Marketing is for the greater good!
( Pic Courtesy: Book Cover of ‘Marketing to Win’ by Satish Mehta, Pearson) “Market share = share of conversations”; thus read one of the advertisements in The Economic Times celebrating 30 years of Brand Equity, a pullout that comes every Wednesday along with The Economic Times (ET, hereafter), Asia’s largest business newspaper. After all, aren’t … Continue reading Brand Equity and Invitation Pricing: Strategies of our Times
This is my favorite: a sentence frequently used in sales review meetings – “do whatever you need to do but get me the numbers”! Interestingly enough, this sentence gets repeated at all levels of the hierarchy up to the frontline manager. Clearly, an overload of performance orientation and neglect of learning orientation leads to such … Continue reading Ethical Sales Leadership? Focus on Emotions
In the last few months, there has been considerable coverage in business newspapers focusing on the online and offline retailer conflicts. Mostly, these raised an existential concern of the offline retail stores and the grocery stores (in FMCG what we refer to as general trade). Clearly, this issue has triggered strong statements; the commerce minister … Continue reading Disrupt with Care: Reflections on Channel conflicts
Technology is the buzzword! A quick scan through the academic as well as practitioner literature would build a strong sense to believe that nothing in business is untouched by emerging science and technology. Expectedly, we have coined new terms such as Martech, Sales technology at a narrow functional level and, digital transformation at a broad … Continue reading Marketing Trends for the Future: Implications for Sales Management
Clearly, the target audience for this article consists of readers who can comfortably claim – “I don’t read newspapers”. At the risk of being labeled a ‘prescriptive and old fashioned’ person, let me start by saying this direct; newspapers and books(THE PRINTED ONES) are good for you. I can think of a few reasons as … Continue reading A Newspaper in the Morning and a Book at your Bedside can Reduce E(ye)-Waste
Several years ago during a business conference, a colleague tossed a simple and very direct question to the CEO. “Considering the growth of digital medium how long newspapers in printed form are going to survive?” he asked. CEO thoughtfully acknowledged the threat and appreciated the concern raised by the colleague and made a prophetic announcement; … Continue reading Hello, Newspapers: When in doubt, rely on the idea of complementarity.
As part of a research project, the cleaning staff in a hospital were asked about the kind of job they did. The answer revealed an intricate mechanism of job recrafting. They said that they were part of the medical care team because they believed that their job was directly contributing to the patient’s well-being. Researchers … Continue reading Organizational Capacity Building Through Self-leadership
The Finance minister recently attributed the decline in car sales to increased preference and usage of cabs such as uber and ola among the Millenials. The trolls got busy to the extent of ridiculing the statement, a reflection of social mob behavior. This was followed by a remark of Mr.R.C.Bhargava, an automotive expert, which suggested … Continue reading Declining Car Sales : An Evolutionary Motives Perspective
“The more you know, the more you do not know,” writes Shriniv Narayan in The Speaking Tree, a daily column in The Times of India. He argues that the observable universe is about 46 billion light-years in radius and there is an unobservable universe that the scientists are unable to fathom yet. Consider this; if … Continue reading Managing Knowledge and Ignorance: A Case for Executive Education
Recently, star cricketer Mahindra Singh Dhoni filed a plea at SC claiming about 48 crores of unpaid dues from Amrapali group. The group is facing a fraud charge and the case is with SC. The buyers who invested in the residential projects promoted by the group fought a long battle to ensure that the Supreme … Continue reading Trust erosion as an outcome of a celebrity’s endorsement of a ‘failed’ brand: Is there a recovery mechanism?
Markets and Conversations 