Month: November 2010

How to reach customers? How to expand customer base? How to get noticed by customers? How to succeed? The only answer to the questions is “information-technology” or IT.

Using information-system effectively is the stepping-stone for a company’s strategy. Its evident that companies who use effective ways of reaching customers has accomplished, not only getting a competitive advantage from rivals but also enjoying brand loyalty.

Facebook, twitter, YouTube, MySpace and many more act as a means of social media and have revolutionized IT. Apple, Coca-Cola, Pepsi etc took the initiative of using IT effectively, which enabled them to reach customers. As an outcome, customers are aware of the products. This paves the company’s path towards obtaining a greater market share and develops brand loyalty.

However, if a company chooses the wrong way to reach customers and target the wrong group of customers, it will result in a catastrophe. It will incur losses rather than thriving in the market. Therefore, a proper blend of identifying the means and mechanizing a strategy that deals with reaching the objectives is vital.

The pillar of success of giant companies has been IT because it blends with every aspect of the business from accounting to marketing.

When I think of a social entrepreneur, the first person that comes to my mind is Dr.Muhammad Yunus, the managing director of Grameen bank. He introduced Grameen Bank as the bank of the poor. It offered micro-credit to people who don’t possess the creditability to borrow money and repay principal with interest.

How did micro-credit changed the world of poor? Click here. Jarima Khan, a poor woman whose husband earned 20 cents/day, was unable to eat even two meals a day. In December 1997, she heard of Grameen bank and borrowed her first loan of $20 USD. She used it to trade rice and today, she lives a happy and comfortable life fulfilling her and her family needs. Alike Jarima, there are thousands of poor women who borrowed money from Grameen bank and paved their path towards happiness.

This idea is a revolution. Grameen bank is based on mutual trust, participation and strict supervision.  This social entrepreneur has identified a social problem and mechanized an effective solution to solve it. By 2050, micro-credit system is expected to reduce world poverty by 50%.

It’s a step towards making poverty a history.

Entrepreneurial relates to the decision-making and efficient utilization of the factors of production, which leads to a rise in wealth and innovation of the company. EBay, a multimillion-dollar company, is a concrete example of being entrepreneurial. It operates in more than 30 countries of the world offering an online market where the buyer and seller can meet to trade. EBay exhibits entrepreneurial characteristic, as it not only creates a new market but also adds significantly to innovation with respect to new product methods.

EBay emerged with the idea of creating a new market where anyone can sell and anyone can buy. The medium is internet, which provides every individual and businesses with an opportunity to be a part of e-commerce and trade wide range of goods and services worldwide. Moreover, EBay innovated new methods of selling; creating new payment systems that has revolutionized the e-commerce. For instance, billing systems such as “bill me later” has added to the facilitation of online payments.

I would conclude stating that EBay aided commerce to become “mobile commerce”.

Sources:

http://www.ebay.com/

http://www.techvibes.com/blog/ebay-seeks-canadas-best-entrepreneurs-innovators-and-family-businesses

“People are organization” this line struck my mind during class 14. These three words narrates the success story of many businesses, such as KenCall, Kenya’s largest and most successful contact center. KenCall supports retail businesses to NGOs and utilities to financial services. The only spice to this success recipe is organizational culture.

KenCall has established common values and beliefs. It leads to a unified approach towards meeting the goals, which in turn achieved high customer satisfaction. Certainly, HRM has played a vital role in building the positive organizational culture and enable employees enjoy higher job satisfaction. They not only followed up regular discussions on the strengths and weaknesses of KenCall, which helped reduce role ambiguity for employees and develop the approach towards completing a task, but also motivated them. For example, the supervisor often rewards the employees with rewards such as champagnes, gift hampers or even a thank you card. Such intrinsic factors motivate the employees, peeling out the best from them. This directly effects customer service, where the customers enjoy service of an employee who himself enjoy his work. This results a win-win situation for both the KenCall and its customers.

Sources: http://www.callcentrehelper.com/