The boss is always wrong!

Clever people know their worth and expect you to know it too. So how does a manager deal with people who are much smarter than him?

Franz Humer, the CEO and chairman of the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche, knows how difficult it is to find good ideas. “In my business of research, economies of scale don’t exist,” he says. “Globally today we spend $4 billion on R&D every year. In research there are not economies of scale, there are economies of ideas,” he adds in an article by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones in Harvard Business Review.
For a growing number of companies, according to Humer, competitive advantage lies in the ability to create an economy driven not by cost efficiencies but by ideas and intellectual know-how. In practice this means that leaders have to create an environment in which what we call ‘clever people’ can thrive. These people are the handful of employees whose ideas, knowledge, and skills give them the potential to produce disproportionate value from the resources their organisations make available to them.
If clever people have one defining characteristic, it is that they do not want to be led. This clearly creates a problem for you as a leader. The challenge has only become greater with globalisation. Clever people are more mobile than ever before; they are as likely to be
based in Bangalore or Beijing as in Boston. That means they have more opportunities: They are not waiting around for their pensions; they know their value, and they expect you to know it too.

Contrary to what we have been led to believe in recent years, CEOs are not utterly at the mercy of their highly creative and extremely smart people. Of course, some very talented individuals artists, musicians, and other free agents can produce remarkable results on their own. In most cases, however, clever people need the organisation as much as it needs them. They cannot function effectively without the resources it provides. The classical musician needs an orchestra; the research scientist needs funding and the facilities of a first class laboratory. They need more than just resources, however; as the head of development for a global accounting firm put it, your clever people “can be sources of great ideas, but unless they have systems and discipline they may deliver very little.”

That is the good news. The bad news is that all the resources and systems in the world are useless unless you have clever people to make the most of them. Worse, they know very well that you must employ them to get their knowledge embedded. In clever people’s minds and networks, all it would need is a better knowledge-management system. The failure of such systems to capture tacit knowledge is one of the great disappointments of knowledge-management initiatives to date.

The attitudes that clever people display toward their organisations reflect their sense of self-worth. They tend to be scornful of the language of hierarchy. Although they are acutely aware of the salaries and bonuses attached to their work, they often treat promotions with indifference or even contempt. So don’t expect to lure or retain them with fancy job titles and new responsibilities. They will want to stay close to the ‘real work’, often to the detriment of relationships with the people they are supposed to be managing. This doesn’t mean they don’t care about status—they do. The same researcher who affects not to know his job title may insist on being called ‘doctor’ or ‘professor’. The point is that clever people feel they are part of an external professional community that renders the organizational chart meaningless. Not only do they gain career benefits from networking, but they construct their sense of self from the feedback generated by these extra-organizational connections.

This indifference to hierarchy and bureaucracy does not make clever people politically naive or disconnected. Most clever people are quick to recognise insincerity and respond badly to it. David Gardner, the COO of worldwide studios for Electronic Arts, knows this because he oversees a lot of clever people. EA has 7200 employees worldwide developing interactive entertainment software derived from FIFA Soccer, The Sims, The Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter, among others. “If I look back at our failures,” Gardner said, “they have been when there were too many rah-rahs and not enough content in our dealings with out people. People are not fooled. So when there are issues or things that need to be worked out, straightforward dialogue is important, out of respect for their intellectual capabilities.”

7 TRUTHS ABOUT CLEVER PEOPLE

They know their worth

They know how to work their way around in an organisation

They ignore corporate hierarchy

They expect instant access

They are well connected

They get bored easily

They won’t thank you

Build a Buzz around your brand, Article from Small Business Articles posted on Microsoft Site

By Joanna L. Krotz

It's not easy being a baby. Raising the profile of a just-launched brand has always been a challenge.

But nowadays, as customers lean toward tried-and-true products, building buzz for a brand-new business takes real smarts, creativity and persistence.

What is a brand? It's the promise you make to customers. It's the "emotional connections that create feelings of loyalty to a product or a company," says Jim Bolton at Ridge Associates, a coaching firm in Minneapolis. It's how you distinguish yourself from competition and capture mind and market share.

To get customers to notice your infant brand quickly and affordably, you must stay focused. Don't chase after huge or unlikely prospects right away. Don't squander time and resources by broadcasting mixed messages. Keep it simple. Make sure your marketing material has a recognizable identity, with a consistent logo, palette and tag lines.

1. Get inside the customer's mind.

Most new business owners research their target buyers. So you likely know something about your customer demographics, such as income and age. That's good, but it's hardly enough.

You need a serious fix on what will propel people to buy so you can gear your messages accordingly. "What need will you fill for the customer?" asks Scott Gold, chief executive officer of The Brand Consultancy in Washington, D.C. Once you know that, he suggests, "it's easy to find the low-hanging fruit."

2. Get endorsements that ring the right bells.

Expert or third-party endorsements can mean a movie star, a banker or a tech wizard. If you have invested in characterizing target customers, coming up with personalities who will fuel buzz should be a snap. The hard part may be getting access. You might need special marketing to reach them.

For example, Los Angeles fashion designer Chrissy Azzaro launched My-Tee, a line of casual wear, a few years ago. She targeted the entertainment community. So Azzaro paid to join a special star-studded bazaar hosted by a Los Angeles company, Backstage Creations.

Backstage charges corporations $5,000 to $10,000 (depending on how exclusive the access) to attend behind-the-scenes gatherings at TV award shows and other celebrity events. Marketers get an opportunity to meet and chat with stars before or after the show. In turn, celebrities get free gift bags filled with sometimes very fancy and expensive samples. The idea is that stars will not only wear or try the products, but they'll be seen doing so — which will boost the company's image and sales.

Hooking up with Backstage allowed Azzaro to present her fashions one-on-one to various celebs. Soon, former "Friends" star Courteney Cox and pop singer Nelly Furtado were photographed wearing My-Tee tops. That viral marketing led to stories about My-Tee in media like InStyle.com, the Los Angeles Daily News, Essence and more. Azzaro got known, fast.

3. Get the attention of hot prospects.

Find the industry seminars or annual shows that attract your top-of-the-line customers. Then spend what it takes to design a snazzy booth. Or, sign up for media coaching and pay a speechwriter and design team to develop newsworthy presentations. Or, hire a marketing firm to create a memorable way to demonstrate your product. You want to make a standout impression at the high-profile show.

When New Yorker Robin Blum launched In My Book, which markets greeting cards that are also bookmarks, she found it a challenge because the combination was a new concept.

Since her target customers included the multiple markets of booksellers and stationers, Blum decided to exhibit at the two best-known trade shows in those fields: the National Stationery Show in New York that year, and BookExpo, held in Chicago. Blum also paid for ads that featured her logo in show publications and sent free samples and literature to every publishing, library and gift publication she could find.

That netted some terrific product reviews from trade media. In addition, Blum commissioned a big backdrop painting for her exhibition booth, which transformed it into the stoop of an antiquarian bookshop. That made her booth a must-stop destination on the show floor.

All of it, she says, led to "excellent results, though not volume, which takes time." As a result, she is mailing updated catalogs to a wider audience of booksellers, librarians and gift and card retailers that appear at the shows.

4. Get public relations pros to open markets.

Your products don't have to instantly make people attractive, guarantee weight loss or offer the promise of eternal youth to benefit from press attention.

Let's say, for example, you invented a clever improvement for a medical diagnostic imaging machine — clearly neither a killer app nor anything of broad public interest. But your PR agent garners reviews in the medical journals read by the imaging community. That generates sales calls from hospitals and medical centers. It also provokes interest from potential investors and partners.

In fact, there's a great range of small, local or industry press and media coverage that can boost business. But you could benefit from the expertise of a public relations agency to do the legwork and the pitching for media placement.

That's the lesson learned by Jamey Bennett, who was co-founder of LendingTree.com before selling out to partner Douglas Lebda in 2000. After a stint as an "entrepreneur-in-residence" at a venture capital firm, Bennett decided to start another company.

Bennett's latest enterprise, LightWedge, markets an innovative personal reading light, made from an optical-grade acrylic lens powered by AAA batteries. You hold the see-through light flat on the page and read through it. He began selling the $35 lights a few years ago and says he's grossed $1 million within six months.

"I've been using PR exclusively to get the word out," says Bennett, who credits his New York agency, Margeotes / Fertitta + Gordon, with "great placement."

In addition, he says, "I'm using PR to explore niche markets via trade publications." He makes a point of asking every customer how he uses the light and whether he knows other people interested in LightWedge. That's the way Bennett discovered the astronomy market. An astronomer bought a light so he could read charts without blocking night-sky stars. Likewise, the PR team places stories in sailing, boating and aviation trade press, all of which Bennett has opened as niche markets.

A good PR agency can come up with a hook or positioning that works for editors in that field. Bennett advises entrepreneurs to choose a small agency so you become a key client. Make sure you interview a few agencies before signing on. Retainers typically run $3,000 to $5,000 a month, but you might try a fee-for-project probationary period until you're sure of the fit.

Buzz and word-of-mouth marketing is a cheap and effective way to get out your message. Figure out what it will take to start customers talking about your brand. That way, every customer turns into a brand ambassador.

The paradox of our time in history is

Taken from a chain email, who say chain emails are bad!

That we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time.
We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.
We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We've learned how to make a living, but not a life.
We've added years to life not life to years.
We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor.
We conquered outer space but not inner space.
We've done larger things, but not better things.
We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.
We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.
We write more, but learn less.
We plan more, but accomplish less.

We've learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.
These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships.
These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes.
These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.

It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom.

Remember; spend some time with your loved ones, because
THEY ARE NOT GOING TO BE AROUND FOREVER.

People for Betterment of Society Through Education

Education without any doubt is the biggest liberator of all. It liberates a person from various ills that plague a society prominent among them being ignorance, poverty and high fertility rates.

For a country like India, education can and has proven to be the best leveler among people. Education makes even the poorest of the poor to achieve high living standards and compete equally with those born with a silver spoon.

Unfortunately, education has remained a neglected area with almost all governments that have ruled the country. Basic education needs to be driven by an undying effort for 100% penetration. Higher education should be made completely free for all deserving candidates. Education should not be treated as an expense but as an investment.

It is upon all of us to make efforts to help reach this 100% target.

The education system is plagued by high drop out rates. This is true mainly for students who come from poor background and who often drop out due to demands that the family makes on them for providing economic support. As the child grows, he is made to work more and study less. This is truer in rural India and the phenomenon can be observed in the urban areas too. Although government does provide for free primary education, the effort is not enough. In this direction the government has taken steps like providing a free mid-day meal, which has worked as an incentive for poor families to send their children to school.

The government’s effort needs to be supplemented with private effort. Providing students support for expenses that are a collateral to education can do this. School dress, textbooks, note books and other equipments that can help a student learn better are still the sole prerogative of parents.

The People for Betterment of Society Through Education aims to bridge this gap. In a city like Mumbai where there are 250 to 300 private schools where the rich and the affluent send their children, there exist more than 1200 schools run by the local municipal corporation. These schools provide for the bulk of learning facility to the cities masses. The society aims to adopt these schools and provide aid to students in the area of textbooks, notebooks, school uniform and other learning aids.

The society aims to work with the local municipal corporation to provide aid for upkeep of the school premises, providing technical and financial support for up gradation of learning aids such as charts, maps, computers, audio-video equipment and other tools that can help the students learn better.

The Society also aims at conducting teacher-training programs that will help raise the level of the teacher and the taught.

We seek your active enrollment and contribution in any shape and size. Contributions can be made in cash or in kind and may include used equipment that is fit for refurbishment and deployment.

The Society is in the process of being registered with the Charities Commissioner, Mumbai and tax exemption benefits will be made available to all who donate to the cause.

All monetary donations should be made by an account payee cheque favoring ‘People for Betterment of Society Through Education’ payable at Mumbai.

All donations in kind should be coordinated with the Society for effective deployment and acknowledgement of the same.

The Society is a voluntary organization that seeks active participation from individuals and organization in support of its activities.

A board of directors who work for the society in purely honorary manner is conducting the Society’s affairs. The Society aims to keep organization expenses to the minimum and aims to set up a secretariat to coordinate the donation efforts.

The Society aims to expand its network to the entire country and set up facilitation centers in both rural and urban areas of the country. Towards this the society invites individuals to volunteer to take up this task in setting up urban and rural centers.

A website is being planned which will provide donors and members information about the activities of the society and how the funds that are being received are being deployed.

Mumbai a ticking time-bomb

There can be no denying the fact that our city, Mumbai is a ticking time-bomb. Sea locked Mumbai has little space to grow while migration into the city continues unabated. The question that comes to mind is why is this migration happening? Is it a phenomenon restricted to our city?

People migrate to other places in search of better earning potential, for living a better life and for gathering riches which have become reachable due to their education. People seek greener pastures to fulfill these dreams. They head to cities which can provide them with comforts and better lifestyle. This is a global phenomenon and not restricted to our city alone.

Mumbai’s population has grown from a modest 3 million people in 1951 to a present population of 120 million. This 40 time jump has happened in the space of 55 year while the space available for housing people has remained constant. Today more than 50% of this population lives in slums and shanties in sub-human conditions. They have no access to toilets, clean drinking water and in some cases even to electricity. Whatever facilities that are available to them are through a slum-lord who at the connivance of corrupt officials and local leaders provides them with stolen water, electricity and other basic amenities.

The political leadership of the state has failed to provide any relief to these people. Whatever schemes that have been floated to re-house these slum dwellers have ended up benefiting the builders. The unholy nexus between the politicians, builders and the land mafia is primarily responsible for the state of mess that this city is in. Politicians ensure that the land available for housing is always in short supply. The builders corner this land in connivance with the politicians and the land mafia uses brute force to capture government land and raises slums and shanties in connivance with the local government officials and local goons.

So much so that even attempts to spawn sister cities like Navi Mumbai and distant Thane have failed to stem the growth and influx of migrants into the city.

As more and more people end up living in slums, the conditions of these slums is turning worse by the day. Every human being has an inbuilt level of endurance; once this limit is crossed anything can happen. These slums are often beyond any control of any law keeping authorities and are often home to the anti-social elements of the society. Crime and criminals thrive in these pockets. It is not that crime does not happen in high-rise buildings, more often than not rackets like prostitution and drug trafficking involve people from the high society, but the chances of detection of such crimes is much higher in buildings compared to the slums.

Recent events like the bombing in 1992 followed by riots and the more recent train blasts in suburban trains have shown that Mumbai is not only a ticking time bomb but literally a city that is exploding in every sense of the word.

Who then is responsible for this mess? City planners are often tasked with the responsibility of planning the cities infrastructure. The city should be able to handle the requirements of its residents. These include roads, open spaces, recreational areas, water supply, electricity, drainage, rain water management and transport being the major requirements for leading a decent life. The city planners are also tasked with the requirement of demarcating commercial, industrial and residential zones. We see all around us that there has been total failure in all aspects of planning. We have a city where people are commuting from one end of the city every morning to get to their place of work and rushing back in the evening to their homes.

Recent rains have reduced the roads to lunar surface, where there are more pot holes than the road itself. Often it takes more than an hour to travel a distance of even ten kilometers, a task better done in the time of the horse drawn carriage. Government after government has failed to upgrade the city’s infrastructure. Bad planning and lopsided development has lead to catastrophic results. The development of Bandra Kurla Complex which restricted the flow of Mithi river led to the loss of hundreds of life’s in the Kalina Santacruz area during the rains of 2005.

Therefore in conclusion from the facts that I have presented it becomes abundantly clear that Mumbai is indeed a time-bomb ticking away. The day is not very far when people start killing each other in fits of road rage brought about by drivers frustrated by the condition of the roads. The day is not very far when it will become extremely difficult to prevent a second and a third and a fourth bomb blast of the local trains. The day is not very far when power cuts become the norm and people fight over clean water supply.

If the city of Mumbai is to be saved, the unholy nexus between the politicians, builders and the land mafia will have to be broken. And as the Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh said while inaugurating the Metro Rail Project recently, that for achieving progress we have to weed out corruption from the civic body and all other agencies that manage the city. Coming from the mouth of the Prime Minister, this is the solution that this city needs and each one of us should wake up to the malaise of corruption and save this city.

Three Experts' Tips for Hiring, Retaining IT Staffs

September 28, 2006

By John McCormick, Baseline

When it comes to hiring and retaining IT staffs, the future doesn't look so bright. The Baby Boomers are getting ready to retire, the number of college students entering computer science has dropped 50 percent in the last five years, according to the Computer Research Association, and the need for corporate IT people is growing. In a survey of its members released last month, the Society of Information Management (SIM), an organization of CIOs, found that nearly 40 percent of the nation's information chiefs are looking to increase their staffs, while another 33 percent said they are looking to maintain their current staffing levels—which means they'll have to find people to fill the spots left by workers moving on to new jobs or retirement. It's no wonder, then, that the same SIM survey found that attracting, developing and retaining information technology talent is now the No. 2 concern of CIO’s—right after IT and business alignment. So what steps can CIOs take now to ensure they have the people they'll need in the days ahead? CIO Insight sent question by e-mail to three leading IT staffing experts. Here is the advice they sent back:

Paul J. Groce

Partner

Christian & Timbers, executive search firm

Paul Groce leads the firm's Chief Information Officer (CIO) Functional Practice, which specializes in the areas of Chief Information Officer, Chief Technology Officer, Application Development, IT Operations and other information technology human capital needs. In addition to IT assignments, Paul has search/consulting experience in operations, information security, quality, business process outsourcing and inclusion/diversity focused teambuilding. He also served on sabbatical in the Office of White House Personnel in Baghdad in 2003 in support of international reconstruction efforts in Iraq.

TIPS FOR ATTRACTING IT TALENT

1. Organizations must recruit for the "CIO 2010." Many of today's older CIO’s came out of the "wiring closet," so to speak. They are savvy technologists. Tomorrow's CIO’s—CIO’s 2010—will be different. They will be tech-savvy business leaders. Current early-career IT professionals have much stronger business backgrounds than yesterday's CIO’s. Organizations must understand this shift, and put in place career opportunities and professional development plans that meet the needs of the CIO 2010. Then these organizations must clearly communicate in recruitment materials and other collateral that the organization is on the leading edge of the CIO 2010 career path development.

2. Turn your IT team into evangelists. Any CIO knows that the IT team is connected to the larger tech community. Word of mouth about the organization, management and the state of IT projects is highly influential, perhaps even more so than anything HR can say. If the IT organization is functioning well and engaged in interesting projects, the most visible and satisfied among the team should be encouraged to spread the word. Incentives, such as bonuses, should be developed to support the IT evangelists. Hesitation about encouraging IT team members to talk about the opportunities and organizations signals bigger internal issues, which must be addressed.

TIPS FOR RETAINING IT TALENT

1. To keep the best and brightest, the CIO should develop and mentor his or her own replacement. Unfortunately, CIO’s often find this extremely challenging. Some are afraid that by developing the next generation of leadership, they may be pushed out of the leadership limelight and actually watch these individuals leapfrog ahead of them and win the next stellar career opportunity. However, CIO’s who let fear rule and do not mentor and develop the "next-in-line" talent risk losing team leaders to organizations that will fill these individuals' career development needs.

2. Create cross-functional career development plans. You might be familiar with the saying "once a dishwasher, always a dishwasher." Today, we might change that to "once a tech geek, always a tech geek." And that's the mold that many early- and mid-career technology professionals are trying to break. The old IT stereotypes—that IT professionals are unable to communicate effectively with the business side or that they innovate for innovation's sake—are dying too slow a death. One way to hasten these clichés' demise is to create cross-functional career development plans. IT professionals—even those who crave to stay on the hardcore tech side—can benefit from cross-functional training and assignments. They will have a chance to see how the other half lives, create new relationships and enhance their business acumen.

3. Review your IT team member resumes annually. This is a counterintuitive approach to retention, but one that fosters trust. An effective performance review technique is to have your employees brush up their resumes every year. The employee with nothing new to add is one you need to be concerned about. The simple act of discussing resumes and sharing in an open conversation creates a level of trust that too often does not exist between managers and employees. Put the employee's career first...discuss successes and failures and areas of need. At the end of the day, if the employee is not happy or not right, help that person find something else. This technique is a proven win-win approach.

Katherine Spencer Lee

Executive Director

Robert Half Technology staffing firm

Katherine Spencer Lee has been with the company since 1995 and has more than 15 years of experience in information technology consulting services. She is a frequent public speaker and guest hosted several live events on Web sites such as Monster.com, Techtarget.com and CareerPath.com. In addition, she is currently providing career insight and advice through columns in Computerworld, CIOUpdate.com, Optimize and Certification Magazine.

TIPS FOR ATTRACTING IT TALENT

1. Offer competitive salaries and comp plans. Let's face it, money still talks. Check in with recent hires or those completing their first year and see if they feel their salaries are still competitive. Evaluate them frequently.

2. Play to your company's strengths. IT workers, like all of us, can be ego driven. If your company has an outstanding reputation for cutting-edge technology, industrial design, hip culture or an ability to draw top tech talent, play that up in the interview process. People love to know that they are going to a place that everyone else is dying to get into. But keep your sales pitch relevant: A database administrator may not be too dazzled by the fact that you have a first-rate creative team.

3. Highlight cool projects they will work on or may someday aspire to work on. If you're about to release an anticipated new application or technology, people may take less money for the opportunity to work on a true resume-builder. But be careful to keep them interested after the product/service is completed, or they'll just jump ship.

4. Emphasize the pedigree or reputation of people they will get to work with or under. Got rock stars? Then let potential employees know.

5. Look internally to your employees for referrals—good people know good people. IT is a small world and networking with your current staff and even enticing them with a referral bonus can lead to great talent.

TIPS FOR RETAINING IT TALENT

1. Re-evaluate your compensation plans annually or even twice per year and ensure they are up to date. Our 2007 Salary Guide for IT Professionals will be released in early October and will include salary ranges for more than 60 IT positions, regional and national employment trends, management strategies and more. How do you stack up?

2. Provide professional development opportunities to retain your best people. We conducted a survey earlier this year of 1,400 CIO’s nationwide and found that 63 percent of these technology leaders were offering these types of opportunities. Firms recognize that technology workers, in particular, value ongoing educational opportunities that will enable them to keep their skills current and continue learning on the job.

3. Offer flexible schedules. Our survey found that 47 percent of the CIO’s we polled were willing to provide flexible schedules. Effective retention programs also address work-life balance and salary issues. Offering flexible schedules or telecommuting options is a cost-effective way to improve overall job satisfaction, show appreciation and build loyalty. Competitive compensation packages are equally important and demonstrate to employees that their contributions are valued.

Rick Davidson, SVP, Global CIO

Manpower employment-services Company

Rick Davidson is responsible for worldwide IT strategy and operations at Manpower. He joined the company in January 2003. Before signing on with Manpower, he worked at the Feld Group—an IT consulting company that placed temporary CIO’s—and, prior to that, he was the senior vice president and CIO at CNH Global and the vice president of global information services at Haworth Inc.

TIPS ON ATTRACTING AND RETAINING IT TALENT

Manpower has developed and refined strategies for companies to attract engage and retain quality employees, including IT professionals. The world's most populous country is faced with a talent paradox. China, despite its 1.3 billion population, is short on talent. Manpower developed its proprietary Workforce Optimization Model that is used to assist clients in recruiting and retaining permanent employees. The five strategies of this model are not only useful to employers in China, but globally, and apply across all industries and sectors.

The five strategies of Manpower's Workforce Optimization Model to improve employee attraction, engagement and retention are:

1. Create a learning organization.

2. Appoint competent leaders.

3. Establish an appropriate organization and culture.

4. Provide competitive compensation and benefits packages.

5. Select the right people.

It is vital that organizations view the five areas as a holistic, integrated solution; neglecting even one of the areas will weaken the solution considerably.

1. Create a learning organization. Fast learning for high-potential employees can be facilitated through the following channels:

• Give employees projects that go beyond their current job's responsibilities.
• Participate in global tasks to learn Western culture and business management, and broaden employees' views.
• Invite employees to present at next-level local and global management meetings

2. Appoint competent leaders.

• Appoint hands-on leaders and provide role models.
• Improve leaders' communication skills.
• Explain company strategy and link personal goals to business objectives.

3. Establish an appropriate organization and culture.

• Create a simple and "flat" management structure.
• Demonstrate the organization's values.
• Repeatedly communicate the organization's values.

4. Provide competitive compensation and benefits packages.

• Review salaries frequently.
• Expect to give bigger salary increases than in developed countries.
• Develop comprehensive packages with multiple benefits.

5. Select the right people.

• Be open and honest to candidates in interviews.
• Look for soft skills such as flexibility and adaptability.
• Find candidates who have the capacity to grow quickly.

‘All highlighting mine’- Vinod Chand

17 Rules for Marketing Success

#1 Understand Who Buys Your Stuff

• Understand who buys your stuff. Business people? Other lawyers? Consumers?
• Define your audience from every possible perspective: socio-economic, geographic, image-sensitivity, age, risk-sensitivity, etc.
• If your firm provides services to more than one group, design unique marketing strategies (messages and delivery vehicles) for each group.

#2 Define and Target Your Audience

• Before you design any marketing communication, know who wants or needs your services? know your potential customers intimately.
• Design your communications to meet the needs and desires of your potential customers.
• Speak to only one customer at a time.
• Buy media that reaches your target audience, not media that reaches the largest number of people.

#3 Understand the Difference Between What you Offer and What People Buy

• You offer services; people buy solutions to their problems. (Proctor and Gamble sells shampoo to people who want clean hair.)
• Go deeper. (People want clean hair because?)
• People buy perception, not reality.
• Express your services in terms of what people buy (security, confidence, experience, value, likelihood of success, understanding, tax-savings, etc.).

#4 Define Your Unique Market Position

• Why should somebody hire you rather than your competition? Be realistic.
• Brand your unique market position (e.g., “the insider,” “always here,” “the lawyers’ lawyer”).
• Find ways to communicate your unique market position in an irresistible fashion.

#5 Know Your Resources

• How much money do you have to invest in marketing? How much time do you have? Allocate your resources to achieve the maximum return on investment for your marketing programs.
• If you have more money than time, hire a consultant with a track record of success and give her a budget. Step out of the way and monitor results.
• If you have more time than money, pursue marketing programs that are time-heavy and money-light. (Direct contact, seminars and workshops, networking, volunteering, public relations, practice brochures, publishing, trade services, etc.)

#6 Lead Your Marketing with the Highest ROI Vehicle

• Of the hundreds of marketing vehicles, which one offers possibility for the highest return on your marketing investment? Invest in the highest-ROI vehicle first. Only after you have saturated your highest-ROI vehicle should you move forward to your second-highest-ROI vehicle.
• Monitor and modify frequently. Any time your ROI slips, adjust your message or delivery mechanism. After adjusting, if you don’t see a return to high ROI, withdraw your funding and invest in the next highest ROI vehicle. Review frequently.

#7 Design Your Marketing around Problems and Solutions

• People hire lawyers to solve problems, or to prevent a problem from occurring. Design your marketing so that it is clear—you solve problems.
• In print advertising, use the headline to present a problem. In the subhead, provide the solution.

#8 Be Faithful to Your Unique Voice

• Once you have created your unique place in the market, stick with it: actively and intentionally grow your brand. Remember, people buy things (including services) because of their uniqueness, not because they are like other things.
• When you stand apart, you get noticed. (Don’t follow others.)

#9 Make Yourself Easily Accessible

• Create an image of warmth and availability. (Too many law firms create images that focus on prestige and tradition. Granite walls may create the image that you’ve “made it,” but if those walls get between you and your potential clients, your marketing will have to work a lot harder to generate new clients.)
• Create marketing-only telephone lines for your office. Publish a unique number in all of your advertising so when that line rings, everybody knows it’s a prospective client calling.
• Create a welcoming, we-are-here-to-please-you message both within your office and in all of your external marketing.

#10 Know Your Competition

• Your firm is not the only firm actively pursuing new customers. To win the lion’s share of the pie, you must know what your competition is doing. You must be more aggressive. You must be smarter. To edge out the competition, you must know what they are doing, and you must play the marketing game better than they play the marketing game. When it comes to generating new clients, the second choice never gets the telephone call.

#11 Keep Egos and Marketing Separate from Each Other

• Your marketing is not about you; it is about what you can do for potential clients better than anybody else.
• If you create a marketing message that makes you look good, throw it away. Even Charlie knows people don’t want tuna with good tastes.

#12 Don’t Design Marketing Communications to which You Think You Might Respond

• You are not your potential client. Your potential clients don’t think like you think. They don’t even like the same food you like! Don’t get caught in the trap of thinking that if you like a marketing message, potential clients will like it too.
• Don’t design an ad layout or direct mail piece so you will like it. Too many truly great marketing pieces have been left on graphic artists’ tables in favor of less powerful pieces because the client liked the lesser piece, and did not see or understand the value of the powerful piece.
• Don’t look at your marketing messages through your eyes. Take your marketing messages out to others for their opinions. (If you take your marketing messages to your staff or to your spouse for “more objective” opinions, you will get more, and varied, opinions, none of which will be much more valuable than your own. The only person whose opinion counts is the potential clients’. Think of it this way: Don’t ask your wife and staff what flavor of ice cream the kid standing on the street corner likes the most. You may love your wife and your staff, but they don't know what flavor of ice cream that kid likes any more than you know. Ask the kid.)

#13 Don’t Buy Statistics

• Most people who sell advertising have compelling statistics that demonstrate buying their advertising vehicle is a prudent choice. Ignore these statistics; they mislead. If you need to rely on statistics, get them from an unbiased source.
• Statistics are not clients. (Nobody has 1.9 children.)

#14 Tell the Truth

• Always.

#15 Adopt a Winning Attitude

• The return you get on your marketing investment is influenced by your attitude. Create and maintain a great outlook every time you participate in building content, designing marketing material, or buying media. If you discover you have a bad outlook on a day you have scheduled yourself to work on your marketing, reschedule.
• Go all out, as though you are designing your future. You are.
• Plan to win. Big.

#16 Never Advertise From Fear of Loss

• Advertising decisions that are motivated by fear (“some other firm will get these clients if I don’t advertise here”) will almost definitely result in poor returns.
• Advertising decisions that are motivated by possible gain tend to produce? gain.

#17 Sell Only the Best

• If you decided to sell vacuum cleaners door-to-door, wouldn’t you research to find the best-value, best-performing vacuum cleaner on the market, and then get a job with that firm? Your advertising will always reflect your beliefs about your firm. If you don’t believe you can offer the best value and performance, your advertising will reflect that.
• If you can’t offer value and performance, change.