Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Promotion - One of the Seven Ps of marketing

One fine afternoon, I was reading newspaper in the reading room of my office. One of my colleagues was also there.

I came across an advertisement that is to promote a hotel 'Dhaba Express'. Interestingly the hotel offered a full 'marinated chicken' for half-rate from its original price. The offer was for two days, that day and the next day.

Myself and my colleague were interested and decided to give a try that day itself. We went to the hotel by 7PM in the evening. And we ordered for a full marinated chicken. The waiter taking order said that it would take half-an-hour time for it to be ready. He said there were more orders for the same that day.

Since we were there to have it, we decided to wait. For the mean time, we ordered for another dish that the waiter promised to be within few minutes.

After-an-hour and after some repeated reminding, the waiter brought the marinated chicken.

We eagerly started with the dish only to find that the chicken is half-cooked. In other words, it was raw. We were very much embarrassed.

When we were returning back, I told my colleague that not to visit this hotel anymore for what happened. Also we should not suggest this hotel to anyone. My colleague said that this may happened because of the rush for that particular dish. And to handle all the placed orders, they might have done this mistake.

Yes, I too agree that they have done so for catering all the placed orders. But how come they sacrifice quality for it. "Serving more.. no quality.." how long could they survive in the market.

Also, here we can see how one of the seven Ps of marketing (promotion) worked against their favor for the type of service they provided.

Yes, they wanted to show the people they are there. They offered the product/service for subsidiary price that urged the people to try it once.

But they missed to think "what after?". People should come again and also make others to come there through good word-of-mouth. When would people do that? Only when they find the product/service is at good quality.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Leadership - needs building relationships

Recently Pakistan cricket team captain Younis Khan opted out of the test tour of New Zealand. He had said that the reason for the same was the problem he was facing with some of his players.

No doubt Younis was a good team player. But on reading his sayings, I could smell some problem with his leadership ability.

Quote from Younis Khan's sayings:
I was already facing problems with some players... No one ever came to me directly and told me his grievances. Otherwise I would have tried to resolve the issues.

He knows there is some problem with the team players. He was expecting the individuals to come voluntarily to him to speak about the problem they are facing. Why did he wait for the players to initiate the talk? What was stopping him to initiate a talk with them for addressing their needs?

A good leader would know the ways to connect and form a strong social network of team players.

Yes, team players would come to you when they are facing problems. That happens only if you had earned the respect of them. To earn their respect, as a leader, you should know them, you should know their needs. And in fact, you should have win over their hearts and minds to build a rapport with them.

How could you know about them, their needs etc? Simple, just initiate a open dialogue with your team players. You show them that you have faith on them, you care for them, you need their cooperation, you respect and recognize their contribution.

Quote from Younis Khan's sayings:
My poor form didn't help as it is a fact that when the captain is not scoring runs it becomes difficult for him to turn things his way

Yes, this is obvious. He couldn't score well. This is the consequence of failing on what I said for his previous quote. Since Younis sensed that there was some problem with his players, he would have wasted a lot of his time on it without knowing how to deal with it. That would have resulted in loss of focus.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Quality of Work Life (QWL)

For an organization to be successful, it is important to retain its talented workforce. Each organization would have made a huge investment in developing the talented workforce. And to reap the gains for the investment it made, first it is important to know how to retain their talented workforce.

For the organizations to do so, it should address the QWL (Quality of Work Life) of the workforce. The following plays the part in the QWL of the workforce:

  • the task assigned
  • the physical work environment
  • the social environment within the organization
  • the administrative system of the organization
  • the relationship between life on and off the job

Improving the QWL of the workforce (by addressing the work life issues) results in increasing the effectiveness of the organization. So it is must for organizations to measure the QWL and improve it (if required). There are determinants of QWL that the organizations can use for its purpose. They are:

  1. Participation in decision making
  2. Career advancement
  3. Job safety and security
  4. Compensation
  5. Interpersonal relations
  6. Recognition and praise
  7. Job stress
  8. Pay and allowance
  9. Working condition

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Right mix of individual talents - Team

A team is to put use the diverse talent for achieving a synergistic effect. The 'diverse talent' of a team here means the right mix of individual talents.

Creativity, drive, coordination and analytical abilities are the individual talents that should have the right proportion for a team.

People with creativity identifies new opportunities and makes best use of them. Also they encourage other people to imagine and produce new ideas.

People with drive possess the strength to convert plans into reality. They excel at organizing work. They ensure that the work gets done smoothly by finding practical solutions to problems.

People with coordination encourage people come together, share ideas and work towards a common goal. In other words they promote good team atmosphere.

People with analytical abilities would evaluate situations and think about possible choices. I.e. They make good judgment and thus prevent costly mistakes from happening.

So while constituting a team, people should be chosen such that team has the right mix of individual talents.

Inferred from an article of 'The Hindu' dated 22-Jul-09.

Employees non-performance - there are reasons

In the book 'Why Don't Employees Do What They're Supposed to Do and What To Do About It', Ferdinand F. Fournies lists out 16 reasons for non-performance of employees in an organization. Interestingly I could relate the 16 reasons with organization currently I am employed with. The 16 reasons are as follows:

  1. They don't know why they should do it
  2. They don't know how to do it
  3. They don't know what they are supposed to do
  4. They think your way will not work
  5. They think their way is better
  6. They think something else is more important
  7. There is no positive consequence to them for doing it
  8. They think they are doing it
  9. They are rewarded for not doing it
  10. They are punished for doing what they are supposed to do
  11. They anticipate a negative consequence for doing it
  12. There is no negative consequences to them for poor performance
  13. They face obstacles beyond their control
  14. Their personal limits prevent them from performing
  15. They have personal problem
  16. No one could do it

Also Ferdinand F. Fournies says what to do about it. Click here to have a glance on 'the 16 reasons and what to do with them' in detail.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Kick start

I am a MBA graduate now! :) I started MBA by Apr 2007 and completed by May 2009. Not a regular one, it is a distance mode. Did it from Anna University, Chennai.

So its time to start a blog on management. Since I focused on HR for my MBA, the blog would be generally related to HR.