Setting Effective Performance Objective

Posted on May 21, 2015 by IBS India

There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time. Performance objective is a specific end result that contributes to the success of the unit or organization and that you as a future employee will be expected to accomplish or produce.
Performance objectives provide focus to an employee’s work to ensure that his or her actions are directed towards achieving important mission-related outcomes. This has become really challenging in today’s business environment where lack of proper goal reduces the top line of an organization. Performance objectives are not work activities, task descriptions, or responsibilities listed in a performance description.

A work activity is an overall action that an employee takes when performing his or her job. A performance objective specifies the outcome or end result of a work activity.
There is a subtle difference between the task and the performance objectives. For example- Setting effective performance objective

Task: Determine sourcing strategies to avoid cost.
Performance Objective: By the end of the financial year, present two sourcing strategies for existing and new vendors based on a thorough analysis of volumes, customer needs, capabilities, and value addition.
Task: Prepare and deliver executive leadership deck.
Performance Objective: By March end, deliver three decks to key stakeholders regarding the new process, and consolidate a detailed report on the feedback received.
Task: Collaborate with others.
Performance Objective: For each project received during this year, solicit at least one individual to provide input at the planning stage. Incorporate the individual’s input into your final report.

Difficult times disrupt your conventionalways of thinking and push you to forge better habits of thought, performance and being. Young people often gets discouraged when encounters on immediate failure. You need to hold up your aces, think what went wrong and develop performance objectives to overcome in future. There are five ways to set good performance objectives and if worked diligently on achieving can work wonders for all of us. I believe effective performance objectives should be:-

1) Specific
I think that the Japanese culture is one of the very few cultures left that have its own identity. They’re just so traditional and so specific in their ways that even till now they our amongst the world leader. If your team is going to do what you ask them to do, then you need to be specific about the end result. Use action words like “to increase”, “to establish”, “to reduce” and “to create” in your communication. You can also use “specific” to remind yourself that objectives need to relate back to a specific personal or organizational goal. It’s a constant cycle to remind you.

2) Measurable
Imagine you are playing the games ‘Candy Crush’ or ‘Words with Friends’ and it doesn’t show a score or progress indication as you go along. You wouldn’t play it – there’s no motivation!
You want something that will allow the person to gauge how well they are progressing toward achieving the objective. You don’t want an objective that is vague. This leaves room for misinterpretation and that will end in disgruntled people. So tell the person how you are going to measure the achievement. Then you both know when it hasn’t been achieved, when it’s been met and when it’s been exceeded.
For example, 100 percentile push every student to compete with other. It’s also a good idea to record the source of the measurement. For example, the profit & loss report for retail division, client survey, and sales reports.

3) Attainable
When a warrior learns to stop the internal dialogue, everything becomes possible; the most far-fetched schemes become attainable. I’ll quote a story once upon a time there was a leader and his three direct reportees. The first employee’s objectives were too hard; there is no way they could be achieved. First employee just gave up at the start. Second employee’s objectives were too easy; they just weren’t motivating at all. But third employee’s objectives were just right. They were a stretch and it might be difficult, but employee thought there was a good chance she could achieve them. She was one motivated passionate employee. The moral of the story is “Persist and persevere, and you will find most things that are attainable, possible.”

4) Relevant
Relate the objective back to the team and company goals. Being part of a team effort is much more motivating than just having an objective. Is the objective within something the person will have control or influence over? There’s always going to be the circumstances you can’t plan for. There’s always the unexpected relevance never question the relevance of truth, but always question the truth of relevance. Your goals should be relevant enough for you to achieve it. You can become a shining star or will be shot down depending upon the relevance of goal you have. People are overwhelmed looking up at the Mount Everest of environmental challenges that we face. But you put one foot in front of the other and you recognize that not everyone is Sir Edmund Hillary.

5) Time bound
What is the time frame for achieving the objective? A target date and some milestones help keep things on track. Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use. Ensure your goals are time bound and should have a fixed hard line. If the objectives are fixed it helps you to work hard until they are achieved. Imagine a 20 over cricket match, the batsmen has a set target or are in process of setting target, they can’t wait till the last ball is about to be ball. It’s a time bound game and everyone wants to win.
Most “impossible” goals can be met simply by breaking them down into bite size chunks, writing them down, believing them, and then going full speed ahead as if they were routine.

Contributed by Vaibhav Chandra (Class of 2009, IBS HYDERABAD)

“Your Mom is the best manager!”

Posted on May 21, 2015 by IBS India

You would have read hundreds of lessons in management and would have studied hundreds of case studies on management. But did you ever think that the best manager in the world is at your home only? Yes, she is none other than your sweet Mom! She may not hold an MBA degree from a well reputed university and may not have worked as a manager of a corporate but she knows well how to manage your family!

Let me define first who is a real manager according to me. A manager is the one who is able to manage a number of things in a given frame of time and handles each and everything well, completing all things within the stipulated time. “Manager” word does not apply only to those people who are sitting in the air conditioned offices, well dressed and managing their sub-ordinates. But it applies to anyone who manages well! Well, a good manager has the qualities of proper planning, leading, organizing and controlling. A mother exhibits all these virtues in her day to day responsibilities and manages everything in her day to day life without any expectations or rewards.

Management at all the levels of the family

A mother has to handle all the tiers of the house which are in-laws, husbands and the kids. In-laws come under the top management, husband is the chief managing director, children are the executives and maids are the employees. There is hardly any dispute and she manages all the members of the family as an efficient manager. She has to manage the expectations at all the levels and if there is any conflict, she is the first one who has to listen and provide a solution. When the kids are growing and lots of turbulences and happenings are going with them, it is the mother only who manages all their resistances to change and ensure a smooth transition. Whenever things go wrong and there is a possibility of corrective action from her side, she willingly accepts it and takes necessary corrective action. She is the best reviewer of everything in the family and always works to bring improvement and effectiveness in the family. Do you really feel that a company manager can do better than this?

Effective Management of resources

A mother manages all the Finance like household expenses, income from your father and other external expenses. She is efficient in making the budget of the family, she forecast well and she always keeps a surplus and makes proper planning for the future requirements. At the time of financial crisis or instability in the family, it is the mother only who manages and handles all the incomes and expenses and runs the family smoothly. She manages stores, raw materials and each and every resource at home with full perfection. For all these management skills, she was never taught by anyone or she never took any degree. She developed everything after she took the responsibility of your family. Even, the managers at office get at least one day off in a week, but a mother never gets any off and she has to be in operation throughout the week!

An invaluable service with no expectation of rewards

If someone ever thinks to evaluate the services of a mother in terms of money, then I don’t think that her work, services and her love and concern can ever be paid in return. No amount is ever more than her sincere works and many times her works and services remain unnoticed and unacknowledged. Whenever someone asks about her occupation, the label of just a ‘house-wife’ is answered. But if this housewife is to be paid for her services to her family, then she deserves a number of times more than what her husband is paid in his company or occupation.

A saga of love, dedication and hard work

The world o Your Mom is the best manager f mother is confined in the four walls of the house but she always remains as a saga of love, dedication and hard work. She has an endless love and concern towards her family and

she is the only manager who does not have any designated working hours. She gets up early in the morning when everyone is sleeping and goes to bed so late that everyone has slept off till that time. When we enjoy watching different channels on the television, she is preparing yummy food for us in the kitchen. Whether she is busy or free, she is always smiling and concerned towards her work at home. She is never indifferent in her work and never has any grievances or complaints with anyone. In a company, if a manager is fed up of all the responsibilities and expectations, then he submits his resignation and starts planning to shift to another company, but a mother has one and only one place to stick to and that is her family only.

There are some valuable things in our lives which we learn practically and the lessons of management from our mother are one of those. She helps us to grow as a better person and while growing with her, we learn a lot of important aspects of management which no theoretical books can teach us. She teaches us that everything in this world can be managed by the art of love and dedication. She teaches us the virtues of honesty and sincerity towards our work and responsibilities. She never writes anything on a piece of paper but whatever she demonstrates by her acts are enough as the biggest practical lessons. Let us value our lovely mother for the excellent role of a home manager she has played so far and let us not complain for what she has been unable to provide us. The role of a home manager is really an unmatchable one with hundreds of difficulties and challenges on the way. We have seen that how beautifully our Moms perform this role without the expectation of any reward or compensation. Simply, she is the best manager in the world, even better than the managers passed from the IIMs and the Harvard.

Ashish Singh Parihar ( Class of 2008, IBS PUNE )

Informal Networks in Organizations and Organizational Effectiveness

Posted on May 20, 2015 by IBS India

“In every department that continues to operate, the workers have – whether aware of it or not – formed themselves into a group with appropriate customs, duties, routines, even rituals; and management succeeds (or fails) in proportion as it is accepted without reservation by the group as authority and leader” (Mayo, 1949)

Description

This article discusses how informal networks in organizations operate and their role in both enhancing and detracting organizational effectiveness. The key argument being made in this article is that informal networks should be encouraged as long as they add value to the organization and not when they become the channels for political games and avenues for anti organizational activities.

This points to the fact that individuals in organizations do not stop being social beings while working in those organizations. This in turn relates to the very core of the essential question of how to define an organization. While this question cannot be entirely resolved in this paper as such, the underlying assumptions will be that organizations are basically a web of coalitions and that coalition building is an important dimension of almost all organizational life (Morgan, 1997).

Introduction

It is said that humans are social beings and hence, have an innate need to communicate, relate, and exchange information with others. We are all aware of how we form networks of familial relatives, peers, friends, and in this age of social media, virtual contacts. Therefore, being social and engaging with others comes naturally to us. In an organizational context, this means that employees tend to form networks comprising colleagues, superiors, and subordinates. Of course, the HR department also plays its part in making sure that networks are formed by periodically organizing get together events, offsite meetings, annual days, and family visits. Thus, there are two kinds of networks in place in organization and they are the formal or the organized networks that the management explicitly encourages, and the informal networks that are also known as organizational grapevine wherein news, views, and information are exchanged over coffee, tea, and less healthily, over drinks and cigarettes.

The Role of Informal Networks

Turning to the role that formal and informal networks play in ensuring organizational effectiveness, it is indeed the case that when employees know other employees not only from their immediate teams but across the organization, it leads to value enhancing activities. For instance, in this age when Information Technology or IT is ubiquitous and needed for competitive advantage, knowing someone in the IT support team on a personal basis can certainly help especially when your team or your team members need urgent access to hardware and software that would otherwise have to be routed through the time consuming bureaucratic processes. Of course, this does not mean that the official channels should be bypassed in favor of a free for all interactions. On the other hand, what this means is that you can convince your contact in the IT team to act swiftly while the organizational machinery grinds and hence, can get your job done quickly.

Further, informal networks are a major source of exchanging information and news related to the organization between peers, superiors, and subordinates and more often than not, the first people who get to know of impending announcements related to promotions and launches of new products are the ones who have their ears to the ground. Moreover, informal networks can be a good source of bonding and stress relief in these age of pressure wherein sharing a coffee or a tea during breaks and engaging in harmless talks or talking shop as it is also known as can enhance the value to the organization.

Downsides of Informal Networks

Having said that, one must not forget that informal and formal networks ought not to become places or meetings where intrigue, backroom maneuvers, and vicious gossip become the order of the day. In other words, informal and formal networks work best when the information being exchanged is in the interest of the organization and not against it. For instance, there are cases when employees have been approached by their peers with job offers and moves to rival companies that has resulted in situations where the management had to fir the person who was making these offers as it is against company policy. Moreover, such networks also tend to promote favoritism, formation of power centers in the organization that are outside of the purview of the formal networks, and can even lead to cases where these networks work against the organizational ethos through lobbying and creation of parallel reporting.

Another big disadvantage with the informal networks are that they tend to be comprised mainly of men which is also known as the boys club because it has been the tradition for male employees to engage with fellow men and keep the women out. Though this can be dismissed as harmless bantering and when anyway women employees tend to bond with other women, the real kicker is when the managers (whether men or women) tend to favor others in their informal networks for promotions and other benefits. Apart from this, the other disadvantage of informal networks as well as perpetuate harassment, discrimination, and prejudice against those that are not part of the charmed circle. Moreover, it is also the case that employees with the bad intentions can leak the information obtained in the informal networks to competitors and the media thereby jeopardizing the interests of the organizations.

Conclusion

It is for this reason that management tends to keep a watch on what is being said where and when as otherwise, the downsides as discussed here can lead to the effectiveness of the organization being compromised. It is the argument being made in this article that informal networks must work towards enhancing organizational effectiveness instead of detracting the same. In conclusion, informal networks are good ways for employees to unwind, relieve their good as well as bad moments, crib about their bosses and let the pressure ease. However, they become dangerous when they become centers for political games. Therefore, the HR department must encourage and tolerate such networks as long as they are beneficial to the organization.

Contributed by Suchin Kulshrestha, (Class of 2008, IBS Hyderabad)

Difference between Personnel Management & HRM

Posted on May 19, 2015 by IBS India

Many students of management and laypeople often hear the term HRM or Human Resource Management and wonder about the difference between HRM and the traditional term Personnel Management. In earlier times, the Personnel Manager of a factory or firm was the person in charge of ensuring employee welfare and interceding between the management and the employees. In recent times, the term has been replaced with HR manager. This article looks at the differences in usage and scope of functions as well as the underlying theory behind these nomenclatures. In the section on introducing HRM, we briefly looked at the main differences. We shall look into them in more detail here.

Personnel Management

Traditionally the term personnel management was used to refer to the set of activities concerning the workforce which included staffing, payroll, contractual obligations and other administrative tasks. In this respect, personnel management encompasses the range of activities that are to do with managing the workforce rather than resources. Personnel Management is more administrative in nature and the Personnel Manager’s main job is to ensure that the needs of the workforce as they pertain to their immediate concerns are taken care of. Further, personnel managers typically played the role of mediators between the management and the employees and hence there was always the feeling that personnel management was not in tune with the objectives of the management.

Example:

Raj works for a company in personnel management. Personnel management is an administrative function of an organization that exists to provide the personnel needed for organizational activities and to manage the general employee-employer relationship. Let’s see how Raj does it.

Raj engages in planning and job analysis to determine his organization’s current and future labor needs. He recruits employees with knowledge, skills and abilities that the organization needs. Raj and his coworkers will also help develop current employees through employee appraisal and training. He’ll help ensure a safe and healthy workplace by making sure the organization complies with all occupational health and safety regulations.

Human Resource Management

With the advent of resource centric organizations in recent decades, it has become imperative to put “people first” as well as secure management objectives of maximizing the ROI (Return on Investment) on the resources. This has led to the development of the modern HRM function which is primarily concerned with ensuring the fulfillment of management objectives and at the same time ensuring that the needs of the resources are taken care of. In this way, HRM differs from personnel management not only in its broader scope but also in the way in which its mission is defined. HRM goes beyond the administrative tasks of personnel management and encompasses a broad vision of how management would like the resources to contribute to the success of the organization.

Example:

Lata works in human resource management (HRM). Human resource management also involves the management of people in an organization. The job of human resource management is to ensure that the organization has the human capital it needs to accomplish its goals. ‘Human capital’ is a fancy way of describing employees with a certain set of knowledge, skills and abilities that can be used by an organization in a productive way. Let’s take a quick look at what Lata and other people in human resource management do.

Lata ensures that the company is appropriately staffed, which includes job analysis, planning, recruiting and selection. Lata and her fellow resource managers also develop training and education programs to keep employees up-to-date on the skills and knowledge they need. Human resource management develops compensation plans just like personnel management.

10 points difference

Personnel management is a traditional approach of managing people in the organization. Human resource management is a modern approach of managing people and their strengths in the organization.

Personnel management focuses on personnel administration, employee welfare and labor relation. Human resource management focuses on acquisition, development, motivation and maintenance of human resources in the organization.

Personnel management assumes people as a input for achieving desired output. Human resource management assumes people as an important and valuable resource for achieving desired output.

Under personnel management, personnel function is undertaken for employee’s satisfaction. Under human resource management, administrative function is undertaken for goal achievement.

Under personnel management, job design is done on the basis of division of labor. Under human resource management, job design function is done on the basis of group work/team work.

Under personnel management, employees are provided with less training and development opportunities. Under human resource management, employees are provided with more training and development opportunities.

In personnel management, decisions are made by the top management as per the rules and regulation of the organization. In human resource management, decisions are made collectively after considering employee’s participation, authority, decentralization, competitive environment etc.

Personnel management focuses on increased production and satisfied employees. Human resource management focuses on effectiveness, culture, productivity and employee’s participation.

Personnel management is concerned with personnel manager. Human resource management is concerned with all level of managers from top to bottom.

Personnel management is a routine function. Human resource management is a strategic function.

Personnel Management and HRM: A Paradigm Shift ?

Cynics might point to the fact that whatever term we use, it is finally “about managing people”. The answer to this would be that the way in which people are managed says a lot about the approach that the firm is taking. For instance, traditional manufacturing units had personnel managers whereas the services firms have HR managers. While it is tempting to view Personnel Management as archaic and HRM as modern, we have to recognize the fact that each serves or served the purpose for which they were instituted. Personnel Management was effective in the “smokestack” era and HRM is effective in the 21st century and this definitely reflects a paradigm shift in the practice of managing people.

Conclusion

It is clear from the above paragraphs that HRM denotes a shift in focus and strategy and is in tune with the needs of the modern organization. HRM concentrates on the planning, monitoring and control aspects of resources whereas Personnel Management was largely about mediating between the management and employees. Many experts view Personnel Management as being workforce centered whereas HRM is resource centered. In conclusion, the differences between these two terms have to be viewed through the prism of people management through the times and in context of the industry that is being studied.

Contributed by Suchin Kulshrestha, (Class of 2008, IBS Hyderabad)

Start-ups demand leaders and not just bosses

Posted on May 18, 2015 by IBS India

Every successful company was once a start-up and behind the growth and success of each, there were pillars called leaders. There is no place in the world where a strong leadership is not required to achieve substantial growth. When it comes to a start-up, a strong and positive leadership is needed to help the company to sustain the hectic environment where the odds are most stacked upon you. If you are leading a team in a start-up and really want to see your employees contributing to the growth of the firm, then you have to act like a leader and ward off all the qualities of a horrible boss. The distinction between being a leader or a boss may seem small to you, but it really means a whole world to your subordinates.

Are you a leader or a boss?

A leader always learns while a boss knows it all
A good leader listens more than talks while a boss talks lot and listens less
A leader encourages while a boss criticizes or blames
A leader recognizes your natural talents while a boss identifies the weaknesses
A leader finds solutions while a boss gives just answers
A leader takes the accountability while a boss passes the blame
A leader reveals his vulnerability while a boss protects his ego
A leader demands performance while a boss demands results
A leader trains while a boss directs

Every team has a boss but what they look for is a leader. So start leading today and win the hearts!

When a company is getting off the ground, there is no room for the bosses, it demands leaders. Here are the qualities which are demanded in the leaders to be successful in start-ups.

Quality to set the path and get everyone in the right direction

A good visionary can well set a path for the start-up and a strict boss can execute it but only a true leader can perform both the activities right. There is a huge scope of setting a long term strategy and day to day tasks based on that. A visionary leader has to do both the things well and should recognize each and every opportunity coming on the way and should well execute the plans based on that.

A leader knows how to generate resources, not just allocate them

A boss can organize an army. He takes the given set of resources and allocates them wherever required. But a smart leader leverages the given set of resources. In the environment of a start-up company, the most important thing is to hire the best people and then train them in the most efficient manner, so that they help in the faster growth of the start-up. A leader knows it all and works with the long term prospects in order to build a great foundation of the firm and not just focusing on small term achievements.

Passion for work

Passion for work is the most desired thing for a leader. It is not just 8 hours of your office schedule, what matters is the amount of dedication towards your work. Even after leaving the office, leaders find some time to think about new innovative ideas for innovation for their work and management. This gives a positive impact on the minds of the employees that their leader is the person who is actually leading everyone in all aspects and is the ideal for the job. As said ‘Work is worship’ and this thing is followed by the leader in every dimension of his job, whether it is managing the core job or managing employees and other resources. Start-ups demand leaders and not just bosses

Knowledge is Power

It is rightly said that one who has stopped learning has stopped growing and this is what done by the bosses who think that they know everything. ‘Knowledge is Power’ and a 360 degree thirst for knowledge is what desired by the leaders in a start-up. When a company is growing, it is important to understand the workflow, business scenarios and profit making initiatives. Having a sound knowledge is desired but learning in parallel is more needed by the leaders. One who wants to be the boss only will avoid listening to the employees but the real leaders keep their eyes and ears open when the staff or client provides feedbacks or suggestions. A good learner is a good listener and that applies to a good leader.

Identifying the real talents and attract them

The key to success of a start-up is to identify the real talents of the employees and use them in the positive growth of the company. A pool of talented employees can change the scenario and they can lead to a sharp rise in the growth trajectory. While a leader should identify the talented people, he should also become a powerful magnet for them. History has shown that people choose leaders and then follow them up to hell and that should be the quality of a start-up leader. If a boss can’t create a talented team of his own, then there is no way by which he can lead a team well.

So the success mantra for a successful start up is “Not Bosses but Leaders”. In today’s world of fast growing competition, it is the effective leadership only which can help companies to grow and succeed in the competition. Whichever services you provide or whichever products you create an effective leadership of your employees and production is vital for stepping up. The productivity of your organization can only reach the expected levels when there is leadership and not just rules and regulations. It is better to be your own boss but not to be a ruling boss of others! Anyone can start a business but only those succeed who have effective leadership in the center. So, the bottom line is “As a startup leader you need to make things happen by acting as a leader and not just a boss”!

Ashish Singh Parihar ( Class of 2008, IBS PUNE )

MANAGEMENT AND THE DIGITAL NATIVE

Posted on May 15, 2015 by IBS India

Management and the digital native

Today everything around us has gone tech. The need to have everything in place while being “on the move” is something that every person looks forward to. Apparel, furnishings, FMCG, food, housing, you name it and the internet provides you with a solution to bring it within your reach. This tsunami of digitization is being readily lapped up by a generation that drives the future. And it is this generation about whom the world is talking and taking notice of their activities.

The beginning of it all:

Digital natives, also expressed by some as Generation Me, are now entering or planning to come into the job market. This generation’s private activities, fashioned by growing up on a digital planet, will show strong effects on the future of business and the relations between employers and employees.

Older generations had an outlook of management which could be considered close to having a demigod status. Contemporary graduates have a different understanding of leadership and management. Previously managers had the powers because of their title. Digital natives on the other hand, follow the right individual who will lead them to eventual success. So, in case of ineffective managers, who do not seem to be equipped to lead the team; the digital natives will identify the most effective person and will tag along with him or her regardless of their title, or lack of it. This is not rebelliousness but somewhat a fresh, more valuable manner of running inter-team dynamics.

Graduates in their late-20s can be viewed as being superficial or casual as they experience the recently popular, “quarter-life crisis”. They question after years of study, whether the current job profile is what they would identify with, and many change careers before they’ve even started. On the face of their career, many of them don’t really recognize what it is that they covet. As a result, the aspiration for a dream job is not always in line by the facility to express what that job is.

Digital Natives are an exceedingly networked generation which is further facilitated by growing technology. Social networking is a primary element of the manner that they function. Expecting them to leave this way of being linked with the wider network when they arrive into the workplace will swiftly take them out to look for another place to work.

They carry technology with them and make use of social and tech tools for everything. Such an attitude is clearly seen in cases when they are provided with old hand-me-down tech, or expect them to perform with shoddy hardware or software; their dissatisfaction will be expressed in the substandard work that they will deliver. Their caliber is such that they will be managing their own world with new technology that they bring themselves at the same time, while the employer’s substandard tech lies on their desks.

B- Schools bringing a change:

B-school’s have a lot of smart populace. This is a fact no matter which way you look at it. Most institutes nowadays are also packed with people the internet likes to call digital natives. The type – whose understanding of pop culture is better than their knowledge of finance, for whom NSFW (not safe for work) means categorically open everywhere and who keep one eye on their Facebook feeds regardless of posting modestly.

It is not fairly close to the digital native Marc Prensky had thought whilst he wrote his influential study in 2001. As per Prensky, the main barrier this digital generation runs into is education, in particular the digital students being educated by analogue faculty. Having sat through classes in different domains and multiple locations, I have somewhat diverse outlook on this.

Today’s trial with the group of digital natives old enough to attend b-school is that we are the generation who tailored ourselves to the digital universe during the path of our lives. We were not born into it, we did not have access to tablets and mobiles at the age of five and we had to acclimatize to live our lives on Orkut, Facebook and Twitter. Now this adaptation has moved to such a height that we have become gripped to the digiverse in a way very similar to addictions seen with teens and other drugs related issues. It is a new side of the world we know which is exposed to agile minds at a time when learning latest skills is easy. With this logic, we are not the exact digital natives. The ‘originals’ are the ones who are being born today, yesterday or anytime after the iPod became a commodity.

B-schools have had to settle themselves to this imminent tide. Everyone identifies the fact that learning is on the rise and will one day be wholly digital. That gamification will puff out through the education system and future MBA scholars will be trained on negotiation from playing a hostage game or value capture from counter strike. However the challenge is that schools have tried to push “digitization” to an audience that does not necessarily use the plethora of resources aptly. How many of us in fact use more than one digital source to get real work done? What percentage of the bandwidth consumed across professional institutes, is Facebook and YouTube and why is no one alarmed that it is so high that it would call for tough actions?

I’m no special, every time I gazed about in class, I always saw a few scholars (ok more than a few) fiddling with devices for various motives. Institutes have to outline a system to keep students suitably focused as this generation of naturalized digital natives, will by no means be truly native.

Addressing the unknown:

So, who are digital natives and what makes them unusual? Are they an opportunity, a threat or both? How can business use their explicit behaviors and mindsets to function productively? We explore some of these key characteristics to help counter these questions.

Digital revolution in the industry is generating new revenue streams for businesses but it is the generation of “digital natives” that is set to bring good yield. Nearly all international brands are trying to reinvent their industries by providing new digital services, crafting new sales channels and developing technology to get in touch with new global customers. In the path of doing so, they are opening up career prospects for tech-savvy business managers in departments and services areas that did not exist years ago.

As per a study by Capgemini, 77% businesses regard lack of digital proficiency an obstacle to their digital makeover. The quest to extract digital understanding is driving a requirement for highly trained graduates. Financial services group American Express (Amex), for example, plans to hire 250 MBAs in 2015 as part of its “digital renovation”. Technological change is one major reason for the sheer pace of this growth. Tech has renovated the face of how commercial businesses were run, from retail to banking to media. Cities like Bengaluru, Pune, NCR and Mumbai are home to more digitally-led organizations than other urban areas in most of Europe and the UK. Biz schools say there are prospects for MBAs to create their mark across the globe, particularly in management consulting.

MBA graduates bring a fresh approach and understanding of digital perspective into consulting companies. The understanding of digital services will be a key prerequisite for all consulting posts. A gush in hiring at the tech wings of big strategic quarters like Accenture and Deloitte is determined by the revenues of new service channels. Digital and tech services amplified their allocation of consulting profits by 6% last year, accounting for a quarter of income.

Digitization of media sector is one such trade area which is in dire want of managers. Managements talk about skill shortage on the rise, and biz schools have established professional MBA programs for various industries, including the much hyped media industry. An MBA with awareness of the trade will certainly be a valuable asset. Cable companies are moving content online. HBO in recent times stated about a new separate digital service, while online distributors such as YouTube are on the rise.

International advertising and marketing corporations have also been increasing their hiring to match with the pace of digital growth. Businesses say they value MBAs skilled in data analytics. As per Maurice Lévy, CEO a key French conglomerate, Publicis Groupe: To break new ground in today’s world of advertising, citizens need to have a high “technology quotient”.

Microsoft runs an internship program which takes in 75 MBAs per year, and they also are into recruiting about 300 students into full-time roles. The online retailer Amazon has also been the leading recruiter at various b-schools over the past two years. This upsurge owes to the fact that MBAs are strong problem solvers and analytical thinkers, thereby making them become a part of the potential leadership pipeline. MBAs blossom at strategic spots as they can take the ownership of big projects and work out hard problems for clients. Amex has opened up its employment process, and is targeting b-schools at the US, UK and India. In actuality, American Express is in the center of an exhilarating digital transformation and this presents infinite breaks for MBA grads.

The outlook of digital natives for the world is very different, even to those who are perhaps less than a decade older to them. Today’s university grads have most likely spent at least 50% more time using their digital toys than reading. In India, China and Japan, this figure is considered to be even more. Does this make them less intelligent or less educated than the previous generation? No it doesn’t. It only means that their learning patterns are different and they bring this divergence into the workplace. Digital natives live and work in a world where information moves at the speed of lightening. Pictographics play a significant role; milennials like to multi-task and they perform their best when networked. It all begins from within and how the leadership deals with their young digital native employees.

To conclude, it is highly likely that the future will hold a challenge for digital natives: if they are inclined to develop an aptitude for leadership, they must hone some emotional intelligence, or else the control will be possessed by a handful of senior web savvy folks who are more able to internalize information (since they are supported by technology) and with superior social skills (they learnt during their life).

Contributed by Deeba, (Class of 2013, IBS Gurgaon)

How to effectively manage your family business?

Posted on May 15, 2015 by IBS India

America is the biggest economy in the world and you will be surprised to know that the biggest part of America’s wealth is from family owned businesses only! Nearly 80-90 % of all business firms in North America are actually family enterprises. About 50 percent of the gross domestic product of US comes from family businesses; nearly 60 percent of the country’s employment and 78 percent of all new job creation comes from family owned businesses in US.

Recent surveys have shown that family businesses have longevity and continue for generations to come. The mean age of the family control businesses is 60.2 years and more than 35 percent survive to the next generations. The driving factor is sense of connection and the sense of identity which owners and other members perceive with the business. There is a long term perspective and the firm has high values which affect the resource inventory positively. However the day to day work of a family business owner can be compromised and affected by different factors such as relatives and through an effective management all the issues coming on the way can be solved positively. The challenges are big and lots of things like emotions etc. can cause interference to rational business decisions. If you run a family business then here are some useful tips for you to effectively manage the challenges you face in your business and excel at all steps.

Business comes first

Always work on the rule that in business, business comes first and the success of the business is very important whatever may be the politics or ties in the family. The business relationship should be accepted and understood by all the family members. The boss and employee relationship must be followed with full sincerity. The issues and problems of the work or home should never overlap or conflict with one another. For making this point effective you should do the following things:

A clear business plan, mission and strategy must be developed and communicated to each and every member of the family.
The structure and chain of command of the business should be well communicated to all. Line of authority for decision making should be clear and communicated to all.
Avoid confusion and blame making by communicating everything with each and every family member.

For stronger management hire a non family member

To make decisions and stick to them firmly, consider hiring a non family member for a position of authority. By doing this you will be free to make effective strategies, plans and developments and the non family member will incorporate it well in the day to day operations. By doing this you may be a bit thick skinned but the strategy will really work for smother operation of the business.

Resolve all family discords and conflicts

Dealing with discord or conflict among the family members in a business scenario is really difficult. But it can be handled well by remaining objective about the situation. Do not take side of any particular member of the family but on the same time tell everyone that you will not let disagreements hamper the business and its objectives. If you find that you are not able to solve the disagreements among the family members then consider moving the disagreed member to new line in the work or to other branches of the work.

The conflicts in the family businesses are easily resolved when there is a proper planning in advance for dealing with the future problems that may arise. A good thing is to develop the business plan which recognizes the impact that relationships can have on the business operation. The plan should discuss that how the business operation and family relationships can be managed. The plan may have a detailed procedure for resolving the disputes between the family members. The use of an outside advisory board with non family members nominated by shareholders can solve the disputes in a better way. There are qualified family counselors and family business mediators too who perform the job of resolving discord and conflicts in the family owned businesses.

Give importance to family relationships too

It is really important to understand the importance of relationships too. Everyone wants to be a successful businessman and earn a lot of money but giving importance to family relationship is also important and needful. It is really heartbreaking when we hear that families ripped apart due to business disputes. One thing should always be there in mind- “You can build a business again but not the relations”. You have got only one family for life, so give importance to it.

There should be family fun time too!

All business and no fun time should be avoided. You may have fun during the business with the family but you should really set aside a “family only” time. Talking about the business all the time will make your relationships suffer as well as other members may feel frustrated. Spend time away from the business with your family. Enjoy with the feeling that you are not business partners. Go out for lunch and do everything which makes fun. This will not only give you and your family relaxation but will also help in strengthening the bonds within the family. Ultimately your working relationships will improve.

Do not create two classes within the family

This is one very important rule in a family owned business. Never try to create 2 classes of employees which are family and non family. Never give special treatment to your family members and be impartial towards all the employees. Giving special favors to family members in a company sets a bad example to everyone and can be a cause of de-motivation to the non family members. This feeling should never come in the mind of non family members in your company that promotion or salary increment is out of their reach because they are not family members.

Family business gives you a sense of pride, loyalty, fellowship and continuity apart from a financial stability for everyone in the family. The legacy continues for generations and provides a sense of uniqueness and recognition for every member of the family. With proper planning and management you can always avoid the pitfalls and effectively manage your family business. By using the strength of the knowledge passed down the generations to you and blending it with your management skills you can surely reach the new levels of success in your family business.

Contributed by Ashish Singh Parihar ( Class of 2008, IBS PUNE )

HOW TO INCREASE PERFORMANCE THROUGH STRATEGIC THINKING

Posted on May 14, 2015 by IBS India

Strategic thinking, the term means taking time to imagine, dream and think futuristically. A ‘would-be manager’ must not just depend on subconscious thoughts keeping in mind the requirement of exceptional performance at work and him. It has to do with your mission, vision, values and strategy. Strategic thinking is important because it leads to options that enable strategic decision making that result to decisions. These decisions lead to strategic planning and actions.

Strategic thinking is also a process that involves letting go of assumptions and postulates such as ‘it is impossible’; ‘it’s irrelevant’ and ‘I am too busy’ etc. You must remember that the job of assumptions is to block progress and hence they must be done away with.

Coming to the attributes of strategic thinking, I personally feel that strategic thinking must be big to understand the macro and micro environment; deep to ensure depth in questioning and testing validity of your assumptions as well as long to understand how far you are looking.

But, the question is, how to think strategically? You need to scan for your macro and micro environment; think and selections through brainstorming; relate options to reality and uncertainty; keep trends in mind and alongside imagine and innovate. Now let us correlate strategic thinking with productivity:

Raise Doubts and Questions

Question and answers rub against each other like stones that product sparks which ignite the fire of imagination. Ask yourself ‘where am I today?’ to increase your presence in the moment; note where you stand in your pursuit and what you need to add to reach the zenith.

Question yourself ‘where would I want to be in near future’ to determine prior and new objectives that lure you. You will be able to get your priority list and hence will be able to think of actions.

Enlist all impediments in the way of your strategic goals by re-asking and analyzing ‘what obstacles stand in my way’. All these will initiate action and better performance!

Imagine your Future

Your performance is crucially linked to your inspiration and motivation. You really need to put aside all distractions to identify new challenges and opportunities for the future.

Think about what you want to be as well as what you want in the next 5 years and be clear about it so that your internal self guides you along bringing in motivation. This process makes everything exciting and raises the level of performance.

Adapt Happiness in your Choices

Understand and acknowledge the thoughts, feelings, values and meaningfulness about your professional life. Remember you choose what to think and when to think but what you really have to account for is whether these thoughts make you happy. People who are content and happy are immensely productive than those who dislike or disrespect their work.

Embrace Creativity

Your life is not just all about reasons, logic and rationality. Hence to boost your strategic performance and thinking you must delve in being creative with your thoughts and actions.

Along creativity, you open all doors to novelty, innovation, being out of the box; improved vision, imagination; accepting emotions and foreseeing by thinking ahead. You will end up being intuitive and understand the failures to improve upon. Being creative rewards you with greater productivity; out of the box achievement and greater freedom.

Invest in Innovation

New products, ideas, concepts always tend to pull the masses towards themselves and hence you must invest in innovation by remaining inspired. Understand and imbibe the excitement of an entrepreneur who converts his ideas into reality and this very factor boosts not only responsibility but also his performance.

Don’t Stick to Failures

Delving on the past or failures stifles your process of strategic thinking. Hence, you could shift your focus away from symptoms of failures to the solution. Failures if not corrected cause stagnation but solution thinking improves performance and the overall person.

Be Alert and Pro-Active

If you are alert and aware through your 5 senses, you are to additional information around you that will invoke your thinking and thus enhance your performance and productivity. Being pro-active makes you able to think and respond faster. ROLE OF INFORMATION AND PRO-ACTIVENESS

Build and Evaluate Options

Just like you fill theory papers with new ideas; flood the sheet of solutions with options to a particular problem. Frankly, this is what advertising agencies also practice. Brainstorm and build a plethora of ideas so that each idea pushes you to perform and keep removing the impractical ones. Once the best idea is selected by you; you become more confident and your performance increases.

Take Risks and let go Fear

Fear always plays with your productivity and if you choose to stick with it, your performance gradually declines. Hence along thinking differently, accepting risks and preparing to face all failures in the process of growth; you must accept calculated risk and delve in innovation. Steve Jobs became immortal in the history of technology and marketing for his different thinking patterns; honor for creativity and embracing change.

Learn from your Mistakes and Leaders

A failure is actually someone who doesn’t learn from his mistakes and keeps repeating them. By employing strategic thinking in your life you invite immense learning progress and increase performance by a corrected thinking, behavioral or habitual pattern that comes to you with it. Also it is advisable to critically think and analyze other’s mistakes to learn from them else the world would not use case studies.

Leaders serve 2 purposes i.e. being examples of success and invoking inspiration in you. One must notice that most of the popular leaders took the road less travelled; believed in their thoughts and dreams more than other’s doubts while remaining perseverant and enduring. Strategic thinking process didn’t make them only productive but also brought them personal and professional growth.

To enhance your strategic thinking process you would require some or all of the following tools:

Balance between logical and creative sides of the brain
Ability to develop clearly defined professional and personal vision
Define objectives and strategic plans.
Adopt flexibility to allow strategic drifts
Awareness and use of 5 senses.
Willingness to learn and improve
Ability to devote time to oneself
Seeking other’s advise and feedback
Matching creativity with reality: Realistic Thinking
Being non-judgmental
Patience and perseverance

Strategic thinking sounds like a huge and heavy term however, you can try and make it a habit to not only improve your life but also enhance your overall performance.

Contributed by Chayan Jain (Class of 2011-2013, IBS HYDERABAD)

4D FRAMEWORK FOR A LUCRATIVE CAREER

Posted on May 13, 2015 by IBS India

Hey you! Yes…I meant you. Eyeballing this article and thinking what’s in this for me! I’d like to share an anecdote with you to give a gist of what I intend to write about today. During my early childhood, my teacher gifted me a famous book by Stephen Covey. For a long time, it did not make sense of what he meant by “7 habits of highly effective people” but eventually it became the words of mighty power. So in keeping those words in mind I would like to start my interaction with you.

While planning out our career, we constantly want to think with the end in mind. This implies being aware of how the present will affect our eventual goals. Every action we take and each association we form impacts our potential self. Though it’s vital to look forward in cases of career development, it’s equally important to reflect on how living in the moment will aid in accomplishment of our career goals.

Sometimes during the daily discourse of our career plans, we can easily get lost and forget about living in the moment. Whether you’re apprehensive about achieving a goal or getting your dream job, you must seize the moment to proficiently sketch out your career. The individuals you meet and the events taking place everyday can change your career in a bat of an eyelid. When you become too focused on looking ahead into the future, you can miss out on valuable breaks taking place in the present. Before you know it, you would have missed a big opportunity that could have been a significant change for your career!

Career advice isn’t one size fits all – what works for someone can be the cause of failure for others – but you can derive an overview on how to protect your professional self at different junctures of life. People in some occupations are able to respond perfectly; for instance: “I did well in school, got into a big college, did my internship, received a top scholarship, continued to work partly and study, eventually I became the most sought-after consultant in the state.”

But many others will have a rather different purview like, “There was no majestic preparation. I just took it one step at a time and tried to make wise choices.” That’s how it is for a good number of CEOs for large businesses, and it’s how it is for writers. There’s no definite pathway to victory—there’s not even an accord on the meaning of success. But I think most victorious individuals “planned” their careers by cultivating a few detailed behaviors in themselves as the time went by. So whether you are in your 20’s or nearing your retirement, we should always aim high and never stop in shaping and fine tuning our career, it’s important for us to know what “career-planning” means, and how to accomplish it.

For every internship and full-time job prospect, there are a slew of technical skills, experience, and competencies that a candidate needs to possess and highlight during the job search process. In case of MBA graduates, this becomes even more vital. Yet, there are also a set of high-level, general qualities that an apprentice has to exhibit in order to be the one to obtain the job offer, given that there are always more contenders who meet the criteria required to do a job well than there are candidates hired to do that job. I think it’s a process of developing the four dimensions shared below and using them as a framework to guide your day-to-day decisions.

In science, “Four Dimensions” are identified by, typically the three dimensions of space (length, height, width) and time. The fourth dimension, the dimension we live in, is rarely spoken of, because most people don’t know time is dimension as well. Taking a rough cue from this concept I have taken the liberty to redefine 4D into: Performance, Behavior, Competencies, and Intellect.

The Four Dimensions exist and are exhibited in all types of professions and conditions. They are defined for a broader level because they cover different context and forms of work, they can be used as a common framework and as a standard of measure across businesses, roles, levels of hierarchy, company objectives, and so on. They cover a wider, more holistic set of traits possessed by prospective aspirant or employee- most organizations mainly focus on diverse stages and characteristics of “performance”- as well as try to capture not only present skills and potential, but future prospects and the capability to discover and develop as a professional.

The Four Dimensions are like the four planes, each an independent entity and yet connected to the other. For example, we can link Performance and Behavior as one set of planes and the other ones linking Capability and Intellect, as shown below.

Concept is that at these are four areas where an employee or job aspirant can display skills and actions that are valuable to the business. He or she is capitalizing on performance (carrying out tasks, meeting objectives, delivering results), demonstrate ideal behavior (engaging peers, stakeholders, and clients with charm, maturity, and concern), applying a set of competencies (performing fiscal, budgetary or cost analyses, forming strategic and/or marketing campaigns, defining contracts, etc.), and showing intellect (an aptitude for fresh thoughts, problem-solving, and novelty, an knack of quick adaptation to new circumstances, acquiring new expertise and develop as a manager and organizational lead).

The rationale behind the Four Dimensions emerging on two sliding scales is that it’s very alluring to focus a good deal of one dimension at the cost of another. For instance, some professionals mostly worry about performance and fall short of fine standards of behavior – their solitary aim is to get results, achieve targets, form deals, etc., and they find their sense of worth and set their value to the firm in context of how they’ve performed, even if that meant they’ve been unsuccessful to acknowledge their peers, ill-treated their reportees, failed to guide and develop less skilled colleagues, and/or dealt wrongly with suppliers, partners, and customers, etc.

So we see that Performance and Behavior are what an individual does, whereas Competencies and Intellect is who or what a job applicant is.

The Competencies category describes the sum set of abilities that a person currently has – his or her capability to do some work of with technical precision or expertise (everything from building a training module to making a PowerPoint presentation, coding a new piece of software, or managing a project).

Intellect, in this comparison, is a person’s aptitude to learn, make critical assessment, take in fresh approaches, and transform, develop, and adapt to new circumstances. Thus, it can be defined as one’s capacity to attain new capabilities, and it includes all the things we consider when we refer to someone’s intelligence, curiosity, and even wisdom.

In case intellect appears less functional for most MBA job aspirants, it’s worth recalling that the reason employers care about the academic achievements of students (from school percentages to CAT scores) is not essentially that those particular skills and knowledge are vital to carry out a certain job, but that success in the academic arena is an indicator of a person’s capacity to learn on the job, grasp new information, and arrive at new insights and ideas that assist an organization to develop and compete.

As with Performance and Behavior, in the context of the scale between Competencies and Intellect; it’s possible to have too much of one and too little of the other. One can be highly skilled and be able to multitask – very talented, by virtue of previous training and work experiences – yet lacking in capacity to adapt and learn, transform and grow in new directions (and emerge as a true leader in one’s organization).

It’s also a very hazardous spot for MBAs who rely too much on upholding their future potential rather than current proficiency, depending a lot on one’s general power for critical thinking and wisdom lacking the ability to spot to the fundamental, ready-to-use expertise and competencies that are needed on day one of a new job.

Wholly, the Four Dimensions are a useful framework for accentuating the complete set of traits that are required for MBA-level “awareness.” As a job candidate, you may face interviews that are restricted in subject (e.g., consulting case study that requires basic market understanding, or finance interviews that involve the candidates ability to analyze stocks), but a “behavioral” interview (about candidate’s past experiences, track record, existing skills, personality, and future potential) is a platform to use the Four Dimensions.

I feel, the finest interviews are those in where a candidate has the chance to emphasize on instances from all four dimensions – presenting a high result oriented track record and a winning streak (Performance), sharing instances of supporting peers, serving clients, care for all stakeholders (Behavior), recognize skill sets and expertise that is relevant to technical tasks or business-building endeavors (Competencies), and stressing on experiences and expertise developed till date, and also the capability to learn new things, be creative, and widen personal and professional horizons (Intellect).

If you’re ever at a loss for a narrative framework to depict your capabilities in an interview (outside the chronological sequence recommended by the question, “Walk me through your résumé”), I advise re-reading your résumé and identifying pointers which highlight your Performance, Behavior, Competencies, or Intellect. Select the most convincing examples of each of the Four Dimensions (from professional, academic, and extracurricular activities), and throw light on your persona of being a well-balanced and aptly able professional who can engage others and eventually take on a senior role the business as it develops and evolves to face new challenges.

Contributed by Deeba, (Class of 2013, IBS Gurgaon)

Tangible Branding

Posted on May 12, 2015 by IBS India

MORE SUBSTANCE, MORE SHINE

‘Seeing is believing.’ The idiom above, which first came on the scene in the early 17th century, intends that “only physical or concrete evidence is convincing”. In other words, it is the substantial that is perceived and readily accepted as real. To distinguish the physical from the spiritual, the palpable from the impalpable, the form from the formless, the human mind heavily relies on the senses. What is definite to the faculties exists and is tangible.
Lairesse’s Allegory of the Five Senses
However, it is not an impossible task to capture the obscure outline of a shadow on the wall and transform it into an expressive graffiti. That is to say- what is intangible can be made tangible.

Tangibility as an induced characteristic manages to lend substance to an otherwise elusive entity, bringing it into clearer existence. Brand is one such entity.

With so many rival brands offering competitive products, providing similar and frequently superfluous experience in a market, it is all too easy for a brand to get lost in the noise of commonness.
I do not admire greatness that has no substance. ― Mary Balogh
To truly come alive, the brand needs to gain a foothold in the customer’s perception of the physical world. For that it must aim to deliver utility. The brand must become tangible.

Tangible brands cultivate a deep distinctive connection with the consumer. There is a tactile sense to each interaction. The brand comes across as a living, breathing person, ready to help with its unique tools to solve or satisfy.

Such tangibility, when associated with a brand, provides many opportunities to augment customer loyalty. The customers tend to invest more, both emotionally and financially, once they think of the brand as singular.

Brand Tangibility is vital in order for a brand to convey itself as being ‘of this world’. A tangible brand is coupled with a definable feeling which is unique to the company. The more useful and relevant a brand, the more customers are likely to get attached.

TOMS presents shoe-shoppers with a chance to absolve their social conscience by participating in a philanthropic purchase. For each pair of shoes sold, the company donates a pair to someone in need. The details are shared with the buyer on his phone, post purchase. Customers have noted a feeling of accomplishment wash over them when they see the physical proof of the donation in their name.

The presence tangible brands seek to maintain is long-term and personal. Brand leaders chose to provide utility by staying up-to-date with their customers’ needs and attitudes. They embrace technology, acknowledging it as the reshaper of the human experience, and master online and offline marketing strategies.

The need to integrate tangibility is even greater for a service brand. Service brands struggle with brand penetration since their product offering has little or no differentiation. The senses are deprived of things to touch, feel, hear and experience.

Moreover, consumers take notice of the service only when it malfunctions, finds a study conducted by Utility Week. A tangible aspect, when incorporated, allows the service brand to differentiate itself on the basis of an identifiable physical presence and emotional connection. To enhance the brand tangibly, the goal should be to educate, entertain or inspire the consumer.

Tangible Branding can be defined as the art of making the brand seem more tangible to its customers either by way of inciting the utility of the brand or by giving the brand a uniquely interactive voice or face.

Building a tangible brand requires an Industry Analysis, that is, a fair assessment of tangibility of the product/service provided in comparison to one’s competitors in the market-place.

Uber managed to take a tough-to-please service like transportation and give a favorable cost-to-experience ratio by delivering solutions for the common industry headaches like driver unreliability.

Design is another important marketing strategy employed by tangible branding.

Smart-e set up an Energy Conversation Centre in Guilford, giving a brand with previously no tangible value a chance to physically interact with its consumers. The founder, Dave Nugent says they try to provide services that suit customers’ every day usage and that convey an energy ‘harvesting’ or energy generation message. Since no customer likes the hard sell, the centre incorporated tangibly expressive elements (infographics, light-up tiles, see-through heat converter pipes) in the centre’s décor to resonate with the idea of energy consumption and conservation. The centre also boasts of a gym which shows, for instance, how much cycling will power one hot shower. The play area has a conveyor-belt slide which lights up from the kinetic energy of the children’s movement. The company created a place where their customers actually wanted to be! What is more, the centre’s hard work made the real value of the brand visible to the customer. The intangible was made tangible through innovative design which could be felt and seen. Tangible Branding also resorts to Tangible Marketing, which is the use of promotional items (like branded stationary or personalized items) to contribute to brand recognition and customer loyalty. Going above and beyond shows the company’s willingness to put efforts to earn and keep a prospective client.

Creating a memorable marketing piece requires selection of a creative Gift and/or attention-grabbing Tagline. A good example of tangible marketing would be the silicon Livestrong bracelets. The custom statement-on-a-wrist turned out to be very successful as a fundraising tool for the cancer awareness cause.

In order to highlight tangibility, most retail brands nowadays propose loyalty cards to their customers, inviting them into the exclusive club that is their brand.

Furthermore, the Social Media platform has proved very useful for improving tangibility of a brand through customer networking. Brand forums online readily offer help to consumers and deliver speedy solutions. The idea is to expose their target audience to their tangible brand elements and what they stand for.

The literal personification of the brand results in Mascots. Where logos are the tangible elements of a brand, mascots are their tangible representatives. Think of a Ronald McDonald and you inevitably think of McD burger/fries. The mascot and the product by association, both embody the brand value of happy times.

In this way, extending to a physical presence can amplify the commercial and competitive value of your brand. More substance, more shine.
A question arises, however.
How do you know that you, as a brand, are in fact tangible?
People today are bombarded with so much Advertising and in a world where a plethora of brand choices prevail per vertical. It really is hard to get the true picture of tangibility. What makes you real is the tangible of intangibles which, however easy to materialize, is difficult to measure. The real question to ask, therefore, is Will they miss you when you are gone? Answer this and you will know where you are on the brand tangibility scale. Tangibility is not a wishful thinking. It can be brought into the daylight out of the shadows. It is just a matter of filling in the outlines. It is just a matter of showing.

For, seeing is believing.

Contributed by Ankita Verma, (Class of 2009, IBS Hyderabad)

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