the corner office:

1) Exercise- your energy levels need to be high.

2) Reach out to new customers-spend 20 % time on this.

3) Contact existing customers

4) Achieve one important objective

5) Execute a marketing event-even calling old customers is ok

6) Do one important task-priortize your work every morning

7) Train an employee- you are building a future

Listen to all employees. Talk to them

9) Inspect product quality-you are dead if you slip here

10) Inspect work on delegated tasks- trust god but lock your car

11) Review progress to goals

12) Return all calls

13) Keep on smiling

But, today’s customer “pre-shop” before entering a store. As per Google estimates, 70.0 % of Americans now consult product reviews, and 79.0 % use smartphones before making a purchase. I expect the same behavior from Indian consumers.

So, don’t wait for your customer to enter the shop and make a buying decision. Use search engines and social media to influence the customer, before he enters the shop.

Since customers “path to purchase” has changed- change your marketing strategy.

When times are good, you flow with the current.You are really not bothered about sharpening your skills as you are too busy enjoying good times.Bad times or recession in this case, can be a catalyst to reconsider our options and talents.It drives you to expand your thinking.

Common sense says that during tough times,your competition also is in retreat mode-and all war manuals tell us that the best time to attack or expand your base is when enemy is retreating.Quick expansion during this time can assure you victory at half the cost.

So take your chance now.Expand your area of operation,spend more on marketing,introduce new products.Bold action is not only essential, it is the survival tool for 2012. just do it.

Barack  Obama has 2,2231 tweets to his name;1,13,68,963 followers and has 1.0 million members in his facebook group.Shashi Tharoor has 7,700 tweets;11,93,611 followers and 17,934 people like his facebook page.These leaders have understood the mental space of their followers.

If you want to win big-become comfortable with this new battle ground-digital space.These are the new social skills you need to learn even to survive.Your time starts now.

Walt Disney has a yearlong theme, “The Year of a Million Dreams,” Disney has added a brilliant twist to the age-old favorite. They’ve added surprise.

Here’s their twist. “Imagine walking through one of the Walt Disney World Theme Parks when a Cast Member taps you on the shoulder to offer you a dream come true. Right now, over a million extra-special dreams, some thought impossible, are being randomly awarded to people just like you.”

Surprise your customers and they will never forget you. Give them unexpected gifts, vacation holidays, free tickets to music concerts or cricket matches. This is the ultimate Wow factor.

Surprise is an awe-inspiring emotion. It demands to be shared. How could you add one of the Disney’s favorite elements — surprise — to your marketing mix?

I have a friend,who is selling Tea-bags to Walmart in India for last six months. He is impressed by the back-end facilities,perfect systems and business approach.He believes that his organisation has improved due to his association with Walmart.

I also know a fruits and vegetable trader,who sells his products in Mumbai wholesale market. There are 4 to 8 intermediaries from farmer to fork.At least 15 % of fruits and vegetables parish due to inadequate storage and transport facilities.

I do not want to compare India with other countries like Germany, where opening up retail sector made a great difference to their economy. But basic common sense tells me that it is stupidity to re-invent the wheel- when we can shorten the learning curve by getting the big retailers come to India-invest in infrastructure and create a strong back-end operations.

This benefits everybody,except the politicians.

But the trouble with most vision statements is that everybody wants to conquer the world or bring in awesome changes on our planet. Some examples are:

-       To cure the world of breast cancer

-       To become the most respected and largest company in India/in world

The net result is that these statements are written with grand fun fare and promptly forgotten, and locked in the bottom drawer of CEO’s desk.

We believe that every organization must write a dream statement (can call it vision statement), which is actionable in a limited time frame.

Our client was very upset with us.

We were hired to craft a marketing strategy for his organization. And it did not have mission and vision statements.

We do not include them in our marketing plans for a very specific reason.

The truth is that, we that we don’t like them.

We are aware, that every self-respecting organization wants to write mission and vision statements. Mostly, senior managers from organizations go to an off-site destination (a 5 star resort) and craft out these statements amid some discussions and lots of good time.(yes-fun,frolic and wine)

The trouble is that these statements are usually long and boring, and serve no productive purpose- whatsoever. Except that CEO wants  to include them in the company’s annual reports.

A typical mission statement reads something like this:

“ The mission of (brand name) is to deliver superior quality products and services for our customers and communities through leadership, innovation and partnerships”

There was a research done, where 20,000 mission statements were analysed. It was found that all the statements were interchangeable, if you removed the brand name. You can write a good mission statement, if you can choose from standard menu: superior quality; best service; leadership; innovation, concern for employees and customers; concern for environment and society.

Incidently, the above mission statement belongs to a fast food chain “Wendy” and they paid $ 50,000 to a consultant to craft it.

Instead we suggest that you should have a small mantra, which is crisp, memorable, and inspiring like Nike’s “authentic athletic performance”

We can call it punchline; tag line or positioning, but it tells you why you exist?

I have been using blackberry phone for several years, and I think it is a sexy and cool device to communicate.

But when the service was affected in most of the countries including India last fortnight-the company did not know how to react.Some feeble explanations was given about technical problems.But users were not amused,some were angry.The company did nothing to address their fears.

Blackberry is market leader in smart phones in India.But this terrible PR during this crises could change the status. (I hope I am wrong,as I really like the phone). Consumers want to know,what the hell is happening ?

The best way to handle these crises is to communicate the real problem and tell your customers what you are doing to resolve the issue.If you have really screwed up-just own up and your consumers will forgive you.

These are the times when good and bad PR is judged.

Creativity helps build brands .It is a big myth, that only advertising guys, artists and writers can be creative. Everybody can be creative-as ideas just do not happen on its own-it is not a random process. You have to look for them.

Two  suggestions to develop creative thinking, if you think you are as creative as an electric pole.

a) Stop re-inventing the wheel- you don’t have to be original to be a creative person. You can build on existing ideas. Roller deo was designed on the basis of roller ball point pen.

2) Try new and different things. Your brain does not throw good creative ideas, if there is a boring sameness to your routine and behavior.

So change your behavior. Go to  a toy- shop and watch children buying toys; visit museum or Zoo and spend some time in these places. Go to a new restaurant, where you have never gone before and order a new Japanese dish; join a dance class, try to listen to completely new singers or go for movies, which you will not see on a normal day. Try watching Charlie Chaplin movies back to back and try to die laughing ;change the layout of your office; find a new way to boil an egg on electric guitar, and be nice to your mother in law. I am not sure the last one works.

The bottom line is –send signals to your brain that you can think differently and it will respond by giving you out-of- the box ideas.