Developing communities for business success!

The world is becoming more collaborative, and so does the way we do business! Collaborating and sharing ideas is essential for any business in the modern era. Here are the steps through which a business can create and maintain great communities around their business.

1. Know which community you should create, and invite like minded people

You can create communities in different social media and digital platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or even in your website. The communities you create can be around your brand, your product concepts, industry trends or any values that you carry to the market. You have to select the right mix among these based on the target listener profile. It is very important that you communicate the value of your community, and tone your message to invite visitors who share similar interests to join the community

2. Listen and share

Be one of the participants, rather than an owner. Listen and acknowledge opinions and suggestions. Be ready to participate in all discussions and contribute constructively.

3. Respect others and be polite

This is an important aspect while dealing with communities. You gain greater acceptability among the community members only when you become polite and respectful

4. Measure and correct

There are benefits at multiple levels that an online community provide for your business. It can be about creating visibility and credibility, generating leads or even direct sales and customer care. Measure all the benefits  weigh them against your objectives and take corrective actions to maximize the ROI from your activities

Social Media and Building Community (GF201)

Three best practices for effective blogging strategy

Companies were been blogging, blogging and blogging ever since social media and blogs became kind of fancy distinctions for corporate world.  The posts can sometimes be about the products, sometimes about markets, and also about anything that they find on the road. However, very few companies might have really thought about how to measure or maximize the effectiveness of their blogs. Here I am suggesting three best practices that will enhance the effectiveness of corporate blogging strategy

 1.Always talk to the audience: Using the inside-out language in writing about your products and offers will take away the charm of reading your blog. Write about trends, interesting happenings or whatever it takes to create interest in your target group. Simultaneously, make sure that you engage in conversation addressing ALL comments coming in, whether positive or negative. Your blog will be read for sure!

 2.Maintain a readable layout: Busy or cluttered layouts will take away the readability and charm of blogs. Arrange your information hygienically, and express more in few words. That makes reading easy, and you know what will follow then

 3.Define your metrics, and measure it regularly: How to measure the effectiveness of your blog entirely depends on your business objectives. Define the objectives of blogging, and measure it properly. In case of not-so-satisfactory results, identify the problem, correct it and go ahead!

Interesting framework: Key to business success

Source: E&Y

Lucky India!

Let me be very clear with it, NOW is the time that India need a stable and interruption free government more than ever, and I consider India to be the most luckiest nation on that account.

When I say NOW, I conceive the global situation and internal situation... We need to make teh come back from the global recession as quickly as possible.. we need to make our internal economy strong.. all these need to be done at lightning pace, and take up the new role that the changing equations in the world would offer India. In case if an unstable government appeared at centre, let me tell you, none o fthese things would have worked out, but now by today noon, I saw the ray of hope...

Fantastic situation... the government, that too the ruling government has become stable... India can now assume the global charge, and look towards the future with high expectations... Bravo!!!!!

Practicability in life

I am a strong believer of practicability in life...that is  what I continuously strive to achive... a few cases on how practicability can bring-in simple solutions to complex problems...

Boppiah Vs Columbus

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"When he set out

He didn’t know where he was going

When he got there

He didn’t know where he was

When he returned

He didn’t know where he had been

He did it all

With borrowed capital."

This is the portrait of Christopher Columbus. In spite of all his senselessness, Columbus did find himself a place in history. (You are free to raise your objections). In Management too, there is something called "Christopher Columbus School". Many among us are graduates of this school and this may be the reason why the scene around is so miserable. I have a feeling that we ought to erect a new school where we acquire a different kind of attitude. One can name this – "The Boppaiah School of Management" ! Please don’t rake up your brains to locate its founder, you are not likely to succeed. Well, Boppaiah was an operator at the Sreeharikkotta Space Centre, worked under Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam and retired only last year. The time was during the fag-end of seventies and everybody at the unit was trying his/her level-best for the SLV launch. Once, it so happened that during count down, a snag was detected by the computer and the high spirits suddenly nose dived. There is a mechanical device called "umbilical chord" fitted to the launching tower which gets automatically detached once the thrust is built up. Sadly enough, it failed to disengage at a height of 30 m. and one could imagine the frenzy. Dr.Kalam, as usual, offered to climb up the tower. Nobody allowed it (as usual) and there was this youthful Andhraite, Boppaiah, turned up much to the relief of the officers around and volunteered to help. He scaled all the thirty metres, studied the situation and gave "a nice kick" to the contraption thereby releasing it in a moment. Needless to say, the mission was accomplished. It is still remembered as "The Boppaiah Launch". (The source of this incident is the Hindu and not any of Dr.Kalam’s books).

The attitude matters a lot, especially in moments of crisis. The expert misses the obvious more often. I have a feeling that plain, logical thinking is the key.

Pen Vs. Pencil

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When NASA began the launch of astronauts into space, they found out that
the pens wouldn't work at zero gravity (ink won't flow down to the writing
surface). To solve this problem, it took them one decade and $12 million.
They developed a pen that worked at zero gravity, upside down, underwater,
in practically any surface including crystal and in a temperature range
from below freezing to over 300 degrees C.

And what did the Russians do...?? They used a pencil.

Empty soap box
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One of the most memorable case studies on Japanese management was the case of the empty soapbox, which happened in one of Japan 's biggest cosmetics
companies. The company received a complaint that a consumer had bought a soapbox that was empty. Immediately the authorities isolated the problem to the assembly! line, which transported all the packaged boxes of soap to the delivery department. For some reason, one soapbox went through the assembly line empty. Management asked its engineers to solve the problem. Post-haste, the engineers worked hard to devise an X-ray machine with high-resolution monitors manned by two people to watch all the soapboxes that passed through the line to make sure they were not empty. No doubt, they worked hard and they worked fast but they spent a whoopee amount to do so.

But when a rank-and-file employee in a small company was posed with the same problem, he did not get into complications of X-rays, etc., but instead came out with another solution. He bought a strong industrial electric fan and pointed it at the assembly line. He switched the fan on, and as each soapbox passed the fan, it simply blew the empty boxes out of the line.

Moral
Always look for simple solutions. Devise the simplest possible solution that solves the problems.

Extensive value addition can save Indian farmers

I could see the faces of farmers in Vidarbha, in The Hindu, July 2002, who are looking to the face of Dr.Singh, PM of India with all hopes in their eyes. The report tells us that more than a hundred farmers committed suicide in the region, due to debt. In Kerala too, I have seen a number of farmers committing suicide due ti debt trap. Dr.Singh of course, didnt disappoint them, but he did the justice by declaring a Rs.3750 crore relief package. But did the PM, who is also one of the greatest economists in the country find the cause of this scenario?

Are we paying the price of LPG(Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation? Is it inevitable for Indian economy to follow the fate of Argentina? My answer is a simple "No". But then, why this scenario happened and why it is prevailing?

It is just a matter of managing the situation. The post LPG scenario offers a great lot of opportunities, especially for a country like India, which is full of resources. But for grabbing the opportunities, we need to compete in the global environment. The competition is so intense, that only the smartest will survive. Of course, India has everything to be among the smartest.

Our agricultural products need to undergo a drastic advancement through the value chain. Value-added products will find markets, with much higher prices , there by adding big revenue to the national income. It is very evident that a simple value addition will yield a great improvement in the market value of the products. As the value added products can be branded with much ease, we can reserve the right to control the prices, rather than following the current scenario, where the international prices control our revenues.

Without much confusion, I can make the conclusion with the declaration that the population of Indian nation, whose main occupation is cultivation, can take the confrontation to the world with all confidence.

Its a strike day!!!

Its on a fine strike day that i decided to post my first entry in my blog. Quite comfortable at my home, not worried about the messed up office chores, closed down shops or the empty traffic lines....

Somebody told me that its our privilage to strike... and some body did tell that there is no other way to express the protest, rathger than doing a strike... but i never cant understand the psychology of strike.. is it just because of the concerns out of rising petrol prices?? or is t just because you need to make your name heard through a strike or is it just for the thrill of doing a strike..

Can somebody do a cost-benefit analysis on a strike and tell me how much we loose on a particular strike day????

Any way, i dont need to be concerned about all these.. i dont run a business here... i dont need to care about what happens with my nation...

Its my day to sit idle, blog , watch TV and chat.. and please let me do these things in a better way....