Imran Siddiqui's Blog

“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/

There are a thousand of mp3 players and laptops in the market but why do most of us desire of iPods or Mac book? The answer is branding power and advertisement of Apple. As an outcome of effective marketing technique, which includes persuasive advertisement and slogans, consumers tend to be more inclined towards Apple products, as it has successfully secured a unique position in consumer’s mind.

Quality, outlook and durability—has been the key components of Apple products, which have been fully utilized to brand the products, yielding the maximum. If we consider the SWOT analysis of Apple, research and development is one of the key components, which is greatly responsible for Apple’s success. It paves the path towards the advent of new products and each product is far ahead than any other product available in the market—in terms of quality and feature. Recently, Apple has removed curtain from new IPod that is more advanced and just like all other Apple products, it has also aided enhancing the revenue, adding to $15.68 billion (first quarter of the fiscal year).

There is no competitor who can hold Apple but Apple is likely to hold the entire hardware market soon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc.#2005.E2.80.932007:_The_Intel_transition

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/01/25results.html

Mr. Ratan, the chairperson Tata, used to see people travelling on a scooter with three children. His vision was to give them a comfortable carrier, and it took years to give his vision a name, “Tata Nano”. This car is offered for only $2500 CAD. The performance of Nano is magnificent compared to the price it is offered at. The question that arises in my mind is what is Tata’s benefit of producing cars at such a cheap price? Now consider these facts:

Þ    Tata will enjoy gigantic sales revenue from Nano in India.

Þ    The way Tata has established a position in consumers mind as the first cheapest car ever; Tata is likely to be the first choice for many new buyers resulting more business for Tata.

Þ    If Nano is sold abroad, it’s likely to be the cheapest car even after meeting all the safety regulations, comfort standards and tariffs. Therefore, it can earn more targeting a specific group of customers, such as students.

Nano is not for the millionaires, it’s not for billionaires, but it’s for the average income earners. It’s not only a car; it’s a luxury of your life at the price of necessity.

What comes to your mind when you think of tasty—healthy—fast food? The obvious answer is “Subway”.  Feeding in 33556 worldwide, Subway holds a large market share in the food industry.

Despite immense competition from gigantic companies such as McDonald’s etc, Subway has secured a unique place in consumers mind. Subway has successfully created a position in consumers mind as a restaurant offering low fat fast food without making any compromises with the taste. They are the first one to create this position as a leader, which makes it difficult for other companies to reposition it. Subway’s marketing strategy focuses on the current market trends and maximization of consumer satisfaction. One remarkable marketing strategy was using the result of weight loss resulting from Subway diet and the calorie calculator. It also sponsors events with the American Heart Association Heart Walks and local events for children, which further enhances its marketing to a peak. However, there have been certain controversies regarding the size of sandwiches but Subway has successfully overcome these problems by reviewing their advertisements.

Don’t be surprised if Subway becomes the next big thing in the near future because it’s already half of the way.

Sources:

http://www.thearticleboard.com/decide-subway-meal-with-subway-calorie-counter/

http://ezinearticles.com/?Fast-Food-Market-Forecast—The-Subway-Example-of-Strategic-Product-Positioning&id=735770

Indian cosmetic market was worth $2.5 Billion in 2008 with a growth rate of 7%. It is likely to have a total growth of 13%-20% in 2012. Despite the dazzling numbers, approach of many companies to the consumers in questionable. Recently, I came across an advertisement that was promoting an idea among people, which I found to be unethical. I am not against the idea of using persuasive advertisement techniques; rather I found some of the ideas to be genius. I am against the idea of giving a false impression to people. The advertisement portrayed that girls with dark complexion are unlikely to be selected for an airhostess.  Therefore, if people with dark complexion use the cream, they can become fair and get the job. However, greater importance is given to talents rather than looks for jobs of such category.

In my opinion, the advertising companies are targeting the psychological side of dark people influencing them to buy a cream that is only creating an idea that’s not fair. It is also against the culture and values of India to promote more of the serration of people with dark complexion than those with fair complexion, which is indeed unethical.

Sources:

http://www.michigandaily.com/content/devadatta-gandhi-fair-and-lovely

http://www.prlog.org/10241770-indian-cosmetic-market-to-grow-at-7-cagr.html

A large portion of Bangladesh garment industry is dedicated to the production of export clothing for MNCs all over the world. Asda, a UK retail company and a part of Walmart, is buying George clothing produced in the factories of Bangladesh. There have been no such complaints regarding the quality of the product, however, the wage rate paid to the labors is significantly low. The amount of money Bangladeshi labors earn is insufficient to buy a proper living standard for them, which includes food, clean water, clothing and all other daily necessities.

Although the minimum wage rate set by the government is very low, is it ethical for the company itself to give such a minimal wage? The answer is NO. The clothing produced by these labors yield very high revenue for Asda but the company is reluctant to pay a wage rate that even meets the necessities of such labors. As an outcome the labors are vulnerable to lower standard of living and the company is gaining more and more market share by offering cheap fashion to the consumers all over the world.

Is this business ethics or pure business? Only pure business.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10535743

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