The world has shrunk to a click of the mouse. You can access any data you can think of if you know where and how to look for.
As the world has shrunk so is the market place or the business domains. Now you don’t need to travel to the corners of the world and promote your business. Now you don’t have to employ a large force to promote your word and make a brand in the market. Its no longer about the company size the marketing team or the availability of the budget. It has all come up to a stage where it only involves the knowledge of the social and professional media and networking forums on the internet to promote your business.
The term is online marketing social media marketing, online promotion and so on. It all means the same. No matter what size your company is and no matter what size the marketing team is you can reach out to the world in the least efforts possible. It was once said “The pen is mightier than the sword” I would like to reframe it “net is the mightiest”
Now there are many networking forums, social networking forums, professional networking forums, online markets, online business portals for bidding in projects, online directories which are industry and geography specific. In short you just need to know the potential on this network called Internet and promote your business.
I would say the budget of your marketing activities has come down from millions in investment to a couple of hundred, that’s your internet bill.
Companies from big to small are adopting this trend and are making their presence in the global arena. Some of the companies have moved from their traditional style of marketing to the latest trends and in fact have a separate department for online promotion and marketing.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Does one need have a MBA degree to make it BIG in the market?
I always had this question in my mind and use to think about it for long hours “ Does one needs to be an MBA to understand the market” do these fancy degrees really makes you a champion. Do fancy college names in your degree give you a certification on the judgment of market trends? And many more…
I have worked with many professionals in my career with the Masters Degree in Business Administration some working under me and some above me.
I have been reading through some of the novels, biographies of the recent entrepreneurs and the young Indian businessmen have achieved in life and have found that it’s not the degree that drove them to the success of their business it’s their zeal to achieve something big make a mark in history to prove to the world that they were not meant to lead a simple life.. They had different goals in life and they worked hard to achieve them. It was not the books through which they studied business but the open market was their classroom. They learned by their failures, by seeing others, by not losing hope on themselves.
These are men class apart who could never walk with the crowd and always thought of making their own way. There was nothing which would come in their way. They never had any management degree but they understood the market trends, knew what was customer relationship, client satisfaction, quality control, branding, target audience and cash or finance management.
What I have felt in my education being a B Tech and being in the marketing and sales field that professional education never teaches you how to do stuff or how stuff is done. But it sure gives you the attitude to learn from your surroundings when you are in the market or in your arena. So it hardly makes a difference where you get the attitude from … by spending loads of money and huge time or by being there in the market and by experience.
I never oppose higher education or an MBA because it sure gives you something which might take a while for you to achieve.
I would be more than happy to gear your views and experiences. I would love to share some cases in my upcoming blogs.
I have worked with many professionals in my career with the Masters Degree in Business Administration some working under me and some above me.
I have been reading through some of the novels, biographies of the recent entrepreneurs and the young Indian businessmen have achieved in life and have found that it’s not the degree that drove them to the success of their business it’s their zeal to achieve something big make a mark in history to prove to the world that they were not meant to lead a simple life.. They had different goals in life and they worked hard to achieve them. It was not the books through which they studied business but the open market was their classroom. They learned by their failures, by seeing others, by not losing hope on themselves.
These are men class apart who could never walk with the crowd and always thought of making their own way. There was nothing which would come in their way. They never had any management degree but they understood the market trends, knew what was customer relationship, client satisfaction, quality control, branding, target audience and cash or finance management.
What I have felt in my education being a B Tech and being in the marketing and sales field that professional education never teaches you how to do stuff or how stuff is done. But it sure gives you the attitude to learn from your surroundings when you are in the market or in your arena. So it hardly makes a difference where you get the attitude from … by spending loads of money and huge time or by being there in the market and by experience.
I never oppose higher education or an MBA because it sure gives you something which might take a while for you to achieve.
I would be more than happy to gear your views and experiences. I would love to share some cases in my upcoming blogs.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Indian Trade History
India has been a potential market in many ways in terms of export. We have been exporting some of the finest silk to the larger markets of the world. Currently we export cotton, silk, Iron Ore, spices, tea, coffee, leather goods, etc. But this trend is not recent we have been exporting to the world market since the ancient times when many of the world countries never knew trade by sea route.
There have been proofs of the Indian trade dating back to 2500 to 3000 BC which is the approximate time of the Indus valley civilizations. India has been trading with the various other civilizations in the world in Egypt, Rome, Middle East (Babylon), Persia since a long period of time.
The Indian market has been pretty developed since long ages and has been mature player in the international trade as well. There have been proves of advertisements of Indian silk on ships from the time of Samudragupta that is around 300 AD.
The above points prove that India has been in the International trade since the ages and has been a mature player in it. The major ingredients India uses to expot were Silk (major), Spices and ivory. There was a huge demand of Indian silk in the international market.
All the trade done by India was through the sea route from Gujarat ports of Lothal a little above Ahmadabad to the various other countries.
I would write about the complicated current Indian market in the upcoming block and this was just a pre chat before the whole discussion.
There have been proofs of the Indian trade dating back to 2500 to 3000 BC which is the approximate time of the Indus valley civilizations. India has been trading with the various other civilizations in the world in Egypt, Rome, Middle East (Babylon), Persia since a long period of time.
The Indian market has been pretty developed since long ages and has been mature player in the international trade as well. There have been proves of advertisements of Indian silk on ships from the time of Samudragupta that is around 300 AD.
The above points prove that India has been in the International trade since the ages and has been a mature player in it. The major ingredients India uses to expot were Silk (major), Spices and ivory. There was a huge demand of Indian silk in the international market.
All the trade done by India was through the sea route from Gujarat ports of Lothal a little above Ahmadabad to the various other countries.
I would write about the complicated current Indian market in the upcoming block and this was just a pre chat before the whole discussion.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Some International Humor Over Phone
Interacting with the international client in various countries around the world could be quite amusing sometimes. Due to the communication gap and the lack of the local language terms used in that country sometimes the sales guys find themselves in an awkward situation which they know is humorous but cant even laugh.
I am sharing some of this humor with you guys and love to hear some of your experiences as well.
Long back I was working on the Turkish market it was a start for me so I had no experience on working in that market and neither was I aware of the local lingo of the country.
There was once I was communicating with a client in Turkey through mails but never had the chance to talk to him over phone. One day I got a call from him out of blue moon and after communicating (which was a really difficult communication) he started referring to something sounding similar to pasta and after much struggle I found he was saying “ e Posta “ and struggling further I found its the local term used for E mail.
Similarly I called one of my client's office and when asked for him was told “saahib” is not in yet. I thought the person I talked to might be a low level office boy or something but later I came to know he was the sales head and its a common term in turkey for owner.
Making a Russian understand what”@” is over phone while telling your mail ID. Even Russians find it hard to narrate what @ is called. One of my client while telling his mail Id was stuck when it came to @ but was intelligent enough to say “ Now you press shift and press 2”. I somehow avoided an attack of laughter.
In my last company there was a guy in my team, very energetic and keen to learn but the only problem was he had no patience. Once he was on a call in US territory and was talking to a receptionist and she was asking too many questions so loosing his patience for the moment he said “ agar kaam nahi karna aata to doosro ka time ku waste karti ho” (If you don't know how to work why do you waste others time) thinking she is an American and he was shocked hearing “ mujhe apna kaam aata hai and yes I understand Hindi” (I know my work pretty well and yes I understand hindi). Since that day he stopped doing such things over calls.
I would appreciate some contributions from your side also. :)
I am sharing some of this humor with you guys and love to hear some of your experiences as well.
Long back I was working on the Turkish market it was a start for me so I had no experience on working in that market and neither was I aware of the local lingo of the country.
There was once I was communicating with a client in Turkey through mails but never had the chance to talk to him over phone. One day I got a call from him out of blue moon and after communicating (which was a really difficult communication) he started referring to something sounding similar to pasta and after much struggle I found he was saying “ e Posta “ and struggling further I found its the local term used for E mail.
Similarly I called one of my client's office and when asked for him was told “saahib” is not in yet. I thought the person I talked to might be a low level office boy or something but later I came to know he was the sales head and its a common term in turkey for owner.
Making a Russian understand what”@” is over phone while telling your mail ID. Even Russians find it hard to narrate what @ is called. One of my client while telling his mail Id was stuck when it came to @ but was intelligent enough to say “ Now you press shift and press 2”. I somehow avoided an attack of laughter.
In my last company there was a guy in my team, very energetic and keen to learn but the only problem was he had no patience. Once he was on a call in US territory and was talking to a receptionist and she was asking too many questions so loosing his patience for the moment he said “ agar kaam nahi karna aata to doosro ka time ku waste karti ho” (If you don't know how to work why do you waste others time) thinking she is an American and he was shocked hearing “ mujhe apna kaam aata hai and yes I understand Hindi” (I know my work pretty well and yes I understand hindi). Since that day he stopped doing such things over calls.
I would appreciate some contributions from your side also. :)
Monday, July 5, 2010
The Rural America Growing
The concept came from the American market during the last couple of years. Though the concept is a bit older but has got the attention in the last couple of years. The term could be broken into rural and outsourcing and as the word itself implies means that outsourcing to the rural areas.
The eastern part of the country has not been much influenced by the technology boom prevalent in the western part. Some of the states in the eastern and central part could be termed as the rural America such as Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico, Idaho, Nebraska, Utah, Kansas, Iowa.
According to the recent rural outsourcing the IT industry in these stares have started to flourish, though still in the initial stages but it promises a lot of potential. The IT companies which till this date were finding economical off-shoring nations like India and China to cut down in their production or development costs are now going to this rural America.
Reason for preferring rural America over other countries may said as better communication. The off-shoring industry has always suffered due to the bad communication channel between two countries or companies, the reason being many like: Difference in accent, vast difference in the time zones, different in management styles. All these differences could be avoided in the Rural outsourcing plus the comparative rates or the costs involved a just a bit higher than off-shoring to other countries like India or China.
Though as fancy as it sounds for the US software industry it would still take a decade for the rural America to reach up to the level of India and its a challenge for India to move fast in terms of quality and project management because India is no longer the cheapest resource available in the market.
The eastern part of the country has not been much influenced by the technology boom prevalent in the western part. Some of the states in the eastern and central part could be termed as the rural America such as Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Mexico, Idaho, Nebraska, Utah, Kansas, Iowa.
According to the recent rural outsourcing the IT industry in these stares have started to flourish, though still in the initial stages but it promises a lot of potential. The IT companies which till this date were finding economical off-shoring nations like India and China to cut down in their production or development costs are now going to this rural America.
Reason for preferring rural America over other countries may said as better communication. The off-shoring industry has always suffered due to the bad communication channel between two countries or companies, the reason being many like: Difference in accent, vast difference in the time zones, different in management styles. All these differences could be avoided in the Rural outsourcing plus the comparative rates or the costs involved a just a bit higher than off-shoring to other countries like India or China.
Though as fancy as it sounds for the US software industry it would still take a decade for the rural America to reach up to the level of India and its a challenge for India to move fast in terms of quality and project management because India is no longer the cheapest resource available in the market.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
The Horizons Unexplored in Europe
The European IT industry is a mix and match of both the off-shoring nations and hi potential developed nations. It could be categorized in two segments 1) Low cost off-shoring destinations 2) High cost client nations.
Here I would concentrate on strong IT nations with high development costs involved.
Europe has been considered as a secluded part if we talk about the international software industry. It has never been in the open to give a direct competition to other major countries in the world. Having humungous potential in terms of IT and software; countries like Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, etc. have a per-set and mature IT/software industry with years f experience in the field but the main thing to note here is that it has never been approached with full force by service providing nations like India China specially from the Asian region
Reason: The per-set notion that language is a major barrier in the way and communication with European countries would be a challenge. Being in the industry for some time I have felt that companies feel that targeting these countries would be a waste of time and money as no one would entertain a sales person speaking English or it would be difficult to make the techies understand the requirements because of the communication gap.
All the above concepts were true till the last decade when these countries were concentrated to themselves. Now Germany is working actively in the international market be it any industry, mechanical, automobile, food, defense or IT. They have changed their corporate culture to a much international culture. 90% Germans in the business speak and understand English. They are ready to work with the international companies or are willing to go for off-shoring their services as this is the horizon unexplored for them. As it being a virgin market the rate difference is still huge and still intact.
The Europeans have started to welcome the concept of off-shoring and its time nations like India, China apart from concentrating on their traditional market USA on to Germany, Netherlands, etc.
Here I would concentrate on strong IT nations with high development costs involved.
Europe has been considered as a secluded part if we talk about the international software industry. It has never been in the open to give a direct competition to other major countries in the world. Having humungous potential in terms of IT and software; countries like Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, etc. have a per-set and mature IT/software industry with years f experience in the field but the main thing to note here is that it has never been approached with full force by service providing nations like India China specially from the Asian region
Reason: The per-set notion that language is a major barrier in the way and communication with European countries would be a challenge. Being in the industry for some time I have felt that companies feel that targeting these countries would be a waste of time and money as no one would entertain a sales person speaking English or it would be difficult to make the techies understand the requirements because of the communication gap.
All the above concepts were true till the last decade when these countries were concentrated to themselves. Now Germany is working actively in the international market be it any industry, mechanical, automobile, food, defense or IT. They have changed their corporate culture to a much international culture. 90% Germans in the business speak and understand English. They are ready to work with the international companies or are willing to go for off-shoring their services as this is the horizon unexplored for them. As it being a virgin market the rate difference is still huge and still intact.
The Europeans have started to welcome the concept of off-shoring and its time nations like India, China apart from concentrating on their traditional market USA on to Germany, Netherlands, etc.
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