We have a decentralised system of education in the United States.

Q. What are the key motivating factors that draw people towards teaching? How do you assess a teacher’s performance?

A. The fiscal crisis has led to unprecedented cuts in the number of teachers. Young people can see what is happening and they decide to opt for other professions. The amount of money coming from the states to support the public higher education institutions has also been declining rapidly in recent years. As the budgets have gotten tighter, the states have started to put more money in the schools than in their higher education institutions.

Students have been paying more and receiving less from their professors. The increased revenue for the higher education institutions has not been used to improve instruction. The number of days devoted to instruction has declined and the institutions have been cutting down on the proportion of the faculty. Until about 20 years ago, careers in the high status professions were not open to women in the United States. American women with college degrees could choose between nursing, secretarial work and school teaching. Today, careers have opened up to college-educated woman across the whole spectrum of high status professions. Click here to read read full interview..

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Turning Strategic Intent into Real Results

Q. Can a CEO put HR on frontline of the business?
A. Where the executive has the capability and experience to do so this would be quite possible. With strong leadership skills and a good understanding of what drives the business an executive can leverage the talents and abilities of the people they lead. I have seen HR managers placed in such roles to broaden their experience and perspectives who have done an outstanding job, leading them to more strategic roles as a result. There are HR executives who have become successful CEOs and Ann Sherry, CEO Carnival Australia, is one such example.

Q. According to you, what steps is the HR taking to meet CEO’s expectations and business’ real- time needs?
A. Every area of contribution of HR can become a significant contribution. Some examples are:
• Management of turnover issues reducing the cost, creating positive retention, enhancing the talent pool and the effectiveness of performance. • Transforming the leadership culture to lead new initiatives.
• Employee relations and development programmes to engage them in changing their skills to be able to move in direction of the organisation.
• CSR programmes that are integral to developing a sound direction for the organisation and the society.
• Programmes that enhance quality of working life and increase levels of engagement and retention.
• Evaluation of culture for M&As and transformation programmes to prevent failure from untested assumptions.
• Succession planning initiatives to have a strong pool of candidates leading to natural progressive transitions of leaders. Click here to read full interview...

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Valerie Rozycki (Founder and CEO, Zipdial) shares, in a Conversation with Abhishek Chanda, her Penchant for start-ups, The Journey Leading to Zipdial and how Trai Regulations Prove to be a boon for her Company while Others Bleed

So, what sparked the entrepreneur in her? “I knew from inside that I’m a start-up person. While studying, I took a class on entrepreneurship, where the goal was to write a business plan for a hi-tech start-up within 10 weeks. Though I did not do very well in terms of grades, it was an eye-opener for me,” she recalls. For Valerie, risks in a new venture never really mattered much. According to her, what is important is the whole idea of starting something new where one can put his/her 100 per cent, rather than searching for something steady and secure. “While starting off, I never really looked back thinking about money. So, when I moved to India, I had to take a pay cut, given that I was now earning in rupees and also at that time the slowdown had hit various economies,” she chuckles.

Zipdial, which offers services like Lead Generation, Voting, Ratings and Surveys, Branding Campaigns, Loyalty and Coupons and Authentication and Mobile Payments, was set up keeping in mind market drivers like, massive growth in the mobile market, a growing demand for simplicity, rising incomes and the most important factor - masses do not use or are not that enthusiastic about SMSes, let alone 3G, when compared to dialing.

So, here is how it works. Lets assume that somebody wants to know the latest IPL scores. The person then dials or Zipdials a number, which rings and disconnects automatically and in comes a SMS with the latest scores. For IPL as a client for Zipdial, they need to pay a fee for the services and later simply mention the Zipdial number in their promotions or advertisement. As soon as the consumer calls, its a call-to-action for the brand. Likewise, there are dedicated numbers for various verticals, may it be cricket or business promotions or an event. For the mass consumer, the numbers are toll free and can be accessed by anyone, anywhere, on any handset or network. A patent pending solution, Zipdial has been the only player in the world for over the last 14 months or so since they launched, claims Valerie, but off late a few similar modules have mushroomed. Click here to read more....

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Encouraging The Devil’s Advocate

The challenge facing executive teams in ensuring that sound decisions are made is simple: groupthink. Psychologist Irving Janis, who researched the subject extensively, defined groupthink as the systematic errors made by groups when taking collective decisions.

The three layers of groupthink

1. Key causes: Include group cohesion, directive leadership and ideological homogeneity.

2. Common symptomatic behaviours: Include overestimation of the capabilities of the group, being closed-minded and pressure for uniformity.

3. Consequent decision-making flaws: Include inadequate contingency planning, insufficient information and biased assessments of risk, cost-benefits and moral implications.

Research has shown it is natural for teams (whatever their motivations and guidelines) to suppress dissent or information flow; have extreme attitudes; make extreme judgments; be less flexible in adapting their approach to changing circumstances, but – despite all this – have greater confidence in their decisions. Groups also tend to focus discussion on things they already agree about rather than things they disagree about, leading individuals to publicly endorse decisions viewed as normal for the group, despite privately holding reservations. Click here to read more..

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Building great brands make agencies top of mind

With most of the work that media agencies do getting commoditised, building differentiation is the big challenge today. In the competitive and cutthroat world of advertising, Building great brands is the name of the game.

When it comes to any creative field where talent and skill is the criterion for shining, it matters not whether you are a man or a woman. A star will shine. Priti Nair, co-founder of advertising agency Curry-Nation, is one such star. Her passion for advertising is palpable and her excitement infectious. She literary breathes advertising and wants to evoke the feel of Indian culture in all the work that Curry-Nation does. In an exclusive interaction with 4Ps B&M, Nair, who has been an advertising professional for the past 20 years, shares her views and insights of the ad world.

With competition intensifying, what is it that acts as a big differentiator for advertising agencies today?
I think that advertising agencies are now distinctly being driven by brand building through enormously engaging communication. It’s no longer just about picking up awards or no longer just about bagging business. Getting recognition for the work you do and building truly memorable brands is what makes agencies top of mind.

Still, most work done by media agencies remain commoditised. Is there a way out?
Media touch points have changed. But I feel media planning has not yet taken that parallel leap. It is still quantitatively driven. But with so much media hitting the consumers from all sides and a fight for a share of voice, agencies are turning innovative and taking a more qualitative approach to addressing the needs of clients.

So what will it take and how long will it take for the change to become rooted and established?
I think the momentum for change needs to come from the clients. As long as the whole business is about bigger and bigger bargains, it will remain a numbers game. It is a mispreception to think on the part of clients that driving a hard bargain with agencies is optimizing on a fixed budget. Stretching the buck is no longer about just how many spots the TVC is about and where and when and how they appear. There can be greater brand recall even if the spots appear lesser number of times.

Consolidation seems to be the new buzzword in the industry and Omnicom’s majority stake in Mudra is the latest example of this trend.How do you think will it affect the dynamics of the industry?
I think that consolidation will lead to media agencies getting better deals and squeezing more efficiencies out of their operations. However, there’s also the possibility of the qualitative aspect getting relegated. The fallout of consolidation has led to media agencies and creative agencies getting separated. That may not work out to the advantage of the industry because in today’s world integration is what we hugely need in order to find new and innovative ways of delivering communication. Thanks to the information available today, it is becoming easier for agencies to stitch and integrate a media plan into communication at the initial stage itself. Something magical can come out when the two entities work hand in glove.

Do you think that the challenge for faster execution for media planners is taking the attention away from ROI and leading to wasteful spending?
The challenge in not just for media agencies, it’s equally challenging for creative agencies to come up with communication that breaks the information overload barrier. It’s becoming more and more difficult to gauge your ROI with the bombardment of media on the consumer from all sides.

How different is online branding from the viewpoint of a creative person as compared to working with a conventional medium?
Online is a very different world. And it is the medium increasingly taking hold of the world. It’s open, impatient and active. You need to breathe the medium to know what makes it tick. It depends on technology to back ideas but when you know what technology is available it can truly get you some breakthrough stuff. The thing with that medium is a new technology or a new app gets launched almost everyday somewhere in the world that surprises you at what is possible. One needs to be experimental and open to taking the risk. Unlike conventional mediums, where you keep telling consumers you need me (i.e your product and its benefits), good online or digital branding comes from understanding what the consumer really needs and wants.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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Advertising - Hotspots and Rankings - The Idiot Box

There are ads, and then there are those 10 that have personified the concept of how branding can be made to work for the product most efficiently and effectively. From creativity to brand recall, from concept to execution, these 10 advertisements have got our attention; thanks to the commitment of the teams that created them. We present you with our review of the top three ads.

Indulge at you own risk!
Advertiser: Cadbury
Baseline: Jo khaaye, kho jaaye
Agency: Ogilvy & Mather

4Ps B&M take: Over the years, it has become all the more evident that there is a lot of scope for creativity when it comes to confectionery brands. Last time, when Cadbury came up with the Ramesh-Suresh duo (remember those guys riding dummy horses in the middle of the road?) for the TVC of their 5 Star brand, we were disappointed. So much so that we featured it as one of the worst commercials of the fortnight and concluded that such creatives would not work for the chocolate brand. Come November and we’re humbly taking back our words after seeing the latest from the stable of Cadbury conceptualised by Ogilvy & Mather. Ramesh and Suresh, in trademark 1970s attire, walk into a traditional tailor shop. They hand over a pair of trousers to the tailor (who is talking on the phone) as Ramesh exclaims, “Masterji, Pitaji ki patloon ek blan choti kardijiye” (Please cut short our father’s trousers by a hand’s length). As instructed, Master Ji cuts the trousers and gives it to his assistant to stitch. Both brothers have one bite of the 5 star and forget everything, making the request again. This iteration repeats itself till the trousers are left to a pair of shorts. And yet, the brothers make one final request after a bite of their 5 Star. The VO talks about the chocolate, caramel and nougat in every bit of five star that can lead to this blissful amnesia. The message is the same, but this one’s far more entertaining and most importantly, it doesn’t get on your nerves.

Why don’t you believe me?!

Advertiser: Volkswagen
Baseline: Das Auto
Agency: DDB Mudra

4Ps B&M Take: Competitors would be quick to say that they are going over the top too soon, but Volkswagen does manage to raise a din with each of its campaigns. Somewhere, somehow, the agency and the brand seem to be clicking very well. This ad was conceptualised by DDB Mudra in a bid to promote the ‘Breeze’ variants of Polo and Vento recently launched by the automobile major. The TVC opens inside a Volkswagen showroom where a customer care executive is diligently completing paperwork for a car which he probably just sold. Just then, the camera shifts to girl err... guy disguised as a girl (well you too did get confused at first sight, right?) who is sitting in front of the executive. As he enquires, “So, what do I get with the Polo and the Vento. Oh, and what comes with the Breeze models?” the executive gives a look which tells us that he’s had enough of this guy as he patiently answers, “Sir I’ve told you this many times before, but for some reason you don’t believe me.” The guy takes off the wig (as it turns out, he came earlier and got the same answer from the salesman) and retorts angrily, “You’re still pulling my leg aren’t you!” VO: Unbelievable but true. Get Rs.40,000 worth of benefits and features with the Polo and Vento Breeze models. The ad ends with the same guy disguising himself as a Gorilla and asking the same question. When it comes to pitching a sales promotion, companies usually do not experiment much with creativity and tend to simply tell things as they are as far as possible. Volkswagen crosses that line and successfully too.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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