7 Reasons why CIOs are being Fired Globally

Today, CIOs are increasingly facing major challenges such as regulatory compliance, security threats, increasing demands from business, disruptive technologies, changing consumer needs, budgetary constraints. This apart CIOs are now expected to play a key role as an IT Strategist and work closely with the CEOs and the board. However, despite the above situation, CIOs are being fired for several reasons (or) being forced to Quit.

Some of the major reasons are as follows:

Reason #1: Data Breaches (Ransomware/Data theft etc)

Data breaches have significant impact on an organization including financial losses, data theft, loss of brand reputation, loss of customer trust in the brand, fines as applicable.

• 85% of all CIOs are fired after a data breach
• The decision to fire is taken within 100 hours of such an incident
• Zero tolerance to compromising data integrity

Representative CIOs Fired:

• CIO of one of World’s largest retailer
• CIO of a leading financial services company
• CIO of an Indian bank

Reason #2: Non Performance

CIO non performance could result in derailment of business plans, failure of IT strategy, loss of competitive advantage and lower business performance.

• 40% CIOs worldwide have been fired for non-performance
• The decision to fire is taken during evaluation process
• Signs of firing are indicated much before

Representative CIOs Fired:

• CIO of one of World’s largest retailer
• CIO of a leading financial services company
• CIO of an Indian bank

Reason #3: Integrity

CIOs loss of integrity can demoralize the IT organization and people working with the IT leader. CIOs as leaders expected to be honest, truthful, if other the results are catastrophic. 100% of CIOs found wanted for this reason are fired

• They are placed under suspension upon detection
• Fired after they are found guilty
• They usually end up Jobless
• They may end up in Jail

Representative CIOs Fired:

• CIO of an Indian Bank was fired
• CIO of an Indian Retail organization was fired

Reason #4: Company Policy Violation

Violation (or) breach any sort of singed contract/policy, guideline(s) could lead to a CIO being fired without doubt.

• An estimated 75% of CIOs are fired for policy violation
• Rest are warned – but retained
• Their credibility is dented in a major way

Representative CIOs Fired:

• CIO of World’s Largest S/W Company was fired

Reason #5: Violation of Regulatory Compliance

Regulatory compliance can lead to financial losses and brand reputation loss. As an example, violation of GDPR in European Union could lead to a penalty up to 20 million euros, or up to 4 % of their total global turnover (of the previous Fiscal).

• 100% of CIOs are fired for violation of regulatory compliance
• They would gain employment, but not without struggle
• They may end up in Jail

Representative CIOs Fired:

• CIO of a Financial Services company was fired

Reason #6: Sexual Harassment

Cases of sexual harassment have dent an organizations credibility, spread fear among employees, hurt the organization financially and has long term repercussion.

• 100% of CIOs are fired in this case
• Difficult for them to acquire a new job
• They also go through family/personal trauma
• They may end up in Jail

Representative CIOs Fired:

• CIO of a Financial Services company was fired

Reason #7: Non Alignment of IT with Business

IT non-alignment with business can lead to reduced profitability, reduced market share, lower business agility, higher costs, slowness in business transformation, business friction etc

• 50% of CIOs are fired in this case
• Rest are provided an opportunity
• The fired CIOs usually find a new job

Representative CIOs Fired:

• CIO of an Indian Manufacturing company was fired
• CIO of an Indian IT Services company was fired

The above are the major reasons why CIOs are axed.

CIOs world over are under stress due to the 24X7 nature of businesses they operate in and hence it would be prudent for them to take they take necessary precautions to avoid the above issues to ensure they are not fired (or) forced to quit.

 

Right-Sizing the Sales Force | Aligning Resources with Business Strategy

Organizations build products and services to address the needs of the customers supported by Market Feedbacks, Surveys, Research and Development through New Product Development or New Services Strategy based on Competitive scenarios and market forces.

While finalizing the Product or Services portfolio, it is important to note – especially in a Business-To-Business (B2B) environment, where a product or a service has to be introduced and sold to the End User (Enterprise, Government, SME etc) by Feet on Street Sales Teams. They play a critical role in reaching out to the target customers in line with the outlined business strategy by attracting, interacting, nurturing and bagging the deal while staving off the competition and building loyalty.

As Marketing teams energize advertising campaigns, public relations and other types of marketing tools to generate leads and sales opportunities, the onus of converting the opportunity to a sale and tangible revenue rests with the Sales Teams. Hence, Sales Team Sizing plays a crucial role in deciding whether or not the market is covered optimally.

In case, the size of the Sales Team is lower than desired, the opportunities (in the form of leads) may go across to competitive organization producing similar products/services, leading to loss of opportunity and lower market share. However, in case the size of the Sales Team is higher than desired, it leads to additional expenditure eroding the margins. It is therefore, very important to have an optimal “Size of a Sales Team” to address the marketplace and take on the competition to retain/enhance market share, meet the companies revenue and profit goals by aligning with the overall business strategy.

Sizing the Sales Force

Let us assume that a Company Plans to cover 1,000 Companies across the Country within the next twelve months. The 1,000 companies can be categorized as follows:

• Category ‘A’ : Fortune 500 Customers, with a potential of generating 60% of the overall sales.
• Category ‘B’ : Large and Medium Customers, with a potential of generating 25% of overall sales.
• Category ‘C’ : Customers with a potential of generating 15% of overall sales.

Following Factors need to considered while arriving at the “Size of a Sales Team”

• Amount of time spent by sales person per sales call
• Number of visits to that prospective customer in a year
• Total Number of Work hours available for a Sales person in a year
• Number of Holidays – Listed by the company and Availed by the sales person
• Time spent by Sales Team in Selling, Non Selling and Travelling activities

The Company has arrived at the following amount of time that should be spent for Sales Meetings:

• Category ‘A’ : 60 minutes per visit, 3 visits a month   = 36 hours per year
• Category ‘B’ : 45 minutes per visit, 2 visits a month   = 18 hours per year
• Category ‘C’ : 30 minutes per visit, 1   visit a month   = 06 hours per year

Now, let us assume the following:

• Number of Category ‘A’ Accounts planned to be covered by the Company :  500
• Number of Category ‘B’ Accounts planned to be covered by the Company :  400
• Number of Category ‘C’ Accounts planned to be covered by the Company :  100

Hence the Total Work-Time necessary to cover the number of companies outlined above would be as follows:

• Category ‘A’ : 500 Accounts X 36 hours per year  = 18,000 hours per year
• Category ‘B’ : 400 Accounts X 18 hours per year  =   7,200 hours per year
• Category ‘C’ : 100 Accounts X 06 hours per year  =      600 hours per year

Therefore the total number of hours to be spent with the above companies in a year is 25,800 hours    …  … (X)

It is imperative, that we calculate the Total Work-Time available per Sales Team Member in a Year as follows:

• Number of Weeks in a Year : 52
• Number of Non-Working Weeks per Sales Team Member (Including Holidays, Leave etc) : 03
• Number of Working Weeks per Sales Team Member = 52 – 03 = 49 Weeks
• Number of Working hours per Sales Team member per week : 40

Therefore the Total Work-Time available per Sales Team Member = 40 hours X 49 Weeks = 1,960 hours

Time Spent by Sales Team Member for various activities:

• Sales related activities : 40%                                                … 40% X 1,960  = 784 hours  … … (Y)
• Non Sales activities(including Administrative) : 20%                … 20% X 1,960  = 392 hours
• Travelling : 40%                                                                   … 40% X 1,960  = 784 hours

Total Size of Sales Team Required is as follows:

Total No of hours to be spent with Customers / Time Spent for Sales related activities = X/Y = 25,800/784 = 33

Thirty Three Sales Team Members are required to be deployed to address the annual market coverage strategy.

To optimize the numbers further, the company could ensure that the Sales Team Members spend less time in travelling, let us assume that the travelling time is reduced by 20% and is added to the Sales related activities, hence the Sales related activities time is enhanced to 60% of 1,960 hours = 1,176 hours, in which case the company would need (25,800/1,176) = 22 Sales Team Members.

Right-Sizing the Sales Force offers the following advantages:

• Sales Team Efficiency
• High Sales Team Motivation
• Enhanced Market Coverage
• Higher Return on Sales Effort
• Achieving the Annual Sales Goals
• Optimized Resources and revenue spends
• Low levels of Stress on Sales Team Members

Organizations optimizing resources by Right-Sizing the Sales Force and aligning resources with the Business Strategy stand to witness gains in the form of higher revenues, profits, market share, bottom-line objectives and enhanced shareholder value.

 

Sales Metrics | Measures that Drive Excellence in Sales Performance

Sales Teams are like Soldiers, they take on the competition, face and overcome uncertainities of outcomes, customer resistance and ensure they win over the minds and hearts of the key decision makers, convince the influencers, build relationships, ensure they work as consultants to eliminate Customer Pain, Problems and bag deals with Defined Precision. Sales Teams today are required to possess a wide array of skill sets to combat the competitive marketplace.

However, while Sales Teams continue to deploy efforts diligently and sharpen their focus on customer acquisition activity, it is pertinent that their efforts and performance are both measured to guide-and-orient the Sales Teams and optimize their performance. The performance measures can identify significant changes in performance as they begin to occur and highlight related bottlenecks (if any). With such warning signals, sales, marketing, product and management teams can take right decisions at the right time.

Selection of the right Sales team, well defined sales process and measurement followed by Monitoring of Activity scorecards, Funnel (Pipeline) forecasting, lead generation, Sales Coaching and Training play a very important role in ensuring effectiveness of sales. As goes the saying “What cannot be measured, cannot be managed”, it is important to leverage metrics to analyze the performance of the teams. The primary objective of monitoring sales metrics is to significantly improve Sales revenue per person, Sales revenue predictability (forecast accuracy), management’s ability to grow the company’s revenues and imbibe performance based culture by providing the teams with the desired guidance and direction based on analysis to attain the Sales Goals of the Organization.

Metrics such as New Sales (as a percentage of overall sales), Sales cycle time, Number of contacts (made with prospect) before a sales team member closes a sale, Up-Sell success rates, Number of referrals, Time spent on non-sales activities, Funnel as percentage of overall sales target are key performance indicators for a Sales Professional.

Let’s review some of the key Sales Metrics that would play the role of a Sales Compass.

PRODUCTIVITY

Productivity can be measured as 
Sales per sales team member (Revenues), Profits per sales team member, 
Units sold per sales member. We will review the Sales Per Sales Person metric as follows:

Sales Per Sales Person = (Cumulative Sales of all Sales Team Members) / Total No of Sales Team Members

Example:

Let’s assume a company has a Fifty member Sales Team and their total sales for the month was US $100 Mn. Hence the Sales Per Sales Person = US $100 Mn / 50  = US $2 Mn

This metric helps analyze the productivity of Sales Team to embark on designing incentive schemes and related activities. Additionally, it throws light on performance of sales team.

TREND

The marketing and product/service management teams require to understand the performance of each of the products to embark on changes (if any) desired to the product/service features based increase or decrease in sales. In case the sales continue to drop, the product/service management teams could either redesign or enhance the product/service to arrest the sales decline.

Sales Trend = (Cumulative Sales in the CP) – (Cumulative Sales in PP) / (Cumulative Sales in the PP)

CP – Current Period, PP – Previous Period

Example:

                                                              Quarter I          Quarter II      Quarter III      Quarter IV

Sales                                                      $100 Mn           $150 Mn         $ 200 Mn        $ 300 Mn
Change in sales from previous period                                 $ 50 Mn          $100 Mn         $ 100 Mn
Sales Trend (%)                                                                50%               66.66%             50%

As we can observe the Quarter II grew at 50% while Quarter III trend surpassed the previous quarter at 66.66%.

SPENDING 

It is important to understand how much money is being spent to realize the sales in proportion to the overall sales. This can help design the compensation and motivational (incentive) packages.

Total Sales Expenses to Total Sales Revenues  = Total Sales Expenses / Total Sales Revenues

Example :

Assume that an organization has a total sales revenues of US $500 Mn and the total sales expenses by the organization stand at US $ 120 Mn.

Hence, Total Sales Expenses to Total Sales Revenues = US $120/US $500 = 24%

The appropriate sales metrics help the Sales Leadership and Management team understand, monitor and steer the organizations revenue objectives. The following Sales Metrics which would throw significant insights into Sales Team Performance:

Qualified Funnel (Pipeline) to Sales Quota Ratio { Indicates Health of Pipeline }

Example:

Qualified Pipeline: US $500 Mn, Sales Quota: US $300 Mn

Qualified Pipeline to Sales Quota Ratio = US $500 Mn/US $300 Mn = 1.66

No of New Sales Calls  { Indicates Efforts made in reaching out to new customers}

Number of Total Sales Calls = 100, Number of New Sales Calls = 50

Number of New Sales Calls (%) = Number of New Sales Calls/Number of Total Sales Calls = 50/100 = 50%

The following are the additional Sales Metrics which would throw significant insights into Sales Team Performance:

• No of Deals won against Competition         { Indicates organizations competitive advantage }
• Sales by Customer Segment/Vertical         { Throws light on Growing/De-growing verticals }
• Sales by Product/service Type
• Sales by Geography/Territory
• Sales to New vs Existing Customers
• Forecast  vs Actual Sales
• Percentage of List Price achieved
• Product Mix Target (%) achieved
• Current Geography Vs Previous Geography Performance
• Up-sell Revenues as Percentage of Overall Sales Revenues
• Top Products/Services by Sales
• Average Sales Cycle Duration
• Win to Loss Ratio (%)
• Win to Bid Ratio
• Percentage of Sales Growth

While Metrics throw out what has occured in the past, it would be prudent to monitor critical sales and performance and related activities using metrics that trigger alerts when performance drops below defined targets and analyze the root causes and manage the Sales Teams and related sales processes to improve, optimize sales performance.

In summary, ” What’s measured improves, when acted upon”, and as the Management Team leverages Sales Metrics and reviews the same dispassionately, the Sales Performance would surely and steadily surge towards the Predefined Sales Goals in a Finite Timeline.

 

Metrics Based Marketing | A Key to Optimizing Budgets and ROI

It is often stated that One cannot manage, what cannot be measured. While that is just half the truth, it is important to seek deeper insights after having measured and analyzed to uncover the root causes, more so when an organization invests money in marketing spends. Measurement is key any aspect of business whether it is Return on Capital Invested (ROCI) or Average Cost of Acquisition or Debt/Equity (D/E) Ratio.

Marketing spends need to be measured to understand if they have achieved the desired business objectives. As most organizations invest a percentage of revenues towards marketing expenditure which could vary anywhere between 3% to 8% of the sales revenues based on the size and other parameters and related considerations.

The Marketing spends can broadly be categorized as follows:

• Brand Building Activities (Activities to nurture the brand and translate to Cash Flow)
• Activities to Influence Buyer Perception Value (BPV), TOMA, ITP
• Gaining Customer Insights (Example: Analytics)
• Demand Generation for Services/Products etcetera.

In the modern human life, we track the performance of a human body by checking vital parameters such as Blood Pressure, Sugar Levels, ECG, RBC Count, WBC Count etc to ensure we maintain good health and quality of life. The same applies to the “Marketing Health” of an Organization.

Appropriate Metrics need to be tracked to understand the State of Marketing and It’s impact to take corrective measures at the most appropriate time.

Organizations need to track Metrics to understand the following:

• The Impact of the Organizations Marketing Strategy
• Analysis of Competition Vs Organization (Marketing Metrics)
• Marketing Performance Vs Forecast Performance

The analysis of Marketing Performance would certainly indicate whether the organization is a Laggard or a Leader in the Marketplace. Market potential identification through measures such as MPV (Market Potential Value), MII (Market Intensity Index), MEI (Market Exposure Index) are key to success of marketing initiatives and investments.

It’s a war of brands in the current Globalized world and hence organizations not occupying the Mind and Heart of customer would have no place while a buy decision is made by the end customer, irrespective of whether it’s a B2B or B2C Offline/Online market place.

Metrics such as Top of Mind Awareness (TOMA), Intent to Purchase (ITP) are essential to help a customer making a buy decision in the today’s world of over informed society.

Metrics based Marketing shall help a CMO/Head Marketing overcome barriers to funding the activity and present the case strongly with the CEO/CFO to obtain funds for Marketing Activities by substantiating the Return on Marketing Investment.

The First Steps to gearing up for Metrics based Marketing include:

• Capture the Marketing Data, build an Organizational “Data Warehouse”
• Deploy the right Marketing Analytics Tools
• Analyze the Data Captured and available in the “Data Warehouse”

As a next step, it is important to measure the following Key Metrics:

• Leads obtained through Marketing Activities
• Cost Per Lead (Total Marketing Spend / Total No of Leads)
• Sales to Leads Ratio (Total No of Sales opportunities converted from leads /Total No of Leads)
• Top of Mind Awareness (TOMA), Intention to Purchase (ITP)
• Share of Market (SOM)
• Click Throughs
• Share of Wallet (SOW)
• Customer Churn Rate
• Take Rate (No of Customers accepting the offer / No of Contacts made by the Mktg Campaign)
• Customer Life Time Value (CLTV)
• Marketing Payback
• Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI)
• Conversion Rate (CR)
• Cost Per Acquisition
• Cost Per Click (CPC) | Cost Per Click on a search advertisement
• Word of Mouth (WOM)

Every organization should “Evaluate the Impact of a Marketing Campaign” to ensure the spends are optimized and channelized to achieve the organizations marketing goals of enhancing market share, wallet share and the culture of accountability should be a part of the Marketing Discipline and should be closely monitored by the CMO’s and reviewed by CEO’s through Marketing Dashboards and Frameworks. This requires involvement and engagement of Senior Management to infuse the discipline and culture of Metrics based Marketing and ensuring  the Marketing Departments accountability and efficiency.

Marketing Analysis is key to creating Share holder value in the short-term as well as long-term. Measurement of Metrics should be infused into the “Marketing Culture” and ensure every penny is spent wisely and thereby obtain the best results from the money invested into marketing efforts and campaigns. Marketing Tools such as Public Relations, Social Media and Online Marketing should be leveraged to reach target customers in a cost-effective manner while optimizing marketing efforts to enhance geographical reach and footprint and enhance organizational Performance.

In summary, Marketing Metrics are the health indicators of a Marketing Activities and their ratios should be in acceptable limits to ensure the “Overall Health of the Organization”. Senior Management commitment, Culture of Discipline, Deployment of Analytical Tools, Competent Team Members, Knowledge Management are key to the success of a Marketing Organizations planning to enhance market share, Wallet share and Customer Satisfaction.

 

Digital Marketing – A Strategic Online Tool to Generate Higher Revenues, Profits

Ever since the beginning of human civilization, humans have made rapid advances right from the Stone age to Bronze Age to Iron Age and much later the Modern Age. Humans have excelled themselves over millions of years and transitioned from walking to cycling, later building automobiles to overcome the discomfort and build airplanes to fly people across the world reinforcing the fact that “Change was the only Constant”.

Further, the 1900’s revolutionized the way human beings lived. Cars, Aircrafts, Television, PC’s, Laptops, Internet, Mobiles, Tablets and “Social Media” have led to a “Borderless World”. Humans have come a long way over millions of years but one thing remained common – “Humans remained social beings living in Social Communities in the Real World” and “Internet and the Online Social Media Platforms” have vindicated the same. No matter whether real world or online world humans wish to socialize as the numbers speak for themselves – Facebook has an ever growing  user base of 900 million, Twitter around 500 million, Linkedin around 161 million.

Today, the World is home to 6.9 billion people. Internet user base stands at 2.2 billion (32.7% of world population). The Social Media network across the Globe stand as follows:

• Over 60% of adults across the Globe are reported to be using Social Media
• 53% of SME’s (Small and Medium Enterprises) across the Globe are reportedly using Social Media
• An estimated 60% of Fortune 1,000 companies use Social Media. 43% have witnessed rise in Sales
• An average Facebook user is estimated to have 200+ (approx) friends.
• A Japanese Facebook user has lowest of 30 (approx) Friends, Brazil user has 800+

The Social Media Sales are estimated to cross US $10 billion (approx) in the current year and expected to grow to US $ 15 billion by 2013 and US $ 30 billion by 2015, which indicates that the Sales would treble in next three years.

Hence, it would be paramount for businesses to adopt and leverage tools such as:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO), PPC (Pay Per Click)
• Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
• Social Media Marketing (SMM)
• Social Media Optimization (SMO)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 

Search Engine Optimization helps organizations achieve high page rankings across search engines such as Google, Yahoo, etc. The search typically occurs through a Keyword.

Let’s take an example of a family planning to shift to Delhi. They seek to search a rented apartment in Delhi in Google search as “Flat, Delhi” or “Real Estate, Delhi”, in such as case Flat, Real Estate, Apartment are keywords. A Real Estate Service Provider planning to attract customers shall use such keywords to attract traffic to the company website.SEO shall help such businesses to achieve a high page ranking.

It is observed that about 85% of online searchers do not look beyond the first three listed companies during a search on online search engines.

According to a survey by Marketing Sherpa, 63% of B2B businesses stated that search engine would be the first place where they would go to research their product or service, this truly vindicates the fact that search engines are the “Superstars” of E-Business Generation.

Search Engine Optimization involves On Page Optimization and Off Page Optimization.

On Page Optimization involves

• Meta Tags,
• Header Tags,
• Proper content on website with “Right Keywords”,
• Simple Sitemap etc. This shall help optimize the website and ensure high page ranking.

Off Page Optimization involves:

• Directory Submissions entails listing in local Directories, Yahoo etc and Yellow Pages,
• Press Releases
• Article Submission etc.

The Key SEO Metrics would include:

• Click Through Rate
• Conversion Rate
• Dwell Time
• Bounce Rate
• Exit Rate

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Search Engine Marketing involves Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns involving Paid Listing of a website to attract

potential customers as observed in the example of Real Estate business case cited above. The objective of a PPC campaign is undoubtedly to generate “QUALITY LEADS”. The metrics to analyze the performance of the campaign through PPC would ve Cost Per Click (CPC) and  Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

Social Media Marketing (SMM)

 

Search Media Marketing can be defined as a tool that leverages Social Media Networks such as Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Foursquare and sites such as Twitter and Linkedin for marketing of services or Product and create the need.

It is important to note that while Facebook is extremely popular in America’s, Europe, Africa, Middle East, Asia Pacific region, China has a native social site Qzone with an estimated user base of over 200 Million.

Vkontakte is Russia’s social networking site with a reported user base of close to 120 Million covering Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Belarus.

Social Media Marketing involves engagement and collaboration of existing or prospective customers. This would begin by creating a Facebook Page, Twitter account, Blogs and attracting Fans and Followers respectively.

As a next step, the above social media platforms can be leveraged to engage the fans, followers and enhance the brand awareness, Top of the Mind Awareness (TOMA) and improve consideration of a purchase (ITP) for a yet to be customer. For example, an existing user of a Product could write a “Positive Experience” on Facebook and that would spread a positive word of mouth among the Friends of the user. This would reinforce the brand and its quality and acts as a customer endorsement.

Social Media Marketing involves

• Listening to customers, Obtain insights, capture Sentiments to introduce new products/services
• Launching Marketing Campaigns (Example: Facebook Campaign to engage customers)
• Blogging
• Sharing Success Case Studies (A Hospital can share Video of a Successful Operation on Youtube)
• Introducing Informative Newsletters

The Key SMM Metrics include:

• Average Cost per Visitor
• Average Visits per Visitor
• Percentage New and Returning Customers
• No of users referring a Friend
• New Member Registrations
• New Visitors in a new segment
• Page views, Sentiments
• Likes on Facebook,
• Re-tweets, Virality
• Mentions, Source etc

The representative Digital Marketing Metrics include:

• Return on Investment (ROI)
• Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
• Conversion rate (CR)
• Cost Per Lead (CPS)
• Shopping Cart Start Rate (SCSR)
• Return on Customer Influence (ROCI)
• Average Cost Per Customer Acquisition
• Search Engine Visibility Index (SEVI)
• Member/Customer Sentiment
• Blog Value Index (BVI) etc.

Digital Marketing offers the following advantages:

• Low Cost
• Measurable marketing spends and activities
• Real Time Results of Marketing Efforts
• Engagement of Online audience without resistance
• Reaches across the Globe

Digital Marketing currently is one of the highest Return on Investment (ROI) marketing tool available to both B2B as well as B2C businesses. Digital Marketing addresses the needs of 250 Million SME’s and close to a million Enterprises across the Globe and is surely a “Recession Proof”, “Low Cost Marketing Tool” made available to this world thanks to the key players such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Bing, Pinterest etc, most of whom were non existent prior to Year 2004.

In summary, Digital Marketing helps Marketing Heads engage the “Online Customers” – both potential as well as existing and enhance their Market Share, Revenues and Profits. Businesses of all sizes have finally found a medium which is affordable for all and helps them reach the “Borderless World” of Customers at an Optimized Marketing Budget with enviable Returns on Investment and “Healthy Bottom Line”.

 

Top Management Time Involvement Vs Team Performance | A Case Study

World over it has been observed that most top management teams spend a lot of time in discussions and not making strategic decisions. Moreover, the time spent with the next level of leaders has been found to be wanting, leading to missed opportunities, delayed decision-making, non informed and hasty decision-making impacting market shares, shareholder returns, delays in supply chain, low financial and people efficiencies. It is more important to observe that Top Management should spent Quality Time with the Teams not just discussing but making strategic decisions and providing the directions for the team to enhance effectiveness and build efficiencies within the organization.

 Let us take a look at the following case.

The Case

A sample of teams reporting to the Chief Operating Officers in the Industry, their relative performance and the average number of hours spent with these teams in a month to discuss business progress and critical issues to provide guidance and support.

The data obtained was as follows:

The Problem Statement

Does the performance of teams depend on the time spent with the Chief Operating Officer (COO)?

The Solution Approach

We will make an assumption (Hypothesis) as follows:

• Null Hypothesis          (H_o) : Team Performance is independent of the time spent with COO
• Alternate Hypothesis  (H_a) : Team Performance is dependent of the time spent with COO

The Hypothesis Test Option

Time spent in hours and Team performance are both attribute data. The above hypothesis should deal with relationships between the two attribute variables. Hence the test used for hypothesis would be Chi-Square Test.

The Hypothesis Test Result

Chi-Square Test: Low, Medium, High

Expected counts are printed below observed counts

Chi-Square contributions are printed below expected counts

          Low  Medium   High      Total

    1      90      30        5            125

          51.23   38.25    35.52

         29.342   1.780   26.223

     2      80      80       10           170

           69.67   52.02    48.31

           1.531  15.047   30.376

     3      70      90         15         175

            71.72   53.55    49.73

            0.041  24.807   24.252

     4      65      30       20           115

           47.13   35.19    32.68

           6.775   0.766    4.918

     5      35      25       30             90

            36.89   27.54    25.57

           0.096   0.234    0.766

     6      25      20       80            125

           51.23   38.25    35.52

           13.430   8.709   55.704

     7      10       5      100             115

           47.13   35.19    32.68

          29.253  25.902  138.698

 Total     375     280      260          915

 Chi-Sq = 438.648, DF = 12, P-Value = 0.000

Interpretation of the Test Output

 The P-Value is observed to be Zero. Hence if P-Value < alpha  < 0.05, Reject H_o, Accept H_a.

Accepting Alternate Hypothesis (H_a) would mean Team Performance is dependent of the time spent with COO

Conclusion

There is sufficient evidence that Team Performance is dependent on the time spent with COO. Hence it is more likely for a team to achieve higher performance in cases where the COO spends more time with the team. Strong time commitments and active involvement from Top Management to make informed decisions at the right time will help bring in change management, achieve efficiencies and improvements and lead the organization towards achievement of the focused financial and other related goals.

 

Value Creation | The People Perspective

It is often believed that Organizations create value for Customer’s and Stakeholders. While majority of the efforts and resources engaged are aimed at enriching the value for “Paying Buyer” a.k.a. “Customer”, it is important to note the following:

Value is created within an organization and delivered to the Customer. If that’s true, who creates this value? As you may have rightly guessed it is the “Human Resources” within the organization who work as a team through collaboration and leverage their knowledge, skills and ideas to “Optimize Time, Money and Material resources” to Create Value.

Just as a bird cannot fly without wings, an organization cannot create value without people.

While “Value Creation is Paramount”; it is also important to generate value for employees, vendors, stakeholders who too are a part of the organizational eco-system.

The “Human Resources” of an organization are at times pictured outside of the “Value Creation Map”. It is important to note that while machines used for production generate output mechanically, they add no value beyond the defined input-process-output process. However, organizations cater to the machines Annual Maintenance Contracts (AMC), Scheduled Down Times where as human resources (employees) are often subjected to “Unpaid Stress”, “Unpaid Extra hours – in the middle and on occasions in junior levels of management” and at times subjected to “Organizational Power-Play”.

While organization’s prime objective is to generate profits; it cannot be achieved by creating value for “Customer” (read – Paying Buyer) alone at the cost of internal human resources. While “Customer Value Creation” goals are realized, it is extremely important to ensure internal human resources do not remain as a mere statistic and a “Forced Component” to fit the “Statistical Bell Curve”, often as a part of the annual ritual and thereby end up creating “Happy Few” and “Unhappy Many”.

Next, stock prices delight many a stakeholders, dont’ they? of course. But have organizations looked within and asked if this matters to the employees or customer’s?

People (Human Resources) within an organization are as important as the wings of an aircraft, while engines power it, imagine what would be the fate of the aircraft left all to itself at a height of 36,000 feet above sea level without wings!

As one cannot declare an aircraft “airworthy” unless all the components are fixed, aligned, and tested to undertake the arduous journey in the skies and  ”Safely Land” at the destination it wouldn’t have met and delivered customer expectations… or create value.

Likewise, management team of an organization can truly create value, if and only if it is oriented 360 degrees towards employees, stakeholders, customers and vendors and “Treat them with utmost care”,  “Deal with Fairness and Ethics”, and ensure “Sound Economic health and hygiene” for each of them. It’s ought to be Win-Win in nature.

After all Management is by the People, for the People, so is Value Creation.

 

Management | Value Creation and People

It is often said that Organizations create value for Customer’s and Stakeholders. While majority of the efforts and resources engaged are aimed at enriching the value for “Paying Buyer” a.k.a. “Customer”, it is important to note the following:

Value is created within an organization and delivered to the Customer. If that’s true, who creates this value? As you may have rightly guessed it is the “Human Resources” within the organization who work as a team through collaboration and leverage their knowledge, skills and ideas to “Optimize Time, Money and Material resources” to Create Value.

Just as a bird cannot fly without wings, an organization cannot create value without people.

While “Value Creation is Paramount”; it is also important to generate value for employees, vendors, stakeholders who too are a part of the organizational eco-system.

The “Human Resources” of an organization are at times pictured outside of the “Value Creation Map”. It is important to note that while machines used for production generate output mechanically, they add no value beyond the defined input-process-output process. However, organizations cater to the machines Annual Maintenance Contracts (AMC), Scheduled Down Times where as human resources (employees) are often subjected to “Unpaid Stress”, “Unpaid Extra hours – in the middle and on occasions in junior levels of management” and at times subjected to “Organizational Power-Play”.

While organization’s prime objective is to generate profits; it cannot be achieved by creating value for “Customer” (read – Paying Buyer) alone at the cost of internal human resources. While “Customer Value Creation” goals are realized, it is extremely important to ensure internal human resources do not remain as a mere statistic and a “Forced Component” to fit the “Statistical Bell Curve”, as a part of the annual ritual and thereby end up creating “Happy Few” and “Unhappy Many”.

 Next, stock prices delight many a stakeholders, dont’ they? of course. But have organizations looked within and asked if this matters to the employees or customer’s?

People (Human Resources) within an organization are as important as the wings of an aircraft, while engines power it, imagine what would be the fate of the aircraft left all to itself at a height of 36,000 feet above sea level without wings!

As one cannot declare an aircraft “airworthy” unless all the components are fixed, aligned, and tested to undertake the arduous journey in the skies and  “Safely Land” at the destination it wouldn’t have met and delivered customer expectations… or create value.

Likewise, management team of an organization can truly create value, if and only if it is oriented 360 degrees towards employees, stakeholders, customers and vendors and “Treat them with utmost care”,  “Deal with Fairness and Ethics”, and ensure “Sound Economic health and hygiene” for each of them. It’s ought to be Win-Win in nature.

After all Management is by the People, for the People, so is Value Creation.