "Corruption is a big problem and we are making serious efforts to tackle it. It's not a divisive issue," he had written in the letter.

The government clearly worried, doesn't want a repeat of an anti-corruption fast similar to that of Anna Hazare, which had galvanized thousands of people forcing the government to give in to his demands.

However, Congress' Digvijaya Singh says the party is not scared of the yoga guru."If Congress were scared of Baba Ramdev, the party would have put him behind bars. Baba Ramdev is more of a businessman now. He charges Rs. 50,000 for teaching yoga," he said.

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Of discretion and valour!

IIPM fights meltdown, places 2300 students By Education Mail Bureau

Even we blinked... but then, figures don’t lie! TV ad volumes of telecom equipment declined 58% during Jan-March 09’ as compared to 2008. Telecom services did better, but even they saw a 7% decline in TV ad volumes. Telecom is one of the few categories still shining in the otherwise slowdown infected economy and so the figures did surprise. But come April (and IPL season), the surprise was wiped off our faces. The seeming lull was in fact, all about the storm ahead - and some fiscal prudence by marketers no doubt! Since April, television has been flooded by telecom marketers. The spots come in all shapes and sizes. If Vodafone’s zoozoos (with 10 spots, no less) have set the small screen afire with their antics; Aircel & Dhoni are busy peddling their ‘Pocket Internet’. Virgin Mobile is incorrigible with its ‘hatke’ messages and Reliance GSM is living it up with Hritik baba. Nokia and Samsung are also on a roll. Next quarter’s analysis is a foregone conclusion: Telecom & TV wrapped in a bear hug?

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No pain with these campaigns

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The 4Ps B&M list of India’s 100 Most Effective Campaigns in the last decade is largely subjective, compiled after speaking to a cross section of CEOs, agency and marketing heads, brand gurus and media planners. But to get an idea of the ‘effectiveness quotient’ of the creative guys out there, we conducted a separate qualitative survey among top agencies in India to capture their impressions of campaigns in the last decade. Enjoy...

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half…” said US merchant Jon Wanamaker, pioneer of the now ubiquitous department store concept. Ever since he spoke those golden words, millions of advertising minds across the world have been trying to work out ‘which half’ of their advertising budget works for them! Or better still, how to increase that half to a distinctly better figure; or gaining more bang for the buck.

With time, there are some who claim to have cracked the mystery (well, almost!) and there are still others who continue to expect ‘different results’ even as they do the same thing over and over again. The questions are numerous. How do we spend our budget wisely? How to achieve effective audience responses? Have we captured the customer demographic properly? Has my special offer reached the target audience? Which media vehicle has to be used at what time? And the answers are getting more and more complicated with the cloud of media clutter & consumer apathy hovering menacingly over their heads.

In the midst of this backdrop, 4Ps B&M teamed up with Indian Council of Market Research (ICMR) to conduct a survey among 50 advertising agencies in the country. The survey was conducted in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Chennai. Most of the ad agency branches were also covered under the purview of the study. The creative directors, executive creative heads and others were contacted for one-on-one interviews. Conducted using a structured questionnaire design, the interviews prompted our creative respondents to list their top 5 all time favorite ad campaigns of all time, with regard to the impact they made on the audience, whether it be in terms of increased sales, improved brand equity or in terms of how they generated a buzz in the market that lasted for years after the campaign itself faded away into history.

And the ad campaigns that have emerged victorious are indeed epitomes of creativity. But besides that, the thread that’s common to most of them is the use of a strong emotional plank to send the message across. This is true for the 11 campaigns, those of Vodafone, The Times of India, Idea Cellular, Bharti Airtel, Cadbury, Bajaj, Liril, Tata Tea, Kerala Tourism, Incredible India & Pepsi. The exceptions are Happydent, Fevikwick, Tata Sky and Fevicol. The other stark conclusion from the list can be drawn from the fact that a pathetic 5 campaigns out of the 15 have had the luxury of celebrities in the campaigns, out of which Aamir Khan features in 2 (and none of our cricket stars)! Only goes to show that you can go with or without a celebrity, but you can ill afford to substitute true creativity!

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2300 IIPM students get jobs

After hearing the news of IPL going abroad (South Africa), the businessmen in Chandigarh are sad, especially the ones engaged in the hospitality sector. Gautam, the manager of The Residency says, “We will have a 30% loss in occupancy compared to last year because of IPL not happening in India.” Cricket fans from all over Punjab come to Mohali to cheer for their home team and stay in hotels, in and around Chandigarh.

Not just that, big-ticket sports events like IPL always push up sales volumes across various product categories. Take television for instance: Not only there is an increased demand from the home user segment but restaurants, fast food joints and shopping malls emerge as the biggest buyers of television sets in order to enhance footfalls. “We saw a growth of over 20% in April over the same month last year. IPL was the main trigger in top 35-40 cities, for the sale of colour television sets (CTVs),” says Amitabh Tiwari, Business Group and Marketing Head, Home Entertainment & B2B, LG Electronics India. Ramesh, an executive employed with an agency of Samsung in Sector 22, Mohali agrees. “During IPL matches at Mohali, we had registered an increase of 5% in the sale of televisions and LCDs. In view of the coming IPL matches, we had ordered for an extra stock to manage the increase in demand. But, we had to cancel all orders after hearing that the IPL will not be held in the country.” Clearly, the much hyped ‘slight change in plans’ will greatly affect these periphery businesses.

Media businesses in the country are also gearing up for a similar jolt, primarily the outdoor advertising industry. Selvel Advertising Ltd., for example, was expecting a business of about Rs.1.5-2 crore from this year’s IPL. A disappointed Noomi Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director of the organisation told this magazine, “Last time our business was about Rs.1 crore. This time we were more organised to serve better and do better business, but the League is going abroad.” Selvel had the rights for the display boards of Knight Riders. Apart from that, Selvel also served companies like Cadbury, Reliance’s IPL campaign. Mehta says that the business coming from these accounts will get adversely affected because of this new development.

Then again, there will also be a fall in government revenues through various taxes (entertainment tax, service tax, et al). Last year, the government earned a whopping Rs.90 crore from taxes deducted at source (TDS) alone. A senior official in Delhi & District Cricket Association said that the Delhi government alone will suffer a loss of Rs.90 crore this year in the form of all taxes from IPL.

It was expected that this season of IPL would bring in fresh air of resurgence into the ailing economy, which is currently going through a rough patch. Moreover, the last season of IPL had witnessed so much euphoria that people across sectors were hoping for this season to clear the negative vibes in the air. But guess we can all bid adieu to hopeful dreams of an IPL windfall amidst the slowdown. After all, Mr. Modi’s ‘brainchild’ has found a South African momma!

With so many people taking a hit, in all probability franchisee owners may not be the only ones opting not to vote. Or worse these people may go and vote for a change from the ruling alliance in hope of some respite! So this Modi sojourn from Kolkata to Cape Town may not be a good ‘Idea’ Sirjee!

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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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“Damn, I wish I knew that”

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Honda has gained a decent amount of brand equity for itself in the country. But how is Honda dealing with the current slowdown? The India head speaks out...

When do you see the auto sector bouncing back from the current turmoil?
I wish I knew that. But at least in the case of India, since almost a year back when the stock values were suddenly falling down, the impact on the Indian economy was comparatively lower in comparison to that of the global downturn. To be frank the year 2008 was quite a difficult year for Honda. And in comparison the negativity of various issues has come down considerably in various markets like United States, Europe, Japan or China.

Therefore we are already seeing a silver line of hope as inflation is coming down and interest are also following the downward trend along with the consumers’ confidence gradually picking up. Of course we cannot be over optimistic but at least the Indian auto market has much lesser problems.

How has the economic downturn impacted your business?
It has impacted our business a lot. Particularly as we are focusing more on the so-called premium segment and those customers’ profiles are quite connected to the global economy. Therefore this target segment becomes cautious of spending their money in these hard times. But since November when we launched the next generation model of Honda City our sales are gradually picking up.

What are your strategies to out the current impact on your business?
We are aiming for lean operations and we have already adjusted our productions. We have capacity of two shifts, thus we can produce 385 units a day but in the current market situation we are running only one shift a day, thus producing only 200 cars a day. This one shift production strategy has been implemented since January this year and would continue for the next six months or may be more. I hate the over piling of stocks. We always want to keep the demand of our products higher than the supply.

How has catering to the Indian market helped Honda’s growth?
Honda is one of the few auto manufacturers who has been able to post a positive result in the current downturn unlike the Americans and other global auto makers. This is primarilly because of our diverse portfolio, we have other products such as motorcycles and scooters. In fact, if you take a look at the Hero Honda and HMSI’s performance we are doing pretty well in the country.

For the FY 2009 Hero Honda is likely to register a record sales of 3.6 million units whereas HMSI is likely to sell off 1 million units even in the current market situation. This is because though our car market customers are well connected to the global market but there are number of Indian customers who have not been much affected by the global slowdown.

The rupee has lost a lot in value. How much of your financials have suffered because of this?
The devaluation of the rupee has definitely impacted our business a lot. As we import around 25% of the required components from either Japan or Thailand for our Indian manufacturing units, the cost of these components have increased in the past few months due to the depreciation of the rupee and are adding to our total input costs. Which has resulted in forcing us to adjust our retail price accordingly.

Will Jazz be launched on schedule and what are other future launches?
We are very much aware of the fact that our product attracts the Indian consumer and many of the Indian customers are looking forward to the launch of our new product Jazz. So, we plan to go for the launch of Jazz as per schedule and it will hit the Indian market more or less in the month of June. We normally do not like to delay our product launches. Our trial productions are already in the process.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2009

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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