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Showing posts from November, 2010

How to be a successful manager - Developing the art

Developing an art needs more attention than skill building. Skills are things we all learn and after a certain point of time we need to master. In the job market, when it comes to skills, many are mediocre, some are good and the rest (i.e. the best) are artists. Art is something unique to an individual and if this art is beneficial for a company, it makes the company dependent on the individual.

Overestimation of a friend's ability

Asking your friend for choosing a dress for you can actually be a disaster. Research has shown that we normally overestimate our friend's knowledge about us. So they are not the best agents when it comes to making choices for us. And the reason for this over estimation is over confidence. This overconfidence is the over confidence about the knowledge about us. Our friends normally have an automated part in their memory that knows all about us and the mind does not bother to reason that automated part, because it is expensive to use the memory. Ultimately the big question is "Does our friend even bother about us ?" Well research has not ventured into that domain, but it can be argued that the "Know it all attitude about a friend" may cause insensitivity. The impact of this research is more for consumers than marketers. The bottom line: "Never trust a friend in making choices. They are bad agents."

Coercion Marketing

Making your employees work for your organization is as important as managing cash flows in an organization. Inside an organization, the management needs to market itself to the workers of the organization. The management has power over the employees and out of the five bases of power i.e. Reward, Referent, Legitimate, Coercive and Expert, they can choose to position themselves on any of the five themes. The worst is Coercive as in the case of Allied Nippon Ltd . where an HR Manager fired in the air to disperse a crowd of workers. The blow of this act was suffered by an Assistant Manager of the same company. The mob of workers vented their anger on him and he later succumbed to his injuries. This is a very important lesson since it is important to be aware of the power base chosen by the management. Also for the management, when dealing with workers, it becomes very important to choose a base of power before acting (and it better not be coercion).

What makes a leader ?

A person from the defence forces is clearly distinguishable in a crowd. We normally attribute it to the rigourous training that these people go through before being ready for combat. It may be partially true, but it is not completely true. The reason is a loss of idenity. It may seem intriguing but, yes its the loss of identity at an early age that shapes up the intangible parts of self, such as the personality that distinguish them from the other civilians. The concept of extended self says that our attachments, i.e. our physical possessions become a part of ourselves. They start from our body parts to closer things such as hair styles, tattoos and move on to cars we own, the people we move around with to the institutes we join to the company we work for. A deep attachment with a possession makes such a possession a part of our-self. As people join defence, all this is stripped off and they are all the same. In a bid to be distinct and differentiate themselves, other facets of their p

Making the sale

Beware! Sitting idle and thinking about the expensive apparel you've bought recently is not an easy task. It is atleast not easy, when you check your account balance. But once you get your account balance,  there is always a hindsight perspective that makes you do so. So I spent a big amount this month in buying winter clothing. Rather, unnecessary purchases. There was one thing common to all those big purchases - The guy who was making the sale. His enthusiasm in making me try new clothes and getting the best stuff out there probably went a bit too heavy on my debit card. But nevertheless, it was these attributes that made me choose one store from another. Infact, while going through Art of selling , I could almost see the common traits amongst those who made the final sale. They are motivated by helping customers, have extroverted personalities, and are passionate about their work. Well, the next time you are selling, make sure you induce these traits in yourself, like an