5 ways small Start-ups can compete for Tech Talent

Talent management is an art but also requires a solid base and that is where start-ups often struggle. Yet management consulting has provided some advice which can enable these kinds of small firms to recruit the best of tech talent. The recruitment must start early, possibly by August of the year. Recruiters alone must not be involved in this, instead senior executives must also be tapped. In case these new recruits are students, then their existing work pressure and time constraints must be taken into account. The exact requirements must be specified to all candidates as well as interns. The clincher in this deal will be the promise and actual execution of learning on the job which is where start-ups are bound to have an advantage over large, bureaucratic firms.  

The 3 Secrets behind Japan’s Creativity 

Japan as a country is known worldwide for its practices of business innovation. There are some ways in which the country manages the same. While the Japanese value perfection, they do not obsess on the same and thus the first of these principles is considered ‘Perfectly Rejecting Perfection (PRR)’. Japanese society is also known for being disciplined thus the second principle of ‘Inner Child’ is often suppressed yet on occasion when allowed to flourish, it enables positivity. The last such principle is termed as ‘Next Stage Creative’ which is the coinage related to scaling originals for mass usage.  

Top 10 States for Tourism 

As per market research conducted, certain states in the USA have fared particularly well in attracting tourism inflows. Alaska’s appeal is the virgin arctic. Virginia is famous for its colonial regalia. Arizona is getting noticed due to its sense of vast emptiness. New York gets rank seven because of it being the commercial hub. The concept of ‘pure Michigan’ has attracted numerous visitors and resulting travel jobs to the state. Texas is famous for its ranch culture. The city of Chicago pulls visitors to the state of Illinois. California is a tourism giant with numerous attractions for all kinds of crowds. Disneyland and the beaches put Florida at the runner up spot. Sun and surf of Hawaii however tops off the entire list. 

Why CIOs must Change their Leadership Style 

CIOs are increasingly becoming more critical to their respective organizations. A Gartner led business research has clearly proved that CIOs are designing the corporate strategy with lesser focus on traditional methods such as control and command. Digitalization is also increasing and concepts such as working remote or flipping technologies are gaining ground. This process even helps in talent management as some creative and experienced employees prefer working at their own pace rather than follow strict hierarchical and time bound regulations. 

3 Tourism Marketing Insights to Increase Visitation 

Digital marketing has now emerged as a key platform for tourism to increase revenues and numbers. Tourism consulting has generated some insights which can help boost the same. Email marketing remains the most potent tool in terms of ROI. Branding too is critical as semantic search can only take place through this medium. A consistency must be maintained across brand related campaigns. Today niche branding is more desirable. Social media today is one of the greatest influencers of youth and thus is the ultimate tool for customer engagement through ‘likes’, ‘follows’ and ‘shares’. 

2 Ways to expand Business Intelligence to the outside World 

Some methods have emerged through marketing research that are conducive for the expansion of business intelligence to the external environment. The most important aspect is to provide business analysis which the outside world does not have access to. The data must not remain hidden within the firm itself. Also one must incorporate information which does not directly belong to the firm but maybe useful to the rest of the world so long as it is not confidential.   

Leveraging Digital Tech to take Education to Higher Level 

On gaining independence, India’s government placed particular emphasis on higher education. This led to the spurt in institution building which have given the country positive results. The national level bodies such as AICTE and NAAC were created. Now another change needs to be brought and that is with digital technologies to aid education. MOOCs and executive MBA have emerged as popular means to do so. This also enables families of lower income levels to allow for their wards to complete their education as concept of time sharing is possible.  

Young tourists drive surge in Foreign Travel 

As per market research conducted by hotels.com, outbound travel from China is set to generate nearly three hundred billion US dollars this year. This is due to the increasing numbers of young people travelling due to rising disposable incomes. In particular they travelled most to Australia, Japan and France while spending maximum at Sweden, New Zealand and Argentina. Earlier, Thailand and the USA were most popular destinations, yet currency fluctuations now provide the advantage to the others. 

7 New Strategies Brands are using to build Customer Loyalty 

Business consulting publications have provided us some strategies which brands must incorporate into their marketing corporate strategy to get best results. Customers must be surprised and delighted with offerings frequently. The digital marketing must be customized for specific buyer personas. The brand must explore the idea of forming crucial alliances with customer groups and forums. Social media must similarly be used to engage customers who will further speak for the brand on public forums. A community of loyal followers must be communicated with on a regular basis. Customer feedback must be tracked and rewarded with tangible incentives. Also the offerings must keep updating themselves in terms of content. 

Business Schools become Irrelevant 

 MBA classes for students have been ongoing in the London and Manchester business schools respectively now for more than fifty years, there is a current need of rethink. The UK was undergoing economic stagnation in the 1960s and was lagging in business innovation compared to continental European countries as well as the USA or Japan. This was rectified to a large extent with the help of these business schools. But now again UK is lagging in terms of economic productivity. Now is the era of the executive MBA. Students are increasingly using online resources for learning and that is what these institutes will need to leverage. 

3 Ways Customer Data allows for Pinpoint Marketing 

Marketing research has proved that there exist ways in by which marketing can be tailored specifically using customer data. It allows for improved customer conversion. The marketing can be pitched around emotional set points of the target customer. It even generates loyalty among customers in this manner. Due to the proliferation of social media usage, peer based sharing of purchases becomes common. Those customers who may have de-activated may be attracted once again using digital marketing tools and pitching based on their personal interest areas. 

How to get your Content Published on Influential Websites 

Business consulting has come up with some proven techniques which help firms get content published on high-ranking websites. The goals and corporate strategy must be well laid out. One must be in contact with editors. Content must possess some intrinsic value while it should be relevant for the potential readers. Thorough market research must be done before taking the plunge in and also sources must be mentioned. A series of blogs / articles will help brand get noticed and create a sense of convergence.  

Turkey among top 10 Medical Tourism Spots 

As per market research conducted, Turkey which is known to be the world’s sixth most visited country, is now also a major player for niche line of medical tourism. It still ranked behind the likes of the USA and Germany but is fast catching up on India, Cuba, Malaysia, Poland and Belgium. The majority of such tourists arrive from countries such as Libya and Iraq. However, in order to ensure more tourism jobs, the potential of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait are yet to be tapped. 

Can Snapchat Work for B2B 

There are reasons why Snapchat can work in the field of industrial marketing. The target audience can be tapped in case a substantial portion of the same is active on Snapchat. Also, Snapchat must be a part of the larger corporate strategy which aims at multi channel pitching. It should create a sense of convergence in addition to existing digital marketing. Best part is, that this is location specific and tracks the same. It thus helps in relationship building. 

Why Twitter Followers are worth more than Facebook Fans 

A Hubspot anchored marketing research shows us the clear contrast between the social media giants- Twitter and Facebook- and which one must use to ensure improved digital marketing. The study shows that on average Twitter gives a better engagement rate than Facebook. However there exist more Facebook fans than Twitter followers at a rate of 1.8 to 1. Also, more than two-fifths of loyal customers are likely to be attracted to the official Facebook page rather than on Twitter which stands at an abysmal ten percent. Thus the bang-per-buck is greater at Twitter, but number of overall users are more in Facebook. In fact 2334 Twitter followers are equivalent in terms of business scope as 4120 Facebook fans. Finally, it all depends on how the organization taps this set of data. 

Future Strategy must Recognize that Tourism depends on Aviation to bring in Passenger Numbers 

In Europe, an urgency has developed to link airports and the aviation sector to the overall tourism. Also there is need to reduce some of the government taxes and tariffs levied at airports. The Emirate of Dubai has been most successful in integrating the policies of aviation and tourism. Fly Emirates’s corporate strategy is very much aligned to attract growing tourist numbers to Dubai using the carrier. Within Europe, Ireland leads the trend having abolished a number of taxes as being an island nation, the airports have a special role to play. 

The Management Skills you need to Lead your Team  

Management consulting has come up with list of attributes a leader must possess in order to excel at team leadership. There must be a clear vision. Corporate communication must be effective. The person must be well organized. Beyond the specialized attributes, the leader must be comfortable at functional skills. He / she must always radiate confidence in the team. The leader must be fair in all dealings. He / she must also be able to command respect of team members. The person must be adaptable. In addition he / she must be able to think in line with corporate strategy. The leader must be a team player. Crucially, the person must be able to negotiate past tricky conversations. 

5 Inspiring Marketing Tips I learned at MozCon 

A blogger has shared her key learnings at conferences across Seattle, Portland and Boston she has been attending. The first of those is that lesser time must be reserved for acquiring newer customers, instead existing customers must be serviced better. Talent management must incorporate skills beyond just the minimum job description. The digital marketing must be personalized as far as possible. PPC technique must be followed to get best SEO results. Forum must be developed dedicated to people’s opinions, difficulties or experiences. Crucially, the brand recall may be enhanced by participating in local level social events.   

European Tourism on a firm footing towards the peak Travel Season  

The tourism industry in Europe has seen increasing numbers of inbound business this summer. According to market research, Iceland, Montenegro and Romania have registered highest growths resulting in economic boost and generation of travel jobs. Others such as Ireland, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia and Cyprus have also experienced double digit growth levels. Among the traditionally established markets, Germany, Italy, UK and Spain have seen more conservative growth. Only Russia is one major market which has seen lower outbound tourism. The UK’s favourable exchange rates with the continent have also seen their residents travel in larger numbers. 

10 Ways to Continue a Conversation with Someone on Social Media 

Business research has come up with certain methods in order to enable businesses to prolong customer engagement on social media. At the start of a new week or weekend, customers must be greeted accordingly. Frequent questions must be posed. The same customer must be engaged with several times. Those followers sharing the content, must be personally acknowledged. Visuals must be incorporated in posts. Only the right persons must be engaged with. The response time to queries must be reduced to a minimum. Followers must be quizzed from time to time. Polls must be an important part of the conversations. The overall digital marketing communication must be dealt with utmost care. 

The State of Social Media 2015

Marketing research has been conducted on the state of social media in the present times. As per the findings, just short of 10% of the overall digital marketing spend is allocated on social media marketing. This has also led to the spurt in MBA jobs. Typical roles include Social Media Manager, Community Manager, Social Media Analyst, Social Media strategist and Director of Social Media. Certain challenges however have crept up. ROI projections for social media marketing campaigns have becoming difficult to quantify. For exact measurements, tools are not commonly available. As a shift in this industry, buy buttons have exploded in usage. 

10 Tips on Hiring the Right Talent for your Organization

In order to succeed at talent management and recruiting the right fit for a firm, certain suggestions have emerged. The hiring plan must be part of corporate strategy from genesis. Senior management must be in the loop for the same. The best available resource must be selected. Cultural fit of the applicant must be analyzed beforehand. The candidate must demonstrate some passion for the profile. Work culture must be positive pre-recruitment. Internal promotions are always valuable in the long run. Existing staff members’ contacts must be tapped into. The organization’s brand must be promoted across social media. Also, the applicant must be given access to quiz the interviewer.

Flagler Tourism Effort Targets Destination Wedding Market

Flagler county in the American state of Florida has emerged as the hottest tourism destination for a niche segment called wedding tourism. A number of specific theme based marriages are taking place here. Taking advantage of that, local marketers have started providing management training to local residents to cater to this huge demand, as these people do not have hand-on experience on the same. This region had earlier tried sports events, but now weddings form huge chunk of niche tourism.

Who are the Digital Disruptors Redefining Entire Industries

There are some industries which are facing stronger digital disruption than others. Even mundane activities like dry-cleaning, garbage collection or money lending is being helped by mobile apps. There exist health checks, online estate managers and digital marketing. YouTube is one such firm that has disrupted the search industry. Book publishing has been revolutionized by Kindle while the music industry is seeing new developments through the arrival of Spotify. The Netflix model is meanwhile threatening the activity of television viewing.

The on-demand Economy doesn’t have to Imitate Uber to Win

The business revolution unleashed by the likes of Uber and other start-ups such as Instacart, Postmates and Handy is threatening to change the corporate world. Yet, blind copy is not the solution. This is leading to generation of new jobs and especially contractual or freelancing assignments have exploded in numbers. Most of these workers possess the W-2 status and distance between employee and firm is ever rising. Thus talent management is suffering as proper management training processes then do not exist. 

Iran hopes to welcome 20 million tourists a year following Nuclear Deal

Post the conclusion of the nuclear deal, Iran hopes to attract greater number of inbound tourists to view the rugged terrain, history and culture of the country. Discussions are on to ease banking restrictions which would enable booking of hotel rooms and usage of credit cards. Also British nationals are hoping visa restrictions may be eased so they may visit on their own rather than only as part of packaged groups as is the present regulation. The Rotana hotel group based out of Abu Dhabi and the French Accor group have both decided to invest in luxury chains in Teheran to take advantage of this new development and thus in the process creating large number of tourism jobs.

10 Areas of Financial Service in Dire Need of Innovation

Business research has come up with certain financial services where innovation is top priority. First one of them is consumer payments. Then there are distributed ledgers. Business analysis using data analytics has become crucial here like other industries. The channels of accessing information must be all linked. Usage of social media will further enhance banks’ knowledge of the customers helping serve them better. Individual users must be provided value across platforms. Peer based lending especially towards SMBs must be promoted. Innovation is also crucial an element within the supply chain of this business. Security at final transaction level is increasingly being seen as critical. Finally, there is the concept of ‘digital on-boarding’ which uses electronic verification within the overall purchase funnel.

Turkish Tourism Sponsors the New York Times 2015 Travel Show

Turkish tourism sponsored a segment of the NY Times Travel Show in 2015. The purpose was to promote Turkey as a tourist destination among American who as per market research, are the eleventh largest nationality to travel to the country though numbers haven’t risen lately. Part of the event was targeted at travel professionals with full time tourism jobs and the other segment was aimed at the viewing public. Top writers and chefs also prominently visited the fair.

5 Ways to Create Viral Content your Audience will Love

As per marketing research conducted, certain methods have emerged which can viral content for audience to lap up. Barriers for audience to share content must be reduced to the bare minimum. The overall packaging of the product has to be superior to competitors’ offerings. Like a diet where healthy meals need to be complemented occasionally with the splurges, similarly even content has to include serious human interest stories along with more frivolous content. Trends from other industry must be inculcated in ways they may be implemented. Simply knowing the audience will now work. Their aspirations in life need to be tapped into to create and share meaningful content for them.

Tesla and Uber- When Disruptive Technical and Social Innovations Collide

Two of the best known disruptors in the present business world- Tesla and Uber- are all set for collaboration. Uber’s corporate strategy has declared an interest in contracting a huge fleet of Tesla cars for its own cab services. Tesla’s cars are famous for being environment friendly while Uber has disrupted the can industry by taking advantage of crowd sourcing. This can only be good for the environment as on the one hand, Uber encourages the possession of fewer personal cars, while Tesla ensures that when these cabs are hired, they do not leave very strong environmental footprint.  

8 Steps towards Encouraging Creativity in Marketing

Business research has been conducted to gauge steps which can lead to increased creativity in marketing. Risk takers ought to be rewarded. Meetings must allow the entry level managers to develop their ideas as well. Tangible investments must be initiated to those who seek positive change within the firm. Cross-vertical communications must be encouraged within the structure. The inquisitive learners must constantly be promoted. Decisions related to staff restructuring must be done promptly. The art of talent management requires the boss to be aware of his / her team and to put aside one’s own perceived lack of creativity to get the best out of others. Original thinkers must be put in one team to cross-fertilize on each one’s ideas.

Marketers should opt in to a Top-Notch Engagement Strategy

Marketing research conducted throws some light on the usage patterns on push notifications as a means of customer engagement. A number of mobile apps are losing out due to excessive, generic messaging while those with tailored content are doing better. Tourism is doing best while health and fitness are performing on other end of the scale. Here Android is doing way better than the iOS platform. Also it has been found out that apps post downloading are not always retained and to do so push messaging is vital ingredient. 

5 Trends Ruling the Global Travel and Tourism Industry in 2015

Business researchconducted on the tourism industry has put forward some trends that have emerged globally. There is increased integration with technology with the emergence of facilities such as keyless entries using smart phones or airlines communicating directly with travelers. The smart phone is set to be used for increased operations including e-commerce. A number of applications are now being aligned to be part of the single offering to customers. Thus travel, stay, sight-seeing and eating out are being covered under single umbrella. Tourism will develop more niche destinations and travel modes as conventional travel evolves. The future is full of uncertainty yet activity based tourism is set to grow. More than thirty five million travel jobs are expected to exist in India by end of this year.

5 Things Business Leaders can Learn from Bloggers 

There is much that business leaders can learn from successful bloggers. The latter build their brands with sophistication and character. There is also a requirement for incorporating the transparent feedback mechanism. Bloggers promote themselves, yet they do it with integrity. They generatedigital marketingby leveraging relations within the blogger community. Also bloggers have been known to have long term plans and not just short fixes. This is something business leaders must incorporate as part of theircorporate strategy.

20 million Tourists no Pipe Dream 

Tourist inflows to Japan have increased steadily to accommodate more than thirteen million of them from abroad in 2014. Business research and forecasts put the figure at twenty million in time for Tokyo’s Olympics five years from now. There is however a serious requirement of increasing travel jobs in the country. Communication skills remain an issue while there need to be more kiosks for dealing with credit card payments. Improved relations with neighbours- China, Taiwan and South Korea- has led to increased inbound tourism from those countries. There is a need to divert tourist concentration away from the Tokyo-Osaka-Kyoto triangle towards other areas such as national parks, historical sites, wellness tourism and gourmet destinations. 

Google Launches a new Home for Journalists with “News Lab”

In a world where news is increasingly being first distributed among people using social media, rather than traditional channels, Google has come up with News Lab to connect with journalists and spiral information to users. Google has also come up with news flashes on YouTube to help journalists. This is their latest method atdigital marketingas ground seemed to be lost to social media outlets like Twitter or Facebook but not its own Plus. This will also help Google sieve through large quantity of data enabling business analysis.

7 Traits Wharton Looks for in Ideal MBA Candidates

In a world where news is increasingly being first distributed among people using social media, rather than traditional channels, Google has come up with News Lab to connect with journalists and spiral information to users. Google has also come up with news flashes on YouTube to help journalists. This is their latest method atdigital marketingas ground seemed to be lost to social media outlets like Twitter or Facebook but not its own Plus. This will also help Google sieve through large quantity of data enabling business analysis. 

5 Signs it’s time for a New Job  

A time comes when one gets convinced that leaving the existing job is in the best of interests. Business research has analyzed a few pointers which if existing are sure signs of the time having arrived. It starts with new things not being learnt on the job or a lack of corporate training. One automatically starts under-performing from one’s true abilities. Improper talent management leads to a feeling of being under-valued. Financials seem to be the only driving factor. Crucially, at this stage one just does not get along with his/ her reporting officers or seniors.

Universities on the Brink of a Nervous Breakdown

Most people in the USA irrespective of population segment have some gripe against universities there presently. Thus changes are afoot and for purpose of business research, top educationists and policy makers were asked for recommendations. The courses must be redesigned as this will revitalize them. Policy makers need to make major changes such as ensuring state funding remains primary source of revenue for public universities. Similarly, the non-profit status of private universities that admit less than a tenth of lower income level students must be revoked. Outstanding loans must be reassessed. Above all, education must be seen as a quest at equalizing all classes and races of the USA. Institutions must incorporate race-conscious enrollment plans. Executive MBA using MOOCs has exponentially risen in popularity. Students must understand that careers will take a leap if they go for such courses and they may avail MBA jobs. Concepts like action learning and coaching circles are fostering.