It is by now common knowledge that companies are all about people. And customers and employees interact with people and not companies. It is also now proven beyond doubt that brands are like living beings and they are what they are because of the emotional connect they strike with it’s ardent and loyal customers.

I did the above prelude to set the context for what the companies, its executives and brand stewards should be doing in today’s challenging times and very importantly what they should not be doing. I do agree that these are extraordinary times and no one has an idea and clear picture of what we are in for, how long is it going to take. It is made far worse because there seems be none among all the world governments and central banks who seem to have a good idea of how to handle this. My point about things like this that are not in our control is that one should not lay too much emphasis on what is not in their control and focus more and more on what is in our control. And be prepared to change as the macro environment changes. Atleast you would be doing something and have the satisfaction of having done something than sounding helpless.

Coming specifically to communication, like they say in a sandstorm one should not bury their heads in the sand, it is in times like this that companies need to come out and communicate. Communicate even more than they did in good times. For, in good times, as everyone is doing well and everything is hunky dory, the fact that you communicated or not becomes secondary overshadowed by the enthusiasm and cheer all around. However, when the shine goes and the clouds set in, like now, then people are more aware of what is being said, by who and what. If silence is all they hear, they make their own conclusions and in dire times one does not need a psychology masters to figure the nature and type of those conclusions.

Now, let me make an important clarification. I am not saying be loud and say things are good. That is surely going to backfire. Instead what I would recommend is clear communication that sets out what the management thinks the impact really is, what is has done about it and to manage it, what impact there might be on each employee or department or division or unit? and finally what it expects of each of its employees in these times. This crystal clear communication if done well and in person if possible does very many things positive the impact of which will be felt even beyond the tough times.

Stepping out of the internal domain, companies need to communicate to the media as well. Media like any other arm of society is influenced by what it sees and hears. If companies stop communicating, there is a message that is sent out loud and clear. A not so positive one which leads the media to paint a picture of gloom which inturn affects sentiment and the cycle just goes on. I am not sure if exciting products have stopped being churned, if companies have stopped taking initiatives or that every company and executive is sitting in their chambers with the towels thrown in. Life has not stopped and it will not. It is a cycle and we will need to ride out this cycle how long or short it may be. How worse or not worse it will be? Again here, a word of caution. This is not the time for overoptimistic projections and plans without fundamentals. Speak what is still happening in your business, what is being done about it from a positive perspective and the need to be mature and last the storm. Am sure the more companies do this, the more journalists and editors who feel things are not as bad as they are made out to be and we see a balanced message emerging. This is good in these conditions.

To summarize, look internally and focus on communicating with employees and reinforcing your internal brand and continue to engage media in a balanced manner. The twin shall surely help us last and emerge stronger and all set to ride the wave when the tide turns the other way. As we all know and have seen, it is just a question of time before it turns.

Few days back had a potential client who is a start-up spend a lot of time in our office. Our creative head who is a two decade veteran in advertising and I took him through our portfolio and explained to him the process we adopt. He could also see that we had a full fledged team with graphic and interactive capabilities inside. So, we thought it is all sealed and done. Day after we got a call. The board of the company was of the opinion that PR firms are not good at design or anything to do with it and they asked the mandate be split into PR and brand identity development. We of course would get the “PR” part.

Few months back, we were interacting with a leading mobile services firm which had clarity that they need to do new/social media. We proposed and we thought so logically that the same firm handle both offline and online media so that there is synergy and consistency. We also showcased our understanding and said though initial days we know what we are doing. We also sent across couple of case studies which we thought were relevant interms of brands using social media in India. The response was along the typical lines. “We feel as a PR firm you must be good at media relations but social media it is better to go to a specialist firm.” That the flurry of new/social media firms that have sprung up all over the country were doing the same experimentation and may not have the same rigor or understanding of the fundamental communication process, was lost.

Let me cite a third instance before I move onto what happens with potential employees. We were talking to a senior person in corporate communications in one of India’s leading IT services firms and we were talking about our content and social media capabilities. Well, but then you are not a PR firm and you need to seriously relook at changing your name, he opined.

Potential employees are ones I equally dread. Most of them seem to think, the ability to speak well, track papers and know a few media, is all that is needed for a career in a PR firm. Ask them to handle an internal communication campaign or newsletter or an EDM. Pat would be the answer, “We didn’t know a PR firm was supposed to do all this’. The intensity of the pre-conceived notion struck most when a new joinee from a leading PR firm preferred to go back within 5 days of joining since she was very uncomfortable with some of these additional capabilities being asked of her. Many existing employees are no different and often require huge amount of training and constant goading before they even accept that a PR firm should and can be doing these things.

This is a paradox I am unable to understand. On one hand many in our industry keep talking of how PR has evolved and has today become strategic and beyond media relations. If so, my simple question is, in areas beyond media relations what is the benchmark? Is it just saying we do this also or doing it so well or having expertise that is comparable to specialized firms.

There is another macro question that begs an answer. If the current and new crop of employees comes into PR thinking this is all that is to PR and restrict their skill focus, where will the talent reservoir that we need to tap into for delivering “more than media relations” come from?

It is time we unbox “PR” and “Communication” in our country. It needs to be communicated that it extends beyond media relations and increasingly there are many many good reasons why it has to. From the growing limitations of editorial coverage to the need to engage a customer in new ways.

Until we do that, fear we will continue to speak big in forums where the audience laps it up but in reality there will be a hotch potch attempt. The bigger concern I have is that as the space of marketing and branding evolves and spreads in new and multiple directions, how will PR hold its own and be the leader of the pack? Or are we destined and content to be one of the important BTL tools?

Though it was tough, we took the plunge recently whole hog positioning ourselves as a customized communication solutions firm and said we will remove “PR” from all of our collaterals and messaging except in the name. And I can bet with you the repeated frustration with popular mis-conception and having to hear repeatedly ‘You are a PR firm’ was surely among the biggest triggers.

(Xavier Prabhu is Director & CEO of a customized communication solutions firm. He can be reached at xavier@prhub.com)

Being a not so regular TV watcher and my mother tongue being Tamil end up watching commercial TV in Tamil mostly in the evening prime time slot. Over the past few years have consistently noticed that big retailers (guess there are tens of them out of Chennai and elsewhere) and most regional FMCG brands almost entirely depend on TV commercials for their sales or marketing or communication with customers. It also dawned on me that festive season after festive season, collection after collection, product after product, this formula remained largely untouched.Get a hummable tune, hire some pleasant and known faces (mostly actresses of the small and the big screen), get a film maker to do a slick execution and run it non stop across leading TV channels on prime time and hey presto it is a success. To the credit of this approach it must be said that it ends up attracting attention and the thronging crowds (the rare few times have been to TNagar) are proof that it works. However as a seasoned communicator this has often stuck me as contrary to fundamentals of markets and consumers. In that markets and consumers are complex and there can be no eternal surefire ways to success in the marketplace. Then I started noticing the chinks and small as they are I felt it is matter of time before they blow up to be significant forcing a change in thinking and approach. Hard and painful though it will be.

Last September went looking for a specific mobile handset at the biggest of these retailers in T Nagar housed in a mammoth multi-storied building and buzz with milling crowds. They were supposed to have lowest prices and the best range. Not only was the model not available the sales counter person made no effort to understand my need and suggest me an alternative. The manner was a put off and that was not to be the end. Did pick up a few little things for my children and as I went up to pay the bill it was not only cumbersome but chaotic as well. And then as I made my way to the lift realized it was overcrowded and one needs to wait. Also, it stuck me that there was no attempt to know or understand “me” the consumer even though there is a logic considering the crowds and wafer thin margins of the model. The big retailer in question had another older building outlet on Ranganathan Street and the experience when I had shopped there 4 yars back was no different. Only this time the building was new, was more glitzy and the range had increased. That night as I walked out of the shop, was categorical will never ever step in again. Being a marketing person it set me thinking. Probably I was not the target audience they were focused on and the loyal customer base is fine with these things etc. It seemed to me that many of these retailers think it is enough to build these bulky shops, advertise heavily and keep the prices cheap and customers will keep coming. Customer experience, convenience and engagement being dispensable. But as we all know globally all it takes is for the sands of market and consumer behaviour to shift for such supposedly foolproof business models to run into trouble. The last strain was when I heard many of my friends in Chennai tell me that they mostly don’t go to such shops except few times and the low price also meant low quality.

Let me now move to regional FMCG brands (with some notable exceptions) where I see a similar approach. Most of them are all focused on creating great commercials with catchy jingles again with the same formula of known and pleasant faces. If not stars then it needs to be cute looking children. Very little attempt to categorize and engage the consumer. And worse, little thought to building a strong characteristic to be associated with the brand which needs consistency and a certain kind of rigorousness. Again here most of them are doing well and consumers are not seemingly minding it as many of these brands are selling. The trouble again as I pointed out above in the case of retail stores is that things could change albeit drastic.

Another factor that I found (though not supported by hardcore market research) is that if one were to take a timeframe of 10 years and place all these brands onto it and see how many lived through and grew, chances are there will be very few. Business success in the FMCG marketplace is also about longevity since that allows some residual brand awareness and loyalty which can be nurtured and extended or expanded as the plans demand. In which case many of these brands then lived and then faded away by the TV spots. The sad irony is that many a time, the consumers remember the commercial but the brand itself does not exist anymore.

The danger in both the cases is not just of future challenges and market shifts. It is of complacency that sets in because of a tried and tested formula that seems to work. The logic is not arguing against the sheer reach of regional TV channels in South which on festive days reaches a high and thus provides a majority of the potential consumers on a platter. It is asking for brands and retailers to think out of the box (literally) or what they do with the masses regional channels deliver. Here are a few thoughts from my side:

- Try direct customer outreach activities that allow them to understand the consumer even more besides allowing for quality
engagement with the brand
- Let the advertising take a different tack like “Sakthi” masala does in positioning itself as a socially conscious brand
- In shop increase ways and means through which a consumer is understood and engaged bit more
- If they have multiple stores, they can look at certain areas within the outlets to be targeted at a different segment of a consumer (obviously they cannot hope to be end to end but a segment consisting of consumers at the fringe)

In seeking the answers and trying out such and more initiatives, I feel lies a new journey for many of these brands and retailers which will not only take them newer places but allow them to know who their consumers are even better and thus engage them effectively. It will also lead to better product development and innovation which will spur a cycle that is known to be more long lasting. Here is to a life beyond TV spots for retailers and regional FMCG brands.

(Xavier Prabhu is Director & CEO of a customized communication solutions firm. He can be reached at xavier@prhub.com)

Need to go beyond tracking or listening
Am not sure how many know this. Software or tools that are meant for listening in social media are growing in abundance and at last count had 18 such URLs or names in my database. Am talking only of players who are visible and this number by itself seems to be growing at a brisk pace. While it is useful, let us understand that it is only the first step in a formal process a brand needs to undergo in social media.

Need to go beyond blogs
There is an urgent need to look beyond blogs, though blogs show a lot of promise, what with mobile blogs, video blogs and more. Am saying this more from the perspective that there are evolved tools like Twitter, Maplib, social bookmarking sites, besides the Facebooks, that truly offer immense potential. For example a friend of mine had done a campaign for a movie using twitter and maplib that was both creative and engaging. Recently also saw a website which was a wiki with the feeds on YouTube and linked. A great idea, simply because these two tools have combined reach which is smartly being utilized. Heard someone recently tell me that Dell extensively uses Twitter for its global customer support.

Need to break the myth of complexity
Social media is not as techie or geekish or complex as many think or make it out to be. There are couple of thumb rules which work fairly well for starters. For example just focus on starting a blog and then use all the social media tools available to promote it. Also social media is not about just getting in but using it smartly to be heard and be visible.

Need to experiment
Let us be clear that all that is happening in social media is experiments and there are bound to be successful and bad experiments. The best is to learn from it and move on, as the space itself is exploding fast and learning is the most precious commodity around in the space. Much like a battle scarred veteran who wears his scars on his sleeve.

Need to be choosy
Not all brands and companies are suited for social media since it is a different world out there. While it is exciting and great for some, it will be out of bounds for many. A company and its entire organization needs to be ready and be prepared for what social media entails and can assure of a surefire disaster if one is not prepared and goes around thinking it is like advertising which one can control. Even firms who play in the space would be well advised to do the diligence as too many failures or bad starts is bound to speed derailing enthusiasm, to adopt the media.
There are many more need to do lists and hope what I have said and listed makes for a good start and gets us cracking into a cracker of a space called social media.

(Xavier Prabhu is Director & CEO of a customized communication solutions firm. He can be reached at xavier@prhub.com)

It is the time of Onam in Kerala when it starts wearing a festive look and wallets open for practically endless shopping. It is also the time brand managers of every possible consumer name start working overtime to get their brand and its promise persuasively to catch the shopper’s eye. Predominantly what most brand managers/brands end up focusing on is racking their grey cells to figure the most attractive or creative way of riding this festive wave. Very few take the trouble of not taking the not so beaten path of being able to immerse your brand into the festive scape. Allow me to explain.

In merely trying to place their message before the consumer, brands get into a clutter vying for attention amidst a thousand others. This simply and often means highly expensive commercials and outspending other brands interms of sheer noise levels. While there is short-term sales push the mute question that begs an answer is whether the brand has gained in sustainable and significant manner out of this investment which is large and significant by any standards. Another equally important question that needs to be answered as well is whether the brand has gained or established any differential emotional connect with the consumer?

The answer according to me is a clear no. Since the consumer is engaged in a transactional manner it would be illogical to expect them to form any deeper connect with the brand than mere value or need based one. Considering that this is the predominant approach one might be tempted to ask then what is the alternative that we are speaking of here.

The alternative that I propose to brand managers is to spend more time to understand what the festival means to the consumer? And then figure how their brand can play a role which immerses it into the festive occasion or makes it an integral part of celebrating the festival or the occasion? This is, beware, tougher path as it means more rigorousness on the brand manager’s part, more investment in understanding the culture and the consumer behind the festival and finally being able to figure a way of meshing in seamlessly into the festive scape.

This has powerful spill offs if done well and in a sustained manner. The biggest is that you are not part of the clutter and vying for attention amidst thousand others. Next is that your brand by immersing itself into the festive scape has the opportunity to establish a deeper emotional connect than possible through mere commercials. Last, if done well and smartly, it means less investments in trying to place your brand before the consumer in the most appropriate and effective manner. Think of it, here is an alternative where the RoI is higher and the long-term spin off greater only if the brand could take the trouble to dig deeper into the consumer/cultural psyche. Are there examples – let me share two though there are many more.

2-3 years back Medimix as a brand had put up sign posts and resting places for devotees making their annual Sabarimala pilgrimage by foot. Just imagine, the devotee is taking this arduous journey and guiding as well as resting is something that he needs and the sheer amount of goodwill that the brand receives is incomparable.

Or just what Tata Coffee did a decade back in Tamilnadu. Tie-up with Kalyana Mandaps to place the Tata Coffee name on appalams being served at the marriage banquet. The deal was if you agree to serve it the appalam comes free. The dish is integral to any lunch and the volume is in millions as during the marriage season all halls run full and by culture marriage is an occasion where missing presence is read into and is an issue among the near and dear ones.

Or even what mineral water brands do during Kumbh Mela, the largest human congregation on the planet by having water pandals at the venue for the thronging and thirsty devotees.

Just wanted to leave this thought – instead of pumping more commercials on prime time in TV or full page print advertisements in color saying Onam sale or Onam offer, just a little thought and you could be closer to the consumer than you would otherwise and establish a connect more lasting too. Call it win-win or plain smartness, the choice is yours.

In my limited experience of being a branding and image consultant for a lot of IT, IT services and IT-enabled services companies, there was one constant challenge. With the exception of a few, the business model/content of communication of majority of companies in this space is absolutely indistinguishable. However, there was always a lingering question, which begged an answer and, answer to which I thought would be the basis of differentiation for a whole lot of players in these sectors.

Every organization must be unique in a real sense, in some way that even its founders, its employees and even its consumes or target audiences may not be aware of or fully ignorant to. How can one go about identifying, discovering or digging this uniqueness out and leverage it? The question assumes increased relevance today, as the industry becomes truly global and companies face the challenge in the external context. For lack of any better word, or for lack of some originality from my side let me call this the DNA* of an organization. In the ensuing paragraphs, I have tried my best to throw some light on various aspects related to the discovery and importance of this DNA primarily from a corporate brand perspective. For reasons of clarification, let me define DNA as an unique characteristic, aspect, nature or delivery of any organism from which springs the uniqueness of that organism and one which influences how the organism evolves.

DNA. IT WORKS.
Be it Infosys or BMW. Though both are rooted in different market, environments and industry, they and many others who have discovered their DNA are telling examples of how it can lead to a success from both organizational and market perspectives and how (in Infosys case) if done in a nascent industry with great promise, it could even lead you to become the darling of masses, customers and the government.

DNA. THE DISCOVERY PROCESS.
Today’s reality is that not many organizations are even aware of their DNA. So, a good starting point would be history. Go back to your roots. Your first clients. Some of your old associates. Early feedback on your work and delivery. Is there any historic and social context to the birth of your organization? Is there a thread you can pick-up or a characteristic that seems to keep coming up. Like BMW, which discovered that, its DNA lay in great engineering due to its origins as a manufacturer of mission-critical parts to aircrafts.

The discovery led to their repositioning as a maker of automobiles, which are machines that are ultimate driving pleasures.

If you are a start-up, look beyond your business plan. Look inside individuals who have come together to start it? Dig some common personal characteristics or leanings? Or was there a common and really fundamental inspiration? Is there a promise to your venture that will live beyond or is completely different? Is the timing of your venture laden with any social or corporate happening, which created tremors?

DNA IS WHAT IS IN THE BODY OF YOUR ORGANIZATION AND NOT TO BE FOUND PACKAGED IN A CONSULTANT’S SHOP OR AGENCY BED.

This again could be done in many ways. Through personal interaction with some of these audiences. Through administered questionnaires which capture the essence without overemphasis on the tangible. Through a search on information archives of the company. Or by hiring a consultant who just does that for you.

Since brands are such an important assets and one wrong repositioning could spell disaster, it is recommended that you go about doing some internal and external ramification after the DNA is discovered just to validate it and see if it needs some more fine-tuning. This actually helps you later in creating accurate imagery when targeting end customers.

LEVERAGING THE DNA.
Now, you have hit paydirt. You have found something underneath that is really unique. Take care from now on, like an archelogist does upon a discovery. Use carefully right tools, protect and keep chiseling slowly and painstakingly to understand and absorb what has been discovered.

Once that has been done, see if you could package it in such a way that it could be communicated, translated into organizational processes and more importantly, a true testimony of what that uniqueness is.

Manufacturing critical aircraft parts which are fitted real-time on the original part’s failure needs great engineering skills.
With great engineering skills one can build great machines.
Great machines make driving a pleasure.

Now, go back and compare that with the promise of a BMW? Getting any triggers?

After the DNA is discovered, seamlessly and ruthlessly reorient your business strategy and organizational processes in alignment with the same. Every touch point needs to reek of it or smell of it.

AVOID TEMPTATIONS.
I will tell you the biggest problem after discovery is not having the faith and commitment to the DNA. If your DNA cannot sustain you, what else can? Though often companies change their DNA amidst business pressures and to please markets, it is often the DNA that would have not been the issue. It would have been the failure of the management or the company to translate into a workable promise or failure to make it relevant and current or even failure of commitment. These temptations, which seem worthwhile at the time of changing, often result in bigger disasters later. Avoid temptations, stick to your DNA but make all efforts to make it current, relevant and of value.

Archeology has a way of opening our eyes to new thoughts, new facts and unexplored possibilities. The process of discovering and leveraging your DNA has the same portents for your corporate brand. And like archeologists will tell you it is all there, hidden, waiting to be discovered. So, when are you starting to explore? Best of luck.

In the last article we spoke about broad outline of how to differentiate between employees and co-owners and some broad outline of what can be done to motivate and retain them. In this article we will focus on some specific activities that can be done to develop a strong glue between the firm and the co-owners.

Back them up to the hilt during rough times
There is a fire on an account or a key customer relationship is on the rocks. And one of the co-owners is in the thick of it. Do not get into the battlefront right in the beginning. Allow them to start fighting the fire but make sure at the back-end you are there for them every minute and they get the feeling that you have absolute confidence in them and their ability to overcome the phase. Once you come out of the fire successfully, celebrate together and share with everyone around how they were instrumental in the resolving of the crisis. This creates a sense of being together and a bond that is hard to forge otherwise. Watch out for overdoing this though. It completely backfires.

Let them know you know of their initiatives and you are differentiating both tangibly and intangibly
One of the biggest drivers for a co-owner is their sense of ownership, the satisfaction that they derive from going beyond what they thought was their capability, discovering something new etc. While they do feel the need to be recognized, the manner and tone of the same makes a lot of difference to them. For example they would shy away from asking anything monetarily but would definitely know if it has been inappropriate. And if it’s purely monetary also they may not be that excited.

The challenge really is to find a way of consistently letting them know that their little or significant progress is being noted of, undertake little gestures of appreciation which they would not have expected (with a personal touch it just becomes a tad more better) and slipping in the right monetary incentives at the right time. Now, do not just leave this to the HR department. Participate in it yourself and be there. It lets them know in unstated words that they are important to you and you are going that extra mile.

Do some creative tasks or time-outs together
There are a little quirks and sensitivities to all of us and co-owners are no exception. Like most people, to know theirs, either you need to be a friend or a smart/keen observer. Now office situations are not the most conducive one to observe as they are less likely to be their natural self. Take time out and do some freewheeling brainstorming on an idea or a business opportunity. Let the setting be informal and make sure you do a lot more listening than speaking. The trick is to get moments when they realize they have hit upon a cool idea or activity or both of you hit upon the same thing instinctively. Once you hit a couple of high notes and a couple of time outs later you will actually find them opening up more and you will see their little quirks slowly and subtly visible. Make a note and ensure you factor that in many things you do with them at the workplace. Without uttering a word or hinting at it visibly. You would begin to see a certain comfort level that would develop and evolve over the years which is what great teams are made of.

At this point, working together actually becomes a pleasure and one actually misses or looks forward to meeting or working together.

Allow them time to do something they are passionate about
They have a hobby they like or a skill they would like to acquire. Help in as little ways the business allows you to (without going overboard). Doing something they like, makes anyone more cheerful, passionate and you will see them charged when they come to office. And greatful to you for the thought that you had and for the initiative that you took.

Over and above all these, ensure you keep a constant dialogue going, that you keep the channels of communication open all the time and that you find little opportunities of interest to them.

If it has not already dawned on you, this requires skillsof a true leader which is what you need to be to attract, hold and retain co-owners. Passionate and visionary one at that with your own little quirks and a warm attitude towards people.

Just for clarity, let me define this members of the core team let they be confused with employees. Any organization has two kinds of people on their rolls – one set which is driven by the infrastructure available, salary, perks, benefits and is focused onto the job or task or role allocated to them. They are called employees and they would any day be the majority. The other set, which is a dwindling minority are a set of people who believe in the company’s vision as their own, are excited by the potential and the challenge and do not have the salary or perks as their top criteria for satisfaction. The issue with the employees is that they cannot be relied upon in crises time to stay back and help you wade through the troubled waters. While employees are required for the organization to function they on their own volition would not play a role beyond and their mind is always in the take mode. Leveraging new business opportunities or extracting extra flexibility incase of crises or pressure cooker times is also difficult. More importantly

However, the other set which for lack of a better word, I will term as co-owners, would go beyond their role, willingly lend their hand in crises and best, be thrilled to fight alongside you in the competitive marketplace. Since growing companies often encounter turbulence and had to wade through troubled waters often, this second set of people are crucial. Also when the company is keen to leverage new untested opportunities which it cannot invest in the beginning, it is the co-owners who would offer themselves and are ideal candidates to drive the same. The challenge moreso in today’s overheated job market is how do you build and nurture this co-owners???

Spot them early
This is absolutely important since this tribe is a minority and dwindling in its numbers. If you chance upon one working in your venture, tell yourself, you will never let go of them and that their satisfaction, growth and nurturing would be a top priority for you.

Give them ample challenges and work with them in overcoming
Ensure they have a challenge before them at any given point and more importantly let them know and feel that you are fully behind them. The challenge will keep the excitement levels sustained and your support and backing will constantly assure them that you are around though you may not be involved or physically present.

Constantly
This is a really testing one since often there might be times when you personally may not feel like it or they might be looking to you for motivation at the wrong times. Just remember that it is your duty as an entrepreneur and your personal situation/state is a lower priority over this duty and pull yourself up to pat them on their back with a smile. No exceptions allowed until and unless it is extraordinary.

Build loyalty
Understand them well, where they come from, why they do what they do?, their sensitivities, their quirks, their fears and their limitations. Without being pushy or being intrusive play the role of a concerned and responsible mentor to them. Stay the distance but ensure you are at arm’s length when the need comes to reach across. Trust them and the moment they feel it and truly understand it, you would have built a certain level of loyalty which would be crucial in their staying back. Never let them down and again your priorities are secondary and balance is achieved all the time.

Let them free
Give them clear goals and let them free. Allow them their little quirks or what many call personal space. Do not hold it against them or bring it into the table when appraisals happen. Since they are not working for money alone this grows the comfort levels and morphs into a glue over a period of time.

Linear to non-linear, it is a new ball game
As communicators we have always used and refined the art of mass communication in a linear fashion which flows out of a company’s brief and thereafter through controlled messaging to the mass media and finally reaches the customers or the intended target audience. The explosion of blogs and wikis has led to this linearity being significantly disrupted with information and communication often emerging out of unexpected quarters and companies having to respond or react or do last minute incorporations into their communication. For example, months before a technology giant rolls out its new offering, there are many blogs or portals where one can not only get information about the product but also user comments on its pluses and negatives as well. Or where certain blogs break a scoop which gains traction and soon enough, the mainstream media picks it up and the story circulates.

This disruption or shift has some fundamental implications for the PR fraternity:

• Loosing of control is no more an option before companies or PR firms, it is a healthy component of the new strategy they need to deploy to address and manage the new and diverse and often anonymous news sources
• The communication is truly becoming two-way or interactive and instead of treating any such inward communication (versus the outward communication model that we are so familiar with) with disdain, suspicion or as trespassing into our domain, if we can start engaging thoughtfully and carefully, it can turn into a great forum for early and relevant feedback for the new product or early warning signal of a certain customer perception or issue therein. Most importantly we the professionals have got to get into a whole new suit where are more listeners and amplifiers than purveyors (the later role which I believe we have gotten very comfortable playing)
• Understanding of technology and ability to leverage technology in delivery of communication is going to become more and more important and it will be quite disastrous not to be tech-savvy. And, let me emphasize that this is not relevant only to those dealing with technology firms. It is equally relevant for retail, healthcare and property or firms across other sectors as well.

Now, where is the opportunity?
India is widely known has having the best of technology talent. And we can turn this shift into an opportunity by either training these techies in communication fundamentals or training communication professionals in usage or delivery of these tools. Or even create teams where both types of professionals intensely and closely collaborate.

In this we might have advantages as below:

• The business of interactive communication is maturing in India and we are growing interms of what we are doing and are able to do in this segment from a global perspective
• Unlike developed markets like the US and UK which have decades of history and piling up in the traditional mode of communication, the Indian PR fraternity which is relatively young, can just leapfrog or adopt better to this shift (like it happened in telecom where our backwardness became an advantage and we went directly to GSM in mobile telephony)
• Unlike traditional PR this can be done out of India and does not require much physical intervention except the client interfacing periodically which can be easily or effectively addressed

I also believe this opportunity to be important because it allows India to take leadership in an area that is of growing importance to companies across the world. And it will be very difficult to replicate in traditional areas as it will take us quite a while to catch up. We can lead the way globally and that would be a truly proud moment for this comparatively infantile but fast maturing industry.

There needs to be some common ground between the client and the customer if ever there has to be a partnership or relationship. In the services business this is all the more important and critical. If there is no common ground or shared beliefs, it is often difficult to ask for trust or resolve issues. This often results in extra time and effort to convince and protracted issue resolution/management sucking out valuable executive time and bandwidth. The value and cost of such time and bandwidth is enormous in services business since it is intangible and the only tangible a person has is time. This also spills over into internal employee morale and often teams on such accounts are under constant stress impacting their work on other customers and clients. If one adds up the total cost of this, it is entirely possible that the particular account or customer instead of adding up to the business/revenues has actually been a drain. Worse, since services business is all about people, their motivational levels, this results in job dissatisfaction among employees leading to some of them even leaving the company.

The second aspect one needs to assess is that is the relationship and its terms fair. Often companies trying to be very smart play it hard and make their vendor/partner agree to conditions which are either unreasonable or plain unviable. Due to business pressures many a company falls into this trap and accepts the business. Once that happens, the client further gets emboldened and starts increasing his demand and since the service provider would have invested resources and time, he would be unable to pull out. This results in a vicious cycle of exploitation with only one end result. Of the service provider suffering losses and undergoing anguish.

Best is to spot such clients in the beginning and either make the terms mutually fair or just walk-out. Ultimately business is about making margins and not assisting another business to make what you are not making.

Thirdly the client or the customer has to have some respect for the firm that provides the product or service, its capability to do so, its understanding of the business. If a client understands and respects your offering and recognizes its value, it results in a healthy relationship where the team on the account is motivated to give their best or take the extra step. They know that what they are doing is valued and the customer respects them for it. Now this is a positive cycle and the more such customers you have, happier employees you will have internally. Now, for a moment step back and visualize the scenario in reverse. With people becoming central to businesses, this is one concern or area that cannot be overlooked.

While the above three are criteria that one should definitely adopt, there is one more that can be asked from the perspective of growing the firm. This is to ask seriously and honestly, is the client bringing something to the table which is more than money? This is again very important, since today most businesses are about knowledge and for most firms, clients or customers are the biggest source of knowledge/learning and best practices. If there are more clients whom you can learn along with, the more valuable your offering becomes. Inturn leading to increased revenues and better value realization.

Ask yourself. It is finally your business and that business needs to be profitable and you need to enjoy the challenge of running the business. Challenges or issues should be business-driven and it should be empowering to overcome them. If it is not, then what is the use of having a customer? Think about it and be smart and selective in your customer addition.

Well, if the headline made you think and assume the tone of the article to be otherwise, it has served its purpose. Coming to the focus of the article, would like to put forth my views on why “Bottom of the pyramid” should be top on the priority list not just for businesses of all hues and sizes irrespective of where they are based and operate.

Serving the served markets definitely does not serve the purpose of growth
Cal this parody or an irony. Corporates whose sole aim and professed aim is to keep growing healthily or exponentially year on year are only now beginning to look at something which could have served that aim well long back. Because Prof.Prahlad and Co. woke them up and gave them a catch phrase. Called “Bottom of the Pyramid” which is the opportunity of a multi-billion consumer market across the world which is either under served or not served at all. The simple question that begs for an answer is how long more serving the served is going to help a company either interms of market share growth or growth in market penetration. Or more pointedly how long more it is going to help companies to protect their margins and market shares from ever more nimble and new competitors by serving the served which has always been the red ocean, again to borrow another catch phrase. All the while, the untapped and under served Blue ocean of customers much larger in numbers and more in need (in select categories) were there and around.

The immediate and the most expected reposte to this from many a company would be, how can one be sure that this market is real, scaleable, profitable etc. etc. and are not the level of challenges of higher in taping or penetrating or addressing such virgin markets. The answer is yes. But if you overlook one key factor. Which is that growing market share in the currently tapped/served (red ocean) markets, companies have to face equally large but different challenges, have to equally reinvent themselves and spend as much. So, the choice is not between the devil and the deep sea.

The bad aura around big business is not so easy to be wished away
Despite millions of dollars in public relations efforts and lot more in donations and contributions the big business is still not anywhere close to moving of the bottom pit of the perception pyramid. It is still distrusted, looked at with suspicion and is seen as the last place to find kinder hearts. It is not true as we all know but then the way we have attempted to explain or reach out does not have enough doses of genuineness for anyone with reasonable amount of distrust to change their perception. So it is often a question of We Vs Them. The companies Vs the NGOs. The rich Vs the poor.

In reality it is not so. There is so much in common between these often warring audiences. There is so much win-win that can be created by a little twist in their relationships and approach that one often wonders why has it not been on top of the corporate agenda over six sigma, lean manufacturing, balanced score card and p-cmmi.

All the twist one needs is like what Bottom of the Pyramid is based upon. Serve the underserved and the poor in partnership with a NGO or any suitable organization with a scaleable and profitable (but no highly profitable) value proposition. Just visualize the shift in scenario. The poor gets served with something they need and find useful and at prices they can afford, the companies get good topline growth and penetration into a new market and more importantly the NGO who till now was the other side is an active partner working along. And this reeks of genuinety because businesses are quite genuinely happy when they see their toplines grow with a spurt in bottomline as well. So, the almost Himalayan public perception hurdle becomes easier to surmount than ever before.

Society needs the way private businesses operate more than ever before
There are only three primary types of institutions in the world – government/public, private for profit and non-profit. Of all these the government is least preferred for its’ unwieldy, unfocused and often has enough wheels grinding within to make any movement a major achievement. And governments have constraints in the way they operate and often lack the flexibility required to bring about sustainable change. Non-profit sector while known for its lofty ideals/great intentions often is found wanting in accountability, results-orientation and sustainability. They are often driven by an individual or a group of individuals’ vision leading to a vacuum at the exit of those individual(s). This makes them good bubble creators but not good enough to catalyze massive social change.The only model which is focused on processes, performance, accountability and sustainability is the private business where the only hitch is that it exists in its own universe. If the lofty ideals and genuine intentions are married with the private sector way of operating, you get the best mix to address huge social issues profitably. This need for private business ideas and practices and its involvement may not be so outspoken or evident but is there latent just under the surface. Scratch it and you will come to contact with it. It is time businesses shed this idea and step out of their cocoons and look at the larger world and realize there is a contribution they can make and businesses they can build.

I can go on and on. Let us face it. The refinement and continuous learning that business inculcates in us and our processes are direly needed by a larger universe. Just start. In no time you would be a social entrepreneur or your company will be into social entrepreneurship with “bottom of the pyramid” as your territory.

What is so wrong with the marketing of today that you need to turn it on its’ head?
Right through the year I travel across the world talking to customers, competitors and marketers from diverse businesses. And what I hear concerns me and is the basis on which I made that statement. To me it seems as if the marketing function (and the universities that teach its fundamentals) somehow missed the millennium and just kept plugging along without recognizing that the world – particularly the business world – has changed radically. It reflects in the thinking that pervades marketers across the world who treat it as an isolated function or a saviour in times of crisis. Recently, the CMO of a large Fortune 500 company confided in me that he only spoke to his CEO when there was a problem. The rest of the time they co-existed in glorious silence. The CMO couldn’t see what the CEO could offer when it came to marketing; the CEO was above such things. It’s an unrealistic mindset. Besides, marketing the way it is done today is often detached from what today’s consumers really need, leading to a big and growing disconnect. To be frank, my fear is that the traditional marketing minds are making many more mistakes than these two.

Outline key factors that have driven this paradigm shift?
The first and foremost is the change in the consumer landscape. The smart and connected consumer of today knows far more. They google, log onto a blog, speak to a friend and get competitive information and voila, they know more about your brand than you do. And this category of customers are going to be disappointed by today’s marketing mantra of take a big advertising campaign out, pack some star value and get the word out. Knowledgeable they are, this kind of approach will actually result in the reverse. Make them feel disengaged with the brand and feel that the brand is treating them as uninformed when they actually know more.

Second, the world is today truly flat (as Tom Friedman famously said) and we are all members of the Flat Earth Society now. The advent of digital communication has made it increasingly easy for companies to compete in the world economy. Chindia, the vital new combined economic force of China and India, is setting the new agenda. Both China and India are racing to build businesses that can compete directly with Western companies and take business away from them. Their value proposition is very simple: Quality at comparatively lower prices. Can you beat that?

Let me share with you this. Recently I attended the board meeting of an Indian company through web conferencing. I anticipated mutual back-slapping as the previous year’s revenues were up 60%. I was startled when instead of celebrations there were recriminations. The management was disappointed with 60% growth (in the US, we would have had champagne flowing) and was keen to figure what had gone wrong! And the next year’s target was set at more than 100%. Though the meeting ended late (2.00 a.m. at Connecticut), I felt charged as if I was involved with something profound. The other example is the company I am involved here with – 24×7 Learning, which provides technology-leveraged training and now wants to expand overseas. The management team is very optimistic and believes that growing in the U.S. market can be achieved in a year’s time. Yes, I said one year.

What can companies and marketers do to address this new consumer and the changing landscape?

• The old trick of the trade was to push information. The new way is to understand customers and to segment the marketplace. Let me give you an empirical example. Earlier for 10 people you had to appeal to 200. With market segmentation, today for 10 people you reach out only to 12. What do you call that? Marketing that truly works??
• Medium is the way to get there. Multi-channel marketing is an approach that is worth driving into.
• The new wave of marketing is data driven. It is a combination of arts and science and is more tilted towards science. It includes understanding customer, delivery and closing of the loop.
• Marketing in the new millennium needs to encompass a full circle from mining minds (Understand consumer’s wants, needs and aspirations), demarcating demand (How to create demand) to managing your brand, leadership and employees. The last part is important. Marketing is as much internal as it is external. You need to address employees as well.

What differentiates global brands that succeed and not succeed in the Indian market?
Let me first admit one thing. Multinationals (most of them with few exceptions) have not figured fully markets like India. Having said that let me outline a few aspects that are important for them to succeed in the Indian market:

• Have a long-term strategy to sustain (like what Motorola did in China-loose money for the first few years and today it is among the company’s fastest growing operations)
• Understand local sensitivities (cultural and otherwise)
• Shape the market by introducing approaches that are indigenous to India — but which can then be leveraged in other countries. Hindustan Lever is a good example. It introduced single-use sachets of shampoos and soap products so that lower-income customers have access to premium brands which led to growth of the category itself.
• Tweak the brands or have the global brand served as a local one. (Let me give you two examples. Most Indians don’t eat beef, so McDonald’s decided to create the McAloo Tikki burger, made of potatoes, which now has the highest sales in McDonald’s restaurants in India. Similarly, Pizza Hut’s Tandoori Pizza has helped store traffic grow fourfold and cash registers ring overtime)
• Understand distribution channels and how they work here
• Be genuine

To me, one of the biggest mistakes global companies make is for the senior executives to make an investment commitment without thinking through the horizon for return on investment. Frankly, with the economy so buoyant, it is very tempting to do that. But the results of the promise not being kept are disastrous.

What about Indian brands becoming truly global brands?
India is already building global brands in the area of IT services (Wipro, TCS and Infosys), pharmaceuticals (Ranbaxy and Dr.Reddy’s), automotive components and to some extent specialty chemicals. My gut feel is that it should continue to strive to build global brands in certain areas where it has natural strengths and the early lead. It is still a long way before you can see a truly global Indian brand in other categories, particularly consumer. If you have succeeded in the Indian marketplace and built a great brand, there is no market in the world which is out of bounds.

While Indians have broken the ceiling in many areas globally, the same is not true of marketing and branding arena. Why?
Right now in the US, I can only recall a few other names who head the global marketing of a Fortune 500 firm. Hence, the question is enormously relevant.  There are two fundamental factors that have led to this:

• Indian education is still excessively focused on individual contribution while marketing as a discipline is about collective work. There is a basic disconnect there
• The society still prefers engineering and medical when it comes to education and career streams; there is a little whisper of a change and it would be a while before it becomes a storm

I hope it happens and we replicate our success in many other fields to marketing and branding as well.

In an Opinion Research Corp. study undertaken sometime back globally, respondents were asked how they formed impressions about companies? Contact with employees scored 39% much higher than published articles, advertising and other communication tools in that order of importance. The only thing that ranked higher was the actual experience of the consumer with the product or service offered by the company. Assuming we take the quality of the product or service for granted, it emerges that the most effective and proven way to build a credible corporate brand lies in recognizing each employee as a potential company spokesperson and engaging all the employees as influencers in the marketplace.

If you look at it again, then you will find far more reasons why it is this way. Is it not a fundamental principle that nothing has greater impact on brand perception than our products/services and what our people say publicly. Is it not true that the behaviour of an employee at any customer contact point makes or mars a carefully and expensively cultivated image of the brand built over the years? Is it not true that in a commoditized marketplace where technology is a great leveler, the only difference can come and be made by employees which inturn has the single biggest impact on branding?

To put in a nutshell, our own people are the most effective way to build a credible and effective corporate brand and to do so the first thing any company needs to do is to seriously look at and make them an integral and effective element of the traditional marketing mix, which is not so prevalent today.

How can this be done? Here are a few pointers:

1. have a formalized program to constantly and real-time provide relevant information to people, enabling them to communicate effectively externally, as well as internally (it helps to have a common code and nomenclature for this as it adds to the effectiveness of the program and also increases the visibility both within and outside)
2. enable employees to internalize the vision, core values and strategy and understand their personal role in achieving those goals (which should be a senior management priority and has to be focused upon)
3. build a strong internal community which unifies all the employees and fosters and takes collective pride in the company’s achievements (helps in retention very well)
4. where possible externally use them as spokespersons (lots of IT companies and others have successfully used alumni effectively in their campus recruitment efforts)
5. be honest and take them into confidence about the business and where it is heading (their level of ownership is higher and their conviction when externally interfacing is equally strong)

The good thing is that with the evolution of technology tools like intranet and others, doing so is convenient and turnaround times shorter. It just requires a strong belief in engaging our own people as brand ambassadors and making them truly a part of the marketing mix. How about starting today to look within?

As an industry insider and like most professionals am happy with the prominence accorded to integrated communications as a concept and it being touted as the next big thing. However, of late that happiness is giving way to wariness of the lopsided manner in which many in the industry are projecting or communicating it to be. Before I try to focus on what truly is 360’ etc. let me get one thing straight:

Integrated communications is not merely about going beyond advertising
Integrated communications is NOT the refuge of firms who have realized that advertising is no more the king that sits on the branding and communications throne and no longer is the consumer, an ad-ministered individual?  In my view, integrated communications is the natural evolution of the communication industry from being medium/message driven to being consumer and market driven. To putting the clients and their end consumers centerstage and choices being determined by that rather than your bouquet of offering. The danger with treating it as going beyond advertising is that advertising gets implied as one of the tools. So, you do an event or something with one 30 second spot or a print ad. thrown in. That is unacceptable to believers in the concept like us to whom integrated communications is a new, open and (tool) unbiased way of looking at communication. We go in with an open mind and not a fixed offering portfolio and try to evolve a solution that sometimes will not even have an ounce of advertising. Or even events. Or even promotions. Or even media relations. It is about looking at for the first time at end consumers and our clients in a new manner and engaging them like true partners and consultants. We are solution providers and we come with a truly open mind and no hidden agendas. We have no revenue pressure to sell a 30 second spot or a promotion. We just have the pressure to build a solution that delivers. For example we might end up recommending a blog as the best and only solution. It is about true mixing and matching from the view point of an effective end result and not one where one or two components are fixed and the rest is mixed and matched. And for godsake it is not a debate about the effectiveness of advertising. The market has moved beyond it and every client today needs to take a call on any medium/tools’ effectiveness with or without data and whether the agency concurs or not.

Having driven that point, let me outline some fundamental characteristics that need to underly any campaign or solution that claims to be truly integrated.

Neutrality to any medium/message/tool
You are no longer an ad agency or a PR firm or an event firm or a direct marketing firm. And you are also not necessarily all of these rolled into one. You are a consultant and a solution provider whose core competency/experience allows you to identify the best tool(s) for the said client or business need and also evolve the most effective mix of the selected tools. At no point do you have the constraint or pressure to include a tool.

Treating end consumers as more intelligent than us
True is it captivating to watch AB in his baritone voice or some stunning Bollywood heroine prancing around. True it holds attention and helps me remember the brand name. But is that the end or can it be the only objective of any communication? It is NOT. Such approaches which presume and assume the consumer to be part of a herd and driven merely by glam is an approach that has no place in an era where often the end consumer knows more about the brand than even the client, leave alone the agency. Let us accept it – the consumer of today is a rational, intelligent being who has access to loads of third party information on the company, the brand and the works. So while they might laugh at and like the ad. with King Khan, if you take the trouble to walk with them to a retail outlet, you will find the disconcerting sight of them buying another brand. Am for once not saying celebrity endorsements are not effective but the point I would like to get across is that consumers are intelligent and see through such efforts. If not backed by rational evidence.

Like I said in a panel discussion that was part of in Pune recently, many of us in the industry cutting across firms are beginning to believe we have the magic potion that can sell any brand across categories. That we as the creators of the communication are superior to those communicated to. That our sophistication, technique and packaging is sure to mesmerize any consumer who then has no choice but to fall in line.

Infact, I was asking this question candidly to myself and studying my behaviour as a consumer. Even factoring some skepticism considering am in the industry, found that a large part of my brand choices were made more by a holistic opinion/impression gathered from multiple sources than a delightful communication.

What this effectively means is that instead of plying our tools of the trade, let us start plying our ability to respect and understand the intelligent consumer and being able to identify the best tool for getting that across in a neutral and unbiased manner.

It has to be a two way street
This just build on the earlier two characteristics. If you are open and respect the consumer’s intelligence, then you will listen. Listen raptly and humbly. Listen as often as possible and make it a point to listen to as many as possible.

In a way, you become a facilitator who deploys that absorbed knowledge or insight to evolve into a communication. The message is thus truly participative. Since it evolved from the consumer and not us within the four walls of our agency or studio. And this listening needs to continue and cannot stop at any point of time. Infact, if needed, let it evolve into a dialogue.

You will see the drastic change now. The communication becomes a two way street and the end consumer is often more engaged than he or she would have been had it been that one brilliant commercial. Not to mention as many case-studies across the globe attest to, such listening or dialogue makes you change or infuse new elements into let us say a commercial which then goes beyond being a commercial. Of all characteristics, this is the toughest. Since it means getting out there, accepting the answers are not within us and being open to learning on a continuous basis.

To summarize, integrated communications, if rightly understood and deployed as a concept allows building of optimistic rapport with consumers/stakeholders, better understanding of their needs, motivation, outlook and actions and finally evolution of meaningful and sticky solutions that work.

‘The problem is never how to get new, innovative thoughts to your mind, but how to get old ones out. Every mind is archaic furniture. Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it’.

Hope each communication professional does that on an ongoing basis. It is important since an army of such people is critical to integrated communications as a concept succeeding in the marketplace.

The success of Infosys and HCL among others finally helped break this huge thought and mindset barrier. It showed how professionals and professional managers with little capital and either a great idea or a good business model can go about building business empires out of scratch.  Their phenomenal success and the wealth they created inspired many professionals to leave their cushy, well-paid jobs to strike out on their own. Another fallout of this visible success has been the change it created amongst middle class families who were for the first time willing to accept an option beyond assigned desks and salaries. This is equally important and crucial because in the Indian social context the family has a large role in influencing choices and if it still continued with its old mindset many an entrepreneurship dream would have not seen the light of the day. These twin changes which took shape in the late 90’s is today fairly mature and evolved one which makes entrepreneurship as an option for professionals of any hue and any age.

Having captured the emergence of it as a career option, let us look at who is suited for making most of this career option. For ease and clarity, have tried to make it like a set of questions (fairly rudimentary but nevertheless a good starting point) with brief comments to help. Do ask these questions intensely and answer truly and sincerely:
Are you a risk-taker? (if  answer is a emphatic no or even a confused yes, think again)

Can you be decisive and at the same time equally delegate? (While being indecisive is a recipe for disaster so is trying to be everywhere and do everything)

Are you passionate? (this essentially means checking whether you are driven and would push yourself beyond for what you believe in?)

Is your tolerance level high or low? (being on your own is often a huge ride with its own highs and lows. Hence are you prepared to ride out the lows with minimal impact or you would break with every low?)
Can you articulate a vision and make people buy it as their own? (It is more than mere effective communication. It is about your ability to live and breathe something, have a clear imagery of that something and being able to tirelessly and consistently say it in multiple situations and formats)
Are you someone who will stick his neck out? (because making something out of an opportunity really means the ability to stick your neck out and doing so swiftly and decisively)
What are the motivators for you to strike out on your own? (the biggest benefits of entreprenuership is the opportunity of building something of your own, independence, freedom and wealth creation. If these are not your motivators well, think again.)

Do you have liabilities?
Do you strongly believe in your idea or model? (let us say you have answered positively to all the above questions, now the next question that begs answer is there a market for what you are thinking of or have come up with and is it sustainable? If yes, belief is strong and rooted)
Is there a skill or in-built characteristics of yours that is relevant to the demands of the type of business you are setting out to build?  (this is a synergy that will come in good stead while running the business)

Armed with an yes and doodles of positivism straddle out and strike out on your own. In today’s globalized era, opportunities are aplenty. You just need to strike out your territory.

All the very best!!!!!

Increased globalization and a truly flat world means no business is exempt from being impacted by and impacting global business trends and developments

In the new interconnected world, even a small business in the corner of Jamaica does get impacted by what is happening elsewhere. For example, if global oil prices go up, there will be impact across the islands and this price rise will affect most businesses. Or for example if the global fashion trend changes, the small entrepreneur running a garments store in the neighbourhood is as likely to be impacted with the pressure to buy stock in line with the trend. Since football is popular across the Caribbean, the FIFA world cup has significant impact on diverse kind of businesses in the Caribbean. That is one kind of impact.

Tomorrow let us say China finds better ways of making steel and much cheaper, a small business in the corner of Russia selling steel articles and sourcing steel locally will be affected.

Or to give you an example, let us say due to ICC world cup a million new visitors throng the West Indies who have not been to this part of the world before. Let us assume they are all frequent travelers and currently frequent visitors to Bali or Thailand. Now suppose a fraction of them from India fall in love with the West Indies and decide to make it their favorite destination, some small travel firm sitting in Chennai focusing on package tours to Thailand will be affected and vice-versa (an Indian travel firm handling package tours to west indies will see the business growing).

Come to think of it, every major global development – political or economical impacts businesses across the world – big or small – India or West Indies and this is here to stay. And only grow as the world gets further inter-connected and flatter.

Customers are increasingly global
As one begins to travel the world the one thing that strikes compared to the previous years is the drastic change in profile of the customers of any business across the world and their diversity. Think your mall in Jamaica is meant for Jamaicans??? Think again. You might have a Russian, an Indian and an Australian and why even someone from Brunei shopping there. The Ayurvedic resorts in Kerala attract people from all over the world. Now, what do you call a business that serves global customers?? Local or global??? And in the same vein what do you call an entrepreneur who is behind such a venture. Local or global???

Customer expectations and service standards are increasingly global
Just run this quick survey. How many hotels and resorts across the world have started offering internet connectivity or some business facility in the past two years vis-à-vis the number before. You would be surprised by the answer. Factoring exceptions you will find almost significant jump in percentages across nations and markets. Now, that happened because people today know what is being offered across the world irrespective of where they are located through the net and multiple other sources. Besides more and more people are criss-crossing the globe and networking intensely than ever before. So, it is inevitable and true that the customer expectations or standards are not what is specific to your country but what is prevalent and common across the world. The logical question that arises then is, what do you call a business that is aligned to global customer expectations and service standards? Local or global?? And in the same vein what do you call an entrepreneur who is behind such a venture. Local or global???

The bottomline is simple and the writing on the wall is clear. Irrespective of which country you decide to start a venture, the kind of space you choose to start your venture, the level at which you start your venture and the kind of geographical spread of the venture, by default you are global in some sense and at some level.

The important thing for entrepreneurs is to understand this, treat this as part and parcel of their planning and organizational building process and keep their ears open for any change or development across the world which will in its wake throw a new opportunity or create a new competitor or require significant changes to your product or service. It will allow you to be better prepared and you will not be caught surprised by the tide or turn of events. Howzzzzzat???