Pussycat Dolls - Buttons

What Courage is?

Another 'Nano' By Tata

After coming up with the 'Nano' car, the Tatas are aiming at a 'Nano' house, which the company will price anywhere between Rs 3.9 lakh and Rs 6.7 lakh. Tata Housing, an ancillary of Tata Sons, has launched its low-cost housing initiative called the Shubh Griha project. The company will launch the first Shubh Griha township at Boisar in Mumbai. Tata Housing has tied up with SBI and HDFC to help potential buyers with finance options.
Tata has made it possible for a common man to buy a car (Nano) and now it wants a common man to have their own home. What are the other things Tata's will bring out to reach the common man. Lets wait watch and see.

Are women swords of Damocles to men?

Gone are those days where the girls sit at home doing nothing, just manage the kitchen or kids, waste time watching TV the whole day, taking care of the house and maids.

Earlier there were 3 K’s - Kitchen, Kids & Knitting.
Then came 3 P’s – Powder, Pappad & Pickles.
At present there are 4 E’s – Electricity, Electronics, Energy & Engineering.
Women have come in a very strong way.

Research has proved that women are better than men when it comes to academics (i.e. school, college). I personally have seen the girls topping the class almost every time right from my school days. Nowadays they are not only excelling in academics, but also in other fields. We can see many women entrepreneurs today and some big names include Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Naina Lal Kidwai, Shahnaz Hussain, Ekta Kapoor.

Yesterday I just exchanged few words with a highly qualified retired person and after some time he asked me about placements? He told me that during his time he never faced much competition from the women, but now women have equal position in society, in fact they have better edge over men as a lot of priority is given to them. Some organizations have made it mandatory to employ at least a certain percentage of women employees.

It is also proved that men are better cooks when compared to women. Is there retroversion in the system? I don’t think so. Men and women both are equally doing well. But all the men better beware of the women.

Advertise using Mommies Day

I was casually reading a news paper on Mother’s Day and suddenly one Ad caught my attention which said Gift your father a new mother, this mother’s day! I was stupefied……..

The western culture has impacted Indian culture to a great extent in many ways and one such way is celebration of Mothers day. The practice of celebrating Mother's Day is a relatively recent tradition in India, which was first established in USA in the early 20^th century. Cultural values have changed due to Globalization, liberalization and the first thought that went into my mind was that these types of advertisements are not suited in India, but in western countries.

Then I reckoned what the ad actually wants to convey. As this was a fitness company, they wanted to convey the meaning that, give your mom a proper figure, wherein dad gets impressed. The ad also conveyed some free offers for mother’s saying it as exclusive limited period Mother’s day offer.

This type of advertisement is targeted only towards Mother’s making proper use of the situation i.e. Mother’s day.

Just be yourself

How many times have you been told or have told someone – “don’t worry, just be yourself”. It’s a simple basic and a powerful message. Yet were guilty of spending much of our time trying to be someone else- a person we think others expect us to be – in our work, relationships and in virtually every part of our daily life. We try being a person that we are not. This usually happens when we are with friends or when we are working in a team.

The most productive business team is one that comprises a ‘mosaic’ of unique, discrete individuals, with a team leader who’s skilled in maximizing the individuality of each member for the benefit of the team’s goals. These team members are encouraged to be themselves and to apply their natural skills, talents, capabilities and creativity to the needs of the team. This forms the basis of potentially highly powerful and successful workforce.

The excellent manager also encourages his/her people to create experiences away from work where they can just be themselves. When you get so absorbed in an enjoyable interest that you forget time and place, the real ‘you’ comes alive. You express all your natural talents and abilities in ways that are totally within your control and solely for your personal satisfaction. It’s the most natural form of stress management. More importantly; such experiences help in positively lifting self-esteem, self-belief and sense of self worth. This has a ripple effect that spills over into every part of our daily lives, including work. Such experiences are essential to personal health and well-being.

To conclude, you can’t be yourself all the time, but you’ll burn out if you don’t be yourself at least some of the times.

You, You and Yourself

What Successful people do?

1. Focused around goals
2. Positive and passionate
3. Work hard
4. NSI - Never stop innovating
5. Time Management

6. Adding Value to other people

7. Build strong relationships
8. Devoted to excellence

Awareness precedes choice, which precedes results. With better awareness you make better choices, with better choices definitely you will see better results.

Think Think

Creative thinking is thinking out of the box. In creative thinking one look’s for things that at first are not so evident. A lot Leaders recognize and understand the importance of creativity in their environments. Great leaders nurture and foster creativity in their teams. That’s why it’s so important that leaders are creative themselves.

In the book Organizing Genius by Warren Bennis there's a quote that took my attention:

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask a creative person how they did something, they may feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after awhile. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or have thought more about their experiences than other people have.
–Steve Jobs

It’s simple to be a Creative Thinker

Below mentioned skills helps one to develop creative thinking:

1. Look at things from different perspectives: If you can look at a comb, for example, and see it as something more than to comb hairs then you are on your way to creative thinking. Play with the idea for a while, and you will find many uses for the comb.

2. Look for improvements: If you can recognize things that are not quite perfect or that have the potential to be better, then you can be a creative thinker.

3. Be Persistent: Sometimes you need to weed through lots of information to get to the good stuff. If you can easily take a bunch of nonsense and make some sense out of it, then you’re on your way to become a creative thinker. Bear in mind that creative thinking involves a lot of nonsense, don’t feel too awkward about it. Being able to get to the heart of things is a true creative skill.

4. Stay committed. Creativity requires a lot of commitment. If you are the type of person who can commit to something and who does not give up, then you are a prime candidate to be a creative thinker.

I’m sure you have some of the skills of a creative thinker. Recognize that, but best of all, share that, share your abilities with the rest of the world, and work on the one you lack of. This will help people in some point of their life. You better be one of them......

Customer Value created by Dell

In the field of marketing, a customer value proposition consists of the sum total of benefits which a vendor promises that a customer will receive in return for the customer's associated payment. Put simply, the value proposition is what the customer gets for his money.

Companies by delivering exceptional value to the most Important customer in the Value Chain...at all time!...every time! Is very important to sustain, survive and attract customers from the market.

By using simple and unique value innovation tools to develop new business models, services, and/or products, they will leave the turbulent, competitive red oceans you swim in today for tranquil blue oceans where there is no competition. The Result: Sustainable, Profitable Growth!

"Because a person’s experience with a product tends to foster feelings of personal connection with it, referring to time typically leads to more favorable attitudes—and to more purchases," says Jennifer Aaker, the General Atlantic Professor of Marketing at Stanford Graduate School of Business.

I experienced one such extra ordinary service rendered to me by Dell. I had some problem with my laptop charger and registered a complaint by noon. To my surprise the brand new part was delivered to me by 4 pm the same day at my hostel doorstep in a place which is in a remote location from the city. Within 4 Hours I got my problem solved. This created a kind of increased value of the company by the way it rendered its service to me. Suppose if I or my friends or relatives need a new laptop and ask my suggestion, I would definitely suggest them to go in for Dell product which is nothing but Word of mouth marketing. Dell actually did not only satisfy its customer, but also created customer delight.

Hotel California (Eagles)

Relish this endearing track and wish you all a nice Sunday. Bask.......

Have Confidence

One must always be filled with Confidence and must believe that "If you cant, then you must", then success is not far from us.

Aamir Khan is the highest-paid brand ambassador today

Nowadays we can see that Indian Premier League T 20 matches have attracted many masses towards it since it started on April 18th 2009 and the advertisers are advertising during these matches, to take advantage of this situation. In fact the viewership of Indian Premier League matches is so high that the amount of eyeballs a single IPL match gets is more than what Sania Mirza, for example, gets through the entire year of playing.

It is said that Film stars command a bigger premium when compared to Cricketers and Aamir Khan who is known as Mr.Perfectionist is ruling as the highest paid brand ambassador who apparently commands Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million) who believes in quality work in whatever he does, while Sachin Tendulkar and M S Dhoni get around Rs 5 crore(Rs 50 million).

One more interesting fact what i read was that their prices vary depending upon the brand and product category like for example a mobile phone brand would pay a premium to a male icon. Similarly, colour cosmetics' brands would pay female stars more.

Among female stars, Genelia D'Souza is said to be getting more than some of the established ambassadors.

India's hot ambassidors as of today are Amitabh Bachchan, Sachin Tendulkar, M S Dhoni, Aamir Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Shah Rukh Khan.

Read the complete article here.

Value Chain Analysis

Michael Porter published the Value Chain Analysis in 1985 as a response to criticism that his Five Forces framework lacked an implementation methodology that bridged the gap between internal capabilities and opportunities in the competitive landscape. This framework focused on industry attractiveness as a determinant of the profit potential of all companies within that particular industry. However, significant differences in performance exist between companies operating within the same industry that can be explained either by the company's participation in a successful strategic group or by a firm's specific competitive advantages.

Value Chain Analysis helped identify a firm's core competencies and distinguish those activities that drive competitive advantage. The cost structure of an organization can be subdivided into separate processes or functions assuming that the cost drivers for each of these activities behave differently. Porter's strength was to condense this activity based cost analysis into a generic template consisting of five primary activities and four support activities. The nine activity groups are:

Primary activities:
1. inbound logistics: materials handling, warehousing, inventory control, transportation;
2. operations: machine operating, assembly, packaging, testing and maintenance;
3. outbound logistics: order processing, warehousing, transportation and distribution;
4. marketing and sales: advertising, promotion, selling, pricing, channel management;
5. service: installation, servicing, spare part management;

Support activities:
6. firm infrastructure: general management, planning, finance, legal, investor relations;
7. human resource management: recruitment, education, promotion, reward systems;
8. technology development: research & development, IT, product and process development;
9. procurement: purchasing raw materials, lease properties, supplier contract negotiations.

By subdividing an organization into its key processes or functions, Porter was able to link classical accounting to strategic capabilities by using value as a core concept, i.e. the ways a firm can best position itself against its competitors given its relative cost structure, how the composition of the value chain allows the firm to compete on price, or how this composition allows the firm to differentiate its products to specific customer segments.

References:

- Competitive Advantage: Creating and sustaining superior performance

- Strategic and Competitive Analysis

- Strategy and the business landscape: Core concepts