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.

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.