Leadership principles by John Mattone (Executive coach of Steve Jobs)

Privileged to attend a session on intelligent leadership by coach of steve jobs, Mr John Mattone today at  #ETSalesStrategySummit  in Mumbai. Some gems from his session -

1. To succeed, Think #different and Think #Big. Success in terms of leaving a legacy.

2. Leaving a #legacy is possible when u switch to being #vulnerable, which means to lead and interact with open #heart and have the courage to touch others soul to leave a mark.

3. #Character being more important than anything else. Its by being a good human being u get the best out of this world.

4. Dont focus on weaknesses, focus on gifts and #strengths and keep working on them. Those gifts are your means to left a mark in the world. Dont get into comfort zones of ur strengths also. A sachin practices everyday.

5. Be #courageous in pursuits. Be #passionates, nobody remebers a calculated leader!

6. Take #feedback in. Course correct. To keep getting out of your echo chambers and comfort zones.

7. Feel #privileged. Always be in the #present. Connect with people to enrich them and get enriched.

#leadership #stevejobs #johnmattone

Xiaomi - Marching from pockets to rooms

From small screen to large screens, from pockets to rooms.

The battle to woo the masses with super specs at affordable prices has shifted from mobiles to TVs. Chinese players are all on with #Xiaomi leading the battle after being labled as No 1 #smartphone brand.

The koreans, be it #Samsung or #LG are more alert on this turf, dropping prices to hold one. Xiaomi is calling it the '#jio' disruption they want to do in TV space, can they?

Here is the landscape. 22,000 cr TV market. Mostly bought #offline. #Replacement frequncy much lower than a mobile. #Aftersales service a key cog. #Status symbol category more than a mobile. #Specs matter the most (Smart, light, big screen..); the old line hold the most - "Bada hai toh behtar hai".

All that jazz means, 1. its a massive game of #distribution as online TV buying would be lesser compared to phones. 2. The #ritual matters as in u go and checkout the TV in store before u finalise. 3. #Aftersales service can be a pain. 4. #Brandawareness with positive ego attributes matter! (Onida's punchline)

Thats where koreans score vs new entrants. But indian '#value' heritage of good brand at affordable prices with a sweetner for distribution might just what the doctor ordered!

#marketing #tech #disruption #consumer

Marketing Principles at Home

This post is going to throw a lot of insight into our households; the most neglected parts of all our marketers/sales guys who are outside in field or in offices making strategies to wow our consumers. We can rather learn a lot and apply most of consumer behavior/marketing principles at home only! This post is going to be a revelation of sorts..

Consumer is the King  - Be it your wife or your kid; this is a golden principle for them. Thou shall not follow it shall run great risks. Be it a trip to market or watching a particular channel; your wife and kids are like 'the consumer' and shall be treated like kings and be followed all times for better household hours :)

Customer Service is the key to success and peace - For couple who have just turned parents; they will agree to this principle with respect to their new-borns! Your kid, if not given service at 24 by 7; it will give you nightmares even during the days. Whether having food in the wee hours of the night or trying every trick to entertain the chap is what tells all newly become parents - that Supreme Customer Service for their kids is a MUST.

Customer is always right! - I am sure, all married men shall agree that this principle is the golden principle of marriage. Wife is always right. Thou shall not follow it shall suffer!

Why suddenly everybody is interested in delivering #Milk at ur doorstep?

Why suddenly everybody is interested in delivering #Milk at ur doorstep? There are plethora of milk apps (#milkbasket), #grocery #ecommerce players and #offline neighborhood retailers joining the milk-wagon! Why, so much fuss about a low margin, near commodity category like milk?

As indian consumers, we have grown up with #Amul as the only dominant voice in the category. A huge traditional distribution does the trick to make it reach our doorstep every morning. Whats the need to change ?

As a #consumer, its the Power to choose. The night before! When u install that app, because of a tech backed up supply chain, u can decide the night before, what u want to add to that milk? Eggs, Bread, Biscuits? Thats a common problem. U seem to run out of these daily needs and have to run to the kirana guy in the morning.

But what about #retailers? Because, they need a foot in the door. Its an opportunity to change ur #habit, and find a consumer who will buy higher margin categories. And its all stocked up near a big box or small shop near u.

And worldwide #investors dont reward so much on ur revenues so much as ur potential revenue thru active customer count. And India is the biggest populated fastest growing economy. And they have #money!

https://lnkd.in/fUPwvCV

Customers would have wanted a faster horse! - Henry Ford

#Convenience is the biggest attribute of future. Saving #time is the noblest thing to do for consumers. #Brands who marry #technology with #creativity to solve consumer problems with these 2 built in purposes (Convenience & lightening fast) will be the biggest brands of the future.

If you see history with recent successes, its there. Whether it is #Apple bringing Ipods and Iphones with huge convenience offerings or #Facebook with faster way to connect with people or #Google with its fastest search or #Amazon with its fastest delivery, broadest selection & value (Convenience). Its whats that happened. Creating convenience thru technology with creativity in exploring the unknown. 

Why ecommerce players are obsessive about number of clicks? Because they take consumer convenience as obsession to work at breakneck speed to make it happen. From multiple it became 'one click purchase' which in itself was a milestone. But just for a while. Today, consumers we are moving from many clicks to one click to zero clicks. Thats where #AI takes over! And thats what devices/apps like #Alexa or #GoogleHome or #Siri or #GoogleAssistant are doing. Taking convenience to the #ZEROCLICK saving time for the consumers to get what they want at lightening speed!

Why Tech companies are burning midnight oil to create smart appliances via Internet of Things (IOT) that will obey voice commands? Sounds bizarre. Taking customer convenience to an extreme. But that is the future. 3D printing was like a fairy's magic in childhood stories. But thats a reality. Why? To make consumer able to dream and create things basis his imagination. And #Imagination is human being's greatest asset for progress.

And did consumer ask for AI enabled products? Or smart bands? Or Smart cars? Did they dream about it? Did any consumer researches told that they have this need? I doubt it. Its the companies with obsession for consumer, that think about it, put in effort and take risks & create such #innovations. And rule #future.

As Henry Ford puts it fantastically well - “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Are you a Thermometer or Thermostat?

Are you a #Thermostat or a #Thermometer? I was so intrigued about this concept today, that it blew my mind.

A #thermometer matches with the temperature of the envoirnment. It is influenced by outside, if its hot outside, it will be hot (high temperature) and if cold it will be cool.

A #thermostat on the contrary is something that is driven from inside. Whatever may be envoirnment like (hot or cold), it will resist to give in and stick to what temperature it wants to hold on to (from inside).

In #life, whatever may be the #environment be (tough or easy), one should behave like a thermostat and be doing what it believes it should rather than giving in to the outside envoirnment or circumstances.

Be a #thermostat vs a #Thermometer.

#mind #leadership #drive #insideout #find #yourself

Sweet Smelling Newspaper Ad

Wow! When my son started reading today's TOI when i was starting my day with ET, i got intrigued by sweet smell. And realized that its the #Myntra #Ad about the #BeautyEdit event and that the page is smelling.

Such a small trick and uses another sense for a print ad - sense of #smell. And its a gimmick connected with the event's nature (Beauty category).

And then my mind starts racing - can it be extended? How about #perfume sprayers in the womens compartment in smelling #Delhimetros/#mumbailocals? Or, womens restrooms in Malls? Where-ever there is a mirror, it might be the place; lifts?

#marketing #brand #core #ecommerce #activation #Myntra

Thinking Big and Bold - case of #Jio

This news caught my eye today in newspaper. And one thing resonated - '#Bold'. Whether the entire telecom industry is reeling under severe pressures post launch of Jio, its the boldness of Jio's DNA that has disrupted the industry.

And now, the 4G feature phone market globally is led by #JioPhone. And, Jio network is the #fastest-growing-network in the world. Yes, obviously there are questions on sustainablilty but i think this bold approach leads to multiple initiatives tying into a big force and consumer notices and supports you. I myself was sceptical about seriousness of Jio when they were rolling out free 4G data, but now there are lots of people around me using jio, not just discount mongers.

And it is like that for Ambanis for long, be it the CDMA phone ("kar lo duniya mutthi mein")they launched earlier or when Reliance entered retail or world's larget refinery in jamnagar and so on. The amazing ability to think #BIG and #BOLD, irrespective of industry or competition.

And not just ambanis, this is the DNA that runs thru driven people like that of #bezos of Amazon, #Musk of Tesla, #Branson of Virgin. Thinking Big and Bold is a common trait.

#leadership #bold #jio #jiophone #thinking-big

Book Review #3 in 2018 - The Tao of Coaching by Max Landsberg

Tao of Coaching is an easy read on a subject which is complex and deals with coaching of employees to improve thier performance. It deals with practices and frameworks to consistently improve things with consistent coaching, feedback and appraisals.

Now these statements and words ring a bell about poor practices, partiality, office politics and so on. However, thats where the book scores, as it deals with such subject with a simple story of a guy called Alex. The book discusses his journey from a new entrant in a company dealing with an ice-cream project to becoming one of the key executives in the company. Deftly written by ex-Mckinsey and a Stanford MBA, Max.

It diminishes lots of myths and notions about coaching thru easy chapters and one of my biggest learning is that feedback/coaching others does improve others lives but also improves yours. And that is the reason why of coaching - Give and Take. Why because developing your team members in turn gets you spend more time on yourself and developing your skill set while you delegate work!

Here are few gems from the book -

1. #Coaching by asking is more effective than coaching by telling. Ask questions to coachee to help him come up with his own solutions rather than handing him doctor's prescription by telling what to do.

2. When u ask for #feedback, give proper time, notice and make it easier for somebody to do you a favour. Coaches who dont take feedback loose out on self-correcting mechanism to further improve themselves.

3. Some myths - we coach to primarily help others. We focus on coachee while coaching. Coaching means feedback. It takes lot of time.  And its about work. Thats all incorrect!

4. Feedback is one of the coaching techniques where one should use AID format - Actions under focus to be discussed, Impact of these actions and Desired Outcome (how to do it better).

5. As some of u must have known, difference between a bad feedback and good one is that good feedback focuses on improvement areas vs blame, skills vs person and leaves person helped vs judged.

6. A coaching session can be structured well as #GROW - Goal, Reality, Options and Wrap up.  Ask  coachee what goals he has, to achieve better outcomes. Then ask about reality, what he has tried till now and his challenges. Discuss with him his options on countering and the best one to move on with. And wrap up with next steps and next review time.

7. Before coaching or managing a subordinate, one should apply #skill/#will matrix to decide on what kind of coaching technique to be applied. Its a 2 by 2 matrix across skill and will. High skill and low will means u need to excite the guy, low skill and high will means u need to guide him, low skill and low means u need to direct him while high skill and high will is what u need to arrive at so that u can delegate and get things done. This one is useful as ur team members will fit in different quadrants for u to apply different ways.

8. Assess motivation levels of ur coachees. At times the kind of motivation/demotivation loop they are in, can help u decide the course of action. 

9. For any goal to be achieved. Here is the recipie - 1. Write down the goal. Publicise it. Discuss it. Share with more people. 2. Apply #Waypower (power to figure out ways towards ur goal) 3. Apply #willpower (action to chosen path).

10. And the last one is - Goal are many types and one should focus on process goals rather than performance goals or Outcome goals. #Process goals (hit a harder serve), #Performance goals (hit more aces) and #Outcome goals (Win wimbledon). 

Great coaches focus on #process goals and practice it multiple times. Performance goals and outcome goals are way too less frequent to practise (winning a wimbledon).

A must read for anybody dealing with people - employees, colleagues, kids..

Do share ur comments if u like my chosen gems...or if this review makes you think about reading the book.

This is my 3rd book of 2018. Resolution is to finish 12 this yr.

Nitin 

Online meets Offline in world's hottest market - India

We are witnessing what is offline and online convergence in India. #Online players are forging partnerships with #offline and vice versa.

News of #Amazon soon picking up stake in #Future-retail gets the #Bezos led company a foothold in indian grocery and mass fashion (#BigBazaar, #Hypercity & #FBB). It has already tied up earlier with mid premium fashion retailer #Shoppersstop. It already runs numerous programs like "i have space" to convert huge number of offline grocers to work as delivery points of pick n drop facility to consumers.

On the other hand #Walmart a global offline leader bought #Flipkart to capture indian online space. It already has its cash and carry offline format which can lead to partnerships with lot of offline small businesses. It will further forge more partnerships in India.

While a player like Future group in itself, sensing Walmart' entry via flipkart; has intensified its '#Everyday-low-price' campaign. Its a proposition which Walmart originated with globally and Future group is wanting to create its ownership on the position in India.

This market is going to see fantastic omnichannel efforts going forward. A #kindle selling in a bigbazaar to fast grocery from Flipkart err #Walkart!! Stay tuned.