Company Structure

For long term sustainability of any company, basic 4 pillars are as follows:

1. Corporate Governance:

The company strives to maintain size, diversity and independence of the directors. The company must show that it has a long-term commitment for maintaining an efficiently functioning board with an appropriate size or a mostly independent board or diverse board (international, intercultural, female representation, industry experience, financial expertise, age, or size of board). The compensation of the management and board of directors is linked to financial and extra-financial targets. The company must show that there is a system, policy or code of conduct in place that the remuneration package attracts and retains experienced management and board members. The company has a general, long-term commitment to an effective board and board committees with allocated tasks and responsibilities that can be fulfill through regular board meeting attendance. The company must show that it has a general, long-term commitment to ensure equal rights for minority shareholders like the exercise of the voting right in absentia and the timely access of shareholders to information, or the right to ask questions and make proposals.

2. Economic:

The company strives to generate sustainable and long-term growth, while maintaining a loyal client base and preventing anti-competitive behavior. The company pursues a long term policy that builds on employee loyalty and productivity, which in return improves its margins, to maintain a loyal shareholder base by delivering strong short and long term financial results, and transparent communication policy.

3. Social:

 The company shows a long-term commitment towards high employee remuneration like salaries, compensation payment, profit-sharing, rewards, performance benefits, employee stock purchase plans, insurances like Health insurances, Life-insurance, Pension funds, Accident insurances, General commitment towards the importance of health and safety of employees, it has a long-term, general commitment towards training and development of its employees. The company shows that employee training is important for the company. The company shows a long-term commitment towards good work-life balance for its employees, offering flexible working hours, vacations, and maternity leave without negative effects for their career, Human rights, and the Freedom of Association are part of the company's Business Code.

4. Environmental:

The company strives to make an efficient use of natural resources (example: materials, energy or water), shows a commitment towards reducing its environmental emission, has a long-term commitment towards environmental efficient product or service innovation.

Business Opportunities – Africa

As corporate India slowly wades into Africa, it discovers a continent full of opportunities. This is the new frontier for global businesses and Indian companies are not to be left behind in the gold rush to prime their growth and resources to fire their factories. Indian companies, be they in Information Technology, pharmaceuticals, telecom, retail, infrastructure, see Africa as a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

 The size of the African opportunity is astounding, a continent of 53 countries (now south Sudan comes into existence i.e. 54 countries), and a population over the billion people.  According to the World Bank, Africa has $860 billion worth of consumer spending. According to the Mckinsey Global Institute, Africa’s GDP will be around $ 2.6 trillion in 2020.

A big chunk of that growth will come from mining natural resources from the oil wells in Sudan and the copper mines in Congo, to Uranium in Niger, coal in Mozambique and ferro - chrome in S. Africa. According to Mckinsey, almost a Quarter of economic activity in the 15 countries that make for 85% of Africa’s GDP, is accounted for by resources.

Some facts and figures show that Africa is erupting in perspective of business growth:

1.       At 4.9% compound annual growth rate of its GDP, Africa is third fastest growing region.                                                       ( Source: World Development Indicators, IMF)

2.      By 2020, Africa’s Consumer spending will be $ 1.4 trillion and collective GDP will be $ 2.6 trillion.

3.      By 2025, around 47% of Africans will be living in cities.

4.      Mobile phone users/subscribers are 37%.

5.      Africa possesses about 60% of the potential available cropland in the world.                                                                            ( Source: E & Y)

Email Marketing

Top 10 ways to make your Email Marketing Campaign effective and valuable

Most people don’t fancy opening emails with sales pitches and special offers inside because 9/10 times they don’t find it much of their interest. They are barely eager to get the next email from the same vendor. Yet many companies use their email newsletter to barrage their customers and prospects with offers and promotions.
If you’re selling complex B2B products with repeated offers and promotions on a regular basis without considering the contact’s requirement, you’re more likely to get a very high “always ignore” rate. That’s the proportion of subscribers who got sick of your email offers long ago, but don’t want to bother to open one and scroll down and find the fine print to unsubscribe. This can be reversed if your campaign has content that people will look forward to.
Stop sending offers. Resist the urge to add a promotion to every missive. Remember that the call to action does not need to be ‘buy now’ or ‘try now’. The idea is to send your contacts something valuable which may add value to your brand, spread knowledge and ensure anticipation from the client’s end. Your contacts are more likely to open the next email you send them.
Here are 10 ideas of valuable things to send to your list and make your campaign more effective.
1) Short Webinar (15-20 minute) by one or more of your clients about how they solved a problem your other customers are likely to face.
2) Your own webinars that inform about a common topics of interest to your audience (Hint: your product is NOT a common topic of interest)
3) Invitation and discount to attend an event where you will be present.
4) Summary of big takeaways from a conference that someone in your organization attended 3rd party articles that are relevant to your prospects
5) White papers (your own or 3rd parties) that actually inform rather than advertise
6) Video interview with one of your executives sharing their ideas, views, insights (but NOT promoting your company)
7) Blog entries by your executives, employees, or 3rd parties that are relevant to your audiences
8) Explanation of something happening in the market and about which there may be confusion
9) New ideas or best practices gleaned from your customers and other internal and external subject matter experts.
10) There are countless others, of course. We would like to hear from you about more.

Social Media Marketing

“Average worldwide annual paper consumption is 48 kg per person with North America accounting for over 1/3.” - International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). Paper and energy consumption is ever increasing with the population rising by the minute. With every business, NGO, consultant and even consumers stressing on green alternatives, we decided to examine an existing albeit underrated solution; Digital Marketing. Digital Marketing or Internet Marketing for eco-sustenance is a marketing strategy that reduces dependence upon eco-hazardous marketing and exploitation of scarce valuable energy resources. All of this occurs without making an extra effort to promote the eco-friendly advantages of it.
Internet Marketing or integrated social media solutions could replace:
- Visiting cards, promotional brochures and pamphlets with QR codes
- Newspapers, newsletters, magazines with blogs
- Books, publication material with ebook readers, iPads, Kindles etc
- Printed resumes with LinkedIn profiles
- Billboards and banners with Facebook, Website, Google Ads, pop-up widgets
These are just few of the replacements or alternatives. Digital Marketing is widespread and all the users are gathered at one place, ‘the internet’, where marketers don’t have to run around searching for their consumers. With digital marketing taking precedence over most other traditional marketing platforms, every company investing in social media is taking a green turn; knowingly or unknowingly.
With Digital Marketing, you are:
- Saving space
- Lessening the load on energy consumption
- Reducing carbon-footprints by making online purchases
- Cutting back on your traveling expenses and fuel consumption
- Reducing sound pollution
With digital marketing, you’ve stepped into a world of eco-friendly choices. To contribute to the ‘World Environment Day’ this year, all you have to do is go back to the basics; namely, take the public transport, check your taps for leakage, hug a tree and remember to not print this article, subscribe instead. Pat yourself on the back for being an active part of this ‘Eco-friendly Digital Marketing Revolution’.

Database Management

Database Marketing: 10 questions to answer before you choose a list of contacts for your marketing campaign
You have a well versed marketing campaign ready, backed by internal-external research and surveys. You can’t wait to execute your marketing plan and create brand awareness of your product or services. All that you are waiting for is a database of contacts who will be interested. Now this is where the famous quote applies; ‘The money is in your list’.
You know that the money is in your list. As a marketer, you may, undoubtedly be aware of database selection and its effect on your marketing campaign. This is why B2B experts stress on finding the right prospects for your marketing campaign. The success of your marketing campaign depends on 3 things: (a)Focus (b)Quality (c)Price
But before you narrow down on these things, as a marketer, you must answer some questions. These 10 questions will help you determine the type of a contact database that you will require to support your campaign and will help you build it:

1) Who is my Target Group?
2) What is the frequency of communication and number of times I will communicate with prospects?
3) What is my key objective? Brand awareness, selling services or products, Social Media, PR?
4) Will I be using multi-channel communication for the campaign?
5) Will I require customized communication for each prospect?
6) Do I want to track the prospects’ response pattern?
7) Do I want to measure results and improve responses of the recipients personally and not with a tool?
8) Do I want a long-term relationship with the prospects or is it just for this particular marketing campaign?
9) Am I okay with letting a third party tool or agency do my measurement and prospect behavior study?
10) Am I ready to invest in long-term lead generation plans or am I happy with existing relationship?

Information flow within organizations: a competitive advantage

As businesses grow, so does the amount of knowledge they compile. A nugget picked up by a sales manager combined with information heard by R&D and a fragment by advertising can alert management of an impending competitive product launch. Regular information flow is critical to the overall success of a business functions and increases the value a group contributes to the company overall.

Experts have made claims that approximately 80% of the information one wants to know about a competitor or market resides within their own organization. But unfortunately what organizations fail to realize is that information collected in isolation does not benefit the company as a whole.

The failure of a business to share information among departments often translates into the possession of partial or flawed information resulting in flawed conclusions or decisions.

A steady flow of information within an organization requires the development of an internal network. This internal network does not equate to a sophisticated Information Technology network, but rather an even more powerful set of computational power: the collective minds of each department.

Realizing the benefits of networking (meeting new people as well as colleagues) is a challenge at best and elusive to many. Using effective techniques can smooth the road to a practical flow of information across multiple departments still remains a challenge in most organizations. Knowing who knows what, when to initiate contact, and how to follow up are the keys to networking success, and building an effective, respected, and flourishing business intelligence unit.

If we regard an organization as an organism, the information processing system, like the central nervous system, it is the foundation of all voluntary behavior. Organizations must be seen as complex systems, the elements of which must collaborate to compete effectively.

The most vital source of competitive advantage may lie not in the possession of specific organizational resources or skills, which can often be imitated or purchased, but in the power of utilizing the available resources & skills to the optimum level but openness of information sharing and ability of information compiling to form meaning ‘knowledge’.

One can identify company’s current information flow model by:

• Gain an understanding of the impediments to information sharing.
• Develop and facilitate a process to increase information sharing across departments.
• Implement practical tools/techniques to build an internal network.

Motivate people to communicate, not conceal, what they know

Business process improvement

What is the difference between a business that consistently achieves its goals, versus achieving goals occasional? Well-defined, consistently executed and continuously improved processes.

What is a process? 

Put simply, a process is a set of defined tasks needed to complete a given business activity, including who is responsible for completing each step, when, and how they do so. Though processes can seem mundane, their importance to our business success cannot be undermined.
Process is something that holds together the organizational elements: People and Technology. It is the glue between the modern organizational assets and so it runs right across the organization.
Most of the times the design of workflow and hierarchy in organizations is based on assumptions about technology, people, and organizational goals that may not be necessarily valid.  Leadership must continually plan and oversee the organization from down to top to design processes that increase organizational productivity. Applying principles of reengineering to streamline the work process can achieve significant levels of improvement in quality, time management, and cost.
In other words, when we can look for different way of doing the same task to achieve fast  and better results. Think about what we do and change it. We may indeed be more efficient if we keep the stapler on the right hand side of the desk, or using the right software for a task can save time.
Business process improvement is defined as a systematic approach that allows companies to optimize their core processes in order to obtain the most efficient results. It is the analysis and redesign of workflow within and between enterprises. 

If businesses have a clear understanding of their day-to-day operations and processes, they stand a better chance of long-term success. 

For instance, access to essential software (technology) and information to individuals in the larger prospective can help business respond to the market changes and provide faster and better services to its customers. Poor process which delays transfer of either critical information or resource slows down the response time of a business requirement resulting in either poor customer service or loss.
The organization should focus on the sum of all activities and how they flow together in complete business processes to design a process.

In today’s struggling economy, more and more businesses are starting to realize that in order to survive they must improve their existing processes and address areas of concern.  Often times, businesses struggle in one way or another, whether they have poor customer service or their sales are simply down.  If a business wants to correct problems and optimize its performance, it will have to take a close look at its existing processes and start making improvements.