Raj Shankar's Blog, page 23

3 C’s of Customer Satisfaction

I spend a large portion of my time with entrepreneurial enterprises, start-ups and entrepreneurs. Even last saturday I was with about 40 entrepreneurs at Bangalore and the question of how to build trust and how to build a brand kept coming up. Even though many people make suggestions, the truth is that for a young company, division or brand, only one thing can help build trust – being consistent.

So, when I saw this article, I loved it instantaneously! How is it that the truth always seems so simple that we miss it? Read the article here: http://www.mckinsey.com/Insights/Consumer_And_Retail/The_three_Cs_of_customer_satisfaction_Consistency_consistency_consistency

What can start-ups learn from this survey results?

Consistency is key to customer satisfaction
Consistency can be built only if we know the customer journey with the company / product
Consistency in experience at different points in the customer journey can lead to building trust
Consistency can be easily incorporated in communication
Consistency is about showing up
Consistency means making promises and keeping promises

Consistency is an important tool for entrepreneurs to build a brand for their start-ups. Entrepreneurs must make promises and deliver on those promises. If start-ups do this consistently, they are bound to build trust amongst their early customers. As more people experience this trust, they all start associating the product / service with the start-up. This leads to brand creation.

“Consistency” is hence key to a start-up’s growth journey, both for revenue growth as well as for brand creation.

Three C’s of Customer Satisfaction: Consistency, Consistency, Consistency!

Have you built consistency into your start-up and/or yourself? Start it today! Someone is watching!

Goals should shape Plans

Isn’t that so obvious? But so many people attempt planning without first fixing a non moving goal. The reason they give themselves is that in today’s fast changing world, they need to be dynamic. This is actually a justification, not reasoning. This misunderstanding is why plans don’t serve their intended purpose and planning takes the blame for non-performance.

Setting goals is a difficult job. This is because we should first be sure about what we want in life. It requires us to let go of conflicting goals, give up some that will becomes distractions along the way and be convinced that the set goal is what we will be happy reaching. That the set goal is what will inspire us every time we face obstacles. That the set goal will keep us on the path when attractive alternatives present themselves as fresh opportunities during the journey.

While we should not close our eyes to fresh opportunities, keeping them logged till the next review of our plan is the right action. Constantly changing goals simply means, effort does not add up, momentum does not build up, and inspiration does not stay alive for long.

So every time you sit to make plans, be it for the start-up or for a function (example: marketing) be sure you first fix your goals. As an entrepreneur it is important to build this discipline – the discipline of setting goals before making plans.

If one does not do this, all plans will becomes useless too soon, and you (along with you team) will start finding planning a totally purposeless activity. But this is not good for the enterprise / organisation over the long term.

Think about it!

Which stage of starting up are you in?

The start-up world is filled with surprises. That is what gets all of us involved in entrepreneurship so excited to be there. We enjoy the unpredictability, the thrill, the chances, the intuitive calls, the guesses, etc that arise from no where. These test our endurance and strengthen our resolve to keep moving (not sure if I should say ahead). Even if it is not moving ahead, the enthusiasm keeps the hopes of success alive, it keeps the entrepreneurial journey interesting and keeps the energy high and kicking.

But the truth is as with any journey, there seem to be stages that all start-ups pass through. While the research world is still trying to figure out which is the best set of stages that start-ups always go through, versions are always useful. Here is one such version which suggests that there are 6 stages in the start-up process: http://www.fastcolabs.com/3024237/12-key-stories-from-every-stage-of-starting-up

While the stages are purely of interest to all entrepreneurial folk in the research and teaching community, the entrepreneurs out there should read this for the potential challenges that could arise in each of those stages. There are about a dozen short write-ups which describe potential challenges and possible solutions to them.

Which stage of start-up are you and how are you handling your key challenges?

Happy Reading!

Books and Me: Daily Rituals

Book Title: Daily Rituals: How Artists Work

Author: Mason Curry

I am big fan of writings about artists. How they create their work? Where did their inspiration come from? How did they find their domains? Who did they work under? Who moulded them? How did they get their breaks? How did they remain motivated without rewards? And so on. Anything that gets published on creative people, I generally tend to read. Because though I do a lot of my work in writing on strategy and entrepreneurship, I find there is a lot to learn from artists for business owners.

But this book I picked (rather downloaded) to read because it was intended at understanding the daily routines and rituals of artists. I am a big believer in routines. While I am not a big fan of rituals, I was reading the book to view the kind of routines that artists cultivated and sustained through their lives. As I am working towards building my own routines, I thought this book will give me a few perspectives. To be true to the author, I think it has brought together a whole of information about a whole lot of artists in one book. While the details provided for some authors is longer and more detailed than the others, a reading of the book gives us some general understanding on the importance routines for long term productivity. This is an important lesson for all who think they are running marathons rather than sprints, especially because the examples are from the realm of art.

If artists needed routines to ensure their creativity comes out in full throttle, how can routines not be important for all others. The book is simply a collection of facts about identified artists and their routines and rituals, the author does not make any suggestions or learning. The author is clear that this is not a book of scientific research, but a book of inspiration. It is a good example of good curation. The reader can take away numerous lessons from this collection. The author has also cited references and further reading which will be very helpful, as each one of us (readers) can pick the artist who inspires us and read more about them.

The book is an inspiring read if you are interested in the realm of art in any way. I am sure a few sections of the book will inspire you more than the others, but even if one of them can, I think we should be grateful to the author for the work.

In my case I had more than one which inspired me and I am going to pick a few more referred books about those authors and read further.

Overall a light book which can serve as an inspiration to all who gain inspiration from artists of any kind. Since I work a lot with entrepreneurs, the message from such a book for entrepreneurs is that building routines is critical for unleashing their creativity sustainably while also setting the base for institution building.

Happy Reading and Routine Building!

Are you sending enough emails?

If you are hearing from people that email marketing is all about spamming – think twice! There seems to be evidence that email marketing returns more invested money than other digital promotion spends. According to this article, one should be sending emails a lot more: http://www.mckinsey.com/Insights/Marketing_Sales/Why_marketers_should_keep_sending_you_emails

If you read closely, it is not sending mails to random people. It is about carefully curating lists of users and keeping them interested in opening your mails. Now, this is a lot of work since one email is not a solution to all user requirements and interests. But technology seems to be allowing companies to quickly customise mails even in large numbers. If we carefully reason why we are doing our communication, promotions and advertisements, it is highly possible that we can increase our electronic commerce revenues.

Email still seems to be a primary medium of receiving information. Hence if we can truly create email marketing campaigns around how our product can make the customer’s life better, it can win. This requires us to know more about the customer, their tastes, preferences, their buying patterns, etc. Once we know so much about the customer, we need to also use it appropriately. Many times, companies have loads of customer data, but make little use of it! Are you one such company? If you are – change now! There is money hidden there!

It is also important to know that most people check emails on their mobile devices and hence would like the links to open mobile sites. Even if you don’t have a mobile application (App) it is important to have a mobile enabled site for your e-commerce store.

If thoughtfully created, your emails can generate a lot of potential leads to your website and electronic store. It can also, if enabled well, lead to  high margin revenues. Above all these, emails (if found useful) can also help in virality.

Do you need more reasons to start doing email marketing campaigns? Please remember, even now I am not suggesting that you wildly spam everybody’s mail box. But planned, well crafted, targeted emails should be an important part of your marketing arsenal.

Think about it!

Maya Angelou – No more to read from you

I first came to hear about this poet and memoirist in the Life’s Work column of the Harvard Business Review. I even cite it often, especially if it is about someone from the domain of art. For example the interview with Zandra Rhodes – https://rajshankar.wordpress.com/2014/04/02/vedantic-wednesday-your-work-is-what-youre-there-for/

One of the many I have enjoyed reading under the “Life’s Work” column of HBR is that of Maya Angelou (http://hbr.org/2013/05/maya-angelou/ar/1). She has written numerous poems and memoirs that have fascinated and inspired millions. What inspired me most was the commitment to her writing. During the interview she speaks a lot about the importance of discipline and keeping to a ritual, a routine, so that we can beat our own laziness. What she actually meant was beating our mind which wrecks havoc and dissuades us from working towards a goal, in a repeated and disciplined manner. The way she does it works for her – the actual path is not important, that a path is needed is the real message.

The other thing I really liked from her interview and my limited knowledge of her works is that she was a keen and astute observer. How else can you actually be a memoirist? While it is easy to write one book based on interesting things that happened in life, it takes a lot more acuteness in observation and awareness to pen down volumes on life and living.

Today as we hear about her demise, let us draw inspiration from one more artist who lived her life for her work. Though her family will miss her it is comforting to hear that she had a peaceful death, something that every human being seeks but rarely receives, since it is blessing of divinity. May the divine give the family the courage and blessings to bear the loss.

The more I read about people who lived their lives fully, it inspires me to learn from it and share it. I do this routinely because the people I meet are entrepreneurs / entrepreneurial and they need to routinely spruce up their confidence and belief in themselves and their work.

Though I read poetry very little and very slowly, I hope to read more of Maya’s work, especially her memoirs! For all those who wish to know more about her work, you may look up here: http://mayaangelou.com 

Vedantic Wednesday: Enjoying Versus Capturing

The importance of living in the present and with awareness has been highlighted numerous times by every master. A simple place where we can practice this can be found using this example: Imagine you are staying in a hotel on the 20th floor with a whole wall made of glass. Your cot is facing the glass The glass wall is facing the east. During the morning you wake up and sit facing the rising sun. I am not sure if you are the one who is inspired by the rising sun and the sky around dawn – if you are, then this is a sight not to miss. If you are lucky the sun and the sky could display numerous shades and forms, some of which we may never get a second time. What do you think you will do when you are in this situation? Especially if you are out on a work trip and are alone in the hotel room!

In all possibility you will pull out your camera and start clicking snaps to capture those unique moments of beauty that nature is displaying for you. Today our phones have cameras that are more powerful than separate camera units. Why do we so naturally incline to capturing moments than simply sitting and enjoying them? Why are we wired to capture the beauty than enjoy the beauty? Why is it that almost every one of us is wired to push enjoyment into the future than enjoy in the present?

This is exactly what most master tell us not to do when they say – stay in the present with awareness. If we can sit simply and enjoy the beauty here and now, rather than capture it on a camera, life they say can become beautiful and rewarding. How, you may ask? The only answer to this is to try it out once. Sacrifice the urge to capture and tell yourself that its a gift from nature for you and it must be consumed here and now. If you do this in the above example of staying in the hotel, it would mean, enjoying the sunrise rather than capturing it on your camera. I also hear from people that if they try to do this, they get restless as they are not used to sitting and enjoying – hence they invariably get down to clicking snaps almost involuntarily. No worries, begin somewhere assure the masters and you will overcome this pavlovian habit. A good place to start is situations similar to the sunrise example quoted above.

Think about it and try it out!

Why did Flipkart buy / merge with Myntra?

Why would Flipkart buy or merge Myntra with itself? Will it be simply to consolidate themselves? Isn’t the e-commerce industry in India too young to actually tend towards consolidation? Isn’t the space to see a lot more upstarts before any form of consolidation begins? Just questions to ponder!

Five reasons to kickstart a discussion, reflect and learn:

Flipkart wants to strengthen its fashion offerings: It makes a lot of sense for Flipkart to buy an existing player in the market for adding the fast growing fashion segment. Instead of starting a fresh and fighting a strong growing incumbent, just buy up the strongest player in the market and seek scale.
Myntra recognizes that single category e-tailers can’t survive long: This has been a long pending debate with both sides having candidates succeeding and failing. But the general advice is that it makes sense to have a bunch of categories than a single category when it comes to online retailing, though the verdict is anywhere from being made.
Flipkart and Myntra both want to grow inorganically: Both are run by entrepreneurs seeking growth. They are ambitious and know fully well that they require a stronger management team to grow their individual units. If merging gives scale to both players, a chance of getting to the next level of the game, it also gives access to better quality funding, human resources, etc.,. M&A is seen as a common inorganic growth strategy.
The investors behind the ventures think its time for increasing valuations: If three key investors behind each of the two ventures are common, they would like to consolidate their holdings and safeguard their valuations (and investments). Keeping their investments consolidated gives the investors some hold on the firm as well as some security if something goes wrong. It can be like the investors consolidating their portfolio – isn’t it?
Three is better than Two (Bansals) and all from IIT: Does it not make sense to increase the management team without diluting the widely referred to tag ‘Bansal Brothers’? Flipkart can be continued to be called as run by ‘Bansal Brothers’ even after the Myntra acquisition. They can also continue to be called as an entrepreneurial firm run by IIT Alumni. Isn’t that a good reason for the merger / purchase?

I am sure that there are many reasons and we will never know the real reasons. The real reasons will only be known to the founders (three Bansals) and the investors behind them. Whether this purchase / merger will be for the overall good of the merged entity, will be answered only by time; but for now it seems all good for both Flipkart and Myntra.

Irrespective of the success of the merger or purchase, the stories of Flipkart and Myntra are encouraging and inspiring for aspiring entrepreneurs in India. They can now look up to young Indians who have struck it big. This should inspire a lot more Indians to try their hands at entrepreneurship.

Is Japan shrinking and greying at the same time?

I am a fan of Japan ever since I visited the country. The land, the people, the culture, the silence, their practices, their history and their management practices – everything about them is interesting. I have been a student of Japan and read up everything I come across about this beautiful country. But this article based on a recent data from the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research seems worrying. Here is the link to the detailed article: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/graying-japan-tough-choices-population-dilemma/

The two big challenges facing the Japanese society are:

Ageing population: While everyone hails that the average Japanese and his / her longevity, it is becoming a real challenge to the government’s social security cost. The average Japanese live long and live healthy, but they become less productive because of so many factors including changes in the way business is conducted, the changes to technology, etc. But the cost of maintaining the minimum lifestyle is really becoming difficult because of the reduced income to the government coffers and this is due to the second challenge.
Shrinking population: While policies and lifestyle are equally to be blamed for the reducing workforce (working population), it is now beginning to tend towards a large scale challenge for the Japanese economy. If the government and the socially responsible leaders of the society don’t come together and make changes, the society over the next 20 – 50 years may look very challenging. The population will continue to shrink and it in turn will reduce the number of people available for jobs, which eventually reduces the income accruing to the government. The government income is needed to take care of the fast growing population of aged (retired) people.

This two-pronged challenge needs to be handled strategically by the leaders and everyone responsible for the country’s future. But it is highly possible that Japan can take those calls and make the change happen. It has a history where people have lived for national causes and sacrificed a lot for national causes. I am fairly sure that Japan can find a solution to its slow but upcoming social challenge. But a challenge of this scale requires a diplomatic, charismatic and courageous leader, who can make such a large scale change happen. Will he / she show themselves in time? Only time will tell.

But there are lessons other countries can learn from this even before the challenge starts forming – but are they?

Lets think about it!

Entrepreneurs – Don’t like College?

Think again! Are you asking yourself the right question?

Do students like being in college? If you think the answer is ‘no’, sorry you got it wrong. The answer is a big ‘yes’. Almost every student wants to be in college and almost every alumni misses those lovely days. Then what is it that makes most of the students detest college, its not college but the classes. If you ask students if they like being in classes – most often the answer is a big ‘no’. Now I know I am taking a big risk by writing this blog, especially as a teacher myself. But I have always wondered how the world will be if we allowed students to stay on campus but drop out of classes! If this itself was too much, here is an interesting list of people (many whom you will know through their ventures) who decided to drop out of college itself.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3030631/hit-the-ground-running/10-famous-founders-who-didnt-graduate-from-college

This list I am sure will run into hundreds if not thousands, if we really try to search out the entrepreneur lists. But will it work for those who don’t want to become entrepreneurs? I am sure everyone will benefit by having the courage to live a life that they feel inspires them. But it is not necessary to drop out of college to feel inspired all the time. No, that’s not what I am recommending here. All I am suggesting here is for every one of us to look at the colleges and their systems, the courses offered, the requirements, the faculty and the culture of the university, before taking a decision to register for a course. And if after joining the course if you feel you have made a wrong choice with respect to your goals, why not take a step back and make the bold change. May be the courage will be the lesson you have learnt from the experience. And may be the whole world will benefit from your courageous decision.

These thoughts are not for students to take impulsive calls and use it as a reason to not study. It is to enable you think through your style of learning and find your own way to acquire the knowledge / skill required to live your life fully!

Think about it!