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| Tuesday, 11 September 2001 |
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Understanding how customers buyfor enhanced profitability
by Prasanna Perera customers ....the familiar word echoes in the ears of global marketers. Yet, how many organisation's can confidently state, that they understand the purchase behaviour of their customers. Mostly, the problem starts with the marketers themselves, who complicate
simple things unnecessarily. For example, not keeping their customer buying related
research projects, simple. Marketers need answers to the following logical questions. You would appreciate that not having answers to these questions, would be akin to driving a car, without a front and rear windscreen. Marketers must have answers to these questions, at all times. This is essential for marketing success, which is of course the success of a business. Why do marketers neglect understanding their customers? This is simply mind bogling! However, it does happen across the globe quite frequently. One of the major reasons for this situation, is the complacement belief that everything about customers is known, because of dealing with them, on a regular basis. Customers cannot be taken for granted. Their needs and aspirations change on a regular basis. Therefore, the name of the game is to be uptodate about your customers needs, expectations etc. Another possible reason, is a corporate culture that is inwardly focused on operations, rather than outwardly on the need of the marketplace. Focused on the marketplace is referred to as market-led, meaning that all internal operations are fuelled by the developments in the market. Therefore, an appropriate corporate culture is so vital for marketing success. Marketers also try and complicate simple things. For example, market research towards their customers. Whilst it is important that market research activities are professionally carried out, the name of the game should be "keep it simple". Let your market research programs, provide actionable results, in terms of your target markets.Answers to simple questions such as why do our customers buy from us, as against the competition? etc. A final reason is that marketers are more focused on their competitors and not on their customers. This is especially the case when confidence in the organisation's abilities, are low. Therefore, marketing strategies are developed based on competitor actions. The customer gets forgotten in the process, often leading to customer defection to the very same competitors. What should be done to bring back focus on customers and their buying behaviour? The starting point is to foster and develop the right marketing orientation within an organisation. This requires sound leadership, that believes in understanding and listening to customers. As such, the orientation of the CEO of a business, is so important, to keep the customer always in focus. A second approach is to encourage marketing specialists to play the role of "change agents". They should be the catalysts of organisational change, based on their profound understanding of customers and markets. As such, marketers will be forced to keep a tab on customers and their purchase behaviour. A very practical way of achieving focus on customers, is to encourage both marketing and non-marketing personnel, to carry out market visits on a regular basis. During these market visits they should meet not only their customers, but even their customer's customers. This will provide a profound understanding of customers, by travelling down their value chain. The benefits that can be derived by understanding customers Customers are the lifeblood of any business. They are the only reason for the existence and growth of a business. As such an organisation that understands its customers, will no doubt benefit by enhanced revenue and profitability. Further, by understanding customers, marketers can achieve a competitive edge and hopefully sustain same. (Remember that any competitive edge, should be meaningful in the eyes of the customer). Another benefit that can be gained, is the ability to identify potential customer segments at an early stage. It is important to note that market opportunities do not remain unexploited for too long. As such, by staying close to the market and customers, organisations can effectively capitalize on market opportunities and minimise threats.In a competitive marketplace, careful market segmentation, is an important activity. Market segmentation is a strategic activity that must be carried out as creatively as possible. This is only possible through a profound understanding of both existing and potential customer needs. Development of appropriate product and service offerings, is also possible, through customer understanding. New product development and innovation are strategic activities and if carried out carefully, could provide a constant revenue stream for an organisation. It also would provide a safety barrier, against competitors.Understanding customers and their buying behaviour, is an essential must, irrespective of whether one markets products, services, causes etc. A business organisation's sole purpose of existence is to convert inputs into outputs that are required by customers, and thereby achieve a reasonable return. Therefore, customers and markets should remain the central focus of organisations, at all times. There is no other way forward.Another important aspect to focus on, is your customers "total buying experience", not simply needs and wants. Take for example the purchase of a personal computer. The customer would require installation, after sales service, basic operational training, warranties and convenience. Therefore, by purchasing a personal computer, a customer is not only satisfying a specific need but is buying into a total experience. Marketers would do well to understand their customers, from this perspective. "Customers are the lifeblood of any business" "Love your customers, delight them and retain their loyalty" CIM - Sri Lanka launches website
CIM Sri Lanka is the first professional institute to offer WAP facility to its membership. The new site address is www.cimlanka.com. The website is developed and hosted by Ceycom Global Communication Limited.CIM is the world's largest professional body for marketing. CIM has over 3,000 students, 500 members and 97 Chartered Marketers in Sri Lanka.Chairman, CIM Sri Lanka Branch, Dr. Uditha Liyanage, launched the website. Mr. Rasika Wickramatunga, Branch PR Officer is also in the picture. How to make most of your time by T. M. Jayasekera, B.Sc, MBA, C Eng., Project Director - CARE International "Time Management" is the talking point among the busy executives of today. It has emerged as one of the latest in the long line of organisational and self-management strategies for achieving excellence. Practising managers have a good knowledge about what basically time management is, but there appears to be some confusion and difference of opinion about how it should be effectively carried out as many different views and opinions have been expressed by various experts about time management in the recent past. It has been difficult to practise time management effectively as most of the experts have only told us how to become super efficient. Being super efficient is only equivalent to becoming another machine programmed only to do work and nothing but work, without a single second being wasted or utilised for other aspects of life other than work. But, life consists not only of work and it is much more than work. It consists of many more things such as leisure, joy, happiness, affection, family, friendship, society, service etc. All of us are born to live and not born to work. Work is only a means of living. By trying to achieve super efficiency you will become unapproachable and lose the joy of being a human being - a social animal with a brain that not every animal in this planet possess. No one of us wants to be super efficient and lose all the enjoyment in life. What we need is a balance. What all of us is aiming at is to have a balance between being efficient and at the same time being able to enjoy our lives as we are not born to work but we are born to live and work is only means to live. The difference between being super efficient unapproachable machine and effective, efficient and organised human being is very large. The skills and techniques that are required to make up an effective time manager are very simple and are easy to learn. This article will tell you what to do and how to do that. My main aim is to make you more efficient and effective so as to make you feel happier at your work family and social lives. Why people are so poor in managing time If the techniques and skills of time management are so simple, why is it that people can't grasp it so quickly and practise those soon so as to end this problem forever. It is not because people are lazy and does not want to practise those techniques, but it is mainly because people fall in to bad habits very easily and get used to do things in the wrong way. It is not really the laziness that keeps you away from achieving success in time management but it is the comfort that we receive in continuing with our bad habits - the way we are used to be. It is natural that all human beings resist any kind of change and that is why they resist change of habits too. This is the main reason that can be attributed to the poor time management by most of us. By making a very little change to few things in our life we will be able to have much more time at our disposal. This requires only very little effort, that will make you more efficient and effective and that should make you feel happier at work. "Time management" is a misnomer Time is a unique resource. It is a resource that is available to everyone in equal amounts. Usage of time does not conform to the rules of the "Zero sum game" as applicable to all other resources that are used in management - i.e. If one person uses it other person will be deprived of it. Therefore it is not scarce as the other resources. Unlike any other resources you cannot store and keep it as it has to be used no sooner it is available. Once gone unutilized you will never be able to get it back. Therefore you can't really manage time. It is a misnomer. It is a phrase used to identify self-management with respect to time. Times management problem areas Most of the time management problems are caused by one or more of the
following: These are only a vital few. The list is very much longer. It is human to succumb to all these or some of these problems. Most of the time management problems arise as people fail to think logically or rationally under pressure. Being aware of the above time management problems itself is a good achievement as it will make you to look for the solutions. Even though Benjamin Franklin said, "time is money" it is actually worth much more than money. If you lose money or if you have not invested it wisely as possible, you can still earn some money or can get it back at least through the assistance of others such as police. We all know that it is not possible with time. That is why people say "Yesterday is like a cancelled cheque - Tomorrow is like a promissory note - Today is like ready cash - make best use of it". Time gone is gone forever and if you waste time it can never be recovered. If you do not make most out of time you will never be able to try again as you will never get a second chance with it and it has become history. The famous quote "Yesterday is history - Tomorrow is mystery - Today is present - A treasure that has to be protected by all of us as a god given gift" will provide the right meaning to the value of time. One of the biggest mistakes we do is that we take control of our time by making use of others time using our authority. If you take control of your time in such a way that you prevent subordinates and colleagues from taking control of theirs, then you force them to compete with you instead of competing for the common good. You can easily make the mistake of being so controlling that the people with whom you work have to fight you to get what they want. Sometimes it may so happen that we may not only take control of our time but will also not allow others to take control of theirs by interfering too much in to their areas or engaging them in practices like "loose talk", "gossip", unplanned discussions or poorly organised meetings etc. Organisations hire people to do work and not to talk about it all the time. Yet many employees are constantly tied up in one meeting or another most of the time. This is why many of them have to stay late at their offices so often to get their work done.Some people only care about working fast and finishing early. As a result their work is often not as good as it could be. They may work so fast that will make stupid mistakes because they are slaves to the clock and are much more concerned with sticking to their schedule than with the quality of their work. Time management is definitely not about working fast, but it is about doing right things in the right manner at the right time. Time management is not just a matter of meeting deadlines. It involves thinking ahead, planning ahead and making sure you spend much more time as possible meeting your priorities, not just those forced on you by your job your family or your social obligations.Most of the time management problems are a result of the fact that people don't always think logically under pressure. Instead of acting decisively and taking charge of a situation most of us fall in to the trap of reacting to circumstances and adapting our schedules accordingly. Believing that time management takes on its greatest importance at the last moment is really nonsense as the early moment is as important as the last moment in order to manage time.Your only choice at the office is not just answer every call that comes or listen to everything that is being said. If you do not take control of the telephone it will naturally take control of you.You can organise, motivate, direct or even do some of the work but you can't do all the work and attempting to do so would be really foolish. Even if you have a brilliant time management strategy it will surely fail if it does not include motivating the right people in the right ways. One of the keys to effective time management is determining in advance how you want to use segments of your time. When you don't have a plan making decisions about how your are going to spend your time forces you to stop, think and figure out and then get started again. With a proper plan your steps are laid out for you. Time never stops and neither the do these people who make best use of it. No plan is ever perfect. Unless you have a backup plan to tell you what to do if your original intentions don't work out you may find yourself not knowing how to adjust for unforeseen circumstances and be unable to function.People who do not have priorities have trouble distinguishing between what they like to do at the moment and what they should be doing to meet their long-term objectives. We must be able to separate important from the less important by prioritising the thing which we expect to do as some pursuits can be postponed without suffering a loss or making a sacrifice but some others cannot.There is nothing wrong in putting things on hold because other things are more important or because the time available is limited. But be careful, as many opportunities are available only briefly. Even if they remain available, putting things off now because you are busy may force you in to trying to go after them when you are even busier. The decision to do something now or later should be decided based on its importance relative to what else you are doing and not on the depth of the work load you are involved in. If these problems are not identified and its significance not clearly understood we would fall in to the trap of doing the same thing and expecting different results. Are you a winner or a whiner Israel's one time Prime Minister Golda Meir said "I must govern the clock and not be governed by it". No mater what happens the doers are always winners and that is why late Jawaharlal Nehru advised his daughter, the late Indira Gandhi that it is easier to be a doer as only few people in this world will follow that path, whereas most will follow the path of getting the credit for what others have done, hence there will be less competition to follow that path. Besides being able to handle the endless stream of work at their offices the winners have an active personal life too. They will always have time to do what they want to do whether in business life or personal life.Whiners on the other hand are always the losers. They can't do more than one thing at a time and they always have a ready supply of alibis too. The biggest difference between the winners and whiners is not a matter of making excuses or doing work all day long without sleep but it is about how the winners take control of their time. Winners take control of their time while whiners allow their time to be controlled by everyone or everything imaginable.Whiners always excuses. They have very lame and stale excuses for not doing their work in time such as unexpected problems, too much other work to do, too much to do in too little time, couldn't concentrate due to disturbance, telephone rang, customer arrived, there wasn't enough information, money, people or any other resource. Of course these things happen to all of us and we may have to change our plans now and then. But it will not happen always and will only to some people and not to some others. At some point of time they will stop being reasons for lack of time and become bad and lame excuses.The major difference of a winner over a whiner is that winners have goals and they allocate their time in proportion to their goals. Even though their output consists of many things but at any given instant they may be doing only one thing. They have focused all their attention on that one thing and allow nothing to distract them. They have planned their work, prepared their schedules, prioritized their activities and all these have been done to achieve the goals they have decided, believed in and wanted to accomplish. This is basically what time management is about.Time management is not a matter of dealing with one or two things here and there. It is a process that goes on over the lifetime and in order to manage it you may have to ask and answer following series of questions over and over again. What do I want to do What might happen to interfere with my plans Like money talent or any other resource time is a resource you can use to meet your objectives. Only difference with this resource is that you cannot create time. It is a fixed period, which cannot be increased. Like any other resource try and get it used most effectively and efficiently for the achievement of objectives. Top five time management mistakes Time management is not working harder but it is about working smarter. In order to work smarter there are certain things that we should avoid. We should know what are the mistakes that we normally do so that we could avoid those and increase our daily success both on and off the job. Starting the day without a plan If you start your day without a plan of action, then you will only be responding to the loudest voice and not to what was required as important. This is similar to what we normally do with respect to the maintenance of our machines. It is the squeaky wheel that gets the grease. Responding to other people's demands and the demands of events is not the right thing to do as it is being reactive to the situation and not pro active as expected. If you are not doing the right things then you will be doing hard work in the wrong direction and that may not produce the right results. Work with a messy desk or a messy work area People who work in messy work environments spends more time in trying to find things rather than doing things. Research has proved that people spend over one and half hours per day looking for things or being distracted by things on the average. This is not at all small, as it is seven and half-hours per week and three hundred and fifty hours per year. The worst part of this is that it is not something that can be accounted as a straight block but it is few minutes here and few minutes there. Foresight Foresight is the ability to see future needs. In the case of an employee it is his/her ability to carefully analyze the present condition of any problem/situation and project future trends. Such an analysis would be somewhat like a prognosis. A competent employee with foresight will anticipate problems and situations and devise methods to effectively deal with them. Present day employers do not look for the traditional stereotyped employees. They want better people, they want people who can cope with the exacting demands of a high tech environment. The manager of yesterday is considered no more than a glorified clerical assistant. In the past, methods of handling a transaction, from the beginning to the end were already laid down, rigidly in black and white. Anyone with (more) intelligence and initiative who dared to deviate from these orthodox methods would be taken to task. Competition, the rapid expansion of economies from local to regional and to global, the change of sellers market to the more selective and intelligent buyers market, the vast development in information technology and the high tech environment in which the work has to be done, all these make it imperative that today's employees should posses a high standard of competence and intelligence. The employee has also to be a self starter, Proactive and prepared to take sound decisions fast in challenging and extra-ordinary situations. By the way employees who are radical and of the go-getting type are very often the ones who possess foresight.Many companies request the managers to comment on their subordinates foresight. (A word which "arm chair type" managers enjoy using) in their annual performance appraisal. (Still not customised but copied from somewhere) However very few of these managers know what foresight really means. As a result the employee are the losers, not getting due remarks on these appraisal forms.Indeed to do a proper appraisal of an employee "foresight", the appraisers themselves also should be foresightful, but they are a very rare breed in Sri lanka.An example can be quoted from cricket. The team that won the world cup in 1996 is the classic example to the so called teams in organisational development. This cricket team had to analyze the conditions, when preparing for the World Cup. The then coach identified the weaknesses of the entire Sri Lanka cricket team up to that time. When the Caribbeans were playing unorthodox cricket and winning, our local black Englishmen followed their Commonwealth masters to the very letter, even in the game of cricket. The batsmen were only coached to play in the V direction to mid-off and mid-on. We have heard of so many big names in yesteryears when the game was lost to every country that played cricket.The change of the composition of teams that took place in 1981, contributed to the gradual development of cricket and the became world beaters in 1996. WE can be proud that the cricketers and the cricket administrators of the recent past had the foresight to see beyond the comfort zones. Now we can by looking at the composition of teams say that the Cricket has come off age. Why not the public and private sector administrators have same foresight to see beyond the comfort zones. In the recent past of the organisations that can be quoted only a few who had the foresight to move away from the operational boundaries. One is a bank that really took the banking to the masses introducing new avenues and service extensions such as night banking, Saturday banking. This bank set the pace for others to follow. Yes others followed. The other organisation is a media organisation which drew close to the masses by establishing connecting links with them by using the telecommunication.It was made so simple. Listening to the radio became interesting. Others in the industry followed suit. A developing country such as ours requires the new set of business managers (Leaders) to be foresightful to save the economy in the millennium.- Athula Jayasekera,AGM, Business Development,LB Finance Ltd. What is management? Is it knowledge on your business and business management or how to effectively make use of such knowledge by Shenika Sugathapala, Chartered Marketer, UK. Put Management Skills Before Technical Skills We must encourage our Business Executives (potential and existing both) irrespective of their preferred or already acquired professional disciplines, to improve the effectiveness of their management skillsYou must become a Manager (this is a term loosely used today) before becoming for eg. Fiance Manager, Marketing Manager, Sales Manager, Area Sales Manager, IT Manager, HR Manager, Stores Managers, Purchasing Manager, etc. Think to yourself frankly about your subordinate/colleague manager who hold such positions are they MANAGERS? no doubt they possess technical knowledge and Degrees, Diplomas, Certificates etc. What is most important today in the world of business is "What to do/get done, how and at what time". Whom you know in this regard is also important particularly in Sri Lanka. It is very important to acquire such management skills prior to spending loads of time and money in acquiring and improving technical skills. I take this opportunity to request the business schools, trainers, counsellors, facilitators and Consultants to reponed to this need of the hour favourably.Management is About Knowledge Management, Widely Spoken, But How?All organizations either large conglomerates or smaller, but effective "guerilla type" should strive to be Learning Organizations if they are to survive in the 21st Century. Internal Knowledge Management (internal to the Organization) could be done through traditional Business intelligence Systems, Business Research (traditional and web based) facilitated by sound Management Information Systems.Knowledge sourced externally is more vital in today's turbulent economic conditions. Roles of Facilitators (who help acquisition of knowledge) trainers (who share their knowledge) Councellors and Consultants (who play advisory roles with an outward forward looking approach instead of inward, backward looking approaches often adopted by internal knowledge generators. Therefore, emergence of external organizational structures play a greater role in knowledge generation and management.Having Organizational Knowledge internal or external or both will contribute only 20% to Organizational effectiveness and profitability. Balance 80% is how to make use of such knowledge in the best interest to your organization. Book Review Wake-up call for businessmen Unleashing India on World MarketsAuthor: Raghu NandanPublished by Response Books, New Delhi Reviewed by Chandani Jayatilleke
He aptly describes the issues in business in India from A to Z and proposes possible measures the country can take to realise its full potential. He talks of missed opportunities with examples from several export sectors. Raghu Nandan says, "India is a prisoner of its overseas trade. The door is locked within". Referring to lethargic manner which has been practised by many Indian businessmen when it comes to exports, Ragu says, "Blaming everything on the Government using the excuse that India has been a protected market is nonsense. We seem to be very fond of first blaming everything on the government and then blaming the politician and corruption." Instead the author looks at the issue from a managerial angle saying that "we can't get away by simply blaming all our problems on the government."In the book he also talks to the future generation. He tells them, "My generation has made a mess of things and we are now being forced to live on international hand-outs. In calibre and enlightenment the future generation is far ahead of mine. All that is needed is a change of attitude to unlock all doors and unleash India on world markets." The attitude of the business leaders is killing India's exports and the economy. The majority of the country's largest corporations have no interest in exports. They export very little but their imports are so large. Therefore, Raghu calls for the unity among business leaders and emphasises on product innovation and improved commercial infrastructure by highlighting the successful examples from other Asian countries such as Japan, Korea and Malaysia. The book is not only a wake-up call for Indian business but also enlightens the Sri Lankan readers. As India is one of Sri Lanka's best business partners, it is quite worth that the Sri Lankan exporters/entrepreneurs and decision makers take some time to read this book. The Sri Lankan business community could learn very valuable lessons from Raghu's book as many of the issues described in it are quite similar to that of in Sri Lanka. The book is certainly worth reading. Surely, it would have made a huge impact among the business circles in India.Raghu writes flawlessly, fearlessly and meticulously. Some of the information revealed in this book on 'doing business in India' is shocking and quite surprising. The author dedicates the book to Dr. V. Kurien - the man who turned India from a deficit to a surplus nation in milk production and in Raghu's words 'the Indian of the century'. Raghu Nandan is one of the founding directors of Specialised Projects International (UK) Ltd and is now based in Pondicherry (South India). He has worked as a consultant and a chief executive in 24 developing nations on industrial development projects including those funded by the World Bank and the Commonwealth Secretariat, London. He is also a visiting lecturer in many foreign universities.
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Produced by Lake House |
CIM
Sri Lanka Branch launched their new web-site at a ceremony held at the branch office,
recently. The new site will provide members, students and other browsers with information
about the branch, its activities and study syllabuses etc. 
Raghu
Nandan's 'Unleashing India on World Markets' is certainly one of the few books that gives
a comprehensive account of the business world in India. He simply cannot resist explaining
the bitter, sad stories in connection with Indian export industries that he considers are
part of the course for poor performance of Indian exports in various sectors. Ragu says
that India's export potential is very much higher. But, the Indian business people accord
low priority to exports.