Consultancy MODEL

Every Consultancy follow some practices and models to deliver effective solutions to the Clients.Before operating as a Consultant or having your own consultancy,prepare a checklist:
1)Your Clients,Markets and Business trends.
2)Knowledge of technologies and how the implementation of these technologies will affect the Business Strategy,
3)Alliance with key supplier inorder to fully understand their products and servives.

Generally,consultancy begins with addressing business strategy creating opportunities for programmes of business change.These programmes address the design and implementation of new technologies along with change management.During the Consulting lifecycle or process,business benefits and key success factors are articulated and measured which leads to business performance at the end.The key elelment is a consulting is programme management which includes either Change Projects led by Business Consultant or Technology Projects led by Technical Consultant.The Change Project encompasses the benefits,business acceptance and support,cultural change,communication and traning needs and implementation while Technology Projects focus on infrastructure,development projects,technical acceptance and production support.

Banning BLOGS..Thoughtful STRATEGY!!!!!!

That day when I tried to access my blog from my company's PC,I was schoked to see the result on my screen.To my amazement,the access was denied. Its not the situation in my company,but there are many companies where the employees are restricted to access BLOGS. The point to ponder is why such a step is taken by the organizations???

Blogs are viewed as "KNOWLEDGE BANK" today ,a place where you can access information easily along with discussing on issues.If we take a close look into the trends, then Infosys,Accenture,Thoughtworks encourage their employees to involve themselves in Blogs.But, there are few companies like mine who sees BLOG as a threat.Some possible reasons could be:

1. Leakage of confidential company information by the employees.
2. Blogs are taken as a source of entertainment when they are not working.
3. Sometimes, the employees participate in discussion forums and use of their time for self knowledge than organization benefit.

But,again the question arises why only BLOGS especially Blogspot.While most of the companies are using Blogs to encourage greater co-ordination between management and employees, its also being viewed as a potential Data Threat for others. The possible solution is to block some blogs which have pornographic or content not beneficial to the employees. Banning BLOGS not only suppress the knowledge of the employees but also is harmful for the orgaizations also.A thoughtful startegy....well,think again!!!

Metrics of FINANCIAL Performance

1.Primary Reserve Ratio= Expendable Net Assets/Total Expenses

The Primary ReserveRatio measures the financial strength of the institution by indicating how long the institution could function using its expendable reserves to cover operations should additional net assets not be available.

2.Return on Net Assets Ratio= Change in Net Assets/Total Beginning Net Assets

The Return on Net AssetsRatio measures total economic return and indicates whether the institution is financially better off than in previous years. A decline may be appropriate if it represents an institutional strategy to fulfill its mission. An improving trend indicates increasing net assets and additional reserves which provides financial flexibility.

3.Net Operating Revenues Ratio= Income before Other Items/Adjusted Net Operating Revenues

The Net Operating RevenuesRatio indicates whether the institution’s operating activities resulted in a net deficit or surplus for the year. The ratio measures whether available resources are sufficient to fund operating activities.

4.Viability Ratio= Expendable Net Assets/Total Debt

The ViabilityRatio measures the ability of the institution to cover its debt as of the balance sheet date, should the institution need to settle its obligations.

5.Debt Burden Ratio= Debt Service/Total Expenses

The Debt BurdenRatio measures the financial strength of the institution by indicating how long the institution could function using its expendable reserves to cover operations should additional net assets not be available.

6.Bond Ratings:The Bond Ratings indicate the institution's debt is considered high-grade, high-credit quality.

Managing RISK while Consulting

Consulting has always been a difficult task when the problem of the Client is huge and complicated.Its obvious that the greater the problem,the more the Client ready to pay for it.If a Consultant wish to undertake higher value-added engagements, he is likely to expose itself to greater risk.The bigger the organization,bigger are the issues,more time required to understand the organization,lot of analysis.In the above scenarios,Risk Management is a real necessity.

The key to good risk management is an early assessment of where the risks may occur.The best way is to categorize risks to Clients,Engagement,Methodologies,People and Fees/Contract.The power structure of the Client needs to be understood.The pre-conceived notions of the Clients can create a clash.Its always necessary to understand your client especially in big organizations.Especially, in a big organization,nature of engagement is important.It could be that a solution in a big organization is being sought for an immensely difficult issue.The likelihood of finding such a solution must be assessed.Methodologies that are well proven reduce risk.Its always necesaary to match the skills of the Consultants with that of the staff in the Organization.It helps in understaning the problem better and co-operation among both the parties increases.Finally,there should be a clear cut understanding of the payment procedure,clauses,liability terms n conditions.

A good risk management leads to a better Consulting!!

The BEST Companies to work for!!!

Its time for the Companies to conduct Surveys and Research.Its time again for the companies to see themselves as the Best Company to Work.Its time again for the Companies to be in the RAT Race and put all their efforts to be the BEST Company to work.But,my concern is whether the companies effort really helping the employees and the organization.Suddenly,everything is changed during the survey.The senior management closely take a look at the employees of the organization to MOTIVATE and provide GYAAN to vote their organization.Whether the Survey just consider the "SMILING FACES" or also consider the "DEJECTED MINDS".Are the efforts of the organization have just turned as a TINSEL WORK like "Koffee with GM", conducting Fashion SHOWS and Tournaments for the Employees, providing global opportunites just to stop the employees from leaving their organization.Everyone talks about hiring the Best Talent,training and organizing them,but whether the Best Talent hired are used effectively or the best talents takes a pleasure in spending most of the time in Cafeteria,chit-chatting near the Vendor Machines.

Whether the "BEST COMPANY" really exists or is just a misnomer which takes its shape during the Surveys and suddenly there is a fullstop after that.A thing to ponder for sure....!!!!

Achieve IT OPERATIONAL Excellence

IT Operational processes includes:
1)Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery.
2)Change, Configuration, Inventory, Asset, and Service Request Management.
3)Infrastructure and Application Management.
4)Production Acceptance, Production Control, Quality Assurance and Release Management.
5)Workload Management and Job Scheduling.
6)Systems and Network Monitoring, Capacity Planning and Performance Measurement.

The Processes that support Operational Excellence includes:
1)Database Management and Administration.
2)Business Relationship Management and Service Level Agreement.
3)Cost Recovery and Budget Management.
4)Hardware and Software Support.
5)Web Services Management.
6)Vendor, Negotiation and Contract Management.
7)Problem and Knowledge Management.

Steps for moving towards Operational Excellence:
1)Document Process Flow:It is easier to change processes when they are documented and understood by staff.
2)Identify Skills required for staff:Continued institutional commitment is necessary to keep knowledgeable staff in operations area.
3)Automate routine aspects of the Job:Since consistent process execution and maximization of resources is very important, automation becomes crucial.Automation resolve more complex issues.
4)Improve Processes:Operational Processes whould be reviewed against actual performance.Eliminating human failure,frequent handoffs, and bottlenecks needs to be a stated goal and addresses on a consistent basis.
5)Define best Practices:This is the ultimate goal of service delivery

COURTESY:EDUCAUSE(ECAR)

Equate your EQUITY

The stock market is at an all time high.Its roaring at 20,000 and the investment barometer is rising with the rise in the index.How do you plan to get better returns?
There is always a fear whether to invest in pure equity funds when such a situation arises.The best way is to invest in Balanced funds which is a combination of equity and debt funds.Equity should always be a small part of your investments even if you want to be on a safer side.Before investing in equities,try to access the Real Rate of Return as the measure for assesing returns on your investments which is nothing but return minus inflation.

Seeing the current condition,selection of funds in critical.The right way is to select a fund that is managed well and has been providing consistent returns.Select funds that will meet your objectives over time.Sometimes,undervalued equities turn to give out better results in this case.Its not advisable to jump into sector funds or mid-cap funds at all.If you plan to invest in Sector funds,take a close look into he performance of that particular sector in the past when such a situation arose.It could be a Banking or Healthcare sector.

A word of advice "Buy different BASKETS and different fruits and make sure the combination too varies in all the baskets. Diversification is the key".

Be a MONK who cherishes his FERRARI

In a country of more than 1 Billion people,how many of them dream to make it big??I am sure more than 50% dream but how many really make it big,well,just 1%.Every morning more than 0.5 billion wake up with a single thought "What I need to do today?What are my appointments today and when I need to complete my work?". But, those 1% who make it big, they do not think, but visualize a PICTURE PERFECT REALITY where they see themselves as a CREATOR of a DREAM ORGANIZATION. Every morning for them is a stepping stone to their PICTURE PERFECT REALITY.If I make it big,I make sure with me,I make thousands realize their dreams and in turn I create a Nation which dreams to be one of the DEVELOPED COUNTRIES.

I have realized one thing "The day you are happy with your job, your GROWTH stops". Do not be happy doing a 9-5 job and see happiness in a 6 month onsite.Thats temporary and the dream of 50 million common people.If you want to be uncommon, think of making those 50 million common people dream about your Organization. Nurture the Warrior in you who knows what to achieve and how to achieve.

Simplicity is precious and is pure when you make other people lives rich with your experience and success. A MONK who knows to reach the Horizon with his feet firm on the ground is admirable and an insipration for those common people.Dream to have a FERRARI seeing which,thousand others will nurture the same dream.
ITS NOT JUST YOU WHO IS PROGRESSING BUT THE WHOLE NATION IS PROGRESSING WITH YOU.Are you still dreaming "When to complete your Project,meet the Deadline and have a party with your Team???".......

Mutual Fund:INVESTMENT Process

Step 1: Financial Analysis
Providing sound investment advice begins with establishing the client’s current financial position. An Advisor should profile the client based on their investment time horizon, liquidity needs, desired rate of return objective and tolerance for risk. The result is a written Investment Policy Statement, which summarizes the client’s objectives and assists the Advisor in determining how to proceed in their best interest.

Step 2: Asset Allocation
According to respected academic studies, over 90% of a portfolio’s performance is determined by the asset allocation decision - the diversification of funds across multiple asset classes to meet a target level of return at an acceptable level of risk.

Step 3: Asset Allocation Strategist Selection
Once an Investment Advisor has determined which approach to the allocation decision (strategic, tactical or a combination of both) makes the most sense to meet the client’s objectives.

This Multi-Strategist approach has been widely accepted by Advisors because of its appeal to prospective clients and because it allows Advisors to replace asset managers who may underperform expectations without having to completely re-position assets into another investment program.

Step 4: No-Load Mutual Fund Selection and Implementation
In implementing asset allocation decisions using no-load mutual funds,Strategists should have an outstanding set of resources within their reach.

Step 5: Portfolio Monitoring and Rebalancing
Market forces continually impact the underlying value of the asset classes in client portfolios. Strategists should continuosly monitor these market shifts and periodically rebalance portfolios to ensure that they remain consistent with their asset allocation policies, including re-allocation of funds between asset classes in our tactical models.

Step 6: Reporting
To keep clients informed, confident and in control,Strategists should provide an extensive reporting system. Clients receive monthly brokerage statements, quarterly full-color performance reports and year-end tax reports, all of which are easy to read and understand.

Business Intelligence in BANKS and role of Consultant

Building a Data Warehouse or BI System is neither the core business of banks nor of any single IT Vendor.It is best to hire a Consultant to guide the bank to plan and build a Data Warehouse and BI Solution.
The Consultant will guide the Bank towards a professional approach for the Project and provides a value add for:
1.Planning to build a Data Warehouse and BI System.
2.Assisting in the Bank's preparation for the requirements of Data Warehouse.
3.Guiding the Management and the bank Project Team.
4.Preparing the RFP for the solution.
5.Identifying the right solution provider.
6.Reviewing the Data Warehouse Project Implementation.

The Consultant will advise the Bank in selecting the solution provider.However,the Bank has to bear in mind the following when selecting the BI System Provider:
1.Experienced in building Data Warehouse and BI System.
2.Recognised by Analyst for BI Services.
3.Established framework with domain/technical solutions which will reduce the lifecycle of project.
4.Business turnover and number of Consultants in the BI Space with the solution provider.

CONSULTING MARKET INTELLIGENCE

Market intelligence provides the context for a business' performance. Market intelligence concerns the attitudes, opinions, behavior, and needs of individuals and organizations within the context of their economic, environmental, social, and everyday activities. To ensure the marketing plan operates in the right context, you must understand how the external world behaves and develops. The kind of things you might want to know include:
·Proportion of the target market that's online (e.g., number of businesses, households, or individuals)
·Internet users' profile (e.g., demographics, device ownership, psychographics, lifestyle)
·Internet use (e.g., length of time online, sites visited)
·Competitive activity (e.g., advertising campaigns)
This type of information helps an e-business create a picture of the environment it operates in:

How fast is the market growing, and where is it growing fastest?
How are my competitors performing, and how do I compare against them?
Some primary market intelligence sources include:
·Audience panels, such as Nielsen/Net Ratings and Score
·Large-scale syndicated surveys
·Data aggregators
·Industry analysts
Market intelligence brings context to the site-centric world often inhabited by digital practitioners. It allows you to understand and assess your business' performance in the context of the overall market's development and your competitors' performance.

Consulting Market Intelligence services have become quite popular. While providing market intelligence services, you help your clients in:

Assisting management in the development of strategy formulation and execution.
Adding tangible stakeholder value through its capacity to deliver powerful market insight.
Delivering practical, unambiguous, market objective based recommendations.

The Consultants takes care of the things mentioned below while providing Market Intelligence Service.
·Linking Market Share Outcomes and Bottom Line Improvement
·Engineering Successful Market Entry and Expansion
·Locking In Market Dynamics to The Business Planning Process
·Strategic Market Positioning for Client Companies within Industries
·Linking New Product Development and Market Success
·The Operation of the Company qua Brand
·Merger & Acquisition Analysis
·Forecasting potential industry development scenarios and corporative implications

MEDIA and CREATIVE Strategies

Enough of Business Consulting!! Lets glitter this post with paparazzi..errr..I mean MEDIA.I will be talking about working on CREATIVE and MEDIA Strategy. CreativeStrategy means deciding on the tone in which you wish your story to be told. Here, I mean "Is there a better way than featuring your Client Testimonials and have them talk about their work with you?". Media Strategy means what are you planning to do?? How to make sure creative and media strategies go hand in hand and helps in benefitting your organization.
1)Conduct Workshops and launch Newsletters to invite Clients.Talk about the Workshop and if the organization is coming up with new product launch.Keep the pace and excitement going in Client's mind.
2)Follow-up Newsletter to prospects.
3)You can start a Survey.Work with the PR People to generate interest on your products and firm among the prospects.Guest Speakers always helps and come as a Value Addition to the Workshops.
4)Prepare a Report and publish the Survey Findings.Invite the Prospects to the Workshops.

Its the paparazzi which works wonder. No doubt,traditional management has value in the market but glitterati always helps in attracting the masses. Its like serious film-makers like Shyam Benegal and Rituparno Ghosh have their own audience and gets accolades but the one who is always the talk of the media is KARAN JOHAR.

The idea is to do a "KJ MARKETING-KARAN JOHAR MARKETING" while placing your firm in the market or selling the products, KJ helps...

PERFORMANCE GAPS AND CAUSES

Consulting process is not an easy job. A consultant should try to be in the Client shoes before approaching him with the solution. A consultant must systematically conduct performance and cause analysis prior to selecting, designing, implementing and evaluating an intervention. A friend of mine asked me the basic steps to a consulting process. So, I thought to pen down the process, which also takes care of identifying the performance gaps and causes.

Preparation. Preparation includes researching the organization and the industry as well as the client. While internal consultants have access to much more information, external consultants can use the internet to access organization and industry specific information. The external Consultants can always take the help of the Client’s organization and specifically look into the Business Units of the organization and gather information required to solve the Client’s problems.

Assessment. The next step is centered on building rapport with the client and asking open-ended questions to gain the client’s perception of the overall situation. This initial phase is necessary to build trust and begin the process of assessing the client’s situation and needs. This step should not be overlooked as the Consultants sometimes miss the basic fact as they are in a hurry to get into the problems.

Diagnosis. Once the overall situation is identified, we need to explore the client’s perception of the problem, its implications and the value of resolving that problem. This is done with direct questions that guide the discussion as we carefully diagnose the performance discrepancy. These first three steps are necessary to “earn the right” to make a recommendation as to how to improve performance.

Prescription. After identifying the overall situation, problems, implications and value of improving performance, the consultant is ready to make a recommendation as to alternative courses of action. We call this a prescription rather than a presentation to reinforce the idea from the medical community that “Prescription without diagnosis is malpractice.”

Partnering. As the Consultant works with the client to decide the best course of action, he must define what roles each will play. In effect, Consultants form a partnership in which the client still owns the problem, but the consultant have a clearly defined role to play in seeking to resolve that problem. The partnership will be different for each client and problem.

Reinforcement. Before leaving, Consultant should reinforce the client’s decision to use his services. It is natural for the client to feel apprehensive about committing resources to a new course of action.

Follow-up. Consultants must make sure that they fulfill the promises made to the client and move the project ahead. All of good work would be for nothing if they didn’t meet the expectations we created.

APPROACHES of a Business Consultant

How to deal with a Client? How to make sure that you are catering your client in an effective way?

1) Always check there is a match between your Client's problem and your Consultancy.The proposal should be made keeping customer's viewpoints in mind,enough details id given for a decision to be made and the relationship of the actions planned to the customer's problems and issues are explained.The Business need of the Customer should get reflected in the writing.

2)The Consultants should always make an intangible product tangible meaning the proposal should be clear and precise to the facts provided by the clients and the ones derived from the facts provided.The vague the proposal,the less tangible the service will appear to be.

3)As obvious, Intangibility brings uncertainity.While dealing with your clients,make sure to bring forward all the risks associated with the deal and proposal to your client.The customers generally do not understand the working of a consultancy and are lured by the image of the consultancy. The more the risk factor associated highlighted in the proposal,lesser will be the uncertainity and a trust factor develops.

4)Be clear and understandable not only to your Clients but everyone in the client's organization.Whether it be a written or a verbal agreement,complexities in words bring complexities in business.

5) I have always stressed in the fact that bring innovation and differentiation in the way you do your business. There cannot be change in the process everytime but yes,introducing something new and adopting a new approach always help....

FILMS in MANAGEMENT SYLLABUS… A Serious Study or Farce??

Before we heard, Kkrish making news in IIMs. Reason, its inclusion as a Case Study in IIMs. And, the recent inclusion is Chak De India. Now a days, it’s becoming common for the Management Students taking movies as a Case Study. It obvious to ponder why it’s happening?? I have few questions to ask:
1) Is it a Marketing gimmick for the movies to a new way to popularize the colleges? After IIMs, there have been few B and C Grade colleges adopting to include films as a Case Study.
2) Are these movies taken as a Case Study because of their Box Office success, technical advancement in the way movies are made, inspiration provided by the movies or Management Students are giving a serious thought to be recruited by Film Makers to make Big Budget Movies.
To me it seems to be a new way of Branding. If a movie is made a Case Study in the Colleges, it means the movie is more than entertainment. An new way to understand how some film- makers are best from the herd and their movie needs to be seen by the public. If I ask a normal person, what do he know about Kkrish, well, the answer would be a
1) Hrthik Roshan Starrer
2) Rakesh Roshan’s Movie
3) A huge Box-Office Success

Now, if it’s a Case Study, few things will come into picture, like
1) What kind of special effects used? How Bollywood is using some of the best technologies in their movies?
2) What kind of marketing a movie has done to cater to its audience?
IIM Indore thought Kkrish to be a “Successful promotion of Brand India” But is Kkrish the only product in the market, which has made India felt its International Presence, or is Lagaan the only movie, which made India proud of??

Truly, Indian movies lack the seriousness in content and the movies, which are sent to International Arena, lack the message it needs to be given. People do not hear about any movie, which spreads messages on AIDS, humility faced by Indian Women. Why are we getting narrow on our thoughts?

Well, I am here to talk about Business. If we are looking a good way of marketing a film, no doubt its one of the good ways to brand your movie but what about social responsibility as far as movies are concerned. Movies are here for entertainment but Management Colleges are not. A serious thought needs to be given which movie should reach the masses and efforts should be realized that goes behind making a movie on social issue…

Lessons from the ELEPHANTS

1.Customers comes first.Include Customers in all strategic decisions.
2. Understand your Business.Management must maintain Objectivity.
3.Stretch GOALS and execution of Key Success Factors is a must.
4.Reorganization should implement a Strategy.
5.Always pay Attention to Employees.
6.The Organization should focus on understanding Customer Insight, drive initiatives to achieve success.
7.Money,Advancement,Recognition,Fear,Learning,Opportunity,Success,Threat of extinction and Complelling vision of the future are levers of motivation.
8.Operate as an Entrepreneurial Organization with a minimum of Bureaucracy and a never ending focus on Productivity.
9.Think and Act with a sense of Urgency.
10.Outstanding, dedicated people make it all happen particularly when they work as a team.

The Management Philospohy defined by this Market Leader focuses on:
.Manage by Priniciples-nor Procedure.
.Marketplace dictates.
.Quality.
.Competitive Strategies and Plans.
.Pay for performance.
.Reduce Meetings and Committees.
.Straightforward communication.
.Problem solvers with focus on Team Players and not Politicians.

An evolution from a failing organization to one one of the Market LEADERS.This Organization have never failed to achieve success."The Bigger, the Better" is what I would refer them, one of the Esteemed Organization, IBM-"No one does INNOVATION better than IBM".

COMMUNICATIONS Strategy

Communications Strategy is preparing a list of things which will enable us to communicate to the people in the marketplace.We can use this strategy both in our personal and professional life to make things easier and put ourselves n our organization in control.If you are planning to start an organization,product or service based, then a sensible strategy would be to build a database of customers n prospects so that building relationship will be easy.If you are selling a fast moving product, then a list of wholesalers,retailers would help you.

Its useful in an organization too.You maintain calender and address book,diary to help manage your relationships.A simple Birthday Note to your colleague or senior can work wonder in employee relationship in the company.Even the organizations understand the importance of professional relationship.In Chat Messengers like Lotus Sametime,there are facilities of maintaning address book.

A good database whether professional or personal helps us to manage one-to-one relationship.

VIEWS of a Business Consultant..Continued.

Function View: This looks at the core business functionality, in terms of:
.Process Inputs: Location of processes and actions
.Process Triggers:Initiation of process and the output
.Conceptual Data Models:The information required for by the functions.

Technical Architecture View: It forms the basis of an IT Solution if any and the consulting required for the solution.It covers hardware,database management systems,networks and protocols,middleware and messaging architecture.

Application Architecture View: It defines the core business functionality in order to derive an application architecture that will support the business in terms of function and data distribution.This area includes the capabilities, structure and user interfaces of application software,physical database design,package selection process and criteria and business data rules of an organization.

Infrastructure View: It includes training, production support strategies,security and back-up,configuration management strategies and tools.

For first part,refer my post on A Business Consultant View

Author:Philip Sadler

Tata Crucible Quiz 2007

One of the biggest Corporate Event if one can think of after Brand Equity Quiz is Tata Crucible Quiz 2007 is back with a bang.Started on 2004, it promises to bring you the excitement seen never before.Corporate honchos fighting with each other and Giri Balasubramanium,popularly known as Pickbrain will host the show.CNBC will be covering this event with a style.Keep watching this space as I bring you more news on this event.Well,even I am participating in this event!!!

A BUSINESS CONSULTANT View

A Business Consultant sometimes needs to understand that its not all about Business but Technology plays a key role too.How to ensure that a Business Consultant provides a feasible solution which will help the organization measures it current and future objectives.A Business Consultant should develop a BUSINESS VIEW on an organization which will help to develop a broader and detailed picture.It consists of following elements:

1. Business Vision: As the term is self understood,Business Vision is an understanding the current position of the business in the marketplace and where it would place itself in the years to come. Its all about strategically defining the organization's business objectives and the viability and the ways to achieving the objectives.

2. Organization and role:The Business is always mapped in terms of organizational hierarchy and the roles performed.

3.Location and Culture: The geographical location of the company and the staff function and role is also covered.

4.Change Management: Whether the organization and the employees on a whole are ready for a change.The change could be pertaining to the Business, Mergers and Acquisition or a new Role.

Along withe the Business View, a Business Consultant should take care of FUNCTION VIEW, TECHNICAL ARCHITECTURE VIEW,APPLICATION ARCHITECTURE VIEW AND INFRASTRUCTURE VIEW which we will discuss in the next posting.Keep checking the space for more information on the views that a Business Consultant should keep it in mind while arriving at a solution.

3 PLAYERS of Business Strategy

While formulating Business Strategies,its essential to take account of the three key players or commonly known as 3Cs, Customer,Corporation and Competitors.The three Cs can be related. The strengths of the corporation should match the needs and the objectives of the customers and the competition should be healthy enough to give a clear distinction so that a superior performance could be achieved.How to ensure that a business strategy is successful keeping in mind the three Cs:
1.Its essential to focus on KSFs(Key Success Factors. It will help to understand the strengths and the factors of success which could be later exploited accordingly keeping customers and competitors in mind.
2.The success of a strategy depends on the relative superiority.Relative superiority could be defined as exploiting the differences in the competitive conditions.It might not be possible to find the KSFs putting customers in mind for every organization.So,the best way is to find an innovative approach in a process and gain superiority.
3.Initiatives is the key to differentiation.Competitive advantage could be achieved either by introduing new KSFs or making the existing KSFs redundant.Innovation could be used to introduce a trend in the industry.

PROFILE or SKILLS??

Today I was having a discussion with one of my colleagues on the necessity of profile or functional skills while working in an organization. After reading an article on Economic Times, we had a hot debate. It’s very true that at the top level, the person’s profile that counts, not his functional skills. While recruiting senior managers, the organization always looks his work experience in various domains. Working in different domains gives an insight on the business and working of an organization as a whole in a better way. The functional skills can be developed later but profile is very important especially at the initial point of the career. The employees are always expected to be loyal to their team and company. And, if you perform well, you are expected to continue doing well for your team. The aspirations of an employee are ignored by most of the companies. Organizations talks of job rotation but the question is whether the rotation occurs at the right time. If my manager comes to me and say that to work for a certain department, I need to have 4years of experience and till then I have no choice, then I have lost my 4 years of knowledge and compromised with my career. Do the organization thinks that skills are inborn and it will come with experience. If that is the case, why the companies have training department for? If I have the right education with me, then it is the responsibility of my organization to train me to acquire necessary skills and contribute to the organization. Today, Training Department itself is a critical factor. The people in the training department and the sessions that are conducted are nothing less than passing time. The sessions have become monotonous. If there is a training on Risk Management. I have to attend a 4 hours training which means listening to some person for continuously four hours. Is that sufficient? The answer is No. It is always recommended to carry workshops and give the trainees hand-on-experience while training them. It should come with proper handbook, 2-3 hours of hands-on working session and obviously a test to complete the formalities.

If the profile of a person is strong, he is confident to measure himself in the market and decide on his abilities well in the later stage of his careers. But, if a person is expected to build on his profile and in the journey, he loses 10 years of his career just building his profile. Knowledge Management is essential for an organization to improve. An organization driven by knowledge survives or else dies soon. KM workshops can also help employees to build profile. A certificate could be given by the organization at the end of each knowledge workshop sessions and if they are given an opportunity to work on small projects during the workshop, it can add value to their profile.

Profile helps you to acquire functional skills.

Sincere THANKS

I sincerely thank my readers for taking interest in STRATEGYAAN because of which I was able to post 50 articles. Since its inception, I have tried to post article on interesting subjects and your participation in the journey is highly appreciated.Looking forward to improve my blog.Your suggestions are welcomed.Keep visiting, reading my blog and posting your comments....

Regards
Ashutosh Bose

BLOG your Business

Blogging has been important in the business arena. Its not seen just as a weblog where you post your articles for fun. Blogging has been a true value addition to the business. Blogging is often viewed as a tool for business networking. The best way to network is visit other’s blogs, put your comments and in turn increase the traffic in your blog. The question arises, why to blog when you already have a reputation in the market? Well, blogging can be used as a centralized source of information for all your customers, shareholders, vendors etc. It’s always good to enlighten your customers on the latest happenings in the business domain. Consider, THINKFLAT, a blog of Infosys by Nandan Nilekani, where the focus is mainly on outsourcing, economy and various business domains like Banking. Prominent writers of the Corporate Arena like Romil Bahl, Stepehen Lane and Nandan Nilekani himself enlighten readers with some serious thoughts. Even, Capgemini CTO believes in Blogging. Capgemini’s thought leaders and advisors bring the spicy happenings in the world of business and Technology. A company like Accenture too believes in Blogging. The Blog is categorized into Experienced Consultant’s Blog, Consulting Analyst’s Blog, Some of the high profile employees like Ed Gottsman and Andy Zimmerman run their blogs on Accenture.

Thoughtworks provides platforms to all its employees to run their individual blogs in Thoughtworks Blog. It is seen as a way to communicate and exchange ideas freely among the employees. Some of the bloggers like Sanjeev Bikhchandani’s Blog “Wisdom in hindsight” helps readers to discuss on various subjects and truly enlightening.

Blogs have come a long way as a contributor to increase knowledge. Sometimes, it can be used as a potential Knowledge Management Tool.

I recommend the blogs below:

http://thinkflat.infosys.com/
http://origin.capgemini.com/ctoblog/
http://www.accenture.com/Global/Research_and_Insights/Accenture_Blogs/default.htm
http://bikhchandani.blogspot.com/

STRATEGIC Choice

How do I go about solving a problem? Shall I follow Top-Down Approach or Bottom-Up Approach for a better solution. What do I need to increase the sales of my product? Do I need to spend more money on Advertising or can I adopt other forms of marketing? Well, every single day, we are faced with some situations where we need to take some decisions. There are choices infront of us and we need to select the best one so that it could be beneficial for our organization as a whole. Strategic Choice is one of the important elements of Strategy Formulation Process. Whether you plan for your budgets, take decisions to improve your sales, think to stop attrition rate, strategic choice plays a key role.

The Strategic choice starts with finding the available options. The options can be about market, products and services, options to improve resources and capabilities or on improving processes. Once the individual options are found on various areas, the next step is to integrate all the available strategic options. The integrations is based on the relationship of those options, impact of options on each other and the after effect of the options on the organization. The most important step is to make the strategic option now. It depends on assessment criteria of the options using various theoretical frameworks and strategic tools. It is also essential to understand whom to involve while making strategic choice. Wrong people make wrong choices. Taking all these into consideration, a strategic choice are made.

Here, I would like to highlight generic strategies used to assess the strategic options. The focus is on Cost Leadership and Differentiation Strategies, which are the basis of competitive advantage in the market. While making strategic choice, the implementation is of utmost importance. The organization can look into improving the internal processes, keeping a quality check and training the employees. Mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances have become a common decision for the organizations as it involves sharing of knowledge and expertise.

A strategic choice leads to a strategic direction for the organization. Should we compromise?? No…

Using BALANCED SCORE CARD

Balanced Score Card is a management tool to align all the resources of an organization to its strategy. It takes four perspectives into account i.e. Internal Aspect, Financial Aspect, Customer Aspect and Learning and Growth for an organization

As far as Financial Perspective is concerned, the aim is to Improve shareholder value. The financial perspective contains productivity strategy, which aims at improving cost structure, and increase asset utilization and revenue growth strategy, which aims at customer profitability and identifying new revenue sources.

The Customer Perspective aims at differentiating value proposition. It adds value to the product/service, relationship and creating a brand image.

The Internal Perspective focuses on how to create and sustain value. It can be achieved by improving the processes that produce or deliver products and services, enhance customer value, create new products or services and improve the environment and community.

The Learning and Growth Perspective focuses on how to use the intangible assets like people, system, and culture to the benefit of the organization.

There have been various Balanced Scorecards, which have evolved like Strategy Card, Stakeholder Card and KPI Card. A typical Balanced Score Card schedule starts with defining strategic architecture, drafting balanced scorecard, developing measures and high level targets and initiatives, and developing implementation plan.

Process of INNOVATION

What’s the basic model of innovation? How can organizations ensure that innovations give them a competitive edge in the market? Innovation mean different for different organization. Product innovation for a supplier can be a process innovation for a user. We will focus on the basic process and highlight some examples to know more about Innovation. Generally, in an organization, Marketing, R&D and operation can combine to generate innovation. But, the crucial part is to understand how the vendors that supply outsourced services and technology can play a part in the innovation process. Along with that, it is essential to differentiate whether the innovation is a radical or incremental one and how the resources in these departments can be used to make the process a success. There has to be an integrator who not only integrates the three areas but also manages the portfolio of innovation. As far as the R&D is concerned, the success of innovation depends on the number of researchers and their lab/machinery endowments. As far as the Marketing department is concerned, Knowledge Management plays a key role. Interaction with users and the implicit knowledge in the marketing departments often play a crucial role for innovation. Education, learning and social rules are key determinants both in innovation and the diffusion phase. The Integrator must ensure that the process takes place smoothly and the deliverables are properly measured. Ensuring quality in the innovation process is of utmost importance.

Noone does innovation better than IBM. If we consider the IBM, the vision is to collaborate more with the clients to apply technology while delivering innovation. According to Paul Horn, Senior Vice President, IBM Research, the trends in the future decades are as follows:

1) More than ever before, innovation will become critical for businesses of the future to differentiate themselves. I/T will facilitate this innovation by allowing for new channels for the delivery of products and services, and novel business models.

2) I/T suppliers will evolve into innovation suppliers through services scenarios, with innovation coming from "open" collaborations with customers, partners and suppliers, as well as academia, government and other parties.

3) This will demand new skills, driving academia to adapt to ensure competitiveness.

IBM manages Innovation through

·Joint Programs Model where the focus is on funding mechanism, team integration and fresh approaches to projects.

·Exploratory vs Applied Research where the key areas are Nanotechnology, Autonomic Computing, Millepede and Webfountain.

·Treating clients as partners in the innovation process.

·Changing the culture of innovation by organizing research partnerships, talent plan, w3Jams

Some of the things, which IBM believes can add a value to the innovation process is to hire smart people, ensure a variety of thinking with a critical mass, set milestones, maintain flexibility, embrace risk and creating a fluid community.

Lets INNOVATE

The BRAND Behind HCL: Case in Focus

Next time if you see “Our Numbers do the talking”, do not get perplexed because you are banking on HCL. A lot of interesting ads reflect HCL’s brand image and brand value. When it comes to HCL, it just does not talk about the product HCL but also the most important aspect of HCL i.e. its employees. When it comes to the ad, the “tell-the-world” focus actually began, when HCL initiated Project Heartbeat to create a unified HCL brand. Four months into Project Heartbeat, HCL launched its "Fearless" campaign, focusing on the heritage of the company. The company has also been implementing internal changes to drive home the new brand architecture. The HCL logo has been cleaned up and streamlined; it's now a deep blue name minus the earlier sidebar. All business cards now say HCL. HCL believes in delivering its brand to its employee in a fashioned way. As HCL recruits near about 10,000 people every year, it makes it a point to tell its employees what HCL do? The highly visible 0 and 1 ad of HCL has already created a lot of positive reactions in the ad atmosphere.

As I said, behind the Brand Building exercise of HCL, employees also play a major role. HCL believes in creating employee delight rather than creating employee satisfaction. Employer branding reflects the work culture in an organization. Therefore, it is of much significance. Through right branding, the company can recruit the best talent and reinforce its positioning amongst its employees. HCL’s brand value signifies “exuberance” and they are in the making of “Force of One” campaign that signifies innovative attitude and the ability to individually make a difference.

Next time, if you think to create a BRAND, well think of HCL.

Lets DO IT

I had a meeting with my BU Head and Manager. The thing I liked about him is his “attitude to do”. Its not surprising that most of the meeting rooms and boardrooms are always filled with people and discussions takes most of the time. After an elaborated discussion followed by “high-profile” analysis, the end result comes out to be a failure means the proposal cannot be accepted and it’s not possible to implement. My BU Head was at his best when he said, “ I am tired off these meetings. I have been hearing this PPT again and again but we have not shown enough interest to go ahead with it. Issues will come and they are bound to come. Rather than standing 200 feet away from the sea and thinking about the challenges, have enough courage to get into the sea. The implementation cannot be 100% but we can surely achieve a 80% accuracy and then ponder on the ways to achieve the other 20%”. This is what I call Attitude blended with Professionalism.

Some of the documents prepared in the organization do not answer the issue. It just talks about the proposal and what exists currently in the system. The point is to illustrate everything with diagrams and flow charts how the system should behave in the future, the implications on the current application both positive and negative and the benefits that could be withdrawn. Rather than just giving a presentation and speaking volumes on it until and unless the blueprint to the solution exists on the paper. What I mean to say is document every possible requirements and solutions.

The implementation should always be carried in stages. A distinct line should clearly demarcate the implementation stages. The success or failure of one stage should not affect the next stage. That’s why I stressed on the fact to document. When you have everything infront of your eyes, there is a very little chance of failure.

Time is a major factor whenever there is a proposal implementation needs to be done. The meeting/discussion time should be cut off to 70% of what it is done now. Rather than just saying “ WE CAN DO”, it’s always better to say “HOW TO DO”.

When we talk of How to do, its always better to do a Comparative Analysis if some major tools are involved for the implementation or management practices. Comparative Analysis always helps us in better understanding of the problems, which might arise in the future.

Must Read: http://www.strategy-business.com/

Create an IDEA FACTORY coz an IDEA can change your life

Enough of Java and C++ programming, bugged up testing bugs, irritated appearing tests. hold on. There’s something new we can think of. Creating an IDEA FACTORY in an organization. In a competitive world, to sustain in the market, we need right kind of people or people with right attitude who can align their vision to the company’s objectives. The challenge is to create a pool of knowledge workers. How to create? Simple.. Go ahead with creating an IDEA FACTORY.

To start with IDEA FACTORY would be kind of a game, or an assignment open for your employees in your organization. The challenge would be to create a group of your own and select the participants of your choice. There would be one group per department and the Management would select the leader.

Now, it’s the responsibility of the leader to choose right kind of people and select the correct number. Once done, they need to come up with an idea, which can be beneficial to the organization. This plan would be first in a blueprint. The viability, implementation, timeframe needs to be decided among the members.

The important thing is to get an approval of the plan from the Management. Once done, a pool of knowledge workers and an IDEA FACTORY is created. What’s next?? Obviously, Implementation of the idea. Here, each and every member should care of few things:
1.Knowing the Business Delivery Model
2.Understanding the strategic objectives of the organization
3.The financials of the organization
4.And, understanding of management tools

These should be mandatory. The purpose behind it is to make your employees involved in the organization rather than making them think just about their regular job. The execution of the plan should take care of all the above factors. While working out the plan, it is necessary to do a Cost Benefit Analysis and its impact on the organization both positive and negative.

So, what are you waiting for?? Lets start IDEA FACTORY….

My Tryst with FAILURE

1 year of effort, 30 mins performance and your career decision is made. As usual, I again met failure yesterday. But, this time I didn’t have any fear of meeting him. I put my more than 100% to achieve something, which I dreamt 1 year back. I performed without thinking about my personal benefits, took initiatives, set a benchmark but my dreams were dashed.

I have read a lot of Robin Sharma’s books on Megaliving, Who will cry after you die etc. but wonder how practically we can put those theories in our lives. Ask a person who is struggling to get a job of his choice. In a city like Mumbai, everyday, he starts his day wasting his 2 hours in the bus, reaches office sweating. Completes his work and again waste 2 hours in the bus, reaches home to find food which is not worth eating because he cannot afford good food as his company is unable to pay him for the work he does. When do he has time to nurture his dreams? He has wasted his 4 hours seeing failures of other people. If you question his capability, I will answer that capability does not come appearing tests or scoring in exams, it comes with the determination. If Richard Branson can think of starting a magazine “STUDENT” and then go on becoming face of VIRGIN, if Narayan Murthy can dream of Infosys without having a Management Degree, why cannot we? Why our future is decided without our consent. Its easy to write books on life, give lectures on positivism, but do we have the energy at the end of the day struggling with failures to dream? Even, I have posted an article called “Working on your Mind” but what if your mind stops programming. Every time, I think of achieving success, I see the shadow of Failure behind it. But, being a consultant, I will not end this article with a negative note. The purpose of writing this article was not to make you feel negative but to give a thought process on how to be really practical with life.

I might have lost the battle,but the war is still on.One of my dearest friend said on my unsuccessful attempt to enter Mc Kinsey, that “IF YOU CANNOT ENTER Mc KINSEY, CREATE A COMPANY LIKE Mc KINSEY…” and I am determined to show people that even I can build an empire that everyone could dream of.

My sincere thanks to my friend for being a constant force of inspiration to me..

COMPETITOR Analysis

In the market, someone creates a benchmark and the other try to outperform and set a new benchmark. Every game has its own rules. In a competition, either you try to create an image of your competitor’s product in a negative way or show your product in the most positive way. To highlight a small example, Coca Cola shows Pepsi as a drink for Children because it is sweet and the their product something for people who have a courageous heart with the tagline “Taste the Thunder”. To sustain, the most important move is to study the competitor. While formulating strategy for your own firm, you need to take a keen interest in your competitor’s strategies. In doing so, Competitor Analysis can be used as a method to gather information and understand the moves and behaviour of your competitor.

The most important aspect of Competitor Analysis is to understand your right competitors. In the market, a small start up software firm cannot decide to compete with Microsoft in the initial stages. While identifying your competitors, you need to understand your organizations and the objectives, which have been set for the organization in the coming five years. For example, if the organizations want to create a base in the Indian Market, then may be the particular software firm can see a company, which is existing in the market for 10years or so as a competitor. The point of discussion is to challenge the competitors who have a similar kind of organization like yours and caters the same kind of clients. And, if you decide to diverse then rather than competing its better to understand your competitors in a better way and learn from them. Remember, competition is not the first thing for survival. The thing, which is necessary, is to create a base, which means make the foundation strong and then attack your enemies. It’s also necessary to study how the strategic decisions of your companies affect your competitor. The parameters could be whether there is a fall in the market share of your competitor, or there is an increase or decrease in the brand value or there is no influence at all. It’s true that Intelligent Information can help in taking Intelligent Decisions. The Competitor’s current moves can be understood through its annual reports, press releases, and statement by the management, interview with analysts. The competitor’s moves can be understood by mergers and acquisitions, hiring activities, promotional campaigns, investments etc. The result of the Competitor Analysis should be used as an effective tool to influence your competitor to your firm’s advantage.

i-Fetch a Rocking Application

Although the focus of this blog is not technology I've been always a fun of new apps and services which make life better.
One such killer application is i-Fetch by Ideafarms. I've been trying out this free RSS Reader and from what it appears it is quite handy. It comes loaded with powerful features like archiving of articles, filtering, OPML support etc and integrated browser support. You can use i-Fetch for reading your favorite articles, news items, blog posting and even podcasts.
Quite amazing as now there's lesser pain for my windows favorite folder and I can read my feeds on the move. Moreover, even when I am not connected to internet as it offers offline feed reading support.
Check out the cool application right now Give it a go at http://www.ideafarms.com/products/ims.htm
An easier way is to google "i-Fetch + ideafarms" (minus quotes).

Basics to reach the TOP

To succeed is not waiving a magical wand, but strategizing your moves. When you are in a big organization, and counted just as a normal resource, you need to decide whether to stay as you are or create an identity on the top. People take 7-8 years to reach there but if you have just started your career, there are ways to reach the Top soon. To survive as a King in the Chessboard is very difficult when there are hundreds waiting to kill you and win. So, how to get there??

1.Business Networking: The most important thing to decide in an organization is your target audience. Audience, I mean, those who will take you to the Top. Business Networking just does not mean talking to each and every people but making a move to the right people. When you know who are your audience, the next question is how to make contacts?? Well, the next point talks about that.

2.Showcase your Talent: Showcasing does not mean proving yourself the best, but differentiating yourself from the rest. Best is relative and has no proper definition to it. In a big organization, it’s very difficult to find the people who show interest in their organization. They are happy with the 9-5 jobs, salary and the events conducted by their organization. If you think sitting idle and doing your regular job perfectly, the company is going to shower you with more money, onsite opportunities and perks, forget it. It’s never going to happen. What’s needed then? Well, that’s what the third point talks about.

3.Initiatives: This is where more than 97% of the employees in a big organization lack. Try to participate and give suggestions and views every time your organization comes up with some future plans or initiatives. Interact with the management, if not anything, mail at least to the Management congratulating them of their initiatives. A well-documented mail can work wonder for you. Every time something new comes up in the team, try to involve yourself. This is not the only thing you need to do. There is something magical word associated with Initiatives…. Well…the next point

4.Feedback: Feedback, positive or negative helps in improving a lot. Mails to the people sitting on the top on the initiatives you have taken. Make yourself known to them. I am sure they will never say a NO in helping you with your work. Treat them as your mentor.

5.Communication Skills: This is the most important thing in an organization. A best communicator can only help himself in achieving what he wants. Sometimes, the receiver does not get the message. The same sentence can be said in a number of ways. You need to decide which is the best way to communicate yourself.

There is always a choice, whether to sit on a bench for whole life or to taste sweet success at the early stages of your career. The decision is yours……

TALK About

I have decided to introduce a section called "TALK ABOUT" for you. the aim of introducing the section is to talk about the latest happenings in the field of Technology and Business. We will talk about gadgets, practices,theories,people,persona,companies and more..It will be the most happening section of STRATEGYAAN.Do let me know your opinions on this idea and we can go ahead with it.

WORKFORCE Architecture

We had a lot of discussion on Employee Retention, Employee Satisfaction. HRs planning strategies to give employees a sense of satisfaction and make the organization a best place to stay. We have discussed about Performance Based Approach, Variable Pay Approach etc. Lets talk something new today. It’s a term which is discussed less and is still unheard, “Workforce Architecture”.

Workforce architecture is a detailed blueprint for an organization's talent structure. This blueprint defines employee roles, competencies, accountabilities, performance expectations and development opportunities across the enterprise and clearly articulates how work should be accomplished.

Workforce architecture gives employers a better grasp of their overall workforce composition and capabilities - their "talent inventory" - in relation to their current and future business needs by identifying what skills are needed in various roles and who has those competencies now. This information allows senior leaders and managers to make better, more objective decisions about how best to build and deploy the workforce in pursuit of business goals. On an organizational level, it helps them answer critical questions such as:
·How are our workforces needs changing? What kinds of employees should we be recruiting?
·What are the development needs of our workforce?
·Where are our talent gaps and how do we fill them?
·Which specific roles or job families create the greatest value for our organization?
·Where do our top performers reside and are we rewarding them appropriately?

On a managerial level, managers gain the ability to answer practical, day-to-day questions such as: Does a particular employee have the right skills, competencies and experiences for this role? If not, who within the organization does?

Four key applications of workforce architecture are:

1.Integrated Workforce Architecture.
2.Functional Excellence
3.Global Harmonization
4.Emerging Markets

Keep watching the space, as we will discuss on this applications separately.

Courtesy: Mercer

Please Note that the article is taken from Mercer. The idea is to make ourselves aware of something, which we do not know.

EVERYTHING EXISTS, THE POINT IS TO DISCOVER THE CONCEPT AND SELL IT AS AN IDEA

Corporate ENLIGHTENMENT

I would highlight two genres of organization who believe that employees can be retained in two ways:

1.Give them challenging roles. Understand their interest and give an opportunity to prove themselves.
2.Engross them in other activities. Conduct Fashion shows, sports tournaments organize frequent events.

The question is which one interests more to the generation now? Most of the companies have a high attrition rate. Some of the organization has a bench rate of 52%. Are the employees more concerned about the fun part of the Corporate or the work of Corporate or the employers are failing to understand the needs to their employees. The organizations have become more like a product which packages itself well so that some priced customers’ takes it but the reality peeps out soon. The thinking quotient has surely changed. Now, a person believes in working in a firm, which can give him more independence in terms of decision making and challenging roles. A career-focused individual is certainly broadening his vision to work for a small firm rather than working for an MNC and get lost in the crowd. The most important thing to understand is an organization can hook its employees in the corporate events for some time but in the long run the feeling of being in a monotonous job creeps. The organizations should come out from the long followed policy and take a drastic step to change it. The change is to make the employees feel home in the office where the employee should have the rights to take decisions upto a certain limit and given challenging job role. There can be ways through which this can be achieved.

1.Remember, hiring new employees cost more than retaining old one. So, make sure, job rotation is followed as a policy and every employee should be given a chance to change his/her profile within a year if not interested.

2.Make the maximum use of Benchees. Rather than looking outside, the benchees can be asked to jump on the roles depending on their interest whenever certain employee needs a change which can best be termed as Replacement.

3.Not to forget, Marketing is not ahead of Performance. If marketing is good but the product fails to deliver then nothing can save the product from dieing. Its necessary to organize the corporate events but it should not be regular thing. The employees get diverted more towards to it rather than his job. Employee interaction should be frequent with the HRs. Workshops is certainly helpful in a month where the Manager along with the employees and HRs can discuss on how to make the best use of the employees.

Vinayak Kamat Named 2007 PRM Candidate of the Year

Vinayak was chosen from those nominated for this award based on his excellent exam scores, top ranking among candidates who answered five essay questions and his performance during a telephone interview of five finalists. The nominees spanned from all across the globe.


"This is a highly prestigious award, identifying the best of the best among our PRM holders," said David R. Koenig, Executive Director of PRMIA. "We were highly impressed by Vinayak and congratulate him on this international recognition."


When contacted, Vinayak said that he was thrilled at receiving such a highly prestigious award and it felt great to get achievement at an international level. The senior management team at HSBC GLT has lauded Vinayak for carving his niche at the PRMIA and placing GLT on the global map.


PRMIA is the Professional Risk Managers’ International Association with more than 60 chapters around the world and over 40,000 members from more than 175 countries. A non-profit, member-led association of professionals, PRMIA is dedicated to advancing the standards of the profession worldwide through the free exchange of ideas. PRMIA offers the only globally endorsed Professional Risk Manager (PRM) certification program, pursued by over 2,000 active candidates in more than 90 countries, more than any other risk certification program the PRM is the higher standard in risk certification.

VINAYAK KAMAT WORKS IN BUSINESS SOLUTION AND CONSULTING GROUP OF HSBC.

Need to BRAND..Why?

Well, Branding and Advertising have become key focus area for organizations. A lot of it depends on the target market, budget, and the influence it can create on the minds of the customer. Today, we will discuss what are on the biggies minds when they advertise for branding their brand. IBM, one of the most sought after organizations comes with innovative ads, which require a lot of thought process to understand the message IBM wants to convey to its customers. According to IBM, The key to differentiation is innovation. Not the innovation that sparks new inventions per se, but innovation that reinvents how businesses do business at every level of the enterprise. No one does innovation better than IBM. The ads are very much thought provoking. It can be a water cooler in the middle of the desert serves as a metaphor for a meeting place where your organization's best minds can come together to create innovative new ideas. And, Accenture, one of the best Consulting firms believes in high performance and when we think of high performance, Accenture thinks of Tiger Woods who serves as a metaphor for their commitment to helping companies become high-performance businesses. Their advertising theme united their ethos and position: "Go on. Be a Tiger." Similarly, in HSBC commercials, a ring can signify a marriage or a group composed of people from different ethnic backgrounds. The important thing to notice is the sustainability in the market and the continuity to remain the market leader through continuous positive re-enforcement about the brand.

Better STRATEGY through ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN

Executives have a golden opportunity to orient strategy around organizational design and thus to make companies thrive no matter how market and competitive conditions change.Organizational-design work is hard and time consuming, but its payback—in profits, costs, and risks—surpasses that of investments in product design and other traditional strategic initiatives.Building strategy around organizational design represents an evolution away from the organizational structures of the 20th-century industrial age, when capital was the scarce resource and vertical, hierarchical structures were the key to efficient performance.The key ingredients of progressive corporate strategy in the 21st century are “one-company” governance structures, knowledge and talent markets, and organizational designs intended to maximize collaboration among the talented workers who create today’s wealth.

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_abstract_visitor.aspx?ar=1991&l2=18&l3=30&srid=17&gp=0

Courtesy: McKinsey

REQUIREMENTS Specifications

Requirements Specification is a description of what you want the system to do. This document may also be called a Business Needs Specification. The Requirements Specification should generally not be written in computer terms or contain assumptions about how the system should be written (unless these are part of the requirements). Requirements Specification should cover topics like:

1.Introduction: Your introduction, location, your market and target customers, contact details and the service your offer.
2.System Overview: Potential users of the system, number of users, kind of users according to their work, the problems they face, hardware and environmental constraints etc. This also includes the deliverables, business rules that needs to be included in the system, back up for the system, security needed for the system, technical support required.
3.Functional Requirement: This includes your requirements, importance of the requirements, design or implementation issues.
4.Data to be held: The kind of data that the system should held
5.Operational Scenario: The kind of scenarios that an user might face while using the system.
6.Budget and Schedule: Timescale required, management constraints, critical deadlines and the budget.
7.Appendices and Contact Number: Any acronyms or abbreviations.

Forming a CLIENT CONSULTANT Relationship

In consultancy, understanding the Client- Consultant relationship is very important. It forms the basis of the Consulting process. Generally, there are three major form of relationship exists between a Client and a Consultant
1)Contractual Relationship: It’s a kind of social agreement where rules of engagement and firm boundaries are defined and formed.
2)Idealized Relationship: It’s a kind of abstract or imaginary level of engagement where each person transfers in prior learning and desires and proceeds to act these out.
3)Authentic Relationship: It’s a level ahead of Contractual Relationship where you witness yourself, very clear about your stance and share your stance with others where appropriate.

The focus is more on Management Consulting as it involves a lot of aspects to it like economical, financial, marketing, IT, People Management and the list goes on. The expertise of the consultants depends on either the task or the process. Task centered Consultants focus more on the problem and minimize the people aspect whereas the Process centered consultant tend to focus more on people and relationship and the leave the problem to the client to solve.

Well, we will discuss the phases of Consulting in the next post. Keep watching the space.

Working on your MIND

Mind is the driver of your persona. It allows you to visualize, think, analyze and take decisions. An individual’s level of success or failures depends on his mind. How to make your mind work to your benefits? Yogis and Sadhus have shown us the path of meditation to control the mind and make your mind work in sync with the body. Even science asserts the benefits of meditation. Here are some ways which you can help you to condition your mind and achieve success.

The first and foremost thing is to NURTURE your mind. Fill your mind with things, which influences you a lot. It could be a motivating book, a dance form or a mere jogging. Relaxing body sometimes relaxes your mind. Make a habit of doing something everyday that you feel can relax your body and mind.

Stay away from NEGATIVE. Negativities can make your mind work in a way, which can be harmful to you. Do not think negatives. Be positive and Stay positive is the ultimate mantra. Make a practice of saying to yourself something, which you want to do infront of the mirror. If you want to achieve something, make sure you repeat it as many times as you can so that it makes your mind think accordingly and you take appropriate actions to achieve that.

MEDITATION is always the key to increase your concentration.

Stay ALONE with yourself everyday and make a note of the things, which you did in that day which you feel relevant and whether it was good or bad. Again, there is nothing good or bad in this world. It’s all in your perception. So, it’s always better to justify why the things done by you is good or bad. That will help your mind take decisions in an appropriate way.

Watch CARTOONS. It seems funny but it helps your mind to relax and also to be imaginative and creative. It could be a reason why children like cartoons to watch. Its because its at this stage they start to be creative and desire to do things which might seem impossible to others.

MERGERS and ACQUISITIONS

Mergers and Acquisitions are the most strategic decisions taken by the organizations and it requires a lot of understanding and expertise before a firm decided to acquire another firm. There are some crucial points that a firm needs to focus before going for the deal as a single wrong decision may make or mar the M&A.

1)Be clear about the transaction structure. Whether a firm is interested in Asset purchase, Stocks purchase or Merger. And, if it’s a merger, whether it’s a Direct, forward or triangular. Direct merger is one where the acquirer acquires the firm and the asset id transferred to the acquirer by the operation of law. Forward is one where the subsidiary of acquirer acquires the firm and Triangular is one where the firm, which is acquired by the subsidiary of the acquirer, gets wholly merged in the subsidiary.
2)Clear understanding of the mechanisms of value creation process in Mergers and Acquisitions. Over-valuation of costs and under-valuation of costs and risks should be avoided. The similarities and the differences of the two firms should be analyzed properly so that it would help in clearly understanding the aftereffects of M&A.
3)Employee Stock Options and Valuation is one area which the acquirer and the firm getting acquired should look at before going for a M&A deal.
4)Paying premium if the synergies not realized can turn to be a major turn off for the acquirer.
5)Two companies should properly get integrated with high level planning and design, which will help in successful implementation.
6)Due diligence is the most important factor or rather defined as the watchdog of a successful M&A.

The Crux of Marketing: PRICING

Wondering how to price a product or service? How much to charge from your customers? It’s easy to price a product by analyzing the existing similar products in the market but what about a new product or a service. Though there are some industry accepted figures but still it’s your business and pricing plays an important role in your business. Not everytime RFPs will help you in deciding the pricing. Sometimes we literally get a big idea written down on a small pice of paper. While other times we may get 30-page RFPs that provide excruciating detail.
Regardless of how the client writes down what they need, they often only know the rough strokes of the how to reach their goal, not the specific nitty-gritty details, which are often where the majority of costs lie. But why should they? That should be what they are hiring us for, to help them find what they want, and more importantly, what their users want.
Budgeting plays a major role in deciding the price. Vendors always want them, clients never want to reveal them. We ask every client if they have a budget that they need us to work within, every agency I’ve ever worked on the other side of the fence with has asked the same. Very very few clients ever reveal this crucial detail. The budget reveals a lot about the client and the project. We use it as a barometer of how serious the client is, if they have given their project serious consideration, how much they understand about the project, to evaluate possible return on investment scenarios, to help define scope, whether it is cost-efficient for us to pursue, and to see if we can even do the project within their budget. When we price out a project we not only price out what we know about the project, but also detail what we don’t know. We come up with worst-case scenarios, address risks, point out all the things we think could impact meeting the goals of the project. There are two major methods of billing for projects, Per Project, Hourly. Traditionally most projects are charged on a Per Project rate. The idea here is that the vendor can accurately guess the scope and attach a fixed price at the beginning of the project. This in invariably never the case, so scope and price is often padded and margin added to protect the vendor from additional scope.The problem is one way or another somebody loses, either the client pays too much, meaning paying more than it’s market value, or the vendor eats into their profit. One benefits to hourly billing is the client is responsible for increases of scope, protecting the vendor and the customer. If the project is completed early the client pays less, protecting the client. This puts the onus on both parties to communicate regularly and work more effectively. Rather, budgets and requirements should be defined, watched and met. If the hours start to go over, this should be called as soon as possible, ideally before the hours are committed. Regardless of billing per project or per hour, we believe that any project is a partnership between client and vendor. That in order to mutually achieve a goal we must work together every step of the way. Communicating expectations of scope and cost is always crucial.

Courtesy: BlueFlavour

Know your Market: Conduct Research

To know your market, research is essential. And, there is a lot to talk about research. The research methodology generally adopted by the organizations is qualitative or quantitative. Generally, for a quantitative research, sample size is determined based on the segmentation done and for qualitative research; group or one-to-one interview is conducted and the interview guide is developed. For both the research, it is important to set the overall objectives of the research. Conducting group interviews can create problems if the participants selected are not homogeneous and the moderator is inexperienced and lack the objectives of the research. And during, quantitative research, its always advisable to avoid jargons, biased questions etc.

It’s always good to use free or low cost online survey packages like Surveymonkey.com, Zoomerang.com and Perseus.com/express. The survey length should not be more than 10mins. If the survey is more than the time frame mentioned, then the participant might lose interest. The open-ended questions should be limited.

Know your MARKET

Well, are you wondering to start a firm and sell products/service? Starting a business is not easy especially when there are so many aspects to Business. And, the most important aspect to your business is your market. It’s always better to have certain facts infront of you before starting your business.

1.Is there a demand for your product/service in the market? Who are the key players in the market?

Answer: Research is the only answer to the question. The research could be primary or secondary. There are a lot of website who sell information and research reports pertaining to the business and the location. The total sales of the products in that location and the growth of the sales of the product, demand for certain services are the key figures important to you. If you think of primary research, certain websites will help you. Preparing a questionnaire and targeting potential customers will definitely add a value to the research. If you are selling a service, lets say Consulting, then it’s very important to know what kind of Consulting you are going to provide. It’s always advisable to start with Niche Consulting and then expand your services. Starting a service business needs a more prepared research. You need to know your competitors. Competitor analysis is of utmost importance. You need to research on the following:

1.Who are your competitors?
2.Kind of pricing they do for their services?
3.The list of clients of the competitors and the untapped clients in the market
4.Differentiation strategy of your services. It’s always better to add a product to your service so that you can win the clients of your competitors. The question arises, if I have a consulting firm, what kind of products I can sell? Well, products need not be tangible. It can come in the form of newsletters, white papers or industry insights.

Its also essential to know whether the market is saturated or in its infant stage. Depending on this, you will be able to know your scope and reconsider your decision to cater to the market you have decided to.

The information required can be gathered from a various of sources like Trade information, Demographic and Economic Data, Business groups, Management Universities who conducts a lot of research during their project etc.

To Be Continued...

PERFORMANCE Management: Leveraging competitive advantage

Most of the organizations believe in lateral thinking and take every possible measure that can give them competitive advantage. A market where stringent regulatory rules, changing market scenario, technology upgradation, investor pressures exists, there is a need to revamp the strategy and keep on improving the processes critical to the organization. Performance Management answers all the questions, which seem critical for the success of an organization.

It starts with strategy formulation keeping the corporate mission, vision and objectives in mind. The roadmap is clearly set and targets are set for each objective. The drivers accelerating the growth of an organization and those hampering the growth are defined. Measures are taken for each objective. The topics covered below like Scenario Planning, Risk Management are taken care of in the first step of Performance Management.

Once the objectives are defined and measures are taken, its important to communicate the same with the key people in the organization. The business units of the organization are made aware of these objective and the BU Head of each business unit sets operational plan for achieving these objectives. Key strategic initiatives and allocation of effective people lay to the foundation of successful implementation of the operational plan. Key performance indicators are set for each objective.

Once the operational plan is in process, it is essential to monitor the progress and chart the improvement in the processes. Performance gaps are analyzed and measures are taken to fill the gaps and achieve the best fitting the corporate objectives. A macro view of the organization helps in deciding the appropriate plan of action.

Last but not the least, feedback is necessary for a successful performance management plan. The success and failures achieved in the whole cycle of performance management should be documented and communicated across the organization so that the learning occurs and opinions could be taken for improvement of the processes.

An effective tool to measure Performance Management is Kaplan and Norton’s Balanced Score Card, which takes four perspectives into consideration critical to the organization keeping the objectives in mind.

a.Learning and Growth perspective
b.Business process perspective
c.Customer perspective
d.Financial perspective

HOLISTIC APPROACH TO SOLVE A CASE: A CONSULTING EXPERIENCE

A consultant might come across a lot of complex situations where he is expected to deliver some tangible insights to the case so that the situations turn simple and the case is solved. In general, the problems rotate around making profits, market expansion, which includes merger and acquisitions, industry analysis, investing decisions, marketing decisions (pricing, branding etc.). A consultant should clearly set his road map to solve a case.

1.Facts and Facts: The best information which we will have before approaching a case is facts and figures which will clearly define the condition of the organization and its strategic goals. A macro view of the situation will help to analyze a lot of things.
2.See the solutions as problems: While looking into the problems from various perspectives, we might come out with a lot of solutions. It’s better to challenge the solutions and figure out the problems implementing the solutions. This will help us in narrowing down the solutions and come out with the most effective solution.
3.No problem is new. It might share some aspects with some problems, which happened for some other company. Knowledge has no alternative. Its always better to keep on reading various cases and talk to the senior management of the companies on the problems faced by them in the past and the way it was solved.

4.The client is always a way to another client. Rather than looking on new clients, its better to serve the existing one in a better way which might help us to get new clients. Networking is the key to consulting.

5.The crux is to build a case study on the client itself before building a case on client’s problems.

6.It’s the way a consultant understands a client and communicates with him. It’s always better to be in the shoes of the client while solving cases and treat the client as a consultant. The brainstorming might lead to amazing solutions.

INTELLIGENCE Syndrome

“Students from IIMs and IITs are hired with 1crore package” but the students from “not so famous” colleges still strive to get a profile and work for a mere 2.4 Lakhs package. Consulting firms like BCG and Mc Kinsey are hiring students of IIMs as Consultants while some firms recruits MBAs from “not so famous” colleges on profiles, which can be easily handled by a B.Sc student or an engineering graduate. Some are blessed to get flooded with opportunities on day zero while others roam with their resumes just to find an opportunity to prove his worth and convince others that even they have the right attitude and the zeal to make it happen if given an OPPORTUNITY. The reasons for rejection are numerous for students from “not so famous” colleges and it ranges from working on a suitable profile, experience and lack of knowledge.

“ We are impressed with your profile but regret to inform that your profile does not meet our requirements” is the only answer which students from “not so famous” colleges deserves.

An effort to make it happen is the only thing which everyone aspires, whether he is a geek from IIMs or students from some “not so famous” colleges. The only criteria for intelligence are not having a degree from IIM but the zeal to achieve the best, whether the person is a fast learner or not and whether he is able to perform or not matters. But, do the corporate believes and are ready to give that single opportunity to the students from “not so famous” colleges. May be, exposure and opportunity can help the students and even the corporate to get the best.

The Four Steps of Visualizing STRATEGY

Visual Awakening
.Compare your business with your competitors' by drawing your "as is" strategy picture.
.See where your strategy needs to change

Visual Exploration
Go in the field to:
.Discover the adoption of hurdles for noncustomers.
.Observe the distinctive advantages of alternative products and services.
.See which factors you should eliminate, create, or change.

Visual Strategy Fair
.Draw your "to be" strategy canvases based on insights from field observations.
.Get feedback on alternative strategy pictures from customers, lost customers, competitors' customers, and noncustomers.
.Use feedback to build the best "to be" strategy.

Visual Communication
.Distribute your before-and-after strategic profiles on one page for easy comparison.
.Support only those projects and operational moves that allow your company to close the gaps to actualize the new strategy.


Courtesy: Harvard Business Review

SCENARIO Planning

Scenario Planning is all about describing what is possible rather than just predicting future. Most of the forecasting techniques fail to predict significant changes in the firm’s external environment when information is limited or not available or the change is unexpected and disturbing. In such a situation, scenario planning is used as a tool to deal major, uncertain events in the firm’s environment. The result of Scenario Analysis is a group of distinct futures, which are plausible. The challenge is how to deal with each of the scenario.

Scenario Planning Process:

1.Specify the scope of the planning and time frame.
2.For the present situation, develop a clear understanding that will serve as the common exit point for each of the scenarios.
3.Identify the elements, which can act as driving forces.
4.Identify the most important driver by rating them on their range of variation and impact on the firm. Multiplying the factors will give the significance of each factor. It could be done in a scale of 1 to 10.
5.To analyze the interaction between the variables, scenario matrix can be made using the most important variables and their possible values. Each cell in the matrix represents a single scenario. Alternatively, factors can be taken in pairs to generate several two-dimensional matrices.
6.Quantify the impact of each scenario on the firm and formulate strategies.

The benefits of Scenario Planning is the managers are forced to break out their standard world view and decision makers are better able to recognize a scenario in its early stages and there is a better understanding of the source of disagreements if any.

Talk about BUSINESS

“The business of business is Business”. Though the phrase is not new, but it truly indicates the real meaning of Business. Owning and running a business can be rewarding only if we know the nuances of Business and understand the Business terms, rules and what it takes to be a successful businessman. Well, being a Management student, I would like to use the word “Entrepreneur” rather than a “Businessman”.

PECS of Business:

Profit: No matter what business you do, ultimate aim is to make profits.
Expenses: When you run a business, you have certain expenses, which is unavoidable.
Cost of Goods: Whether it’s a product or service you sell, there is a cost to everything.
Sales: And, if you want your business to run, sales are of utter importance.

And then when we want to be an entrepreneur, we need to answer certain questions:

1.Do I understand the financial basics of Business: Assets, Liabilities, Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Cash Flow, and Net Worth.
2.Who all will be involved in my business and is there a sync and proper flow of information among all the entities.
3.Do I possess all the technical skills and soft skills to conduct the business?
4.Do I have the necessary funds to have business and if not who are the potential sources?
5.What shall I sell? Why should I sell? Whom Should I sell? Where should I sell?? How should I sell?
6.How to differentiate myself from the herd? Why will people come to me?
7.Within how many years, I will be able to achieve the breakeven point?
8.Who are my stakeholders?
9.How to achieve success?
10.Do I have all the qualities to become a successful businessman?


Now, the question arises, how best you can answer the above questions. There are some ways to find the politically correct answers:
1.Do a SWOT analysis. Measure yourself on parameters like knowledge, leadership skills, communication, creativity etc.
2.How best you understand others needs?
3.Are you specific or general? If specific, then on what situations and if general, then on what situations.
4.What kind of people interests you the most? The people who share same qualities with you or the exact opposite people interest you the most.
5.Consider yourself as a product and try to sell yourself. Plan a strategy on what things you would do to sell yourself to people.
6.Consider others as Customers and try to ask relevant questions about yourself. Feedback is one of the most important things in Business.

BRAND EQUITY QUIZ 2007:SCHEDULE

Brand Equity Quiz (Regional Finals)
Mar 9, 2007 Ahmedabad
Mar 10, 2007 Pune
Mar 13, 2007 Kolkata
Mar 15, 2007 Delhi
Mar 20, 2007 Bangalore
Mar 21, 2007 Chennai
Mar 22, 2007 Hyderabad
Mar 26, 2007 Kochi
Mar 29, 2007 Mumbai
Mar 31, 2007 Indore


Brand Equity Quiz (National Final)
Apr 29, 2007 Mumbai

Watch out to know more about this happening event....

Strategy DYNAMICS

The approach to strategy is just not making profits but how to use the profits for the future and build performance through time. Strategic analysis is about answering the business performance for the past few years, the performance that the business seeks and the alteration that could be done for the betterment of future. The challenge is to analyze the performance of the resources (customers, employees, infrastructure) and how can they be building in the future. Sometimes, there is an overallocation of resources, which makes it redundant. The performance measurement criteria are not properly defined. Sometimes, it is difficult for the organizations to correlate the customer base with the performance measures. Whether the existing customers come back at regular levels, how frequent the new customers are acquired and how many leave. These questions should be sorted first to develop a clear strategy for the organization. Even, competition in marketplace matters a lot. This enables to identify the key areas of operation and dig the high level opportunities to boost the performance of the organization and damage the rivals. Strategizing is easy with practical and facts. This gives a more confident view of the future.

Business ANALYSIS

Business Analysis is a key area of every Business. Business analysis is done to improve efficiency, reduce wastage and complete projects on time. The crux of Business Analysis is documentation of right requirements. Many a times, the project is delayed due to the mismatch of understanding between the clients and the company. The purpose is to develop Business Process improvement (BPI) as a key strategy and management tool. Business Analysis ensures that the requirements of business clients are captured and documented correctly before a solution is developed and implemented. Business Analysis differs from organization to organization. Generally, the key processes involved in Business Analysis is developing an understanding of how present and future business needs will impact solution, identifying sources of requirements, developing a “Requirements Management Plan”, identifying and Documenting all business, technical, product and process requirements, helping to define acceptance criteria for completion of solution, preparing Business Requirement Document (BRD), Use Case Document (UCD), Use Case Diagram. For a product based company, it could be more of preparing market collaterals, proposal writing, processing Request for Proposals, performing market competition research, computing ROI etc. In IT company, Business Analysis stresses on assisting with the Business Case, gathering of requirements, reviewing of test, cases, processing change requests, tracing the requirements in Implementation phase and managing the project scope.

BLUE OCEAN Strategy

Blue Ocean Strategy provides a holistic approach to make competition irrelevant. It highlights six principles that every company can use to formulate and execute blue ocean strategies. The six principles shows how to reconstruct market boundaries, focus on the big picture, reach beyond existing demand, get the strategic sequence right, overcome organizational hurdles, and build execution into strategy. Ocean refers to the market and Blue Ocean refers to the uncontested markets, which provides little or no competition. The main idea behind Blue Ocean is to create a product or service, which does not exist, and can attract customers. An essential concept is that the innovation (in product, service, or delivery) must raise and create value for the market, while simultaneously reducing or eliminating features or services that are less valued by the current or future market. A million dollar page or gmail is a good example to Blue Ocean Strategy. The blue oceans denote an environment where products are not yet well-defined, competitors are not structured and the market is relatively unknown. Companies that sail in the blue oceans are those adept at beating the competition by focusing on developing compelling value innovations that create uncontested market space.

Brand Equity Quiz 2007

Finally,Brand Equity Quiz is back with a bang.The Brand Equity Quiz is an advertising and marketing quiz targeted at corporates all over the country. This knowledge war, one of its own kind, is the largest quiz Corporate India has ever seen, and in terms of participation, is one of the world’s biggest.Corporate honchos churning their grey cells!!



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Sneak peek into STRATEGIC PLANNING

Strategic planning is a mix of financial and non-financial goals. Some focus on financial targets from the beginning and assess what other efforts will be needed to meet them. Others start with market analyses or a desire for innovation and get to financial targets as outputs of the process. The former could be explained as mapping out the financial performance that would be expected over the next five years and comparing this against baseline projections and examining the gaps. The later could be explained as focusing first on markets, then the distinctive value proposition in these markets/services, then whether the firm has the right initiatives to deliver this value proposition. Either way, non-financial goals generally support the financial ones. A company's planning process actively involves employees whose potential to excel is high (regardless of their current responsibilities), along with the most senior executives and, usually, a strategy team. Any strategy has an array of measurable quantitative factors like achievement of cost/revenue match or unit cost objectives. In some cases they involve the achievement of milestones during the course of a year. Important strategic decisions are made by a small group of senior managers, including the CEO. Company's board of directors focuses on a few roles in planning strategy. Boards are seen to be most active in challenging strategy during the development process and in approving the final strategy. Implementation of strategic planning is crucial to an organization’s success. Integration of strategic-planning group and its human-resources group is one of the key factors to successful implementation. In most of the cases, they are slightly integrated or not at all. Companies don't particularly focus their strategic planning on new opportunities for growth. To be on the top, strategic decision makers should spend more time on business development. By structuring the strategic-planning process to focus on what the company wishes to achieve and by improving the informal side of developing strategy, companies can be better prepared to make real-time strategies in an uncertain world.

Courtesy: Mc Kinsey