Strategy

Strategy to Action: Put Away the Strategy Slides

Phillip Kotter recently published a blog – “Forget the Strategy PowerPoint” on HBR where he speaks about how should a CEO communicate or cascade the organizational strategy, so that the entire organization not only understands the strategy but is also enthused by it. He introduces the concept of “Big Opportunities” and while communicating this to be able to connect to hearts and minds of the employees.  Even before we start talking about how to communicate the strategy to all employees, I would even want to take a step back and think if this is truly necessary at all. In my opinion, […]

Marketing

Do You Really Know Your Customers?

Google trends shows that since mid 2007, there has been a consistent level of interest in customer advocacy as a topic. With the advent of social media and the amplification of the voice of the consumer, brands who want to put customer engagement at the center of their strategy, are getting more and more serious about nurturing these advocates (like Telstra announced in Feb). They start and run advocacy programs. Unfortunately, most of these programs are nothing but “old wine in new bottle”. What people do not understand is that you can not start an advocacy program and build/nurture customer advocates. […]

Marketing, transformation, Uncategorized

Potential Mistake that Marketing Teams Should Avoid

  The biggest mistake that I have seen a lot of marketers starting to make is that they fall in the trap of following experts at the cost of not following their customers/prospects. We all know that marketing as a function is going through a transformation. Some buzz words and trends that you may have noticed that are playing out in the marketing world are: Social Media Marketing Content Marketing Paid/earned content and many many more. CMO’s are now being forced to understand technology and work closely with their technology peers (CIO’s or CTO’s). And there are some really good […]

Sales

How do You Start Your Day to Ensure Peak Performance?

The following routine at the start of the day ensures peak performance for me: Exercise: For my Body: One of the most important thing that you could do first up in the morning is to exercise your body. A healthy body is crucial for success. This is one activity that i have not been regular at, however, plan to start doing on a much more regular basis. For my Mind: I read something stimulating. You could read a scripture if you are religious. I read a good book something that is not from my regular field of study or work. […]

Leadership

Why Do Leaders Fail

  Consider the following facts: The average tenure of CEO’s is reducing (more specifically for fortune 500 companies). The percentage of CEO’s being asked to step down for performance reasons is steadily increasing. Both these statistics point to one thing – many leaders are unable to fulfill their potential and are failing. So, why do leaders fail? There are a lot of studies on this very topic and they have a lot of possible answers. Based on the researcher and their prior understanding, they talk about various reasons for why leaders fail. However, the most important reason why leaders fail […]