My Yearbook Write up:-)

We are almost at the end of the ISB year..( Yeah…time flies.) Currently along with learning  frameworks for placements and giving interviews we are also in the process of writing our year book profiles. This is what my friends had to write for me…:-) Me Like it! So here it is for you’ll to read and comment!

Shilpzzzzz @ Happiness.com

The whole nation celebrated the recent Web Awards 2032 , which saw our very own Shilpa Sehgal honoured for her truly seminal work in the field of education and harmony through the social media space. To us ISB alums, it comes as no surprise (and we are so proud) that she has managed to touch the lives of almost everyone on this planet through her Happiness.com portal that spreads sunshine round the globe.

In case you have been living under a rock, Shilpa launched her ‘happiness portal’ soon after her graduation, and in no time, revolutionised the social network space by disproving the concept of six degrees of separation and reducing it to one (herself). True, she had started her research even before joining ISB; the entire of class of 570 + many alums, already knew her even before joining through a very visible and friendly presence on the ‘wall’. The other early signs were the networking events at ISB, when every student realized that they had a common friend in Shilpa, the effervescent presence everywhere on campus through that awesome ability to attend to a thousand events within a single day.

Our ‘Shiiiiiilllllpa’, of course, also managed an ELP, a PAEV, was a core member of the Marketing Club, the Mumbai Gang and the sweetest girls on campus squad and if that was not enough, decided to take off on an exchange too….. Phew. Her famous Chaat parties, the 08 lounge, an interesting influence on the presidential elections for the Class of 2012, her ability to talk more than all the profs combined, cool as ice table tennis at the ISL and most importantly a friend and guide to all (especially in the matters of the heart) – are only a few snippets of what makes this beautiful bundle of energy. Truly, beneath all the flutter is a heart of gold that touched one and all on campus, and today it envelopes the entire world that we live in.

And, when asked if she had a message for us, Shilpa simply replied, “Love Unconditionally”….Saludos Senorita

Project Evaluation Framework

We have a Prof from NASA who is teaching us how to manage complexity…very different course here is something interesting I learnt from the course:

This is framework to evaluate any projects that come up in an organisation. is the organisation covering all the four risk bases

1. Marketing Risk: Are they in touch with the market realities?

2. Technical Risk: Do they have the capability to pull off the product/project they want?

3.Organisation Risk: do they have buy in from all stake holders?

4. Resource Risk: Is there enough business value in the project to be able to sustain it in terms of resources?

Basically

1. Can I articulate the market need and how it benefits my organisation?

2. Is the innovation I am proposing relevant to the market? Is there a need?

3.Do I have an organisation credibility and fit to pull off the project?

Ed says that when someone is presenting a proposal…people work from their area’s of strengths…but we must question all other aspects of the project also to see all bases are covered.

I know this is a booring kind of a post…but it is more like notes to myself when i am sitting in my next job and am given a task to bring the next awesome thingy to market….I should sit back and check if all risks have been identified and evaluated.

Let me know if anyone of u find this useful…

Cheers!

Shilpa

Sales Force Effectiveness Drivers

Attended a session by ZS associates on Sales force…they had an intersting way of looking at   it with 5 pillars…it is not rocket science but just a logical way of looking at a sales force, issues if any in various aspects and solving the issues

The five Pillars that drive Sales Force effectiveness

1. Definers: The size, GTM strategy, the sales strategy, structure, teritory design all come under this pillar

2. Shaper: Coaching, Training, culture, Incentives, divers which shape the way a sales foce functions comes under this pillar

3. Enlighten : This pillar has drivers which give customer insights, like CRM, customer research, knowledge and best practices sharing.

4, Exciter : This pillar is what drives how motivated your sales force is to perform. It includes drivers like culture, leadership, compensation etc.

5. Controller : This pillar has drivers which measure progress and control the process. Goal setting, forecasting, cordination, communication fall under this gamut.

So here are the five pillars…next time you look at a sales force effectiveness problem…list these down, identify sub-bullets, analyse where the issue is and then solve the problem!

 

 

Of Selling Soaps and More…

HUL was on campus yesterday talking about what they do best…’selling soap’ and I was impressed..I did not know it takes so much thought goes behind selling soap!

Some key takeaways…which may not may not be clear to someone reading

Persil is an old brand from HUL with some bleaches etc and when Tide came in with a new technology with enzymes ‘Persil repositions Tide instead of imitating them’ and talks about how Persil is gentle on your clothes..which give out the message that Tide is not gentle. I liked the idea of re positioning your brand.

Variants in Brands

Variants in brands are basically variations in the existing product eg Maggi Aata Noodles. The speaker was against variants as a concept because he felt that is undermines the main brand. eg by launching Maggi aata noodles nestle is admitting that Maggi noodles is  not healthy! Another interesting take in my view!

But the most interesting part of the session was the Surf Campaign…

The global HUL team came up with a campaign which said ‘stains are good’ because they help children to learn and they wanted the India team to implement it. However the India team was not too convinced by it because the value system in India/Asia/developing countries has always been dirt is bad and learning happens in the classroom.

But the insight was that Indian mothers are ok with their children getting dirty if it in the process of learning some values like Another interesting insight was that boys after the age of 8 become emotionally distant from their mothers and their moms really want to know what their little boy is up to. Mothers are somewhere scared deep within that their sons wont take care of them ‘emotionally’ once they grow up. If their child has values like  empathy, sacrifice, forgiveness, loyalty,righteousness and overt expression of love they feel good and feel that the son is getting the right values and will take care of them in the future.

Surf advertisements take these insights into account….they touch the emotions of mom’s and then surf sells more…data shows it! I did not know selling soap required so much of though!

Here are some interesting Surf Advertising…the first three worked well and the sales of surf went up. One of the reasons for this was that mothers looked at the kid on the campaign and fell that wish my son also does things like this…:-)

Empathy: Teacher/ Dog Campaign

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNE3l2LPiEY

Forgiveness Campaign

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrW6uo3maiY

Brother/Sister Campaign

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi4yKET-tBg&feature=relatedt

Hiccup Campaign

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi4yKET-tBg&feature=related

This campaign did not work very well because mom’s were not proud of the child in this campaign and they did not get the feeling that I wish this was my daughter! And the sales of Surf actually went down!

Am I as an individual really that influenced by advertisements!? Apparently yes!

Price the Customer not the Product: Segmentation

Interesting Class on the importance and methods of segmenting the market.

Key Takeaways

 Segment based on needs and benefits and not descriptors like age socio-economic status etc.

The descriptor variables have their value but it is more to know how to reach out to your audience.

Eg your segment for home theatre system can be the following

Image is everything segment: People who are more bothered about how the system looks vis a vis how it performs. This segment can be males on an average of 37 years reading TOI (descriptor variables)

Performance is King : People for whom looks of the system does not matter but performance is key. This segment would have its own set of descriptor variable like average 50 years, female etc etc

Common Basis and Descriptor Variables are as follows

• Segmentation Basis : Needs, Wants, benifits, usgae situation, usage rates, size, industry
• Descriptor Demographics: Age income, marital staus, family type,size gender, social class etc. in case of B2B you need to look for industry, size, current suppliers, technology utilisation etc
• Psycographics : Lifestyle, values, personality characteristics ( of decision makers in case of B2B)
• Behavior: Use occasionally usage level, complementary and substitute products used, brand loyalty
• Media Patters: What do they read/watch
• Decision making: Individual /group. high involvement /knowledge/ price sensitivity

Now that we know that Segmentation is important. How do we come up with questions for segmentation?

1. Judgement: the researcher decides what attributes would be important to the potential customer and makes a questionnaire and then conducts a research.

2. Voice of Customer: A customer is asked to randomly talk about the product as they are using it and then these statements are used to prepare the research questionnaire

eg a person using a vegetable peeler  says” I cut myself often”, ” I am left handed” ” Here is a rusty one”

These statements are converted statements which are then posed to multiple customers to check the importance level on a scale from 1 (least imp) to 7 (V imp)

The peeler is safe to use

The peeler can be used ambidextrously

The peeler is durable

3. Structural insights: Participants in a focus group discuss a product/ service from the following perspectives -

• Moving from an undesirable state, which entails solving of immediate problems, preventing potential problems and maintaining stable state;
• Moving towards a desirable state, exploring interest opportunities,
• Displeasure in use
• Ineffective /frustrating outcome

4. B2B Day in a life of a customer :

This technique is about actully spending a day with your customer, you get insights which you can then use to modify your product and market it to the right segment.

Bottom Line: Segmentation is important. Segment based on needs and then have descriptor variable to describe the segment. If you get your segmentation right you would be able to charge a premium price for your product and service.

Social Media Classification

When you are doing an MBA…you come across a lot of 2X2 matrix…..and I came across an interesting one today to classify various social media platforms. Just putting it here so I remember it! Happy reading!

 

 

 

 

Some More International Financial Crisis explained..

Asian Financial Crisis 1997

The crisis started in Thailand. Thailand had acquired a burden of foreign debt that made the country effectively bankrupt even before the collapse of its currency.Thai government to float the baht, cutting its peg to theU.S. dollar.  Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand were the countries most affected by the crisis. Hong Kong, Malaysia, Laos and the Philippineswere also hurt by the slump. The People’s Republic of China, Pakistan, India, Taiwan, Singapore, Brunei and Vietnam were less affected, although all suffered from a loss of demand and confidence throughout the region.

Russian Finacial Crisis: 1998

The following was the reasons for the Russian financial crisis

• Declining productivity,
• an artificially high fixed exchange rate between the ruble and foreign currencies
•  Chronic fiscal deficit were the background to the meltdown.
• The economic cost of the first war in Chechnya that is estimated at $5.5 billion (not including the rebuilding of the ruined Chechen economy)
•  External shocks,
•  the Asian financial crisis that had begun in 1997
• declines in demand for (and thus price of) crude oil and nonferrous metals, severely impacted Russian foreign exchange reserves.
• Political crisis  when Russian president Boris Yeltsin suddenly dismissed Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and his entire cabinet
• Russian stock, bond, and currency markets collapsed as a result of investor fears that the government would devalue the ruble, default on domestic debt, or both.
• Government debts on wages continued to grow and workers went on strike

Russia bounced back from the August 1998 financial crash pretty fast because the world oil prices rapidly rose during 1999–2000 (just as falling energy prices on the world market helped to deepen Russia’s financial troubles), so that Russia ran a large trade surplus in 1999 and 2000.