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Monday, March 29, 2010

TiE Entrepreneurial Summit on Travel and Hospitality

Where and What: Last week i took part in the TiE entrepreneurial summit that took place in Hyderabad Many known faces such as Deep Kalra the founder of makemytrip.com were present. The summit was held at the Raheja IT Park and was well received by all the players of the industry. The AP State Tourism Minister also was present.

On a personal note, I had the chance to meet Maheshwar Peri, the ex-Head of Outlook during the summit after about two long years. He was telling that my Ex-Boss was doing well.

New Ideas: I also met a few of my prospective clients there. It was amazing to see many young kids comingup with the business ventures. One worth mentioning was Digital Art works. With a team size of 7 and a relatively innovative business model and absence of an MBA in the organization, the company was growing at whooping 20%

I also met an other entreprising lady named Sri Vallika there who is planing to enhance the customer experience in the tevel sites. One more entreprising person wasViveik Jha, an entreprising Delhi IITian, who started a travel content site.

So graet learning for the day and here i dozz off for the day!!!!!!!!!!!!! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Friday, March 12, 2010

Brand Energising

If you are marketing a product or service, you want to experience growth. Easier said than done now-a-days! However, a fantastic way to induce growth in an existing product market is by energizing your brand. A brand energizer is a subbrand or brand that energizes and enhances the parent brand. These energizers could be products, promotion, endorsers, or any source of energy attached to the brand. It may or not be part of the offering.

Here are two examples to get you thinking.
Avon is the world’s leading direct seller of beauty products for women. How do they energize their brand? They are HUGE proponents of the fight against breast cancer, and have created the Avon Foundation Breast Cancer Crusade. Their annual Avon Walk for Breast Cancer is a highly successful fundraiser and is very well known. Philanthropy is a wonderful way to energize your brand because it helps a great cause and brings goodwill to your brand!

Westin is a popular hotel chain. As a way to differentiate and energize their brand, they came up with the Westin Heavenly Products. It is the “Westin Difference” of a heavenly experience. These products include sensory welcome (scents, plush surroundings), Westin Breathe (smoke-free environment), Heavenly spa, and many other luxuries. The headliner for this energizer is the Westin Heavenly Bed. The hotel describes the sleeping experience as being “enveloped by layers of down, 250-count sheets, five plush pillows, and our exclusive pillow-top mattress. It is a combination so divine, it took the hotel industry by storm when it was introduced in 1999.” Sounds great, right? Westin was able to successfully energize their brand by promoting a luxurious style into their average hotel brand.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Entrepreneur 7 Point To Do List

Become a Generalist: While there is a drive toward specialization in every area of our lives, the person who commands armies is called a General. Being a generalist allows you to have a lot of flexibility as a business owner. It means you have to know the fundamentals of how business works, as well as how all the independent parts work together to create success.

Know the Numbers--Yours and Everyone Else's: Numbers are a great and can be a great motivational force in your business and your life. Numbers are also the language of business, so you'll need to become fluent in them and familiarize yourself with a number of different formulas and key benchmarks if you want your business to be successful. What are some key numbers you need to know and learn?
You should start by knowing the size of your targeted market, the number of companies currently competing in that space, the types of revenues they are generating and the kind of profit margins they are currently running.

Also remember in any startup, expenses are usually 30-35 percent more than expected and revenues are always less than planned. Adjust accordingly and be prepared to alter your plans if the numbers don't add up.

Treat Your Day Job Like an Apprenticeship To Being An Entrepreneur: Your best ally in your current position is time. Use it to leverage your knowledge of what works (and what doesn't), and learn as much as you can about what drives sales and profits, because those are lessons you can use at some point in the future.
What can you learn in your current position that will help you down the road? What don't you know about your current company's operations that you could learn in terms of sales, marketing or accounting that could broaden your understanding of business generally?

Work More Jobs: Would you open a restaurant for the first time without ever working in a restaurant? Maybe you wouldn't, but I've had clients who did. And the results weren't pretty. To avoid this fate is find ways to work in the type of business you are thinking of starting.

Besides, who do you think would bring more experience to their particular enterprise: The person who only worked one job in one industry, or the person who worked in 20? Business, at its core, is a numbers game. The more you can make the numbers work in your favor, the better your chances of success.
Learn The Value of Systems: Systems are the key to creating better and more profitable businesses. Until you can learn to systematize fundamental processes, you'll forever be reinventing the wheel--be it in your current job or in your business.
This can take the form anything from a script for answering phones to your overall sales and marketing processes. While these are vital to understand and key to success, it's also important to get familiar with hard systems and technical systems like phone systems and IT and internet configurations.

Get Good at Sales: In business, nothing happens until a sale is made. If you are the owner of the company, you will be expected to generate sales. Sure, you can hire out this function but my experience has shown me that at least initially, your customers are going to want to first buy from you.

Learn the Rules: You can't play a good game if you don't know the rules or the objective of your game. So get some grounding in the legal aspects of business, forming your own business, local tax codes and licensing requirements and jurisdictions.

This is especially important for of home-based businesses and professional services firms. Some states and municipalities have rules against operating companies out of a home, or have special requirements and tests to sell accounting, legal or financial services.

While there are a number of other things you need to learn and adopt to succeed in business, these seven are a good place to start.

There are few truly new things under the sun. So build on the intellectual capital of those who have gone before you.

And it's more valuable now than ever before.

Osacrs Require a Reboot

"You have Never Seen Oscar Like This." That's the tagline chosen by producers of the 82nd Oscars, which will air Sunday night across the world hoping to avoid becoming just another reality TV show, only with big, big stars. Though it remains Hollywood's ultimate accolade, the Oscar are no longer the attraction they once were. Viewers have deserted the show by the millions over recent years, distracted by the internet and turned off by often stodgy presentations and the esoteric films that dominate the nominees.

But this could be different this year. The interest in joint top nominee Avatar could draw millions of new fans, and the programme's producers are hoping they will do enough to keep their interest.

Producer Bill Mechanic is promising something "exceptional, as opposed to just good" telling the industry website The Wrap that the show will be "fun, funny - very emotional."

He failed to provide any details on how he plans to rejuvenate the often tired extravaganzas of recent years, which everyone complains have continued for far too long.

He did tell of two buzzwords that are guiding the production: "interconnectivity" and "organic" which probably means the show will be snappier, with segments flowing naturally and more clearly linked to the top film nominations.

Producers have also let reporters catch a peak at the set, which will feature actors appearing from different spots, including from behind hidden screens. The two-level stage will include three revolving platforms and a multitude of mirrors designed to bring the audience and performers into closer contact.

The show will be hosted by two veteran funny-men, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, but producers are looking to a pack of young stars like Miley Cyrus, Zac Efron, Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart to bring back the youthful viewers who are essential to the Oscars' future. They even signed up Joel Madden to be the show's the official DJ of the Academy Awards.

Also announced as presenters are Baron Cohen, Tyler Perry, Jason Bateman, Steve Carell, Tina Fey and Ben Stiller as well as past Oscar winners Penelope Cruz, Kate Winslet and Sean Penn.

The Oscar organizers are do determined that viewers will have fun, they have even established an Oscar party kit they can download at http://www.oscars.org/partykit, which includes printable Oscar-night ballots and how-to videos showing how to make party dishes and deserts, and recipes for movie-themed cocktails.

Read more: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/311822,analysis-oscars-need-a-refresh-to-stay-relevant.html#ixzz0fMIJqwL4