This is one post which I have been forced to write. Not by someone, but my own personal experience(S). I have this habit of spending my ‘driving time’ (when I am driving back from work) quietly, to think about what I did the whole day and how have things evolved in life. I try and re-inforce the learning’s from mistakes committed and look at new directions.
Though I don’t really have decades of experience, but in whatever I do, I have seen a particular trait in the Indian worker. We fail at implementing processes. There is a lot of technology as well out there, but somehow we fail at adapting it as well. Interestingly I have always worked in smaller set-ups in my life, which has always helped me to be critically involved in either setting up something and scaling it up OR evolving an existing set-up by challenging the usual ways of doing things.
Processes and Execution
When you work in smaller set-ups what you are able to critically learn are processes. I have mostly seen the Indian worker being a little off the mark when it comes to setting result oriented processes. Especially when it comes to setting a process from the scratch and building a system of result oriented numbers around the same, which enables the process handler to understand the success of the process and better the same if required.
The approach I follow
Almost everytime, I have faced the challenge of doing something new, I have always stepped back and looked at the situation/ task in hand from the ‘customer’s point of view, as to what does the customer really want and then assess, if the delivered value is the same.
Once set, I generally break down the objective into smaller steps and do a match the steps with the customer needs/ requirements. At each step, I create a forcible intervention with statistics around. This essentially is to ensure that if the process has a leakage/ break-down somewhere, the numbers will suggest the same and it can be improved.
The Planner and the Doer
But its not simply about setting the process. Its also about how simple can you make it for other team members (who will be working with you to action the whole thing). I am certainly not trying to make things robotic here, which restricts innovation and free thinking by the people involved. What I am suggesting is, to set easily executable strong processes, backed by numbers at every critical stage. At times these numbers have to in the form of forcible interventions, which give you critical data to suggest what works and what does not.
Why this post now?
Well, in my current role, I am working on something which obviously excites me. The way I am approaching it is simple, to understand the customer first, to understand their requirements and expectations. Then I am excavating deep knowledge from the right people within my organisation. This is essentially a forcible intervention which has been created with some initial statistics around. The next step is to create smaller executable steps for the members of the team who should not find it difficult to work it all out. While all this is happening, there obviously is a bigger vision around the entire activity.
A part of this post has also been inspired by the need of the young entrepreneur. There are several young folks who approach our organisation to look for mentoring. What I critically see missing in them is a process oriented approach which can provide critical data overtime enabling stronger and more focused, decision making.
If you are a start-up and need strategic help in processes and execution, drop me a mail:
paritosh@tienewdelhi.org
The TiE Delhi – NCR team and powerful team of mentors (top industry pros) will surely be guiding help!!
I am excited to announce a partnership with SocialBakers, one of world’s biggest social media statistics portal. Sometime back, while SocialBakers was looking to partner with leading bloggers and publishers in various parts of the world, www.paritoshsharma.com was quick to partner with them, under the category New Media and Marketing. The blog is officially listed under the blogger partner section of SocialBakers.
As part of the partnership, www.paritoshsharma.com will be presenting interesting social media statistics from India as a geography. The first in the series is the graphic below which gives some pretty interesting figures on facebook users in India and the brands which are making waves.
Its interesting to note that Reliance Mutual Fund has been the highest on Response Rate. Being a fund house in such volatile market conditions, talking to their customers on fb is sure an interesting deal.
www.paritoshsharma.com and SocialBakers will keep coming up with more exciting statistics which will sure give you exciting insights into what’s happening in the social media domain in India. Keep plugged!!
All right. So the word is out and I have to start this post with a clear thought that if you are proud of being an “Active on Social Media” business, then you are being plain simple dumb!
Don’t make any assumptions about what’s next in this post after reading those words above. I have been hearing so much of the word “social” lately, that I feel the buzzword is nearing its exhaustion in the usage of the context. Businesses are just lining up to be social. I have seen so many companies who are “wanting to be social” int he recent times, that I strongly feel, they don’t even have their basic customer understanding and service right.
What I want to clearly deliver to businesses is, that being social is not about something drastically different! Its just another extension of being there. The ultimate goal of the business is to serve the customer is the best possible manner and being social won’t replace this.
Set it In Your Culture!
Being social is not simply a marketing function. Its the mindset, I strongly believe. Its one thing having a great facebook fan page, a great looking YouTube channel with many hundreds of views, but its a whole different game to have “engaged audience”, for the same. In my view its a simple black is black and white is white proposition. If you understand your customer bloody well and are serving them in the manner they expect from you, well, then, being social will automatically fetch you engaged and active fans. You will not have to pump in those many hundreds of marketing dollars and then start a cycle of engaging your fans to make them from mere listeners to active contributors.
Are You Sure You Understand and Know Your Customer Bloody Well?
Most of the companies that I work with, while creating their social media strategies, my first thought simply is to understand the audience. And NO, I DON’T look at the audience from the mindset of a salesman. I clearly and simply look at understanding, who is the influencer, who is the decision maker, who is the ultimate consumer and what all do they expect from the business!
To me its simple, if you have not been able to create a satisfied and engaged customer, someone who listens to when you communicate, well, you will always keep fighting for engaged fans on social media as well.
So many businesses today are leveraging the digital medium to present a proposition, what they are missing is a very critical and powerful point. Everyone online today has the power and freedom to express by creating content and hence if you promise something and don’t stand upto the experience, well, you will one day be written about and that day aint too far!
Connect With the Core Human Motivation to Do Things!
My personal view is that social is no different from the usual way of connecting with your customer. For a while just think of a world which was a few decades back. When businesses used to communicate and reach out to customers in a ‘now rudimentary’ format of physical letters etc. the call to action was simply based on exploring the customer motivation and delivering the same as an incentive.
Going social though has made companies lose out on the understanding the customer’s basic motivation bit. Most businesses outsource the social part to agencies who again are working with limited manpower, with more constrained knowledge of the still nascent digital media. And these agencies well, many customers can share their personal experiences!
For God’s Sake Campaigns Won’t Fetch You Actively Engaged Fans!
I must speak it out loud, marketing folks please understand, if your objective is to create a buzz, great campaigns work. Yes they do. If its about creating actively engaged fans, well, a short-lived, time constrained campaign might not be the right approach. You might be successful in acquiring a fan through a campaign, but will that fan be actively engaging in future. I have serious doubts and have examples to share from my own experience.
Understand Your Customer, Do the Basic Right and You Will Win!
All you need to do to win the social world as well is to do the basic right. Ensure that you are reaching out to your customers and creating active touch-points with him/ her, which enable you to collect critical data about the customer. His/ Her preferences, Likes/ Dislikes/ Motivations etc. Once you have this existing, you will be able to develop a far stronger strategy to reach out to the set of people online who would have the highest probability of converting for you as an actively engaged fan.
Remember, A Real Smile is Anyday Better Than a Smiley!!
As I always say, a real smiley is always far more effective than a digital one. Create powerfully engaging and NOT SELLING touch-points with your customers in the ‘real’ offline world. Once your customer comes in your communication and listening range, then create the motivational pulls online!
AdAsia was sure an interesting event, one which I missed. Interestingly I got to know that exchange4media got it all covered on Video. I found this valedictory keynote by Indira Nooyi, Chief, PepsiCo, worth a share. Hear Indira talk about Leadership and Governance and how it went missing and what’s the road ahead!
This one’s going to be interesting. Just a couple of days back, the Noida DND Flyway, which is one of the fastest ways to commute between Delhi and Noida, announced a toll hike of INR 2 for four wheelers, which in figures is INR 22 from INR 20 previously and INR 1 for two wheelers.
Now this is not the first ever toll hike in recent years, but what is interesting about this hike is the purpose with which it has been done. For people who are new to the entire thing, let me give a little introduction on the numbers:
According to a news report by the Times of India, in February 2011, almost 1 lakh vehicles use the DND Flyway daily. I am myself a daily user of the DND Flyway and I see a fairly large number of four wheelers using the DND Flyway on a daily basis.
I asked this question (why did DND Flyway increase the toll) to many people before this blog and almost everyone responded with an obvious answer, to increase their revenue. Now that’s obvious.
User Behavior and Revenue – penny saved is a penny earned
Lets look at the picture from a user behavior perspective! If you are using the toll plaza, you obviously are wanting to save on time and that’s why you are ready to invest money into crossing the toll, otherwise you are always free to use the kalindi kunj, Yamuna flyover, which is generally jammed during rush hours. Having INR 2 in your pocket each time you pass the toll plaza will sooner than later, become a frustrating activity. You cannot always keep looking for change and hence spend more time doing what you were initially doing to save time for.
Chances are, you will one day reach out and get yourself a silver/ gold card made, which will make your commute far simpler and easier. The cards will do couple of things:
Ensure that the Toll plaza confirm revenue at the first level of transaction itself
Reduce ground staff in terms of the actual toll management personnel and invest into better resources probably
Get correct data figures which help in strategic decision making
All of this, by simply playing with the user behavior. This is an interesting case which pretty much reflects, how powerful can real customer understanding can be. If you understand your customer amazingly well, you will always be able to visit and re-visit and engage your customer just the right way.
User behavior understanding and knowledge of the customer has led to making of brands like Apple and the amazing products that people take pride in owning today. Get the lesson straight, its about your customer and how well you know him/ her, so get this piece right and you will be on your way to a great business!
India is an emerging economy, yes sure it is. You doubt? And now India goes International with the first ever F1 hosted at the Buddh International Circuit. I was there yesterday which was the first practice session and well, this is one experience which can’t be described in words and hence here’s the video!
Social networking has been around since sometime now. There’s much content around. There’s a lot of sharing, caring, love and what not. What was missing still, as I said it before, was the real understanding of the ‘Human Behavior’ by the social network. I am not referring to the real Artificial Intelligence, that might also happen one day, but social networking has a real face to it. Its more human really than technology.
Interestingly facebook, recently did couple of interesting changes in the UI and especially how they are evolving their brand pages. The entire concept of brand pages is essentially to provide an online space for brands to reach out and engage its target audience OR as I believe, targeting is the second level, first its about attracting just the available audience.
Look below your fan page likes
Recently facebook added something interesting below your fan page likes ‘number’. They added something called the People Talking About! This number essentially represents the number of people who are talking about your brand (mentioning you in comments, liking updates) etc. in a week. As an obviously logical extension to the thought, the more the number of people talking, the more is your brand reaching out to the relevant target audience.
Word of mouth
Now don’t feel as if I am traversing to a whole new topic. Interestingly what I feel is, there is a lot that facebook is doing to model the real world online. I find this very interesting. For me, since I have known social networks, I have always said, a successful social network is the one, which can understand the human behavior well and model it. And facebook is doing just that.
The number of people discussing your brand on facebook, is now visible to you, which is pretty much like the word of mouth which is one of the strongest ways of brand marketing in the real ‘offline’ world.
Social Network and the Human Behavior
I strongly believe, the future of social networking and hence the success of a global super social network really will revolve around the fact as to how well would the network understand the basic human nature and behavior and then model the various products and services around the same.
Make the platform effortless to engage with.
Statistics will always matter to businesses and Insights always help
One of the strongest advances which facebook has made in the last few days are to strengthen their “page” insights. Any brand which can intelligently gather data points and make worthwhile inferences from them, can leverage the free insights to better their understanding of the customer they are engaging with, online.
These are interesting times and such small yet powerful productized services from social networking platforms will surely change the game for everyone around.
A life well worth living is the one, when the world stands up and remembers you when you are not really around in your physical essence. I dedicate this post to Steve Jobs, as we all knew him. The greatest innovator, who saw the iPhone, before the world cold say multi touch. Who knew his customers, he knew the nerve and he did create a dent in the universe.
I have always been a services guy in my career, but my fascination for products, to be precise, productized services, really began with Steve’s presentations. You are a hero Steve and you will always be. May God Bless you with all happiness, rest and peace and more innovations in heaven’s above
I am pretty excited about this post, writing this, after completing India’s Largest Entrepreneurial Event, TiEcon Delhi 2011 just the last night. It was one helluva of an effort. Not herculian, but nothing less. I must thank each and everyone who put in sleepless nights and endless days. Also appreciation for each one of you who saw value, registered for the event and came in with all the excitement. There sure was entrepreneurial energy all around.
After a successful event in many ways, I am sharing my learning’s and experiences which I believe are crucial for any entrepreneur in every stage of the business.
Pre-TiEcon. Especially for someone like me who has been in the Internet space, getting into the ‘doing a mega event’ mode was new. But that’s the fun. Learning something new every day of life.
Planning with a clear direction is critical
It was all about planning and planning with details while keeping the key objective in mind all the time. Losing focus was never in question. When you are sitting with some interesting industry leaders who have defined success in their domains, to plan out an event, well, you seldom can afford to lose focus. The entire TiE team was involved in the process and so the shape emerged of TiEcon Delhi 2011 – Entrepreneurship – Transforming India.
Let me tell you this, once the title was set, never again was a moment when anyone diverted form it. From planning sessions to approaching speakers, the broad vision for the event was always in mind.
Execution is the key: before that comes Ownership
Everyone says execution is the key. But ownership is everything. Everyone in the initial TiEcon steering committee took charge of a role, which added value to the event overall. And yes collectively everyone delivered. There always were challenges in terms of schedules, times and the rest, but when the leadership is focused it all came together.
And let me emphasize on the leadership bit. TiE Delhi – NCR has Geetika Dayal, leading the charge and she ensured at all times that everything is put in perspective and the focus does not gets lost. The ownership was defined and was evaluated at all times.
Lesson #2 hence is that there has to be ownership across the board, but there must be a strongly defined leadership which puts everything in place and ensures that focus is never lost. Hence the overall ownership always must be maintained.
Plan A might change when you least expect it: you must have a plan B, C, D
The plans you make WILL change. They will. Period. At TiEcon, speakers plans changed, we had to make last minute changes, but again there always were strong networks placed before, to ensure that if we are faced with a contingency, we do deliver. Hence planning for a situation before it occurs is always the right thing. You always must have back-up plans which will deliver.
When you have to reach on time, you will get traffic jams: you must know alternate ways to still reach on time
A night before TiEcon, the entire TiE Delhi – NCR team was at office and we were to leave for the Taj and just then, as a sudden change in plans, I had to leave to the printer’s office to get some stuff picked up. I also had to pick up my stuff from home and then reach Taj in all of 1.5 hours flat. I sat quietly for a few minutes and marked my way.
Though when I reached near Apollo, Sarita Vihar, the route which I had to take to reach to the printer’s office was jammed and this is at 11:15 in the night. Now since I knew of the situation beforehand, a quick decision had to be made. I had 2 choices: either to call up office and ask someone to pick up the stuff OR I find another way out.
These are moments when Google maps don’t work and only what you know of the area, works. I remembered, many years back my school bus used to take us from behind the Kalindi Kunj area, through Jamia University and suddenly struck a whole new way. And wallah, I was at the printer’s office in about 20 minutes.
Keep everyone informed, that’s what technology is meant for: this will enhance your decision making
While all of this was happening, me and the entire team was constantly on call and we knew exactly where who was and what who was doing, such that if someone had to pitch in with extra support, we could. And we did.
Let the master play the game, be a support system to him, that helps, don’t try and be everything
Nitin, from the TiE Delhi – NCR team is a logistics champion and we all say that with all the confidence. We ensured that while he is setting up the stalls, registration profiles etc. at 4:30 AM, we were there to help in quick decision making.
Right before that, I was quickly roped in by Manish to ensure that we ‘sex up’ the session presentations a bit, which were a little bland before. Since I can quickly work on content, change designs around, I spent about 2 hours in a quiet Taj room and got the work done, while knowing that Manish, Digbijoy and Shivam are taking care of the badges downstairs.
Teamwork: you must know the nerves
Since each one of us knew exactly, what the other was working on, we knew what was happening and what needed urgent attention. The team had full confidence in each other and the ownership was un-questionable.
Teams are not just you, they are many like you and you have to ensure you engage them enough. Talking of the team, obviously a small TiE Delhi – NCR team could not have pulled off such a large event by themselves. We were happy to have some real action oriented college students and professionals who volunteered with us and Shivam from our team took the charge of directing them the right way and yes we got much support .
Shivam incidentally has joined TiE a few months back and did a great job of getting the younger chaps together to deliver what was intended.
Its important to take feedback and act quickly, you must know just the right buttons to hit, when time is critical
One of our key networking features of TiEcon was: TiE Connect, which many people used, but not all could use it the right way. Couple of delegates approached me and the team, to help them find people who connected with them to set meetings. Some of them we were able to get together by quickly working out the TiE database and thanks to Goutam from TiE team, 2 of our delegates were much thankful to the quick TiE team, which helped them meet an interesting investor.
When it pains, it pains, its a part of what you set out to achieve!
I remember my colleague, Manish’s words, ‘this Taj bed is so soft that I feel as if, I am drowning in it’ and its not a joke. With your heels paining badly, when you are utter tired after much work, a 5 minute of a rest on a comfortable cushion feels as if the cushion is calling you in its arms.
The TiE team went on working through-out the 2 days, while ensuring that we were present at every corner of the space where people needed us.
People support you, if you are there for them!
At several events before, I have heard that delegates don’t appreciate if their badges are not in order etc. well, this happens in every large format event, hic-ups are a part of life, aint’ they, but the lesson learnt by being at the registration desk almost throughout all major moments during the 2 days was, if you are polite in your way of handling the query and get results fast, the delegate won’t mind co-operating along, while you create other opportunities for him.
I remember a statement by Aditya Ghosh of Indigo Airlines here: we studied our customers and learnt that the customer might want to talk of the skirt length of the air hostess, but what he finally pays for is the comfort, safety, service and on-time performance.
The TiE team went ahead and provided just that, starting from registration desk to the respective halls where the sessions were on and it all went smooth!
Innovation and keeping the Cost Low is the key!
Just a few days back Jeff from Amazon said some very exciting words about how to innovate while creating world class products and still keeping the costs low. TiE Delhi – NCR did something very exciting which created much value for the delegates. We leveraged the power of social networking (especially fb and twitter) to announce special bidding rounds every-day, which helped us create buzz in the environment and helped many entrepreneurs and young start-ups who were finding it hard to pay the required amount for attending TiEcon Delhi 2011, get the passes at a far lesser cost.
It helped us market by reducing our cost and pass on the benefit to the entrepreneurial community, for which we are passionately committed.
You must know your customer, Period.
You must know your customer. Paridhi, Digbijoy and Amit from the TiE team collated all available information about the delegates. This really helped the whole team ensure that we provide as much as possible, a WOW experience to everyone on the spot.
But where does the Superman in the title go?
Well, it was about being Supermen when it mattered the most. The moment was captured and handled well and ON TIME. Yes there sure were small hic-ups, but yes we learnt and the fantastic feedback we are getting from all quarters of the ecosystem is great!
Look forward to seeing you all more actively engaged while creating many new opportunities.
If you wish to know more about TiE Delhi and be a partner in growth, visit the website and call us at : 0120 – 4066500
This blog post is not about marketing, its not even about New Media, which I write on, but this is about life. I have been lucky enough to see the evolution of a trend which is great, but has many in-built flaws.
If you really give it a minute of your time and think, then you will see a particular trend in everything in this world. The things we go through, what we do, its all a trend. Everything in this world has its own good and attached with it its own bad (or not so good) however you want to put it.
Lets talk about Independence
I am proud to be the citizen of one of world’s largest and strongest democracies, where people sacrificed their lives many years back to give us freedom. I can see dreams and do what I want to today because I have been bestowed with the freedom to do this. But over a period of time, I have strongly felt that whatever comes to us easily in life, we start taking its presence in our life by default. The appreciable value of the same thing goes down!
Women and Independence
Before I write this, I must confess there is a lot I have learnt from the leading ladies in my life, my Mother, Sister, Wife and Many of my female friends. There’s a certain way of life for them. Anyway, now let me share a picture and this is not a myopic view of things, so hold before you react.
My Mother (just like you’rs) went through much in life, she saw phases when she lived her life and raised us up with almost no means. Obviously my Sister and I were brought up well. My Sister belongs to the generation which has values from her Mother but is changing and evolving with the times. My Wife pretty much belongs to my Sister’s times.
What’s common though in all the three ladies?
Well, they have all been raised up and been ‘looking for’ a certain kind of a feeling called ‘Independence’. For my Mother, Independence lets say is about having enough means to build a strong happy family. For my Sister, lets say to ensure while she is a working woman, she is project managing her home. For my Wife its pretty much the same perspective.
My Mother raised my Sister, telling her stories about what all she has faced and hence made her daughter strong enough to face the world. My Wife’s mother did the same. But what is changing now is, these stories along with the times we are living in are becoming inspiration for the birth of a small ‘Rebel’ inside the heart of the otherwise sane human.
I earn my own money, I am Independent!
I have heard so many women today speak of this and I am sure many of you would agree, that I want to earn my own. A girl in college says I don’t want to be dependent on my parents and a Girl getting married says, I don’t want to be dependent on my Husband.
Hold for a second and think, its the same girl who is growing up and one day will have her own family and will tech her daughter/ son one day that I had to go through so much in my times, I will make you guys strong enough to ensure you don’t.
Does money really makes you independent in life? Well, yes it might buy you many things, but Independence, well, probably not. And mind you, it also does not buys you confidence. It only buys you things.
I have my own life, my own decisions: I am the 21st Century Woman!
Agreed. And everyone has the right to live a good happy life. But in this whole ‘want’ of living your ‘own’ life and taking your ‘own’ decisions, you are being ‘reduced to only you’. I take many workshops for college students and corporate(s), I have seen the shift in the thought process. Education must have made us go getters and more enlightened, somehow I feel its making us more like rats in a race.
Especially in India, where we are all ‘bechara’s’. Somehow I feel we have been fighters (not in the literal sense), but we have many fights in our lives. The whole thing is, we are trying to ‘prove ourselves right’ all the time, by getting over the whole scene of ‘boss life mei bahut fight hai’. From a railway station to a college form line, there’s fight in every sense of the word.
http://www.ambuuncle.com/images/indian_women.jpg
And one day we get married!
While we are growing up through all these fights of life, one day we get married and the whole thing of raising up a successful family dawns upon us. Now lets re-visit, what I said in the starting of this post. When a girl gets married, the same mother will give her lessons of life, her friends will give her some. But what’s happening in India, as I see it, today is, what a professor of mine at college told me: “Paritosh, chances are that the woman you will marry tomorrow might have multiple relationships in her life before and she must have learnt from all of them, for you life is not the same as what I had”.
And I agreed to him and accepted the fact with just a line from my side, I said whether a woman OR a man, I don’t see much differences other than physical. What I would really want is to see women in this world really creating a beautiful world (because I strongly believe, men are a little lacking in this). The only rider I have for women is, have fun ladies, but do take care of the future, which is changing for all of us.
I hear so many people talking of how the world is changing and I instantly get reminded of a line I heard from a gentleman many years back who said, in Bhagwad Gita, Bhagwan Shri Krishna has predicted that generations will go down because the raisers (women) are changing.
Do I have issues with women leading the game?
NO! Ask my current boss/ colleague Geetika, she is a wonderful person to work with (not because she is my boss). Entrepreneurs don’t have this thing of buttering and all, we are straight talkers and so am I. I love the fact that women lead the game, infact I would love to see women creating a whole compassionate environment in the corporate jungle. But not at the cost of creating a future in the name of a feeling called Independence. Remember Money in the short term is NOT independence.
But I do have issues seeing the future!
What we do will come back to us within this lifetime, I strongly believe in this as well. And hence the next generations. More sharp, more intelligent (great), but into drugs, cigarette buts in schools, liquor is a fashion statement. And I am not saying this is all due to women, it is NOT. Men are as much responsible. But Ladies, you always say it and its true, you guys can create a far better world and a great happy future.
Maintain your relationships, whatever it takes
Ensure that whatever it takes, build strong relationships, because a broken relationship in your early days is an experience which you will at some stage share it with your kids, your daughters who will be raising a world of their own tomorrow!
I just wanted to share this on this Saturday, because this is one thought which disturb me personally, this is one thing I am seeing building around me and I will be the happiest to see folks roaming around happily with each other, creating a future of this country, which is truly BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL
"We thought we understood social media marketing and seo optimization fairly ok but after our one on one session realized many of the fundamental mistakes we were making plus learnt many new tools. Overall an investment I would recommend every entreprenuer to make"
- Nidhi, Founder CEO, Pinnacle Works
