At the risk of dating myself, have you heard the late 70s song Video Killed the Radio Star? I am reminded of it every time I hear proclamations of how the internet or social media has irrevocably changed marketing and sales. “Do you create video datasheets?” a prospective customer asked me in a recent...
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At Zebu, we’ve had the fortune of working on both sides of the Public Relations dance exercise. As clients, mostly in technology firms, we’ve had engaged multiple PR firms in India and overseas, with varying results and vastly different experiences. We’ve also more recently played the supplier role – as providers of public relations...
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At Zebu, we work with a number of customers who are still in a startup phase. A great deal of our ex-colleagues have startups of their own, to which we have ringside seats. While we’d have argued that the economic downturn was a good time to start a business, for these startups, like most...
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Informal discussions and newspaper articles indicate that employee attrition is once again on the rise – not only in Bangalore but across all major metros. Of course the big three – TCS, Infosys, Wipro with their large workforces have made the news – as have the multinationals amongst them Accenture, HP and IBM. Bad...
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If you haven’t spent the last two years in a bunker on a remote Pacific Island or if you have teenagers (in which case I have bunkers for you) you’ve probably heard far more of FaceBook, Twitter and even Google Buzz, than you’d have liked. And if you are like me, you’ve probably wondered...
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A typical conversation around CRM with the many CxO’s that I encounter goes like this: Me: Do you use CRM? CxO: Yes, we do use CRM Me: What does that mean? CxO: Well… we recently purchase a Siebel license.. We use Salesforce….We use …you get the point Me: Are people using it? CxO: Everyone...
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In a few hours, my older daughter’s 9th grade final exams are set to begin. Between the school, the other kids in her class and likely her parents (nooo, you protest) – this has become quite a big deal. It’s not as though a fourteen year old doesn’t have enough pressure in her life...
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As many of us are finding out, “OMG, ten days have gone by in the new year, and I’m already behind.” Before we hit the panic button, a lot of good folks out there have put out specific, simple and actionable lists of how we can be more productive in this new year. So...
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Image by photographerpandora via Flickr One of the biggest lessons that I learnt as an entrepreneur and marketer is to appreciate sales folks. Before you even think of snickering, reflect for moment. Which of us likes being rejected day after day, having to not merely tolerate but cultivate customers with idiosyncrasies you’d never accept...
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Image by airgap via Flickr The news of an impending recovery has not done much to take the heat off of marketers. With the pressure to do more with ever fewer resource, marketers and even CEOs are feeling the heat. There’s another email campaign to be run, yet more leads to be generated and...
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