Carry a smile

"You don't sleep until I do, "ok? That was a deal my daughter tried to crack with her brother when they went to sleep. However, as soon as I finished narrating a story, my son would curl up and slip into deep sleep. "Pat me to sleep, " my daughter would then demand. She would do everything but sleep - practice writing in the air, recite poems, share incidents at the day care and school - until she realizes that my response is decreasing by the minute. And, if I stop patting her, she would force my eyelids open and remind me of my duty - pat her to sleep. At the end of the exercise, however, it felt so fulfilling to see the kids cozying up to their teddies and sleep tight. Irrespective of my state of mind or health, this was a task I can confidently say I enjoyed the most.
Well, why would I share something like this with all of you, heh? It’s a lesson that I learnt through this routine. After my daughter left me with just memories, such frivolous tasks comes haunting day in and day out. And, at times it forces me to go back in time and question, ‘why did I enjoy the simple task of putting her to sleep so much?’ It must be the joy of ensuring my kids sleep with a smile, absolutely free of any worries and more importantly knowing there's only love in the air. In short, reassurance of a better morrow.
Now, don’t we come to office everyday with the desire for a better day? Most employees seek reassurance every day and every moment while in office. It’s important for being there for each other, more than ever, and of course spread love. And, all it takes is a smile to do that. When you do that, you’ll enjoy coming every day. In the absence of smiles at the workplace, the only factor that'll increase and spread would be worries. Of course, when worries spread, there is obviously less or no love in the air.
Several nights have passed since my daughter left me with such memories, from which I attempt to deduce some lessons. One thing that I don't forget to carry is a smile. Sent from my iPhone

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BlackBerry will be Back

The lackluster performance of iconic brands attracts so much attention today that could depose even an astute chief executive capable of turning around the fortunes. The burgeoning social networks and self-styled publishers apply so much pressure by streaming unfavorable and unregulated content that such brands are perceived dead even when their future is bright. The latest to attract the public fury is Blackberry. Top publications can be seen replicating global views where the brand is written off while at the same time attributing almost half a page for an interview with the country head who is trying to push hard strategies that could work for the brand. Thought leaders around the world are also chipping in with their views. ‘Blackberry can be saved,’ wrote Stuart E. Jackson in his HBR post http://tinyurl.com/6ub8tw6. Isn’t it too early for us to forget BB? After all, the company didn’t completely miss the structural changes the industry witnessed over the last couple of years, barring may be the all important apps ecosystem. It’s gradual shift from a business-focused mobile services provider to the mass market has been quite smooth.

 

It is not that established brands with a slip-up haven’t revived. Comparing cloud computing major EMC with Blackberry might not be appropriate but when the story is about revival of a leader, it could pass. Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan highlights the turnaround of EMC – in their book Confronting Reality - post the tech crash in 2001. EMC was then producing premium-priced storage devices with proprietary software and high margins. The tech crash witnessed purchasers cutting back on expenditures and switching over to cheaper products. Competitors were also developing high-end machines but at lower cost. Revenues fell. Profits were also significantly down. Under the leadership of Joe Tucci, EMC worked towards a new strategy – selling lower cost hardware, open software and also extending solutions. He split the company into hardware and software businesses and combined professional services and systems engineering into one group. This helped in shifting the mindset, focus, resource allocation and priorities towards software and services.

 

EMC further segmented its potential market into high, middle and low tiers and began designing product platforms that could satisfy all three with as much commonality as possible. Distribution of low-tier Clarion storage systems was arranged through Dell. The company acquired Legato Systems to augment its software capabilities and partnered with BMC Software to strengthen systems management. The company recognized the need for a new business model and also clearly understood how to link the various components of the new one, which saved it from obsolescence.

 

The case of BB is not very different. The device is known to be robust and most suited for business executives. The challenge is to build applications that matches competition. In a networked world, it isn’t all that tough. As pundits say, there should be simultaneous improvement of complementary goods. With so many platforms and with it applications coming up, it won’t be tough for BB to pull together strong partners. And, how about some exclusive business applications on the go, which would reposition the company as a business-focused mobile devices maker.  

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Charles Duhigg - Power of habit

I first became interested in the science of habits eight years ago, as a newspaper reporter in Baghdad. The US military, it occurred to me as I watched it in action, is one of the biggest habit-formation experiments in history… ’had been in Iraq for about two months when I heard about an officer conducting an impromptu habit-modification programme in Kufa, a small city 90 miles south of the capital. He was an army major who had analysed videotapes of recent riots and had identified a pattern: violence was usually preceded by a crowd of Iraqis gathering in a plaza or other open space and, over the course of several hours, growing in size. Food vendors would show up, as well as spectators. Then, someone would throw a rock or a bottle and all hell would break loose.

When the major met with Kufa’s mayor, he made an odd request: could they keep food vendors out of the plazas? Sure, the mayor said. A few weeks later, a small crowd gathered near the Masjid al-Kufa, or Great Mosque of Kufa. Throughout the afternoon, it grew in size. Some people started chanting angry slogans. Iraqi police, sensing trouble, radioed the base and asked US troops to stand by. At dusk, the crowd started getting restless and hungry. People looked for the kebab-sellers normally filling the plaza, but there were none to be found. The spectators left. The chanters became dispirited. By 8:00 p.m., everyone was gone.

Branding lessons - Balconies and low-cut jeans

I was startled when my 10-year old nephew demanded ‘jockeys’ while at a shopping mall. Asked why that brand, he pointed to a set of teenagers sitting on the railing, wearing low-cut jeans and obviously showing off their ‘jockeys.’  I had a mind to click a snap and post the ‘branding’ online but better sense prevailed. That was in a mall.

As I peek outside my window, the change in the cityscape is getting increasingly evident. With a little effort, the inquisitive can view what is inside the adjacent skyscrapers as the large windows leave little for imagination. Conditions apply, of course. And with towels to inner wears dancing from near-the-cloud windows, to the occasional gentle breeze, brands seem to be gaining prominence than the individuals. Avid marketers will certainly spend more time in the balcony, attempting to gauge and segment target audiences basis demographics and psychographics, which would have warranted an in-depth study earlier. This could perhaps trigger a new wave of customer engagement exercises. After all brands are now known to be seriously deploying resources in monitoring customers’ actions online. Why not allocate some on the balconies? A marketer friend on his recent visit to my apartment happened to see empty beer bottles lined up on my neighbours’ balcony. Smiling at the sight, he commented, ‘bachelors means beer, heh?.’ ‘Working women too,’ I added. He couldn’t believe until he looked at the garments dangling on the balcony string. Without wasting a second, he quickly posted the insight online.

Marketers are more than ever swooping down on digital natives and wooing them through innovative gimmicks so as to convert them into their fans. According to a Forrester survey, fans are much more likely to purchase, consider, and recommend the brands that they engage with on Facebook than non-fans.

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Anything free has a price

The topic of discussion yesterday was ‘should we pay for newspapers.’ It started as a comment on a friend’s post - http://on.fb.me/HMuStd - and soon became a good discussion with two to three of us exchanging views in quick succession. It might take quite a few years more when we can altogether forget newspapers. The vast majority of the newspaper readers especially in smaller towns consider the internet and anything digital to be amorphous. For them, it is a daily routine to skim through daily newspapers at a public library and engage in a long discussion. Not to forget the ‘chai’ that would provide the much required ‘energy’ to such discussions. The joy one derives out of such activities is incomparable. This is in fact a standard response one would elicit about such a topic, especially with elders. 

 

Well, sounds frivolous, isn’t it? As the use of web proliferates, shrinking the world, we will no longer witness such lengthy and worldly discussions. Instead, we will increasingly see people with a hand-held device wedged between the shoulder and the ear, in a never ending conference call or always pretending to be working and then discussing the same with others who has absolutely no connection on the subject. Some others will be peering on sleek devices, often appearing to be picking up 'whatever' from it. A few sophisticated ones will do all this with a fluoroscent blue light blinking from a tiny device fixed in the year.What is more, in our quest towards personalization, we will end up consuming only what we want, and whenever we want and that too all alone. Now imagine the impact of the web as it spreads into the remotest of towns. Families and friends will be together, but separated by different devices.

 

And, in the absence of discussions about daily news over a ‘chai’, people running newspapers will be left with no constructive feedback on what they write. Journalists will write junk, which we will consume for free.  

 

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Are there more MPs on the expressway?

It has been over two months since the accident. The involvement of a sitting MP (Bharat Raut) and his injuries gave enough juice for the journalists to cover the incident. ‘Shiv Sena MP Bharat Raut injured in car accident,’ beamed television channels and newspapers. Not a single journalist followed up the story trying to understand the cause. No one highlighted the absence of proper dividers on the expressway, checkpoints for air pressure and considering the number of accidents every day, lack of good ambulances or medical facilities. The police went on record stating it was a case of accident and nothing more. Within a day or two, the case appeared to be sealed. Obviously, the party’s PR machinery was working at its best.

There could be more such MP’s, killing more people if the apathy continues. ‘One of his car’s tires burst, what can he do,’ was the response from the police. ‘Can a tire burst just like that? Do you know when it will burst? Who should take the responsibility? The tire will burst only when the driver overspeed or when the pressure is inappropriate or when the vehicle is overloaded,’ exclaimed my wife. There could be more reasons but my wife wasn’t in a state to enumerate all. What was apparent was the indifference shown by the police. They had apparently not done any investigation. To make matters worse, when we asked for the documents – the police had none from the other party. I am left to wonder if the MP had a valid driving license or was he under the influence of alcohol? While we were asked to submit all the documents despite being in the hospital, the police had obviously exempted the other party. No wonder everyone wants to be a leader in India.

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You are who you know

A man is known by the company he keeps. That is what we used to be told when growing up. As interconnectivity increases with advancement in technology, there appears to be a slight twist in this. In one of his recent HBR blogs, Eric Hellweg wrote about Reid Hoffman’s networking capability. Hoffman, the co-founder and executive chair of LinkedIn and investor in Facebook, Zynga, and Groupon had apparently said, ‘we are who we know and what they know of us.’ He had also stated that the people who we know could shape our growth. Golden words from a high profile executive.

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Brand Promise Undelivered

Aditya Birla is a big brand. In the healthcare segment, the brand promises hope, heal, health, happiness, which is etched on the walls, at the grand entrance. Paintings – simple yet pleasing to the eye - depicting each of the promises bedeck the walls. The brand architect seem to have done a marvelous job. Anybody who is used to the typical white and indigo shades prevalent across hospitals as well as the smell of phenyl will certainly prefer to stay put here. Everything seem so soothing and reassuring, one wonders if there is already an emotional connect, even when left waiting for someone to attend to.

 

Couple of days within the hospital and one can be certain that marketing and healthcare doesn’t go well. Anyone remotely involved with marketing would feel like imparting a crash course on ‘Ten tips to live up to the brand promises.’ Be it housekeeping, billing or patient care, there is a lot to learn for this big brand. The service is so disconnected that one would be startled every time the promises catch the eyes. As marketers and branding experts say, If you don’t deliver what you promise to people, in time, you won’t matter to them. In today’s social media crazed world, the implication of such a dissonance will impact the credibility of the brand and may be even spread to associated brands.

 

As one mull over the promises, the nurse can be heard shouting, “house keeping, house keeping….Usman!!!”

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The Next Second

The last couple of months have been extremely challenging. Friends and relatives would call up to say that we should be careful. "Time seem to be unfavourable," they would say. It all started when my son fractured his leg,trying to jump out of a merry-go-round. After that,it was my turn. A biker decided to twist my right foot by resting his front wheel on it. As I came out of it, my son brought home chickenpox, which he supplied to me. "Bad luck seem to have a tight grip on us," my wife would often say, exhausted, as she juggled between hospital, office, school and managing home. I would respond to her,"it is just a matter of days. We will be at our best soon. Let us focus on the days to come."

On January 22, 2012, life took a drastic turn - all in a fraction of a second. The happiest of us all, my daughter, who was sleeping in the car never woke up.Everyday after the accident, my wife would repeatedly ask, "Why did this happen, why did she leave us?" I didn"t have the courage to tell her,"this too shall pass." That fraction of a second will remain etched in our memory. More importantly, we now know, more than anyone, every second counts, every second needs to be celebrated.And that tomorrow never comes. 
 

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Arundhati - 2008 to 2012

"Aru, let's race to the car," my seven year old son called his sister. It was a daily affair as we walked to the car park in the morning, all set for school.Both would dash to the car but the younger one would give up mid way. Turning up to me, she would ask, "lost again Dad. Why?" As we drove to school that Friday, I finally came up with an explanation, aimed at pepping her up. I gave her three reasons why she was failing. One, boys don't race with girls. Two, seven year olds don't race with three year olds. Lifting her up near the school, I also told her that the most important factor towards winning is to focus on improving time. Do not focus on others, just sprint, I stressed waving her the usual goodbye.
Couple of days later, as I lay in the hospital bed, I saw her sprinting. As she came near me, the door opened. It was my wife. With tears rolling down, she held my hands and said,"we have to let go off Arundhati. The doctor can't do much."
Arundhati left us late that night. As I close my eyes, I see my lovely daughter celebrating her win over time.

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Have you built your platform?

Keval Seth sent me a message on Facebook first and then LinkedIn. As
in other cases, I did not oblige his request for friendship. However,
his network of friends, numbering over 700, startled me. A young
executive, he must be around 23, to have such an extensive network
reflected a jobless and always-on-the-network personality. And, for me
it didn’t seem good. To my surprise, his profile proclaimed that he
was a ‘digital native.’ It was difficult to digest – 700 people – and
the discussion was taken home with my wife. Her statement ‘the more
people you know, the more you’ll benefit,’ took me immediately to what
product marketers are up to these days. They are reaching out to more
and more people who can extend experience around their product. Take
for example, Apple. Is it successful because of the innovation, design
or the way it is marketed? Not really. The company relied on
application makers that would help them create a wonderful platform
wherein customers can ‘experience’ a different product. It is these
application makers that enable Apple expand the platform and create a
sustainable experience. In a nutshell, sustaining a competitive
advantage is challenging sans an appropriate and extensive network.

Individuals are no different. And, the young man seemed to have built
a platform. Let us see the experience his network has to extend.

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Marketing should begin within

The twin challenges marketers face today – intense competition and a
volatile market – often leads them to deploy ineffective marketing
strategies. And, with the ubiquitous social networks forcing companies
to ensure transparency in all transactions, marketers have to re-think
their capabilities. Traditional marketing vehicles that bragged about
the company, ‘who we are, and what we do,’ are faced with the question
– ‘so what is in for us’ by customers. Of course, progressive
marketers have resorted to interactive and engaging tools. However,
most of such engagements were bereft of an overarching theme that
allowed sustainability. The engagement appeared to be a band-aid in
the wake of increasing discontentment or sudden spike in interest in a
particular brand.
Breaking away from this tradition was the ‘smarter planet’ campaign
from IBM. Unlike the rest who tried creating or raising awareness,
IBM’s campaign was built on the basis of a fundamental question, "If
IBM went away tomorrow, what would be the impact?" It wasn't simply
designed as a brand campaign for lead generation or thought
leadership. The smarter planet platform embodies the mission of IBM's
employees and articulates the company's mission and vision in a way
that resonates with and inspires its employees and customers. No
wonder experts say that the campaign is ‘belief-building’ for the
company. How many companies can we recall that actually stand for a
cause?
A quick look at the landscape in India will reveal that most companies
are innovative, work on cutting-edge technologies, or are best places
to work. With rampant attrition and free movement of talent across
companies and industries, the reality and perception dissonance
becomes very apparent. There is no distinction between large companies
and small ones – the nature of work and culture is more or less the
same. No wonder there are very few prominent Indian brands in the
global landscape. As they say, marketing should begin within the
company. If the thousands of employees don’t resonate what the company
stand for, can the others be convinced?

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Outcome of an Accident

My wife caught hold of the biker who drove over my leg. I crossed over and rushed with the kids before the pain intensified and rendered me stock-still. It is no use arguing with him, let’s hurry, I shouted on top of my voice. Displeased for having to let go the rash driver, she lumbered up to us. By that time I had started to hobble and she regained her self and focused on the job ahead – take me to a doctor and quickly.

A day later, most of the callers had the same question as my wife – why did you let the biker get away? While I did what was important (and good for me) at that moment, thinking about the incident that fractured my foot  reminded me of an African story. A King in Africa had a close friend that he grew up with. The friend had a habit of looking at every situation that ever occurred in his life (positive or negative) by remarking, “This is good, Allah Almighty knows best” One day the King and his friend were out on a hunting expedition. The friend would load and prepare the guns for the King. The friend had apparently done something wrong in preparing one of the guns, for after taking the gun from his friend, the King fired it and his thumb was blown off.

Examining the situation the friend remarked as usual, “This is good! Allah Almighty knows best.” To which the King replied, “No, this is NOT good!” and ordered his soldiers to put his friend into jail.

About a year later, the King was hunting in an area that he should have known to stay clear of. Cannibals captured the King and took him to their village. They tied his hands, stacked some wood, set up a stake and bound him to the stake. As they came near to set fire to the wood, they noticed that the King was missing a thumb. Being superstitious, they never ate anyone who was less than whole. So after untying the King, they chased him out of the village.

When the King reached his Palace, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb and felt remorse for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the jail to speak with his friend. “You were right” the King said, “It was good that my thumb was blown off.” And he proceeded to tell the friend all that had just happened. “I am very sorry for sending you to jail for so long. It was bad for me to do this.” “No,” his friend replied, “this is good…Allah Almighty knows best”

“What do you mean, ‘this is good’! How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a year?” The King’s friend replied: “Remember that the Almighty knows best and if I had NOT been in jail, I would have been with you on that hunting trip.” Moral of the story is that one should not Judge Things or Events by its Immediate Outcome!

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CLV for PR Agencies

It is pretty common in public relations agencies to see top brass taking time out to set up meetings with ‘important’ clients:

 

a.     Internally to check the ‘health’ of the account, and

b.    Externally to fortify relationship and may be raise the bar with some ‘strategic ideas.’

 

It is also very common to see absolutely no action against any of the points discussed in such meetings – both internally and externally. More importantly, some of the standard ‘strategic ideas,’ shared globally with similar clients get ridiculed at a local level with the servicing team bearing the brunt of the client’s attack. While most agencies cling on to ‘important clients,’ it is important for the team to understand that retaining the right client over time would have a positive impact on the profitability and hence the retention strategy to be adopted should be different. This implies an understanding of ‘Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).’  

 

The exercise including the visit of ‘top brass’ is usually undertaken in the name of CLV’ and often goes horribly wrong with the leaders’ tactical and disconnected approach. Instead of targeting such clients for meetings, can’t the top brass who understand each customers CLV assign a team to ensure consistency in delivery of value-added services? At a time when customers focus on the approach of the ‘servicing team’ in solving specific challenges (not the brand and its reputation), it is disheartening when the team (top brass) attempts to hard sell the brand and its methodologies. The differentiator would be in increasingly empowering the servicing team to make decisions that would raise the bar for excellence. Most agencies don’t understand CLV and be it a global account or a regional one that tries to squeeze the most out of the team, the servicing team is the same, attempting to deliver the same. The outcome is simple – dissatisfaction – for clients and the team who service them.

 

Sans any understanding of CLV, most of the agencies don’t even bother about the larger marketing objective but force fit communication strategies to address an individual’s (client) prerogative. The result is obviously short-term gains. A clear understanding of CLV would imply prioritising communication initiatives even if it means deviating from the allocated budget a wee bit.   

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Focus on the business and not the recession

While the erudite exchange views about the global economic scenario and its impact, there is no doubt that individuals will have to focus on what one could do better to establish oneself in this rapidly changing economy. Today’s economic vows flashed by the media remind me of an anecdote from Shiv Khera’s book – You can Win.

 

It is about a man who sold hot dogs by the roadside. He was illiterate, so he never read newspapers . He was hard of hearing, so he never listened to the radio. His eyes were weak, so he never watched television. But enthusiastically, he sold lots of hot dogs. His sales and profit went up. He ordered more meat and got himself a bigger and a better stove. As his business was growing, the son, who had recently graduated from college, joined his father. Then something strange happened. The son asked, "Dad, aren't you aware of the great recession that is coming our way?" The father replied, "No, but tell me about it." The son said, "The international situation is terrible. The domestic is even worse. We should be prepared for the coming bad time."

 

The man thought that since his son had been to college, read the papers, and listened to the radio, he ought to know and his advice should not be taken lightly. So the next day, the father cut down his order for the meat and buns, took down the sign and was no longer enthusiastic. Very soon, fewer and fewer people bothered to stop at his hot dog stand. And his sales started coming down rapidly. The father said to his son, "Son, you were right. We are in the middle of a recession. I am glad you warned me ahead of time."

 

At a time when companies are seeking to address (unique requirements of) maximum number of people while meeting the highest possible standards, so as to expand business and market share, individuals working in these companies should not be blinded by the opinions doing the rounds- instead focus on raising the bar for excellence.     

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Narrow the focus, better the outcome

In a world filled with options, it is difficult to choose. From buying a television to viewing channels, mobile phones to choosing the service provider, social networks and the integration platform – life isn’t easy. For marketers, it is even worse. Intense competition globally, economic downturn and the rising number of social networks are diluting brand positioning initiatives. Take the example of Yahoo, AOL or for that matter Dell. What do they stand for compared to ‘let’s google,’ about Google  and (away from the technology space) - the ‘ultimate driving machine,’ about BMW?  Nothing much except a blank expression on the respondent’s face. The diminishing brand equity could be attributed to the lack of focused and consistent brand communication initiatives from the part of these companies. In the name of visibility and positioning, it is common to see marketers going all out targeting free and available promotional channels, communicating the company’s products, services and the ensuing value proposition – resulting in unfavourable outcomes.

 

Having had the privilege to attend some high profile ‘messaging workshops,’ where in business leaders dragged themselves in only because of the presence of their bosses, it can be assumed that brand communication is still not a priority for many CXOs. A day or two of intellectual rumpus in a 5-star set up, dissection and analysis of the workshop over calls and mails followed by unending PPT mayhem – that is what happens to brand communication. The attempt -  to create an overarching message followed by sub-messages – remains in paper.  

With companies growing in size, the number of marketers also increase and the need to go-to-market to ‘accomplish’ something for their respective businesses. It is very common to hear marketers say, ‘Hey, let’s maximize the impact of this service. Let’s run a campaign in all the social networks.’ What if the social networks were to be paid for the campaign? Will the target/priority change? Unlike the traditional medium, social networks call for an engagement program and the preference to such an exercise differ depending on the target audience. In the absence of a robust social media strategy, that ensures an engagement program, companies could land into trouble as witnessed by consulting major McKinsey.  In India, global FMCG giant P&G avoided negative publicity when film personality Farah Khan tweeted about a shortage of Pampers diapers in Mumbai. Within 24 hours, P&G sent her a month's supply of Pampers Active Baby diapers. Kainaz Gazder, marketing director at P&G India, says the response to Khan's tweet is a "testament of how we are leveraging this medium to address the needs of our consumers.”

Now, how many B2B marketers can ensure a response like that?

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What BPOs should learn from Apple and Blackberry

It is no secret that business process outsourcing firms are grappling with a need to identify service differentiators. While increasing footprints and client proximity was considered to be a differentiator when the industry witnessed rapid growth, verticalization became a buzz word when the number of BPO players increased and awareness about the potential of outsourcing amongst clients improved. With a mature and promising market (read US), most of the BPO leaders were focused on generating ‘competitive’ differentiators so as to increase the company’s top line. Verticalization emerged as one such differentiator. However, with the steady flow of business comes the risk of ‘reverse salient,’ to which many leaders seemed to have turned a blind eye. In his seminal book, ‘Networks of power: Electrification in western society,’ Thomas P. Hughes introduces the concept in the analysis of technological systems, whereby the ‘reverse salient’ refers to a component of the system that, due to its insufficient development, prevents the technological system in its entirety in achieving its targeted development. BPO leaders who managed their companies out of the recent and one of the worst economic crisis clearly understand that the determinants for generating differentiators have radically changed. These leaders know that today’s inexorable shift in macroeconomics; disruptive technologies, business practices etc are potential ‘reverse salient’ and could transform their business prospects. Today, these factors form an integral part of a leader’s strategy in determining differentiators. 

 

Importance of domain/vertical knowledge for service provider  

 

Mike Lazaridis might not have imagined that the device he co-founded would one day achieve a cult status. His company’s smart phone – Blackberry – was primarily used by business executives on the go. It was a common sight to see dapper executives at airports, hotels and offices in praying positions - picking out e-mails. For many, the Blackberry remained an aspiration brand. However, the surge in smart phone market witnessed a burgeoning number of Blackberry users beyond the business executives. The phone maker was quick to add social media capabilities and other functionalities to extend its share while other brands saw their share eroding. The company was able to successfully address the mass market in India by first choosing a niche and dominating it. Blackberry isn’t the only company to adopt this strategy. Business history says Apple’s Macintosh computer found its initial success this way. The company used to target in-house graphics departments to do desktop publishing, then to marketing executives for business presentations. Later, the product's capability was extended to take on the professional pre-press and publishing market. Apple also leveraged its traditional strength in the education market to gain a strong franchise in the consumer market. Geoffrey Moore, author of several technology marketing books calls this the ‘bowling alley,’ strategy. According to him, “each vertical market is a pin to be knocked down. Companies should stick with this serial vertical market strategy while they gain momentum and their technology matures enough to tackle the horizontal market.”

 

What is the lesson for BPOs?

As many BPOs have already seen, verticalization ensures favourable business outcomes. An increasing number of BPOs are focusing on niche areas like health insurance, mortgage processing etc – demonstrating deep domain knowledge and thereby enabling clients to not only contain costs but focus on their core business. The question is - are these companies doing enough to successfully roll through these niches or ‘bowling alleys’ and enter a period of hyper growth?

 

 

Vertical centers of excellence as Innovation hubs

 

With competition in the BPO industry getting intense, it has become imperative for the companies to ensure unique experience around the services offered. Working with several customers from the same vertical, it is but natural for most BPOs to assimilate best practices and offer the same as insights to clients in need. Does deep domain knowledge mean everything?

 

A global IT company, which established an innovation center in India recruited domain specialists to assimilate best practices of the company across the globe and spanning its vertical focus. The objective was to extend its clients ‘solution accelerators,’ which would enable its clients to launch services faster and bring down costs substantially. Imagine a small utility company in one of the emerging countries with limited IT budget benefiting from the solution accelerator?  Or, for that matter a start up healthcare company benefiting through the implementation of industry best practices? Better still, what if clients could participate in customizing their proposed solution? The client can leverage the domain specialists, test the readymade solution or suggest tweaking it up to its requirement - all at the IT Company’s innovation center.

 

BPOs in India might not be able to replicate the same. What they can however do is to build an ecosystem consisting of industry specialists from industry bodies, academic institutes, partners etc. The objective here is two pronged. While the ecosystem will enable the BPO to create a ‘global standard’ for processes outsourced from a specific vertical, it also helps the company build industry recognized specialists who can complement client’s resources. At a time when globalization is forcing organizations to increase their footprint, specialists who can ensure standardization at warp speed will be in demand as they would substantially bring down process implementation and speed up time to market.

 

Horizontal services should be a natural outcome

 

Blackberry knew what would entice people to their device – a collaboration tool called e-mail. When the market expanded, the company extended the collaboration tools to include social media. Take the example of Apple. The company could focus on bringing innovative devices like iPhones and iPads to the market because of the thousands of application makers that supported the company. What is a standalone device worth?

 

A BPO is like a device. A BPO focused on verticals is like a device with push mail capability. The future is where a BPO evolves to extend services like the devices from Apple. Future is where BPOs are able to extend ‘standardized’ services that help organizations in rapidly integrating new acquisitions, mobilizing new contracts, and transforming business processes.

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In the name of transformation

Transformation seems to be a buzzword these days. First, it was aimed at overcoming the recession, then it was focused towards agility. However, in most organizations, it is tantamount to reorganizing people irrespective of the outcome on people – what happens to their career or what value the process adds to them makes no business sense for the undertakers. The implications are manifold – tilting towards unfavourable business outcomes versus the constructive intent with which it was conceptualized and carried out. Irrespective of the outcome, the management would easily transition to another period of conceptualizing and executing yet another transformation.What can employees do?

a.    Focus on value-addition: Not that employees should not otherwise focus on value addition. The process of transformation witnesses large scale skepticism resulting in de-motivation and thereby lack of productivity. It is important to remain focused on the task at hand and finding avenues for adding more value. For instance, can an offshore marketing support center hitherto focused on production activities aid the organization’s growth?   

b.    Operational efficiency and innovation: While this is a given in many organization, what is not is innovation. The employee unrest created during a transformation exercise could lead to operational inefficiency. This is especially true when organizations increase spending per employee in the name of motivation. Employees should focus on doing more with less at the same time factoring in innovation aspects. Example, IBM India is able to establish a code factory with domain specialists extending the company’s customers solution accelerators that would speed up application deployment.

c.    Expand the network:  No doubt, the transformational ability of the professionals is what would make a difference and not necessarily the brand equity of the company in which they work. This is a fact that is resonating across industries and geographies, across government agencies and academic institutes as the need for people to move up the innovation value chain increasingly becomes vital. Transformation is perhaps the best phase when employees can showcase their insights into the market beyond India. The social networks in fact gives an opportunity to unleash potential customer engagement programs. For instance, the application development team in India can initiate a crowdsourcing program so as to receive and incorporate customer’s feedback.

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Marketing re-defined

The presentation came to an end – finally - and it felt like sunshine coming out of it. “We just have 24 slides and we will make it fast,” he had mentioned when starting up. That was like yesterday. “So, is that it?” Mark got up, asking. Mark was the Vice President, Marketing and had come to finalize an agency for the company in India. Later, his question to the agency – is that it – triggered a discussion about the expectations of an agency and the changing mindset within the company.

 

The foremost target on any technology marketers mind these days seem to be lead generation. And, most prefer events and direct mailers - creative and often complex - to highlight their company’s various offering. There is of course this continued effort to strengthen existing customer relationships but then again mostly accomplished through focused events or mailers. What are the other most (ab)used tools?Yes -  striking an association with the customer’s personal life is increasingly gaining ground as a tactic. Greeting cards, flowers, cakes, champagne – marketers seem to be transforming the target CXOs office into a party hall. Unfortunately, the focus is on bombarding the customer with information that the marketer thinks appropriate and not necessarily what the customer would prefer. Time – marketers took a step back to evaluate the return on their investment. Well, nothing new there.

 

After a round of mails confirmed there was indeed a disconnect between marketing and the customers, it was time for me to gauge analysts’ findings. According to Forrester’s recent B2B Social Technographics survey, when customers were asked, “which are the most important vendor action factors when selecting the best vendor for a technology purchase?” By far, the No. 1 response was “how well the vendor can supplement our knowledge on the business process/function its product/technology supports.” Well, it is evident – there is no significant gap between the parties but possible differences. And, we all know the broader implications of these differences. So, what should marketers focus on? How about initiatives aimed at customer engagement? Well, sounds no different, right?

 

Customer engagement is today not restricted to a task to be pursued by a department but it ought to be ‘the culture.’ Marketing will have to transition its center of gravity from one part of the organization to cover the entire organization – empowering individuals at the point of action to ‘market’ the company’s services. Some of the leading organizations are deploying the technique of interactive marketing to realize substantial benefits under marketing practices. How does it work? An enthusiastic marketer says, “My passion is for figuring out what is at the heart of a brand, how consumers connect with it, and how to connect with them — understanding what those consumers have in common and where their needs are different, whether they are in Milan, Minneapolis, or Mumbai.” Now think of those IT account executives working in collaboration with IT members in the client’s organization. Can they be empowered to carry out some marketing initiatives so as to make inroads into the account? It’s certainly up to the marketers.

 

According to Elisa Steele, exec VP-CMO at Yahoo: "There is no such thing in my mind as an interactive-marketing department. ... So marketing practices, I call them, whether it's brand or communications or consumer or b-to-b, we're organized functionally, and every one of those has to be awesome at interactive."

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Lessons from the Family

Growing up in a joint family, I was witness to most of the decisions being taken by my grandmother. The decision would follow muted and often derisive discussions, frowning, frustrated and nonchalant family members running helter-skelter as if doors existed everywhere. The upside was that one clearly knew - there would be only one decision maker, how to influence that person and the ramifications, especially of being in the unfavourable side of the decision. No doubt, the joint family ecosystem increased the level of tolerance and tenacity as dependency to garner prominence was fairly high and involved intellectual subterfuge and guile. The continuous application of such an exercise eventually becomes an integral part of the person’s life that it is employed wherever he or she goes.

 

As I see it, growing up in a joint family is akin to working in a large organization. Decisions are taken by a leader which creates ripples within the organizational rank. Like in a joint family, individuals network and gossip in the corridors discussing the merits and demerits of the decision albeit any expectations of exercising a change.  And, my experience working in several organizations suggest that people who grew up in a joint family form a majority in the business landscape. It is hence not surprising to see organizations (even in this age) with a linear and inflexible approach to management. After all, it is a process that most leaders running organizations today have been following since childhood. 

 

Do we see or hear Indian organizations with multiple leaders? Tata, Birla, Wipro, TCS, L&T, HCC, or political parties like Congress and CPM – most have one face, one decision maker. At a time when organizations are relying on more and more of young talent, shouldn’t they be changing their management thinking? According to Sangeeth Varghese, author and leadership expert, more forward-looking organizations are moving away from the traditional closed forms towards an Open Source Leader model, where people are nurtured across layers by opening unto them the power and authority associated with leadership. If organizations and leaders do not keep up with this evolution, they will be left in the lurch. But if they manage to keep pace, they will live another day, to tell the tale of their success.

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