"An intelligent plan is the first step to success. The man who plans knows where he is going, knows what progress he is making and has a pretty good idea when he will arrive." ~ Basil S. Walsh
A job well planned is 70% done. Balance is execution, environment dipsticks, course correction, and performance evaluation.
Today I read a hilarious one that I want to share with all.
"These days cream seldom rises in the business community - but crap still floated!"
What do you think??
There are eight different kinds of value which get mixed together in the mind of your customer when they think about the value of the product or service you offer them:
1. Economic value – the actual return-on-investment or the payback your customer will receive by using what you sell.
2. Time value – whether they will be able to get more done by purchasing your offering.
3. Quality value – whether they will be able to utilize your product to improve the quality of the work they do.
4. Guidance value – whether you're able to guide them through the minefield of different choices to find what's best for their specific needs and requirements.
5. Image value – whether using your product will make them look good in the eyes of others.
6. Relationship value – whether they know, like, and trust you or have built a relationship with you over time.
7. Simplicity value – whether by using your product or service, their life will become simpler or problems will be eliminated.
8. Emotional value – whether they value your goodwill for whatever reason and want to be admired.
You deliver these eight kinds of value to customers by three main means or vehicles:
• the solution you offer
• the company value proposition you articulate
• the way you (and your team) personally interact with the customer
Extracted/adapted from the book Think Like Your Customer by Bill Stinnett
“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air. You name them - work, family, health, friends, and spirit - and you're keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls - family, health, friends, and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for balance in your life.”
-Quote Anonymous
I was just browsing through the new book of Jack Trout "In Search of the Obvious:The Antidote for Today's Marketing Mess". And came across a good summary of his points, worth a read.
1. Common sense is your guide.
2. Marketing's big problem - Wall Street
3. Research can obscure the Obvious.
4. Advertising people can be an Obvious Problem.
5. Advertising is a science ... you should never let art get in the way of selling a message.
6. What works in marketing is the same as what works in the military, the unexpected.
7. In the long run, every market becomes a two horse race.
8. The future is never obvious, A search for the obvious is about today, not tomorrow.
Have fun reading the book.
Today as I usually do, while travelling to office in public transport that takes up to 45 minutes of my time to commute, i was reading this interesting book by Mitch Albom, the five people you meet in Heaven - an extremely unique way of story telling, I came across these verses, which brought tears to my eyes - not something that we dont know of, but seeing it so beautifully expressed in words woke me up.
So here i am quoting, page 133 from the book.
"Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them. They move on. They move away. The moments that used to define them - a mother's approval, a father's nod - are covered bymoments of their own accomplishments. It is not until much later, as the skin sags and the heart weakens, that children understand; their stories and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives.
I was surfing through the web and came across this brilliant collection of the tricks that mind plays based on the cognitive bias that gets built.
As a marketeer, this definitely intrigued my sense. Definitely worth a dekko.
Often at work, we come across situations that need creative solutions. Frequently we face situations where resource constraints lead us to decision paralysis.
Yesterday, I stumbled upon this excellent article on mind traps.
1. Anchoring Trap: Over-Relying on First Thoughts
2. The Status Quo Trap
3. The Sunk Cost Trap: Protecting Earlier Choices
4. The Confirmation Trap: Seeing What You Want to See
5. The Incomplete Information Trap
In my corporate experience I have seen many such instances. The most frequent decision trap that I have come across is about The Sunk Cost Trap. Usually to protect our decisions that may have been taken based on information available at a point in time, which does change significantly in a fast changing world, and yet people drive / support these prior decisions, mostly because they do not revisit their assumptions.
I have seen the Anchoring Trap often happen when the first thoughts are those of the Top Boss. If the Boss makes the initial Kickoff thoughts, the rest of the discussion then just goes into implementation of the idea rather than creative constructive approaches.
On personal front, the Confirmation Trap is probably the most common trap that we come across. We like conformance, we love selective hearing, and staying in the comfort zone comes naturally to us. Thus its only natural human behaviour to align with the Confirmation Trap.
The article made me think !
Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits they become character;
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.
This interesting article from NYTimes caught my attention, though its not the first but it prompted me to opinionate!!
Every one knows that corporations shape employee behaviour through metrics, rewards and punishments. Putting it as lamely as possible.
Then why is it that inspite of so many years of good and bad fortune executive pay are not driven by metrics of good governance, employee welfare and moral code of conduct, but only by quarterly revenue and profit numbers and shareholder value only.
Why does it need to be always an either or situation. Good Governance, Employee Welfare and Moral Code of Conduct will ultimately lead to better profits. Then why its not the metric for executive compensation?
Whenever I live life in corporate discussions, mostly they are analysis of data that we gather over a period of time.
Whenever we discuss business its over conference calls - we have reduced face to face meetings coz it costs!
And whenever we make decisions its based on data and facts.
Somewhere in this mechanical MBA lead world, we are missing some more subtle shifts and trends, that only being near to customers can bring to fore. How can we incorporate such qualitatives like Passion for Customers, Instincts and Gut based on years of observation and customer interaction, the human element behind the gadgets.
The article in Silicon Valley reflects and recognises this. I am happy to hear it being reciprocated. And not only that there are concepts like Design Thinking, and "Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy," by Dev Patnaik, founder of San Mateo-based Jump Associates. I surely would love to get a hand on that book to start with.
God gives us problems. He also gives us brains to solve them.
Some see these as problems, others as issues to be resolved.
The difference lies in how people approach life - the attitudes. Thats what makes them react differently give the same impetus, the same resources at disposal.
Yeah I believe "Regret is getting insight a day too late!"
Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.
- Robert Schuller
In Commercial world, as one grows in years of experience and expertise, successful people move away from "the search for being perfect all the time". This does not mean they grow worser in their skills, but it means that practical sense of other worldly achievement metrics becomes equally important.
Rule 1: 68% of customers LEAVE because of poor employee attitude.
- Parkington and Buxton, Study of the US Banking Sector, Journal of Applied Psychology.
Rule 2: 41% of customers are LOYAL because of a good employee attitude.
- MCA Brand Ambassador Benchmark.
70% of customer brand perception is determined by experiences with PEOPLE.
- Ken Irons, Market Leader.
Its astounding, what i saw today. And thought of reproducing it. I do not claim to have discovered this but am copying someone's mail content here.
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I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was reanidg.
The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.
Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt!
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And now that you have been able to read this, what do you have to say, or share with me. Any amazing facts are welcome.
Adapted from the #1 New York Times bestseller ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Byrne
Happy New Year to all. I would like to start off this year with one of the most moving news reports that I read today. The link content is reproduced below.
MUMBAI: The annual Economic Times Awards ceremony is usually a celebratory affair, but this year the exuberance was tempered as much by the gathering gloom of an economic depression as the embarrassing taint of the Satyam scandal. But all these preoccupations simply fell away when Karambir Singh Kang walked on stage, shoulders squared but head bowed.
It was the most inspiring moment of the evening, and its most painful. Almost everyone in the chandeliered hall from well-heeled CEOs to hardened journalists to Oberoi Hotel staff was stung to tears. The silence which suddenly sank on the audience was filled only with fierce applause for the Taj general manager who had lost his wife and sons to the terrorist violence of 26/11 but worked steadily through that anguished night to shepherd his frightened guests to safety.
Flanked by Taj group CEO Raymond Bickson and Hemant Oberoi in his chef whites, Kang received on behalf of the hotel staff a special award for Corporate Citizen Of the Year, which was shared with the employees of The Oberoi and the Trident, for conducting themselves with incredible heroism and dignity in the four days that their hotels were battered. One media report had fittingly described the staff as human shields between the terrorists bullets and their guests.
This award was the last to be handed out in an evening where the attacks of November 26 had already been heavily referenced. But when Kang walked onto the stage, the room rose as one and clapped hard and long, as it had for P R S Oberoi and his staff. Many of the CEOs had tears in their eyes and the otherwise stoic Prime Minister found it hard to stop shaking Kang's hand.
Characteristically, Kang's acceptance speech was free of sentimentalism and any mention of personal loss. He said he was honoured to accept the award on behalf of his "Taj family", a choice of phrase which had a rare poignance.
"This recognition is not just an honour for the staff of the Taj, but a recognition of the true spirit of India," he said. "For any employee of our hotel, no amount of training could have prepared us for what we went through during those fateful days. They were all ordinary people, be it at the Taj, Trident, CST or Cama Hospitalwith extraordinary courage, who went beyond the call of duty. On behalf of my entire Taj family, I humbly accept this honour. Thank you."
