Leaders Are Readers

Leaders are readers! Are YOU?

Presented by Abhishek Varma

Article from Monster.com

Direct Link: Leaders are Readers

ARUN is a successful young manager with a large company in Gurgaon. He started his career as a salesman, and has rapidly grown in the organisation. He is married, and lists down ‘watching TV and reading books’ amongst his hobbies. ‘Unfortunately,’ says Arun, my hectic work schedule leaves me with practically no time at all for reading!’

Krutika, a young graduate who works with a BPO in Mumbai, is preparing for her forthcoming MBA entrance exams. She is working hard at improving her English skills.

Everyday, you will find her in the train on her way to work, reading her flashcards, trying to improve her vocabulary in the next 30 days – even as her iPod blasts the latest hits into her ears. She knows the lyrics of these songs by heart – it’s just those words on the flashcards that are the problem. ‘I have never even heard of these words!’ she sighs.

Are we literate illiterates?

Arun and Krutika may be living in two different cities, but they share one thing in common. They are NOT readers! Somewhere along the way, they have lost the reading habit. It has rightly been said that there is very little difference between an illiterate person – who cannot read – and a literate person who does not read. Time to ask yourself the question: are you one of those literate illiterates, too?

Every book makes you grow taller

If you want to take a simple step towards expanding your mind and improving your life, start reading. A book can change your life. It allows you to peep into some of the finest minds in the world.

Reading a book is like having a conversation with the author, listening to his stories and learning from his experiences. You can get ideas, inspiration and insights – all from a book! Every book you read becomes a layer of knowledge you can stand on.

And every book makes you grow taller, just a little bit. So, remember, in the supermarket of life, the best things are always stacked on the upper shelves. If you are not a reader, you may never be able to reach them.

Half an hour a day, 26 books a year!

If you look around, you will find that most successful people are readers. Visit their offices, and you will find books strewn around. Visit their homes, and you will find a well-stocked book shelf. Take a leaf out of their books. Start reading.

If you read for just half an hour every day, you could finish a 250-page book in just two weeks’ time. That’s twenty six books in a year. A hundred books in the next four years. That’s more than most Indians read in a lifetime. Just think. What difference would that make to the quality of your mind, your career, your life? Just thirty minutes a day can do the trick, so stop giving excuses about not having the time to read.

And learn to read with a pencil. Make notes. Scribble on the margins. Underline important stuff. That way, you’ll get the full benefit of what you are reading. Twenty years ago, I had a colleague, a fellow sales manager in India’s most respected FMCG Company. He was a voracious reader – still is – and every book he read was filled with scribbles. That’s not just an interesting little trait of an interesting guy. It’s a habit of a man who is today the CEO of the largest MNC in India.

Books are the best investment you can make. And worth every rupee you spend. So, do yourself a favour. READ. Sacrifice that serial on TV or that gossip session with a friend if need be. American comedian and film star Groucho Marx was right. He once remarked that he found television very educating. He said, ‘Every time someone switches on the TV, I walk into another room and start reading a good book!’

Get the Groucho habit. Pick up a book. Today!

 

The Line Manager VS Human Resource Managers

Every organization have line managers and HR managers. However, many companies fail to understand the difference and thus lead to interpretation between the two. Hence, it becomes necessary to indentify each department’s roles and responsibilities.

We all know and experts have agreed that all managers perform five basic functions.

• Planning
• Organizing
• Staffing
• Leading
• Controlling

Human Resource Management is the process of acquiring, training, appraising and compensating employees. Further, it also looks into labor relations, Health & Safety concerns and fairness concerns.

So, here I would like to define the roles and responsibilities of Line Manager and Human Resource Managers.

Line Managers Duties

• Placing the right person on the right job
• Employee orientation
• Training employees for jobs that are new to them
• Improving job performance
• Gaining creative cooperation and developing smooth working relationship
• Interpreting companies policies and procedures
• Developing the abilities of each employees
• Creating and maintaining department morale
• Protecting employee health and safety

Human Resource Manager

• Support Line functions
• Coordination
• Ensuring line managers are implementing the firms human resource policies and practises
• Understanding companies staffing requirements and strategies
• Hiring employees
• Rewarding employees
• Counselling employees
• Promoting and firing of employees

Line Manager VS HR Manager

Because both Line and HR managers have HR duties, it is useful to ask “exactly which duties are carried out by Line manager and HR Manager?”

This relationship should be cooperative. For example, in recruiting and hiring, the Line Manager describes the qualifications and skills required. Then the HR takes over and they develop sources of qualified applications and conduct initial screening and interviewing. HR Managers then refer the applicants to the Line Manager who then interviews and select the ones he/she wants.

In training, the Line Manager again describes what he/she wants or expects the employees to do. Then the HR Manager takes on. The HR Managers team devices training program, which the Line Manager the (usually) administers.

The Co-Relation between HR Manager and Line Managers Roles

Recruitment:

• Need justification and requirements (Line Manager)
• Job Analysis (HR)
• Job Description writing (HR)
• Job Specification writing (HR)
• Approval of both (Line Manager)

Selection

• Application Review (HR)
• Initial Review (HR)
• Short Listing (HR)
• All Test (HR)
• Reference Check (HR)
• Final Interview/selection (Line Manager)

Manpower Planning

• Committee
• Coordination of HR
• Final decision by number/types of committee

Training

• Initiative can be from HR or Line Manager
• Program coordination by HR

If HRM is well qualified/experienced and carried a high profile, HRM can influence/persuade the Line Manager in almost all decisions.

If a Line Manager have more influence/weight in the organization, as well as personality wise, the Line Manager will run over HRM.

In summary, HR is part of every manager’s job. We should get the CEO’s and senior managements to clearly define the roles and responsibilities and leave no room for interpretations. 

E-Commerce – Challenges and Risks

E-Commerce started in India in the year 1999, when internet was available only at limited places and to few. Today, however, internet is available almost everywhere in India. Increasing number of internet users has led to increase in e-commerce activities, thus becoming an important part of retailing today. We have seen many key players in e-commerce like indiaplaza.in, flipkart, myntra to name a few and many more are coming up due to low investment & high returns, thus making e-retailing a competitive business today. Like many or most of the business, e-retailing also has to face many challenges and risks.

Sourcing: E-Retailing depends wholly on suppliers, partners and vendors. One of the risks involved is unavailability of suppliers, partners and vendors of the products and services. Any uncertainty, reluctance or concerns from the suppliers can be a risk to the business. Hence, dedicated in-house teams that constantly explores, observes and evaluate suppliers for new and existing products in various regions has become a common practice.

Distribution: When strategic partner fails to deliver service or product in certain areas, this becomes another challenge for the business. Since, delivering the service and products in the desired timeframe cannot be guaranteed; many businesses have opted for in-house courier services or distribution services. However, this includes additional resources and cost is involved. Even a single order needs to be delivered on time, thus flexibility of clubbing multiple orders may not work, as orders comes from different part or regions. Most of the e-retailers don’t have a physical store or warehouse; hence, managing the demand and availability of stocks with the suppliers and distribution channels becomes a major concern for the business. They have to manage this effectively to remain competitive in the market.

Scalability: The potential for a e-retailing business or aspects of a e-retailer to continue to function effectively, as its business increases, can be affected by competition & inability to increase varieties of product and services. Many e-retailers offer same services or products, thus it becomes exceedingly important to differentiate one from the other competitors. E-retailers have to stay ahead of the customers and competitors in bringing change of what all can be bought from web-sites.

Quality: Quality control & delivery of products and services on time are two major challenges the e-retailers face today. Online customers are spread across regions, service levels are promised to each customer are same regardless of the customers location. Since, customers cannot evaluate products or services physically; they trust e-retailers for the authencity and quality, especially in case of branded products. Also, the courier company needs to deliver on time, undamaged products. A lapse in quality controls and delivery can lead customer dissatisfaction. Incase a wrong product is getting delivered, the e-retailer needs to be very professional, as it becomes important to retain the customer, for which flawless return policy becomes critical for sustaining the customer.

Payment: A single failed transaction or incorrect transaction can leave a negative impact on a customer. Therefore, it becomes necessary that all steps are taken to ensure smooth transaction on the web-sites. Further, there are risk of fraud and theft, for which the e-retailer needs to have a complete security system and checks.

IT & Security: The web-site downtimes, maintenance, new technologies, security of customer’s personal information are some of the IT & Information security risk that the e-retailers need to face.

Social Media Marketing VS Traditional Marketing

Marketing is the business of promoting and selling products and services. When planning and designing a marketing plan for your business, there are several ways and strategies that can be applied. For any business, effective marketing is very important and essential. So, here I would like to compare two different approaches to marketing, that is, Traditional Marketing and Social Media Marketing.

Traditional marketing is using media such as Newspapers, TV commercials, Radio Stations, Mailers & Leaflets. However, things have been replaced recently with the new and upcoming technologies, Social Media. Social media is practically incorporated into every aspect of our lives. With internet, everyone can now start their own Blogs (Newspapers), TV Channels (YouTube), Radio Stations (Podcasts), SMS broadcasting (Twitter) & Business Networking (Facebook).

Social media marketing involves low cost as compared to traditional way of marketing. People often tend to ignore advertisements on TV, Radio, and Newspapers etc. However, on social media, people have the power to choose what to read, what to watch, and what to listen to & who to communicate to at their own leisure time.

So, social media marketing is really Social + Media + Marketing. First, you form a social circle, then you get to choose which media to use to engage or acquire the customers and then create or plan an appropriate marketing strategy to reach the entire social circle and groups.

CONCLUSION

While traditional marketing is still capable, it is still not effective as social media marketing. The ideal marketing plan or strategy should incorporate both social media and traditional marketing to acquire as many potential customers as possible