Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Small Business - below Rs.25.00 lakh investment

The first generation business ventures are started or proposed by:

(a) Individuals who have put up around 10 years experience in a particular profession and would like to start a venture.
(b) A Group of freshers who intend to experiment their skills and talent
(c) Individuals who have support of parents in terms of investment
(d) Individuals who lost their job and unable to bear the prolonged gap of unemployment

The investment capacity of these people would generally be around Rs.25.00 lakhs to start a small business excepting the one supported by parents.

The options to be judged before starting a venture:

(i) Manufacturing the proposed product
(ii) Acquisition - acquiring a sick unit or any industry engaged in similar activity
(iii) Trading the proposed product
(iv) Retail - setting up a retail shop

The above activity should be taken up with thorough market research with the help of a consultant or personally.

Let us again discuss on the small business opportunities in the next posting.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Power Wheels

Possession of controlling influence denotes power. Power is a powerful intoxicant that people who control it would effort everything to retain it. The fact that the globe revolves around itself is a vintage fact today. The globe revolves today on the power wheels of politics. The power wheels greased and rotated with the power of money. Individuals, politicians, elders, children and even a beggar who doesn't know how to enjoy the money would want money. Because money has evolved to be an axis for the power wheels.

I am also fond of power. But I never thought about the wrong means to achieve it or exercise power just for survival. I want power to empower disadvantaged. I want power to empower the helpless. I want power to distribute power to ensure power of equality. But would there be a value to power when it is equally distributed. We know money has its value in the market because 90% is hold by 10% of the people. That means 90% of the population survive every day to earn money. It is the only commodity required by every one to take birth, to breath, to survive and to extinct. Yes, even death demands money. We can't bid bye to a deceased without a penny in our hand.

The above situation amply makes it clear the power of power.

Domain Name Registration Facts and Shocks

Domain Name Registration Facts and Shocks:

Today business is achieved more through online. We may be selling farm equipment, software, domains, pizza, or movie tickets. We achieve global and local business through Internet traffic. The most important backbone for online marketing is domain. A domain name which is named after a top ranked keyword or combination of such keywords. The domain names can be one word, two words or even three word name. The most essential metric is to choose keyword which would reflect our proposed business. When we name our domain we also need to consider the domain search parameters. That is if the domain name is coined with two or three words, it helps to research the consolidated traffic and the traffic generated by each keyword individually.

Many organizations go for domain registration without considering any of the above factors. For them a web domain is just a name to host their company data or company information. Also mostly the domain name registration is done by the web hosting or website designing company. Thus, the business owner would hardly exercise his discretion in identifying right domain name. Another factor involved in the context is unawareness of business owner about the various optional TLDs available in the domain name registration and domain register. They buy domain at times without considering the relevance of their business and the TLD. For example, a charity organization may buy domain name with dotcom TLD without realizing that dot Org TLD would be a right option for them. More significantly, the local domain reseller would always don't suggest such preference. It could be that he is cool about it as he was not approached for suggestions. I find another glaring trend when I check who is domain. Many domain names are registered in the name of the domain reseller or web hosting company. In fact all the contacts whether domain registrant details, technical contact of the domain or administrative contact of the domain. At times the domain name is registered in the name and personal email ID of the network admin in the organization. We can find these deficiencies when we go for domain name search and who is domain database.

Another important observation is that domain registration is done for the minimum duration i.e. one year. The registrant mail ID is that of the domain reseller or network admin. In such a situation, the business owner goes for a shock when he find his website is down upon expiry of the domain period. A big business loss indeed which is difficult to imagine. I know similar thing that happened to one of the renowned News Daily. The domain when they lost was quite aged with more than 175 back links, Page rank 9 and Alexa rank in the range of three thousand. Business owners loose such eminent domain names owing to lack of education about online marketing and Internet presence. At times such domain names are registered by a shrewd individual who offers the domain for sale if the owner wants the domain name back. Going for dispute would only prove major time and money loss if the new registrant happens to be a common man who hardly could bear even the travel cost to attend domain Attorney.

When all the important keyword domain names are exhausted, what should a business owner do?

Let us look at the most famous Internet based businesses today. Hotmail, Yahoo, Google, Youtube, eBay and many more. These businesses wont carry a prominent or eminent keyword based domain name. Still they are the top rankers from every aspect of Internet popularity metric. What is essential in the present scenario is find a domain name which is close to your business type, business name, and things you buy or sell. Prefer dotcom. If not go for your country TLD. Then how will you achieve popularity and how will you get business traffic to your website. Go for SEO. You need a strong SEO vendor who understand your business well and who can research your online competitors thoroughly. You should start with very good content which contains your business keywords and the major keywords used by your competitor. It is not that you should make your website content just a keyword jungle. You should use appropriate keywords reasonably highlighting the business or contextual relevance in the content. After all, the content is not to invite traffic to your website. The purpose of website content is to present the business services that you offer and the mode and model that you approach. The content thus should be enlightening to the visitor meeting his query requirement as well business requirement. The following domains comes with keyword and business concept based domain name. Please choose the one that suits your business. Good luck

Monday, April 19, 2010

Business Opportunity Description

This picture denotes the sample format for describing the business opportunity that you would like to take up.

The description may vary from this in terms of its scope depending on the product, service being proposed in the business.

Owing to other exigencies, I couldn't update my blog for almost two weeks.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

The first requirement of a new venture

The first requirement of any new venture would be Detailed Project Report.  The report is like the business map for the venture.  A guiding principle in all the areas from 'description and scope of business' to be conducted to 'profit levels' to be achieved. The report is to be customized according to the requirements of lending institution wherever you are seeking project funding.

What does the Report contain? Why do you need it?  How do you make it? I would try to cover here certain important elements of project report and sample description against each element.  So that my effort will help you understand the report in a little detailed manner rather than a sheer Index, which is available all over the Internet.  The contents of report.

  • The title and description of the business idea or opportunity
  • The legal stature of the business
  • The targeted scope taken up in the project
  • The background as to how it would fit into the market
  • The vision, mission, strategy & planning
  • The market, target customers, competition, market share, achievable share by you
  • The means and mechanism of delivering the scope to target customers
  • The marketing strategy, brand definition & branding exercise
  • The partners & collaborators if any
  • The benefits and USP that you provide to the target customers
  • The promoters background, relevance to the venture, role in the venture
  • The raw material, procurement plans, long-term availability factors, agreements with the vendors with respect to the same (where the business is purely service oriented or professional consulting, you should cover the human resource expertise, its availability, and your plan of mobilizing such resources)
  • The material procurement plan wherever available quotations from vendors
  • The constitution of core team, their profiles, relevance, roles
  • The manufacturing / production process 
  • The standards, best practices proposed to be introduced in the project
  • The mandatory identities - company registration, tax registrations, statutory permissions,
  • The organizational hierarchy, communication flow, indication of key performance areas, accountability mechanism
  • Project performance metrics, performance appraisal system
  • Operational procedures, measures for operational excellence
  • The projected revenue, expenses, cash flow, profit & loss (for min 5 years)
  • The methods of project fund mobilisation (promoters equity, debt, fund raising mechanism)
  • The bankers, auditors, legal attorneys
  • Detailed Project Plan which consists the product life cycle and project life cycle (Preferably done with the help of MS Project like tools)
The report generally is divided in to various sections viz., Introduction, Techncial, Marketing, Manufacturing and Financial. In case of service or consulting businesses, it will be the delivery mechanism and the process handling in place of manufacturing section.

Why do you need the project report?
The report will be the guide for your entire project.  You will need to refer to it at every stage of your project progress in order to ensure that your project is taking off in a professional and disciplined way the way it is envisaged.  In absence of such report, you will over spend monies, loose control and can't control various objects.


Further the report is required to present to the investors or bankers who should know about your project and its viability for investment.  In fact, you should develop a summary presentation based on the project report to present to the prospective funding institution.


How do you make the report?
Project Report is a professional document.  It covers integrated inputs w.r.t technical, commercial, market and so as could be seen from the above index.  Thus you need a professional agency.  Mostly there are certain CA firms who help exclusively in project report development.  You may also talk to my team who can help you.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Corporate & Professional - How do I give this identity to my organisation?

When an organization truly competes the characteristics of its line business, in a more transparent way, it could be called a professional entity. When an organization defines its business objectives in clear terms duly indicating the strategy and the delivery mechanism, it paves way for professional development. We could enumerate the following aspects in an enterprise to understand the level of professionalism adopted by it.
  • Scope and clarity in service offerings
  • Vision & Mission
  • Culture, values and ethics
  • Strategy & Planning to achieve its Vision
  • Brand conscious and brand positioning measures
  • HR and Communication flow in the organization
  • Policy provisions and delivery mechanism to achieve organizational productivity
  • Implementation of Best Practices and Certification standards in the functional areas
  • Transparency while dealing the issues of discrimination, grievance, disputes
  • Implementation of technology
  • Statutory identities
  • Clean financial and taxation system
  • Social accountability
Further professionalism is more of an accountability and transparency. It is possible to achieve these aspects when an organization deploys related processes to implement the above provisions. Let us understand process as any given transaction or task to be achieved in the functional or departmental context. For example, performance appraisal of human resources is a process, raising an invoice is a process, quality check list is a process, exit formality is a process, and any report document is a process. At this reckon there will be hundreds and thousands of processes that an organization has to effectively deliver in order to achieve the true performance levels.

The process could be a hard copy format or a digital document. Organizations inevitably follow both the formats as total automation and paperless environment is still not feasible in our business environment. As an example for digital processes, any CRM application at the minimum shall have numerous processes related to sales and after sales support. An ERP application is the true mirror of enterprise-wide processes.

Further, every process should be flexible for due customization. The technology tools like ERP application invariably enable deployment of a given process, modification of the same with due controls, monitoring and measuring it for performance. Still an ERP application enables to integrate the enterprise wide functions and processes so that enterprise productivity and performance is reckoned periodically by the top management with due checks and controls.

Finally beyond all the above, it is the conduct, attitude, accountability and commitment of employees that brings in right identity to the organization as a whole. Hence, in today's business the HR development is given top priority to match to the organizational vision and mission. Employees should also realize that the positive identity and values achieved by an organization shall invariably enhance the professional value of their individual profiles.

Professional identity and corporate culture brings in stakeholder loyalty (employees, vendors, suppliers, customers, partners ...), creates brand value and develops business. Thus any investments made in this direction shall bring in the Returns on Investment (ROI).

Marketing - The Business Driver

Companies irrespective of their size and age need to work on market development. We find, the bigger the company, the larger the marketing and promotion activity they undertake. As a matter of fact, the companies grow big through consistent marketing. Notwithstanding other requirements.

How does small start-up Company with smaller budgets, promote its business?

For such start ups, I have drawn the suggested marketing measures in the picture herein. The steps indicated are not exclusive or compulsive for a business. Right focus could be arrived once the nature of business, company's vision and strategy is known. The approach is to put on high priority all the marketing efforts that wont cost big monies. The marketing measures for Start-ups from Phase-I to Phase-III hardly need any budget. You should have one or two right executives (who understand well your company's product / service range and who takes-up the ownership of his role), in the initial stages.

You will need specific budgets only from Start-ups-Phase-IV onwards where you go for outdoor advertisements like lollipops, mobile media which are inexpensive while providing constant reminder of your products to people. By this time, the efforts under Start-ups-Phase-I to Phase-III will yield you reasonable business.

Similarly, when your marketing efforts under Start-ups-Phase-IV bring in good business, you could take-up measures indicated under Profit-zone stages. Whatever may be the company's journey stage in the marketing matrix, you need to focus on every preceding measures with consistency. This will keep your business very active against any competition levels in the market.

The marketing matrix above is drawn to judiciously manage your business budgets. Say, you are doing well in the business with the measures indicated under 'profit-zone'. Do you really need to go for expensive marketing measures like print media and visual media appearances? Yes, there is never an ending to the business growth. I mean it should not be so. Marketing through print & visual media would place you in the larger business league. This in turn will create confidence levels in the existing customers and prospectives to invest in your products or services. This is an essential factor considering the tough competition in the market. Such expensive measures may increase the production cost, but it will always not effect much on the end-user price considering the mass quantities of production that you undertake to meet the market demands. Such campaign will also achieve you increased support from all the stakeholders as it signifies your growth and firm presence in the market.

The effectiveness of marketing depends on the creativity in communication. Every marketing measure is a communication that you address the present and prospective customers. It could be an e-mail, a flyer, a blog, a hoarding or a TV commercial. It could be a personal visit of your executives to a customer. This obviously indicates that you should develop an effective and creative marketing collateral so that your communication reach the public in the way they should understand you and your product.

I strongly feel that every organization should collaborate with a creative marketing agency who will understand the organisational vision, culture, strategy and customer profile. Only then, they will be able to design right communication that will raise the requirement of your product in the audience.

Further, to gain consistent results out of your marketing efforts, it is indispensable to have impeccable delivery and support mechanism in the organization. If not, all the investments made to generate customer base will go in vain.

And we should remember 'service after sales' is the eternal secret of business success.

Friday, April 2, 2010

ERP as a Business Opportunity

On the other day, I was invited by Entrepreneur Development Cell of Osmania University to address a session on "ERP as a business opportunity" to the participants of Entrepreneur Development Programme.

Mostly, I take pleasure in addressing such sessions. I consider it as an excellent platform to share my experience so that some one may benefit in the process.

Notwithstanding the other traits and requirements that a prospective entrepreneur should possess, I would like to highlight here some important factors that pave way to take up ERP as a business opportunity.

(1) The first requirements from an entrepreneur:
  • He should have appreciable experience in the ERP line (SAP / Oracle Apps. /Microsoft Dynamics or any other ERP flavor).
  • Otherwise, he should partner with an individual who has similar expertise
  • Lastly, he should be starting the enterprise with sound financial background so that he could endure the hassles of technical management, business management and sustenance till he achieve encouraging results.
(2) ERP in itself is a multifarious business opportunity. A single organisation generally can't provide the entire service range in ERP technology. The opportunities that exist in ERP could be classified as:

  • Software reseller in ERP like SAP Value Added Reseller (VAR)
  • Implementation of ERP
  • Support and maintenance of ERP
  • Development of ERP
  • Consulting in ERP
  • Training & Education in ERP
You, as a first time entrepreneur, could choose any single or combinational opportunities from the above. For example Consulting and Training & Education in ERP is a complementing business opportunity. Similarly, VAR & Implementation could be clubbed as one business objective. Development is entirely a different discussion. Otherwise, you could be an exclusive ERP support provider.

(3) The other important decision should be determining the focused industry / business sector for which you will be providing the ERP services. Your or your team's technical expertise and experience should determine the focus sector. You may serve several sectors too, depending on your and your team's expertise. It is not right to propose services for various or all sectors based on borrowed expertise. A true expertise in SAP like ERP is not readily available.

(4) The next important thing should be deciding on the costing of services. As a first time entrepreneur or as a new entrant in ERP services, you should be able to compete with other existing players in terms of expertise, cost benefits, service quality, and so. Every metric related to this will reflect on the end-user price that you extend. You should be able to give reduced TCO to the client.

So among other things, you should consider the following elements while you decide on the costing of your services. These elements are neither exclusive nor conclusive. The actual costing could be decided once we have the clarity of service range, sectorial focus, expertise availability, geographical issue and other factors.

  • Cost of marketing and lead closing efforts
  • Cost of change management efforts (business process analysis, determination and deployment, transition of data, integration of data, interoperability factors with the existing legacy applications)
  • Cost of software licenses
  • Cost of infrastructure (if it is turnkey solution where you need to upgrade the IT infrastructure of the organisation to match the ERP deployment requirement)
  • Cost of implementation (resources, customization, going live)
  • Cost of support
  • Cost of end-user training
  • Cost of AMC (if not included in the software license cost)
  • Resource mobilization cost (logistics, diversion of resources, borrowing SME expertise .....)
  • Management cost
  • Cost of Risk management and mitigation
  • Cost of capital (initial budget allocation, payment terms, currency fluctuations in case of foreign client .... will influence the cost of capital)
  • Other overheads and incidentals
(5) Marketing strategy. The prospective customer database, customer geography, market competition, service delivery gaps in the existing market, the cost effectiveness that you could provide would be some considerations to design an effective marketing strategy. The strategy should be short-term and long-term while combining the brand positioning effort. This should also address developing professional marketing collateral. Based on the functional hierarchy there could be a separate Brand Management team or one brand development expert associated in the marketing strategy.

(6) Delivery strategy. It is essential to stratatize service delivery. Whatever technical strengths, cost effectiveness and customer relations that you extend, if you don't deliver the committed service to the client, the entire efforts and goodwill go in vain. Delivery strategy is to be designed with the help of technical, financial, sales and operational team. The comprehensiveness of delivery strategy depends on the service scope and corporate hierarchy that an organisation has in place. The single objective of delivery strategy is to extend the committed services to the customer.

(7) Process excellence in the organisation. It is essential that you follow functional and operational process excellence in the entire organisation. This will automatically pave way for effective monitoring, better control, transparency and accountability leading to corporate excellence. It in turn will create confidence in the stakeholders.

In this direction, you yourself could go for ERP implementation in the organisation while following ISO, Six Sigma, CMM or other any other process maturity provisions. In absence of any of these things, you should at least have clear methodology defined for each organizational function. That is a set of formats, proformas, check lists, report structure and likes for every department.

(8) Project Management team. It is imperative that you designate a special team of two members or more (depending on the size of your organization) who are specialized in project management as per global standards. This team will help in right guidance in planning and managing a given project. This team will be able to help the ERP team in the right direction for effective project delivery. This team will also act as a brand ambassador for the professional service delivery by the organisation. The EPR project manager will be one of the members in the team.

(9) Research & Development. I strongly recommend for every organisation irrespective its size and age to have R&D function even if it is one member department. This could help the organisation in extending the best practices, process excellence, subject matter expertise, risk mitigation measures, business research, market economics, matured documentation and so. The team should always work in coordination with the other departments concerned. The cardinal objective of this team is to act as a supporting mechanism in delivering 'service excellence' to the customer.

I suppose the above are some of the measures to take up ERP as a Business Opportunity.

I will provide more inputs to the desired aspirant. Invite your feedback.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The approach for a New Entrepreneur

I have tried to indicate below the essentialities of starting an enterprise. I can provide the .ppt format of this content. May please mail me if you need the same.

The Step-1
Setup
Collaborate
Acquire
Expertise or investment capacity

Business model
Vision & mission
Strategic objectives
Strategic planning
Business activity
Resources
Target customers
Technology options
TCO
Systems and processes

Business Plan
Business plan
Comprehensive
Pragmatic
Resource Compatible
Market sensible

Business drivers
Basics
Leadership
Line expertise

Vision & Mission
Long term
Short term
Meaningful
Achievable
Congruent
Shared
Integrated

Statutory identities
Company Incorporation
Tax registrations
Appointment of Legal, Financial Experts
Quality & Process certifications
Professional certifications
Other technical and operational identities, certifications in line with the business requirement.

Strategic planning
Mind, strategy, market, resources, competence, capacity
Shared among senior management
Shared among other members appropriately
Reviewed periodically and reading along with progress

Business innovation
Own products
Collaborations
Co-branding
Competitive approaches
Market pulse
Professional affiliations

Corporate identity
Company name & Logo
Website
Brochures
Envelopes, Cards, scribbling pads, letter heads
Ad templates
Corporate communication
Employee properties
Physical and virtual security
Media appearances
Corporate Social Responsibility

Branding
Corporate Identity
Quality
Stakeholder loyalty
Commitment
Corporate Social Responsibility
Clean financial track
Dynamic support system
Professional communication

Resource bank/development
Subject matter experts
Technology experts
Customized training and re-skilling
Consultant network
Reward, growth, welfare, security
Team spirit

Market research
VOC
Focus industry
Focus technology
List of prospects
Market share
Cost competitiveness
Quality competitiveness
Stakeholder support
Gap identification
Marketing tools
Cost implications

Market approach
Digital presence (Website, e-mail, Blogs, user sites, partner sites)
Seminars, Conferences
Road shows
Institutional shows
Outdoor advertisement
Visual media
Collaborations
Partnership
Flyers
Posters
Yellow pages
Print media references
Cold calls and visits
Customer research
Prospective database

Cluster focus – Hosting services
Address mass market
Reduce cost overheads
Deploy Server based services
Host shared access of business applications

Costing structure
Product cost (License)
Implementation
Resource cost
Domain expertise
Customization
Integration
Training
Support
Mobilization
AMC


Software
Resources
Design & architecture
Source code
Training
Integration
Configuration objects
Source code
Documentation
User manual
Support

Partner development
Technology
Marketing
Incubation
Sourcing
Government

Customer evaluation - FIR
Proposal making

Best practices
Manufacturing
Financial
Operational
Technology
Service

REVIEW
Strategic objectives
Management systems
Performance

Social responsibility
Reciprocate to the society

Incubate
Help small entrepreneurs to launch their ideas

Start-up hurdles
Incompatible business area
Improper planning
Resource deficiency
Management failure
Too late with your idea
Market intelligence
You – The only leader
You give up

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

One-man-army business

Business runs with leadership. All the big businesses whether it is the venture of Reliance, TATA's or Birla's, it is the leadership that drives the business towards success and expansion. That is the reason the companies are recognized more by the name of the leaders like Ambanis, TATAs.

In fact, it is more easier to see success in a proprietary small business. Business decisions flow timely and integration of tasks would be easy. Overheads would be less enabling you offer competitive price to the customer.

But how? What is the approach to succeed?
As is the case for any business, the foremost aspect is to be having a clear vision of business model with the following facts.

  • The product / service offerings and the means to produce and deliver the same
  • Target customers
  • Target geography
  • The business projections (covers investment, sales revenue, expenditure, future projections, profit & loss)
  • The approach / operational metrics
  • The growth perspective
  • Budget allocation
The owner of business must stratagize and integrate the flow of business processes concerning the above points. It is essential that the business owner has experience in the line of activity.

The business owner could prefer the following approach with contextual revision.

  • Create corporate identity (refer to my post 'corporate identity')
  • Maintain right legal identity / good relations with bankers / Partners
  • Go for professional documentation (Administrative methodologies, NDAs, MOUs, SLAs, etc.,)
  • Define partner / collaboration model
  • Empanel CA / Auditor / Legal Advisor
  • Compile prospect client / lead database
  • Identify consultant / partner database who could supplement your business requirements
  • Introduce your services to the prospect list
  • Interact telephonically with shortlisted prospect
  • Present your service range, delivery model, ROI, USP and business commitment, process maturity that you adopt in the organization
  • Submit professionally done proposals / quote / offers
  • Provide cost to cost services (transparent margin till you grow)
  • Extend deliverables solely by you or through collaboration (where you will not be able to handle the entire requirement of client on your own, you may invite collaborator's participation or outsource client's requirement. This will enable you operate on your own without engaging your own team till you grow)
  • Go for periodical performance review
  • Go for effective use of technology
  • Maintain professional communication flow and sweet relations with all
The above processes could be achieved by a single business owner. It is essential to work for growth even if it is small. It is imperative to manage clean record with banks, lenders or vendors so that it will pave for a very peaceful journey and a bright future.

What kind of businesses would be ideal for a one-man-enterprise?
Service industry, consulting outfit, distribution and retail setup or micro industry

The best business happens always through or from old client. Thus satisfying every client's requirement should be the top priority than scouting for new business. You should never neglect the existing client to catch new prospect.

What are the precautions to the business owner?
  • Never neglect meeting committed deliverables to a stakeholder
  • Do not be overconfident of doing every thing on your own. Involve collaborators / partners /consultant
  • Don't postpone documentation requirements (Agreements, Accounts, Processes)
  • Don't neglect mandatory reports to Tax authorities, industry bodies, lending institutions
  • Never over commit
  • Don't neglect a call even in the midnight from an existing customer
  • Manage your health and energy levels
  • Manage judiciously every finance
  • Don't ever invest all your time and resources on a single client
  • Try not to over please a customer
  • Maintain clean record in the entire business
  • Don't neglect appointments and schedules
It may look difficult to follow the above. But as you progress you will find that you are almost doing these things. Unless you are not messing up with the business affairs.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Corporate Identity

We are identified in the society at the professional and individual level by our attire and communication. It creates the first impression about our personality. Similarly, the first identity development for an organization starts through communication in several forms. The communication could be in the form of company's marketing collateral i.e., profile, brochure, product leaflets, executive communication, web presence and email communication.

There are several companies not able to build right documentation. Especially, start-up and small scale industries fail to spend time on the documentation processes. For them production and delivery are the top priorities.

However, companies that want to grow big should think about creating right identity for themselves. Corporate identity with committed deliverables to stakeholders would create brand value. It is a long and consistent process. But the value would turn into material benefits in course of time. In a limited sense it is a kind of 'goodwill' that companies should develop.

How does corporate identity help companies in their business stride? Very obvious, in the long run, it helps in:

  • Improved brand value
  • Increased credit worth
  • Great market market for their products / services
  • Growth opportunities and scope for expansion
  • Employee commitment
  • Stakeholder cooperation
  • Customer loyalty
So what should be the approach of an organization to develop an identity? Some of the steps mentioned below should pave right way towards this.

  • Review vision & mission
  • Revis Corporate Planning & Strategy
  • Go for organisational re-engineering (functional hierarchy and process deployment)
  • Strengthen paper and digital presence (Strong profile, Effective web presence, Professional communication with stakeholders, Marketing collateral which is precise with periodical updates .....)
How long it may take to see the results?
Provided we follow the measures in strict sense and with professional discipline, an organization should be able to witness increased identity in six months time. After six months time, it will be a new organization all together. New customers, increased loyalty of stakeholders and definite increase in the SALES TURNOVER could be achieved.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Leadership

Leader is the person who exploits the resources in his control to bring in collective productivity. It could be human resources, budgetary allocations, time schedules, and so on. A true leader would again know how to bring required resources in to his control though they are not in his ambit. He would be firm about his target(s).

A leader is a visionary who would gaze the future outcome of his deeds and who would know the resultant benefits to all the stakeholders involved in his task. He would never be selfish. He would never intimidate others. He would never undermine his team. He would never like 'NO' in his stride. He would never do all things on his own. He would never believe in adamant control. He would never compromise on the defined outcome. He would never give-up to think. He doesn't fear of the inherent risks. He would be a crisis manager. He would ensure the pace and momentum of a given task. He would like to create more leaders who could supplement his efforts.

A leader is the person who believes in reciprocal respect. His presence or absence serves the same positive purpose in a given environment. His acts and deeds would create positive vibrations and energies which in-turn keep motivating his team to achieve the chosen task.

A leader is like a matured tree that is all useful to all.

The God Who invisibly controls the Universe is the supreme leader. Hence, an individual who would like to become true leader would invariably believe in God. But he doesn't discriminate Who the God is. He doesn't discriminate the God by religion, faith, and culture.

It is important to have 'Leadership' as an exclusive topic from primary level education. This would enable the children to have clarity in thought and develop their own vision towards a big picture in life.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Branding

Branding is the perceptional value of a customer about a product or service. The perceptional value is determined by the delivered value of commitment by the brand in terms of quality, security, consistency, pride, and service. Branding is creating an emotional chord with the product or service offered by a vendor. When a customer buys his favorite SWISS watch, he would involuntarily weigh all these aspects. He takes pride in possessing the product. He would flaunt it with zest.

Branding is equally a sensitive exercise. Any slightest deviation in the commitment by the vendor would undo the decades market stand and place.

Pricing of favorite brand would not be a prohibitive element to buy the product. The brand is respected by the haves and have nots globally and equally. The difference is price affordability in a given situation.

The majority view that media management is branding. Wide publicity, aggressive marketing, PR efforts might generate a surge in demand for the product. However, that would not create a lasting brand value unless the customers, stakeholders continue receiving the committed value from the product. It is like spending millions on publicity of a bad movie. It might generate an instant market. But not a lasting market.

The cardinal factors that create branding would be:

(a) Product / Service Quality
(b) Service & support efficiency
(c) Effective and user-friendly packing of the product or presentation of the service
(d) Value for money
(e) Consistency in all the above aspects

Any other factor that contribute in brand building would be supplemental to the above cardinal aspects.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Project Management


I find a gradual change in Hyderabad. Working professionals started giving increased focus on skill development. Businesses started realizing on the professional processes and utilization of technology. In the last one month I have interacted with several aspirants who would like to acquire professional project management skills. The reason could be to improve career prospects or compete the process requirements of the projects.

Personally, I believe in documentation in official processes. I don't attempt any official / professional tasks without a proper paper work. There are so many plans of mine that have not been executed. It doesn't stop me to develop any of my ideas into plans. This is the true start for any Project.

During several of my interactions with students, employees and entrepreneurs I always have indicated the importance of project plan. Documentation and project plan will act as a mirror to the future outcome.

Several organizations go unrecognized as they fall short in documentation. There are several organizations who hog the limelight with a little achievement. Documentation whether it is project plan, methodologies or communication with stakeholders plays vital role in the identity and operational efficiency of the organization.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Business Success

We have millions of businesses running in the world. But, we find just a few numbers make the maximum buzz like 80-20, Pareto's Rule. The Forbes List is hardly released without the names of Bill Gates, Warren Buffett likes. Notwithstanding a few new names that invade the list of billionaires every year, we are yet to see the true growth of fortune among the entrepreneurs. There may be any many secrets shared by these accomplished big wigs. I believe a powerful vision rightly aligned to the strategy and resources could lead a person to the top rung. It is important that an entrepreneur manage the Enterprise Portfolio with spiritual commitment. Enterprise Portfolio Management (EPM) ie. management and integration of various functions like Corporate Affairs, Planning & Strategy, HR, Finance, Production, Marketing, Sales, CRM, Branding, CSR and like is the only secret that makes the organization grow forever. It is imperative for the business leader and promoter-owner not to miss the Vision & Strategy in every-day business. Vision & Strategy can't be again a static objective. The review of the same in line with the market ecosystem would be inevitable. The other inherent requirement is effectively managing the stakeholder community. The effectiveness here is the just fulfillment of given business commitment.

Thus, I reckon precise understanding of EPM World (Enterprise Portfolio Management World) and the processes in the hierarchy are the true secrets to reap fortunes.

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