Author: Mukesh Gupta

Ideas

How do you innovate “Innovation” ..

A couple of days ago, I submitted my entry for the HBR/McKinsey M-Prize Challenge run by Management Exchange. This challenge is about “Innovating Innovation” and will be judged by some of the greatest thinkers in innovation. You can find below my submission for the challenge. If you like my thoughts, request you to vote for my submission here. SUMMARY Its not the lack of ideas that stops organizations from being innovative, but the way resources are allocated & employees rewarded that is the key. We need to change the way we set and manage KPI’s, the way we allocate funds (quarterly budgeting […]

Business Model, Leadership, Sales

The Challenger Sales model & its relevance in the selling models of the future..

I recently read the book – The Challenger Sale and would like to share my impressions from the book. My personal opinion on the relevance of this model: In order to succeed this model requires a change in the culture of the sales organization (from top to bottom), which we have observed is a very very difficult thing to achieve. Very few organizations have leaders who are capable of driving such a change initiative to success.  As this book is based on the research on reps that were successful in selling when everyone else was failing, this assumes that what […]

Marketing, Sales

Building an effective marketing strategy..

I am surprised at the lack of organizations with good marketing strategy. Doesn’t matter if they are  large MNC’s with millions of dollars of marketing budget or a start-up with minimal budget. I am sure that everyone in the marketing world understands the importance of having a solid strategy! Most marketing efforts fail in the face of unclear strategies. Good strategy can not only improve the effectiveness of your efforts but will help in reducing the total cost. But most importantly, it will help your customers to buy more from your sales teams. With the emergence of new media, more […]

Leadership, Sales

Great resources to create sticky presentations

Each and every one of us in the profession of selling, end up presenting (either about the products or solutions that we are selling, or about the company we represent or to showcase ourselves). And most of us still struggle even after years of delivering presentations for a living. Hence, the term, death-by-powerpoints. This is a key skill and something that we need to continuously  work upon. In Stephen Covey’s words  -“Sharpen the saw”! After having gone through a lot of reading, listening and presenting, I have realized the following: I deliver great presentations if I don’t use the standard slides […]

Leadership

Leadership lessons from everyday acts (part 1)

Leadership is like riding. – you need to know where you want to go. – you need a fair idea of how to reach there. – you re-route yourself if you face a traffic jam or any other situation which might stop you from reaching your destination. – you decide on the route based on the type of vehicle that you are driving. The routes that you can take while driving a bike is very different from the one that you can take while driving a car, which could be very different from the one that you can take if […]