OUT OF THE BOX THINKING:-II, It's no more Human Resource but Animal Resource

We have seen that horses and dogs are the men’s best
friends, in every civilization these two animals has
been used, in different ways to achieve the civilizations
benefits.

In recent times also we have seen the most sophisticate
army of the world also maintains a Dog squad, and are
very effective in combating emergencies and different
types of assault.

I was working in a project with the Indian army in
telecommunication in the North Eastern regions of
India there are lot of insurgencies and the Indian
defense uses Monkey Mail, I along with one of my
Englishman counterpart ware taken a back. They said
Monkeys are back up support if the entire communication
medium fails, at the time of emergency, very hard to
believe but actually it’s true.


I recently came across a Website of a 3-4 Star
Hotel in India ‘THE LEMON TREE” basically in the
Class –I & II cities in India, of international
standard.

As in India there is a dearth of quality 3-4 start
budget hotels in India.

One very interesting feature of the management of
the hotel that they have a
“Management Team - Canines (K9)”.
Lemon Tree proudly says in its website” an “EQUAL OPPPERUNITY EMPLOYER.”
http://www.lemontreehotels.com/lemontree-hotels-about-us.aspx

These Dogs are an integral part of the management team,
and they feature in the Hotel’s Website.

All these canines have positions and specified jobs,
(I mean job design and job description), the LEMON
pops ups in the website it say’s “FRESH IDEA ABOUT US”.

May be unique selling propositions, coupled with an out of
the box thinking strategy.
In the twenty first century we have to innovate HR processes
and in turn you may say it’s
Not HRM but ARM, after all we human beings are all animals,
Homo sapiens .

Still lot to come, we think many things so fast has been done,
not only we suffer from Marketing Myopia , but other Management
Myopia too.

" OUT OF THE BOX THINKING" Strategic CROSS PROMOTION.

Now I will be posting for three consecutive posts on
“OUT OF THE BOX THINKING’Strategy.

Management teams look out for the opportunity
to promote their productand services globally
and the timing is very important for the
right kind of promotion.

Cross Promotion plays an important role when both the
products which are new jointly penetrate into the global
market.

We use “Cross Promotion” strategy and it’s considered
as one of the more effective marketing strategies because
it doesn’t need too much effort or energy on your part
to start it.

It’s also a good means to convey a strong message
efficiently, with your clients remembering your point.

Here we find LG Chocolate Mobile handset with AVATAR
making a unique combination of a cross promotion
and launched globally.

James Cameron’s AVATAR which is a Box Office hit in
the very first week with his typical 3D visual effect
and in 3G streaming trailer of AVATER is a great
promotional success.


Typically in a cross promotion musketeers also
provide target market with a stronger
promotional campaign that equals, if it does
not surpass, the much bigger competitors
in the same industry.

Here a joint promotion using the special effect
co promotes the products, we also finds the
merchandise are promoted by the promotion
of the films.


Advertisment of LG Chocolate and AVATAR.

Closing The GAPs Between Strategy And Execution.

In the first of a three part podcast series Donald Sull,
Associate Professor of Management Practice in Strategic
and International Management, discusses closing the gap
between strategy and execution.

I first found this in Planning through Performance Blog
by Ed Barrows, who is a professional management strategist.

All the three Videos are excellent and have been looked
into different angles in solving the problem of the Gap's.










Courtesy: London Business School.

GOOD BYE BAJAJ Scooters : A Case Study of Product Pruning Strategy

Bajaj to stop scooter production, focus on motorcycles.
Bajaj find there is enough market space
for making motor cycles than scooters.
Recently with the launch of Tata NANO, Bajaj Auto
are in talk with Nissan to manufacture passenger cars
below US$ 3000 .

Customers do have a perception problem about firms.
To become an passenger car manufacturer overnight is
difficult , without having any prior experience of
manufacturing cars.

"Marketing is not a battle of products but a
battle of Perceptions."Rise & Trout

Keeping in mind the Passenger Car market, Bajaj
rightly walked out from manufacturing Scooters, which
was considered to the darling of the great Indian
middle class and was amongst one of first Indian
manufactures to sell FINISHED goods in the
international market.

I think in this is an excellent strategic move
Mr. Rajeev Bajaj have taken to stop manufacturing
scooters.

Here this can a CASE STUDY of PRUNING of a product.

What and why firms do Pruning of a Product.



We have seen about product PRUNING, in other words
winding up or discontinuing a product due to
following reasons:


Demand Shifts due to Consumers Behavioral Change:
Declining demand or shift of change in taste of the consumers.

Insufficient Financial Returns: Sometimes the
pruning is done insufficient financial returns.
High Sundry debtors, or large sales cycle time
with low returns and high pressure on bottom
line will force the firms to go for product PRUNING.

Optimum Resources Utilization: Product PRUNING
enables the Firm to dedicate its resources to
its best products, and optimally utilize all
its resources.

Product Mix Alteration: The firm must first
evaluate whether a product or marketing mix
modification could revive demand for the ailing
product. If it finds it’s difficult it will
check out from the market by PRUNING.

Market or Segment Attractiveness: Certain price
/market/segments become attractive as because
that segments growth is phenomenal. So firms
operating in a particular segment do a product
PRUNING and slowly switch to that high growth segment.


Innovation and R & D: Successful firms continuously
stress on innovation and R&D, in order to value adds
to its product line. Product innovation is also a
process. Successful innovation helps a firm to do
existing product PRUNING.

Timing: Last but not the least the Timing is also a
very important matter at the time in PRUNING a
product. A product may be pruned gradually by
discontinuing all promotion expenditures .

GOOD BYE HAMARA BAJAJ


http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News-By-Industry/Auto/Two-wheelers/Bajaj-to-stop-scooter-production-focus-on-motorcycles/articleshow/5320461.cms

Social Media Will Play An Important Role in Markting Strategy.

She sells candy using SOCIAL MEDIA. You can't afford
to ignore any media, in selling your products and
services.

Social Media's role has increased significantly over
the years and is growing exponentially.

Smart Business recognises this take the fully explore
and exploit the opportunity.

A dramatic change management is happening in the media
purchase, here is a video which says that it's a great
work by Mras Snakfood , using Social Media.

Blue Ocean Strategy- A Video

A very clear understanding for the BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY.

This Video is very interesting showing and identifying
the market where competition can be kept irrelevant..

This can be termed as a selection of business strategy
where the firm can really prosper, but thee is a myth ,
all BLUE Oceans becomes RED Ocean , if innovative
ideas are not there.

Blue Ocean Strategy from Shane Logan on Vimeo.

Guerrilla Marketing Strategy Pays In Selling A Cause: Not To Use Landmines

It's very interesting to find that still today
Guerrilla Marketing strategy pays high dividends
for marketing guys.
It's Levinson who pioneered the concepts says that
you need imagination/idea to do it.
I found that McDonald's in U.S. has done it very effectively
I want to share it with you.
Though some modern technology has come up with marketing ,
but in true sense it's the vehicles of media( Media Landscape)
has changed,out of the 5M of advertisement.


Certain social marketing startegy can be done with
Guerrilla Marketing.

Henry Mintzberg On Decision Making

We have always been trying to define Management as
a whole . There are many definition of Managements,
given by many Pundits , Gurus , and Experts.

One of the smartest definition of Management which
I like the most is CDC.

CDC means Computing, Decision Making, Communicating.

I consider Herny Mintzberg to be one of the
living legends in Management.
I have being reading his books since my Post graduate days.

Here's an excellent video by Henry Mintzberg on
Decision Making.