Why CRM ?

CRM (Customer relationship management) is hot kake and every organization are trying to owe the customer with some or other type of strategies. Various techniques are used to owe the customers like

• Integrated solution
• Value for money
• Augmented values
• personalized service

CRM is so important that it has an indivual module in ERP software. why profit oriented companies are so bothered about the customer?

Customer relationship management is so important because of only one reason that is " aquiring new customer is four to five times costly than maintaining current customer". ultimately it the long term objective of companies to maximize the profit only.

Organization vs. Consumer buying behavior

As a marketer one must understand consumer behavior, despite the topic is so descriptive. We have to understand everything with the consumer’s point of view; else consumer will discard us out of the market. Understanding the individual consumers and finally deciding the plan for the entire target is really difficult, but what if the consumer is organization, where a team is purchasing the product.
Problem is that

· Decision is based upon the team of the people, not the individual so how to understand the behavior of the team.
· User of the product is manufacturer, approver of the product is marketing, influencer of the product is some other and finally the financer of the product is Finance department. So what is the chances that your product is gone hit the deck of the organization.

So what can be done is that we can have better design and quality to be liked by the user, persuade the marketing guys by convincing them about the outcome of the purchasing the same product, and finally making it sure that the product is within the range of the financial department or the product will bring the revenue I the long term. Else we should have some products with different price range, quality. I think there are good chances that deal will be done, what do you think?

Is ERP A boon for the industry?

ERP (Enterprise Resource Management) is the winning horse of the corporate world; every organization is trying to have it as an ingredient part. Everyone knows that it helps in integration of the all the process of the organization, very few are talking about the failure of ERP. Here are few of the things that one has to consider before implementing it in the organization.

· It requires the overhaul of the process according to it. Since it is predesigned and the manufacturer is not going to change but organization has to.
· It requires lots of hidden cost and the time for implementation. Actual cost is not as much as cost involved with the overhauling of the processes and training the employees.
· You have to keep on upgrading hardwires to make it compatible with the ERP package. A small organization having less revenue and the profit may find difficulty in upgrading employee and the hardware even maintain it is a big challenge.

So some tie it is difficult to introduce the ERP and the organization will be finished but one thing is even more relevant if you are not using it you will eliminated sooner or later. So think trice about making any decisions…..what you say?

Inventory management ----- At the verge of extinction

You think that INVENTORY MANAGEMENT IS the topic of the past then why the topic is so. I am saying it on the basic of the organization already implemented it, like Toyota and Dell do not have the warehouses rater they work on the principle of just in time inventory or customer pull. Days are gone when inventory of finished goods and raw material was an inseparable part of supply chain management.

There are some reasons while organizations want to almost delete the inventory at their premises.
· Inventory management requires huge investment in term of Warehouses and manpower.
· Suppliers are ready to provide raw material on daily basis and distributor can provide the requirement of commodity on daily basis.
· It is possible as some organization is already implementing it.
· It reduces the spoiling of raw material and finished good as … no need to produce the goods which may not be required by consumer.
· Price of the goods reduces as new price of the product
o New price = Old price – (cost of storage)

As an organization you should be able to take the risk otherwise will be eliminated…. as competitors will provide it at lower price provided other factors constant. Do you people agree?

FMCG ----- it’s all about availability (which depend upon distribution)

“Organization spends a lot in the Brand building activities but once established, they reap the benefits life time”. It was then now market is very competitive especially FMCG market, many established Brand are struggling to maintain the market share. So you are bound to compete, or ready to be eliminated from the market. Even the market of black cold drinks there is a lot of competition; only two big brands are present there. Distribution has critical role in the success of any FMCG organizations, because of

· Buyers have so many options available in this sector as so many established brands are available.
· There is not much risk involved while switching the FMCG products, so if one is not available people may switch to other.
· Earlier distribution (logistics, supply chain, dealers) was designed in such a way to reduce the cost of the product, but now a days it is to have edge over the competitors.

So as FMCG company, be competitive too have good distribution system or else you will be a company to be studied as case in MBA colleges. “Distribution system --- A big failure for company ABC”, perhaps you won’t like it. This is my perception or point of view perhaps you people may have different one.

Relations --- Problem for the researcher (In some cases)

I do not know why am I so much in relationship with relations, have already talked a lot in previous blog and again. Good relations results in excellent outcomes in almost all spheres of life but as a researcher it creates problems, as people are not ready to tell the truth because of one reason or other. Recently I have done a research on the distribution of the particular company, and found that people were reluctant to tell the truth because of fear of getting their relationship spoiled, especially with higher order members of the distribution channel.

· Sometimes retailers were suspicious that we are from distributor’s sides, and thought that anything against the distributor will be conveyed and they have to bear the consequences.
· Dealers and distributors were not willing to divulge anything against the company, fear of getting their license revoked.

As a researcher one may try their best to convince the confidentiality but it’s very difficult to change the perception of individuals. I am wondering to get a solution to deal with this limitation of the research, perhaps some of you may have ideas to deal with.

Relationship does matter even in distribution

Health, Relationship and Achievement are three most important things in the life of human being. Relationship does matter a lot in real life but it’s amazing to see it’s important in the marketing and distribution of the products. Here are few of the facts which will indicate its importance in distribution of the products especially in FMCG products.

· In my previous blog I mentioned that Dabur has problem with less production capacity of REAL JUICE. Demand of this product is more than supply, especially in the metros so every retailer tries their best to have it in their shop but few succeed. When I observed I realized that those who are having good interpersonal skill and hence relation with distributor are getting it easily, rest are complaining about the system i.e. company, distributor and themselves of being small scale.
· Now coming to the credit policies decided by the distributors. Frankly speaking most of distributor decides credit policies on the behavior of the individual retailers. For new retailers they provide the product after receiving the cash. With long term retailers they decide the policy upon the credential of the individuals.
· If one party is good they try to understand the problem of other if they have any. I know one of the distributors of Allahabad and was amazed to see that none of the retailer has any issue with the particular distributor. Even though he sometime fails to fulfill the demand of the individual but he is there to explain the reason.

Real Juice ……Where is the problem?

In previous post i talked about the problem in the Inventory management and their relevance. Now I will be talking about the issues in the distribution channel, when a product is not accessible to the consumer despite of huge demand. I observed that even most trusted and reliable brands are unable to fulfill the requirement of some consumers. Talking about the Dabur’s REAL JUICE, demands is incredible but supply is limited and retailers are cursing the distributors of being partial. What can be the problem?

• Distributors are unable to fulfill the need


• Communication gap between the channel members


• Failure to forecast the demand of the product


• Producers can not provide the demanded quantities because of certain limitations
  

1. Limited supply of Raw Material
   
2. Limited production capacity of the plants
   
3. Limited availability of the Labor

Like every time, this time also I will leave the question wide open but provide my opinion. As per my understanding it’s either the constrain of limited production capacity or availability of the raw material. Since abundance labour is available, big brands like Dabur can not faulter in demand forecasting, and distributors will not entertain the decrease in the profit because of not providing the products.

Amazing, this is not the problem of Dabur only it is the problem of many established brands. It is not the problem of rural areas only but is problem of even metros.

Inventory management .....issues

Inventory management is of highest pririority nowadays, for any organization. It can be in two different types namely management of Raw material and management of Finished goods. Inventory management is the one of the link of the the chain called Supply chain management, which even includes the distribution of the products. But here i will be dicussing the Inventory management and issues involved with it. Here are some of the issues, challenges the process of inventory management.

• Forecasting of demand of the finished products
• Communication inside the organization
• Internal theft in the organization
• Lack of supply chain professional
• Vendor management

These are few of the challenges which determines the efficiency of the inventory management as process and hence helps in the cost reduction of the organization. Some organization have an excellent inventory management and reaping benefits out of it, in one form or other. Dell is fallowing the JITIM (just in time inventory management) and saving a lots of inventory managment cost and having high level of customer satisfaction as well.

Despite many issues , relevence varies from person to person and with situation . Being an iterlectul being, again i am leaving it to the you decide what is the relevance of each of the issues ?

oraganized sector...should it grow or not?

Being marketing guy, i should talk about the organized retailing, distribution and selling but here i will talk about organized sector every Indian should be ashamed of. i will talk about the organised crimes ...which is happening in India but stress a lot about Delhi and NCR. Pickpocketing, theft, robbery and everything is happening in an organized way, so organized that you will see and realized the things happening to you and still you can not do anything. if you are the victim and unfortunately you resist the things...there are huge chances that you will trashed by the mob, part of the sector itself. Here are some facts about these events...

• Its not an individual work but its team work.




• Every team has some or other departments....some involve with identifying the prospect customer and some is the part of execution.




• They will create the fake events to get you involved , if you resists during it, you will be trashed by the members.




• They are intelligent and prefer picking mobiles because now a days people have more of cards than paper pieces...called money.




• If you create problem for them ...probability is high that you will trashed and loose your Wallets too.
• one most important thing which you should know is that during execution more than half population around you is team member only...so be aware of the consequence of any extreme decision you are taking.
  
• They commit the crime in the delhi and the state borders and disappear on the other side of the border.




• I Will not comment on the Role of the police, bus drivers and ticket collector ....you better understand and it can not be generalized.

Mayawati Opposed the organized retailing in the UP but organized crime is growing like anything. Crimes are commited in Anand Vihar and Seema Puri and the culprits get disappeared in the Noida and Gzb. without any doubt you will say that this kind of organized sector should be banned....but question is how?

Internet Slangs... good or bad?

During online chatting or using networking sites you must have come across several symbols and world Like LOL, :p, :>( , :). What they all are?

They are called Internet slang's and are frequently used now a days. Very strange for newcomers but usual for the experienced people. Networking sites like Face book and orkut is revolutionizing the culture and behaviour of the individuals. People are now inventing the new ways to express themselves but modifying the existing words like For is being replaced by 4 and to by 2.

Now thing is that it is good or bad?
There are some points need to taken in to considering while making any decision.

• There is no proper standard for this kind of slang's and modified worlds. ex some may write Two as 2 and some may write To as 2.
• It is not being used as official language. so one has two have two different way of writing as, official and other unofficial.
• Writing these kind of languages are faster as it requires lesser no. of alphabets to be written.
• It is widely accepted but not by everyone.
• Becoz i mean Because We are excessive in this kind of writing so we tend to forget the actual way of writing.

Like always every thing has some pros and Cons....whatever points i found relevant is being covered. But Final decisions is yours..

Internet Slang's are good or bad?

Emotional labour

what kind of labour is it?


Have you observed the air hostesses smiling and greeting each traveller, irrespective of the response of the person. This is the behaviour for which they are getting paid. There are many more examples in the society ....think you will find such kind of behavoiur in you. Think of the situations while you are dealing with your boss or superiors.......


Emotional labour --- It is the kind of behaviour which is expected by the society, even though individuals inner is conflicting to execute it . Depending upon the kind of the conflict inner self and the outer self, we categorized it in three categories.

1. Spontaneous reaction, individuals reaction is spontaneous depending upon the situation.



2. Shallow - The inner is unaffected of the behaviour as it is an skill, does not require much effort but its nature of individual.



3. Deep inside - individual is incorporating same behaviour inside also. its is the most harming, as individual is giving a lots of effort to do so.

I don not whether this kind of behaviour is ethical or unethical since ethics is subjective topic....i leave it up to you to decide.

I lost my wallet...

I am really finding it difficult to keep on writing the blogs... i think it lack of time but others say it is the lack of time management.Since i am in the business of Business management i have to manage all these problems. I am unable to manage my time but what about number of loosing case of a, b & c things by the people.

Nowadays i am receiving a lots of mails regarding ....loss of many things like wallet, PEN Drive, calculator. I do not know what is happening to our memory, Is it loosing it power or it is our slackness that is creating the problem. In any case it is unexpected and undesirable for the the budding managers. Question may arise if you are unable to mange, your own belonging how come you will manage the organizations and their functioning.

Are We loosing our memory management or basic instincts?

Ethichs is all grey, no black and white

There is lots of ambiguities and misunderstanding, what ethics is all about?
Society and organization doing a lots of ethical activities but there no clear boundary between ethical and unethical.
Probably what is ethical to you may not be ethical to me.

1. If some child is misbehaving

you may react even harder and say that it is ethical to give a lesson to brat . But i may consider it unethical by arguing that since child is not as rational as adults, reacting harder to them is really unethical.
2. Selling an insurance
Now a days banks have a lots of intern and employee selling insurance. What happens in general scenario.

• Employee finds the clients having more than minimum amount in their current account.
• Either they will approach clients by saying all all good things about their policies and trying to convince that their money is lying useless in the bank account.
• They tell that we grantee a much better return on the investment even better than fixed deposit.
• Few clients will be convinced and will take the policies and will be told that document will be send to their permanent address and if they are not interested after deducting nominal amount their money will be returned, within stipulated time.
• But by the time document delivered to permanent address and the employee the document and realized that a huge amount has been deducted as opening charges and the time for cancellation is expired(As most of the people work away from their permanent address and by the time they receive the document time of cancellation is bound to expire).

It is not that bank is not aware of the tactics used by the employees but even they are trained to bring any investment. So everyone is busy fooling other within the legal boundaries of law, using loopholes. only you knows when you are ethical ?

Because only your heart knows that you making fool of others . Innocence is most vulnerable in today's scenario and some people are doing business of making fool of other and making money for them.

Thank you.

Motivation Theories in different Areas

A person can do the things in the life depending upon the level of motivation. Motivation can be

• Self motivation


• Motivation by others

Many motivation theories are developed, which are serving to different areas . These theories are based upon the fact that each individual is motivated by different stimulus. Stimulus of motivation can money, power, social recognition, reward , promotions , affiliation etc. Stimulus factor varies from individual to individual depending upon fallowing factor.

• Social factors


• Financial Status


• Cultural factors

etc . For example a person who is poor and is barely able to fulfill the need of his family will be motivated by money. Recognition does have least importance to him.

Motivation theories are applied in many areas like Human Resource Management, Marketing , Organization behaviour. H R manager motivates the employees to perform well and be productive by understanding his turn on factor. Marketer motivates the consumer to a level where he feels the requirement of the product. So there are many field where motivation theories can be applied and it really works is Stimulus recognition is right and execution is perfect.

Thank you

Fast demand and faster delivery

It is human tendency to resist the change......but what about the consumer market, people are always ready to try different taste and sooner becomes saturated about the commodity, especially FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) & electronic gadgets. Since it requires less risk and hence there are many innovators who are ready to try it.

But one things very few realizes that one of the hectic and tight schedule of the professionals are their quick demand of the commodities. The sequence goes like this...

1. Consumers, center of all business is demanding different, unique and enhanced features.
2. Competitive market starts finding solution to the consumer requirement, one company quicker than other.
3. Ultimately Companies start demanding more from the employees of the organization in term of No. of working hours, mental labour.
4. One thing is that same person is part of production and delivery of one product and the consumer of the other product.
5. As consumer individual is demanding fast and as an employee he is forced to deliver even faster, since others are demanding it.

In IT industry, employees are working 10 hours to 14 hours , depending upon the situation wheater it is normal timing or deadline for delivery is approaching. There are few questions to be answered.

Can we imagine where this race will end ?

Who is gaining and who is bearing the consequences?

But one thing is sure that the organization and the people who are competent enough and innovative will survive.

My first blog ---- Crab Culture

Why am i talking about crab?
I am not interested in crab not in the crab culture but in the human being which are more or less behaving like crab. Man are are more or less executing the crab culture.

"All crab start pulling the leg of the rising crab, innstead of raising their own altititude". Like we all human being are doing ..pulling the legs .