Make a difference

Business Innovation- Amazon Kindle in India

Posted by Haja in Bangalore, Business, India, Innovation

Innovation has several synonyms- Change, alteration, revolution, upheaval, transformation, metamorphosis etc.

Great companies constantly keep updating themselves- and discovering new ways of doing things. Kindle is one of them. Amazon Kindle has a free run in India as the only eReader company in India. Despite being in a unique position, they continue to innovate, and find new ways of reaching their target audience. It is important for any company to constantly look at ways of differentiating themselves –and find ways of creating new markets and new customers.

I was having coffee in Cafe Coffee Day and I saw this there. And I was stuck with this amazing idea! While people drink coffee, and look around, they can ask for a Kindle, and read something in it. Getting them hooked to reading and experiencing a device like Kindle while relaxing, is a great idea! Great job, Kindle India Team!

Of course, to land anything in India, you need to be prepared for the unexpected! That will be interesting to see. More on it later.

May.23

The 10 Commandments of Steve Jobs

Posted by Haja in Apple

I got this from a friend of mine- so not sure where this was originally published. Nevertheless, with all credit to the author of this, I wanted to share this because I think there is a lesson for each of us to learn from this man.

Hate him, love him, but you certainly cannot ignore him. Let us look for what we can learn from him!

Sep.07

Express Case Study- Building a brand- Illy

Posted by Haja in Business, Leadership, Management, Personal Branding

While recently reading about building a brand, I was stuck with the work that Illy does for their coffee.. Not a very fond drinker of these coffees, I have noticed this brand of coffee and machines across the world..

This is what I found very interesting-

They are the largest seller of espresso coffee in the world
They buy coffee from 18-19 countries
But they have only ONE blend… (think about it – so many different coffees but only one blend)
They have coffee tasters sitting around for weeks trying to mix this one with the other one and so on, to have the one blend that they figure is the best.
They then finalize that blend and then do all kinds of roasting (deep, medium, light and decaffinate as required).

Why? So that the customer has the same experience everywhere.

That- to me, is what it takes to build a brand.

Something that involves a great vision, complete clarity on how to execute it, and then execute it flawlessly.

No different from what we should do, to build our own “Brand” out there.

Courtesy Source: DNA News (6 September, 2010).

Sep.07

Going the extra mile to Delight your customers–in 3 steps!

Posted by Haja in Business, Leadership, Management

Browsing the Net, I chanced upon this article at the Fast Company site. Reading this article, rekindled a thought on customer service and how one can make a difference.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1657030/the-happiness-culture-zappos-isn-t-a-company-it-s-a-mission

It also brought memories of a recent trip I had made by Air France to the US and back. During my return journey, I missed the connecting flight because of Air Frances’ delayed arrival. What I went through made me think of customer service in a completely different light- and how the employees, let go of an excellent opportunity. Given a choice of either delighting a customer OR losing the customer-for life, they unfortunately chose the latter. I am sure that Air France, as an organization and the top management views their customer service to be one of the best in the Industry. But what companies see in feedback forms OR Customer Satisfaction studies done by Agencies – do not prepare them to create a culture of customer service- that is targeted at DELIGHTING the customer. In most cases, I think it is just plain corporate speak- rarely delivered on the ground by the customer facing reps.

Coming back to the article, I was stuck by the corporate ethos of Zappos, the company that was profiled (I confess, I had not heard of them before this)-

Deliver Wow Through Service
Embrace and Drive Change
Create Fun and a Little Weirdness
Be Adventurous, Creative and Open-Minded
Pursue Growth and Learning
Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication
Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
Do More with Less
Be Passionate and Determined
Be Humble

Cool. I guess most companies have similar ideals that they promote on their sites and corporate presentations. How many of them actually translate it into value?

It appears that they (Zappos) are going a step ahead of the rest. And it appears that they are actually executing well on their vision.

My top 3 to be the best in customer service- and to me this starts with EVERY employee. They should –

Be a bundle of Positive Energy–

Be the person who is brimming with Positive energy. Show a lot of enthusiasm. Let the customer feel that the employee is actually enjoying his time helping him.

Be a Problem Solver

Think of your experiences as a customer. Think of a situation that you particularly remember positively. Chances are it had to do with someone solving a problem for you WITHOUT you having to chase them. Someone who went out of the way to help you and left you feeling truly great. Let the customer feel that his voice has been heard. Be a solver of problems and if you are the Management – Reward those who are problem solvers.

Follow through

Call the customer a few day after he has bought! Does your company have the systems to track the customer database- and respond to them within a week of purchase? Can you imagine the feeling- and the power of CRM will come alive post that! Customers who are followed through, will remember what happened- and will buy again, and again. More importantly, they will talk about you to their other customers.

Think about it. There is a goldmine out there with millions of customers who are starved for quality customer service. How are you as an individual or an organization going to deliver what they want?

Aug.24

iPad Vs. Netbooks – Emerging trends

Posted by Haja in Apple, Business, HP, iPad, Netbook, Technology

Recently I had written an article on iPads Vs. Netbooks.

During a trip to Singapore since then, I had the opportunity to actually see an iPad.

I stand corrected in my note- because I think it is unfair to compare it with the Netbooks.

The packaging & the product positioning does not actually do it justice to compare it with Netbooks. I think it a very unique positioning that Apple is pushing for the iPad.

That said, a huge number of iPads have been sold in the first 3 weeks since launch. I believe, the product still has some time to go before it gets ready for the broader market. Like I said in my earlier post, it will version 2 or 3, which will shake the market – if there was not competition. Unlike the iPod, this time round, the HP Slate and other similar products are bound the hit the market before that- which will give a much better user interface & features, which the iPad lacks in its current avatar.

A recent article in Businessweek by Rich Jaroslovsky – Diary of an iPad Man is a great article that highlights some of the shortcomings (and positives) of iPad

Sunlight – usage outdoors is a challenge
Using a Word processor was difficult
Data entry into a spreadsheet was very cumbersome

What worked well were –

Kindle books were apparently good
Battery life is good

All said and done, I think, this is a product that has created a new market segment- just like the Netbook did 3 years ago! The iPad will spawn a number of products that will address a new way of using these Computing devices, and that is the value that Apple has created.

That said, will it be the leader? Possibly not- because with the HP Slate & the other products from Acer, Lenovo, Dell etc round the corner, it will not be that easy to corner the market share. But Apple will make changes, and bring out features that will make the product unique in the coming quarters.

Indeed a good time for us consumers.

For now, I will stay with the Intel, Windows platform and await the launch of the HP Slate!

Apr.18