Neel – Page 4 – beyondobvious.in

CHANGE IS COMING……ARE YOU READY?

Change is the only constant in life. An old saying which is true even today. The rule of Nature is – People who embrace change and adapt – survive and people who neglect, brush aside change – perish.

Let me start with a already prevalent story. A frog is sitting in a jar set on fire. It has 2 choices – stay put and wait for the result OR Jump out. The frog stays, it’s body is losing energy to adapt to surrounding changes. The water around starts getting warmer. Again frog has above two choices, frog stays, body loses more energy to adapt. Now water starts boiling and frog decides to jump, but body has no energy to leap out & frog dies.

It’s really important to stay sensitive to changes happening to ecosystems around you & Plan the response to the change.

The Learning’s from above story–

Surroundings, circumstances will keep on changing, stay alert.
Act while you can still act.

Coming to the point, many people I talk to are either unaware / naive to accept that in coming 5 years the current surroundings we are in, are going to change drastically. The results can be devastating if we do not adapt .

Though this is not an exhaustive list – I will brief you on what these changes are & What industries do they affect:

EV Penetration faster than anticipated.
3D Printing changing face of Machining
Digitization

Let’s jump in & get to know: How these changes affect you and me? What do we do to respond to them?

Electric Vehicles Penetration:

A lot of people, either ridicule the thought or they say that EV is still long way, it will not be a disruption, it will not affect the so called giant OE, etc. My observation though is a bit different.

They fail to understand that fossil fuel engine (ICE – Internal Combustion Engine) vehicles have 2000+ moving parts Vs 18+ moving parts in EV.

I have seen a few EV on road already – Revolt Bikes, Hero Scootertte, Nexon EV, Hyundai Kona. We will be seeing even more as many people will launch their vehicles over next – 3 to 6 months. Some supposedly good products will be from – Aether, Ampere, Hero Electric, Kabira mobility, etc in 2 Wheeler space. Tata, Mahindra, Hyundai, Maruti, Great Wall, etc in PV segment. Ashok Leyland, Olectra, Tata in Buses.

What Scenarios will unfold:

On an average – 35 Lac Passenger Vehicles & 1.5 Cr Two Wheeler’s are sold in India every year. Now just assume that this market grows at approx. 7% YOY. In coming year 20% of this market shifts to EV – just 20%, what happens? The growth in ICE vehicles is stalled, in fact it goes to a reduction in volumes. For efficient businesses this step is still ok, first to be in trouble are Heavy Debt companies then Low margin businesses then manpower centric businesses. Slowly if the EV starts gaining businesses this will put efficient businesses under pressure.

So in short whatever is currently happening to Real Estate over last 2/3 years will happen to Auto – CONSOLIDATION. We already see Mahindra taking in 51% stakes in Ford India, Maruti and Toyota teaming up, GM India & Thailand being sold to Great Wall.

Industries that will be hard hit – Engine Components, Transmission Manufacturers, Heavy Castings, etc.

What this implies for commoners:

No Growth implies No major recruitment,
Stagnant Market implies lower salary growth,
Prospects will be limited for vertical growth.

Refer this article as well: “Some traditional auto companies won’t survive EV transition, S&P says”

3D Printing

Recently I attended a meeting at Big Corporate in Chennai & they showed an amazing case study of a Pump, earlier being manufactured by machining process and now changed to 3D Printing. An assembly of approx. 11 parts now being 3 D printed in one part and much lower cost and time. This is not just one example.

Though 3D Printing is yet not being widely used for Mass Production, it is already making inroads in following fields – Aerospace, Defence, Medical Body Parts, Critical components. In short anything that needs longer machining time, intricate geometries, huge material removal is already being developed in 3 D Printing.

click the following to watch videos on – First 3 D Printed Boat & Liveable houses – 3 D Printed.

What this implies for commoners:

Lower sales of machine tools – already invested capacities will be unable to be completely booked.
Suppliers to machine tools will be stalled.
Again this will lead to consolidation in players who do not adapt to this changing scenario.
Job market will be stagnant for Machine Tool & Components Industry.

Digitization:

This simple word is about to bring in the biggest disruption our generation will ever see.

Big corporations are already moving from Manual (paper work) to digitised formats. AI will be used more prominently to fix supply chain issues, planning, scheduling, etc.

Wearable Gadgets will be taking a strong toll on regular doctors’ visits, AI clubbed with microchips and sensors will use predictable diagnosis for anticipating the diseases you may have in near future.

Online courses and degrees is already changing the face of education. The flexibility, convenience, low cost, repeating the lectures until you understand. There are many advantages.

Cameras, AI and microprocessors will change the way Traffic is handled on road / at airports / on highways.

Crime detection, Taxation, Visa process, Tolls, Ticketing, Travel, etc. there will be umpteen applications where digitization will change the world around us.

So the challenges are many and the way this affects us is Stagnant Job Market means less growth in salaries, possible threat of being redundant. So how can we react to this threat.

These Changes will Disrupt the current ecosystem & build a new one. We need to anticipate & adapt.

Opportunities this Disruption will create:

EV will open a plethora of opportunities. Vehicle differentiation will be on features, comfort, entertainment, safety, time engagement in vehicle, etc.
3D Printing: Engineering, Programming, 3D Design & similar fields will be at the helm of this development.
Digitisation: Core competence in all activities which will be digitalised, programming, AI will always be in demand.

Find opportunities in these fields and you should do good.

A few points that come to my mind for people who may not be able to adapt for some reason or other – are as follows:

Try to contain your exposure to Debt, unwanted expenses, etc.
Be prudent with Job Changes.
Be prudent with Investments and expenses. Try generating multiple sources of income.
Develop alternate expertise in the fields that are relevant in future. See how you can turn your hobbies to monetize the same.

These are a few disruptions that I anticipate, I would surely like to know from you – What are disruptions that you see in your industry? Do comment below.

Hope you find the above relevant, so Like and Share.

You can also check on following articles on similar topics & Marketing.

Lead or Perish – Current Market Scenario

3 Steps to effectively manage Market Trends

Intertwined Hearts

I am Rhea and this is my story – well not mine alone story of 3 of us. No not me, myself and Irene types but almost the same. So Me is Me Rhea – Myself is my younger sister Piya and Irene of our story is our childhood friend Rohan.

We all lived in a calm and serene town and had lots in common, since childhood. Our passion for sports, specifically Badminton, love for music, craze for Sonu Nigam & Shahrukh Khan are a few to name them. It was a wonderful time and we lived, loved and enjoyed life. All was just like the dream come true – 3 friends, sharing all, competing, fighting, enjoying all that awesomeness.

I still remember the time when we 3 participated in a inter college badminton tournament and can you believe that I had to beat Rohan in semi’s and then Piya in finals to win the title. Finals were really tough but I managed only because I had more stamina than Piya. She was fabulous in that game. Well we 3 were on top of 25 Shuttlers in our town, and that’s not all, we actually huddled on the court when I won, as if we 3 had won at the same time.

Similarly when we had Sonu Nigam performing live in our town we almost tore down the complete house for a permission to be there & once we were there we were like lightening what an awesome night it was.

Sonu’s mesmerizing voice “Tera Milna pal do pal ka….”, “Har ghadi badal rahi…” etc. when I just slightly slid my hand in Rohan’s and he held it tightly. I could not have asked for a better last night. As we 3 had to part ways the next morning as Rohan was leaving for his Cardiology Specialisation, me to the badminton coaching and Piya was to be left alone at home – for 2 long years.

The time flies and we were back together again, these 2 years taught me a lot, I missed Rohan more than the beat of my heart even when I had two. I landed in town and went straight to Rohan even before I went home. I guess I realised that this was more than friendship and I loved him. I was now craving for his attention, that one look, that glance, that smiles, oh! This was love.

Is this feeling mutual, or am I the only one flying in this stupendous storm of love like a kite? Does Rohan share the same uneasy feeling when he thinks of me or is it just me who has butterflies in stomach every time his thought crosses my mind? Am I the only one being magnetically pulled towards Rohan or he too feels the need to be around me?

At this point what I was only thinking was to spend more time with Rohan, it was just like Piya was completely outcast by Rohan from my life. I shared a special bond with Piya – she was just a year younger but more matured than I was, the thinking types, serious one – boring to be precise at times. I was happy go lucky girl, bothered by nothing, worried about nothing, just living. Rohan was quite the balance of two of us, he was a kid when with me and an adult when with Piya.

Piya knew from my communications with her that I was being attracted to Rohan – we usually shared a lot of emails and chats in these 2 years.

Just when I reached and was about to ring Rohan’s doorbell, it started raining & there he was my prince at the door & beautiful rain drops kissing my cheeks, the aroma of that summer thirsty dirt like all her want for water was answered with a flash. I was so overwhelmed to see him that my arm remained raised to the doorbell even when he opened the door. He snapped his fingers to bring me on earth from my zealous moon voyage.

When I told him “I missed you!” and he too got a little nervous and blushed to accept the same. We had a little chat and decided to meet for dinner all three of us. We bid good byes and I kept on turning again and again to look at him and he stared at me till I was almost no longer visible.

When I mentioned to Piya about the dinner and my meeting with Rohan, her reaction was parched. She was a little drawn away and did not seem happy as if there was something weighing her down, silly me, Rohan was so much on my mind, I could not even notice her. She refused to join us for the dinner and I let her be.

Rohan had bought me flowers and chocolates for Piya, he was surprised as well that she did not join, but we were unsuspecting. The restaurant had a live orchestra and they were playing “yeh pehli mulakat ki….” I was blushing so much that I was unable to look Rohan, in his eyes for 5 minutes. Rohan noticed my unease and moved next to me. He held my hand in hand and I was feeling to be on moon. I clinched his hand and just closed my eyes, Rohan wanted to say something but I put my finger on his lips, indicating to listen the unsaid words. We both knew that we were in love.

After about 10 minutes the waiter brought us to reality, we shared each other’s experiences for two years over dinner and on finishing, took a long stroll around the moon kissed beach.

His fingers interwoven in mine, water touching our legs softly, and soothing breeze – it was like we were on a heavenly trip. A few steps ahead and there were rocks and we sat there, I had my head in his lap, his fingers were mingling with my hairs, I closed my eyes and shouted my heart out to Rohan and he reciprocated, Magical Moment.

We were both on the seventh heaven. He held my head and kissed my forehead, then my eyes and we melted into each other. The night was dark and silent but we could hear Sonu’s “Deewana Tera…Tujhe hi bulaya..” . We both were not in a mood to separate but it was quite late and Rohan dropped me home and left.

Piya was not home and mom had already slept. I went up to my bedroom and smiling and blushing, thinking of new found love and childhood memories running in flashback laid on bed, the eyes were so full of dreams that before I knew, I was asleep.

…. but as they say destiny has its own tale to say, I was woken up by a loud bang on the door and mom had lost her breath trying to tell me something, only what I could understand was Piya was serious.

My drowsy eyes opened with a flash and I was like thrown out of my bed, when we reached the hospital Rohan was already there and Piya was in dire state, she was hit by a speeding steel rods carrying truck and one of those rods has pierced through her heart. Doctors tried salvaging her situation but time was running out.

After a lot of inspection the only answer to Piya’s life was a transplant, but where could the heart be found at such short notice. Mom looked at me and I realized that it was destiny calling on me, to return the favor.

I was blessed with two hearts a Freak Mutation.

When I was been taken to the operation theater, I remembered a conversation with my mom several years ago:

“Are you sure, Rhea?” asked my mother.

Of course I am. Survival of the fittest, mother. I’m not going against Darwin. Also I don’t want unnecessary scars on my body.

It’s a known fact that we are all born to die. And frankly, I don’t understand why it has to be made into such a big deal. If it were not for my mother I would have said that to the bunch of people outside my house, some of them with young kids, shouting slogans, waving placards, literally wanting me to cut one of my beating hearts out. “Save A Life. Donate” they shout.

For someone who is one in billions, 7.125 billion to be exact, I expect to be treated better. Scientists are still befuddled regarding my condition that gave me two hearts in my mother’s womb. But years of research and sticking needles into me have led them nowhere, and they have labelled me as a freak mutation. It’s so rare literally one in all humankind – that they didn’t even name the anomaly (as they call it, I call it awesomeness). I wanted to name the condition myself, something on the lines of Rhea’s Heartawesome but doctors aren’t thrilled with the suggestion. Instead they want to cut one of them out and save a life. Huh?

An IQ of 180, increased concentration, exceptional athleticism and a phenomenal metabolism rate- are just a few boring benefits of an increased blood circulation. Why would I ever give that up? And the answer was – Piya.

The pleasure was that even if I was to go under the knife, the respite was the knife was to be held by Rohan. The Destiny had intertwined our three lives so closely that – both our hearts will now be beating for our savior Rohan.

Hope you liked this story – do leave you comments below.

You may also like the below story:

5 ways to build a strong Sensory Intelligence

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“Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change” – Stephen Hawking

As obvious as it seems in the above quote of Stephen Hawking in case of organizations as well, to plan for what’s coming they need – sensory intelligence.

We are now at the second aspect in S & M importance domain. Main Article: https://beyondobvious.in/the-success-mantra-s-m/

Sensory Intelligence is an integral part of a more widely known phrase, Market Intelligence.

Will it not bother you if your sales drops month on month and no one in the company has any freaking idea, why? This is classic example of S & M team messing up the whole intelligence part.

CEO Nokia mentioned “We did not do anything wrong, but somehow, we lost.” My perception is they were unable to read the undercurrents in the market, customer voices, product perceptions, etc. – out and out an intelligence failure – I say.

Charted here in are 5 ways S & M teams can work to make the best out of Sensory Intelligence.

1. Voice:

“Listen – and listen to Assimilate.” More than often, the S & M people do not assimilate the information that is so naturally and unknowingly handed over to them on a platter by their customers themselves.

For example:

A. You know about the new project and when you ask the customer, he diverts the topic.

B. You talk about new orders and future planning and customer mentions the last goof up by your company.

C. Even when you pass more than usual discounts the customers are not excited.

All these are signs, that you have no longer remained the most preferred choice.

More often than none, it’s noticed that S & M people neglect these stinkers, as mere whims of fancy and think the next visit will be a cake walk.

Keeping the head leveled and ears open might just solve 50% of the intelligence issues.

2. Visual:

It’s imperative that on your visit to customer’s plant, premises you should notice some things about that new project, change in policy, competitor’s visits, material, documents. The key is to have your eyes open.

It has been quite common for S & M guys to visit their own strong holds at the customer end and feel merry.

For example:

A. On a visit to shop floor, you see a new part, which was not bought from you. Inference: competition has reached to trial levels on shop floor.

B. In office of the customer, on the board you see fast moving deadlines of a new project, yet your discussion is in elementary stage. Inference: you are not the preferred choice.

The easiest is also visit the competition strong hold at customer end, stock yard, rejection yard. Analyze at the back of your mind what is the real scenario; join the dots to understand the real picture.

3. Patterns:

This is key aspect of this intelligence. A good S & M person should chart the patterns and understand before-hand how the market or customer will behave in near term. Some products have cycles, such as, Automotive sales drops around December and July, so obviously the demand will be lower. Capital Equipment’s have a good time around September and March due to the depreciation claims effect.

The above examples are more general, but emphasis is on knowing the pattern. This will keep you one step ahead in your planning and executing. Have knowledge of the complete value chain. Your product – your customer – his customer – end customer. Chart the demand and map your supplies to it. Study and the pattern will emerge.

This also gives you a strong hold on the customer and confidence on your business with him.

4. Windfall:

At times, all said and done, there could be incidences no one could read or predict. I prefer to call this windfall.

Is it possible that Yippee! Would have anticipated the growth in sales due to Maggi issue? Is it possible that Maggi would have anticipated such a huge loss in sales? Or may be Coca Cola in early 80’s, when they had to leave India. Or Pepsi when the whole pesticide issue cropped up.

These are windfalls, what you can best do is search for an alternative market / plan to loose less in such situation. But a few windfalls could be anticipated.

For example: You have to know that customer is facing some financial crunch, has invested in a big plant, is near to close a big deal with other company or is about to lose a business. You should have your planning department on toes, to react to your triggers, once you have confirmed news from customer.

This will put you in more commanding position / damage less.

5. Prevision

With all the above senses put to work a S & M person will be smart enough to draw the inferences on the customer perception of product, company, service, etc. this prevision should help define the strategy for the new launch / revamp of the product / phase out of the same.

Was it not great to have a New i20 Elite even when the i20 was still running good? Would you not love to have a Swift makeover now? Have we not seen the shampoo companies changing the bottle shape every now and then? Have we not seen Maruti launching new cars with old brand names: Baleno or Vitara? Have we not seen Skoda rebrand the first gen Octavia to Rapid?

It is now becoming highly imperative for organizations to stay ahead and in control of their markets and products. These few steps and tricks could go long way on keeping your impact on the market and customers in the pocket.

First Aspect of S&M: https://beyondobvious.in/5-ways-to-achieve-good-customer-intimacy/

3 Steps: Effectively Managing the Trends

“Trends, like Horses, are easier to ride in the direction they are going” – John Naisbitt.

Organizations are in dire need of people who hold the nerve of the markets, be it any Industry, sector or country. The trends are like passing wind, you may set the sail for easterly wind but if you do not manage your timing, the wind would have passed. It’s getting out mostly important to have correct direction and timing to keep afloat on the success boat.

Believe me – it’s no rocket science. The only thing that you need to do is, do your basics right, here’s how:

1. Interaction:

As it is mentioned in earlier posts, the key is to “Listen – Listen to assimilate”.

Gather the information about your customers, their future plans, how is their industry behaving? What are their plans to counter? What growth are they predicting for themselves & industry on the whole?
Have internal interactions on any major technological breakthroughs, new product developments / innovation in current features / applications have happened.
Interact with peers in the industry on where they see the industry heading, what are the major challenges / opportunities / pitfalls they see.

Assimilate all this data and then try to make a complete picture from these jigsaw blocks of information. Based on your understanding, perception and focus, judge where you are in leading position, what’s lagging? Where are the market headwinds? Are you in position to be benefited or hammered by them?

This will help you find the Direction.

Imagine Tesla offering to buy SolarCity, Facebook’s acquisition of Whatsapp. The trend is lateral growth.

2. Introspection:

This is a very important step in finding the trends: charting the customer voice:

What is customer perception about your organization? Are they happy with value you create for them? Are there any special needs, being overlooked by you?
How do they rate your products? Do they think they need more from it than it delivers? When was the last new product launch? Are you just selling what’s in stock or customizing the product?
How is your pricing? Does the customer think it to be win – win? How does he rate you in comparison to competition?

These hints will lead you to understand where your strong points are and where is the possibility of losing the ground.

It will brief you on which products are perceived good and which are not the talks of town? How is your pricing – value perceived by customers? What needs to changed or reinforced in your customer handling?

Capitalise on the same and make a SWOT on the same.

It’s not uncommon these days to sell your non – core assets or buy strategic units for brand extension or strategic partnerships for more market coverage. For Example: Century Textile selling their cement plants to Ultratech or Google buying FitBit or Ford and M&M joining hands, HDFC Life merging with MAX Life.

These are some bright examples of market trends towards consolidation.

3. Initiation:

Once you have the Direction and SWOT the main job is to initiate the actions. For Example:

New Products to be introduced in existing / new markets depending on SWOT.
Aligning your products and pricing to market trends and your own SWOT.
Outdated products to be shelved.
Changes in supply chain or over all offering to the customers.

Remember the INDIGO CS by TATA, – It was a generation of a new Segment – Compact Sedan, in between the Hatch and Sedan. I 20 also created a completely new segment – a premium Hatch. Currently the Hyundai Venue creating a new affordable SUV Segment.

The most integral part of predicting the Market Trend is being in control of your current position and having the head high enough to differentiate between the clutter and real information. Once you have the clarity on your plan then just go out and implement it to the fullest & fastest.

Speed will always be the key for charting the new trends and riding them.

Hope you liked this article. Your likes & comments are welcome.

Do visit below links to know more about the Customer Intimacy, Market Headwinds, Sensory Intelligence etc.

5 Ways to build Strong Sensory Intelligence

The Power of Persuasion

“Influence is a compass, persuasion is a map” – Jospeh Wong.

How would it be if your customer stops buying from you and you do not even know the reason why?

Every customer yearns to feel important and this is where S & M’s importance is highlighted again. Persuasion is the key.

This article is one of the series article on S&M. You can find the main article here

We are now discussing a very interesting technique that S & M person should master to have exceptional results. The technique seems complicated and more often we have seen S & M people lose their cool a little too early, to have used this technique effectively.

I have listed 5 steps by which S & M person can use the power of persuasion to nail the deal.

1. Be Precise:

It’s out mostly important that you are very specific of what you are conveying and how the same relates to the customer. You have to actually emphasize on his need.

You have to drive home the point that your product is the ultimate solution for his problem. Give him a Demo, make him to visit your works / setup, show him your expertise and take your seniors to him – in short: build the confidence.

Make him feel important, feel cared about. Show him you and your organization is serious about customers and their opinions.

Once you sense a comfort level in his behavior and communication with you, you can be assured that you are in his priority list.

Now you have to just climb the ladder to top.

Remember the TV sales man in the electronics shop, they will follow you until you do not tell them on what specs you plan to buy.

2. Accentuate:

We have heard the idiom plenty of times – “Out of sight is out of mind”. This holds pretty true for all the walks of life. If the S & M person is not a frequent at the customer end it’s unlikely that he will be a preferred choice. This is off course dependent on business profile.

Customer tend to take you and your services for granted, it is a good idea to push forth the value that you create for them during informal chats regularly. Emphasize on: how your organization is working to make its products more user-friendly? How this new product launch will propel the company in big league? Tangible / intangible benefits of your last visit to customer plant and the suggestions you gave?

To new customers keep the emails going, even when you receive no response. Keep on the frequency and information flow constant, without making it monotonous / irritating.

Keep on being in front of the customers you wish to persuade for retaining you / considering you as their primary option.

Familiarity drives the acceptance. The more he is familiar with you, more he will accept you as supplier.

Do we not fall to a strong persuasion from a Credit Card sales person and buy the credit card – which is not actually your need. Does it not happen that we go to buy a specific quantity of material and the sales man persuades us to buy more, may be buy 1 Get 1 Free / 20% discount if you buy 2 against 5% if you buy only one.

3. Befriend:

This is a really essential step in this technique; the S & M person should have a strong inter-personal relation with key stake holders at the customer end. You should have such stronghold that, any news has to come to you first.

To achieve this, office atmosphere and decorum are a hindrance, but this could be easily achieved on a dinner or lunch meet. At such meets the customer is all yours, no office work to bother him, no nagging juniors or seniors.

Know him personally, understand him professionally. Understand his psyche. Build a bond of trust. Customer should feel the warmth and confidence to trust you. Imbibe that you are working for mutual benefits and will not dump him midway.

Understand his behavior, his fears, his motivations, his ideologies. Once there is a bond of trust and confidence, things will fall in place. You will understand customer apprehensions and can work on reducing the same.

4. Persuade:

If it takes 100 blows to break a stone, does not mean it was 100^th blow that broke the stone. Every single blow has helped the breaking of stone, a bit. Similarly keep on making the pin pointers of how your organization is better, how the product is good, emphasize on the value you create, and then keep repeating these.

It’s very important to use your discretion. This entire thing should not look like blowing your trumpet; in a subtle way drive home the point that you are the best.

Work towards reducing the apprehensions and building the confidence and trust.

Once the apprehensions drop, what remains is confusion driven by competition information, his peers and the answer is only persuasion.

Remember Amazon, Flipkart or Firstcry following you on every website, suggesting, buying that jeans you checked out, some time back. That’s the Power of Persuasion.

5. Bad Mouthing:

Absolutely refrain from this; this is a very bad strategy to counter the competition. This will completely ruin the hard work done earlier.

Never in any circumstances should you bad mouth the competitor, there are ways of tackling the issue, by subtle pointers, referring your satisfied customers – earlier with competition, giving them a chart of comparison of your products, etc.

Customers are smart and they do their homework, never try fooling them or you have lost them forever.

It is really easy to have your command on the customers buying behavior, if you have really spend a good time analyzing the customer and his process. Your passion for your business and customer understanding is the key factor for S & M success.

You will also like the following articles. Do share and your comments are welcome.

The Happiest Day – Destiny Calling

It was an amazingly rainy day, and Rishaan found himself trapped in the rain on his way to office. He kept on waiting for bus but guess it was stuck in the ever so increasing Mumbai Traffic. Chaotic as it was, the bus stop was leaking and Rishaan – well dressed for an important meeting was getting increasingly nervous and wet. Incidentally Diya spotted Rishaan at the bus stop and came to his rescue.

Diya worked at the Design Department of the same office. Though not friends, they had bumped into each other several times during lunch and other activities. Diya gave, troubled Rishaan the much coveted lift, reliving him from the embarrassment of being drenched at the meeting. This acquaintance shortly turned into friendship. Given the happy go lucky nature of Rishaan, this was the most anticipated.

Rishaan was a handsome, smart, well-built engineer and had recently joined. He was considered to be a talented young Turk who was looked up by his peers and associates. He believed in living the life to the fullest and in just over six months he was a heart throb in the company. A soft talking young boy is always a favorite with girls and it was true with Rishaan as well.

Diya had a charming personality with amazing talents and creativity; she had been in this company for more than 3 years and grown strongly. She was a very jovial girl with a philosophy of enjoying life. But as it is said that life has a different plan that you seldom expect, she faced a tragedy which turned her life upside down. She lost both her parents and younger brother to a road accident. Since then she became very reserved and though she upheld her professional life, she lost the hold on her personal. She went into a cocoon and also talked minimal.

There was a discussion between Rishaan and Diya and during the drive to the office and Rishaans flamboyant attitude, dimple on the right cheek, and the soft spoken nature, made its impression on Diya. On reaching office, she tried to shrug off this influence to work. In the afternoon Rishaan bumped into Diya at lunch again and offered thanks for the lift inviting her for the lunch together. She tried to politely refuse but insistent Rishaan won the argument. They kept on bumping into each other ever since becoming friends.

Six months went by and Diya and Rishaan became close friends, close office friends. It was a cold eve in the fresh new year and Rishaan invited Diya for a movie and dinner. She hesitantly agreed but confirmed that she will reach home and check the priorities and then finalize. They enjoyed the movie, laughed their hearts out and went for a gourmet dinner on a terrace top restaurant. It was the most amazing evening for both. Diya thought this happiness was long entitled, but she didn’t expect it from Rishaan. As the evening was about to end they took a walk back to Diya’s house and she felt the warmth of Rishaan’s hand in her. In some time she was wanting for more, they were both almost about to shed inhibitions but were brought to senses by a loud horn. They parted ways but Rishaan was now making inroads into Diya’s heart. She was not able to sleep the whole night and there was a conflict in her mind on whether it is right or wrong…. Finally she just left everything to the fate and surrendered to sleep at dawn.

Next day at office she was welcomed by a smiling face of Rishaan and a sweet girl besides him. He introduced her as Kiara – a new entrant in there office. Diya welcomed her to the office and there was a casual chat and introductions. Rishaan was her mentor.

Kiara was a sweet girl with some experience in the business and was supposed to take care of customer relations. Her nature was quite open and she was verbose, spoke her mind out. She was never able to hold the words in the head and her less experience of life and profession made this utterly clear. She was the one full of life and made the best with whatever situation she was in.

It did not take more than 3 / 4 hours for Rishaan and Kiara to understand that there natures are quite alike, there philosophies of life are in-line and they together were up for a great time. As decided the three some – Diya – Rishaan – Kiara met at lunch and it was fun, Rishaan and Kiara left no stone un-turned to enjoy themselves and also entertain Diya. Diya was quiet, calm, composed but excited and happy to be with these two full of life people. They all parted with new bonds of friendships forged.

That evening Kiara was happy at a good start, having Rishan and Diya to support her. Though she had her apprehensions about the work culture, politics, etc. they both comforted her.

Rishaan called Diya and explained the desire to meet in the evening but she made an excuse and stayed away. At this point Rishaan felt a little odd given the exciting evening spent a day before but left the thought believing the excuse from Diya. The next day at office Rishaan waited at reception to meet Diya when she arrived and they had a small chat but she hurriedly left him. At lunch Rishaan purposely bumped into Diya and tried to strike a conversation about the beautiful evening and just when he was about to get a little overboard, Diya asked him to meet her in the evening to discuss some important things. She left without completing her lunch. Given the nature of Rishaan it made him quite confused at one thought he felt may be she will open her heart for the feelings about him, but then why was she so tensed? And why did she skip lunch? And why she was avoiding him for last 2 days? A lot of questions kept their swords hanging on Rishaan but he kept his cool and eagerly waited for the evening.

Finally the evening arrived and they both met out of the office and decided to go someplace quiet to discuss, just about time they were leaving Kiara called Rishaan and Diya and came running and excited and just could not control her excitement about her day and kept on talking, Diya though not interested but showed no feelings of disdain and kept on hearing. Rishaan on the other hand started enjoying the conversation after some time and almost lost the idea of meeting Diya. In the excitement he invited Kiara to join them and she agreed. Only when Rishaan looked at Diya that he realized that he has done a blunder and that Diya was very upset.

They went to a restaurant and Kiara played the host, Diya tried to keep herself engaged in the discussion but was at times left behind with the energy and enthusiasm of these two. Rishaan was feeling the discomfort of Diya but he was also feeling the vibrancy of Kiara. He quietly held Diya’s hand below the table and tried comforting her and drawing her into the conversation but after a while she was again secluded. The evening went by and Rishaan and Diya decided to leave in Diya’s car so as to get the time for discussion, but it was too late and they could not leave Kiara behind. So the three left, dropped Rishaan at his place and Diya continued with Kiara so as to drop her ahead. In a casual chat Diya asked Kiara how she felt about office, people there, etc.? and smoothly drifted her discussion on Rishaan, she found Kiara was blushing, when she discussed about Rishaan and she almost went into a dream like world in the discussion, just when she could have revealed more her drop point came and they had to part.

It was a mayhem in Diya’s mind as she felt both these guys are good people and this is getting intricate, she made her mind to disclose the facts to Rishaan as early as possible and if time permits immediately. She picked up the phone and called but Rishaan did not answer.

Next day at office it was a mess, their major client had some issues with their campaign. It was increasingly difficult to understand the client concerns from remote location so the manager told them to plan a trip to Goa. They were taken by a surprise. Rishaan was in-charge of the customer, Diya was a designer of the campaign and for Kiara this will be a strong learning opportunity about handling the tricky client. This was not welcomed by all in the same spirit, Kiara was excited to be with Rishaan, Rishaan was excited to be with Diya, and Diya was confused about the whole scene. Their minds were running bizarre with plans after the Friday meeting the weekend could also be utilized in the most happening destination of India – Goa.

They took an early morning flight to Goa, just when the seats were to be taken Diya took the Window seat with the anticipation that Rishaan will take the middle one, but just when he was supposed to get in Kiara got into the middle seat and Rishaan had to be on the aisle seat. As all of them were preparing for the meeting a night before they were all sleep deprived, and also Rishaan and Diya could not really discuss so they all decided to catch a nap.

In the middle of the flight, Kiara woke up to go the washroom. When she returned she was too lazy to push her way into the middle seat. And with Rishaan readily offering to shift seats, the seating arrangement changed. With 20 minutes still remaining for the flight to land, a sleep starved Kiara took another nap, this time holding Rishaan’s right hand more firmly. Rishaan’s other hand, though, nervously moved to touch Diya’s. Her heart skipped a beat. Diya pulled her hand away. But the defiant Rishaan held her wrist again, this time firmly and more reassuringly. The changing behavioral dynamics between the three perhaps gave out a foreboding of what was to come in Goa.

When the flight landed at the Dabolim airport, Rishaan felt uncanny…his excitement seemed replaced by an unknown fear that he found very difficult to decipher.

They checked in to the plush Resort & got rooms closer to each other. Rishaan tried connecting with Diya but her disinterestedness made him uncomfortable. Then in the meeting they successfully tried to convince the client and as the entire team was there the issue was efficiently resolved and customer confidence regained. They got quite good appreciation form there office and so they went on to celebrate in the evening. Rishaan and Kiara were high on sprit on this success and wanted to make it a memorable evening. Diya was happy but she as well was a little distanced due to her apprehensions, but Rishaan was not going to leave her as she was instrumental in today’s success. He ordered the drinks – to start with a small peg, the evening started getting exciting and Kiara was almost taken by the evening she planned to express her feelings to Rishaan by the end of this trip, Rishaan was excited and it was showing on his face, the success was one reason but he was planning to surprise Diya with a proposal. Diya had her apprehensions but as the first drink went in and the second, she started to loosen up. She was the old Diya now – carefree, jovial, enjoying every moment of life.

All three of them were at a very important junction of their lives, which was intertwined by the destiny in such a way that everyone is supposed to lose some and gain some or may be just lose it all….

In the flow of the moment Kiara drank too much and went out of control. This is where Rishaan called off the party and left with Kiara to drop her to her room but with a promise to Diya that he will return. Diya went off to her room. Rishaan cautiously took Kiara to her room and on the way unknowingly she expressed to Rishaan of how much she likes him and how she is eager to be together with him. Rishaan took this as words of a drunken woman and was more excited to meet Diya as he had his plans. He went on to Diya’s room and she was almost expecting him, she had shed all her inhibitions and was looking very happy and cozy to be in a room all alone with Rishaan. They spent some time appreciating each other’s beauty and then merged to become two bodies and one soul. The comfortably cold night as well sunk into darkness marking the end of the day.

The next morning when Rishaan woke up he was all alone in Diya’s room and Diya was nowhere to be found, just then his eyes rested on a letter near the bedside. He was a shocked to know that it was Diya who wrote a letter, she had mentioned that Rishaan was like a blessing to her and she was really lucky to be with him but this relationship has no future and what was ahead took away the senses from Rishaan – Diya was married. He was stunned and she had left him.

Rishaan spent some isolated time in the shower, gathered his senses and thought to have a look at Kiara but she as well was not in her room, on checking he got to know that she has already left. There was a envelop at the reception for Rishaan, Kiara in search of Rishaan came to his room in the morning excited about her drunk confession but found him in Diya’s room and Kiara had wished him luck with this relationship as they both are wonderful people.

The entire episode left Rishaan spell bound on the next morning of his most happiest day, he has lost it all.

Hope you liked the above story – you can also enjoy another story – Intertwined Hearts by clicking below link.

3 Steps to ride the Market Headwinds

“If you wait till there is another case study in your industry, you will be late” – Seth Godin.

Markets worldwide are getting so dynamic these days that yesterday’s trend is tomorrow’s passé. In such fast changing environment, any organization would like to have a smart people, who have the ability to lead them into a new league with guiding light. A team of fortune tellers, to predict the tides, so as to adjust the sail.

Believe me – it’s no rocket science. The only thing that you need to do is: do your basics right and here’s how:

1. Market Mapping:

This is a very interesting aspect, here in the complete map of the market should be worked out by the S & M team. Map is mostly used to chart the course of your journey, to estimate the distance, time taken, stops, road conditions, etc.

Here in the same needs to be done with your markets. Organization, its competitors, its customers, end customers, areas, share of business (both yours and your customers SOB – in respective markets). This will show you the current situation (base location). Then chart out the targets with target customers, targeted SOB, time frame, etc. (destination). Now decide the (route) to follow: direct approach, OEM influence, customer’s competition, etc.

Chart a strategy of how you would reach the destination? What are your USP’s? What are your weaknesses? What value do you create – which you plan to sell in the market?

Once this Market Map is ready the next step is planning the course.

Imagine how well Hindustan Unilever would have mapped the market – they have a brand for every market segment. For the bottom of the pyramid they have Clinic Plus, Mid – Sunsilk, top – Dove. Same with, Wheel, RIN & Surf Excel.

2. Planning the Course:

Once the base location, destination and route are fixed, it’s time to choose the mode of transport. This will mainly depend on how much time you have for the journey, have you planned it well in advance / has the 11^th hour arrived. What is the budget?

You will need to decide on which ones are the low hanging fruits / where less efforts would make you win the game. What needs to be the pricing strategy?

Just look at how best the Renault would have planned for the KWID. The features, engine capacity, pricing – the best product mix and it is a HIT. They made a dent in the strong hold of Maruti for the entry level car segment.

3. Execution:

This, as the name suggests is very important step. Refer the quote above – it highlights the danger of delay.

Once the Mapping and Strategy is done there should not be any delay in execution and sealing the deals. Move so fast that even before the competition finds out your strategy you should be far ahead for them to catch up.

Bajaj pulled out of scooter market and now with Honda, Suzuki, TVS, etc. they only have a catch up to do.

TATA’s put themselves, on back burner in passenger cars segment and now are trolling far behind.

Having a strong knowledge of your product, your target market and a firm strategy to reach your destination is a simple mantra to sure shot success.

This article is a part of series on Sales and Marketing articles. You should also go through the following articles and I am sure you will like them as well.

5 Ways to achieve good Customer Intimacy

This article is a continuation of the earlier article in below link: https://beyondobvious.in/the-success-mantra-s-m/

“Your customer doesn’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” – Damon Richards.

Above words are old but the relevance, not diminished even a bit. Rather the importance has grown over the years. Today we not only talk about customer delight / customer satisfaction we talk about customer intimacy.

The word intimacy can arise some strange feelings but nevertheless has become a most popularly used jargon.

This phrase is fast becoming popular in the organizations and for quite obvious reasons. But, how do you actually achieve it, how do you make customer interested in you, so much so that – we can call it intimate. Not literally.

Well find below 5 ways that this can be addressed with:

1. KNOWING:

In today’s world knowledge is the key. You have to know in and out of the customer organization: the environment within, decision makers, catalysts, influencers.

The only way to achieve this is talk to a lot of people and on lot of different topics, official, unofficial, at times personal. This collection of information should give you three or four major links to work on.

It’s just like all sales people talking to your kids when you go for shopping.

2. MAPPING:

Map each person you had talked to from operator level to all the way to the top person. Find out the people with whom you can easily gel with, People having similar interests, living in nearby localities, friend of friends, etc. Build on this relation – Genuinely.

3. BUILDING:

This is the most important step. Try with at least 5 different people at different hierarchy in customer organization. You may lose in some and win some.

Visit them often, inquire genuinely about their kids / parents. Share your experiences about a good destination to picnic / a great movie to watch / good course for their kids. Remember important days like Birthdays / Anniversary and wish them. Wish them on their festivals. In short – Build on the acquaintance to bond it to relationship.

4. STRENGTHENING:

This entire exercise will be a futile and counterproductive if the effort is not genuine.

I have seen many sales people, start this activity with enthusiasm and then leave it in the middle or are not genuine enough.

This will not help if you focus on just getting information, you will have to build the relation before. The tree has to grow to yield fruits.

You can be assured that you have a healthy relation – when you start receiving wishes from your customers, when they open up topics of discussion that you like. When they start being informal to you in meetings, when they make space for you in their schedule without appointment.

This is last but one step to achieving Customer Intimacy.

5. INTIMACY:

This is actually more of an implementation step. When you have genuinely done the earlier 4 Steps, you will be in supreme command at the customer. The information will flow to you rather than you following up on the same.

People will call you to give you important bits of information like changes in organizations, change in company policy, future challenges, aggressive competition proposal, end customer issues, etc.

You will have the liberty to pull the person any time to the side and ask those critical questions on which you can actually leverage the crucial decisions.

These steps should help you have a lot of important information, considerably easily & lightning fast.

Achieving a good intimacy with customer is no rocket science; it’s just simple man management. Where people mess up is, they want the information too early or they do not seem genuine and in both these cases lose is for long term.

Next step to customer intimacy is having sensory intelligence. click the link to know about 5 ways to build sensory intelligence: https://beyondobvious.in/5-ways-to-build-a-strong-sensory-intelligence/

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