How Internet of Things changes Marketing

The Internet of Things (IoT) is truly revolutionizing the way digital marketing is conducted these days. The power of location tracking is being used by beacons. These are wireless devices which track mobile phones within the location and deliver specific personalized content based on buyer behaviour. As per market research conducted by Adobe, about a third of marketers in the USA will be using such devices in the year 2015. Three new media vistas are now being used. They include connected digital signage, wearables and connected Point-of-Sale terminals. Target is one of the biggest retail chains already fully utilizing the power of IoT. 

5 Stages of the Human Resources Life Cycle in need of Improvement

Business research has identified five stages within the HR life cycle that requires enhancement. Recruitment needs greater alignment with overall corporate strategy and the specific goals. Employee education and management training are often delayed but they must start the instant a new recruit joins up. Motivation levels of employees fluctuates maximum within the first three months, and that is the time turnover gets highest in case this aspect is not taken care of properly. Evaluation of employees must be a constant holistic method rather than purely hierarchy based. At the end of the cycle, celebrations must be undertaken as a group effort. 

5 Top 5 Travel & Tourism Ads

Advertising is particularly crucial to the travel and tourism industry and thus a tourism consulting industry forum has provided us a list of the best of these advertisements from across the world. The top one features the Belgian rail network which is trying to wean people away from personal cars. The message comes out to make traffic jams in Belgium heritage which will only happen if the majority travel using the trains. Railways in the UK have made a similar attempt and showcase the benefits of using trains to save time, effort and money for office travel. Advertisements on Hiroshima’s ‘cat street’, the Copper Mountain area in the USA and the creativity on show at various Accor group hotels complete the list.

4 Ways Learning Predicts, Protects Culture

Learning and development are critical to organizations’ long term sustainability as it fortifies company culture. The same culture boosts employee confidence which helps them better fulfill the corporate strategy. Culture also helps in collaboration within the firm. This includes common goals which are beneficial for all the verticals. Business innovation gets a boost in the right work cultures as creativity depends a lot on mutual trust. Corporate training also helps the firm get competitive advantage over rivals and peers.

How not to Alienate your Employees

Retention of quality employees has taken top priority in today’s highly mobile workplace. A management consulting publication has provided us certain pointers which if followed can reduce the attrition rates substantially. Hiring to senior levels from outside the firm must be reduced to less than fifty percent. Instead internal promotions must be implemented. Employees must be clearly communicated about their growth prospects within the firm. During pay raise, clear demarcation must be made between payments based on actual performance versus potential. Proper talent management requires an appreciation of the fact that the employment market is highly mobile for the right people. The pay scale for employees must be able to match market average as much as is possible.               

11 Clever Techniques to pump up your SEO Strategy

SEO is such a critical part of any organization’s digital marketing strategy that top focus has to be given to the same. For this certain techniques have been identified. Thorough business analysis must be made on relevant keywords. Similarly headline content must be identified. Content needs to be created keeping in mind targets and goals for the upcoming season. Also content must incorporate that which has been generated by the end users. Snippets must be evaluated from all possible platforms. Alerts must be installed. Subscribers must be periodically emailed with latest offerings. Articles and blogs must be promoted using social media. Also social media groups must be gauged to disseminate company content. In order to gain new followers, a good method is to post on public forums, aggregator sites as well as Quora. Finally it is most useful to constantly keep a vigil on results.

India loves MOOCs

India is a country with massive manpower as well as talent pool. Yet very few make it to top colleges or universities. Even when one does, chances are high that the candidate may not be able to pursue one’s choice of subjects. That is the reason why MOOCs has proved of great popularity in India. In Europe and the USA, online learning or Executive MBA have proved moderately successful, yet in India they have grown due to massive requirements. A number of young professionals and graduates are enhancing their CVs by undergoing online courses. Also the demand for foreign degrees remains high and that further explains the popularity of such courses.

Overseas Travel & Tourism – Monthly Release, Provisional Results for July 2015

A tourism consulting report has been submitted by the UK government and it gives us certain interesting facts. Inbound tourists in the month of July this year rose by 4% from same time last year. UK residents themselves have made 7% more foreign visits this year than last. Overall the same group has spent more than four billion Pound Sterling during these various trips abroad. This data is part of annual review by the British government to assess the scope of the travel and tourism industry.

Business Schools help Executives keep pace with Digital Innovation

In today’s digital age, it is imperative for managers to remain in touch with major technological changes. Thus number of centres have emerged which help professionals to update their knowledge in areas such as cloud computing, data analytics and smart devices. Specific corporate training programmes are being designed bringing together experts from eminent educational institutes such as Tuck and MIT Sloan to help reduce the skills gap. Cisco is one such organization which has put together such a facility. Organizations are worried that newer, leaner firms such as Uber, Google and Airbnb will eventually leave the older giants in the shade if they do not respond to technological challenges.

Business seeks Tech-savvy Leaders for Digital Transformation

It has been understood that while corporate training programmes can transform professionals to an extent, unless the manager is motivated to use technology, that part can never truly be trained. In fact as per business research conducted by McKinsey, nearly three-fourths of transformation programmes do not succeed due to this reason. Thus technology savvy business leaders are in great demand. A representative from management consulting giant Deloitte concurs by explaining that any business innovation can only truly succeed if the technology and manager’s business acumen on using the same are aligned together.

2015’s most valuable Organization: A Changemaker Company

The social intrapreneur is fast rising to become amongst the most important members in any organization’s teams. The bring business innovation while overall good for the society. The Director at PepsiCo concurs with this view. In fact, the CEOs of four leading companies Tata, Unilever, Huffington Post and Virgin have come together to form the B Team to look into social innovations. Profit centres are being aligned to social ventures. One example of this is Unilever’s Lifebuoy soap which brings millions in returns every year, yet also brings social value by improving hygiene levels everywhere.

Why Customer Experience is the Catalyst for Digital Transformation

Experiential marketing is the way forward as this form encapsulates customer experiences best. Companies often lack that holistic, rounded view about the customer, which can only happen through on the ground experiences. Business consulting giant Cap Gemini has tagged several existing technologies as business innovation towards separate work profiles. Some industries though have been laggards in adopting these technologies and surprisingly, telecom is one such. In fact there exist six stages of digital maturity for firms. Based on level of maturity, depends content across platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Tourism Sector posts 17 percent loss in Russian Tourist Market

Due to political reasons, Russians are traveling less to foreign countries. This is evident through market research carried out by the Association of Travel Agents which points out a 17% reduction in inbound tourists to Turkey. This is a result of the conditions prevailing post the crisis spurred by the annexation of Crimea. Political conditions in Turkey have also been unstable due to clashes between security forces and Kurdish rebels. In spite of this, inbound tourist arrivals from Germany has seen a ten percent growth.

Compassion: What’s Leadership got to do with It?

In order to excel at talent management, it has been found out that compassion is an extremely important trait that business leaders must possess. While purpose and compassion are two pillars easily accepted globally, compassion gets mixed reactions. The experiences are very different in Saudi Arabia to Pakistan which is different to Turkey, USA, Denmark or Belgium. It is often wrongly considered that compassion can result in reduced productivity levels among the workforce. However that is incorrect and compassion helps in effective corporate communications.

Empathy is still lacking in the Leaders who need it Most

As per business research conducted by Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, business leaders globally are lacking in empathy. A third space has been suggested which differs from traditional engineering or MBA paths. Empathy is particularly crucial in today’s digitized business world and helps in talent management of new recruits. Empathy towards work may differ from country to country. It is different in the USA to Japan or Germany. It also encourages a more holistic 360 degree thinking. The audience too is no longer a one sided customer, but instead participates with constant feedback in the product design and development.

Youth Travel made up 23% of Tourist Arrivals

As per tourism consulting provided by UNWTO, nearly a fourth of worldwide travelers are today youngsters. Apparently they are much more into adventurous activities and have greater an understanding of sustainable practices. Youth also represents the fastest growing travel segment. However, number of destinations do not have packages and options specifically designed for the segment and this has to change. Youth travel includes students who are traveling for education purposes. This niche is also growing.

Here’s how Innovation could be Driving away your Customers

While business innovation is driving growth in organizations, substantial numbers of customers are extremely circumspect at the break-neck speed this is taking place in. As per market research conducted more than 90% of respondents feel than innovations are crucial yet nearly equal numbers feel this trend is going to harm their privacy levels. Respondents in Germany, USA and Australia are ones most worried about privacy. Another significant number are worried about security of transactions and data online. Also three-fifths of respondents feel that advertisements are wrongly messaged leading to fickle and faulty purchases by customers.

Art & Leadership

Art and business are often considered as polar opposites yet they share more than earlier understood. While art is often to do with the spiritual and business with the material the two can complement each other. In order to excel at business innovation, organizations need to preempt trends or create the future. Great artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Henri Matisse, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso and Damien Hirst have all created new trends in their line. Each style of art has in turn inspired business. Matisse for example showed us how existing trends can be reworked using unique techniques. Mondrian on the other hand showed us how to simplify.

Accenture to get rid of Annual Performance Reviews

Management consulting giant Accenture has taken a decision to scrap annual performance reviews from its employee assessments. Apparently, the model is not working. Instead employees will be reviewed at local destinations be it Bangalore or Singapore. Accenture has nearly a third of a million employees globally and thus these individualized reviews take up massive time, effort and cost. Rather it is preferable if employees assess themselves on parameters set by them and mutually agreed with the organization. ANZ has taken a similar call.

Transforming Social Media complaints into Opportunities

Due to the increased presence of social media in digital marketing, it has been observed that customers are more freely voicing their gripes. While addressing so much may prove to be a huge challenge, this can also turn out to be an opportunity. Social media can help companies monitor its feedback better and take corrective action. Customer service personnel may then be trained accordingly. Feedback can be gauged instantly and organization can learn through customer experiences.