Marketing as an art has evolved over the past hundred odd years. The 1920s was the first time the idea of accountable marketing was put in place where budgets had to co-relate to sales. There was not much data however, then to back up ideas and evaluate business results. The 1970s can be termed as the pre-teen years of the marketing world as lots of business innovations and experiments were then taking place. In the absence of present day online tools, business intelligence was tracked using customer information on magazines where ‘bingo cards’ were used. The 1980s were the ‘teenage years’ where technology entered marketing in the form of barcode readers. Marketers were now accurately able to track customer preferences. Now the concept has evolved to Pipeline Marketing which evaluates the entire marketing chain and measures effectiveness individually at each stage. Dashboards are now much more reliable than ever.

Being successful at the work place is often much more than personal ability but a lot to do with team work and collaboration. On a regular basis, people both within or outside the organization help us achieve our targets. Management consulting publicationHarvard Business Review has come up with seven ideal ways to thank them. A hand written thank you note might sound old fashioned but it personalizes the gratitude rather than online or mass printed versions. The thanks could even be communicated using a personalized video note. We might even gift them something fun. Often getting two or more people together can bring them lot of success eventually. One can offer to help but actually deliver on the offer. Formal meetings and online chats do connect people but ultimately, informal meet-ups serve the purpose of socializing the best. Finally, a highly effective method of showing gratitude is simply to make a telephone call.

Digital marketing is impacting every area of the work process these days including CRM and customer experience. The digital transformation needs to be managed keeping all points in check. Digitization has also ensured that information can be passed on easily and does not remain embedded in silos. Any organization must first create a culture where digital platforms can be used fruitfully. Also experts’ solicitation must be cited to initiate activities before operations can be handled in-house. The top management however remains accountable for the end results.

While most organizations realize only too well that business innovation is of utmost importance, many of them fail to create a conducive environment for the same. For some others, innovations may be developed, but not scaled for use on commercial basis. One such example would be Kodak which itself invented digital film, but failed to gain market share beyond the film technology where it was the market leader. Engagement with existing employees is a necessary part of gauging innovative ideas. Innovation usually takes much lesser time to implement in startups rather than traditionally managed larger firms. 

Banks used to be the top recruiters from top business schools such as Harvard, MIT Sloan and Stanford, but business research conducted by Business-Because suggests the trend is shifting. Technology companies are increasingly being the choice of employment for a number of MBAs and thus fresh graduates are moving to Silicon Valley rather than Wall Street. Jobs at Silicon Valley provide more flexible working options and improved perks as opposed to more rigid Wall Street financial firms. Goldman Sachs and Citibank continue to be dislodged from the top of the pie by firms such as Apple, Microsoft, Adobe, Google and Amazon. For obvious geographic reasons, the biggest such shift is occurring at Stanford and Berkeley but even northern institutes such as Harvard and Michigan Ross are exhibiting this change.

Forbes, which is a leading management consulting publication has provided us a list of six signs which clearly indicate that the culture of a firm is broken and in need of repair. The corporate strategy of the firm remains a mystery at firms where the corporate culture is broken. In such firms, the attrition levels remain high, yet nobody openly confesses to the same. People stop telling the truth and instead behave unnaturally. Negative vibes are a constant part of such firms and when decisions are made, the allusions towards failures are routinely made. The blame game is played where personnel are openly shamed in front of their team mates. Finally, in such cultures, the joy and creativity is completely eliminated from the work.

Marketing has moved away from mass produced products towards customized offerings. Tailor made offerings however are considered beyond the scope for most firms due to the high costs involved. Thus there is a need to personalize but at scale. To accomplish this, the integration between the 3 Ds has been suggested by Harvard Business Review, which is a leading management consulting publication. Those 3 Ds are – data discovery, content distribution and decision making. The right functional support is needed, and this requires a coordinated strategy. The campaign must be managed by an experienced team. Constant business analysis should be made using data analytics. Finally, what is needed is top notch content.