If you are still scratching heads and plan to Google about which day is it today? Well, no more waiting. I wish you all a Very Happy Women’s Day! Yes today is International Women’s Day. A day dedicated to celebrate the economic, political and social achievements of Women.

If you are still thinking, “But hey! We were talking about the largest market in the world, and now you are talking about the International Women’s day?” Let me tell you that you are at the right place. Here are some facts to let you know on this auspicious occasion:

1. According to a survey Women have 85% share in consumer brand purchase decisions. This includes homes, foods, cars and bank account.
   
2. According to the book “Marketing to Women” Women are the largest market and have buying power bigger than Japan’s economy.
3. Over half the US GDP is spent by American Women. source
   
4. More and more girl children are getting educated, earn themselves and are paid higher. The employment rates independence has increased in leaps and bounds. The whole demographics have changed. A time article
   
5. Thanks to the working ladies there’s now a concept called as the second income in a family. This has not only increased the purchasing power but more importantly empowered women to take active part in decision making.

So while we are definitely indebted to our mothers, sisters and loved ones we should not forget to realize them as our best market. Since BizDharma is learning all about business, I thought this insight will help you further.

Again post understanding these facts and realizing the importance. Just think:

1. Is your product somewhere influenced if not directly purchased by a Woman? Like most of the houses are purchased by Men but the decision maker behind them is a women.
2. Women products require woman as the lead in the ads, but so is the case with Men’s products. Isn’t it? Does your marketing strategy, your ads etc take care of the same?
3. Do you provide offers that push the fair sex to please the men to buy? This is very important because your million dollar campaign may be neglected but a demand from wife cant be.
4. Do you have Women Sales Professionals? That’s very important. You know why we have receptionists, HRs and similar roles more with women. They are much stronger in understanding the issue and handling difficult people. So isn’t all this sufficient to have women in your sales staff.
5. Women as we understand generally have some upper hand in areas like organization, planning, cleanliness, aesthetics, luxury, beauty and sensibility. If women are not in your product development teams, there are signs that your product or service is lacking one of these important elements. That’s a serious issue.

So with all these pointers, I believe as a blog writer I have paid my tribute to the world’s biggest and fastest growing market. And while you are dealing with any decision for your business you definitely need to think about the women. As we all know, behind every successful man there is a woman. (Never heard a vice versa for this, though).

True generosity must benefit both parties. No woman can control her destiny if she doesn’t give to herself as much as she gives of herself - Suze Orman

No related posts.

We all had our share of pains due to the economic recession we faced. The ways we buy have undergone a good amount of change. We have experienced meltdowns, tumbling profits, layoffs, gloomy markets and absurdly high inflation. This has changed our lifestyle. Yes we do still survive but now rather than negotiating the price of a product we buy, we first negotiate with ourselves whether we really require the product!

With such a radical shift can we assume that businesses that produce  necessity products (like food, clothing and shelter) will only be the one to survive? Or will the ones who would really cut their bottom lines survive such a market? Well may be not. So how can we sell more during the meltdown and even post that.

After some deep meditation on this topic here’s what I have. I have compiled a set of quick tips which are made of 2 words that can lead you to rocketing profits.

Ways to sell more even when your price is high.

1. Quality King. If you can ensure that your product delivers much better quality than the competition the game is yours. It need not mean add all the features that the competition gives. Add enough features so that I buy but the quality should really drive me crazy.
2. Necessity Mama. Heard Necessity is the mother… I will always pay higher price for food of better quality, rather than buying from hawkers. If your product can become a necessity, the customer will pay a price. If it isn’t, think how can you make it a necessity?
3. Only one. If you are the only one who provides me that product. Can that be possible, why not? If you have a patent for your technology no one else can sell that. Read the Intellectual Property Right article. If I want to buy a Gillete Mach 3 kind of razor, I don’t really have an option!
4. Guarantee it. If you give a guarantee and ensure that the customer has nothing to lose, you are half way through the sale. People are afraid. They will only pull out those green bills out of the pocket if you can ensure them that the decision is right.
5. Right Timing. If you are selling at a time, the customer is desperate to buy. Imagine a train about to leave and you got down to buy a bottle because your kids are thirsty. Will you waste time to bargain on the cost and leave the train? Or will you pay a premium and board? Timing is very important in every negotiation.
   
6. Awesome Charisma. Hands down, you are the Steve Jobs of your business. People adore you. Remember, if you can influence the decision maker, the deal is right in your pocket. Try developing charisma, it won’t harm.
7. Regulatory requirement. It’s mandatory to buy from you. Say if you are a company complying with certain standard and it’s compulsory for me to buy stuff of that particular standard, that grade. The competition gets narrow here.
8. Great Goodwill. You have been around for some time and people are simply fan of the service you provide. They swear by your fanatic support and simply drag other clients to your stores. Even in this world where a customer is bombarded with tons of ads a day, a simple word of mouth is still preferred.
9. Right contacts. You know people – who know people – who will buy. In short they can provide you with enough leads that are ready to get converted. They are your torch bearers in the market hence you sell. So if you can’t impress the end customers, amuse these torch bearers.
10. Complete Flexibility. Remember how the shampoo industry got a boost post they started selling sachets. If you can provide flexibility to choose the right size, right quality, right packaging, right delivery etc, which is not yet an industry standards, there are very good chances to attract more people.

Does the list end here? Well absolutely not. There are many similar thoughts that will keep flowing and there are quite a few smarties sitting on the other side of this screen (That’s you) who can even provide great inputs. I am open to your suggestion, Just think of 2 words idea that when implemented can increase sales of a company.

Also before signing off I would recommend you should definitely subscribe for RSS or Email alerts (right on homepage), so that you never miss a post!

If you are not taking care of your customer, your competitor will. - Bob Hooey

No related posts.

Like many of us I had a rough idea about what Intellectual Property rights are, after attending several startup events and meeting enough innovators who pop ideas on the fly and yet don’t know how to protect one; I have now decided myself go through the tons of resources online and create some quick nuggets that will help Business owners and Professionals know what Intellectual Property Rights are.

This would be a course of posts that will try to compile knowledge from various sources to give you a gist of what you are required to know. Do note that I am no where giving you any power that you simply start assuming everything and think that an IP professional is not required. What I intend is to give you the basics, and rather know how important an IP Professionals advice is to save your day. Here we go.

What is an Intellectual Property?

The word intellectual is described b the Merriam-Webster dictionary as: of or related to or guided by the intellect. It is something which is an outcome of your thinking. It can be anything. From a simple blog post like this, to Yanni’s composition. We apply our intellectual powers in daily life. To solve problems, to find opportunities, or to expedite something.
Intellectual Property is defined as a business’s proprietary knowledge. A logo, taste, feel or structure of the product which differentiates the brand. We connect with the logo of a peacock in CNBC, the shape of a Coke bottle, the design of a Merc and the music our favorite track. These are all properties of their respective owners.

Take an example, you are looking forward to invest in stock markets and are now deciding between buying one of the two Stock Market guides available at a book store. Both the book seems equally good. You are confused which one to pick! But you also know that CNBC is a market leader in providing news about Share markets. If someone starts selling a book on Stock Market with a big logo of CNBC on it, will you buy that book? Won’t it help with increase in the sales? And if the content is futile, won’t it degrade the image of CNBC? Just by adding a logo on cover of the book we can actually appreciate or depreciate a brand by millions of dollars. What if someone blindly copies the design of an iPod and starts selling it? A business needs to ensure that all its intellectual ideas are well protected and are not misused by any Intellectual Property theft.

Just before going any further; do remember that an idea simply residing in your brain can’t be secured by IP rights. Because it’s not your property! Now what do I mean with that is, you can’t restrict some one else from thinking the same thing that you thought, right? But if you have acted upon your thought and written down that blog post, or song, designed that logo or structured that design. It’s an outcome. And an outcome can be protected. Also do note that, something which is very obvious also can’t be copyrighted.

So now, what is an Intellectual Property Right?

Taking the above discussion forward, an intellectual property right or law gives you exclusive rights over your creation. And since it’s your intellectual property, (emphasize property), it can be sold, traded and dealt with like any other property. Unclear? Let’s take an example to understand.

Recently LG has launched a new model called the Giorgio Armani mobile phone. Now does that mean Armani is getting into producing mobiles? No, absolutely not. LG will be using the goodwill of the name Giorgio Armani to boost sales of its new mobile phone which is made for the people with a “Lifestyle” so to say. So shouldn’t Giorgio Armani get some share of the profit for lending their name? That’s how you utilize your Intellectual Property power, once the property is well known.

Types of Intellectual Property

Intellectual Property is mostly classified into two. Will add intellectual property examples so that you understand well.

1. Copyrights – This contains your literary work, poems, multimedia etc.
2. Industrial Rights – This includes
   1. Patents – A shoe fastener or the Velcro in a child’s shoe is a patented idea.
   2. Trademarks – The big M and the tagline “I’m lovin’ it”, are trademarks that belong to Mac Donald’s.
   3. Trade Secrets – The most repeated one in this category is the taste of Coca-Cola. The recipe is Coke’s trade secret.

There are other intellectual properties like registered designs that also can be registered and protected. Also there is a fair use clause which we will discuss in the post where we will have copyright explained.

In the coming posts will highlight the key understanding required for each of the above subcategories.

Finally a strong advice before leaving. All the information available here is just for education purposes and it intends no warranty or guarantee. When you are ready to take plunge in the world of IP all you would first need is an IP professional who will help you out in understanding the course, getting your property registered and protecting it from infringements. You have to abide to laws applicable to your state and yes it depends on the country you are in. (Also the brands mentioned here are just for educational purpose and are property of their respective owners)

So now you have a fair understanding of what IP is, next time on will probably gather some nuggets on Copyrights for all of you.

No related posts.

Google has been around for more than a decade now. With its super powerful search engine it has literally dominated the online search world and updated its algorithm day in day out, to remain ahead of the race. But there is a strong reason why I make such a bold statement here. Follow on.

What is Google?  A powerful search engine that provides you the best possible results for any search query. People love Google. Google is the leader. Blah, Blah,Blah. Period. When compared to Google Twitter is at times just a new fad to talk about. Or is it?

Most of the antagonist will say that Twitter doesn’t make any sense. You are either self promoting or writing stuff no ones actually bothered to know until and unless you are a Britney Spears. Quite true but still it makes sense, and a lot of sense so to say. Rather than putting up a idiotic definition, lets take a strong example.

You log in to Twitter and find people talking about what are they doing? That’s the only stuff that you let your followers know. Its 8 am morning and some are yawning in their tweets, some trying to open up their plans on twitter and some are talking to others how pathetic their breakfast is! For a normal guy it makes no sense to read all this stuff, to read what people are having for breakfast; but for someone who is into making breakfast products that’s a gold mine. The business personnel (here the breakfast company) tweets back to the customer a page that highlights what should he have during mornings for a refreshing start. There are many tips which the reader will enjoy on the breakfast page. Oats are also a part of the meal. recommended. The same company has a “Oats special” version of flakes on  which a discount coupon or a ‘free sample of this flakes to be home delivered’ - kind of offer is available on the page. What are the chances of the person giving it a try? How many of say 1000 people whom the company offers this deal will be interested? I wrote about such communication on twitter some time back.

May be you still don’t believe that leads can be generated this way. What about tweets like “The Boss wants the presentation in 1 hr!! Appraisals are near. God SOS !” Can a custom design company specializing into slick Power point presentation design, pitch in? Try to know how can such a firm get leads otherwise. If you don’t see many opportunities than Twitter is something worth trying!

Finally how does this all be better than Google. Well following is the detailed comparison.

1. Where does the data come from –
   
   1. Google ranks pages as per the algorithm. They are not the best services available on the planet, but they are the best brains who managed to create buzz and end up on Google’s first page.
   2. Twitter users communicate – They talk about which service is good and which one is bad. They took pain in tweeting those 140 characters because it mattered to them. You get immediate feedback. Which is not only instant, but also the most current one.
2. You cant talk to a webpage
   
   1. Google is a webpage search engine (mostly). And if you end up having some doubts about the information that you get via the webpage (which was the first in the Google search) whom do you get back to? Is there any way you can get all your doubts resolved?
   2. Twitter on the other hand will list a number of tweets in the search. The most recent ones will highlight what kind of communication is going on about the product, service or the whole genre. Fianlly end of the day you can ask the users as they are people tweeting there and not webpages.
3. Who is on demand – Try Searching for a phrase with 2 words, like -  “Traffic” and name of the city you belong to, on Google and on Twitter. Read the first 10 results. What will help you more? Try similar combination of various brands, genres etc. Yes at times Twitter results would be almost crappy, but you still have tons of tweets to analyze and basis the users tweet karma you can make out how sensible or credible his advice would be for you.
4. Who’s dynamic – For most of the results fired in short intervals Google will result the same output for a given search, Twitter would be dynamic. Try searching the same phrase the whole day, Twitter results keep on changing. Yeah, At times Google’s result would be more authentic as it prefers credible sources who are back linked or sources like wikipedia which generally gets one of the top three slots, but you will have to still rely on Twitter to get whats the recent take on the issue or topic you are researching on.
5. Finally human brain is the best algorithm available– This is the last point that I would place forth. Google search engine although being he de facto, is at end of the day a piece of software. An algorithm that works a particular way. SEO Companies have gradually mastered to boost search rankings at least to a pretty decent extent by fooling the software. Twitter is about human interactions. They are impulsive and change at the speed of thought, this is a God made algorithm at the end of the day. Isn’t it?

So here are we, done with the advantages of Twitter over Google. Some might be still skeptical but end of the day they too will head to twitter to find out what’s going on. And even if they dont! Google already has tie ups with Twitter now. Google will start posting tweets to them on its homepage !

“Understand that you need to sell you and your ideas in order to advance your career, gain more respect, and increase your success, influence and income.” - Jay Abraham

Related posts:

1. 7 lessons from the companies who make 6.5 million dollars using Twitter!
2. Little things really matter much. Google acquires recaptcha and the logic behind it.
3. Aren’t magazines like ‘Time’ misleading us?

In this highly competitive world we very well understand that there are more sellers than buyers. The only way to get a customer and retain her is by providing more value. But what we don’t understand is the value of ‘value’.

Easier said than done we are slowly getting into the problem called gold plating the products or services. We are trying to provide something which is not asked for and by doing so we assume to get more appreciation from the customer.

I am not against providing more value, more frills to the product but before thinking in that direction one needs to answer a basic question – “What is it, when added will appreciate the product in customer’s eye without making dent on our bottom lines?”

In project management terminology it’s even related to Feature Creep. Feature Creep happens where in a team is trying to add new features to the product/service which were in the first place not asked by the client or the stake holders.

This can be disastrous. In Gold plating our business we are not trying to add real core functions but intend to increase the product value by beautifying it with other accessories that we perceive will add more value.

To emphasize the drawbacks more, following are the immediate disadvantages of Gold plating that will convince you to focus on the core rather than adding false value.

1. Directly affects the Project constraints – The Projects that we undertake are always constrained by the Cost, Schedule and Scope. By gold plating these variables are directly impacted. You might end up increasing the scope of the product, missing the delivery deadlines or over budgeting the endeavor.
2. Ends up in feature creep – As already mentioned, adding more features to increase value is a common jeopardy most businesses are now a days getting fixed with. When adding new features sky is the limit and you need to know where to draw the boundary line.
3. Increases client expectations forever – In case if you are in a regular service business gold plating can set wrong expectations with the client. The client will assume the similar kind of freebies with all the stuff that you provide. This will than prove to be a self killing prophecy.
4. Pyjama lovers don’t like Tuxedos – You might not think that way but there are people who love it the minimalist way. Adding stuff that they don’t require will irritate them rather than amusing. Its good to provide customized coffee in hotels, but if you ask everything from how much beans, sugar, milk to be added and how would they like it served it will irritate the consumer rather than empowering them. Do remember the simple rule Pyjama lovers don’t like Tuxedos.
5. You added 2 units free and I just want 1 more – This ones my favorite. You already know how much passionate I am about sharing negotiation nuggets. We discussed about Batna here. If you have a shrewd client and she knows that you are throwing in good amount of free stuff it will be assumed that its your duty to do so, the negotiation starts from there. What more are you ready to give in. “Ya you gave me two free units by yourself but I expect three”. Got the point.
6. Demoralizes team if they don’t own it – More important than your external customer is your internal customer. Before deciding what kind of gold plating you will offer the external client, do take a concurrence from the internal one. Knowing that the stuff they are developing is not what is required by the client simply demoralizes the team and creates mistrust. They simply believe that the leadership is here to rip them apart. If the team doesn’t own it they will never deliver the best of what they can.
7. Results in Wastage – The time and resources wasted in unnecessary gold plating of one business can be utilized fruitfully in enhancing other businesses or capturing new leads. We can even give these gold plating ideas to client rather then providing them free of cost. If the features are liked, the client might end up paying for the same, preventing you from wasting money on them and serving them for free.

So these were some very simple nuggets on how Gold Plating can harm your business more than you actually think. Hope the next time you plan to offer something to the client, it will offer more value. More of gold and less of plating.

No related posts.

We all work in teams; whether in office, at home or any party. We are found in herds. And most of the time if not always we remember these teams. The ‘office team’ to deliver the last project. The school group who were always asked to stand on the bench, college gang who was nowhere found near college. We always were team. But do we have a different feeling when it comes to office teams vs the other teams we had. Was the office experience equally awesome as the rest experiences?

Somehow the spirit of being a team doesn’t just get in. Ya! I listen to many out here, that it’s because John is not cooperative, or Joe loses temper a lot. Wasn’t that the case with other teams? Were we teams in college days since all had the same temperament level? We had different attitudes but had some sort of common vibes that we shared. Some rhythm that made us inseparable. Working as a group then was fun and not work. To be precise - there was a Team Culture.

Last Sunday I had a déjà vu in the same regards. I took part in the  Mumbai Marathon. Most of us didn’t know why we were there and by running 6 / 21 / 42 Kms what the heck  were we going to add in someone’s life (I was running 6 km aka Dream Run). Same is the case in any company. We do share a vision but not all from the CEO right to the watchman have their actions aligned to the goal (some how!). As college gangs we never pushed ourselves to anything and yet achieved satisfaction, but as professionals we have goal sheets to drive us, yet no outcomes.

Back to Marathon. With no understanding what so ever we were about to run the 6 Kms Dream Run at a stretch. It was 9.30 in the morning and the sun rays were all set to burn us. Still the spirits were high! There’s much chaos in offices today same as it was there with those thousands of runners but still at office high spirits just doesn’t work. In a Dream Run we have to complete the race, but there’s no competition about who comes first. In companies we don’t know whether the race will be completed and the client will be happy but there is a race for the next promotion cycle (having a déjà vu?)

I believe it’s the spirit of togetherness that makes or breaks any team. Notice how your team interacts with each other for a couple of days post a picnic. Notice how they help each other after a 2 hour session with the HR (if at all you have). Somewhere things just stick to subconscious mind and they stick better to the subconscious rather than the conscious. Whether it’s an office outing or a Family gathering, bonds do strengthen automatically. And finally, if that is the case we can simply influence how a team performs by working on the subconscious. Are there any ways your company or you as a leader working on it?

End of the day I had great fun from the Marathon and a very sensible thought that I conveyed couple of friends who didn’t join me for the dream run. The thought is:

If you work as a team, enjoy whatever the outcome is, as a team. The outcome simply becomes an achievement in itself and even a 6 km run on a lazy Sunday morning, becomes a memory to cherish for a life time.

No related posts.

We all love simplicity. We have learnt that any complex problem can easily be solved by breaking it into simpler steps and avoiding common pitfalls. And of course we need a guide to help us along our path, who makes all this actually achievable.

Same is true with me. Apart from this awesome relationship that I have with my fellow readers, blogging at BizDharma.com has also gained me a great network of fellow bloggers and guides who teach me these simple steps to attain my goal here at BizDharma. One of these fellow blogger / guide / friend is Daniel Scocco, who is often termed as “Master Blogger” by the community.

Daniel has recently come up with an awesome report that highlights 10 Deadly mistakes that any business should avoid. I would provide you a gist of the top 3 that are very relevant for me and how I understand them. Would strongly recommend that you go ahead by clicking here (free registration) and download the complete 17 page report to know in depth what stuff is required for success.

The top 3 mistakes that I learnt and my understanding of the same.

1. Lacking Focus – This is the prime reason why not many businesses seem to achieve success in any business, especially online. We tend to pursue anything and everything that the competition is doing and end up digging out graves. Yes you should try many things but than you should be of Google size to burn cash without any plans.
2. Trying to do everything yourself – Most of the entrepreneur chant the mantra of frugality. Though its true that cash is king, many don’t understand that if a task seems to be very trivial, it’s all the more important to get someone do it. That way you concentrate on the central theme of the Business
3. Being inflexible – This I believe is more due to our own personal problems, internal rather than external. We try to build imaginary walls around our own concept of how things are done. That prevents experimenting, and stops innovation (The only thing that assures a startup survival).

The remaining 7 and Why to grab this Report right away

Apart from these as said there are many reasons to grab this report.

1. A detailed list of 10 mistakes so common yet we fall prey to the same.
2. The Report concludes with 10 clear and straight Action Points that should be used as a checklist by every person who wants to see his Business succeed.
3. The complete report is condensed and very well formatted in a presentation style so that it is quick to read and easy to grasp.
4. Lastly, as you know when the Master Blogger publishes something it ought to be interesting.

The Online Profits program.
All this is part of a bigger release that Daniel is having. Every year there is an online program that Daniel holds at his site OnlineProfits.com. The doors of the same are Open now. It’s not a crappy one-man show but a joint rendezvous with some of the high acclaimed people online who know what it takes to make a business thrive online. The program covers all a business would need for reaping huge profits online, from Online Marketing tactics and Email management; to SEO, Social media and online communities. Just have a look on the faculty list and you will realize why this is something you should follow if you are serious about your business. If you grab the report from the homepage. I don’t believe you would require any assurance about the quality of the program.

Disclaimer: Do note that links provided here are affiliate links. Don’t know whether they will even earn a dime for me, but will definitely help me track my part of contribution to this Master Blogger.

“Success doesn’t come to you…you go to it.” - Marva Collins

No related posts.

Just before starting with the post let me quieten up the skeptics out here, confirming - one that there is no mistake with the topic typed and two that I am not here to promote piracy. I know piracy is a crime (Even my industry has seen much loses based on piracy) having said that, I have a perspective which I want to present here. Whether it’s worth thinking this way or not is definitely an individual’s personal choice.

We see frequent changes in our lives on daily basis. So when we gauge the changes across a century it has to be tremendous. Last century we saw, how Entertainment shifted from been a luxury to a necessity. How munching hot popcorn watching the coolest stars on the big screen was an experience everybody flocked for. The industry saw growth which was almost guaranteed. By the end of last century, if you could create a buzz about the flick, you knew you have reaped the costs even before the release. The start of this century brought a quick turn to this. People started stealing their lovely flicks. Words like piracy, torrents, P2P and internet downloads were as common as these flicks. Today you can download almost any movie via these methods (Won’t reveal the how to).

But there’s a good thing about this. As already highlighted creating a buzz ensured that the movie will have house full shows for a week at least. Slowly the quality of experience started degrading (in some cases at least), and the Buzz was increasing day by day. So how come piracy be a solution to all this. Well, here we go.

A recent post at torrentfreak post says – “Avatar” is the highest downloaded movie on the internet from last 15 days in a row. On the other hand as we know Avatar has already crossed the 1.3 billion dollar $ mark. What’s the reason? There are even good amount of audiences who believe Avatar didn’t have a good story at all! So with all this pessimistic stories popping why is it making a ton of moolah at the box office? You know it has got to be something. A torrent download or a poor script is simply overruled by the awesome “never-seen-before” 3D experience that Avatar has. People are stilling going on, just to experience that. These are simply not comparable. The overall experience has gone to a different level altogether. Same is applicable to a simple comic movie. Where do you laugh more, at home on a pirated movie or in the theater?

When we talk about the Entertainment industry, how can we forget our Rock stars and their albums which did millions in sales? Today, these songs are now just a 5 MB file download and can be available even with a google search! How destructing is that. But to hear a song downloaded from internet and to enjoy a live rocking jam session of Metallica on stage is simply not comparable. The upcoming stars of tomorrow don’t have deep pockets to launch themselves and I believe you will find more and more artists spreading their free music across the Internet. Happily! So what will earn them their hard work? The experience of listening them live in concert.

All this will undoubtedly affect many artists who will fall prey to this transition. But that’s the way we will learn to adapt and this industry will evolve. There has already been a buzz created with the new 3D TVs getting launched, but I believe size does matter and it will take time for these big screens to come home and give a theatrical experience of Avatar 3D with the comfort of being at home. Only then these torrents will make a dent on the profits and it will take a decade more, until then this experience is not just downloadable.

So, what I am proving here. Just that the quality of experience has to be taken at a different level. A level that piracy can’t beat easily. The next couple of Avatars need to have good scripts, as the 3D experience is ‘already experienced’ and it might not drive masses to the box office. Your experience has to be un-replicable by a download! Not all movies can be Avatar types and not all bands can be as rocking as the Metallica, but then you are not supposed to get on with all of them, right? If it’s a luxury, it has to mesmerize.

Just before winding up, one more experience from my industry (software). There has been enough piracy around here too and there’s no “different experience” here to guarantee profits. But we seem to have found some solution to this too. Slowly from high end proprietary devices we are moving towards low end open devices. Two developments are very important to note. One is called SaaS (Software as a service), something like projects from 37 signals where you pay small monthly charges and the whole show is managed online. The other development too is on the same lines. The buzz around Google Chrome OS. The basic idea is to throw a device with an OS as cheap and as open as possible. Then manage the whole show in the cloud on internet and earn revenues. If these model work, the chances of multiplying existing profits are quite high. And finally as it is often quoted, if you couldn’t pirate Microsoft Windows, how many of you actually would have bought it? (Rather afford it?). More than 80% of the losses due to piracy are not losses at the first place. Think about it.

“PIRACY, n. Commerce without its folly-swaddles, just as God made it.” - Ambrose Bierce (src)

Related posts:

1. The Art of Killing an Industry.

It’s more of a cliché (but very important to understand) that 80% of whatever we communicate and understand is via body language and not spoken words. Worse still, we have a tendency to plan our words as part of the preparation. We write speeches and rehearse them well. We try to mind our language whenever we communicate but never mind our body language and hence reduce the chances of communicating effectively.

The Experiment
Let’s try a small experiment, just think of one word or one thought that comes to your mind when you think about how a Business Blog should be. Just one idea of how it should be that’s it. Done? Not yet. Go on. …… (Hoping you have completed the task) Ok. So what was that thought? If I now tell you, “Don’t mind, it actually doesn’t matter. It was just a silly experiment”. What would be your reply to this? If it doesn’t matter what you thought, why did I ask you at the first place to think about it? Well you can conclude (without applying any sense) that I misguided you to something which wasn’t worth your attention. This is what we actually do with our body language. We try to take the user out of the communication and distract him rather than interacting with him by giving wrong gesture. One wrong gesture and the flow of communication get hampered.

What is it?
And what is that? The worst body language sign is “pointing to something” while talking. Using your index finger to point to some one, something, or just like that. We are humans (duh). Dumb little fellows. While talking to anyone, we try to grasp what is being communicated. But we do this not just via ears, but other sensory organs too. Specially eyes. All of a sudden the communicator points to something, most of us look there. Or worst he points us while talking “You, are the one I was looking for”. Quite a motivating statement but not a very positive feeling with the pointing gesture. In most of the cases we point with the index finger. This is like piercing a nail. The recipient unconsciously, even though for a fraction of second, gets distracted. He concentrates on the finger point, not on you, nor your message. The extreme of this gesture is when someone is reminded of his mistake, reprimanded or provoked. One finger pointing and Bang ! Starts the fight.

Doing the gesture.
This sign has been unconsciously used by many leaders, celebrities and our bosses of course. It’s now a wrong perception that this gesture is a symbol of Power. Rather it’s a weapon that hurts us more than others. This gesture is often used along with moving your hand up and down pointing as if you are hitting the person with a stick, or even moving hand forward as if you are poking a stick in him. That pains to the unconscious mind.

If you are still not convinced try searching meaning of the term “finger pointing”, is it positive? I can prove my point saying research shows that blah blah <add whatever you want here> and quoting n number of Body language books that I have read. But I would rather recommend you to research in your own office and you will understand that - the message being the same, pointing fingers worsens your chances of clear communication.

Finally.
Hope you got the point! Finger pointing is a strict No-No when it comes to better communication via Body Language. This was part one of the post; I will be posting part two which will help you understand how you can unlearn this habit of finger pointing and things that you can immediately do. That will be a point – by – point post so that you can grasp easily.

Hey I am not done yet. About the thought, that I asked you, for an ideal Business Blog? You can go ahead and post the same in my survey that I have recently posted to improve your experience here at BizDharma. The link to the survey is http://bit.ly/bizSurvey

No related posts.

First of all I would like to wish you and your dear ones a very Happy and Prosperous New Year! From BizDharma.com. I wish you great Business Success in the coming year and believe would try my best to provide all the efforts that I can for your success.

Last year has been rocking; with the launch of this blog, to pushing my grey cells to pump more unique and useful business articles. I definitely would like to thank you for the support.

This is a follow post to the previous Quarter Results at BizDharma post. (Since this is a Business blog we have a tradition of posting Quarter Results at BizDharma) With December 2009 we ended another quarter at BizDharma but rather than a quarter post I believe an annual top list will help you more.

So to kick start 2010 with great Business insight you will need the following posts.

1. 7 lessons that even ‘a one year old baby’ can teach you about product development. – One of the most innovative article here at BizDharma. We learn how having an eye for detail can help us understand the core logic of product or service development.
2. Three powerful lessons that a 725 year old fable can teach you about Negotiation! – Negotiation is not an invention of the 21st century; it has been around for ages. In this article we look how even a fable that we read in our childhood days can help us gain great insights about negotiation.
3. Advantages and Disadvantages of Crowdsourcing: - One of the highest searched article at BizDharma, this was a follow up to an article about what is crowdsourcing. It highlighted when to and when not to crowdsource.
4. Elevator pitch and fundamentals to care of when delivering the same. – Elevator pitches need to be short and precisely goal oriented but what’s important to deliver your 30 second Elevator pitch (whether it is for Sales, marketing, Venture Capitalist etc) that you get your fundamentals right. This post is all you would need to startup.
5. Three Idea Stealers the world is proud of. – Who said you need a great idea to start business, many are floating around, just steal them. This post goes back into history and highlights the 3 idea stealers that have changed the way we live today.
6. The three indefatigable pillars of kick-ass negotiation – Yet another post on negotiation. This one tries to lay the foundations on which a powerful negotiation can be done. Not only it highlights these important pillars but also
7. Are you trying to be an “iPhone killer”? 7 good reasons to immediately stop. – We always try to compete with everything that we see. Although healthy competition is good, most of the times if not always we end up losing our own identity and fail drastically. This article takes the metaphor of - the new breed of iphone killer mobiles and what we can learn from them as a professional.

Last but not the least I would like you to download this presentation which I posted on Slideshare.net long back. It was an instant hit on Facebook and their homepage (received a mail from Slideshare regarding the same). This is kind of an inspirational gist from the last lecture by Randy Pausch.

And Hey please do not forget to take the BizDharma.com 2010 survey. This will help me improve BizDharma.com further. It will take just 5-10 minutes but will help both of us a lot in the coming year. Here’s the link. http://bit.ly/bizSurvey

Once again thank you very much for your support and wish you a prosperous new year ahead.

Related posts:

1. Introducing Quarter Results at BizDharma