Vikas Marwaha

November 27, 2020November 27, 2020

5 lessons from Rafael Nadal that can be applied in sales and marketing profession

Only man in tennis history to win the same major 11 times (French Open); no other man has even won the same major nine times; only woman to win the same major 10 or more times is Margaret Court (who won 11 Australian Opens). The latest win in French Open (Oct ’20) by Rafael Nadal made him The Greatest player in history of Tennis, Greatest not only in terms of his achievements but also greatest in terms of his Unbeaten Record on Clay Courts. No doubt he is also known as “ King Of Clay”.

There are many lessons that can be learned from this and can be applied in our day to day life. During my three decades of experience I have personally felt that sports teach us many valuable lessons and they can be applied very effectively in our professional life too.

Top 5 lessons from Rafael Nadal that can be applied in sales and marketing profession are:

Competitive Advantage – The major differentiator between a successful professional and not so successful professional is the knowledge of his competitive advantage and utilizing it to his/her benefit. Rafael identified his Competitive advantage very early on and became invincible on clay court. Sales people generally fail to identify their competitive advantages, for example some people have a good knack of building relations but they seldom develop this into a competitive advantage. They should make a conscious effort to develop this skill and add value to their organization and channel partners. For example they can win more customers and create win-win situation for all.
Fitness: Good things come to those who sweat, this has been a success mantra for Rafael, he has worked very hard on his fitness and one of the reasons that he has out played most of the top players is because of his fitness levels(despite having a weak knee). Sales profession requires lots of travelling and moving around in the field. In India particularly during summer months it can become very difficult if you are not fit. Even at senior levels fitness plays a major part, it’s no longer 9 am to 5 pm job. Working can stretch to 10 to 14 hours a day. Fitness plays a major part in keeping both mind and body active and can be the biggest differentiator & growth catalyst.
Persistence : Onthe surface Rafael appears to be a restless and someone who wants to run down his competitor but he plans his moves very carefully and not only plays close to the net but also long shots. He is very persistence in his overall strategy and pushes the opponent to make mistakes and enchases on them. Sales profession is also like a chess or tennis match, most of the times we have to anticipate the moves of customers, competition (opponents) and ensure that we align the objective to such moves and be persistence. I have seen sales people give up after some attempts and either start asking discounts or some special inputs.
Movement (Court Coverage): Rafael Nadal’s biggest asset early on in his career was his supreme movement and court coverage. His foot speed and court coverage rank among the best in the history of the sport. Players would often fire at bullet speed in an open corner, thinking they will definitely earn a point, only for Nadal to come sprinting out of nowhere and make an astonishing return and win a point. Sales profession requires similar speed and knowledge of sales territory. Coverage of market and response time helps not only in speedy service but also keep customers retained. Most of the time sales people tend to visit limited areas and also have a tendency of slow response time. Result is a no brainer.
Predictability & Home Work: Predictability can lead to failure, that’s why Rafael is so successful, as he is not predictable. He positions himself in the middle of the court, thus keeping his opponent constantly guessing on the corner he is about to pick. On the other hand he does his home work and studies the opponent and plans his game. Sales profession is so similar, the moment you become predictable the competition can really eat you up. Over my three decades of sales career I have seen that the most successful people have a tendency to surprise you. They can change the game and are not predictable.

For more career tips please visit www.freesaletips.com

October 16, 2020October 16, 2020

5 Career Hacks for Successful Sales Career during Covid

I remember my childhood days when we used to listen to radio commentary between India and Pakistan Hockey matches. What a nail biting finish these matches had. Nobody could match Indian hockey team. In fact between 1928 and 1980, India won 8 Olympic gold medals in hockey. After 1980, we have not won a single hockey gold. At the 2012 London Olympics, India’s hockey team finished last in a field of 12.

So what went wrong? Nothing except rules of the game changed. Till 1970 hockey was played on grass (natural) but in the mid 1970s International Hockey Federation altered the rules to make synthetic astroturf the mandatory playing surface for international hockey tournaments.

Since these were expensive ground, India could not afford them and as a result we started losing out in a sport where we used to rule the world.

This might be sounding familiar to many of Indian companies & employees in 2020, though the situation is quite different. This time around nature has changed the rules of the game viz COVID situation. COVID has brought around many disruptions and the biggest being it has changed the rules of the game. Size of total business pie has shrunk; some experts put it at 60% i.e the pie has shrunk by 40%.

Read for more on market dynamics during COVID

The worst hit is the unorganized segment; unfortunately this is the segment which extends employment to a very large chunk of population. Thousand have lost jobs and majority of plants are running at almost half of their capacity.

The question is what can be done?

Adapt or perish, One thing is for sure and it never changes i.e basics and universal laws. Five things that we can suggest to employees are as follows:

Align & understand the reality – The best way is to understand and align with the situation, no company be it from organized or unorganized sector had planned for COVID, therefore the impact is huge in every sector. The unorganized sector has been impacted the most and we all know the reasons. We all know that there have been salary cuts in many companies and this has left many employees wondering and feeling dejected but smartness is stepping into the shoes of an entrepreneur and feeling his issues too. Promoters have to do a balancing act for so many stakeholders, suppliers, vendors, labour , govt statutory obligations and employees .
Change your style – when 20-20 cricket was introduced many talented test and 50-50 overs players were suddenly struggling, they could not change their game and were thrown out of the team. People who could change their game and add new skills survived and started growing. In the present situation the market size has shrunk and every key customer is being attacked by all the companies. The winner is the one who can understand the pain points of the customer and maintain healthy relations with him. Regular visits and service levels will play an important role. We have seen in the past that sometimes some sales people only visited a handful of customers but today they will have to increase this many fold and visit lots of customers to reach normal level. Please come out of your comfort zones. Remember – important is you have to reach out to the customers , they have many options.
Focus on Bigger/ important Issues First – Most of the companies are struggling because of the cash crunch. One of the biggest reasons is Old Outstandings and Slow moving stock. Focus on getting collection and selling the inventory – even if you have to negotiate the pricing please do and ensure this material sells immediately.
Smart Working – Today every company is struggling for cash flow, Cash is the king. Focus on getting more rotations and improve the payment cycle for your company. I know it can be tough but imagine if you can improve the cash flow even by 30% the business will bounce back at double the pace.
Reflect : Few years back I learned this beautiful art called “Self Reflection”, it’s a very simple exercise but one of the most effective ones. U can write on a paper all the things that u did and then write what else u could have done to make it better. Believe me if you’re honest with yourself … it works like magic… Try this. ( Example is I did not visit top 20% of my customers, I started doing that after self reflection)

October 5, 2020October 5, 2020

Simple Solutions Work More – Change the Perspective

Prior to 1996 Cricket World Cup, in ODIs most teams relied on starting off cautiously and then gradually building up the innings in the allotted fifty overs. Sri lanka captain Arjuna Ranathunga’s came up with an out of box idea and moved Sanath Jayasuriya, who in the initial years of his career since 1989 had batted in the lower order, and Romesh Kaluwitharana to open the innings for the team, revolutionized One Day Cricket. Rest is all history. This move was aha moment in cricket and many other experiments were done after this. Many captains and coaches would be wondering why they didn’t think of this before, how come they missed this simple thing.

How many times we miss the obvious and then afterwards when someone else comes up with a winning formula , we kick ourselves and say it’s very simple how could I have missed this. Over the years I have felt that it’s your power of observation and curiosity that helps in “Out of Box thinking”. It’s nothing but seeing the same things but from a different perspective.

Sharing a simple story (though there are 100s of such stories)that has helped me understand the concept of changing perspective and looking at things in a different way.

In a Girl’s college some students used to experiment with lipsticks and used to kiss the mirror in the bathroom, leaving lipstick marks on the mirror. The principal had a tough time as the maintenance dept. constantly complained to her and asked her to take action. The college fixed fines and various counseling sessions but nothing seems to change. The principal knew that some “out of Box” solution had to be worked out otherwise the problem will not be solved.

The principal recalled a local pizza parlor that had been put out of business because of a rumor spread by some competitor. According to the rumor, the pizza parlor was using sewage water from a nearby ditch to make pizzas in order to save water. Though it was untrue, people refused to eat their pizza after that, and this memory inspired her idea. After conspiring with the school’s janitor, she invited the girls into the bathroom, saying she wanted them to witness the extra work they made for the janitor who had to clean off their lip prints. The janitor came in and stepped into an open toilet stall. He dipped his duster into a toilet, shook off the excess water, and then used the duster to clean the mirrors. This demonstration solved the problem; Simple but impactful.

September 12, 2020September 12, 2020

IKEA Effect – Why we value our ideas over others.

I remember the days when I started my career as a sales trainee in a company that was well established as a tyre company but they were about to launch home appliances. During one of the brain storming sessions with head marketing, on designing the launch strategy we were told that each one of us has to propose a few ideas on the business and launch strategy. The best ideas would be selected and made a part of the national launch plan strategy.

We all got charged up and started to work on our own mini projects, in the evening we presented our ideas to head marketing. Someone else’s idea was selected over mine. I literally went into a shell as I had worked very hard on my idea.

Years later I read about a concept called “IKEA Effect” and this made me understand – why I felt bad when my idea was turned down (Rejected).

Have you ever felt that if you get anything without putting in hard work the value for the same goes down or in other words you tend to take it for granted? Many times we see that in brainstorming sessions good leaders tend to encourage others to contribute to the discussion and suggest ideas. The simplest reason for this is that when you contribute to the building process you start owing the same and by default start valuing it more.

The IKEA effect was identified and named by Michael I. Norton. In simple words as per IKEA Effect the labor alone can be sufficient to induce greater liking for the fruits of one’s labor. In fact IKEA works on this concept of “Do It Yourself (DIT)”. When a customer assembles his own furniture (modular Furniture) he values it more than any other item.

This is one feature that has been used by many marketers over the years to help create brand loyalty and increase customer engagement. When manufacturers came up with the idea of instant cake mixes in the 1950s, no one got excited. The general impression was that this will make cake baking too easy and the taste might not be that good. In fact, were these even cakes? But then, somebody hit upon a brilliant idea: Include, in the instructions, the use of an egg to be supplied by the customer. Simply making customers break an egg into the mix was enough to convince them they were now actually baking a cake. Would you imagine: Instant cake mixes became a hit – IKEA Effect in play.

To make your ideas a success with your team and customers so that they own up your ideas or products, engage them, make them part of the process. You will see the results will be very different.

Also Read – Why Some People Grow and Some Don’t

September 6, 2020September 6, 2020

Change is NOT the only constant – Cost of Change / Switching Barrier

In the late 1800s, there was no standard pattern for the arrangement of letters on the typewriter keyboard. The problem was that when people became expert on these typewriters and started typing fast, the keys started jamming and this caused lots of damage to the typewriters. In 1873- Christopher Scholes came out with a new layout. The layout is known as “QWERTY”, after the letter arrangement of the first six letters in the top row (see your mobile / laptop keyboard).

Now you will be wondering how this would have solved the problem. This slowed down the typing speed as commonly used alphabets were kept far off from each other and reduced the speed of typing. When Remington Sewing Machine Company started producing this on mass scale (1904) QWERTY became a default industry standard.

When electric typewriters and later on computers were launched the Jamming problem became irrelevant. DSK (Dvorak’s Simplified Keyboard) developed simplified keyboard, which reduced the distance between commonly, used alphabets and reduced the distance by 50%. Typing speed went up by a substantial percentage. Still these keyboards could not replace the complex and old keyboard – QWERTY. If they were complex and not relevant, then why the simplified DSK could could not replace them?

Perhaps the concept of “Cost of Change or Switching Barrier” will explain and answer this question. The simplest definition of Switching Barrier is the cost associated with switching suppliers. QWERTY was being used by every manufacturer and DSK had to take a massive initiative of changing the market and habits of users that the cost associated with it would have been huge.

How can you apply this concept to your business?

1. People resist change and the advantages and disadvantages associated with it. They don’t want to change the status quo. Therefore, a new, improved product, no matter how great it is on its own merit, must be significantly better than what the consumer is currently using before he will switch. You can create barriers and increase the dependency of your customers on you through service and engagement that they find this Switching Cost high.

2. Different people have different reference points. For some availability, for some service and for some quality will be the reference points. The best way is to identify them and use them to create barriers for your customers to switch.

3. People exhibit loss aversion. The pain of giving up a benefit is much more significant than the pleasure of gaining that benefit. For example the cost of giving up QWERTY is much higher than the benefit of adopting the simple DSK keyboard. This can be easily used by you to create barriers for your customers to shift. I remember one distributor used finance as a barrier to keep his customers from shifting.

August 29, 2020August 29, 2020

How Can You Surprise Them? ( Game Theory & Surprise Strategy)

Remember the famous 2006 football world cup quarter final match between England and Portugal, the nail biting match was decided on penalty shootout. Portuguese goalie guessed correctly every time and saved three of the kicks, which clinched the victory for his team.

Have you imagined what strategy goes behind judging the direction of penalty kicks? The reaction time is just a fraction of a second and the goalie has to decide which direction to dive.

Some very interesting insights to this is given by Game Theory , as per a famous book – “Art of Strategy- by Avinash K Dixit & Barry J” – Imagine you are about to shoot a penalty kick in soccer. Do you shoot to the goalie’s left or right? Suppose some consideration—your being left-footed versus right-footed, the goalie being left-handed versus right-handed, or which side you chose the last time you took a penalty kick—suggests that you should choose left. If the goalie is able to think through this thinking, then he will mentally and even physically prepare to cover that side, so you will do better by choosing his right instead. But what if the goalie raises his level of thinking one notch? Then you would have done better by sticking to the initial idea of kicking to his left. And so on. Where does it end?

The only logically valid deduction in such situations is that if you follow any system or pattern in your choices, it will be exploited by the other player to his advantage and to your disadvantage; therefore you should not follow any such system or pattern. If you are known to be a left-side kicker, goalies will cover that side better and save your kicks more often. You have to keep them guessing by being unsystematic, or random, on any single occasion.

If your strategy is unique or has an element of surprise then you can beat even the best. In 1973 Toyota proved this to the car manufacturers of America. Toyota was able to sell their cars at much lower rates than American manufacturers. Americans imposed additional taxes on them so that their rates are equal or higher than American brands.

The term “Continuous Improvement” was coined by Toyota and they spent years studying the production lines of American car makers such as Ford. They knew that the US car industry was more advanced and more efficient than the Japanese one. So they waited. Japanese shifted their manufacturing base to America. The local manufacturers thought that now the Japanese cost will be similar to them. They studied their competitors and tried to copy what the Americans did so well. They blended these processes with the strengths of their own, and came up with something even better.

Toyota proved that knowing their own weaknesses can be the key to success – and be one of the best business strategies you can ever deploy.

Elements of surprise and continuous improvement are two hallmarks of a good strategy. Let them guess your next move, catch them napping, go for the kill. Small , big all businesses can achieve this.
Vikas Marwaha

August 23, 2020August 23, 2020

What leads to poor decision making?

Those who follow cricket would never forget March 3, 2003, this was the date when South Africa tasted another embarrassing exit from a World Cup, that too on home soil. They needed a victory in their last league game, they dramatically tied with Sri Lanka as captain Shaun Pollock was left to rue it. For those who are not aware of this game or don’t follow cricket let me explain this in brief.

Sri Lanka made 268 runs and this was a modest target for South Africa. They played well but then it started raining and at that stage South Africa needed 46 runs in 32 deliveries. Next ball Boucher advanced down the track to loft Muralitharan for a six over wide long-on. The D/L par at the end of the over read 229 and the crowd celebrated as if their side had won. Boucher pumped his fists as the ball cleared the fence. The celebrations were certainly premature. They had to get one more than the par score to register a win. Next ball was played by him as a defensive shot and then rain stopped the match.

What a shame, SA was knocked off the league because of poor calculation.

Most of the times we all fall into this trap of miscalculation and taking wrong decisions; At times we rely too much on our Gut Feel and make wrong choices.

Let’s play a small game to check this out, answer these questions and the person who answers them fastest wins the game. You can write your answers in the comment box along with time taken to answer. (Though I have mentioned the answers in the footnote section for you to compare.)

A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1.00 more than the ball.
How much does the ball cost?
_____ cents
If it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets,
how long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?
_____ minutes
In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Every day, the patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to cover the entire lake,
how long would it take for the patch to cover half of the lake?
_____ days

The original test penned by Dr. Frederick and is known as “Cognitive reflection test (CRT)”. Source – Wikipedia

Foot Notes :

The intuitive answers to these questions that “system 1” gives typically are: 10 cents, 100 minutes, and 24 days; while the correct solutions are: 5 cents, 5 minutes, and 47 days.

August 19, 2020August 19, 2020

Why we put pressure on ourselves – Prisoner’s Dilemma (Game Theory)

Tour de France is one of the toughest sports events in the world. It takes very high endurance levels to even finish the race and leave along winning it. There was a sports icon who is known for his seven consecutive Tour de France wins from 1999 to 2005, the most in the event’s history and if I say he defeated cancer too !! This icon set new benchmarks in sporting history. No prize for guessing – He was the great Lance Edward Armstrong .

Unfortunately he was found guilty of doping charges. For much of the second phase (Post Cancer) of his career, American cyclist Lance Armstrong faced constant allegations of doping. Armstrong consistently denied allegations of using performance enhancing drugs until a partial confession during a broadcast interview with Oprah Winfrey in January 2013.

The question is why did he do this? Why does competition push us to a point where we cheat? Why do we put pressure on ourselves?

The simplest explanation to this lies in the “Prisoner’s Dilemma” from Game Theory, a very interesting concept & equally effective in strategy making. The paradox was developed by mathematicians M. Flood and M. Dresher in 1950.

As per Wikipedia The Prisoner’s Dilemma can be explained as:

Two members of a criminal gang are arrested and imprisoned. Each prisoner is in solitary confinement with no means of communicating with the other. The prosecutors lack sufficient evidence to convict the pair on the principal charge, but they have enough to convict both on a lesser charge. Simultaneously, the prosecutors offer each prisoner a bargain. Each prisoner is given the opportunity either to betray the other by testifying that the other committed the crime, or to cooperate with the other by remaining silent. The possible outcomes are:

If A and B each betray the other, each of them serves two years in prison
If A betrays B but B remains silent, A will be set free and B will serve three years in prison
If A remains silent but B betrays A, A will serve three years in prison and B will be set free
If A and B both remain silent, both of them will serve only one year in prison (on the lesser charge).

Guess what happens – Both will end up betraying each other and end up serving 2 years in prison. This is how we do in real life. To get ahead we fall into the trap of “Prisoner’s Dilemma” .

Some real life situations that will help us to understand this Paradox.

In my three decades in sales , I have seen companies announcing slab schemes for dealers. They tend to fall into Prisoner’s Dilemma and start competing with each other and this leads to over trading and over stocking. Result no one gains except the company.
Woman wearing heels – psychology explains this as Prisoner’s Dilemma – if one wears to look good and tall others have to follow. Result no one gains.
Employees trying to outperform each other in jobs
Athletes trying to win medals in race and consuming performance enhancing drugs.

August 16, 2020August 16, 2020

Why Some People Grow and Some Don’t

Most of the times we focus on the end result and forget the process. The end result might be the same but the process sets the platform for becoming market leader.

We want to be successful but most of the time not willing to go through the pain attached to the process of success.

What separates successful and not so successful people is the process.

If you’re a coach, your goal is to win a championship. Your system is what your team does at practice each day.
If you’re a writer, your goal is to write a book. Your system is the writing schedule that you follow each week.
If you’re a runner, your goal is to run a marathon. Your system is your training schedule for the month.
If you’re an entrepreneur, your goal is to build a million dollar business. Your system is you’re sales and marketing process.

There is a wonderful story of a group of American car executives who went to Japan to see a Japanese assembly line. At the end of the line, the doors were put on the hinges, the same as in America. But something was missing. In the United States, a line worker would take a rubber mallet and tap the edges of the door to ensure that it fit perfectly. In Japan, that job didn’t seem to exist. Confused, the American auto executives asked at what point they made sure the door fit perfectly. Their Japanese guide looked at them and smiled sheepishly. “We make sure it fits when we design it.” In the Japanese auto plant, they didn’t examine the problem and accumulate data to figure out the best solution-they engineered the outcome they wanted from the beginning. If they didn’t achieve their desired outcome, they understood it was because of a decision they made at the start of the process.

At the end of the day, the doors on the American-made and Japanese-made cars appeared to fit when each rolled off the assembly line. Except the Japanese didn’t need to employ someone to hammer doors, nor did they need to buy any mallets. More importantly, the Japanese doors are likely to last longer and maybe even be more structurally sound in an accident. All this for no other reason than they ensured the pieces fit from the start. What the American automakers did with their rubber mallets is a metaphor for how so many people and organizations lead. When faced with a result that doesn’t go according to plan, a series of perfectly effective short-term tactics are used until the desired outcome is achieved. But how structurally sound are those solutions? So many organizations function in a world of tangible goals and the mallets to achieve them. The ones that achieve more, the ones that get more out of fewer people and fewer resources, the ones with an outsized amount of influence, however, build products and companies and even recruit people that all fit based on the original intention. Even though the outcome may look the same, great leaders understand the value in the things we cannot see.

(Story Credits Simon Sinek )

Process is the major differentiator, focus on process – results are just by products of what we do.

August 6, 2020August 6, 2020

Creative Destruction – Brands & Leaders use this technique to Create Dominance

Destruction – the word sends negative feelings and it also sends a signal of bad times. However when the word Creative is attached to it , the meaning changes drastically. Creative Destruction is a process that can change the Paradigm and brings about Positive Changes; though the change might not be pleasant to everyone.

As per Investopedia – Creative destruction can be described as the dismantling of long-standing practices in order to make way for innovation. Creative destruction was first coined by Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter in 1942. Schumpeter describes creative destruction as innovations in the manufacturing process that increase productivity, but the term has been adopted for use in many other contexts.

Creative Destruction – the idea is not to change the old but to invent a new. The essence is to raise the bar and build something new that can completely take the competition by surprise and catch them off guard. Some brands have done that and no doubt they rule the market. They rule the market not only because they catch their competitors off guard but also because they challenge their old beliefs and continuously improve.

Some companies that have used Creative Destruction to disrupt the market:

Nike – In 2012 Olympics Nike was not an official sponsor but still they managed to get the maximum lime light and media attention. Traditionally Nike has always had a high Olympic profile despite not having sponsor’s status, they smartly outwitted big-money Olympic sponsors such as Visa, McDonald’s and Adidas – which reportedly paid $155 million for its official London 2012 sponsorship. Question is what did Nike do to offset this spending of Adidas & other major sponsors? The Game changer was “Nike Volt Shoes’ ‘, in fact they won Gold for Nike in ambush marketing. Approximately 400 athletes wore these shoes and they took the show away from other brands, even official sponsors of the Olympics.

Netflix – It has been so disruptive to existing industries, that its impact is now being referred to by some as the “Netflix effect.” Here are a few examples of the “Netflix effect” and the industries that have been “Netflixed”.
- Video Tape and Disc Rental Industry – totally disrupted by Netflix. The old architect of industry has gone through “Creative Destruction” and a new industry structure has been formed.
- Traditional Media Companies – Netflix has been challenging the conventional structure of cable networks, traditional network TV channels, and pay-TV service. It has altered the way this industry operates and the way consumers watch content.

There are many such examples of brands that lead because of Creative Destruction and push the boundaries.

August 2, 2020August 2, 2020

Drip Marketing – Lethal Concept (Bramastra)

Resources are always limited; organizations that use them judiciously have an edge over others. One of the major outflows of money is the cost attached to customer acquisition & retention. Repeat advertisement and hammering information in general campaigns never helps in reaching the target audience. One very effective technique to overcome this and frequently used by marketers is “Drip Marketing”.

Drip marketing is a plan for communicating information about a company through a steady stream of marketing messages, including emails, social media posts, postcards, phone calls, brochures, and printed newsletters. These tools raise brand awareness for consumers and cultivate leads for sales teams. In many cases, drip marketing uses automated services to send out these messages at certain points in time, allowing companies to send responses immediately after a consumer expresses interest in the information. Likewise, they can schedule social media posts ahead of time so their Twitter updates, for example, are published on a regular, but not too frequent, basis.

This term has been inspired by agriculture “Drip Irrigation” in which a very little amount of water is used to irrigate large areas of land. Some real life examples of “Drip Marketing Strategy” and the advantages of the same are mentioned below.

Upgrade Drips: Recently I opted for the free option of “Canva” to use pictures for my blog. After a few days there were regular prompts for the “Upgrade to Pro” option. We have felt this on numerous occasions that we get nudged into buying the option after a few reminders. The advantage for a company is that by offering free versions of an app (with limited options) they can remind us on a regular basis and that too without annoying us.
Cross Selling and Up-Selling Drips: In earlier times the job of a marketer was to attract a customer and then focus on retaining him for repeat demand. This concept has changed in modern times; it is no longer only about retention but also about cross selling and up selling. Drip Marketing helps in analyzing consumer behavior. Recently I wanted to buy a Tab from Amazon. I almost finalized a Tab but then the system prompted me for a superior model at just a fraction higher price. Finally landed buying the higher version.

Customer Retention Drips: sometimes regular customers stop buying. Drips help in identifying such customers and help us to prompt them and also keep them engaged. I was a regular on “Udemy” but for the last two months I have been tied up with some other assignments. Udemy has continuously been sending me offers and just yesterday I bought a course for Udemy.
Reminders: Before Lockdown (miss travelling) I was trying to book a hotel at Mumbai through “Make My Trip (MMT)” but left without completing the bookings. I started getting reminders via SMS and mails from MMT on a continuous basis and that too with some fantastic offers.

The list for using Drip Marketing is endless…

Snob Effect – Excellent Way To Sell Premium Products

July 31, 2020July 31, 2020

Why Being a Snob Helps Some Brands – Snob Effect

Every Year in Middle of June thousands of people flock outside The All England Lawn Tennis Club, London. They queue outside for hours to get an entry and watch the “Wimbledon”. It’s really surprising that most part of the year Tennis players & some of the tournaments go unnoticed. People want to be associated with Wimbledon because it’s associated with wealth & success. Perhaps if Wimbledon were cheaper and more accessible, there would be less demand for it. Less demand among the middle class at least.

Another sport, also known as “King of Sports” possesses an aura around it. Polo is also considered to be a rich man’s game. These examples are of an effect called “Snob Effect”. Marketers use this to position their products in the high end segment.

General Law of economics states that if price is lowered demand increases, this is also known as Elasticity of Demand. Interestingly Snob Effects works reverse of this principle.

The higher the price the more premium that product is; more people are attracted towards it.

Goods that are often used as a sign of social and personal status:

Snob Goods or Snob Effect is defined as an effect/ goods where the main attraction is related to its image of being expensive, exclusive and a symbol of social status. These goods will have restricted supply and only be available to people with high income.

Famous brand named handbags, e.g a Gucci Zumi small embellished alligator shoulder bag which retails for £22,280.00
Exclusive watches, e.g. Patek Phillipe Grand Complications Split-Seconds Chronograph Perpetual Calendar for £199,000.
Expensive and rare artwork, e.g. modern art with limited print runs, e.g artwork of Jeff Koons.

How small businesses can use this effect:

Create some niche product offerings that are exclusive in nature.
Don’t over discount your products; in fact discounts are counterproductive if you want to create a premium image.
Create a customer base that has exclusive tastes, address their needs in a tailor made fashion.
Work on store ambiance and experience.

July 21, 2020July 22, 2020

Why We Follow – Bandwagon Effect

In the previous blog we talked about IPL and its amazing journey to success. IPL has become a festival like event, people want to be a part of this mega event. I have personally witnessed and felt that if you are not aware of the team scores and match details, you feel that you are missing out on something important in life. I concluded that in India cricket is a religion, so people were updated. I was shocked when I witnessed the same effect when people were talking about Web Series Like – Game Of Thrones, Sacred Games and many such series. Some of my friends were doing this to look “Cool” or be part of so called “Cool Crowd”

I was curious to know and understand as to why we sometimes do things that we don’t feel like doing but still have to do. Is it because we want ourselves to be seen as more knowledgeable or more socially acceptable? Then I came across an article on an effect known as “Bandwagon Effect”. This helped me understand the psychology behind following a trend, It’s because of the Bandwagon Effect.

Game Of Thrones – Image courtesy Googles

According to Wikipedia Bandwagon effect is defined as:

The bandwagon effect is a phenomenon whereby the rate of uptake of beliefs, ideas, fads and trends increases with respect to the proportion of others who have already done so. As more people come to believe in something, others also “hop on the bandwagon” regardless of the underlying evidence.

Marketers use this concept to scale up business and acceptance of products. One recent example is the craze for Gluten Free products. Nowadays, people’s eating habits are changing purely because things like “not eating gluten” are cool. People are ignoring actual evidence about different product’s true purposes, and hopping on the bandwagon.

People’s desires to consume, buy, and use certain products are not always influenced by the product’s usefulness, but rather by what trend setters are doing.

The Garment industry is another industry that uses this effect in a big way. We have seen youngsters wearing Denim Jackets and not realizing that they have fallen into the Bandwagon Effect.

Channel partners must be wondering how they can use this concept in their day to day business operations?

Use opinion makers in your trade to create positive vibes for your products. This will motivate other users to follow them.
Scale up word of mouth promotions of satisfied customers as it creates pull and helps in pulling fence sitters.
Authors do this by generating positive reviews from leading newspapers and influencers.

Vikas Marwaha |Business Strategist | Thought Leader

July 20, 2020July 20, 2020

Impact of Display & Presentation – Von Restorff Effect

IPL cricket has changed the way cricket has been played traditionally. Love it or hate it, the IPL has made a significant difference in how we view domestic T20 cricket forever. It has helped cricket boards around the world understand just how powerful T20 cricket can be, and while Test purists might turn their noses up at the circus, its staying power has been something quite extraordinary.

The major impact of IPL on cricket has been because of Money & Entertainment. The “Game Changer” though has been the overall presentation of IPL, cheerleaders, hype and the team formations. No better example can be quoted for the “Von Restorff Effect”(VR effect) in the sports world.

Imagine for a moment that I give you a shopping list. You look at it quickly and you see nine items written in black and one item written in Red. You go shopping, but when you get to the store you realize you have lost the list. If you try to remember the items on the list, which will come to mind first? Certainly the one that was written in Red; Most people remember the element written in Red because the isolation of this element by the unexpected contrast immediately leaves an impression over time. This is how Von Restorff Effects works in real life.

Marketers use this effect to influence our decisions in day to day life. This effect works extremely well in Product Displays and when we wish to highlight key products over others. E-commerce portals use this effect and push us to decide and the best part is we don’t even realize this !!.

How does “Von Restorff Effect”(also known as Isolation Effect) work in nudging the consumers to select plans and products and how we can use this in our day to day life and improve Product Display and sales of high value (Margin) product Mix?

The two pictures below are one of the best examples of VR Effect ,

Evernote highlights the plan that they want entry level customers to buy with a Black Strip.
VR effect is used to create a meaningful contrast between products,; by using colours, shape, position & texture in product listing / displays. Revolve clothing uses a black label to highlight their best sellers and isolate it from the rest.

VR effect can be very effectively be used by Retailers and Dealers in creating special displays for the products that fetch them more profits and needs to be highlighted in stores. Premium products sales is a byproduct of how you position them.

July 11, 2020July 11, 2020

Why Expensive Sells – Placebo Effect

Those who watched Rio Olympics 2016 would have noticed Michael Phelps and other Olympians sporting deep-purple circles on their limbs and midsections. Some of the audience might have thought this to be some injury marks. Whereas in reality these Purple circle marks were signs of “cupping,” an ancient Chinese healing practice used to cure muscle pains.

Phelps, whose shoulders were dotted with the purple marks won gold medal in 4×100 freestyle relay. There is no scientific evidence that these dots actually helped him win the race but athletes feel that their performance enhances after the use of this treatment.

This Phenomenon is known as Placebo effect, Layman’s definition of this effect is :

“A placebo is, by definition, a substance that doesn’t actually provide the promised benefit — it’s not real. The placebo effect, however, is very real”.

We have grown up hearing this adage, “you get what you pay for”, our mind is tuned to Price equal to quality.

Research shows that in some countries like Japan, France, China and Germany being expensive is the first criteria of luxury. The price in these countries is an indicator of quality, legend, prestige – often illusory concepts that have a lot to do with the placebo effect.

Lots of brands make use of this concept, Rolex increases its prices every year and that too without any reason. This has an impact on customers and creates an image of premium product positioning.

Another classic case of Placebo Effect is an experiment done in 2017,when some people (divided in 2 groups) were asked to taste a wine. Both the groups were given different prices for the same wine. The group that tasted wine with higher prices had a greater percentage ratio of positive feedback over the other group.

Generally it’s a bad idea to announce discounts on luxury goods as they have a negative effect on the business; In fact increasing prices works as a positive impact. This is mainly because of the Placebo Effect.

Dealers and Channel partners can use this effect for products that have a premium and unique positioning. Try this out, it actually works !!

June 16, 2020June 16, 2020

Decoy Pricing – Most Clever Pricing Strategy.

During his early playing days in the NBA Michael Jordan was a game changer but not a team player. He wanted all the limelight. At times this created rift among the players, Creating window of opportunity for the opponents. Then Head coach Phil Jackson, with help from assistant coach Tex Winter came up with a unique idea (original idea was of Sam Barry) of “Triangle Attack” . This was a “Decoy Strategy” to create moves that could fox the opponents into making mistakes. Such forms of play made “Chicago Bulls” win 72 titles.

Question is how can organizations use this Decoy Strategy and create a winning position for themselves.

We see this on a daily basis but most of the times are not able to figure it out. The decoy effect: how you are influenced to choose without really knowing it.

Pricing is one of the most crucial strategies in the entire marketing mix. Smart pricing strategy can have a major impact on Organization’s overall profitability. A very smart and cunning pricing strategy that marketers use to get you to switch your choice from one option to a more expensive or profitable one .It’s called the decoy effect.

Example below will help you understand how companies use Decoy Pricing Strategy and we fall for it , if not every time but most of the times:

Imagine you want to buy a phone, one 64GB at Rs.1,09,900/– and another 512GB at Rs.1,41,900/– . The consumer will feel that on almost 23% extra price he is getting almost 90% extra space and may be some extra features. Decoy pricing strategy adds an interesting & very clever dimension to the choice. Marketers add a third dimension .

Now imagine if another phone with 256 GB memory and priced at Rs.1,23,900/- is also offered (decoy price offer) . The equation from the customer’s perspective will be just 11% extra price but 75% extra space and extra features. The objective of the company is to sell this model. The customer feels he got the best deal !!

Decoy pricing is best suited when consumers are faced with many alternatives, they often experience choice overload. In an attempt to reduce this anxiety, consumers tend to simplify the process by selecting only a couple of criteria (say price and quantity) to determine the best value for money. The Decoy Pricing “Nudges” the consumer into making a decision. This strategy is also suited when there is fierce competition and the company wants the consumer to select from a product or segment that’s less crowded. The 64 GB category is very competitive but there are less options at 256GB.

Starbucks uses this strategy beautifully

June 13, 2020June 13, 2020

8 Common Career Mistakes

Michael Jordan , who has not heard this name. He is a legend in Basketball and we know his phenomenal success. What most of the people don’t know about him is that, When Michael Jordan started playing basketball in school he was rejected. He was not selected for the school team, he was considered unfit to play basketball as he was only 5’11” tall. His coach thought that he would not be able to play against players taller than him.

It’s hard to believe that one of the best players in history was dropped from the team. Jordan could have easily fallen into the trap and could have made mistakes that would have finished his career. Instead he chose to convert this shortcoming into a strength. He analyzed that taller players are slow in speed, he used his shorter height as an advantage and worked on his speed. He redefined the game with his skills, speed, talent and attitude, he was considered incapable earlier in his career. He overcame all shortcomings and converted them into success.

Career is not a linear journey, it’s marked by many ups and downs. All of us make mistakes during our career. Some of them are reversible but some of them can be fatal.

Over my three decades of working in corporate sector, I have noticed that majority of people make some mistakes (including me), some of the common mistakes and how to correct them are listed below:

Fear Of Failure : Career is all about expanding, growing and Challenging your comfort zones. At times all of us have to take a leap of faith and take calculated risks. Remember the Mc Grath bouncer that hit Laxman on the head and the very next ball was dispatched to the boundary by Laxman. Most of the time people don’t grow when they fall into a comfort zone and take the “Path of Least Resistance”. If your role is not changing or enriching every three years , it’s time to question your position.

Career Goals : Imagine a football match without Goal Posts!! Career Goals are also like this, presence will help in direction but absence of such goals will make us run in circles without much progress. I have seen people changing companies and hopping jobs for petty reasons. Avoid doing this, instead focus on up skilling and job enrichment by adding value.
Ownership : It’s not my job !! How often have you heard these lines in the corporate world? People operate in silos and within the box, this can be very damaging for their careers in the long term. Experiment, take ownership and push the envelope. How do you expect to grow if you are not learning new things?

Investment : No one becomes an overnight success , In 2008, at age 21, Usain Bolt became the fastest 100m runner in the history of the World, some seven years after his first serious race. It seems unlikely that his total training volume was 1,400 hours per year, or 4 hours per day, every day, in the run up to this achievement. I have seen people wanting to reach the top without doing any hard work. Investing time and effort is something that is missing and they just struggle in their careers.
Not Being Vocal about your achievements: If you are fortunate someone will project your work for you but this is very rare. Most of the time I have seen people not being vocal enough and they fail to highlight their work. I know this sounds somewhat selfish or self promotion but this is hard reality. You blow your own bugle; no one will blow this for you.
Fitness : Roger Federer , who has not heard this name? One of the oldest players in world tennis. Has won many Grand Slam titles and still ranked very high in world rankings. The biggest differentiator has been his passion and fitness levels. With 70% of India’s population below 30 years of age , the corporate space will become very competitive in future (it already is), one of the biggest and most crucial factors will be your fitness levels. I have seen people blowing their fuse, poor listening skills and attention spans going down, all these lead to poor career growth and bad team management. Work on your mental and physical fitness , have fitness goals too.
Networking: Recently I was going through a report stating that 70% of senior level positions are filled through references and networking. Yet we underestimate this potent skill. I have seen people burning bridges and missing out on opportunities of creating a bond. Advice to younger self will be to invest in building relationships, it can create a big differentiator.
Procrastinating and Time Management : “You may delay, but time will not, and lost time is never found again”— Benjamin Franklin. Time is probably the most undervalued asset. My feeling is one year of well utilized time can place you 5 years ahead in your career.

June 2, 2020June 10, 2020

Pricing as a Differentiator – Loss Leader Pricing

Who will forget the India Vs England Test Match at Mohali in 2016. When Virat Kohli (62 & India were 204 for 6) was removed by Ben Strokes, India was in a deep hole. Nothing at that point seems to be right. Fortunately Indian bowlers had done well in the first innings and removed England for 283. Then something unexpected happened: someone lesser known for his batting (Ashwani) played a fantastic & brilliant innings of 72 along with Jadaja and Jayant Yadav. Strategy of Indian Captain worked by playing Ashwani in the game and helping India win the game. Though man of the match was not Ashwin it was Jadeja but the effort was tremendous.

Same thing happens in business also, at times in pricing strategy one product is made a “Loss Leader” but it serves as a deceptive pricing strategy, like Ashwani was a spinner but stumped England with his batting. This helps in generating customer traffic and increases the sales of particular category. The “Product “makes loss or negligible profit on standalone basis but it creates a basis for the organization to make profit. This is not “Bundle Pricing” that we talked about in previous blog but called “Loss Leader Pricing Strategy”

Some Organizations use this strategy very effectively. One such organization is Gillette; all of us know it’s a very premium brand and most of the time we know that it does not indulge into price wars. The fact is Gillette has smartly devised its pricing strategy in such a way that a pull is created around it’s loss Leader Products and customers buy the same. Later on the company gets recurring sales of profitable products.

Gillette makes their Razors as Loss Leaders and creates strong advertising campaigns around them. Customers buy their world class razors at very low prices but along with them they have to buy Blades at very high prices. They can’t even substitute the blades with some other brands as they are not compatible with Gillette Razors.

Smart, isn’t it!! This strategy can work beautifully for organizations or channel partners, who have a product that’s complimentary to some other product.

Though there are some flip slides also to this strategy but we can discuss them in some other section…

May 21, 2020May 21, 2020

10 Common Business Mistakes

Manoj Tiwari , Indian Cricketer also known as “Chota Dada” in Bengal.He made headlines by scoring 796 runs in the 2006-07 Ranji season and that too at an average that was equal to Sir Don Bradman (99.50). In 2008 when India lost to Australia, Dhooni was the captain,Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid were dropped from the team. Manoj Tiwari was just 20 years old when he was selected in the team along with other players.

So what happened ,why Manoj was not able to make it big in Indian cricket. He was talented but could not capitalize the opportunities. These days competition in cricket is so fierce that even if you miss one match there are many players waiting on the bench. Fitness and consistent performance along with luck plays a major role.

Business is similar to sports in many ways. Sometimes we feel that we are on the right track and doing everything right but still we are not growing, business is stagnant or degrowing.

Sometimes we are so busy in running the race that we forget to reassess the strategy.

During my three decades of sales and marketing experience , I have observed that the most common business mistakes are:

1. Vision – absence of vision is one the most common mistakes that most businesses make. It’s like sailing in the sea and not knowing which port to sail. Vision is like a simple statement that gives direction to business. (A detailed note on vision.)

2. Born with Silver spoon: Some of the entrepreneurs are second or third generation, the founders work hard to establish the business. Most of the time the next generation takes this success for granted and doesn’t spend time in learning the basics. They struggle in the process.

3. Basics – one of my friends told me a very interesting incident of Novak Djokovic appointing Boris Becker as head coach but still his ranking dropped many notches. He had to return to his old coach and the coach instructed him to focus on basics. This helped him regain his leadership position. Many times we forget the customer and start taking him for granted. Not keeping ears to ground and ignoring customers can really erode the business in a big way. The effect is not immediately visible but slowly eating up your business.

4. Team Building – An important aspect of any business but generally the most ignored one. If you want to grow you can’t grow without a dependable team. Build a team that can help you grow, decentralize work so that you can focus on bigger issues, invest in people.

5.Trust – Agreed that every business has some trade secrets and can’t be shared with everyone, not investing in relationships and trust leads to stagnant business and high attrition of a team.

6.Financial Management – Finance is the lifeline of any business and most of the businesses that I have seen struggling is not because of less finance but because of bad financial management. They don’t focus on the concept of ROI or ROCE but believe in the traditional concept of %age profit on each invoice. They take shortcuts to achieve short term objectives whereas business needs both tactical and strategic moves.

7. Investment in developing goodwill /Brand Building – Growth in sales does not mean that your good will or the brand value is also growing. Many businesses mix these two things and live in a myth that they have become a brand. Whereas brand building is a process and lots of effort goes into it.

8.Inventory Management – Another game changer, many a times this is like bad financial management. Not able to forecast demand and taking decisions based on poor feedback are some of the reasons that I have felt people get stuck in inventory.

9. Investment in technology – With changing market landscape I have seen many businesses adopting old obsolete methods to operate. Upgrading is a part of the process of growing up. These days lots of low cost tools are available that help in inventory management , outstanding management , team management and customer management and trend studying.

10. Customer Profiling – All customers are not profitable , Generally I have seen people not being able to differentiate between a profitable and non profitable customer. Will suggest to divide the customers into four broad categories:

High Volume – Low Profit

High Volume – High Profit

Low Volume – Low Profit

Low Volume – High Profit

The need is to select from these four categories and base your decision on the objective.

May 16, 2020May 16, 2020

Lethal Combination – Bundle Pricing Simplified

Sometimes a partnership transforms into a winning combination. It’s a “lethal Combination” for the competition and they have difficulties in finding an answer. Who can forget the combination of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly in One Day Internationals (ODI). The records say it all:

Partnerships – 176
Runs – 8227
Average – 47.55

No other pair has crossed even 6,000 runs together in ODI’s. Unmatched partnership and a “Lethal Combination” when they batted together. Both complement each other, resulting in a winning formula for Indian Team.

Some of you must be wondering what has this to do with the topic “ Bundle Pricing”? Well the answer is simple: like cricket partnerships, Bundle Pricing is also about combining two or more products and creating a winning partnership.

The simplest example is , when you book a hotel if the price for room is Rs.4000/-and Rs.20/- extra for water per bottle. It may sound bit harsh or odd to you but if the room price is Rs.4050/- and water is complimentary (2 bottles), you will not mind. Whereas the hotel has charged you more . This module of pricing is very common in Fast food chains like Burger King and McDonalds.

Major Benefits to Companies, Distributors and Dealers of Bundle Pricing:

This is an opaque pricing and the customers generally fall for the offers (Hotel Example). This can create an opportunity for Distributors to earn more.
This gives an opportunity to reduce inventory, you can bundle some slow moving product and keep your inventory lean.
It reduces cost on marketing as you can run a single campaign for multiple products.
This also helps in creating demand for products that people don’t generally buy or can do without too.

We have seen that some of the dealers follow this method and they gain. It’s a very common practice in the automobile and FMCG segment. Very few do this in the building material industry. Whereas the scope is huge. When you analyze every product or most of the products are complementary to each other and they can be sold as a combination. Paint with Putty, Plywood/ MDF with laminate, Glue with Laminate, masking tape with Laminate. There can be thousands of such examples. Question is to break the conventional mold of thinking and evolve into new Avtar.

May 13, 2020May 13, 2020

Survival For Fittest – Predatory Pricing & Just Noticeable Difference

How do you rate David Warner as a player? The answer to this question is a no brainer and I personally feel that 9 out of 10 will say they rate him very high as a player as far as his skills & techniques are concerned.

So with that logic he should have been the most expensive player for IPL(2019). However SunRisers Hyderabad got him at a very low price of INR 1,79,083 only. This proved to be a game changer for them and the impact score for Warner was 698 , which was the highest in IPL. This was far ahead of star players like Virat Kohli (482) and that too at almost double the price.

Warner was the most “Value for Money Player” of the IPL.Star power at a price that is very affordable.

When we look back and see success of some brands , we find that mass selling brands have some products that are perceived as a “Value for money” product by the customers. This acts like a hook for the company, a hook which can create pull for the other products and make life easier for the sales team to place their entire range and snatch shelf space from the competition.

Parle -G a brand that we have all grown with,follows a simple strategy of creating pull with their base product – at Rs2/- per pack. Some call it “Predatory pricing” but as a strategy it’s benefiting the company.

Question is
- Has this strategy benefitted Parle-G?
- How can normal smaller dealers draw benefits out of this strategy?
How Parle-G benefited – Parle-G has worked aggressively on “cost leadership”. They might be maintaining the low cost entry level product but behind this a shrewd strategy plays an important part.
Strategy – Parle-G focused on maintaining an easy threshold price level without compromising on profits. They kept the price level the same but when the cost pressure came they reduced the weight of the pack. They used the concept of “Just Noticeable difference” beautifully. Customers focused on price but failed to notice the reduced quantity.
Advantage – This strategy helped Parle-G create pull on retailers counters and thus helping them push their other “value added range” .
How Others (Dealers and Distributors) can use this strategy – Dealers generally miss the concept of bundle pricing and they don’t keep products that can create a hook for them.
- They can relook at their product basket and find some niche products that fetch average margin but help them push their other products to the retailers/ customers.
- They need to understand the concept of just noticeable difference, generally fear of losing customers forces them to take the path of least resistance to discounts.
- They need to improve the service levels as this can change the battlefield completely.

May 7, 2020May 8, 2020

Team Work and Dedication Vs Stars studded Team?

Almost three decades ago, Haryana beat Bombay by just two runs to win the Ranji trophy, the closest match in history of cricket. It was an incredible match. Bombay had 8 test cricketers & a batting line up that had Rajput, Vengsarkar, Tendulkar, Kambli and Pandit with Manjrekar as skipper. Can you imagine such a star studded line up to lose a match but they did lose. The reason was that Haryana had few players who were determined to make their mark and they did. In the end it’s not the stars that will win you a match but the team and the dedication of the unit to make a mark.

when I draw a parallel to this victory, there are many organizations in wood panel Industry (incidentally I worked there for a decade , so many such stories are etched in my memory) who have risen to top without having big names in their teams ( like some of the traditional big brands have in panel trade). These organizations have made a mark and created a space for themselves by sheer hard work ,being true to the customers and market needs.

one such Organization that has been making news in Wood Panel Industry is “Black Cobra”, the name is very catchy and different and this reflects in it’s work too!!.

Background

It all started in 1995, when 4 real brothers (all first generation entrepreneurs) from Sangrur (Punjab) came to Yamunanagar in search of business opportunities. They belonged to a lower middle class family.

What lead to the growth of Black Cobra

The early struggle period was of about 4 years when as a relatively new entrant, no dealer or distributor would entertain them for supply and also make fun of their brand name “Black Cobra” and question why would someone keep such a stupid name. The name had been kept to position the brand in the premium segment as in those days (1998) there used to be a premium perfume brand by the name of Black Cobra.
Black Cobra was the first plywood manufacturer in Yamunanagar to have a brochure and product catalog.
The only manufacturer in Yamunanagar to hire 5 people from FRI, Dehradun who were wood science and technology graduates. One of them is still with them (shows employee retention) and now their group CEO , and among the leading production experts for plywood in the country.
Great quality at a very affordable price point led to joining hands with lots of distributors who are among the top distributors in the country
The first manufacturer from Yamunanagar to have a Television commercial campaign
The only manufacturer in Yamunanagar to have a comprehensive range of products – All types of Plywood, Doors, Aluminium Composite Panels (Alex panels), Wood Plastic Composite Sheet and Doors, PVC laminates, HPL, WPC Door Frames.
Among the few businesses in Yamunanagar to start a reputed University that imparts world class education (ranked among top 60 Bschools in India by Times Education). This immensely helps in giving the group a positive brand image.
Starting with a small factory, the group now has 6 manufacturing plants (covering a total of 1mn+ sqft manufacturing space + 25 acres of campus area for the University) and various business verticals which have a total annual topline of 300+ crores.

Some learnings

Move fast and learn fast from failures – They had set up a laminated particle board unit but due to bad machinery choices, the project failed. They were quick to wrap that up and convert that into a WPC unit.
Hire great people and treat them like family – They have among the lowest attrition rates in our manpower till date and most of our production managers, staff, accountants, quality managers, etc have been with them since inception or early part of their journey.
Invest in R&D and new innovations to deliver more value to existing customers and oil the distribution channel with a constant supply of new and innovative offerings. Be at the forefront of innovations in the building materials industry.

Some things to be unlearned

Don’t underestimate the power of competition – when a brand grows, the management usually tends to be satisfied with the growth and becomes complacent and egoistic with their success. Usually that is when other upstarts and new entrants can completely disrupt your business.
Branding and marketing is not only about TV ads. In this crowded world, one has to try all different routes to reach the customer at least possible cost.
Shift in thinking from a manufacturer to a reputed brand – most brands still operate with processes that are similar to other manufacturers. This leads to temporary growth which saturates once you hit your production limits. Working as a brand is very different from working as a factory owner.

May 4, 2020May 4, 2020

Market Disruption – Can you change People’s Habits?

Many a times the market is disrupted by those forces that we have not factored in. There are 100s of example where small companies and unknown or little known players have disrupted the game. They added a new dimension in the market / game that completely shifted the paradigm.

Srilank’s player disrupted the game when he invented the Dilshan Scoop. This single shot brought about an enormous change in the game, bowlers till date are struggling to find answers. Even some of the best bowlers have struggled to this shot .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-PDQ0Z6aXo (watch it for your self)

“Beyond Meat” not many would have heard this name; this company disrupted the market and was probably the first company in United States to bring in a paradigm shift in people’s eating habits , that too for hard core MEAT lovers !

You will be wondering that what the company did to disrupt the market. Their strategy was very interesting and in fact one of Jack Trout’s famous book (differentiate or die) states that “attack the Strength”, they attacked hard core meat lovers with products that were vegan!!!

Now you will be wondering that why attack meat lovers when there are already customers that are vegan available. This is the beauty of disruption; you create something that is not there and then create a need for the same. some of the key strategic points that “Only Meat” followed can be summed up as :

The company went after meat lovers who wanted to cut down on meat consumption.
This reduction could be due to health issues or it could be to reduce the environmental impact animals have on the planet.
They made meat substitutes for plants where meat lovers could not tell the difference.
They also concentrated on former meat lovers who had turned vegan but still missed meat.

Many businesses can take a leaf out of this, they can look around and find niches that have a vacuum and they can easily own that space. There is always room for disruption.

May 4, 2020May 4, 2020

What Will I Do If I lose My Job / Business Tomorrow?

Reading books, taking to mentors and following influencers have made me realize that the people with the most meaningful lives are the ones who never stop asking questions — to others, but just as importantly, to themselves.

Some of the questions that I feel we should always ask ourselves and try and find answers to are:

What will I do if I lose my job / Business tomorrow – the covid2019 situation has caught some of us napping (though some are still napping) , it has suddenly brought many of us into a red zone. This is the one question that we all need to answer; this will trigger a string of thoughts that will eventually lead you to up-skilling your selves and find the answer.

Will my present skill sets last another 5 years – Covid-2019 splashed cold water on faces of many people, they were woken up from their slumber (some are still sleeping though), up-skilling is the new buzz word and people who will not up-skill will be obsolete very soon.

Will my energy level and health (Fitness) support me for another 10 years career – Now one more factor that has come up for discussion is “Health” , covid-2019 has made people think on the unhealthy life style , in fact we were more bothered about “ozone Layer”, “carbon foot print” and many more global issues but never talked about our health.

Will my present income level be enough & sustain my life style after retirement or in short run – few days of lockdown has brought many big , medium & small organizations on their knees. It has forced all of us rethink about our financial goals, time to review them and re-work on them.

Am I happy – There is no right or wrong answer to this question but generally when we ask ourselves this question, the first response is the correct one; If the answer is yes, do more of what is making u happy otherwise work on finding the things that make u happy.

Think on these …before we reach a point of no return…

May 3, 2020May 3, 2020

Innovation – Can Small Businesses bring about innovation?

Attended a webinar today and most of the participants were of the view that post lock down it will be bigger companies that will be doing good and smaller ones can struggle. Here are my two cents on the same.

Most of the innovations have been brought about by people who have thought ahead of time. It’s not big or small but the actual thought that has pushed people to come out with disruptive ideas and change the paradigm. Some examples of sports, wherein some of lesser know teams of that time could change the nature of game:

In 1996 Cricket world cup no one gave a chance, they were in fact beaten very badly by Australia few months before the start of world cup. Everyone knows the rest, Srilanka won the world cup !. Question is how? was it a fluke or some strategy?

The answer can be found in many sports case studies, Srilanka changed the complexion of game. Two of their opening batsman – Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana came out blazing and used the fielding restrictions to their advantage. They scored so many runs that the other bigger teams could not match them and lost out. When we look back it seems like a simple strategy but no one could think of this back then. Smaller teams or organizations are more lean and nimble footed and they take the risk of innovating and experimentation , whereas bigger companies are bound by their inherent processes and bureaucracy that can pull them back. Leaders at times don’t take risk just to defend their positions. They are happy with status quo situation.

Another example that has been with me since many years is , the rise of “Paper Boat” . This company has dared to make it’s mark in a space that was owned by MNC’s and huge giants. In fact it’s perfect example of ” David Vs Goliath” .

Again the question is , how could a new kid on the block make it so big? Was it luck or some other strategy? Paper Boat did a thorough research and came out with a strategy that bigger Giants could not even think off or imagine.

1. Emotional connect – brought out products that connected people with their child hood memories , “aam Ras” , Nimboo Pani etc..

2. Digital Platform – they connected with their customers and created lots of engagement programs via digital platform, this helped them convert customers at fraction of cost and also target the segment .

3. Market Penetration & Differential Pricing – Paper boat created a robust distribution structure and ensured their margins. One path breaking strategy was their differential MRP system. On airports it was higher and in normal grocery stores it was lesser , thus taking care of distribution margins.

There are 100s of such case studies and examples that show that it’s not about size but it’s more about thinking “Out of Box” and breaking the bureaucratic mold that hold us back. Managements and senior leadership should also step out of their safe heavens and allow teams to come up and generate ideas rather than just pushing instructions down their throat .

Smaller and nimble footed organizations or Dealers have a god given opportunity to bounce back and create their niche in this situation. They might not get another chance in near future.