Showing posts with label iipm admission. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iipm admission. Show all posts

Thursday, May 09, 2013

Shifting your focus to match customer needs

It is critical for organisations to adopt a scientific approach to understanding how they can meet customer needs, and to firmly ingrain a customer-focused culture throughout the organisation
 

We have often heard the phrase, “Customer is king”. While it is self-evident that higher satisfaction levels give a company an edge over sales, company growth and reputation, what it really does in the long term is to ensure that existing customers stay happy, resulting in better relationships and happier employees. Customer-focused companies are more attuned to the market and better able to stay ahead.

I refer to Harley-Davidson’s customer focused culture as one of the best in the world. It is the longest, continuous manufacturer of motorcycles in the US and has outlived nearly all of its competitors. In the twenty short years since Harley-Davidson started its Owners Group programs, it has grown to over 500,000 members & each of them own at least one motorcycle. The question to ask is: Is there any other consumer product in the world that will prompt customers to travel over several continents to be part of a group experience? Customers and employees alike take great pride in their affiliation with the company and this continues to make Harley-Davidson one of the great success stories of our time.

There is simply nothing – nothing – more important than getting to know the needs of your customer in a detailed and scientific manner. In the words of Michael Dell, “By spending time with your customers where they do business, you can learn more than by bringing them to where you do business”.

80% of companies believe they deliver a superior customer experience; however, only 8% of their customers agree. Why? Your customers are looking for maximum value when spending their hard-earned cash, particularly in this economy. The customer experience requires the active participation of everyone in your organization. This is where the word “Satisfy” comes into play. What it means is that your company is providing nothing more or less than what the customer expects. Creating a customer-focused culture is a proven strategy for both short-term success and long-term growth.

Going by the industry’s best practices, let me share with you some key insights into what will really work for you or your company.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
 
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
 
2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall

Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
BBA Management Education

Thursday, May 02, 2013

Why everybody at SpiceJet loves Raymond

Two years back, Neil Raymond Mills took over as SpiceJet’s new chief. Then, the airline was unwell. He began by slashing costs. Strategies that didn’t make economic sense were forgotten. Today, the airline appears a turnaround tale. Reality is, the job isn’t over yet. Worse, harsh history could repeat itself

A simple analogy. If you drive a car at a constant speed minus stops, you burn less fuel. The gains don’t become apparent after each short drive. But in a quarter of a year, the reduction in fuel consumption starts to show. The results become more pronounced in a year. Much is saved in gas and cash. Common sense. But most airlines in India ignore such small money-saving acts. SpiceJet is not one of them. At the airline, this “constant speed” philosophy is communicated as a compulsory key message to each of its newly recruited pilots. These cockpit handlers are supposed to remember it every time they leave an air strip. The idea is to get the pilots to save anywhere between 0.5% to 1% of the airline’s fuel bill. A small chunk saved. But at SpiceJet, if a cost can be avoided, it is.

Cost-cutting doesn’t always help
The company’s hardheaded emphasis on lowering costs does affect its operational efficiency metrics. Unfavourably at times. In July 2012, SpiceJet’s On-Time Performance (OTP) on domestic routes was 84.3%. That meant, about 16 of every 100 flights were delayed beyond 15 minutes. Much of this is can be blamed on the constant speed norm that is in place at the airline. This makes the airline’s record only better than the havoc-stricken Air India’s (OTP of 81.2%) and now-stripped-to-the-bone Kingfisher Airlines’ (81%). All other airlines recorded OTPs in the 90%-plus range [IndiGo: 95.3%, GoAir: 90.3%, and Jet: 91.6%]. The company isn’t one to worry about offloading passengers to peer carriers (and cancelling flights) either, when load factors don’t justify economics. The carrier strives to maintain an average load factor (LF) of over 75%, and plans to increase it over the quarters to come [in Q1, FY2012-13, LF was 80.8%]. Result: SpiceJet’s flight cancellation record (2%) is only better than those of Air India (3.2%) and Kingfisher (8.2%). Others boast of a lower figure (IndiGo: 0.1%, Jet:1.4%, GoAir: 1.6%).

Mills... a number-loving turnaround guy
But CEO Neil Mills, who has turned around the airline in the past two years, knows that these numbers only tell a part of the SpiceJet story. He is familiar with how budget airlines work. An industry veteran of over 20 years, this former CFO of Middle-Eastern LCC Flydubai knows his numbers fall on the rational side. He measures every paragraph in the book by weighing data. That is exactly how he helped build Flydubai from scratch. He plugged cost holes at the company, and improved its balance sheet, helping the airline grow from a drawing on the whiteboard to a fleet of nine operating aircraft in just a year-and-a-half. Before Flydubai, he was at easyJet for 12 long years. Under him, the company grew from 4 to 174 aircraft, and became one of the biggest, most profitable airlines in Europe.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

The way they love hate crimes!

The recent incidences of hate crimes in US and across the world highlight the importance of promoting greater tolerance at all levels

Hate crimes have long been a part of the history of mankind. Under European colonial rule in the 16th and 17th centuries, native Americans had to undergo social discrimination. Similarly, Nazis in Germany practiced the Final Solution to execute European Jews during World War II. In the last two centuries, hate crimes against African Americans and xenophobia have become rampant in Western countries.

For all its claims of being a land of liberty and tolerance, US boasts of some fairly unimpressive statistics. The FBI recorded the number of criminal incidents with a biased motivation from 2000 to 2008 from 14422 law enforcement agencies representing 278 million people. In all, it noted 777 incidents that were linked to ethnicity/national origin (1109 victims) and 1,303 incidents linked to religion (1575 victims). The recent brutal murder of an Iraqi-American woman Shaima Alawadi in San Diego (on March 24, 2012) and the shoot-out of an unarmed Black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida (on February 26, 2012), have highlighted the increase in crimes against minorities like Muslims, Black, ethnic Jews & Latinos.

In particular, America has witnessed a surge in the number of hate crimes against Muslims post 9/11. A report by the Journal of Applied Social Psychology explored that the number of anti-Muslim attacks in America in 2001 increased exponentially from 354 to 1501 following the attack. But the crimes were not limited to Muslims only. Other minorities were on target as well. As per the FBI’s recent Hate Crime Statistics, around 6,628 criminal incidents involving 7,699 offenses were reported in 2010. Along with Islamophobia, anti-Latino crimes have also increased manifold. A study conducted by Pew Research revealed that in 2003, there were 426 hate crimes against Latinos, while in 2007, there were 595 nationally. Hate crimes have also surged immensely in Canada. Canadian police services reported 1,401 hate crimes in 2010, which boils down to a rate of 4.1 hate crimes per 100,000 people.

Unfortunately, the trend in hate crimes, especially Islamophobia, is spreading like wildfire in Europe as well. According to the French Muslim umbrella group, French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), hate crimes against Muslims rose by 20% in the first nine months of 2011 in France. A record 15,284 people were prosecuted for hate crimes in England and Wales in 2010-11. However, the official data revealed by governments may be much lower than the actual figures on the ground, as research has found that many victims of hate crimes are often reluctant to come forward. The research further revealed that only one-third of the police reports were filed by the victims, while many incidents went unreported and were also swept under the carpet.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2013.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
 
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
 

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

“Allowing FDI in india’s airlines will not help”

B&E: At present, we have many airlines which are in serious need of funds in India, be it private carriers or the State-run airline. Do you think raising the FDI limit by up to 24% for foreign carriers will help improve matters?

Gordon Bevan (GB):
No. Opening the doors to FDI won’t encourage foreign airlines at the moment. It might make the investment climate in India more attractive, but not enough to warrant placement of capital in these markets. The airlines that have large exposure to the Indian market can manage to attract their traffic without local airline investment. Each airline can negotiate its own deal with carriers to secure Indian connecting traffic, but on international routes there may be duplication of effort. If Lufthansa acquired Jet Airways, what should the airline do with the Jet services to US? Lufthansa would want that traffic to route via Frankfurt or Munich. There may be a shrinking of direct services as the quickest way of gaining an ROI is to pump traffic through the owner’s hub system. I am sure the Indian Govt. would have an opinion on a shrinking, foreign-owned airline by now.

B&E: So are you suggesting that partnerships and code-sharing agreements instead of an acquisition would be better for the acquirers?

GB:
Many airlines have learnt that they can secure additional revenues from partner airlines without tying capital in airline ownership. The fashion is now for airlines to co-operate in a JV on a route or country-pair, deriving the best of both carriers without the cost of investment. Ultimately, airlines are about securing traffic and revenue streams. Except in very rare instances – Swiss and Lufthansa is a good example – foreign airline ownership does not deliver this aim.

B&E: There is a serious concern that it is the LCCs who will benefit more from this FDI limit if it is allowed, as they will enjoy better valuations at the moment due to their profitable status at present. Your views on this?

GB:
India represents all of the conditions to attract foreign LCC investment. LCCs would see the Delhi and Mumbai domestic markets as one where they could carve a sizeable market share. They are battle-hardened having had to compete with their own legacy carrier and legacy carriers at the other end of the route. The more successful LCCs already have high brand recognition within the Indian diaspora in countries like Malaysia, Australia and Europe. Exporting this brand to India would not represent a difficult challenge.

B&E: The count of domestic passengers in India is 55 million. Now is this enough a market size for foreign carriers to get greedy about? 

GB: I am not sure whether foreign legacy carriers can get too excited about a domestic market of 55 million that spends an average of $60/sector within India, or not. The reason 55 million Indians travel domestically is because of the level of fares at the moment. More interesting is the 38 million passengers that fly to and from India. In almost all cases airlines can pitch for this traffic without investing in Indian carriers. The domestic air market is also subject to non-air competition. Although the domestic air market has more than doubled in five years, average ticket prices have fallen to US$60 from $125 on average. Growth is developed through discounting – a message that legacy carriers are familiar with but not receptive to. It is clear that Indian domestic fares are unsustainably low. There is nothing wrong with low fares if it is related to the cost of production.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
 
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles
 
2012 : DNA National B-School Survey 2012
Ranked 1st in International Exposure (ahead of all the IIMs)
Ranked 6th Overall

Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri’s Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri – A Man For The Society….
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail

IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

 

Friday, April 12, 2013

“We Will follow our Motto of Keeping Supply Below Demand!”

Enrico Galliera, Commercial & Marketing Director at Ferrari SpA, joined the Italian luxury carmaker just a year back, after working for over two long decades at various positions in the marketing department of the Italian pasta-maker Barilla Holding Spa. In an exclusive interview with B&E, he reflects upon Ferrari’s rough ride during the slowdown, its performances in markets like China, Japan & South Africa, its attempt to create fuel-efficient engines, and his “supply-less” motto for succeeding in new markets.

B&E: Ferrari is a very well-established brand in the luxury car segment. It believes in selling premium quality than volumes. But contrary to conventional wisdom, even the luxury car sellers suffered considerably during the recent slowdown. How was the slowdown experience at Ferrari, especially when compared to the tough times faced by players like General Motors, Toyota and other labels which focus on volumes?
Enrico Galliera (EG):
As compared to what the volume players in the automobile industry went through during the economic crisis, the time was still a relatively better period for Ferrari. As we generally work with a 12-month waiting period, the economic crisis cannot be termed the worst period for Ferrari so far, though we did get hurt to an extent. To be honest, it would be wrong to say that we were totally insulated from the economic crisis. But what saved our topline during the 2008-2009 period was our entry into newer markets like South Africa, which helped the company manage overall volumes. The fact that South Africa, in such a short time has become the 15th largest market for Ferrari out of the 59 countries that we are present in, gives you a fair idea of how the market played a saviour.

B&E: So do you plan to enter other countries in the African continent, just in case you would require more cushion if there is another slowdown soon?
EG:
Actually, yes. The response we got in the South African market has motivated the company to expand to other African countries as well in the near future. We already have Ferrari owners in markets like Mozambique, Angola and Nigeria, and I am sure, given a tough business scenario in the near future, these emerging markets will serve us well.

B&E: China is another market which has over the years, impressed luxury automobile sellers. Your company has spent 7 years in China, but it has all been rather silent there. Has your time in China been a rather dull one?
EG:
No. We have seen huge growth and penetration in the Chinese market over the past few years. China has been and is a very important market for Ferrari. Though I confess that after entering China in 2004, we did take a few years trying to understand the market. But today, we are geared-up to increase our volumes there as well. To quote a figure, Ferrari sold over 300 units in China in 2010, which market a y-o-y increase of 40%. That for us is phenomenal. And going forward, we only expect the sales to rise higher. It was a slow start, but we are catching up very fast.

B&E: Next, to Japan and Egypt – what degree of pressure do natural disasters like the Tsunami in Japan and unforeseen events like the unrest in Egypt put on the sales of your company?
EG:
Such incidents for that matter, are surely bad signs for any luxury carmaker. Japan is undoubtedly one of the most important markets for Ferrari. But trouble there had begun even before the catastrophic events unfolded in April this year. Even before the Tsunami, there was a slowdown in sales due to the stagnant situation of overall economy of the country. With the Tsunami occurring, our problems in Japan have only been aggravated. The company is today really concerned about Japan and how long it will take for such an important market to recover. At the same time, unrest in Egypt and several Middle-Eastern countries is also a major concern for the company.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
 
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles