November 2015

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 29 nov 2015

The fast-paced world of fashion and related consumption leads to generation of large amount of waste that leaves a substantial ecological footprint. According to the nonprofit GrowNYC, in the city of New York the average person throws out 46 pounds of clothings and textiles every year (totals 193000 tons for NY). While Council for Textile Recycling found that US generates 25 billion pounds of textile waste per year (82 pounds per person) and estimates that it will increase to 35.4 billion pounds by 2019. But only about 4 billion pounds (15%) gets donated and recycled and the remaining reaches landfills, contributing 5.2% to all trash generated in US. Elizabeth Cline, author of the book "Overdressed: The Shockingly High Price of Cheap Fashion", says 'There is so much waste being created and that has changed really dramatically in the last 15 years with the rise of fast fashion and disposable consumption.' Adam Baruchowitz, CEO of Wearable Collections, which coordinates textile recycling in partnership with GrowNYC, acknowledges the increasing rise in textile waste. While Nate Herman, VP of international trade at American Apparel and Footwear Association, have a contrarian view and explains 'People are actually buying less than they did 10 years. While there has been a lot of press about [wastefulness], the numbers don't bear that out.' But he acknowledges that the industry is trying to effectively handle the clothing's end-of-life issues. Some companies provide small credit to consumers who trade-in used garments, while others donate used clothings to charities. Some companies provide support and contribute to the recycle programs where used textiles end up in producing materials used in other industries like insulation in buildings. Moreover, there are a number of startups that are working to give a second life to used clothings. A small number of fashion companies are also incorporating recycled materials in their new line of clothings. Eco-friendly strategies are considered costly by the industry. According to Jill Dumain, director of environmental strategy at Patagonia, 'It's an industry-wide dilemma, for sure, on how do we do something at scale that the industry can participate in...The end result is that you have smaller-scale production that ends up to be more expensive.' She suggests that awareness about recycling is necessary and at the same time there need to be a thinking among consumers not to treat clothes like a cheap disposable item. Slow fashion might be the way forward. She further explains, 'I do think consumption is a big part. People need to learn how to buy less and companies need to learn how to be profitable in selling less.' Read on...

CBS News: Is the fast fashion industry ready to change its wasteful ways?
Author: Michael Casey

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 27 nov 2015

Nonprofit organizations intend to bring social change and serve communities by involving themselves in the areas of education, healthcare, environment, poverty alleviation etc. Large number of these organizations are professionally managed and utilize business practices for efficiency and effectiveness to make better impact in the society. Elizabeth Gore, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Dell and Chair of the Global Entrepreneurs Council at United Nations Foundation, explains how working and volunteering in the nonprofit sector benefits individuals and is a viable career option - (1) Since nonprofit sector is an organized industry, individuals with an undergraduate degree in fields like business, engineering etc can pursue master's in nonprofit management and pubic policy. (2) Volunteering gets your foot on the door and provides global experience in a number of areas. (3) You don't have to build your own thing and your game changing charitable idea can be developed by utilizing the infrastructure of the existing nonprofit. It has better chance of success as there are networking opportunities in such an environment. (4) Most national nonprofits and humanitarian groups have an attractive pay structure and value talent. It would be sufficient to cover ones expenses. (5) As the nonprofit industry involves working with committed individuals, it helps in building long-term relationships and lasting friendships. Read on...

Cosmopolitan: 5 Surprising Things to Know About Jobs That Give Back
Authors: Elizabeth Gore, Danielle Kam

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 19 nov 2015

Successful companies provide exemplary customer service. Companies have huge amount of data regarding their customers that they can utilize to achieve better understanding and insights and serve their consumers in the best possible way. But the big question is, how many metrics can customer service professionals focus on to get the best results. Piyanka Jain, President and CEO of Aryng, explains 'There is a better way to drill into the treasure trove of data you have, to find the root causes of your most important metrics slipping - and you don't need to use any complicated systems to do it. 80% of the business problem faced by most front line managers can be solved by using simple business analytics methodologies - (1) Aggregate Analysis (2) Correlation Analysis (3) Trend Analysis (4) Sizing and Estimation. If you and your team can learn to master these four techniques, you can solve most of the business problems you will encounter in your day-to-day workflow. And it can be all done using simple tools like Excel, with the data you already have at hand.' She further povides three simple steps that are to be followed - (I) Determine your team's analytics aptitude (II) Learn how to ask intelligent questions and derive actionable insights from your data (III) Practice and learn to become more proficient with your business analytics. Ms. Jain has devised a framework, 'BADIR Process', that include steps that most analytics projects follow - Real 'B'usiness Question; Hypothesis-driven 'A'nalysis Plan; Collecting Relevant 'D'ata; Deriving 'I'nsights; Making Actionable 'R'ecommendations. If the 'BADIR' framework is utilized in a way as explained, the analysis will find the following biggest drivers of customer dissatisfaction - (1) Multiple calls needed to get an issue resolved. (2) Hold times greater than 150 seconds while the agent looks for the answer. (3) Unprofessional agents. The analysis would show that addressing these drivers would bring customer satisfaction (CSAT) up from 57% to 69%. These important driver metrics should become the part of the daily dashboard - (1) First Call Resolution (FCR) (2) Agent Hold Time (3) Professionalism Among Agents (graded on scale). Read on...

Harvard Business Review: Improving Customer Satisfaction with Simple Analytics
Author: Piyanka Jain

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 18 nov 2015

Anomalies in a business may arise due to exceptional situations and can be ignored by the management due to their minimal chance of repeat occurence in the similar form. But extraordinary and perfection seeking businesses don't just leave these anomalies as one of a kind happening. They often try to understand and explore them, do due diligence to find the reasons and causes, analyze them and gain insights. One such anomaly was observed by Yves Morieux and his colleagues from Boston Consulting Group while conducting interviews to probe why employees feel disengaged and dissatisfied at work, and to find out falling productivity in spite of organizations using tools and technologies to make workers efficient. They found a senior manager crying during the interview while mentioning the lack of recognition that he received at work. This anomaly promted Mr. Morieux and his team to dig deep into the case. Mr. Morieux says, 'Before we put the guilt on the abnormal psychology of people, we should first have a concrete understanding of what they want to be recognised for.' They found that similar sentiments were expressed by other people who were interviewed. The conclusion was that the workers were not recognized for their cooperation and collaboration with colleagues that was done for the betterment of the company and sometimes they were actively disadvantaged by it because it reduces the efficiency of their own performance. The cooperative efforts are ignored by performance evaluation systems and therefore their value is not recognized. Mr. Morieux explains, 'If there is anything on earth that you can't measure, it's cooperation. We discovered that the real value added by that person wasn't in his own silo, but in making his team cooperate with other silos like the back office, finances and IT, and this wasn't being captured because your evaluation is based on key performance indicators (KPIs) which don't measure cooperation.' Cooperation is the key to achieve superior results for the organization. But individual performance and productivity can get affected in the process of helping and supporting others. Based on his understanding of such situations, Mr. Morieux designed his strategy of 'Smart Simplicity'. It is built on six key rules that allow people to use their intuition, judgement and energy and to encourage cooperation. Three of the rules are about giving people more power, autonomy and knowledge, while the other three involve feedback and accountability, to make sure they use that autonomy in the best interests of the company. He suggests that organizations should address the root causes that prevent people from cooperating. They should utilize social sciences based on game theory instead of obsolete scientific management tools. Read on...

BDLive: Recognition leads to a happy workforce
Author: Lesley Stones

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 10 nov 2015

Prof. Nouriel Roubini, an economist at New York University, came to fame as 'Dr. Doom' when he predicted the US housing bubble crash of 2007-2008. Following are seven ideas about the global economy that he shared in a recent event - (1) Aging population and the end of the 'golden era': Worldwide economic slowdown; Governments and private sector is saving more and spending less; Aging population is changing consumption model; Individuals are inclined towards saving. (2) China - expect a "bumpy landing" but no crash: Slowdown but no complete collapse; 5-6% potential growth next year. (3) On Silicon Valley: Localized technological and scientific innovation at specific hubs like Silicon Valley; Not leading to productivity growth, that is key to the growth of global economy. (4) Are robots taking over our jobs?: Shrinks demand for labor; Will bring changes to labor force structure and therefore structure of the economy. (5) The central banks are broken: Government policies are not optimal; Instruments of monetary policy seem ineffective; Fiscal policy instruments are not used to their full potential; Need for structural reforms globally, which is a challenging task. (6) The hyped-up Grexit: Lot of attention to Greek exit; Greece is only 2% of European GDP; Grexit will have political implications and potential to transform Eurozone. (7) Commodity super cycle: End of commodity super cycle; Economic slowdown in China; Supply issues like innovative shell gas, oil tech, and significant reserves in Latin America and Africa; Low demand for raw materials. Read on...

FinBuzz: 7 ways the global economy is going to change, according to Nouriel Roubini
Author: NA

Mohammad Anas Wahaj | 03 nov 2015

Marketing technologies are changing the nature and dynamics of strategies that marketers use to reach, engage and serve their customers. Moreover these technologies continue to evolve and marketers have to keep pace with these advances to stay ahead of the game. The four key innovation areas in marketing technology in which all marketers should have deep understanding and continue to emphasise in their strategies are - (1) Use Advanced Analytics (2) Optimize the Mobile Experience in Real-time (3) Cut Down on Call Center Time to Value (4) Maximize the Voice of Customer (VOC). Marketers should be able to collect, analyze and act on omnichannel data throughout the whole customer funnel (customer journey & engagement process) for each of the mentioned areas to achieve success. This will finally help build better customer profiles, prioritize business actions, analyze macro trends, optimize customer engagement and customize offerings to get better outcomes. Read on...

MarTech Advisor: 4 Advanced Use Cases of Marketing Technology Innovation
Author: Rohit Roy