August 2014

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 31 aug 2014

Presently about 97% of marketers use social media to connect with buyers. But most of them are still trying and experimenting with it to build and develop a personalized, relevant and enjoyable experience for their users. A bad execution of the social media strategy not only affects relationship with the audience but in some cases can cause it to go viral and become a catastrophe. Avoid the following at all cost for effective social media engagement - (1) Being all talk (2) Putting on a one-man show (3) Forgetting to think before you post, share & tweet (4) Thinking all social platforms are created equal (5) Putting your customers on mute (6) Forgetting to be a human (7) Assuming your social strategy works. Read on...

Mashable: 7 Sins of Social Media Marketing
Author: Mike Volpe

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 31 aug 2014

'Internet of Things' (IoT) is revolutionizing the way technology pervades human activities. It is the wireless connectivity of myriad devices that people use in daily life and allows for direct transmission and sharing of information over a network. IoT is enhancing connected living and it will transform the way business is done. The following are the five ways it will improve the marketing ROI - (1) Easy exchange of sales data (2) Smarter CRM: Instantaneous customer analysis (3) Devices that know that they are dying (4) Predictive social media (5) Imagine a 100% click through rate (CTR). Read on...

Forbes: 5 Ways The Internet Of Things Will Make Marketing Smarter
Author: Stuart Leung

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 30 aug 2014

International Monetary Fund (IMF), with inputs from readers, select global economists and journal editors, recently compiled a list of 25 'Generation Next' economists, below the age of 45, who are influencing and shaping the way one understands global economy. In this list there are four Indian-origin economists - (1) Raj Chetty of Harvard University (Research: Combines empirical evidence & economic theory to help design more effective government policies; Equality of opportunity); (2) Gita Gopinath of Harvard University (Research: International finance & macroeconomics with focus on issues related to international price setting, currency choice & exchange rate pass-through, business cycles & crisis); (3) Parag Pathak of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Research: Market & mechanism design; Labor economics; Education economics & reform); (4) Amit Seru of University of Chicago (Research: Financial intermediation & regulation; Resource allocation & internal organization of firms; Performance evaluation & incentives). Read on...

IBN Live: Four gen-next Indian-origin economists in IMF list of 25
Author: NA

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 29 aug 2014

Institutions imparting education are consistently in debates and discussions as they have direct impact on the society both in short and long-term. These institutions often become the beacons of societal change and transformations. At present the issues facing education are related to rising cost, transformations in the labor market and an important technological shift. But question that article raises is that, will any of these issues revolutionize the way education is imparted and have a substantial impact on the long-term goal and purpose of these institutions? Moreover the argument that Simon Tremblay-Pepin, researcher at IRIS (Institute de Recherche et d'Informations Socio-economique) in Canada, brings into fore is that - university's mission is not only to train professionals for the labor market and the goal of research is not only to pursue profits, but it is beyond that. While citing the case of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), that are potentially considered as creating technology induced educational transformation, he points out that they might have short-term value but if they displace real professor-student interactions it would be an overall loss to education. According to him, this would particularly happen in case of students pursuing long-term work, like Master's thesis or a PhD, that require sustained guidance to help advance a new idea - discussions to check whether the students are on the right track and suggestions to open up unforeseen avenues. Read on...

rabble.ca: There's a revolution transforming universities. But into what?
Author: Simon Tremblay-Pepin

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 29 aug 2014

'Digital Transformation' is happening in the pharmaceutical industry with 'Internet of Things' getting personalized with wearables, injestables and even plantables. As pharma landscape is going through turbulent times, with fewer chances of blockbuster drugs coming to market and hightened competition with cheaper generic drugs, big pharma is looking for new opportunities beyond the drugs that is termed as 'beyond-the-pill' strategy. According to Joseph Jeminez of Novartis, 'Beyond-the-pill is a logical and inevitable path forward for all. Creating value by embedding products into a holistic offering with the aim to improve patient outcomes and provide tangible competitive advantages.' Companies intend to pursue long-term relationships with patients through holistic offerings like telehealth servies, wellness programs and improved chronic disease management. Big data plays an important role in 'beyond-the-pill' strategy as devices create large amount of information. This information facilitates the higher level of engagement between the pharma companies and individual patients. Joseph Kvedar of Center for Connected Health at Partners Healthcare says, 'The engagement becomes the product. The therapeutic is almost a giveaway or marketing expense. There aren't many better ways to develop a relationship with a patient than through a prescription for a medication to treat a chronic illness.' For success of the strategy companies have to overcome challenges related to patients feeling comfortable with sharing their private medical information, internal organizational changes that require multidisciplinary approach and collaboration, successfully managing increased interactions with customers and achieving improved long-term health outcomes. Read on...

Forbes: Digital Transformation Moves Pharma 'Beyond the Pill'
Author: Jason Bloomberg

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 27 aug 2014

Dynamics of relationship between employees and their organizations defines the competitive advantage that they can develop to succeed in the marketplace. According to Professor Wayne Brockbank of University of Michigan, the talent paradigm that has gained considerable momentum in the HR field focuses primarily on individual contributions and not on the organizations as a whole. This will affect the impact that HR departments have on organizations - the strategic enablers of organizational performance. He quotes Adam Smith's 'Wealth of Nations' to emphasize that the importance of organizations is to coordinate labor to make the whole greater than the individual laborer's parts. Moreover he argues that over time major competitors hire almost similar talent but what sets the organizations apart is what they do with the talent that they have acquired and this precisely translates into the competitive advantage. Therefore if HR focuses primarily on talent then its ability to create competitive advantage is limited. Read on...

HBR Blog Network: The Best HR Departments Don't Just Focus on People
Author: Wayne Brockbank

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 27 aug 2014

Amazon's growth and success has been amazing since its founding by Jeff Bezos. As in any other successful company, employees played an important role in its phenomenal development. Over the years, Jeff Bezos has directed his hiring managers to recruit employees based on three important considerations - (1) Will you admire this person? (Bezos extrapolated that admiration meant this was a person who could be an example to other and who others could learn from); (2) Will this person raise the average level of effectiveness of the group they're entering? (According to Bezos, the goal for new hires is to elevate the company. He insists that the bar has to continuously go up and apathy should diminish and new hire should fight entropy instead of contributing to it); (3) Along what dimensions might this person be a superstar? (Bezos expects new hire to have a distinct skill or interest to contribute to the company's culture and help cultivate a fun and interesting workplace). Read on...

Mashable: 3 Hiring Questions to Steal from Amazon's CEO
Author: Vernon Gunnarson

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 27 aug 2014

The increase in the number of nonprofits in the past decade, up by 25% to more than 1.5 million in US, is leading to hightened competition among them to attract donors. They are utilizing innovative methods to efficiently market their cause to attract and retain givers. B2B brands are trying to act like B2C for customer engagements. But they can go a little further and try to emulate the nonprofits to nurture and cultivate passionate and loyal customers. Although the passion that exist for a nonprofit cause is hard to be imbibed in for-profit customers but businesses can learn few lessons from them and try to bring their customers closer to the brand. The four lessons that B2Bs can learn from nonprofits are - (1) How to market to donors (Effective use of social media and crowdfunding sites to get the message go viral); (2) How to build and use advocates (Use of brand advocates and trusted referrers); (3) The importance of transparency and public perception (More transparency and accountability leads to trust. Engagement in social causes and social responsibility creates positive perception); (4) The importance of personality and tone in communications (Nonprofits take on personality attributes to their branding & communication channels - trailblazer, cool, bold, innovative, friendly etc). Read on...

MarketingProfs: Four Things About Branding That B2Bs Can Learn From Nonprofits
Author: Rolf Wulfsberg

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 26 aug 2014

Bringing customers or users into the design process is a practice that architects and designers often adhere to. But when users are children like for example in a design process for a school or playground, it might be considered as a difficult and challenging task. Not so, if the ongoing research by Dr. Maria Patsarika and her team at Sheffield University, is taken into account. More and more architects and landscape designers are bringing younger generation into the design process. The practice of having participation from children in the design process is not new and has been mentioned in research studies conducted in 1960s & 1970s. Kevin Lynch, an urban planner, launched the UNESCO project 'Growing Up in Cities' in 1977 that utilized children's creative capacities. Dr. Patsarika's research has looked at the way architects and children communicate with each other. Architects interviewed for the research acknowledged that children brought fresh perspectives and uninhibited curiosity, leading them to explore alternative scenarios. Although children can be disruptive and unpredictable to work with but their overall impact on the design process is considered to be positive by most architects. Read on...

The Conversation: What architects can learn from designing with children
Author: Maria Patsarika

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 25 aug 2014

The value of ideas is fully achieved when their creativity is transformed and translated into workable and actionable mechanism for the betterment of the world. But its also the case that most creative ideas evaporate within the brain without even providing any value. Writing is a creative activity that requires consistent flow of new ideas that can be shared with the audience. There can be reasons for the failure of creativity and incoming of new ideas, but there are also the possible fixes that can assist in overcoming it - (1) Because the Ideas aren't Finished (Fix: Talk about the ideas with others. Share them on social media. Get feedback); (2) Because it's too Hard (Fix: Just get started. Take small steps); (3) Because I'm Focusing too much on Other People's Stuff (Fix: Value other's work but build your own ideas on them. Add to them & nurture the right balance); (4) Because I'm too Busy with other Work (Fix: Include time for creative work. Prioritize. If it seems difficult to execute ideas due to time constraint, ask someone else to execute it); (5) Because I get Distracted (Fix: Create artificial pressure. Create a deadline. Realize the difference between productive & non-productive distraction); (6) Because I'm Afraid (Fix: Do other creative things. Share more with others. Create more meditative time. Allow to be vulnerable). Read on...

Fast Company: 6 WAYS YOUR BRAIN TRIES TO KILL YOUR IDEAS AND HOW TO FIGHT THEM
Author: Courtney Seiter

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 23 aug 2014

As companies grow in size and become big corporations they tend to loose their appetite for risk taking and the dynamic spirit of game changing entrepreneurship and innovation. And the bigger the company gets the more risk averse it becomes. George Deeb, Managing Partner at Red Rocket Ventures, provides reasons for this phenomenon - Shift in Ownership; Shift in Leadership; Shift in Human Resources; Managing Towards the Middle; Promotion from Within, Feat of Unknown. Moreover his suggestions for big companies include - constantly innovate; build an entrepreneurial culture where risk-taking is encouraged; hire diverse team of smart people who are entrepreneurs at their core. Read on...

The Next Web: Why big companies struggle with innovation
Author: George Deeb

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 08 aug 2014

With access to 21st century communication and sharing technologies, both brands and customers are connected the way they have never been before. Social media and mobile are transforming the way brands interact with customers. But there are certain basics that remain the same. Companies and brands should emphasise on creating and facilitating communities of interest around them and consistently share and propagate their values through both words and action. Moreover to create lasting relationships the need is also to create a platform that facilitates connections among the consumers with each other. Brands can play a leadership role within the community and must share relevant content and experience that the members can relate to. Marketers have to align themselves with the consumers and help strengthen their bonds with each other. This provides members to talk to each other and discuss and share what is valuable to them. Thus resulting in the most powerful form of marketing. Read on...

Fast Company: WHY BUILDING YOUR BRAND IS ALL ABOUT SHARING YOUR VALUES
Author: Dave Hawley

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 05 aug 2014

Uri Neren of Innovation International extensively researched on the best practices that companies implement to succeed at innovation. According to him, 'organizations have to structure themselves to allow innovation to flow through them.' Execution is the key for the innovation to succeed and originator of the idea need to be involved at every stage of the innovation process to make it happen. The top five business practices that resulted from the Neren's research and help make innovation repeatable and reliable are: (1) Belief Systems - Bring everyone at the same page; Specifically define innovation and how it fits organization's mission & goals; Imbibe in the team that innovation can be managed (2) Structure Equals Commitment - Commit to the percentage of growth that the business expects from innovation and stick to it; Obsolete your processes and products & and reward those who help achieve this; Create a set of agreed to metrics & decision process to fund or kill particular products and services; Incorporate CEO ownership & innovation teams should report to CEO or COO (3) Process that Leans on Research - Spend substantial time in the discovery phase, at the front end, understanding the behavior and drivers of your intended audience and the problem thats being solved; Design a really solid consumer research phase as a foundation to better understand the problem (4) Talent Encouraged and Rewarded - Put the right people with the right skills in the right spots with the right team and get out of the way; Assign innovation to the employee scorecard and then recognize and reward it (5) Connected Culture - It matters most that the culture is connected, so that people have access to one another and their ideas, and all the contributing parties are recognized and rewarded. Read on...

Forbes: Innovation Ready - The 5 Traits Innovative Companies Share
Author: Mary Meehan