Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Employee First, Customer Second.

I've been especially interested in what I've seen at HCL Technologies, an Indian information technology company, which has been described as having the world's most modern management.

The first tenet of HCL's change strategy is called, somewhat provocatively, Employee First, Customer Second. The aim is to attract the very best talent - a tall order in the competitive Indian labor market but crucial for the company's growth - and empower employees to take the lead in coming up with innovative ways to create value for customers. This distributed leadership model is based on communities of interest: tight-knit groups that pull together people from various functions and locations. Each community comes up with new ideas and then competes with the other groups for funding in HCL's internal market.

According to HCL president Vineet Nayar, the strategy - which is supported by the savvy use of social-networking technology - will have succeeded when it "destroys the office of the president." That is, as the communities of interest evolve, the leaders of the groups will begin to share leadership of the company with Vineet.

From a HBR article in January 2008

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Managing Online Reputation

A report by Priyanka Mehra, priyanka.m@livemint.com

Mint, 18 June, 2008, page 2008

Important points made:

Online reputation management is common in the West for a while now.

According to a March survey conducted by online research firm JuxtConsult around 49 million people in India access the Internet on a daily basis. 43% of this group regularly participate in social networks. 27% of are regular bloggers.

According to industry experts, online reputation management is now becoming integral part of the media plan of the big advertisers and companies are spending anywhere between Rs 25 lakh to Rs. 1.5 crore to invest in online image building. The company who have already initiatedt this include ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, Infosys Technologies, and Microsoft Corp.

The modus operandi of online reputation management, is a dedicated team that typically surfs the internet (using web alerts) and gathers all instances where the company or its brands find a mention. It participates in blogs, forums, discussion boards, wikis, search engine results and social media websites to disseminate positive news and to counter negative new that may cause damage to the company.

Accordingly to Webchutney Studio Pvt. Ltd. an online advertising agency, only two companies were using ORM services till six months ago. Now the number has gone up to 15. The interest in companies is increasing.

Next CEO? Start Planning Now

An article in Campaign, supplement to MINT dated 16 June 2006
by
Anjali Bansal
Consultant
Spencer Stuart, Mumbai Office


Important points made

Today succession planning is the shared responsibility of the CEO and the board, though it should ultimately fall squarely within Board's realm.

Succession planning is considered to be one of the highest priorities of the board, an in increasingly scrutinized by stakeholders as well as outsiders.

Tata group set up a governance council that made CEO succession its primary concern, as also the formation and evaluation of the board of directors of the company.

One of the most challenging tasks is specifying the cirteria the next CEO should meet.

One of the critical issues in succession planning is the handling of transition period, in emergency situations, where unexpected events result in the need for a new CEO.

One of the options is for a sitting board member to step in as a CEO on a temporary basis. Another approach adopted by some boards is to have an ex-CEO on the board who will take up the emergency responsibility till regular CEO is appointed.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Iconic Brands of India - 2008

Mint gave a list of 18 brands as iconic brands of India in Campaign, supplement of Mint on 9th June 2008

They are

Thums up

Lifebuoy

Dettol

Parle-G

Amul

Bata

Horlicks

Fevicol

Lux

Hajmola

Ambassador

Raymond

Onida

Fair & Lovely

Maruti 800

Amitabh Bachchan

Sholay

Kyunki Sas Bhi Kabhi Bahu thi

Seven Elements of a Timeless Brand

by Nabankur Gupta
Founder CEO of NObby Brand Architects and Strategic Marketing Consultants

The article was published in Campaign of Mint, on 9th June 2008
www.livemint.com

Brand equity is developed over time and it is cumulative experience of the customer with the brand offering.

A brand leader at a point of time need not be invincible and have long life. Some market leading brands died quickly. BPL, Fiat, and Dalda are some case in point.

But some brands which are not leaders may have long life because they have been nurtured well.

A brand's value comes from the recall the customer has whenever he wishes to consume the product or service the brand offer. A brand needs to have adequate emotional content for it to last in the competition for recall.


How does one build a timeless brand.

1. Innovate:
Through innovation, the consumer needs to be surprised and delighted. Innovation is not limited to product alone. It is in any aspect of the brand interface with the consumer. Its physical availability, pricing, look and feel, sales transaction experience, enquiry transaction experience etc.

2. Brand Expression:
The consumer has a desired character and identity. The brand must have the character and identity desired by the consumer.

3. Emotional connect:
Along with rational connect, the brand must have emotional connect. Understanding what gives the consumer emotional satisfaction is important. Brand behaviour has to be such that the consumer always feels secure and satiated.

4. Ownership:
One has to ensure that the consumer is proud to own the brand. Also the consumer should feel like the owns the brand.

5. Value delivery:
every brand has value. Brand creators and managers know that. But is the consumer is getting 100% value of the brand offering? If internal branding is not done properly and the organization is not delivery 100% value, the brand is losing the sting or sharpness. For what is delivered, fall short of what the brand actually was conceived to stand for. People within the organization have to trained and made to understand the value and nuances of the brand and deliver 100% of the value of the brand.

6. Relevance:
The brand to be a timeless brand has to be relevent to the customer today. The brand must understand consumer behaviour as it is relevant today and all its parameters, aspects, rational or emotional, and must adjust to the times.

Brand has to be young in that sense, it is full of vigour today.

7. Communication:
The advertising and other communication messages must be in line with what the customer wants the brand to be seen as.