CONTENT MARKETING

S.NISHANTHI, Professor, SIMS

Why One Need to have Better Conversion Tracking to Win the Sales Game?

90% of B2B analysts who are online use “search” to examine business buys. 71% of B2B specialists begin with a nonexclusive hunt. B2B specialists’ normally seeks searches connecting on a brand’s site. B2B purchasing process influencers and chiefs are over mostly down the way to a choice before they play out an activity on a site. These measurements disclose that the prospects are completing a great deal of research online about items and arrangements that can address their necessities. With compelling content marketing and an SEO-optimized website, the aim is for them to discover B2B brand during that research process.

Notwithstanding getting prospects through the front entryway, it’s vital to follow them as they advance toward the secondary passage. Transformation following can demonstrate what number of clients is gained alongside the showcasing efforts that had an impact in the deal.

In a Content Marketing world introduction, a-z conversion tracking issues for B2B and how to solve them, is listed as 1 ) assesses the  marketing efficiency productivity 2) Set aside extra cash from allocating budget to low-performing channels 3) Enhances profit by spending more on winning strategies.

Conversion tracking need to be used to check the performance level of a marketing team’s performance. The best way for B2B transformations following issues, alongside approaches to address those issues are, by dealing made by means of merchants are difficult to follow, rather than purchasing specifically from the brand. Numerous B2B clients purchase from an affiliate or wholesaler. B2B brands may have tens, hundreds, or even a huge number of affiliates and wholesalers in their channel organize.

In addition to track macro conversions, few recommend organizations to track activity related to distributors.

1. Track wholesaler inquiries on site.

Track telephone calls from your site to merchants (e.g., following a “tick to call” hyperlink to a wholesaler’s telephone number). Utilize an advertising robotization stage to follow important or outstanding snaps.

2. Defining the wrong objectives for conversation

The “waste in, waste out” relationship can be made for change following. If your conversion goals don’t make sense or don’t connect with business goals, then conversion tracking is meaningless like garbage.

This tends to resemble for a B2B promoting association that keeps running without viable transformation.

 

 Union Budget  2019 – Highlights

Dr.S.Sundararajan

Faculty-SIMS

* Individual taxpayers with annual income up to 5 lakh rupees to get full tax rebate.
* Individuals with gross income up to 6.5 lakh rupees will not need to pay any tax if they make investments in provident funds and prescribed equities.
* Standard tax deduction for salaried persons raised from 40,000 rupees to 50,000 rupees.
* TDS threshold on rental income raised from 1.8 lakh to 2.4 lakh rupees.
* “Around 3 crore middle-class taxpayers will get tax exemption due to this measure,” the finance minister said.
* Gratuity limit increased from 10 lakh to 30 lakh rupees.
* Benefit of rollover of capital tax gains to be increased from investment in one residential house to that in two residential houses, for a taxpayer having capital gains up to 2 crore rupees; can be exercised once in a lifetime.
* Benefits under Sec 80(i)BA being extended for one more year, for all housing projects approved till end of 2019-2020.
* “We are poised to become a 5 trillion dollar economy in the next five years, we aspire to become a 10 trillion dollar economy in the next eight years,” Goyal said.
* Businesses with less than Rs. 5 crore annual turnover, comprising over 90% of GST payers, will be allowed to return quarterly returns.
* Direct tax collections from 6.38 lakh crore rupees in 2013-14 to almost 12 lakh crore rupees; tax base up from Rs 3.79 crore to Rs 6.85 crore. 99.54% returns have been accepted without any scrutiny. In January 2019, GST collections has crossed 1 lakh crore rupees.
* GST has been continuously reduced, resulting in relief of 80,000 crore rupees to consumers; most items of daily use for poor and middle class are now in the 0%-5% tax bracket.

* Two per cent interest subvention on loan of 1 crore for GST registered MSME units.
* Group of Ministers examining how prospective house buyers can benefit under GST.
* GST is the undoubtedly the biggest taxation reform implemented since Independence; through tax consolidation, India became one common market; inter-state movements became faster through e-way bills, improving Ease of Doing Business.
* Within almost two years, almost all assessment and verification of IT returns will be done electronically by an anonymized tax system without any intervention by tax officials.
* “Cost of data and voice calls in India is now possibly the lowest in the world; mobile and mobile part manufacturing companies have increased from 2 to 268,” he said.
* Single window clearance for filmmaking to be made available to Indian filmmakers, anit-camcording provision to be introduced to Cinematography Act to combat film privacy.
* Allocation for North Eastern region proposed to be increased to Rs 58,166 crore in this year a rise of over 21% from the previous year.
* Increased allocation for Rashtriya Gokul Mission to 750 crore in current year.

* Two per cent interest subvention to farmers pursuing animal husbandry and fisheries.
* “Urgent action needed to increase hydrocarbon production to decrease imports; change in bidding procedure and exploration procedure being implemented,” Goyal added.
* Committee under NITI Aayog to be set up to identify and denotify nomadic and semi-nomadic communities; Welfare Development Board to be set up under Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for welfare of these hard-to-reach communities and for tailored strategic interventions.
* Mega Pension Yojana, namely Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Mandhan, to provide assured monthly pension of 3000 rupees per month, with contribution of 100 rupees per month, for workers in unorganised sector after 60 years of age.

* “(This) will benefit 10 crore workers in unorganized sector, may become the world’s biggest pension scheme for unorganized sector in five years,” Goyal said.

* Under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, 6000 rupees per year for each farmer, in three installments, to be transferred directly to farmers’ bank accounts, for farmers with less than 2 hectares land holding.
* This initiative is likely to benefit 12 crore small and marginal farmers, at an estimated cost of Rs 75,000 crore.
* The 4R approach has been implemented to ensure clean banking –

1. Recognition
2. Resolution
3. Recapitalisation
4. Reforms

 

* “We controlled double-digit inflation. Inflation is a hidden and unfair tax; from 10.1% during 2009-14, inflation in December 2018 was just 2.1%. We have broken the back of back-breaking inflation,” Goyal said.

* Fiscal deficit has been bought down to 3.4%; CAD (current account deficit) likely to be 2.5% of GDP this year.

 

 

Emotional Vs intelligence quotient for investment

Prof. S.Saravanan, Sankara Institute of Management Science

As human we are more emotional than logical in decision making. As society progress with technology we perceived that we make decision based on facts but in reality, our decisions are based on results which affect out emotional wellbeing.

The study conducted by Accenture identified that emotional intelligence is powerful in career success. The research shows that people with high interpersonal and awareness about society have higher career success than intelligence. Emotion plays a bigger role in decision making related to finance of companies or individual. The financial success is high when the emotional quotient is high comparing to other quotient.

      In 2012 a study in USA showed that a person with high EQ earns 1.5 times more than the people with same level of degree and intelligence. In stock market trading, high EQ make more money than low IQ, when the traders understand the emotional and stock market equally.

Greed and fear drives the stock market. A trader should know when to be greedy and should also know when to be fearful of market conditions. If the investor cannot control his emotions they cannot control the money. With increase in technology for trading, information technology is taking over the investment decisions with intelligence but good trader with EQ has competitive advantages. Information technology can help in gathering data and recommend the investment for investors, where human touch is required for investing. Client choices are very important, for investment managers with high EQ Vs IQ determines the better results. People with high EQ maintain calm and perform better in any situation.  Emotional intelligence is important component for perfect competitive advantage tools for financial managers.

Mentorships to Work, Colleges and Faculties Have to Commit

Dr.S.SUNDARARAJAN, Professor, SIMS

Professors’ guidance can be life-changing for students, but the relationships require sustained resources, rewards, and support for the faculty members participating. Student Counseling, mentoring and guiding are some of the out of classroom services that have a significant impact on the change in attitude and future career of the student. However to undertake these activities to achieve the desired effects, a high level of empathy and skill is needed in the person delivering the service. The most faculty members who are assigned for these services have very little idea of the knowledge, skills and the attitude changes required to make them competent to deliver the service to professional standards.

In their opinion if an institution chooses to deliver these services to the students as an integral part of the program then the people engaged in delivering the service will need to be made competent to deliver the service. Such persons will need to undergo courses and conduct their practice to international standards and get themselves certified to do the job. The institutions have arranged programs for the trainers and faculty members chosen to provide counseling, mentoring and guidance services.

Counselling is the need of the day. During the counseling sessions they have the opportunity to talk to many people across spectrum. There is a feeling of being lost that it requires urgent counselling. Both mentoring and counselling cannot happen by Professors or teachers. Many believe it is the same as advising. It isn’t and both mentoring and counselling require special training.

Guidance in what is important in academics, Career and Resources. Rewards come from the transformation in the person we are guiding. Coaching is by far the easiest to define. A skill has to be transferred /taught and the coach demonstrates and helps practice and identify weaknesses/ grey areas.

A mentor on the other hand is more knowledge oriented( very loosely put) but also goes a step further in being involved in the development of the person-either through his own advise/intervention  or by referring to other experts. One of the pet ideas that have been toyed around for decades is the mentorship of a new teacher. By playing the role of a mentor, a senior teacher transfers his/her knowledge and experience to a youngster. It gives senior teachers a sense of purpose and a sense of ‘usefulness’. For the young teacher, there is a sounding board, a support, a fall back in case of confusion.

Yet mentoring has hardly worked in educational institutions and has worked to some extent in Corporate world. In India it has been a challenge-for one we have a lot of extraneous, hidden factors (culturally and socially), like age allows me to advice people, demand respect and so on. Mentorship is not possession of the young-it is the ability to say I am here and you can tap into my ability. If the mentee is not performing, it gives me the right to probe and understand why/ what the issues are. A good counselor listens to what is being said most importantly to what is NOT being said. Through active listening and probing questions, the counselor waits for the client to find his own answers, in his own time, in his own way and space and above all, in the way he wants it to be done. Maybe he is right, maybe he is wrong. IF wrong the counselor asks more questions as does the client. Back and forth till some clarity sets in and the gears change from emotional tsunami to a more logical, rational calm. The counselor helps the client to listen to himself and find a solution.

A good teacher should be able to connect with the students well. Until this connection is made, it will be really difficult to have holistic development in the students even we have a number of mechanisms in place. Many misinterpret the word “Connection”. It truly means: – To understand every student in the class. His/her areas of strength and weakness. – IQ level of every student and to some extent EQ level also. – Individual profiling of every student. – Grey areas, if any. – Providing comfort zone to students for more interaction. At the same time, as a teacher we must know where to draw the line also. Many times, I wonder, whether students at MBA level also require counseling? Rather emphasis should be more on “Mentoring”. Having counseling session in B-School is one of the criteria for NBA Accreditation by AICTE. All B-schools have counselors. Teachers only play the role of counselor; it is more of documentation and building up volumous file. Students also take counseling session very lightly as they know the end result. Counseling is very effective at elementary level of education/up to 10th standards when students try to understand the world slowly and they are very tender and ignorant about many things around.

 

Drivers of Higher Education: Technology, Innovation and Competency. 

Dr.B.Sudhakar, Director-SIMS

Faculty member’s preparedness to take up this challenge is important in introducing innovation in the teaching learning process to bridge the gap between industry and academics. As teachers allow students to ask questions. Make students learn by the answers you get. Connect to the world around them and find out the solution. Teachers should look into effective methods of learning and not into effective methods of teaching. If you are able to understand how the students learn, you as a teacher will be able to make the students learn. Students need to learn the application in problem solving. They should unlearn the wrong, relearn the right continuously to grow and be innovative. Remove the monotony in the classroom. Encourage students, involve them in discussions and encourage them to actively participate. This will help them in improving their thinking process which will result in innovative thinking. To create a culture of innovation, engage all, trust them and give them the opportunities, it will improve efficiency of them which result in increased satisfaction.

The evolutions of career options for students have changed over a period of time. Today we are focusing on making our student community as entrepreneurs with many startups coming. Attitude to learn and the compulsion is the need of an individual to have interdisciplinary knowledge. Integration of various skills is the responsibility of a student what is expected by the corporate. Improvement in teaching learning process towards inter disciplinary learning is the order of the day. This generation of students should be allowed to think and discuss and teachers have to be facilitators. Technology plays very important role today. Students are also technology savy. Business models are changing due to Digitalisation and technology. Startups and entrepreneurship is growing with the innovative technology and digitalization. Growth prospects in this are tremendous. Students have to understand the technology and use it appropriately.

Educational institutions responsibility is to prepare students for a life of careers and not focus on careers for life. Digital Transformation is changing the way the world operates. Educational Institutions are expected to foresee the change and prepare their students to this.

For employment today students require = Knowledge + Attitude + Skills.

The younger generation has to understand this and build their competency to be in line with the growing economy. Faculty of an educational system has to play the role of Influencer. To build the competencies, industry academia partnership needed. Backward vertical integration into curriculum, teacher exchange programmes with industry, faculty internships with industry which should be application oriented, Graduate life cycle tracking are some of the steps that can be taken by educational institutions. Educational institutions should teach the students to take risks. This will help them to be self driven to achieve their career objective.

Outcome Based Education is the order of the day. Student’s attainment is based on the outcome of the course. Hence if all institutions focus on this keeping in mind the current market requirement, student community will be highly benefitted. Education and Research are two important facets of educational institutions. Education is for creating employable resources for employment. An educational institution should also focus on research – in search of new knowledge. The research perspective should result in experimentation leading to innovations. The innovations may be in terms of products or processes or skills. Application of the experiment gives the opportunity for entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship creates employment as well as value creation.

To conclude a student has to be passionate in learning. Intelligence, Hard work, Conformity are the expectations of the corporate. Corporate look into ability of an individual to express what he knows. Interdisciplinary knowledge is required today. Industry Institute Interaction is needed but it should be based on mutual consent and requirement. This relationship will help both the industry and academia to grow. Educational institutions should focus on improving the teaching learning process by using the latest technology, innovative pedagogy, create an innovative culture and environment for the students to build the competencies required for meeting the expectations of the corporate as well as ignite the spirit of entrepreneurship.

Corporate myths: For HR Leaders

Dr.Priya Kalyansundaram, Professor, SIMS

 In this fast-evolving business world, corporates have a multiple challenges. But how they deal with them reveals their eagerness to embrace the future and their desire for real change. New challenges need newer solutions, not reprocessing the old resolutions or “doing more of the same”.

Here are some of the corporate myths to help HR leaders stay ahead.

Higher the degrees better the candidate: Expressing your skills is more important than your degrees in today’s work environment. There has been a significant shift at various companies including global giants such as Apple, Google, EY and Starbucks. Surely a premier degree counts but is not a golden ticket anymore. Employers are more on result focused than ever before and want to bet on people who are more result oriented and no crazier towards a fancy resume.

 Key Competencies are worthy:  Competencies have become a must for today world. It is ahead of education and experience. Corporate have strengthened their competency frameworks over decades and they are using it as a lens for talent acquisition now, moving away from the traditional format of testing job know-how and seeking academic excellence.

Wisdom happens in classrooms: Organisations in the last two decades have started investing  heavily in building infrastructure for employees development through  physical classroom. The rise of online and affordable learning opportunities have reduced the traditional format by being more cutting edge, relevant and experiential, as learning can happen anytime, anywhere and at any time.

Annual Appraisals are institutionalized: Organisations depending on annual appraisal will find it difficult and may not sit well with the workforce of today especially with millennial entering the workforce.

What gets measured gets done: Analytics is the way to go but getting too obsessed with metrics can also lead to missing the big image entirely. You may have won a race at the cost of everything but your players might have already started a different race.

Social media is mostly for chilling purpose: Digital footprints are permanent and are just like tattoos and can reflect your mood on any particular day but may embarrass you on another day.  We need to lookout out what we put out there as employers are spending time on this before they make an offer to you.

How to develop Growth Mindset?

 

Introduction

Potential: One who has latent qualities or abilities that may be developed and lead to future success or usefulness. It is an ability the person has not yet developed

Growth mindset: “In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. Brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.”

What is growth? What is mindset?

Growth means to develop, change, mature, and evolve. Living things grow – plants, animals, and people. Even our brains can grow!

Mindset is the way our brain thinks about things we do. Our mindset helps us look at problems, as well as mistakes, in a positive way!

Growth mindset means?

A growth mindset believes in the power of our self and our brain! We know our intellect and abilities develop when we try hard things, use the right strategies, and don’t give up. So a growth mindset is when we know, with practice, we will get better at something.

Concept and history of Growth Mindset

In her research at Stanford University, Dr. Carol Dweck identified two different types of mindsets. Growth mindset occurs when we believe our intelligence and abilities can be improved upon with effort and the right strategies. A fixed mindset means you think you can’t get better at things, even if you practice. Wanting to quit, give up, or deciding we’re just not good at something are all clues we have a fixed mindset.

Growing our brain through listening Classical music/music without words, Listening energizing songs, Laugh freely for fun activities, Taking a power  snap 15-20 minutes in day and good sleep at nights for physical rest, Drinking 1 liter water when you wake up, Doing meditation for 5 minutes, doing exercise for healthy body, Eating nutritious fruits and snacks (Nuts), and Surrounding yourself with people who are positive and inspirational.

We need people – whether it may be mentors, family or friends – who will challenge us and make us better, thereby raising our average or helping us maintain a high one.

 Difference between growth and fixed mindset

FIXED MINDSET tends to:	GROWTH MINDSET tends to:
·         Want to look smart ·         Avoid challenges ·         Give up easily due to obstacles ·         See effort as fruitless ·         Stick to what they know ·         Ignore useful feedback ·         Be threatened by the success of others	·         Want to learn ·         Embrace challenges ·         Persist despite obstacles ·         See effort as path to mastery ·         Explore new ideas and possibilities ·         Learn from criticism ·         Be inspired by the success of others

How can we leverage the power of yet?

Growth mindset and the power of Yet

Even though we know about growth mindset, we still have to work at it. Especially when something is hard for me, we can tell we are in a fixed mindset when we have thoughts about quitting and start to feel sad. When we feel that way, we know we need to change our thinking to a different mindset. One way that works is just using the word ‘yet.’ We can add it onto the end of almost any sentence to change our thinking. For example, when we get frustrated by a challenge and think ‘we’ll never get it,’ we just say, “we don’t get it…yet.” Or if we think we can’t do something, we’ll say, “We can’t do it…yet.”

The ways to improve growth mindset

• Acknowledge and embrace imperfections.
• View challenges as opportunities.
• Try different learning tactics.
• Follow the research on brain plasticity.
• Replace the word “failing” with the word “learning.”
• Stop seeking approval.
• Value the process over the end result.
• Cultivate a sense of purpose

Endnote:

Grow our brain through learn a new language. It has always been known that learning a new language will grow our perspective, but learning a language really can help our brain to grow, do exercise-It has been proven: The more we run, the more our brain cells will grow, dance, sleep, eat well, be with trees have entertainment what we like more and think.

Reframe your fixed mindset – Our mind is our most powerful force. The stories we tell about our self and the things we believe about our self can either prevent change from happening or allow new ideas to blossom. A mindset is a set of assumptions, methods, or notations that is so established that it creates a powerful incentive within us to continue to adopt or accept prior behaviours, choices, or tools. It’s so powerful that it affects every decision making processes. It predetermines our responses and interpretations of situations. We can’t outsmart our mindset. An effective and success driven mindset is one that makes the best use of all our available resources like our time, energy, opportunities, etc. A positive mindset can translate into a world of difference regardless of the goal we seek.

Apply the power of yet – the “Power of Yet” poster has been a powerful strategy that has amplified and supported the love of lifelong learning that we hope to instill in our young generation. Such a simple reminder to persevere through the rough spots can be the difference between a learner who gives up on a problem and one who routinely concludes that understanding will come with more effort, questions, or use of additional strategies.

Power of Love – we believe we are hardworking, helpful, and can help serve others, always be loved and worthy regardless of what happens to us, never alone and we can always ask for help from someone.

Our 30 Day Challenge – We have to perform certain activities and practices routine manner these will be our accountability for growth mindset. Over the next 30 days, We would like to practice operating with a growth mindset choose one item from our fixed mindset list that we want to work on and everyday write down a few sentences on how we will overcome that challenge.

Compiled By

Dr.S.Sundararajan

Associate Professor in MBA

INSURANCE IN INDIA

-Mr. SriRamKumar,Professor,Sankara Institute of Management Science

What is insurance?

Insurance can be defined, as a system of providing protection against monetary loss caused by unforeseen events.
Insurance may be described as a social device to reduce or eliminate risk of life and property. A large number of people associate themselves by sharing risk, attached to individual through a Insurance plan. The risks which can be insured against include fire, the peril of sea, death, incident & burglary. Any risk upon these may be insured against at a premium commensurate with the risk involved. Insurance is a contract where in return for the payment of premium by the insured, the insurers pay the financial losses suffered by the insured as a result of the occurrence of unforeseen events.

Indian Insurance Industry

The history of insurance in India dates back to the year 1818, when the Oriental Life Insurance Company was formed in Kolkata. The Life Insurance Act of 1912 marked the beginning of a new era in the insurance sector of India. The Indian Insurance Companies Act was passed in the year 1928. This act empowered the government of India to gather necessary information about the life insurance and non-life insurance organizations operating in Indian financial markets. Reforms in the Indian insurance sector was initiated with the formation of the Malhotra Committee in 1993. The aim of the Malhotra Committee was to assess the functionality of the Indian insurance sector. The Malhotra Committee attempted to improve various aspects of the financial sector, making them more appropriate and effective for the Indian market.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Act of 1999 brought several crucial policy changes in the insurance sector of India. The IRDA Act was followed by the formation of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) in 2000. The goals of the IRDA are to safeguard the interests of insurance policyholders, as well as initiate different policy measures to help sustain growth in the Indian insurance sector.

Insurance Policies in India at a Glance

Life insurance policies in India come in many different forms. The most common types include: term life policies, endowment policies, joint life policies, whole life policies, loan cover term assurance policies, unit-linked insurance plans, group insurance policies, pension plans, and annuities. General insurance plans are also available to cover motors insurance, home insurance, travel insurance and health insurance. Insurance policies provide safeguards to ease risks associated with unexpected accidents, damages or the loss of personal property.

Service Blueprint

K.Thirugnana Sambanthan, Professor, SIMS

A service blueprint depicts the entire service process on a map and shows the various stages of customer interaction with the service provider, and provides minute details of the service delivery processes, the tangible evidence of the service, and the people involved in carrying it out.  Blueprinting helps in breaking up the service delivery process into a series of logical steps.  Blueprinting can be used in either designing or redesigning service products.

Elements of Blueprinting

1. Customer role

            This element involves all the steps a customer goes through in selecting a particular service, purchasing it, consuming that service, and finally rating it. A customer visits a restaurant depending on the type of food he wants to eat and his financial position.  He interacts with the service personnel in the restaurant and orders the food, he consumes the food and pays the bill, offers a tip, and finally he evaluates the whole experience.

2. Onstage and backstage employee actions

            Onstage employee action can be any activity performed by the service employee that can be seen by the service personnel.  Onstage employee action may include the manner in which a waiter takes the order, the way he serves it.

            Backstage employee actions include those activities performed by the service personnel, which are necessary to support the onstage service personnel. Backstage employees are involved in preparing the food for the customers, arranging them, billing the service etc.

3. Support processes

            A service blueprint maps all the support services, activities or processes that help the service personnel in producing and delivering the services. A hotel may provide training for its service personnel on the aspects of service creation and delivery.  This training is a support process.

The steps involved in developing a service blueprint are as follows

1. Identifying the process,
2. Identification of the customer segment
3. Mapping the customer’s view
4. Mapping the onstage and backstage employee actions
5. Identification of support activities,
6. Adding physical evidence wherever possible in the service process

Thus the service blueprint is a classic process map and follows the phases set by the customer journey.