Miten Shah is an internet marketing expert with great entrepreneurial vision named ‘SEOWEbFirm’. He is also an eminent blogger, sharing his best knowledge of internet and content marketing with his readers.
Zubin Kutar has a proven record of setting up and leading high performing teams to deliver success. He uses his diverse digital background to influence and help organisations think differently both online and offline and across channels.
Zubin has worked across all global markets North America, APAC, UK & Europe and LATAM to implement digital technologies that play a key role in customer experience, customer acquisition and in transforming online business models
He started his work life in the advertising industry handling FMCGs brands from Unilever and Godrej Industries. Having sold the largest global brand of soap in rural India gave him an understanding of the traditional marketing principles largely the cognitive marketing aspect of buyer behaviour which today is helping him decipher the complex online customer journey and buyer intent patterns.
His passion for technology made him move to a role that was customer centric and technology driven.
He has a strong philosophy and focus towards “Everything Digital“
Tata Consultancy Services
Zubin Kutar has been working with Tata Consultancy Services since more than four years and is Head- Digital Marketing Transformation.
At TCS he leads the Digital Marketing Technology roadmap and Digital Strategy.
According to him, the interesting aspect of his role is to build capabilities that focus on – Digital customer experiences, Account Based Marketing, Data Analytics and Omni Channel Automation that would aid sales enablement teams across the company.
HDFC Bank
Prior to TCS, Zubin Kutar has worked with HDFC Bank as a Head in Digital Marketing and Social Media.
At the bank he was responsible to build and lead the bank’s online platform, online customer acquisition and support their digital presence across social media channels.
Under his leadership the bank built heir digital brand presence with a massive appeal in the Social Media Space.
Other Companies
Zubin Kutar has also worked with ICICI Bank, BMO Financial group, ICICI Lombard General Insurance.
With Business & Metrics performance as a focus, he has consistently melded together online transformation platforms, techniques and approaches to construct new and exciting ways of generating revenue from the digital medium – Online, Mobile & Social channels across Global Markets
He specializes in Digital Marketing Communications, Digital Transformation, Marketing Technology (MarTech), Lead Generation and Online Sales across functions in Banking, Insurance &Technology.
Some of Zubin’s work has been recognized by industry experts and thought leaders in the B2C and B2B industries.
2019
– Awarded “100 Smartest Digital Marketing Leaders” by World Digital Congress & CMO Asia
– Jury Member: Indian Digital Media Awards 2019, M3 Modern Marketing Awards 2019
2018
“100 Smartest Digital Marketing Leaders” by World Digital Congress & CMO Asia Awards: 2018
“100 Smartest Digital Marketing Leaders” by World Digital Congress & CMO Asia
“50 Most Influential Digital Marketing Leaders” by Mobile & Digi Marketing Summit.
Featured as a Social Expert –Digital Vidya.
2017
Best Social Media Brand – TCS ITWiz – in Edu Category – Social Samosa
Awarded India’s Greatest “Chief Digital Officer” 2016 – 2017 by Asia One
Featured as a Social media expert “Top 3 Social Media Trends of 2017”
Panelist at Digital Marketing Forum – Digital Marketing Ethics
Panelist at Social Media Marketing Forum – Social Media Reputation Management
2016
Paul Writer Award for Best Digital Marketing Campaign 2016 for TCS IT Wiz
“Best Social Media Integrated Campaign” for IT Wiz
“Best B2B Sector Social Media Campaign” for Global Trends Study on IoT
TATA Brand &Comm Excellence Award in External Engagement – Digi& Social for Trends Study 2015
2015
“50 Most Influential Digital Media Professional”- WMC
Hot 50 Digital Brand – Paul Writer,
Top 25 Hi Tech Brands – LinkedIn
CMO Asia 2015 – Digital & Social Media for Cause Marketing, TCS IT Wiz
Top 50 Digital Brand – Digital Brand Summit
Accordingly to Zubin Kutar below are 5 Digital trends you can’t ignore going into 2020
Influencer Marketing Rules
Influencer marketing will play a very critical role that will bridge the trust factor between brands and consumers as consumers no long trust brands and brand stories
The 3 A’s will play Goliath
Automation, Analytics and AI will be the core elements of making the digital shift to ensuring that brands and companies transform their legacy systems and processes to embrace and prepare for the next digital frontier.
Chatbots will get smarter in answering your questions as they learn how to deep mine data. 2 out of 3 users are already using some form of AI without even knowing they are interacting with it
More Personalisation v/s Broadcast
One on One marketing will make an impact on the buyer journey, brands will need to create personalised stories and experiences to sell their products. Brands relating to mass broadcast will see themselves perish faster.
Video Marketing
Video Marketing is one of the most important trend today in digital marketing, most likely it will continue to be the dominating one for the next 5 years at least. Shorter videos will rule considering the short memory span we all have, the challenge for brand will be to convey their brand promise in less time.
Voice interaction is picking up
Thanks to Siri , Alexa and other smart systems , we now have a new breed of machines that marketers need to understand to be able to master them
The success for marketers to engage their customers over voice will depend on how well they master this machine
Zubin is a LinkedIn influencer, his regularly posts on topics related to Technology, Digital and Leadership.
Do you know which famous authors write a book at 6 and a novel at 11?
Ok.
Let’s give you some hint.
She is the writer of “seven cursed diamonds and the people who owned them”. And she is JK Rowling – the titled lady for a howling success.
Now tell me which was your much- loved series in Childhood?
Of course, Harry Potter and its seven amazing seasons.
Harry Potter series have made 90’s kids so dreamy and purely mesmerizing.
This novel script is curated and developed by J K Rowling – who made our childhood imaginative and well-creative.
JK Rowling Biography and Life Story | Author of Harry Potter Series
J K Rowling Biography
Early Life
She was born on July 31st 1965, in Chipping Sodbury near Bristol, England. JK Rowling age is 54 years.
Joanne Rowling, also known as JK Rowling is a famous British author, who is known worldwide for her popular Harry Potter children’s book series.
Her father was working at Rolls Royce factory as an Aircraft Engineer.
Her soft cheeked mother was a science technician at the Chemistry Department at Wyedean Comprehensive School and College.
Avid reader and mine of words
During her childhood, she was an avid reader of fictional and non-fictional stories. She loved to curate and write long paragraphs over any topic. Creativity was the cornerstone for Rowling’s heart – so close to the soul.
Trauma at the age of teenager
Every story takes your test before rewarding you with success. So, it happened that Rowling’s mother was spotted with sclerosis when she was just a juvenile. Due to severe imbalances, her mother closed her eyes in 1990.
But the show kept on
Rowling was thoroughly shaken with the death of her mother. But she continues to churn her seeds of success with focused dedication and undying perseverance.
She decided to become a successful writer and show the world the power of creativity and ingenuity.
Her journey as a writer
At the age of 11
She wrote a novel about seven cursed diamonds and the people who owned them, when she was barely 11 years old. In 1991, she moved to Portugal to teach English language.
Head over heels
Romance was in the air and she fell in love with a Portuguese journalist Jorge Arantes and got married to him. She gave birth to a beautiful daughter Jessica in 1993.
Marriage didn’t last
The marriage didn’t last for long and she was divorced by her husband after a heated argument. This completely changed her life.
She took her little daughter and moved to live with her younger sister Dianne in Edinburgh. In Edinburgh, she used to write in café’s when her child had a nap.
Education
Schooling and Early education
JK Rowling joined University of Exeter and studied French and classics. Her knowledge of classics came in handy, when she was writing the spells in Harry Potter.
When the idea of Harry Potter was struck?
She first got an idea for Harry Potter in 1990. She kept on writing for the next five years and planned to write a seven book series on the topic. Her initial work was in the form of scattered notes – a poorly rough draft.
Beginning of some majestic chapters
In 1993, when she had already written a few chapters of the majestic book “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”, she found herself struggling financially as a single mum.
She shared the manuscript of her book with various publishers. They were banged with rejections and disapprovals. Later, her initial rejections got some positive response.
Bloomsbury – a spark within silver lightning
The books sparkled with a different glow when Bloomsbury decided to publish it in 1997.
Rowling, then after became an international celebrity writer in 1999, when her first three books of Harry Potter series has occupied all the top 3 slots at the New York Times International bestseller list.
J.K. Rowling’s Top 10 Rules For Success
Behind the scenes of success
Eminent Personality
J.K. Rowling has been eminent since publication by Scholastic Corp.’s Arthur A. Levine Books through an inscription of her first book about the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and whiz kid Harry Potter in 1998.
Initial Print
Her initial print went above the line worth 50,000 copies. Slowly and gradually, her hardcore pain striking efforts made her a headway down the aisle.
Till the date, she is ruling with her prominent collection of seven Harry Potter books, many books and series to allure the readers.
According to Scholastic, in all 500 million copies of Harry Potter books have been sold all over the world.
Recent and potential plans
JK Rowling has recently announced her plans for Pottermore website. She is about to release four new Harry Potter e-books in June 2019.
Currently, she is working over “Fantastic Beasts” series in order to release it by 2020.
JK Rowling Net Worth
According to The Sunday Times, her estimated net worth is around $1 billion as of May 2019 which makes her one of the richest persons in the world.
On paper, she is considered even richer than Queen Elizabeth II. The source of her wealth is the royalty earned through her Harry Potter series of books
Franchise and charity
She also has its movie franchise that has earned her around $8 billion.
She is also known for her generous charities. She has donated about $150 million to different charities.
She has donated in kind and cash to the international children’s charity Lumos, which she has established.
She also set up a charitable trust named Volantto aid theScottish women, children and young people with a better and healthy living standard.
Struggled as a single mother
Struggled as a divorcee
J K Rowling had a roller-costing life. She had been through many thicks and thins to get her series published.
Just like other successful authors, Rowling had her fair share of trials and difficulties in life. But she wasn’t taken away with her failures.
Every time when a publisher passed a humorous comment over her script, she used to grind her nose and teeth and always pulled her socks up in achieving what she actually wanted.
First Book
When she was writing her first book, she was struggling as a divorcee and a single mother in Scotland. She kept trust in her work and sunk her teeth into to start a new way of approaching. Her moment of glory came, when her first novel Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone was published.
New York Times
With unprecedented response and success of this fantasy novel worldwide, JK Rowling had also become a popular author, who bagged a place in the New York Times bestseller list. She is doing well both in the publication industry and in her film franchise business.
Top Movies
In 2016, two of her movies “Where to find them” and “Fantastic Beasts” were released along with the play titled as “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”.
Part of her success as writer is due to the fact that Rowling is able to touch readers at an emotional level.
J.K. Rowling Talks Harry Potter and More | TODAY
JK Rowling Harry Potter books
Some of the best books of JK Rowling are:
“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” (1998);
“Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets” (1998);
“Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban” (1999);
“Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire” (2000);
“Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” (2003);
“Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince” (2005);
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” (2007).
Besides, Rowling is also known for her detective fiction: The Casual Vacancy and, as Robert Galbraith, the Cormoran Strike series.
Know about Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. has released her all seven book series into a well screened film. It further concluded its adaptions with the last and latest series “Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2,” in 2011.
In 2007, Warner Brothers Entertainment and Universal Orlando Resort announced their plans to produce“The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” at the best of Florida amusement park.
J.K. Rowling’s Website
JK Rowling had launched a website Pottermore in 2014, in which she published stories and shares additional information about her book series and movies related to Harry Potter.
Universal Learnings
Some of the most inspiring JK Rowling Quotes are:
Your work should be your passion
Your work should be your discipline. You need to submit your work on or before stated deadlines. Writing is not a hobby instead it is an advocated professional – often found as niche. Also, write on daily basis to gain proficiency in your work.
Finish what you begin
Stay stick to your words. Always finish your work in the same manner as client demanded. Be creative and add a sense of true pride in your work. Your work and dedication behind the mirror reflects your potential in a subliminal way.
Read and Redraft
Whenever write any content, redraft it as many times till you get the right satisfaction. You need to be very protective about your work. Redrafting and rewriting is one of the most important part of writing.
For an instance, she herself re-wrote the chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for fifteen times! After that, she gained perfection.
Be Brave and Bold
Don’t let the fear of failure shadow you with insecurity. You need to stay firm and erect with every blowing wind and let the rejections hit your hard. Be bold and vocal about your rejections. Accept it and try to improve it.
Awards and Achievements
1997: Awarded the Nestlé Smarties Prize gold award for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
1998: Booksellers Association Author of the Year
1998: Awarded the Nestlé Smarties Prize gold award for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
1999: Awarded the Nestlé Smarties Prize gold award for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
1999: Booksellers Association Author of the Year
2001: J.K. Rowling received the Order of the British Empire (OBE) from His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, for services to children’s literature.
2003: On September 10th, J.K. Rowling accepted the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord at a ceremony in Oviedo, Spain. The award is an annual prize, awarded by the Prince of Asturias (heir to the throne of Spain) to individuals, entities or organizations that make notable achievements in the sciences, humanities, and public affairs.
2004: WH Smith Fiction Award
2006: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince won the British Book of the Year award.
2007: J.K. Rowling was honored with a Blue Peter Gold Badge. The Blue Peter badge is a special award given to viewers, fans and individuals who have been recognized by the award-winning BBC children’s television programme of the same name.
2008: J.K. Rowling was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008 from the British Book Awards (now known as The Galaxy National Book Awards). The British Book Awards is a series of awards bestowed by an academy of members from the British book publishing industry.
2008: The Edinburgh Award
2008: James Joyce Award, University College Dublin
2008: South Bank Show Award for Outstanding Achievement
2009: British Book Awards Author of the Year
2010: J.K. Rowling was the first recipient of a new award, the Hans Christian Andersen Award.
JK Rowling facts
Rowling is fond of designer clothes, especially knitted by Oscar de la Renta.
She never miss a chance to visit the Hamptons.
To your surprise, she owns a $15 million yacht – hardly an author can own.
Reportedly, she spends $150,000 a year only for private security. bodyguards.
Conclusion
It isn’t difficult to become an independent person and stand on your own foot. You just need to get ready for the banging failures and hailing thunder storms. If you fit with the hailstorms and still grind your efforts to survive and achieve your dream, then you are half a way ahead of all.
“Cheers to the winners, who won because they didn’t give up.”- Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm.
Who says Dreams don’t come true, if you are rags and dream of being rich?
They do come true, if you dare to chase it and fight till you make it.
Today, we are presenting you the most awe-inspiring rib tickler that will shake you out of the blue – who went rough through the rail and made us all believe in his Startup –PAYTM, an Indian Ecommerce and Digital Wallet Company.
So tighten your seat belts.
Pull up your socks, stretch your arm chair and get plugged with such an inspirational story of Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the hero behind Digital Wallet.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma: Founder and CEO of Paytm
Birth and Early Life
Early Schooling
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, a whiz kidwas born in a small town in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh on 8th July, 1978.
His perseverance and determination made him spent long hours in Computer Room to search for being in Silicon Valley, the mecca for worldwide innovation.
Being studied in Hindi Medium, life was not easy for him. His imperfect English came in way towards cracking IIT exams and other competitive exams.
Higher Studies
Later he got admission in Delhi College of Engineering.
In college, he used to simultaneously read two books — one in Hindi, the other in English to comprehend with the course material and get good command on English.
This in turn, helped him getting the grip over communication- fluently.
“I kept a diary and noted down new words,” he says.
Start up in college
A lesser known fact , in his college life, he had built his first company- ‘XS Communications’ – – a web solutions firm offering web-guided services, including web directories, and was also a search engine!
This is currently running as Content Management Systems.
The Indian Express
It is used by many publication house all around the world including the most prominent Publication house – The Indian Express. Slowly and gradually he learnt how to code a website and design content.
Within a year’s or two, it achieved a supernormal turnover of Rs. 50 lakhs and was later traded to “Living Media India” for half a million dollars.
Work Experience
After selling his company, he went on to earn and learn from the corporate world.
So for almost two years he worked for some companies like RiverRun Software Group designated as Business Development Associate, Intersolutions India Pvt Ltd under Technical Team, India Today Group Online labelled as Technical Head, and lastly Startec Global Systems, India as Chief Technical Officer.
Decided to start something of his own
But working 9 to 7 as an employee, didn’t ignite any spark.
Though he was promoted with higher position, it didn’t give any motivation to continue it for long.
Later he realised that he need to work upon starting something of his own – Something that is greater, newer and superior.
Having said that; he quit his job and grinded his nose well to start something exclusive!
Paytm Case Study | Dr Vivek Bindra
One97 Communication
One97 Communications Ltd. is India’s one of the leading mobile internet company.
It is inspired and driven by a commitment to great consumer experience from online booking till receiving payments from any corner of the world.
Headquarters in New Delhi.
Partnered with One97
Slowly things turned shallow, when Vijay partnered with One97 Communications.
But on darker side, nobody was ready to fuel the product with any amount of investments.
“Sometimes, failure is a blessing in disguise. Failure to launch an IPO gave birth to Paytm,” said Vijay Shekhar Sharma.
Year of No investors
2005 was the year of heavy hailstorm, with no investors, he took a loan of about 8 lakh and trusted to keep it going.
Paytm was born
Later when Indian Market was booming, he launched Paytm as a product in 2010 –a Digital Wallet and Ecommerce based Application that once hit over 110 million registered users.
Paytm Payments Bank
While in 2015, he launched Paytm Payments Bank that allows users to withdraw money from their respective bank’s ATM – anywhere and anytime.
To your surprise, it was inaugurated by Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister.
VijayShekhar Sharma admitted, ‘I don’t need to sleep; I am living a dream,’
Effect of Demonetization
Due to the advent of Demonetization, number of transactions and downloads have increased significantly.
People started moving towards “being digital” and looking more for digital transaction instead of cash.
According to some reports, it led to 700% hike in transaction and post demonetisation.
His Real Inspiration
Vijay Shekhar Sharma who is the inspiration of youths – in real admires Jack Ma, the brain behind Alibaba and Softbank’s Masayoshi Son.
From routine till business strategies, Sharma has high regard for their binding values and principles towards work.
Beyond Paytm
Rolex
In an interview, Vijay indicated that he would soon buy Rolex, the luxurious watch company known for its performance and reliability – Once his company reaches 10 billion dollars mark.
Languages
Currently Paytm is available in 11 languages and offers end-to-end solutions with 100% security in Payment modes. Managed presence in Africa, Europe, Middle East and Southeast Asia
QR code
Over and above 7 million merchants across India uses its QR Code to accept payments directly into their bank account.
Paytm Mall
Paytm Mall is basically a B2C model inspired by – TMall, the model of China.
Over 1.4 lakh sellers have already registered their products wrapped with consumer trust.
Deep down, it has partnered with 40+ couriers and has 17+ fulfilment centres across India.
It raised $200 million from Alibaba Group and SAIF Partners in March 2018
Loyalty Programme:
One97 Communications has announced the launch of a premium loyalty programme called ‘Paytm First’ for its regular users for customer retention.
Some notable additions to their current program:
Added GPS-tracking system
Added ticket booking, income tax returns filing and also re-launched Paytm GamesPind.
Vijay Shekhar Sharma Net worth
In January 2018, Paytm valued at a whopping $10 billion.
The net worth of Vijay reached to270 crores USD in 2019
Sharma further holds 51% Share in Paytm Payments Bank.
Marketing Strategies:
Begin with offers and Coupons
Begin with monthly pack offers, Facebook promotion and word-of-mouth – made sale of approximately 5-6k worth recharges a day and reached INR 100,000 recharges a day, that too within a span of just 4-months.
Toll Free Number
In order to solve the query of customers, it launched a toll free number “1800-1800-1234” and due to these, transactions increase profusely.
Increased Staffs
He sank his teeth into gaining well-regarded clients like HomeShop18, Dish TV, and Snap deal to maintain their growth and on other side also increased their staffing from 4 to around 40 members.
Charity
Paytm collected Rs 30 crores from 12 lakh users in 4 days for Kerala flood relief fund and additionally 1 crore from their side. Also updated a charity tab for Odisha Fani Cyclone.
Some Magical Movements
When Ratan Tata – the prominent Indian industrialist made a personal investment in Paytm.
When Paytm received a $575 million investment from Chinese e-commerce giant – Alibaba Group, and took 25% stake in One97 as part of a considered agreement.
Received $300 million from Warren Buffet‘s Berkshire Hathaway.
“Rotey huye aatey to sabh hain, magar Jo hasta Hua jayega. Wahi asli Mukandar ka Sikandar kehlayega”, says Vijay Shekhar Sharma.
Investments and Acquisitions
Over a quick span of years, Vijay with his deft skills collectively procure a few investments & acquisitions.
2013: Paytm acquired Plustxt for around less than $2 million. To enable fast text messaging in Indian Language.
2015: Invested $5 million in hyperlocal delivery firm, Jugnoo. It run down its operations all over the country, and improved its service quality at helm.
2015: Acquired Delhi-based consumer behaviour prediction platform Shifu, to predict the behaviour of users.
2016: Invested heftily in logistics startups LogiNext and XpressBees for quick and better supply chain management
2017: Financed in healthcare Startup QorQL to avail the services of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data – to sense the transaction rate and user’s frequency in accordance with payment sector.
July2017: Acquired a main stream stake in online ticketing and events platform Insider.in. Also funded an Event Management Company, Only Much Louder (OML) and Mobile Loyalty startup, MobiQuest.
2017: Paytm acquired Little & Nearbuy, and merged both.
June 2018: The Company acquired the startup Cube26 – to focus on user experience. It is a Flipkart funded startup.
Achievements
India Today magazine ranked him #18th in India’s 50 most powerful people of 2017
GQ India named him among the 50 Most Influential Young Indians for 2017
The Exchange4media Group, Impact Person of the Year, 2016
Recognized as one of the most Innovative CEOs of 2014 by Inc. India (2015)
“CEO of the Year” by the SABRE Awards, 2015
Paytm Wallet gets the “Best Digital Wallet Award” at IAMAI’ India Digital Awards (2015)
Recognized among Delhi/NCR’s Top 50 Brands at a celebration by Paulwriter (2014)
One97 features in Inc. India Innovative100 list (2013)
‘Most Innovative Start-up of the Year’ at the Entrepreneur India event organized by Franchise India (2012)
Universal Thoughts:
Vijay Shekhar Sharma shares his secret behind being such a successful industrialist and a true magnate personality.
Here is a quick outline of what he believes regarding Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Enthusiasm.
No substitution. But Work Hard.
There is no substitute to hard work.
You need to work consistently to achieve something like never before.
Shortcuts often end up in a midway but your endeavour and real perspiration will take you to a newer and greater pinnacles.
Surround yourself with strong vibes of perseverance and persistence because hard work deceives none.
Don’t shout for investments. Go Work for it.
Not everyone will believe in your dream.
In the beginning, no one will invest.
You need to trust your product and continue it with your own shoulders.
Don’t wait for others to invest into it.
Plan, Organize and Implement. Its success and admiration will attract hefty investments automatically.
Presence of wisdom is must
Knowledge often comes with hard work and experience but wisdom always comes with correct observation.
In fact, it must be present within you all the time.
You will learn a ton but only its re-investment and correct execution will lead you long term funds and security.
Without wisdom nothing prosper and without hustle no one achieve.
Dive deep and not shallow
Whatever you go into, Go deep to the vast and give all of your best.
There’s no secret sauce behind building castles – just an undying passion blended with some serious hard work will get you all fruits.
When you dive in depth, you always come out with glorious treasure in hand.
So get imbibe with the willingness to outlearn and outbound your ideas and business plans.
Today’s rejection. Tomorrow’s Success
Never get disappointed over your failure and rejection.
Because what’s not good today can still become best in the later stage.
It all happens with some hidden reason.
Today’s rejection may become your tomorrow’s success.
In the end, disappointment will pull down your spirit and nothing will be achieved in return. Instead, pull up your socks to continue to improve yourself for something incredible and astonishing.
Conclusion:
We often fall on hard times, sometimes fall apart and sometimes end up strucking with the hills.
But the show must go on, the spirit must rise high just like our adrenaline junkie, Vijay Shekhar Sharma.
So our sturdy readers, amped up yourself with energetic vibes to listen to such an awe-inspiring story of our Paytm hero.
Stay tuned for some more surprising and inspirational story.
Do you believe in mental fitness and mental stability?
It is always said that Health is Wealth.
This PinkPreneur believes that you need to constantly monitor your health while working for wealth.
She runs many shows and camps just to educate others in the area of health management and fitness awareness.
Yes, I am talking about Sweta Srivastava, the sole founder and strategist at NimmiLife.com.
She collects and brings stories to our desk to make us learn how important it is to maintain our well -being.
About Sweta Srivastava Vikram
Early Life
Sweta Srivastava Vikram is born and brought up in India besides the foot hills of Himalaya.
Currently she resides at New York City.
She has chosen her career into providing and practicing mindful, physical and mental activities.
They focused upon how to balance the peace of mind at par.
She considers herself a perpetual student of life.
The early life journey begins with:
Education and Learning
1993-1996: She has completed her Bachelor’s Degree from Fergusson College.
1997-1998: She has been University Topper at SNDT University. AttainedMaster’s Degree in Sports Nutrition.
1999: She has learnt Photoshop, Flash and Dreamweaver from Web Designing and Interactive Multi Media Institute of Mumbai.
2003-2005: Learnt the nuances and intermediate principles of Business Management from Robert Gordon University.
2006: Learnt basic principles of Strategic Communication from Columbia University in the city of New York.
2016: She further updated herself with a quick Digital Marketing Course to analyze and implement the same in her own business.
Work Experience
2010: She is currently working at Wellness-oriented digital storyteller as Content Strategist, Writing Coach, Certified Holistic Health Counselor and Socialpreneur
2006: She was Marketing Manager at NYSSCPA for 5 yrs. She initiated social media presence of the firm, using part of $5 million dollar budget.
2005: She worked as a Marketing Consultant at Eli’s Collection for duration of 1 yr.
2002-2005: She was employed as Marketing Manager for Three years at Arya’s collection where she revamped the marketing strategy, by targeting the brand’s messages to the needs of different audience segments.
Major Agenda
The major agenda is to listen to the stories and contribute significantly in helping them transforming their lives.
She has a gift of gab and that makes her a motivational and healthy orator.
Influencing Personality
She lectures and provide yoga and health related trainings to C-suite executives, entrepreneurs, employees and organizational members at helm.
In fact, many companies stated that they have witnessed increased production and high margin profits after regularly practicing yoga.
On this platform, she communicates the story of transformation of various women and empower them to work endless with a tinge of physical health and exercises.
With her win over words, she gives compassion and heal from trauma using Ayurveda and storytelling models.
Special Trainings
To your surprise, she prefers to teach yoga and mental practices with sexually assaulted women. She provides special training to the women who have faced domestic violence frequently.
Workshops
Sweta arranges plethora of workshops and seminars that fit the need of every audience in congenial way. Her workshops are subject to creativity, sharpness, compassion, lowering the stress level that boosts optimism in every nerves of the brain.
One-on-One Consulting
One-to-one consulting is the best and most appropriate way of addressing the problems of customers and delivering them with viable solutions. Sweta has worked with various corporate folks, business professionals and executives, MOMpreneurs and visual artists to provide high end one to one consulting services.
Around the Skills
Books and poetry
Sweta, the Multi- Tasker has published more than 12 + books in area of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
She has built her own castle in poetry writing.
She has given talks all around the globe in more than nine countries across three continents.
Writes regularly
Sweta has even shared her words with The New York Times, MindBodyGreen, DoYouYoga, Cure Joy, and Sivana amongst other spaces.
She regularly writes articles and poems on mindfulness, mindset shifts, mind power, health and wellness, and women’s empowerment.
She never leaves to deliver her talks at companies, colleges, literary events and women’s empowerment circles.
Understands the other entrepreneurs
As an entrepreneur, Sweta understands the pressure, obesity problems and deadlines hanging over an employee.
But she is so innovative that she always comes up with a unique solution of health wellness to boost up their memory and charge up their energy.
This ultimately improves their performance at work place.
She often counsels the solutions for some complex problems.
She has also noticed that because of lack of sleep, the stress level and problem of obesity increases.
An individual requires 6 hours of sound sleep for better energy and sound performance.
Life Lessons shared by Sweta Srivastava
We are the creator and designer of our own life.
We learnt sometimes from others and something from our own failures.
And these teachings often leave us with an ever- lasting impact on mind.
Sweta Srivastava has listed below few of her life lasting principles that she has imbibed with and trying to persuade more people in that are:
Use time more precisely and judiciously
It is often said that time is money which is rightly true.
Plan, predict and Implement.
A successful person stands on the wheel of time optimization.
You need to productively utilize and prioritize your time for a healthy and wealthy future.
So use it wisely and optimally.
Strive towards improving the living standard of yourself
Always strive over improving the life style – from dreams till actions.
Your improved version will automatically change your attitude and habits of thinking and analyzing. Your profession must match with your living standard if you wish to meet high end personalities.
Build more and more healthy plus long term relationships
Healthy networking add a sense of value and goodwill to your performance. You need to act as a liaison to communicate with external parties and build more of long term relationships.
You are sometimes judged on the basis of company you keep with.
Focus on bridge building and stay in contact with all your clients and customers.
Focus on career longevity and steps to success
Don’t wait for someone to give you a forceful push.
You need to push yourself in order to seek the exposure from multiple arena.
Focus on how long and what’s next in your career path.
This is a lane to innovation – leading to fruitful success.
Lower the stress, higher the work
Stress free working is one of the most imperative concept.
If an individual works in a conducive environment, his productivity is bound to increase and production is bound to flourish.
Higher the flexibility, Higher will be the performance.
AWARDS
Sweta is recognized as one of the most influencing women who contributed significantly in transforming the world by her books – Conversations Mag.
She was nominated as “Better American Poetry in 2017 at US for “I Write,” “Wait for Me,” and “Fifty Minutes from New Delhi”.
Omega Women’s Leadership Center offered a spot in Juno Leadership Residency Program, 2017
Nominated for prestigious Split The Rock Award, for her poem, “Working Girl,” 2016
Nominated for Pushcart Prize, 2015, for “Nickname and Nectar”
Won International Poetry Award, 2015 in UK
Eligible for prestigious Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, 2014, US
Asian Fusion voted as “One of the most influential Asians of our time”
Nominated as “Superwoman” from the collection of “No Ocean Here”
Awarded with the Joan Jacobson Scholarship, Fiction, Wesleyan Writers Conference, 2013, US
One of her poem “Auto Immune Deficiency Syndrome” is selected as script for AIDS awareness film: The Dawn
Selected by the Queens Council on the Arts as a participant for the 2012 “Build Your Own Business for Writers Program”
Short listed for Independent Literary Awards 2011, US, “Beyond the Scent of Sorrow”
Nominated for Asian American Members’ Choice Awards 2011, “Kaleidoscope: An Asian Journey of Colors”
Poem “Enough” was nominated for Best of the Net 2011 Nominations
Winner of the Azsacra International Poetry Award, 2011, at Russia
Nominated for Pushcart Prize, 2011 at US for Not All Birds Sing
Wesleyan Scholarship for the Wesleyan Writers Conference, 2011
Pushcart Prize, 2010, US, nominated her for Kaleidoscope: An Asian Journey of Colors
Short listed for Unisun Poetry Prize, 2010, India
Voted as “One of the Most Influential Asians of Our Times,” and as a five-time Pushcart Prize-nominated writer.
Conclusion:
To all the workaholics here, snatch some time out of your loaded work and stretch your mental health for better performance and positive environment. Because work and mental peace go hand in hand.
Late by 10 years ago, when he realized that he cannot obtain university degree in digital marketing, he decided to pull up the socks and peruse what pleased him more.
The Power of Wanting More
Loan from a friend
In 2009, after learning the basic principles of Digital Marketing and experimenting it at an intermediate level, he decided to start something of his own.
With single penny in pocket, he decided to get a loan from his close friend worth 90$.
With that, he bought a company domain.
From that moment, the spark of building his own empire instigated him to persistently endeavor over attainment of objectives. He started everything from scratch, did everything on his own and dived into the unknown.
First entrepreneurial steps
Research of demand
When started working over his entrepreneurial venture, he realized that businesses are seeking more for customized marketing strategies.
They wanted some agency or platform who would entirely take care of their marketing solutions.
Online Road for success
Being a digital marketer, Hafiz knew the roads for successful advertisements.
He decided to take their advertisements to the online users and create a strong online as well as offline presence.
Digital Advertisements
Hafiz realized that advertising through digital platforms has driven guaranteed growth in making business a big sky scrap model.
And now a days, almost every businesses have their online platform.
A sense of competitive advantage is developed that scans the best ads on the basis of differentiation.
Algorithmic Updates
The algorithms are leapfrogging at an advanced version with constant up gradation.
Hafiz is the man of innovation.
He constantly try and analyze the best and newest practices of digital marketing for any specific sector.
For niche companies, he came up with some differentiated requirements to maintain the essence of the company.
Practical Approach by Hafiz
The practical approach of his company is that he focuses upon improving the retention rate with minimizing the bounce rate over the website.
He further strives towards improving the dwell time of a visitor for better ranking.
About Omnicore and the Corporate Values
Foundation
Omnicore is a full time data driven company that provides Digital Marketing services for healthcare professionals.
This agency is founded by Hafiz in 2009.
The company first communicate with the client and determine their concern and demands.
Preparation of Digital Strategies
After that, a team of professionals scrutinize the clients’ digital strategy pieces and unites them altogether with a new and full furnished top notch solution.
These solutions help them beat their competitor and attain leadership position in their respective niche.
Focus
Omnicore solely focus on research and findings.
This agency often tries to adapt with the changes and offer customized services as per the demand of clientele.
According to Hafiz, Omnicore is surrounded and imbibed by four major corporate values:
Philosophies
Insightful –Omnicore tailored the solutions, categories into niche and then apply it as per the requirement of each clientele.
Transparency–Omnicore thoroughly believe in transparency. They bind their employees and experts with legal and ethical practices at work place.
Communication–They rest upon constantly communicating with the clients and giving them regular updates about the work done.
Flexibility – Omnicore offers customize and flexible services to the client. Out of their pre-packaged solutions, they sometimes modify and refurbish to deliver the best and most satisfying to their clients.
Services offered
Omnicore has a high end and quality rich employees.
They change their lens when the clients demand for differentiated services.
This is a self-inspired book. His struggling lanes and efforts in vain inspired him to write a book and motivate others to work tooth and nail to achieve something in life.
Narrated challenges
He has narrated about all those challenges that he faced in the career of Digital Marketing.
He has even described the hard won pain striking efforts that he has undergone as a young entrepreneur.
The book often unveils the success tips and ladders to become a successful leader in the industry.
Beginner’s Guide
Hafiz has succinctly explained about how one can master his skills in Digital Marketing with some gainful insight. Digital Passport is purely a unique beginner’s guide to Digital Marketing with some action oriented steps.
Why We Need Psychometric Tests in Digital Marketing
Know What you love
Hafiz believes that a Digital Marketer must be very well aware about the psychometric test.
According to him college graduate student must know what he is fond of, what he wants to do in life, his strength and weakness.
Select specialization
On that ground, they need to select their specialization area to serve and accordingly develop such kind of required traits.
Irrespective of being technically sound or verbally smart, you need to identify your road.
No one is born talented but evolving with the changes, one can born a talent.
Various Psychometric test
In line with his philosophy, Hafiz took a fleet and determine various psychometric test, called Digital Ladder.
For an instance, he discussed about Big Five Personality traits, The Myers–Briggs Type Indicator, The CliftonStrengths and HMA performance test.
These psychometric tests help a beginner to identify his personality, interest and characteristics. They quantify that whether you are capable of pursuing a specific knowledge or not.
· Why Persistence Pays Off?
Hafiz shares his secret behind being such a successful Digital Marketer. He says that none but “challenges, resistance, and constant change motivates them. And today this tripod made him a successful businessman.”
Know where your heart lies in
Because he knew what he wants to do, his passion motivated him to work for sleepless nights and days.
Once your work becomes the product of love and not greed for money, the success will come by itself.
Hafiz is an excellent example of how self-improvement and persistence can pay off.
Achievements, Accomplishments and Awards
Following are some of Hafiz’s Achievements and awards:
Life Coach Certification from the University of Cambridge
Certifications or training from theGoogle and MarketMotive.
Conclusion:
Hafiz Muhammad Ali is really a serial entrepreneur in Digital Marketing. Know what interest you and what fueled your energy. Try his psychometric test and learn basic principles of Digital Marketing with Hafiz Ali.
If you don’t encounter setbacks in your career, if you don’t have doubts and disappointments, let me tell you, you’re not dreaming big enough – By Michael Bloomberg.
Michael Bloomberg is respected as a Successful Entrepreneur (CEO of Bloomberg L.P.) & Philanthropist all over the world.
As of July 2019, his net worth is more than 54 billion dollars making him one of the richest persons in the world.
As rightly said by the man himself, if you do not have aspirations and you don’t face setbacks, you are not dreaming big.
Michael Bloomberg is a man who has inspired many people to focus on dreams.
Michael Bloomberg’s Top 10 Rules For Success
Being a business person, author, politician, and philanthropist, the man has surely achieved a lot in life.
The vision to succeed
It is not only about the right kind of motivation but it’s about the will to succeed.
The success that attributes is because of dedication and hard work you put in.
He is not only grounded but also lives his life with discipline and that inspires many millennial’s even today.
Former New York mayor, founder of global financial services company Bloomberg L.P, Michael Bloomberg believes that changes are inevitable; you need to go through the change to move ahead.
He believes no person can achieve success without major failures.
Mayor Bloomberg On Hard Work | Founder Stories
It is great to emulate this thought to achieve the success that you desire in your life.
Early life of Bloomberg
Born on Feb. 14, 1942, Medford, Massachusetts, Bloomberg majored electrical engineering at Hopkins and received an MBA degree from Harvard.
He started as an employee but became a partner at Solomon Brothers.
Coming from the middle-class background in the initial years, he paid his school fee through loans and worked as a parking lot attendant.
In the year 1981, he started his own company Bloomberg L.P that caters to financial information (computer).
It truly revolutionized the way securities data was consumed and stored in the system.
The company started with one room office and branched out into various media businesses with 100 offices worldwide.
Bloomberg used the money from his severance package, formed innovative market systems in 1982, and served as its CEO. He then acquired Merrill Lynch, wealth management system of Bank of America.
Bloomberg rose to ranks of the Solomon that surpassed sales and trading before heading up the firms IT system.
Today, Bloomberg is a global company that employees thousands of people all over the world.
One Person Many Roles
Michael Bloomberg has served three times as a Mayor of New York.
He entered the political circuit way back in 2002.
He won the election and became 108th mayor of New York.
He has been a liberal Republican since the beginning and the first thing he did was legalizing same-sex marriages.
He successfully established 311 emergency telephone line that put callers of New York in direct contact with the city.
The line was started allowing people to report crimes and other civic problems.
In 2005, he was re-elected as a mayor of New York. In the year 2008, he pushed through legislation that allowed him to serve for the third term as a mayor.
Bloomberg secured a four-year term in the year 2009.
Bloomberg supported progressive views as a Mayor.
He supported abortion rights and citizenship for illegal immigrants.
His main emphasis was always on public welfare and free trade.
Philanthropist approach
On Jan 2014, he stepped down of his political duties and focused on philanthropist duties.
As a philanthropist, Michael Bloomberg has donated more than 2.5 billion dollars to philanthropic causes in arts, education, environment, public health, and government innovation.
In fact, the donation list has placed him in the top 50 philanthropists of America.
He has donated Princeton University, which also has a dorm named Emma Bloomberg hall dedicated to his daughter who graduated from the same university.
As a co-author, he worked on a book about climate change.
He co-authored the book with Carl Pope.
The book is about promising climate change solutions and ways to achieve them.
It talks about practical steps to achieve the same.
The book is about tackling global warming and how to make the world a better and healthy place to live in.
The Global Philosophy of Change – Bloomberg LP
Bloomberg is the vital nervous system of global finance.
The prime focus of the company is building solutions and products that are needed for the 21st century.
The objective is to connect a dynamic network of people to major decision makers.
Bloomberg has employed more than 20,000 people in 167 locations around the world.
More than 5000 technologists and engineers work at Bloomberg.
There are lacs of subscriptions globally.
Well, this is surely a success story of a man that can’t be written off ever.
A true story of how an ordinary man with a vision can turn to the most influential man globally.
Michael Bloomberg always believes in diversity and inclusion.
The product development caters to various clients around the world.
The company is built on innovation that helps to yield bigger results. It works on promoting creative ideas and focuses on client relationship globally.
Bloomberg TV was launched to focus pressure points of the social change and business behind dynamics.
Michael Bloomberg works on the measurement approach for sustainability.
In fact, he believes that if you can’t measure it, you can’t really manage it.
Bloomberg strives to decouple the company growth from the harmful environmental impact.
The target is to reduce emissions by almost 20% by the year 2020.
Increase the renewable energy source by the year 2025.
The company aims to invest in energy efficient buildings to meet sustainable building standards.
The company strives to improve its operational flexibility as well.
Mike Bloomberg Shares Advice With Small Business Owners
Bloomberg Philanthropies
Michael Bloomberg is a philanthropist so nearly all the profits from the company go to Bloomberg Philanthropies.
It’s dedicated to improving and saving lives all around the world.
From advancing innovation in art and craft to inspiring the next generation through Bloomberg startup education, from sustainability to media initiates, the company has done a lot in inspiring others.
Michael Bloomberg has donated more than 6 million dollars on worldwide causes.
In the year 2018, he distributed about 767 million dollars.
Success with humility is rear; Bloomberg is not only a successful entrepreneur but also a compassionate humanitarian.
This inspires you to do things for others and indulge in charity to make the world a better place to live in.
Michael Bloomberg always believes in empowering lives with his choices. And, his donation and charity work has made him a big name among the top philanthropists of the world.
Bloomberg- The Growth in Earnings
The net worth of Michael Bloomberg is more than 54 billion dollars as of July 2019.
He is the sixth richest man in America and 9th richest person in the world.
He retains a stake of 88% in the company that is grown to full media business and financial products.
Bloomberg broke every record with the donation of 1.8 billion dollars to the John Hopkins financial aid program.
As a mayor of New York, he used to take an annual salary of one dollar.
According to Forbes, his net worth has only increased over the years. In 2012, it was 25 billion dollars.
In 2015, it was 35.4 billion dollars. In 2018, it was 51.8 billion dollars. As an active philanthropist, he has donated more than 5 billion dollars to climate changes and other causes.
Michael Bloomberg plans to spend 500 million dollars to defeat Donald Trump by the year 2020.
The Achievements of Michael Bloomberg
Michael Bloomberg has received many awards in his career as an entrepreneur and philanthropist.
In the year 2003, he received an award in distinguished leadership of global capital market from the prestigious Yale School of Management.
In the year 2008, he received hundred-year association of New York gold medal for outstanding contributions to New York City.
In 2009, he was honored with a doctorate of laws from the University of Pennsylvania. He also received a healthy community leadership award in the year 2009.
In 2013, Bloomberg was chosen as an inaugural laureate of the Genesis Prize.
In the year 2014, he was awarded Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.
In March 2017, Bloomberg was ranked sixth in the list of Most Influential Philanthropists and Social Entrepreneurs.
The Life under Wraps
Michael Bloomberg married Susan Elizabeth Barbara Brown in the year 1975. But, the couple divorced in the year 1993.
He has two beautiful daughters Georgina Bloomberg and Emma Bloomberg.
He has been in a relationship with Diana Taylor since 2000.
He loves coffee and savors pizza the most.
He is fond of shiny metal and futuristic toys. He is extremely fond of helicopters and is said to be an excellent pilot.
He received his flying license in the year 1976. On the real estate front, he has more 15 houses all around the world.
His home is based in a five-story townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Michael Bloomberg Personality- The Right Approach
Michael Bloomberg has a direct approach to life.
He is not the person who’ll fool around.
He is controlled and disciplined and that has helped him achieve a lot.
Success is a framework of discipline and hard work. Having these qualities can help you go far in life. He has a set fitness regime that helps him to maintain that discipline in life.
He is a tad approachable and has a great sense of humor too.
He is not only smart at taking decisions but also highly knowledgeable with things.
He has a zest to achieve in life but at the same time, he believes in charity too.
He believes in empowering the lives of people with good causes and that makes him a great humanitarian. His life is truly inspiring and that’s the reason he is the role model for young people.
Michael Bloomberg | Talks at Google
Success Tips in Life – By Michael Bloomberg
Preference matters
Every successful entrepreneur has a success story. Michael Bloomberg has also believed in his set of principles.
According to him, one needs to build a product that the customers want, the preference and taste matters for the product.
Monetization and defending plays an equally important role. It’s important to build the right kind of opportunities for the framework.
Perceive & receive
The way you perceive is the way you receive in life.
Your product should speak for it is what Bloomberg believes in.
This also implies for startups and small business organizations who want to grow their business.
The business model works according to your plan, so implement it.
Embrace failures
Bloomberg always emphasizes on failure.
You need to deal with it in a proper way.
Your business cannot succeed unless there is a failure.
There are ups and there are downs, the way you embrace the downs is important.
His approach is to rightly accept failure as it.
Accept and overcome
With acceptance, you’ll move to the second step of overcoming that failure.
Once you overcome it, you’ll be able to find solutions for it and then success will come your way.
The message is clear that accept failures in the same way you accept success. Both are connected so you need to keep an open mind.
Recruit smart people
Bloomberg believes that it’s important to hire smarter people for work.
He actually believes in recruiting people who are smarter than him.
Smarter people in the workforce are above to solve the problem and find a solution easily.
Stay positive
He also advised that one should not take negative comments in mind.
Negative comments are a part of life when you wish to succeed.
No force should push you back or compel you back. You must be smart enough to stay positive and do not get affected by negativity.
A Great Inspiration,
Michael Bloomberg is a great entrepreneur and a human being.
Apart from being a successful CEO of Bloomberg (Current period), he is also good with charity. He always works for the welfare of people around.
He had contributed a lot when he was the Mayor of New York. This great magnate has the determination to excel in whatever he does.
Apart from all the setbacks and things in life, what matters is the way to approach things.
When your approach is positive, you’ll succeed in whatever you do.
He is truly a self-made man who has achieved so much with his determination to excel.
Michael Bloomberg is a man with a successful vision and philanthropic approach towards life.
Just like all you also might have fought tooth and nail to reach out your dreams.
But do you have someone to share your reel and real stories?
Your story might revolve around Blood, Sweat and Tears but do you know any medium to share with onlookers and inspire plethora of new breeding generation?
I will tell you about a platform that shares your story with others and inspire spectrum of audiences with the same grace and charm.
So tighten your seat belts to dive into the hard-won pain striking story of Shradha Sharma who act as Durga and overcome all adversities to mould her dream and share stories of entrepreneurship to panorama of audiences.
The story of Shradha Sharma, a Red Baron
If you are here to listen to a story of someone who broke all other social prejudice, then this woman must rank first. Shradha was born in a small town in Bihar and brought up in Patna.
How To Succeed As A WOMAN Entreprenuer? | Shradha Sharma | YourStory
Education
Being intelligent and industrious, she graduated with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in history from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and completed MBA from Maryland Institute College of Art. In fact she went MICA, Ahmedabad to study Mass Media and Communications.
Work Experience
She started working at The Times of India as a Brand Advisor and later joined CNBC, Mumbai with a dignified post of Assistant Vice President. Her work life experiences open her towards plethora of untold and undiscussed stories that can cater as a stimulating epitomes to multiple listeners.
Seeds of YourStory:
Not everything you sweat upon, gets labelled with victory.
Rejections are always part and parcels of it.
There was a phase when few of her entrepreneur’s stories faced rejection.
How YourStory was born?
Rejections never shuddered her from stepping ahead.
She discovered vistas of inexpressible stories and on that way realised that many of success stories are unheard, untold and unbelievable.
This struck a spark in her mind and she decided to create a platform where the entrepreneurs will share their flip-flops and motivate others.
She gradually launched a media technology platform for entrepreneurs, YourStory in year 2008 to glorify the range of entrepreneurial rib ticklers.
Nightmare though
Like every startups, Shradha Sharma too came across some nightmares – where her mother died, relatives bespoke bitter words and headed compulsion of leaving YourStory and continue to job.
But what kept YourStory moving was her determination to tell a new success story for every entrepreneur.
Concept of YourStory
Shradha’s proposal is forthright: Tell the tale of an entrepreneur that is breath taking and whose story can card up one’s sleeves, will get focus in our corporate structure.
YourStory isn’t a sort of archetypal news and media platform.
It gives coverage to the industrious stories of an entrepreneur with a rich, vibrant and positive content but never sceptical.
A Glitch in the Story
Picture changes before and after leaving CNBC
Approaching, connecting and communicating entrepreneurs was really a herculean task. When at CNBC, all were willing to share their word of success stories and after leaving CNBC the tables turned contrary.
The same entrepreneurs withdraw to come on board because no big reputed title was adhered thereon.
But Shradha Sharma is a lady with bright spark. She knew well how to convince them and keep them trusted with her approach.
But the kick was on
Her undying perseverance, pulled few entrepreneurs back by her side that too willingly to become a part of YourStory moment. They shared all their voice and that casted into a new success story for YourStory.
Few more entrepreneurs added to the list and this is how YourStory inspired thousands of lives and transformed into a storytelling platform with a splash of motivation and encouragement.
And made her world’s top influencer
Her non-stop endeavour received appreciation and acknowledgement fromhefty audiences that included her in the list of worlds’ top 500 LinkedIn influences.
Investments
Besides narrating empire-building stories, the Bengaluru-based YourStory interacts and arranged meeting with seed funders and marquee investors to get strong financial support to operate it at a much wider platform.
Some Top Investors
To the list of investors and their interests – Kalaari Capital, UC-RNT, 3one4 Capital, and Qualcomm Venture all together contributed funding over $8.5 million in YourStory since 2015.
Then Network18
Working in Network18 has help her in understanding the business model and procuring the fund there on. They supported her ability and her profound story model.
Ratan Tata’s learnings and love for startups | Storied with Shradha Sharma
The investments kept brimming when Ratan Tata personally showed interest in YourStory. That was really a magical moment for Shradha. That was a turning point for YourStory.
And some prominent ones
YourStory also received investments from Vani Kola, Karthee Madasamy and T V Mohandas Pai, the most prominent investors.
Inside and Beyond YourStory
Shradha Sharma is the Founder and Chief Editor of YourStory.com and past ten years, she is determined to make stories and startups- That Really Matter.
Launched in Germany
Shradha sink her teeth into taking YourStory to new International territories. She launched in Germany last year and further aims to enter Israel with a powerful kick.
Reinforce in Hindi and other 11 languages
Back to home town, YourStory is reinforcing its roots by proposing content in Hindi Language and continues to serve with more 11 languages.
SuccessPoll
Net Worth
In 2018, the net worth of Yourstory.com is pegged up at $ 437K USD. The website collects a predictable traffic of about more than 1.1 Million users/month making it a really promising venture.
Clients and Visitors
YourStory.com landed with 4.5 million visitors this January.
Currently it flew over 140+ clients who became part of YourStory just for – Said Delivery, Rich Content and Powerful stories and articles.
“We do this matchmaking very effectively. From Google to Microsoft to IBM to Tissot, we work with all sorts of brands. This is also our moat to the business. I call it story as-a-service,” says Sharma.
Published stories
YourStory is undoubtedly the most galvanizing and updated website in today’s era – probably the most spoken one to add value and motivation to the Startup stories.
Since its launch in 2008, YourStory has published nearly 72,000 articles, engaging over 10 million readers from all over the world and zones.
Addition to team members
Team members are indeed maven and professionals with 22 reporters and 15+ freelancers at helm. In all the company has 100+ employees.
Wall of Awards and Achievement
NASSCOM Ecosystem Evangelist Award for her efforts in building an inclusive Startup community
Villgro Journalist of the Year Award in 2010 for her coverage of startups
2015 – Listed amongst 500 LinkedIn Influencers across the world
2015 – L’Oreal Paris Femina Award’ for online influence
2016 – PAT Memorial Outstanding Alumnus Award
2016 – LinkedIn’s most viewed CEOs under Internet category
Inducted in the list of Fortune 40 nabbing the Economic Times promising entrepreneurs of India Award.
Shradha Sharma: What You Lack, Will Make You Run
Recognition And Titles From Outsiders
Colleagues and Audiences
By her audiences and colleagues, Shradha Sharma has been titled as “the biggest storyteller of India’s digital space.”She is also featured in a techgig story as one of “5 women Indian entrepreneurs in India you should know about.”
The Hindu
The Hindu, a Premium Indian Newspaper wrote about her as one who has shattered the glass ceiling. Her company has been described as “India’s biggest and definitive platform for start-ups and entrepreneurs-related stories, news, resources and research reports.”
Universal Thought by Shradha Sharma
Sharma believes that don’t ask people to rate you, to validate you and to signify your job.
This won’t make you successful.
You will be suppressed by these multiple opinions. “Don’t wear the labels that the world puts on you,” she says.
Here mentioned below, are some insightful tips shared by Shradha Sharma that helped her a lot infighting all storms within her journey of YourStory:
Rise. Succeed.
Things won’t always work optimistically.
But you need to keep moving further.
Stop looking for what others think.
You are the one to climb and hoist the flag.
No one will lend you a helping hand or a motivational pat on your shoulder.
Step ahead and raise your head and stay self-motivated.
Brim beyond comfort walls
Work beyond your limits.
Struggle beyond your comfort zones.
You need to dive in hard to achieve something sturdy and hard won.
Pull out all the stops and step in like a grindstone.
Keep Growing.
Keep Flowing.
Work in present for future
Don’t allow your yesterday to ruin your Today and Tomorrow.
Every morning gives you a fresh breakfast wrapped with an opportunity of kick starting with a different energy to prosper and flourish beyond your boundaries.
Don’t pay heed to criticisms
Never surrender for few castigated words.
Let others speak.
They don’t know your plans.
You work hard and prove your plans with a masterpiece implementation.
When the man believes in himself even during his roller coaster rides, then the world automatically starts believing him.
Work with heart, Passionately
Be crazy about anything you get involved into.
Sell your heart.
Be passionate about your subject matter.
Trust your journey.
Pull up your socks and make a headway to your dream.
Alter the way you think and work upon the way you do.
Stay classy.
Work classy.
Stay heated. Stay learnt
Life is summed up with constant highs and lows —contentment and perseverance that will examine your integrity and veracity, pushing you to overcome the challenges; leaving you with lessons that will heat you up -stronger than ever.
Conclusion:
So to wind up all, Life is simply like a roller coaster ride.
You need to decide well whether you scream and enjoy or choose to weep and destroy.
Avoidance of Failure is not an option but standing back again is really a choice.
Shradha Sharma chose to fiercely stand and still and fulfil her dreams and here she is.
Hey pals, Share what you take today from this blog and how you are going to work upon it.
From getting movie reviews till knowing all celeb’s new sassy Airport look, we all are inspired and curious to impose them into our lives.
Just like us, there’s a pink entrepreneur who twisted her excitement of Bollywood fanatics into a pure digital website that too at a time where no one had ever thought of.
Yes, you guess it right.
Nandini Shenoy is that powerful lady who coded a totally digital platform- PinkVilla to add more spice and excitement to your kitty party and coffee over talks.
“When I was growing up, our dinner table conversations always centred around films and stars and that is how my passion for Bollywood was fuelled,” says Nandini Shenoy
Journey of Nandini Shenoy
Nandini Shenoy has a rib tickler story.
She was born and brought up in Mangalore.
Being raised in a family of brilliant engineers, she joined the bandwagon and went on to pursue engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Karnataka (NITK).
Then she moved to the United States for a Master’s in ECE from Rutgers University.
Her career climbed greater heights after joining Microsoft, Seattle as a software engineer in 2004.
She admired her work as a Software Engineer but screwed a little when the idea of PinkVilla brainstormed her mind.
Bollywood fanatics was always at her cornerstone.
Therefore she chose to nurture and foster her passion at a jiffy.
She did not quit Microsoft right away.
She kept her job intact and accordingly sowed the seeds for PinkVilla— with sleepless nights and weekends.
Pinkvilla’s Founder Nandini Shenoy Shares Her Success Recipe
What is PinkVilla? What it captures?
PinkVilla is the premier Bollywood news and fashion website.
They are the leading online destination for Bollywood Gossip, Celebrity Photos and Entertainment News with visitors from over 200 countries.
They live streams celebrity fashion trends making it the talking point amongst industry insiders and readers.
The most exceptional part is that they are one of the most updated websites for anything Bollywood that is why it is very popular.
The journey was not as easy as it seems.
It was equal to boiling an ocean.
Nandini Shenoy and her husband, Jeu George, were skilled software engineer and that helped her to run the code and test the iterations of website.
PinkVilla laid its foundation back in 2007 where Bollywood sites were nowhere in talk.
She took a plunge and forthfully clinged to give an early rise to its dream.
Shenoy was always fascinated by the table talks of Bollywood celebs and grew up reading Stardust and Film fare at helm.
This probably was the starting point of it all.
She believed in excavating something out of the box with a touch a likelihood and thus her undying perseverance shoot her to successful heights of her life.
“Being from the tech background, I knew I had to figure out the SEO first before I decided on the content. If the content works and the SEO doesn’t work, the website can’t work. If Google and other tech platforms don’t understand the content on my website, I will go nowhere. I have to keep evolving because Google keeps changing its algorithms every other day,” says Shenoy.
How PinkVilla was taken off to become an inspiring epitome?
The secret sauce of PinkVilla is that –Most bloggers choose technology related niche or blogging as a niche, but out of the blue Nandini Shenoy started blogging about Bollywood, Fashion, and Beauty & Gossip (liked by every woman).
Back in 2009, there were some photos of Sonam Kapoor that were posted on PinkVilla and they went viral.
Hindustan Times contacted her and said they would like to use the photos and in return they would provide her a back link.
After that, there was no looking back.
By 2010-11, some celebrities urged Shenoy to get themselves featured in PinkVilla because of paucity of digital websites at that time.
And this infused confidence into her.
She passionately took the interview of these celebs that too from the US.
On that way, she realised the requirement of setting an office in Mumbai.
She then created and hired approximately 35 people without any external funding.
Now when things went parallel and optimistic at PinkVilla, she quit her job at Microsoft and her entire concentration was then focused on the website.
In 2013 she was able to set up an editorial team in Mumbai sitting in USA with no contacts in India.
She believes having the right people is paramount. “If you don’t have the right people, you end up concentrating on what’s not really relevant,” says Shenoy.
Circle of achievement
Views and ranking
Believe it or not your perseverance will always pay you something and same happened with Nandini Shenoy.
PinkVilla was easily able to get 8 million views in a month and has earned Indian Alexa Rank 2,862.
Like, can you imagine how can such a gossip sharing website get such a short term boom?
Monthly Income
Nandini Shenoy earns around $15,000 per month.
Nandini Shenoy is a true spell binding personality in the field of blogging.
Social Media Followers
Currently, the traffic has hit the bars outrageously on social media.
PinkVilla already has 2.6 million followers on Instagram, a social networking site.
On twitter it is grabbed with 858K followers on PinkVilla account.
While PinkVilla telly is clutched with 50.8K followers.
Pompously, Facebook holds 1.5 million followers at a break neck.
What’s new and extra to PinkVilla in current scenario?
Fashion and lifestyle
Now, PinkVilla Hindi is leapfrogging in the field of news and media.
It aims towards rebranding itself with some customised touch of language, increasing the visitors from every corner of the world.
Apart from Bollywood and Television news, it will further showcase Fashion and Lifestyle related coverage.
Hindi Rush – to increase regional users
Hindi Rush is also available in the video format supported by YouTube channel, providing satisfaction to all PinkVilla loyalists and audiences to watch their favourite stuff anytime.
Hindi Rush is all set to proliferate its presence on Social Media- Twitter and Facebookvibrantly.
With a touch of south films and news
The website which has also a presence down South with PinkVilla South along with PinkVilla Telly for all the small screen news, has amassed quite a reach, as evident from its hugely-popular social media presence in Instagram (1.7 Million Followers), Facebook (1.5 Million Likes), YouTube (60 Million plus video views) and Twitter (830K Followers).PINKVILLA recently launched into the Television and regional markets including Kollywood.
Some Partnerships for Wider Viewership
Partnership with Hotstar for online addicts
PinkVilla has partnered with online streaming major, Hotstar.
Under this partnership, original content from the popular entity will be available for viewing under the Hotstar app.
The collaboration will help the website in catering to a wider audience reach adding to increased viewership.
Universal Advice by Nandini Shenoy, Blogger
“Be passionate about your writing. Don’t run behind monetizing your blog, take time, and work hard on your content. As soon as you started getting appreciations and traffic as well, you can monetize your blog”, Shenoy believes.
Ignite the spark within yourself
Every success climb its pinnacle when you choose your dream passionately. It all begins with a dream and its undying perseverance. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world if you IGNITE IT.
You will fail to win
The journey will be tough. Very tough. But your failure will teach you how to climb the rocks and hoist your dream with success. Just remember practically, every night of darkness ends with a bright glowing morning. Don’t stop. You will win
Blogging is an art
From blogging perspective, keep your content nonchalant, crisp and addressing. Authenticity is indispensable. Readers love your content if it’s authentic and involving. Writer daily to improve these basics funda. Ink work that you’re proud of, even if you don’t make much money from it initially. It’s an investment in your future.
Never stop learning
Learning is an ongoing process. You begin to work, you begin to learn. Sometimes you fall and learn and sometimes you rise and roll. The day you stop learning, the day you stop rising. Add an attitude of learning something from everything that surrounds you.
Don’t doubt. Believe in yourself
The one who falls and gets up is so much stronger than the one who never fell. Within your unspoken tragedy, don’t doubt yourself for failing. Stop regretting over your wrong decision. Just believe in yourself. Whatever happens, happens for a good worthy reason.
So to unwind the talks, always share a space for your dream.
Walk miles.
Chase it.
With every passionate moves, you will enjoy your journey.
Nothing comes with a well-furnished manner, you need to work hard, run through sleepless nights and days, working like nothing before, to achieve it like you never had.
Hey patrons, share your views and comments that you learnt from Nandini Shenoy and her passionate journey.
Share what inspired you the most and touched your heart.
The idea of dropping out of college freaks almost all of us.
‘What will you do without a degree?’,
‘Nobody is going to hire you!’,
‘You’ve ruined your life!’
These are indeed some of the common conceptions that cross one’s mind when the thoughts wander anywhere near the periphery of a college drop-out.
But, it’s also rightly said that success belongs to those who dare to dream big.
And that’s what this post is about.
Welcome, Vlad Calus– the man who dropped out of college only to become an entrepreneur!
When it comes to digital marketing, many things need to be understood & learnt.
Some of these lie in the niches of paid ads, organic, social media, content marketing, performance, advertising, search engine optimization, etc.
And that’s precisely what the guest of today’s story has mastered over many years of self-learning.
How did it all begin?
A few years ago, Vlad dropped out of college with two of his friends.
He had his passion in mind, along with the desire to create something unique, something that people would be drawn to.
And that’s when he built Planable, the command centre of social media collaboration for marketing teams, digital agencies and freelancers to collaborate with their teammates & clients on content calendar in the most visually pleasing way.
The Ultimate Inspiration
Planable started as their own need. Vlad Calus along with two of his friends, worked in marketing agencies before and they struggled to collaborate with clients in excels and powerpoints, neverending email threads, back-and-forth files.
In the best case, it was frustrating and a waste of time.
In the worst, important information was lost, and the agency-client relationship was damaged.
Vlad knew that social media collaboration shouldn’t be that hard and was something that would draw the interest of people.
So, he, along with his team of college dropouts, set on a mission to build a product that will help marketers be more productive and will delight their clients.
Self- learning Empowering Passion
From the very first day Vlad, driven by his passion, jumped in many areas of marketing.
He learned everything himself just by typing questions in Google and reading all that came up.
Right from the most stupid question, like what’s engagement, and how to get more likes on your Facebook page to calculating churn, improving customer retention, etc. there was no stopping Vlad Calus.
The Journey to Unprecedented Growth: Awards and Recognitions
In February 2019, Vlad became Forbes 30 Under 30 Honoree.
Five Biggest Instagram Trends and the Best Instagram Marketing Tools of 2019
As of today Planable is helping more than 5000 brands and agencies, including professionals at Jaguar Land Rover, Viber, ESET, Virgin Mobile, Wendy’s and many more.
There are also many things Vlad and his company are contributing to the industry, such as Instagram Content Spotlight Report, a book on the way marketing teams will evolve in the next decade, podcast, vlog and other exciting projects launching this year that we’re collaborating with 30+ experts from companies such as CNN, Ahrefs, Fiverr, G2 Crowd to build them.
Vlad Calus has also been featured in world famous platforms like Social Media Examiner, Entrepreneur.com, WeRSM, Freshdesk, Subsign, Digital Agency Network and many others.
What’s in the name ‘marketing’?
Vlad believes that it’s an essential skill that any marketer should have – trying to find all the possible answers to the questions they have by any means.
Googling is not always the solution. It’s also super helpful to start connecting with other marketers in the space to discuss ideas, ask for feedback, collaborate, and build strategies together.
The future of ‘Planable.’
As a long-term vision, Planable will become the norm of content creation & collaboration of all the marketing assets professionals work on, including social, images, video, articles, blog posts etc.
It will help creatives save more time, be more efficient and streamline the content publishing workflow in one single place.
When everyone can see the same thing, and everyone is on the same page, no misunderstandings can happen.
How did people help in the journey?
He was surprised to find out that the marketing community is always friendly and helpful when it comes to collaboration.
A lot of the marketers he met, such as Kas Szatylowicz, Yam Regev, Bill Stathopoulos, Levi Olmstead have been incredible connections, and that’s precisely what you should do too.
A blog to educate people
Their blog focuses heavily on content creation, collaboration, digital marketing, teamwork, agency world, but we also cover topics related to these and interesting for our audience.
The audience of Planable mainly consists of digital marketing professionals, social media managers, content creators, PR and communications experts at small and medium agencies, freelancers or in-house marketing teams with solid knowledge of the topic.
Here are a few topics Planable team enjoys reading about on the blog.
However, if you’re interested in collaborating & receiving some good backlinks, then you must give a shot to these topics and send them to the Planable team.
There are a few favourite books that Vlad always recommends, and he’d love to share with you today.
1) “Marketing Teams of the Future”
“Marketing Teams of the Future” (download for free) is a book that navigates content the journey of content marketing from the early beginnings.
It also dives into a profound analysis of today’s industry. You will find patterns, principles, and workflows that will help upgrade current workflow and processes for a future-proof team.
Go, get it now!
2) “Atomic Habits”, by James Clear
World-renowned life coach James Clear has discovered a completely different way to revolutionise your behaviour.
He understands that lasting change comes from hundreds of small decisions – doing two push-ups a day, waking up five minutes early, or holding a single short phone call.
He calls these atomic habits. And that’s why you must not miss it at any cost.
3) Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
A remarkable book that Vlad highly recommends to anyone.
The book is based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years.
These also include interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues. Authored by Walter Isaacson, it tells a riveting story of the roller-coaster life of Steve Jobs and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing..
People of Marketing& how to become a marketer: Tips and Tricks!
As of last month, Vlad and his team launched a video blog & podcast. People of Marketing, which is a show with and about marketers.
It throws light on their struggles, the industry, and the solutions.
Their first episode is focused on Instagram trends. Since Instagram has more than one billion users worldwide, it is one of the most powerful social networks.
In this episode, the topic is how to tackle this year’s most popular trends and ways to leverage them.
It doesn’t matter if you have thousands of followers or if you’ve just signed up for Instagram.
These are the trends that everyone should consider to build a more meaningful community on Instagram.
Follow the show below.
Should you become a marketer?
Vlad concretely believes that questioning your career is absolutely normal.
Since we’re all always looking for something better you should definitely jump and try different things.
And for marketers, there are a lot of options to choose from.
We can become head of a marketing department at a cool brand, be part of an agency, join a startup, start our own agency, become a marketing consultant or get into freelance digital marketing.
Conclusion
So, whatever you aspire to become, all you have to do is follow your dreams.
Get out of your comfort zone and do what it takes to become the best version of yourself.
The self-made man Vlad Calus is a living example of that.
If his journey inspires you, let us know in the comments below.
“Solomon has the mind of a scientist and the writing flair of a journalist.” — Philip Kotler (Marketing guru)
Do you know why most of the startups fail?
It’s mainly because organizations fail to crack the code on why consumers buy their products and services.
The most pressing issue for the businesses is having a vision to create products and services that will resonate with ever changing audiences.
Michael Solomon has established himself as a thought leader in modern marketing and advertising. He is considered an authority when it comes to revealing cutting-edge trends in marketing, advertising, consumer behavior, branding, and social media.
Note – This article is written by Michael Solomon himself and it’s a must read for entrepreneurs and marketing managers. It will help them to crack the code of consumer psychology and succeed as a business.
Have you ever attended a keynote or a presentation by Michael?
You’ll be spellbound by the visual excursion he creates into the minds of consumers in terms of the factors that influence them to buy.
His audiences become his fans when he starts unveiling the insights during his seminars and keynotes.
He helps managers understand their customers so they can design their products and services to meet their deepest needs.
Michael’s e-mail signature includes a quote from the renowned German social psychologist Kurt Lewin: “There is nothing as practical as a good theory.”
This deceptively simple adage expresses at least two important takeaways for businesspeople:
A conceptual framework isn’t just “ivory tower” babble, because it prevents us from reinventing the lightbulb every morning; and
“Everyday” events often are more complicated than they appear, so we need to appreciate their underlying causes and connections to other events.
As a consumer psychologist Michael follows Lewin’s words of wisdom by firmly planting one foot in academia and the other in the “real world” of marketing.
Michael Solomon Leading Authorities July 2016 Speech Full
As he’s worked with clients such as DuPont, Intel, Levi Strauss and many others to help them understand their customers, heacquired many insights about consumer behavior including these:
Managers often “make up” their target customer.
Michael was working with a large New York advertising agency on behalf of a major personal care products company. The brand was (and is today) a big player in the cosmetics industry. As he spoke to managers about their target customer, a rosy picture emerged of a young, cosmopolitan woman who spent her days racing from one glamorous venue to another – always looking her best. A blend of Carrie from Sex and the City and Kim Kardashian, perhaps!
Then he dug into the actual data on the modal buyers of the brand. A psychographic analysis revealed a different picture. It turns out the most likely user was a woman in her 50s who lived alone, accompanied by several cats. It turns out the brand managers had painted an idealistic picture of the customer they wanted, not the one they had. Messaging today is a bit more realistic, and the brand has prospered as a result.
The moral: Don’t just assume you understand your customer – verify that you are not just projecting your own aspirations onto your target!
We don’t buy things because of what they do. We buy them because of what they mean.
As a consultant to Levi Strauss, Michael worked with the apparel company’s iconic 501’s jeans brand. During this engagement, he had the opportunity to explore an archive of letters people had written to the company over the last 150 years. Many of these echoed the common theme that a humble pair of bluejeans played an important role in their lives.
Some customers wore the pants for 20-30 years or more, and when they were too tattered to adequately cover their bodies, they made them into quilts to pass on to their grandchildren. And, more than one person neatly boxed up a severely beaten-up pair and sent them to HQ in San Francisco, with the instruction to give them a proper burial at their “home.” Clearly there is something going on here that transcends a simple utilitarian relationship between a customer and a relatively inexpensive product.
Michael also found that the “deep meanings” of the jeans were fluid. In particular, the symbolic significance of the pants changed, depending upon the other items with which they were paired.
For example, consumers related a pair of 501’s worn with a black leather jacket to a specific social type (“biker”), while the same pair worn with a blue sportcoat evoked a very different type (“yuppie”).
In later work he developed the construct of a “product constellation,” which refers to a set of symbolically related products that transcend product categories but is collectively emblematic of a social identity.
Why is this idea of a product constellation important to managers? Many warriors in the marketing trenches by necessity are myopic; they worry a lot about their immediate competitors within an industry vertical, but they don’t think a lot about what’s going on in other verticals.
Consumers in contrast often have multiple verticals in mind when they choose what to buy. To use a simple example, think about a couple that sets out to furnish a room. They don’t just buy a chair, lamp, couch, etc. in isolation.
Instead they methodically curate an ensemble of disparate items that together signifies a total “look” they desire – whether this “look” is Danish Modern or Shabby Chic.
The moral: We buy things to express deep symbolic meanings, and these meanings don’t occur in isolation. Market the forest, not the trees.
Go to the gemba (or, fish where the fish are).
Many analysts who study consumer satisfaction, or those who design new products or services to increase it, recognize that it is crucial to understand how people actually interact with their environment in order to identify potential problems or new product development opportunities.
To do so, they typically conduct focus groups, in which consumers are brought to a place to try a new product while employees observe their behavior through a secret camera.
That’s a good start, but often not nearly enough to fully appreciate the product in use. To gather more insight, it’s best to go the gemba, which tothe Japanese means “the one true source of information.”
Michael learned the value of the gemba(the one true source of information) first-hand during a project he conducted for a very large tool and household product company. He studied a cleaning product that included a rotating brush to remove mildew from shower stalls and other bathroom surfaces.
The consumer sprayed a cleaning fluid from a dispenser bottle onto an area and then used the device to scrub it. The engineers who developed the gadget tested it in laboratory settings, but not in real homes.
When Michael’s team followed housewives around as they used the contraption, they saw that they struggled to carry both the refill bottle and the scrubber.
Some of them even improvised a bottle holder they wore around their waists in order to keep one hand free.Aha, a pain point waiting to be addressed! Michael recommended one modification to the engineers:
Equip the device with a built-in reservoir that holds an ample supply of the cleaning fluid, along with a spritzer to apply the fluid directly from the device. Problem solved – a problem the company didn’t know it had until it went to the gemba.
The moral: Engineers, come out from your labs and mix with your customers. They may teach you a thing or two about product design.
We teach our students, “Marketers do it to satisfy needs.” However, discovering just what those needs are is a trickier process than it seems. The everyday world of consumption is fascinating and often perplexing. But figuring out why we buy and what things really mean is more than an academic exercise.
Marketers ignore these complicated relationships at their peril. But for those at Apple, Nike, BMW and other companies with a zealous customer following who figure out that what they sell can play a key role in who we are, the path to success is clear. We really ARE what we buy.
Michael has done some amazing work on understanding consumers, which makes him an authority on the subject.
Student community from around the world has been benefiting from his numerous books (estimated to be more than 30). His bestsellers include Consumer Behavior: Buying, Having and Being— the most popular book on “buying behavior” worldwide.
Michael is widely respected as a keynote speaker. His opinion is highly regarded by executives, when it comes to establishing deeper connection with customers.
Michael’s global clients
Here is a list of some of his global clients, who seek his advice on marketing strategy and consumer behavior.
Calvin Klein
BMW
DuPont
Procter & Gamble
Levi Strauss
Armour
United Airlines
eBay
Progressive
Under Timberland
Campbell’s
H&M
CrossFit
Philadelphia Eagles
CPG
PP&G
TV & Media
Michael is the darling of audiences on the television and he regularly appears on shows such as Good Morning America, The Today Show, and CNN.
He is frequently mentioned in The New York Times,Time, AdweekandUSA Today.
Michael works as a Professor of Marketing at the Haub School of Business, in Philadelphia. He is also a noted consultant, who fuses theory taught in the text books with real-world scenarios. He helps managers understand how customers think so they can meet their deepest and most pressing needs.
