BRIHAS

A modern management seminar!

2012-02-10T12:23:00.005+05:30

You'll find here all there is to learn from modern management wisdom. Follow its simple steps to ascend the management ladder. Not since Parkinson has management wisdom been imparted in such succinct and easy to follow form. It is not the usual ‘how to succeed’ stuff which requires you to be “a little more intelligent, a little more hardworking, a little more painstaking” to succeed. As Parkinson said, if you were all that you would not require a guide to succeed. So here’s to success and ascendance to the top!

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As always, Subbu barged in crying ‘Guruji, I need your help! I have to make a presentation at our annual sales conference next week. The boss wants me to make a presentation about how I plan to double my sales in the coming year. Top management will be there and if I goof up, it will be outer darkness for me.’ ‘No problem’, I said. ‘I have just returned from a management seminar myself and acquired all the wisdom there was in it………

In the post lunch session, a Senior Vice President has been droning on for over half an hour. Half the participants were dozing from the exhaustion of overnight travel and the effects of a sumptuous lunch. He was saying, “we live in a 24/7 world.” Yeah, at least I do. In fact 24 hours in a day are not enough for me even to browse through the torrent of communications I receive. I receive mails from my boss, his boss and the head office. EDP (electronic data processing department for the uninitiated) sends me enough paper to drown in. Lest I forgot its existence, ‘HR’ sends me communications. In the olden days it was ‘Personnel’; now ‘Human resources’ has a nice ring to it. The only thing I could make out of ‘HR’ was it regularly denies me the type of increments I feel I deserve. I receive circulars from ‘Logistics’ (in the days of yore it was called ‘Distribution’). I also receive communications from ‘Corporate Communications’. In the olden days the function of CC was mainly to produce the monthly in-house magazine and occasionally liaise with the press if there was a need. There were no pink papers and businesses did not make it often to the media. Now CC has a larger role. It is to see big-boss’ mug-shot appears in the newspapers at least once a month and he makes it to the television at least once in a quarter for his fifteen seconds of fame. The rest of the time CC throws its weight around and takes it out on minions like us.

…“We must leverage our core competences for greater customer focus.” A colleague who was sitting next to me whispered, ‘oh yeah, his core competence is in placating the boss and flattering his wife. Leverage, certainly he does. Last weekend he was out playing golf with him. His wife was quite unhappy; nowadays he spends his Sunday mornings at his boss’ residence you know.’ The last part jerked me out of my reverie. So my colleague was a regular visitor at our boss’ residence. How remiss of me? Haven’t I lost my customer focus?

…“in order to take on competition, we will have to look for synergy within, benchmark our efforts with the best practices in the industry and think out of the box. Let us ask ourselves if we are able to achieve a strategic fit; if not we should revisit our game plan. I call upon you ladies and gentlemen, let us become more proactive.” Yes, be at the boss’ side throughout the seminar and bring him coffee and cookies during breaks. Carry a pack of his brand of cigarettes. It comes in handy when he runs out of his pack, which to be sure he often does.

…“let us empower our team members” (for some inexplicable reason, in modern management parlance, the word ‘subordinate’ is taboo; so ‘team members’ it is.) “We need to change our mindsets and expeditiously look for a paradigm shift; let us think win-win.” Yeah, for sure! We do all the donkey’s work and you promote your favourite acolyte. He wins and you win because you get promoted!

…“As you all know the competition is breathing down on our necks. If we are serious about outpacing it, we will have to fast-track in enhancing our knowledge base. Let us come out of the loop and provide value-added service to our customers, for it is a result-driven world.”

...“don’t forget, the truth is at the end of the day, it is the bottom line that counts.” Yes Sir, we are looking forward to the end of the day. The bottom line is, that at the end of the day there would be dinner and drinks. Bosses would be around, so the party would begin on a cautious note but after a couple of rounds the lions within would come out.

… “Good Luck folks, God go with you, till we touch base again!”

The seminar made me wiser. I knew I have picked up the essence of management ‘Gita’. I gave Subbu a list of twenty five words. I suggested that he sprinkle these words throughout his presentation and presto, he would be a hit with his bosses. Here they are, in alphabetical order: “at the end of the day - benchmark - best practice - bottom line - client focus - core competencies - empowerment - expeditious - fast track - game plan - knowledge base – leverage - mindset - out of the loop - paradigm - proactive - result-driven - revisit - the truth is - think outside the box - touch base - strategic fit - synergy - value-added - win-win.” I told him, ‘don’t forget the most important of them all is “24/7”.’

SUCCESS TIPS FOR FRONTLINE MANAGERS - 1

2011-01-28T12:31:00.010+05:30

PREPARATION OF CUSTOMER LISTS

You will agree that the first step towards achieving sales success is to help your team members in preparing right CUSTOMER LISTs. You will also agree that the Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule) is generally applicable to CUSTOMER LISTs as well.

TIP 1 - BASICS

How well do you involve yourself in the preparation of CUSTOMER LISTs by your team members?

a) I approve CUSTOMER LISTs prepared by my team members.

b) I sit with them when they prepare the CUSTOMER LISTs every year.

c) I believe that CUSTOMER LIST is a dynamic instrument and requires constant revision and re-validation.

d) I believe CUSTOMER LIST is important enough to demand my team members discuss with me every CUSTOMER that they include in their lists.

e) I validate during my field work every top CUSTOMER that my team members include in their lists. In a 3-tier CUSTOMER LIST I shall try to validate every CUSTOMER in the second tier as well because in applying the 80-20 rule the 20% is too important to make up for the 100%. [A 3-tier CUSTOMER LIST of 300 CUSTOMERs roughly has the following proportion: A = 60, B = 120 and C = 120.]

Is your answer a) or b)? But that is what every FLM does. If you want to be successful your answer should be c), d) and e).

You may wonder, “Should there be no delegation at all?”, “Should I hand-hold my team members even for such an elementary task?”

The answer is ‘yes’, at least in the initial stages. Let the salience of the right CUSTOMER LIST to their success sink in. When you are sure of this you can gradually ease controls.

[Remember the situational leadership grid. Depending on the maturity / readiness level of your followers you DIRECT them in the first phase; COACH them in the second phase; COUNSEL them in the third phase and DELEGATE to them in the fourth phase.]

But you will continue to validate CUSTOMER LISTs even after your team members reach the maturity / readiness level for DELEGATION. Remember it is one of the objectives of your joint field work.

TIP 2 - WHO IS ‘TOP CUSTOMER’

The question we are asking is not, “who is ‘a’ top CUSTOMER?” We are trying to define the generic term ‘TOP CUSTOMER’. Yes, who is ‘TOP CUSTOMER’? What is the criterion for defining ‘TOP CUSTOMER’?

a) A GP who sees 200 patients a day but when he prescribes a medicine he prescribes 3 tabs (presumably a day’s course) and asks the patient to come back ‘tomorrow’.

b) A specialist who sees 30-40 patients in a day and who prescribes a month to three months’ course.

c) A busy specialist who is very difficult to meet – he meets medical representatives once in a week at a specified – possibly at an odd and inconvenient – time. There are usually 30-40 competitors waiting to get a few seconds of his time, when we call on him.

d) You have to travel 100 kilometres to meet him but he meets medical representatives at 8.30 A.M. There are usually 10-15 competitors waiting to meet him, when we call on him.

e) The doctor is a busy professional all right, but meeting her is such a pleasure as she ‘discusses’ with you a wide range of subjects and even offers tea.

Are these the only criteria why we have such a ‘TOP CUSTOMER’ in our list; because all others have them on their lists?

From a business point of view, the doctors / specialists described @ b) and c) are preferable to the one described @ a). However any doctor described @ a) to e) should satisfy the following conditions to be included in the ‘TOP CUSTOMER’ category.

A thumb rule to define ‘TOP CUSTOMER’ is that the doctor has the potential to prescribe large quantities - qualitatively and quantitatively - of our products.

a) The doctor prescribes the type of products that my company offers, in large quantities.

b) The doctor prescribes either my brands in large quantities or

c) The doctor prescribes my competitors’ brands in large quantities and therefore there is a possibility to convert him to prescribe my brands.

[There is a caveat to the ‘possibility to convert’. It should be achievable in a specified time-frame. One can’t eternally invest time and energies on someone hoping that some day it would yield fruit. If it is going to be a long drawn struggle, such a doctor could be retained under a down-graded classification.]

d) The doctor is amenable to requests for support when there is an urgent need.

E.g.: 1. You are in the run for a sales contest.

E.g.: 2. You have a quantity of a product nearing the end of its shelf life. This should not happen under an ACE FLM like you but then it does - at times.

[Some might question the ‘amenable to requests’ premise, on the ground ‘my doctors’ continuously prescribe ‘my brands’ and never veer to competitors’ brands. That this is an erroneous assumption was proved by a survey conducted by a market research organisation several years ago. According to the survey report, doctors usually prescribe a brand - after effective detailing – for an average of three days.]

TIP 3 – THE “B” CATEGORY

Which type of CUSTOMER belongs to the “B” Category? It is the kind of CUSTOMER who could not be accommodated under the “TOP” list but almost deserves to be. It is best illustrated by the university gradation system. We shall use the same with slight modification to avoid confusion:

A = above 75% marks in the aggregate - also known as ‘Distinction’

B = 60% - 75% marks in the aggregate – first class

C = 50% - 60% marks in the aggregate – second class

If we apply the same analogy to a doctor how do we classify someone who has achieved, let us say 74% or 70 - 75%? It is this kind of doctor who with some effort from us can move up the scale that generally qualifies to be in the “B” Category. But the general criteria for inclusion in the list remain. Therefore at the risk of repetition let us recount the criteria:

a) The doctor prescribes the type of products that my company offers in large quantities.

b) The doctor prescribes either my brands in large quantities or

c) The doctor prescribes my competitors’ brands in large quantities and therefore there is a possibility to convert him to prescribe my brands.

d) The doctor is amenable to requests for support when there is an urgent need.

In this category we can one more type of doctor:

e) The doctor can influence purchase by a hospital / institution in large quantities.

The reason for including this type of doctor in “B” category is that although the doctor can influence purchase of large quantities of our products,

a) such purchases are occasional, may be once or twice a year. Therefore although it is necessary to cultivate the influencer it may not be necessary to call on him at the same frequency as a “TOP” Category doctor.

b) we may offer a different kind of “special treatment” – an expensive gift; entertain him for dinner and such like - to this type of doctor.

c) we offer products at a discounted price – which do not justify the same frequency of ‘call’ as a “TOP” Category doctor. Please remember every ‘call’ is a ‘cost’ to the company. And the call costs also depend upon the category under which it is classified.

TIP 4 - THE “C” CATEGORY

All other CUSTOMERs who can not be accommodated in “TOP” or “B” Categories may be included in “C”. But to extend the analogy of university gradation further, there is a cut-off below which the CUSTOMER does not qualify to be in our list. How do we determine the ‘cut-off’? The ‘cut-off’ simply is the minimum expected business from a CUSTOMER that justifies the expense of a call. Thus for e.g. the company expects a business of Rs 6,00,000 from a territory and the territory has a CUSTOMER LIST of 200 then the minimum expected business from a single CUSTOMER is Rs 6,00,000 / 200 = Rs 3,000. Any CUSTOMER who can not produce a business of less than Rs 3,000 does not have a place in our CUSTOMER LIST.

We have, in this article, used the word “CUSTOMER” in most places but occasionally the word “Doctor” is used. As we are in the pharmaceutical industry it is generally agreed that our principal “CUSTOMER” is a “Doctor”. But occasionally we may have to include a non-Doctor in our CUSTOMER LIST, for e.g. an influential pharmacist or other purchasing authority like the administrative head of a large purchasing institution. All such “CUSTOMERs” may be included under the “C” Category, with appropriate provision for special treatment.

TIP 5 - WHAT SHOULD BE AVOIDED?

As a true professional you as an FLM will not allow the inclusion of certain kinds of doctors in your CUSTOMER LISTs for the sake of convenience:

a) There is a couple – a husband and a wife – who sit together but only one has the potential to be our CUSTOMER for a variety of reasons.

i. The husband / wife does not see many patients but sits along with his wife or vice versa.

ii. The husband / wife practices in a therapeutic area in which we do not operate or are currently promoting our products.

iii. The husband / wife generally takes care only of the hospital administration.

This interesting anecdote not only illustrates the kind of situation that people in the field face but how tactfully a smart PSR handled a particular situation by injecting a little humour and audacity into it:

Many years ago SK&F (long before its merger with Glaxo to become GSK) specialised in gynaecological products and was known for its aggression in the market place. On an occasion it operated a special campaign as a part of which gynaecs were given expensive gifts. A SK&F PSR had to call on an important gynaec who was sitting along with an ophthalmologist in a clinic in a district headquarters town. In this instance the ophthalmologist was not her husband but a partner sharing the clinic. The PSR detailed first products specific to their specialities and then the common products. He distributed samples appropriate to their specialities. At last looking both of them squarely in the face he informed them with a smile, “…And we are a bit partial to gynaecologists…” With that he boldly produced the special gift for the gynaecologist and handed it over.

It is needless to point out that so smart a PSR enacted the necessary drama as if he were giving away a million dollar gift! The gynaec laughed heartily to receive such special treatment, the ophthalmologist looked on smugly as if it did not matter but both of them were not a bit surprised by the PSR’s boldness and tact and the PSR continued merrily on his rounds.

b) There are 10 doctors in a small town or a hospital, sufficient for day’s norm or call average but only 7 out of the 10 are eligible to be included in the CUSTOMER LIST.

In all these cases you of course as a true professional FLM will not permit pubic relations considerations or individual convenience to override business interests in the preparation of CUSTOMER LISTs but the more important thing is to convince your team members to do so willingly and not under compulsion. And that is the litmus test for leadership!

BRANDELOQUENCE!

2010-09-18T12:21:00.012+05:30

This article by U NARAYANADAS on branding in the pharmaceutical industry is the fourth in the series that was published by Express Pharma Pulse and appeared in its issue dated May 26, 2005

While “marketing” may not have absolute control on the communications which take place in the customer’s office, many factors influence the modes of communications through which brands communicate with their customers, feels U Narayanadas

An American general visiting forward troops during the Korean War, had to engage an interpreter to address them. The general, seeking to grip the soldiers’ attention, told an elaborate joke, which lasted several minutes. Then, the interpreter said a few words and the assembly burst into laughter. After the speech was over the mystified general asked the interpreter how he translated the joke in so few words. The interpreter informed him, with a sheepish grin, that there would be no point in translating the joke word for word, so he told the soldiers that the general just told a joke, and they should acknowledge it with laughter.

The story may seem inconsequential, but consider the constant tussle between marketing and sales about implementation of strategies - especially communication strategies.

A familiar complaint from 'marketing' is that 'sales' does not faithfully implement strategies. 'Sales', returns the compliment by whining that 'marketing' does not understand the realities of the market place. While marketing’s uncouth brute and sales’ glamour doll spar at each other, sometimes communications assume strange forms. Sales’ perspective in the story is that the proof of the pudding, after all, lies in eating it.

While marketing may not have absolute control on the communications which take place in the customer’s office, many factors influence the modes of communications through which brands communicate with their customers.

MISSING THE WOOD FOR THE TREES

A product manager’s eagerness to score a hit may sometimes cloud his/her better judgement. As a result he/she tries to project what she sees as the benefit, not necessarily what the customer desires. One such product manager insisted on using the hologram on a pack as the brand’s USP. It might have worked for a while, when the hologram was a novelty, but it was not the brand’s innate strength.

The holographic seal offers, at best, an indirect benefit by offering the consumer the genuine article. The benefit, if any, is to the marketer as his objective is to prevent piracy.

BEGINNING WITH THE END?

Secondly the pressure cooker atmosphere, in which a product manager works, forces him to think of a mnemonic or tagline the moment a brand is assigned to him and not after he thought through a brand strategy, drawing it from an audit of the strengths and weaknesses of his brand and its competitors.

This, to use a familiar cliche, is putting the cart before the horse. Once the cart is put before the horse, the rest follows by weaving the communication around the tagline with the unseemly expectation that the cart would draw the horse!

A product manager wanted to use the tagline ‘A tribute to womanhood’ for an oral anti-fungal for vaginal candidiasis! He was dissuaded from offering such a ridiculous 'tribute to womanhood', but long before another company marketing an iron supplement paid the same 'tribute to womanhood'. The hallmark of a professional is his/her willingness to experiment and change. But, most creative people have this weakness: they fall in love with their work early on and are reluctant to change.

SAUCE FOR THE GOOSE AND SAUCE FOR ITS GANDER!

Thirdly, a bit of amateur product management from the company’s power elite sometimes influences brand communications. A senior official of a company during a discussion on packaging material designs for a new brand insisted that they use the ‘Colgate Ring’ in the designs! He liked it in Colgate’s television commercials.

According to him, the brand offered a protective ring to the patient - it did not matter in which condition it was prescribed.

WHEN IN DOUBT APPLY RULE No.1!

Brands are mainly extended either to cash in on their popularity to step into other segments or shore up revenues from plateaued/flagging brands. There may be a situation where, in the new segment, the original product may have only a subsidiary role while the add-ons play a more important role.

For example, if a cough syrup is launched as brand extension of a popular antihistamine, the antihistamine may at best have a subsidiary role in the extension. Most textbooks assign a placebo role to antihistamines in cough mixtures. Therefore in such an extension, there would be no point in highlighting the original brand’s efficacy irrespective of its popularity.

A brand should deliver on its promise to be successful in the long run. That should be the eternal Rule No. 1.

The primary objective of the brand extension in the above example, i.e. the cough mixture should be to relieve cough not allergy. When in doubt, Apply Rule No. 1 should be the guiding maxim.

Charles Revlon, chairman of the Revlon Cosmetics is reported to have said ‘‘We make chemicals in the factory, the retailer sells hope in the store’’. The chemical mixed and packed in the factory transforms into a brand, picking up en route a name, an image, an identity, a mnemonic, a tagline and - even a personality! (Brand personality may be more applicable in case of durable and some non-durable consumer goods.) And, the brand communicates hope!

MNEMONICS AND GESTALTS

Integration and application of ideas developed by two independent researchers helped marketers along in their efforts in brand building. For a consumer to patronise a brand he should recall it in the first place.

The German word Gestalt is hard to translate into English but roughly means an 'organised whole'. Dr Frederick Pearls, a Freudian analyst, developed the principles of Gestalt psychology and employed them in psychotherapy.

But Gestalt theory’s more mundane application is in advertising. If people are shown a near incomplete circle and asked what they saw in it, nine out of ten people would reply that it was a circle. Readers of this article will have no difficulty in reading the following paragraph and understanding its meaning. We do not know whether such a research was indeed carried out at Cambridge but the paragraph is self-explanatory.

‘‘Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae, the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.’’

This could probably be the reason for some errors we see in print escaping the eagle-eyed scrutiny of the most intrepid proofreader.

The second important development was the Russian scientist Pavlov’s biological experiments. Pavlov set out to observe the effect of external stimuli on the gastric secretions of rats. The experiment was to ring a bell before offering rats their daily rations. The rats, conditioned to hearing a bell before their meals, continued to secret digestive juices in anticipation of food even when food was not served after the ring, for a few days. And in the process Pavlov stumbled upon the now famous theories of learning.

The principle behind development of mnemonics and logograms is a combination of Gestalt psychology and the results of Pavlov’s experiments. Its objective is to make people remember/recall a product or concept by looking at the proffered concept as an organised whole and remember it by association of ideas.

The writer is Marketing Manager, VINS Bioproducts Ltd, Hyderabad. E-mail: unarayanadas@yahoo.com

BRANDING IS POSITIONING...

2010-07-30T17:58:00.012+05:30

This article by U NARAYANADAS on branding in the pharmaceutical industry, the third in a series of four appeared in Express Pharma Pulse of February 03, 2005

One of the chapter headings in an interesting book called FORENSIC MARKETING is ‘Interrogate a brand till it confesses its strengths’! Should it not spur us to think, asks U NARAYANA DAS

BETTER THAN SHAKESPEARE?

George Bernard Shaw captioned Caesar and Cleopatra’s preface with the poser: "Better than Shakespeare?" Shaw and Shakespeare may appear incongruous in an article on branding but consider this: poets and artists, playwrights and politicians all vie to have the public interested in their work. To achieve this, firstly their work has to have intrinsic merit and secondly it should have distinguishing features.

Bernard Shaw’s prefaces written in powerful prose are as popular as his plays. Shaw did not mean any disrespect to the Bard of Avon as the first sentence of his preface clarifies: “I shall be remembered as long as Shakespeare and Aristophanes or shall be forgotten a clown down the turn of the century.”

Bernard Shaw had merely positioned his play as different from Shakespeare’s. Some critics say that Shakespeare portrayed his male characters as weak-kneed and his plays had only heroines, no heroes. In contrast, Shaw’s delineation of Caesar was sharper and more masculine. Who would read Shaw’s play if it were to be in the same mould as Shakespeare’s and on the same subject?

MONA LISA A BREAK FROM TRADITION

Some art critics believe that Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa became as popular as it did because the ‘subject’ was a ‘departure’ from tradition. Divinity or nobility were subjects of art till then. da Vinci introduced a common housewife as his subject in Mona Lisa (She was the wife of a poor nobleman who commissioned the painting but could not pay da Vinci for it).

POSITIONING AND POLITICAL CONTENT

During the election 2004, Indian media was agog about political parties marketing their icons and philosophies as brands. The new age of marketing infected the media into branding (pun intended) political parties but political parties have all along been indulging in it explicitly or implicitly.

From Indira Gandhi’s 'Garibi Hatao' to the BJP’s (in)famous 'India Shining,' all such slogans have been positioning statements. India Shining was a case in point where a political party’s positioning statement did not find favour with its target audience and the brand was rejected. And in the US, presidential election campaigns are virtually conducted by Madison Avenue.

THE CONCEPT OF POSITIONING AND POPULAR PERCEPTIONS

The concept of positioning is closely inter-related with market segmentation, target marketing, product differentiation, consumer benefit and brand image. Brand image is what the consumer perceives of the attributes of a brand vis-à-vis brand identity - what the marketer intends to portray.

Chloromycetin is a good example of consumer perception as it is often confused with its generic content chloramphenical. Or the brand name Tossex, which is not a sex stimulant. The expression 'Ivy League' is often misperceived in India as standing for scholastic excellence akin to Harvard or Oxford. The facts are different: eight universities in the US north-east joined in a league to play annual sports tournaments. As the universities, which formed the league, have green ivy on their walls the tournaments are called Ivy League tournaments.

There are many definitions of positioning in marketing literature but the most apt seems to be the one given by Beckman, Kurtz and Boone in Foundations of Marketing: ‘Product positioning refers to the consumer’s perception of a product’s attributes, use, quality and advantages and disadvantages in relation to competing brands’. The operative part of this definition lays stress on the consumer’s perception of a brand’s attributes.

IF YOU ARE SURE, GO FOR THE ENEMY’S JUGULAR...

The note on H2 receptor antagonists in the British National Formulary mentions that cimetidine, ranitidine and famotidine have similar pharmacological and safety profiles. Cimetidine (Tagamet) the first to be introduced was a real chart buster and obviated the necessity for surgery for peptic ulcers by almost 90 per cent.

As the first to be introduced, Cimetidine had undergone post marketing surveillance by the time ranitidine made its appearance. For the introduction of ranitidine (Zantac), Glaxo needed a platform to overcome entry barriers and challenge the incumbent.

Side effects - especially its binding androgen receptors - observed with ’long term use of cimetidine in high doses’ (Goodman and Gilman qualifies its warning) came in handy to ‘knock its block off’, as the Americans would say in boxing parlance. Glaxo seized the opportunity and positioned Zantac as an anti peptic-ulcerant with a better safety profile.

The rest, as they say, is history! Tagamet lost 50 per cent of its market share in the year Zantac was launched. Zantac usurped Tagamet’s Guinness Book slot and the entire top brass including the Chairman of SKF the company that launched the wonder drug (that probably rendered many surgeons jobless), lost their jobs.

...OR CHOOSE TO BE A BIG FISH IN A SMALL POND

India

when Glaxo made a foray into the ‘vitamin B complex with C’ segment, the company positioned Cobadex as a ‘co-prescription B complex’. The suggestion inherent in the brand name seems to be the obvious explanation. (Interestingly, Nancy Powers’ pocket medical dictionary includes Cobadex as a steroid cream in its list of proprietary medicines marketed in Europe).

But a more logical marketing explanation would be the company’s intention to piggy ride with the antibiotic market, which accounted for 20 per cent of the pharma market (then).

The company had to contend with a very strong number one in Becosules, followed by Surbex-T at number two, Becozyme C Forte, Beplex Forte and Stresscaps et al grouped together at a lower level.

Glaxo apparently sacrificed myriad indications (in which a ‘B complex with C’ could be prescribed) to be exclusively remembered as a co-prescription B complex. Pfizer launched an epic ’fight-back’, but was forced to make a course shift grouping Becosules and Terramycin together in all its subsequent promotions, a subtle acknowledgement of Glaxo’s positioning of Cobadex.

Glaxo’s aggressive entry however could not dislodge Becosules from its number one perch but achieved the company’s secondary objective of making the brand a big fish in a small pond. Marketing battles between the two - which may be called the Indian pharma equivalent of the famous Cola wars - expanded the market with Cobadex eventually settling at number two.

START A NEW CATEGORY

Jack Trout and Al Ries recommend in their 'Twenty-two Immutable Laws of Marketing,' starting a new category as the best way to launch a new product successfully. If it is not possible to start a new category, they say, start at least a new sub-category.

The advent of 'Schedule V' in the eighties brought about changes vitamin formulae. Zinc became a cameo as companies made a virtue of what they were allowed to include to compensate for trimming down vitamins. Similarly anti-oxidants was a successful attempt at sub-categorisation as multi-vitamin mineral supplements always had the few ingredients seen in anti-oxidants, but biotin and selenium, which were not considered important earlier, were assigned cameo roles in the new (sub) category.

THE PROOF OF THE PUDDING...

The objective of any positioning is to gain the elusive perceptual position in the consumer’s mind, often described as the black box.

The success of the strategy depends on the marketer’s ability to communicate the concept to the consumer and win instant recall. One of the chapter headings in an interesting book called FORENSIC MARKETING is ‘Interrogate a brand till it confesses its strengths’!

Should it not spur us to think? Taglines and mnemonics should emerge from a thorough audit of the strengths of a brand vis-à-vis competition.

The writer is a Hyderabad based practising manager and marketing consultant. Email: unarayanadas@yahoo.com

BRANDING BEGINS WITH A NAME!

2010-07-03T10:51:00.006+05:30

This article by U NARAYANADAS on branding in the pharmaceutical industry, the second in a series of four appeared in Express Pharma Pulse of December 23, 2004

A ‘Brand’ is considered to be a mixture of attributes some tangible, others intangible. All these attributes are condensed into and expressed in a trademark that differentiates it from others and is expected to create value and influence (buying) behaviour.

The perceived value of a brand depends on the viewer’s perspective: for the marketer a promise; for the consumer the delivery of that promise; for the business the security of earning profits; legally an intellectual property.

BRANDING BEGINS WITH A NAME!

The antecedents of branding may be traced to the days when cattle used to be tattooed with a mark to indicate their ownership. The objectives of modern branding are partly the same. A ‘Brand’ is considered to be a mixture of attributes some tangible, others intangible. All these attributes are condensed into and expressed in a trademark that differentiates it from others and is expected to create value and influence (buying) behaviour.

Additionally, brands aid customers to choose from a wide variety. Naming brands that pack so much value into them is a difficult exercise. It is not just coining a name but encrypting a concept that would unravel when the name is used. The famous positioning guru Jack Trout called one of his books ‘Get the Name Right’, but, essentially, it deals with encrypting a concept. Randall S Rozin, Global Manager of Branding at Dow Corning and an editorial board member of Journal of Brand Management, says that a good (brand) name is better than riches. In an instructive article on the dos and don’ts of creating names, he lists the interesting example of Chevrolet that wanted to name one of their cars Nova till someone pointed out that it means “Does not go” in Spanish. Similarly when Coca-Cola sought to name a citrus drink Urge in Sweden (Surge in other countries), it ran into legal problems as people with the same surname objected to it.

These examples may seem exotic, as Indian brand names may not encounter such problems at the moment. This may be so because we do not have any global brands (exceptions are few and far between). As the Indian industry looks towards wider horizons, hopefully, we shall soon create global brands. There is an entry in Drug Index listing Pamela as a brand of paracetamol and racemethionine. Let us hope that a Ms Pamela will not take umbrage at her name being bandied about associating it with an antipyretic.

THE WORKS BEHIND THE WORDS:

Carmaker Daimler exhibited the prototype of a new car to some of its dealers. One of them, an enterprising chap, offered to sell a third of the produce if the car was named after his daughter Mercedes. Thus was born the brand name for the most coveted automobile - Mercedes.

Here is a list of amusing and (maybe) instructive stories behind coining some other popular brand names. (See box.)

NAMING CATEGORIES

There are three broad categories into which brand names may be classified:

DESCRIPTIVE NAME: A name, which describes a product or service for which it is intended.

For eg: Abdec, Cetzine, Ostocalcium.

ASSOCIATIVE NAME: A name, which indicates a benefit or aspect of a product by association of an original or striking idea.

For e.g.: Acibloc, Mucolite.

FREESTANDING NAME: A name, which has no link with the product but has a meaning of its own.

For e.g.: A M P M, 11 P M.

The following may also be considered:

ABSTRACT NAME: A name that is entirely created and has no meaning of its own. Abstract names may also be classified as a sub-set of freestanding names as they too do not have any link to the product or service.

For e.g.: Avil, Zinetac.

COINED NAME: Any name that has been in some way created; such a name may be descriptive, associative or freestanding.

For e.g.: Allenburys, Kokkos (See below)

ACRONYM NAME: A name that has been coined by using an acronym of a larger unwieldy name.

For e.g.: Amul, Noida.

We find a majority of Indian pharma brand names falling in the descriptive category and few in the associative category. The two examples given above under the freestanding category do not strictly conform to the definition as they indicate the two times in the one case and late night dosing in the other. And it was difficult to find names under the other categories on a cursory examination of Drug Index. Occasionally, we find (mostly generic companies) prefixing or suffixing all their brands with a part (or full) of their corporate name.

This may be because we would like to play safe by giving the reluctant doctor a cue to remember our product, which limits our freedom to be creative. As we move into the next epoch, which does not permit copycats we might see more creativity in coining names that encrypt concepts.

THE STORY OF A GREEK SOLUTION

The writer was heading a marketing team that sought to introduce an amoxycillin and cloxacillin combination brand several years ago. The market was already choc-a-block with dozens of similar brand; some of them big names. The team’s objective was to launch its brand-successfully - into the crowded market. How does one do it without the doctor brushing it aside with: ‘Oh! Not another? I have enough of them’. With that the interview peters out and the field staff will not just lose morale but all interest in the product.

The team had many sittings to thrash out the issue. In one of the sittings the team went through the attributes of the product (which was not yet a brand) and decided to focus on its gram-positive spectrum, especially its ability to combat staphylococcal infections. The team tried the use of computer software that coined hundreds of names based on specified parameters. None of them was satisfactory.

An idea germinated when someone pointed out in one of the meetings, that the word staphylococcus emerged from two Greek words, staph meaning bunch and kokkos meaning grape. In fact, the microscopic picture of staphylococcus looks like a bunch of grapes. The explanation seemed to deliver a name. A concept began to take shape. The team decided that it would tell the doctor about shapes and Greeks. And, of course, solutions to his problems. (Else what would be the point in meeting him?) The interview would not be killed. On the other hand it would kindle the doctor’s interest. The company’s medical representatives were instructed to tell the doctor about ‘A Greek Solution for Coccal Infections’. The first page of the Visual Aid carried only the picture of a bunch of grapes and the caption: ‘A Greek Solution for Coccal Infections’. The brand was christened Kokkos. Doctors who would normally rush medical representatives through their detailing gave the story an interested hearing, were amused with its details and asked several questions or entered into animated discussions. Needless to say that Kokkos was a runaway success as a brand and far exceeded the company’s marketing objectives during the year of its launch. There were other components in the marketing of this brand and may be discussed elsewhere on occasion.

PRAXIS NOT THEORY

2010-06-26T13:54:00.011+05:30

Book Review

HardKnocks For The GreenHorn (107+ pages with colour illustrations; price: Rs 599) and SuperVision For The SuperWiser Front-Line Manager (158+ pages with colour illustrations; price: Rs 799) by Anup Soans. Published by Asian Trading Corporation, Bangalore.

There are any number of books on salesmanship and sales management. Books on salesmanship have mostly been on selling in general professing to offer techniques to make one a super salesperson; or on personalised selling, for e.g. on how to sell insurance or industrial goods. Similarly there is no dearth of books on management theory and management techniques. But there clearly are lacunae with regard to personal selling and sales management in the pharmaceutical industry.

Selling in the pharma industry, especially in India is complex not only in view of its quasi-technical nature but also because of the nature of competition. Managing pharma sales professionals is a much more complex business because of contextual factors some of which include: the quasi-technical nature of the selling function, the fragmented nature of the market, high attrition rates not only because of the dynamic nature of the healthcare industry but because of the opening up of allied industries like health insurance and not least the unionisation of the sales forces.

The following facts put in perspective the complex nature of pharmaceutical selling and the magnitude of competition in India: there are an estimated 25000 companies vying for the custom of approximately 400000* doctors; the size of the market (MAT April 2010) is Rs 45385 Cr (US $ Bn 9.67, @ Rs 47) and the top ten companies account for 42.36% of the market. The Indian pharma industry ranked the fourth largest in the world by volume and thirteenth by value has been growing at a healthy 13.8%.

Against this backdrop writing a book or manual for training sales and marketing professionals in the industry is a tall order. It is perhaps because of this reason that books on sales and marketing in the industry are few and far between. Apart from the complexity of the industry ambience the next most important question is what syllabus or what specifications should a text book or manual for training ‘Medical Representatives’ conform to?

It would have been far simpler had there been a standardised course for “Medical Representatives” in India as it exists in Britain. The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) conducts the “The Medical Representatives Examination” and has a standardised syllabus for it. The examination is conducted in two parts comprising three compulsory and three optional specialisation papers. Candidates should obtain a minimum of 60% marks in each of the six papers for a pass in the examination. Sales professionals working as “Generic Medicines Representatives” will also have to take the first part of the examination comprising the three compulsory papers. Other countries like Australia and Canada too conduct similar examinations. These examinations do not have official recognition and hence are not transferable across countries but a pass in the examination is necessary for working as ‘Medical Representatives’ in the respective countries.

Over the years, Indian companies have evolved training programmes and training manuals corresponding to them based on their individual organisational experience. However the paradoxical secrecy of organisations in protecting their training methods as much as they do their marketing strategies - their dissemination being as certain a constant as water in a sieve or attrition in the industry - made these manuals an inchoate potpourri.

The two books by by Anup Soans are welcome addition to our knowledge in the respective fields and in the lingo of marketing, are likely to satisfy a long-felt need. They are written not by an armchair theoretician but by someone who cut his teeth in the din and bustle of the market place and gradually ascended his way up to the top by dint of hard work and determination. Therefore they do not impart spill-over textbook wisdom but practical tips for the new entrant and the conscientious worker seeking to improve his knowledge of the domain and his expertise.

Soans has taken pains first to define the syllabus based on which he would write the books. For example HardKnocks For The GreenHorn is divided into two parts. He divided the first part into six chapters each of which deals with a specific area of knowledge or skill essential for the Professional Service Representative (PSR). These include an introduction to the industry and career prospects; roles and responsibilities; knowledge management; presentation skills; basics of marketing and life skills.

The second part deals with technical subjects such as anatomy, physiology and pharmacology. A PSR should have at least a basic grasp of these subjects to be able to converse with a doctor in medical lingo.

The eponymous title SuperVision For The SuperWiser Front-Line Manager is divided into three parts. The first part is devoted to ‘Essential Management Skills’ beginning with prospects and progression in the industry, the tools necessary for the success of a frontline manager and the functional roles of a frontline manager. The second part deals with ‘Leadership Skills’ with such practical aspects as ‘on the job coaching’, which is dreaded by most frontline managers and the current management buzzword, ‘Emotional Intelligence’. The third part teaches the FLM ways in which she/he can improve performance. For in the end managers are expected to continuously perform.

Organisations generally do not realise that FLMs are the fulcrum on which the success of the genius at the top depends. They are like the load-bearing columns in a building without which it can not stand. Therefore it is essential for organisations to constantly reassure them that they are a part of the management structure and not that of the workforce they manage. This can only be achieved by providing FLMs with constant support and providing nourishment in the form of training and development. The book under review is likely to be an essential tool for achieving this end.

………………………………………………

*The figure is deduced from a Planning Commission report according to which, there is a requirement of at least 600000 doctors to achieve a 1:1000 doctor-population ratio. [India needs 600,000 more doctors: Plan Panel (2008). Rediff Business, April 07, 2008. Accessible from: http://www.rediff.com/money/2008/apr/07panel.htm].

BRANDING FOR VALUE

2010-04-23T18:11:00.012+05:30

When this blog was originally mooted it was intended to cover purely personal development topics. Later it was decided to extend it to other management topics. This article by U NARAYANADAS on branding in the pharmaceutical industry, the first in a series of four appeared in Express Pharma Pulse of December 9, 2004

BRANDING FOR VALUE

Brands have to be constantly nurtured and safeguarded against attrition by competitors, says U NARAYANADAS

'Branding is dead; Long live 'Branding' seems to be all that the copywriter could say to sum up the situation. It is perhaps unfair to accuse him of being 'cliché' prone or suffering from an acute bout of copywriter's block. His more immediate concern was to find a caption that says it all in one phrase. The caption reflects the misery of FMCG marketers, facing intense competition of the liberalised millennium. The days when the big boys lorded it over, are - over, with consumers peeking at discount notices displayed in FOODWORLD counters rather than being brand loyal.

Pharma marketers have seen it all. They are therefore wiser and smarter. The industry with more than 23,000 players and 75,000 brands totalling into a retail market of Rs 18000 crores in 2003, has paid Charles Darwin his most well deserved compliment - by proving his theory.

THE ENIGMA OF BRANDING

The principles of FMCG marketing have often been applied to marketing pharma products although there is a distinct difference between the two. Marketing has begun in pharma with the application of the principles of FMCG marketing in the mid seventies. Was it mere selling before? The authorities seem to think so! Some pharma brands continue to grow to the envy of their competitors. Some are bought and sold and are high value assets like prime real estate.

Yet there is no place for complacence. Brands have to be constantly nurtured and safeguarded against attrition by competitors. Call it Customer Relationship Management or Customer Retention Management if you will. A terse advertisement for pharma sales professionals in the nineties phrased it with telling effect: ''Today the competition is intense; tomorrow it will be cut throat.''

The USP of the former big boys - read MNCs - was quality. Today, nobody can claim a monopoly over quality. The customer (in case of pharma, the proxy customer) refuses to accept brand differentiation. The market is a leveller. It probably is a tribute to the Indian scientific talent but they were able to replicate 'MNC quality at Indian prices'. That is one of the reasons for crying foul over IPRs. They may have a point there considering that a new product takes 12 years to reach the shopkeeper's shelf from its conceptual embryo and consumes US $100 million.

But again they may not, considering the humanitarian dimension and not just ethics and commerce of the issue. Some MNCs, which sought to sell anti-HIV (AIDS) drugs @ US $10,000 for a course against their Indian competitors' prices of US $350 - 450, climbed down and withdrew their suit for violation of IPRs in the South African Supreme Court. How do pharma marketers manage such competition is an eternal question - to which even they would like to know the answer.

NAMING NAMES

There are many speculations as to how pharma brands are named. A part of a product's generic name is included in the name to give the prescribing physician an idea of the content. Sometimes the effects of the product are played upon.

There is an interesting sidelight to this: Some years ago when the anti-ulcer drug ranitidine and its combinations were introduced (see Table 1*), most companies used the first three letters 'Ran', as part of their brand name throwing up such bizarre words as Random and Randon. The full list is amusing with names like Ranicom (no dot there) and Ranidom (no Kingdom either) which reflects the inventiveness of pharma product managers. Others have used the last three letters of the original brand Zantac (the Indian variation of the name is Zinetac) coining names like Rantac and Histac.Finally somebody decided to steal everybody's thunder by using the generic fraction as well as the product's effect - of reducing acid. Lo and behold! The name Rancid was born. Needless to say what happened to the brand!

When a number of brands of the antibiotic Ciprofloxacin hit the market there was this Hinglish version: Mahaquin derived from the name of its class, Fluoro-quinolones.

The list in Table 1* is only a sample (not exhaustive) of brands of one drug in one class for one disease. Drug Today lists 47 plain ranitidine and 45 ranitidine combinations (again not exhaustive). [*EPP omitted the table in its publication - BRIHAS]

CONFLICTS AND TURF WARS

Short, connotative (as mentioned earlier) and euphonic names help recall. Phonetic similarities result in conflicts and turf wars especially when a large number of brands have to conform to such restrictive conditions.

There is little or no differentiation in the case of Indian pharma brands as they are only different names of the same generic component. The net 'out-take' of a brand - for the consumer - depends on practical experience and is often a subjective attribute.

Brands with the same bio-equivalence are accepted or rejected by different physicians depending on their first experience.

TRAVAILS WITH TAGLINES

The list of generic names is confusing enough. Thus, ranitidine (used as an example above), which belongs to a class of anti-peptic ulcer drugs called H2 receptor antagonists, has such siblings as cimetidine, famotidine, roxatidinie, loxitidine, nizatidine, etc.

The other classes of drugs, which treat or mitigate peptic ulcer, are antacids, mucoprotectives, local anaesthetics, proton-pump inhibitors and prostaglandin analogues. Each class has a number of drugs and dozens of brands of each drug.

The objective of all the drugs is similar: healing stomach ulcers/relieving symptoms. How does one write taglines for each of these brands to make the prescribing physician remember them? The product managers earn their sobriquet - MC (Master of Clichés) - by coining cliché-ridden taglines: every second brand is 'First in India'; every nutritional is 'Next best to nature'; every product used for women's diseases is a 'Tribute to womanhood'; every other product is 'Novel'; a 'Revolutionary therapy'; 'Trusted and tested'; 'Recommended worldwide'; an 'Innovative breakthrough'; a 'Drug of choice'; 'Most advanced'; 'USFDA Approved'; manufactured in a 'State-of-the-art' facility (not factory!) and is 'Very economical' as the word cheap is taboo.

MAKING A RELUCTANT HORSE DRINK

The year 2002-3 saw the introduction of about 3,400 new brands according to market audit reports. The latest edition of Drug Today consists of a 1000 pages. Imagine the physician having to write a prescription as soon as he diagnosed a patient and the task of the marketer to make the physician remember his brand name - to conquer that elusive 'mind share'.

The prescribing physicians are not a captive audience that can be bamboozled with glamorous models and glitzy commercials. A large proportion of selling in pharma is personal, each prescribing physician being met by over 200 - 250 Medical Representatives every month. The physicians, their staff and patients often view Medical Representatives, as uninvited guests and intruders. Each Medical Representative gets 180 - 300 seconds (on an average) in an interview to promote 6 - 10 products (on an average). The success of a brand therefore depends as much on the creativity of the back room boys as on the ability of the Medical Representatives and their field controllers to win the confidence of physicians.

Medical Representatives are all too familiar with physicians - whom they have been wooing to impress during a number visits for their 'prescription support', in their patois, glibly saying 'Yes, I have been regularly prescribing your… … …' naming a competitive brand.

AN EXCELLENT PRODUCT CAN SOMETIMES DELIVER A BOMB!

2010-04-18T15:11:00.010+05:30

When this blog was originally mooted it was intended to cover purely personal development topics. But then it was decided to extend it to other management topics. And rather than waiting for topics in a particular order, to post whatever is at hand!

Product management is neither pure theory nor just practice. It is praxis! It is ‘practical application or exercise of a branch of learning’ - marketing. The scientist in the laboratory practices theory. The salesman in the field applies practical wisdom.

THE 'IRIDIUM' BOMB!

In the age of satellite communications when man can send a signal to the moon and receive its echo in a few seconds designing a global satellite phone is no ‘big deal’. At least that was what Motorola thought when it mooted the Iridium satellite phone project which eventually swallowed $ 7 billion.

It all started innocently enough when in 1985, Motorola executive, Barry Bertinger’s wife, unable to use her cellular phone while on vacation in the Caribbean, convinced her husband of the need for a worldwide mobile wireless system.

Motorola then joined with some partners to develop the Iridium global satellite phone. The phone that was five years in the making would work ‘anytime, anywhere’. The company spent $ 5 billion for developing and $ 40 million for launching the phone that would offer seamless communication in the Amazonian Rain Forest, on the Alaskan Tundra, or on the Himalayas. The point is very few people visit these places. What people in general want is something that fits into their pocket (physically and figuratively) and communicates with others.

The company did indeed conduct market research before launching the product. Its marketing team reportedly researched the social behaviour of ‘people on the move’ by interviewing 25,000 people - who fit the company’s customer profile - in 54 cities in 34 countries. The project needed 500,000 customers to break-even and when it folded nine years after launch it had 50,000.

The Iridium phone was bulky, needed a lot of attachments to work and cannot be used in cars or buildings. It might make sense to make it in limited numbers and market the product to army units of various countries but as a mass communication tool, it was a ‘no go’. (An Indian television channel reported the Kargil war using Iridium phones.)

The story of the Iridium fiasco does not end there. The 66 satellites that the company launched to provide it infrastructure support are still hovering in the sky. And Iridium’s marketing agent hard-sold the project to gullible Indian FIs who sank Rs 220 crore into it.

GUNG HO OPTIMISM IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR STRATEGY!

Doesn’t the Indian pharmaceutical industry have similar stories to tell? This was the question quite often asked while referring to the 'IRIDIUM FIASCO'. Well, here is an 'almost' story!

To succeed in life it is necessary to dream. It is necessary to dare to dream. People in sales should be practically optimistic but not gung-ho.

The sales manager of a company launching a typhoid vaccine hard-sold this idea to his management: India has a population of over 1000 million. Seventy percent of India’s population living in villages does not have access to safe drinking water and hence is prone to waterborne diseases like typhoid. A safe assumption of 70% of this subset gives us a figure 500 million doses as the market for typhoid vaccine. The company could easily target 10% MS in the first year and that would be 50 million doses.

Fortunately wisdom prevailed and the company did not order production based on the forecast. Three months after the launch it turned out that the company would have had ten years’ ‘off-take’ on its shelves had it ordered production based on the optimistic sales manager's forecast!

SELF ORGANISATION & TIME MANAGEMENT

2010-03-18T19:46:00.036+05:30

Time management is a part of self-orgnisation which involves prioritising activities according to their relative importance and doggedly following those priorities.

The following grid is self-explanatory. We can slot all our activities into its four quadrants. The work of quite a few activity-based managers can be slotted into quadrant (1) as they tend to douse fires and somehow meet deadlines and achieve metrics. Nothing exceptionable in that as deadlines and metrics are important too. However the key to time management and managing results – not managing activity – lies in quadrant (2). If managers spend time in proper planning, envisaging opportunities and keeping communication channels open, they can certainly pre-empt emergencies.

IMPORTANT & URGENT (1) CRISES EXIGENT PROBLEMS PROJECT DEADLINES ACHIEVING METRICS	IMPORTANT & NOT URGENT (2) PLANNING IDENTIFYING NEW OPPORTUNITIES BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS PREVENTING EMERGENCIES COMMUNICATION WITH OTHERS
N0T IMPORTANT & URGENT (3) ROUTINE MAILS INTERRUPTIONS REPORTS MEETINGS IMMEDIATE PROBLEMS POPULAR ACTIVITIES	N0T IMPORTANT & NOT URGENT (4) SOME MAILS SOME PHONE CALLS TIME WASTING ACTIVITIES PLEASANT ACTIVITIES OFFICE GOSSIP / SHOP TALK

But the real death-traps are quadrants (3) and (4). On a day when you are seriously contemplating a strategy to bag ‘that’ large hospital order, in walks a colleague with the news that the ‘boss’ was spotted at the Director’s residence the previous weekend.

As is human, both of you spend a lot of time speculating whether (a) he has gone there to placate him to grab the post of a Senior Vice President that was opening up shortly, (b) he was pushing the case/s of his favourites in the annual appraisals that were under way or - better still - (c) he has gone there to squeal and bitch about his colleagues. The exchange of ‘perspectives’, which feeds on itself to keep the ‘meeting’ going, goes on for forty minutes before you realise it.

With an exclamation of surprise at the passage of time, your colleague unwillingly tears himself away for he has a report to file. His quadrant (1) is looming large while both of you were in (4) till now!

When you were about to return to your original contemplation after a little lag for the mind takes time to refocus, another colleague calls with a few more tidbits about boss’ weekend activities and as both of you have but ‘one mind’, have an animated exchange of ‘perspectives’ for an extended period of time. Of course the two of you are now in quadrant (4). Finally the colleague ends the phone call reluctantly.

In the mean time your line was ‘busy’, your secretary was hard put to explain it to callers and your boss was wondering whether you were planning a coup d'état to usurp his chair. You might even have missed an important customer or two who wanted to discuss business, which they would now take elsewhere.

In both the cases it was the other colleague who terminated the conversation for you do not have it in you to hurt other peoples’ feelings. And the greater danger is in deluding yourself that you were ‘communicating’ with others around the office!

We all know quadrant (1) is unpredictable and quadrants (3) and (4) are unavoidable. Therefore can we begin by planning quadrant (2), by allotting some time of our working day everyday to activities listed in it? As it consists of the most salient activities for our success should we not allot at least 40% of our time to it - and brook no interruptions during the allotted time. This roughly translates to two hours and forty eight minutes in an eight hour working day minus one hour for coffee and lunch breaks. It would be ideal for managers to indulge in activities listed in quadrant (4) once in a week and allot not more than an hour for activities listed in quadrant (3). Be that as it may the focus should be on quadrant (2) for sustained and long term success.

The following case study is an illustration of ‘SELF ORGANIZATION AND TIME MANAGEMENT’ or the lack of it and is all too familiar for people in line management.

Mr. ABHAY KUMAR, AREA BUSINESS MANAGER, Ά-Β PHARMACEUTICALS LIMITED, BANGALORE.

Mr. Abhay Kumar is the Area Business Manager of ά-β Pharmaceuticals Limited at Bangalore. Abhay (as he is fondly called by everyone) used to top the charts as a Sales Officer (SO)* and has been promoted Area Business Manager (ABM)* six months ago.

By the time Abhay arrived at the consulting chambers of Dr. Surendra Kumar in Jayanagar he was already twenty-five minutes late for the appointment. He was to join his Sales Officer for a joint call on the doctor. As per the company’s marketing strategy the doctor was to be met by the ABM as a core call. Now the SO too missed the call.

As the two were coming out of the building after vain attempts to cajole the doctor’s secretary to arrange for an interview, Abhay got an SMS from his Zonal Manager’s office reminding him about the list of doctors to be prepared for the new product introduction. The company was about to launch a new product that was expected to bring in sizeable revenues. There was a circular a week ago from Head Office informing ABMs about the grand launch in the first week of the following month. The circular instructed ABMs to compile and submit a list of doctors for the launch but in his rush of work, Abhay stacked it along with a lot of other mails to be read when he was free. Abhay decided that he would call his team members during a break in the day and instruct them to submit the list immediately. He decided he would have to be particularly stern with that lazy fellow at Mangalore who was always late in submitting returns and needs frequent chiding.

With these thoughts in mind Abhay guided his SO to the fast food joint across the road for a coffee. As they were sipping coffee Abhay’s Regional Manager called. Abhay knew that his RM was calling him about the secondary sales statement which was due a week ago. He was yet to compile it. The RM is old fashioned and insists that ABMs should discuss secondary sales trends and doctor call coverage with SOs during their joint field work. All this means paper work. Abhay has not had time to even open the envelopes in which his team members couriered their daily call reports in bunches during the last month. And then there is the ABMs’ meeting coming in a week which means some more paper work. Who has time for bloody paper work!

Abhay did not want to answer the call but could not ignore it in front of his SO. He finally answered the call with a lot of hesitation but his RM wanted to know what happened to the major institutional order that Abhay informed him was in the offing. Oh! Abhay planned to see some important calls but it appears now he would have to rush to the Medical & Health Directorate to follow up for the order.

That’s it. He would excuse himself from field work; visit the Directorate to follow up for the order and return home to finish at least a part of the paper work.

Abahy sighed and told the SO that he had to leave; their RM instructed him to call HO with some urgent information; he (the SO) should meet all the top calls planned for the day and report. And there should be no excuses for not meeting the month’s budget.

* The Indian pharmaceutical industry has various designations to describe field sales people. In this example ‘Sales Officer’ and ‘Area Business Manager’ are used to describe ‘medical sales person’ or medical detail-man and ‘frontline manager’ respectively.

HOW TO WRITE A RÉSUMÉ THAT COMPELS ATTENTION!

2010-01-30T10:42:00.014+05:30

Curriculum Vitae or ‘CV’ is a marketing tool, just like a TV commercial. Just as you watch innumerable number of commercials on the telly, employers receive thousands of CVs everyday. You do not remember all the commercials. If you were asked to name the most you remember, you would come up with hardly a handful. This is because your subconscious mind screens and rejects many of them.

The principle behind commercial advertising is known as AIDA: Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. The objective of writing your CV is more or less the same. Your CV should arrest the employer’s attention; arouse his/her interest in you; make him/her desire to employ you and - most importantly - induce action: employ you, or at least short-list you for an interview. How then should you go about writing a CV?

RESEARCH EMPLOYER / JOB: You will have most information about the job in the advertisement but it would do no harm to find out more about the job and the company through the internet, networking etc.

INDIVIDUALISE: The first principle one should learn is that one CV does not suit all jobs. Your CV is a vital document that summarises your qualifications, skills, and experience and matches them with the requirements of specific jobs. Therefore take time to re-write it every time you apply for a job - it is your career and deserves the extra effort. Even if there are no changes to be made, a review is worth the effort.

EMPLOYERS DO NOT READ CVs - THEY SCAN THEM: Therefore make it brief and to the point.
· Your CV should not normally exceed two A4 size pages.
· Please ensure that your CV is neatly ‘word-processed’ with proper margins.
· Please spell-check your CV to avoid grammatical/typographical errors.

OBJECTIVE: Mentioning a career objective is optional. Quite often people seek career changes for better remuneration, better job status or for any of a variety of other reasons. It may not be always possible to justifiably align these reasons with a career objective. Therefore use this option only if you have a specific objective and without vague generalisations. For example,

· “To lead as marketing head a Rs 5000 million company by 2010” is more specific than “To utilise my skills and experience to achieve top positions in the pharma marketing arena. ”

SUMMARY: A brief summary of your career may be given at the beginning of your CV. In summarising your career, please avoid generalisations: For example,

· If you are aiming for a high position in sales and marketing, “As GM-Marketing, achieved Rs 100 million in the first year of launching ………(product/company)” or “the company’s market share improved from 0.7% to 2% in three years” is more specific than “Excellent track record in launching new products/companies. ”

· If you are aiming for a high position in sales, “As National Sales Manager, achieved a quantum leap in sales to Rs 150 million from Rs 100 million in three years ” is more specific than “achieved exponential growth in sales.”

· If you are aiming for a top position in marketing, “ As Marketing Manager, launched (1), (2) and (3) block-buster brands which achieved ‘x’, ‘y’ and ‘z’ market shares respectively in their categories” is more specific than “expert in launching block-buster brands.”

· If you are aiming for a sales management/training and development management position, “Developed (2/3/4…) of my team members to become top performers and get promoted as frontline/second line/third line managers; one of them became National Sales Manager” is more specific than “adept at developing people to assume higher responsibilities.”

KEY FUNCTIONAL AREAS (KFA): You don’t have to give a detailed description of all your responsibilities. Just give a brief description of your job to enable the prospective employer to understand your current job level.

This is because the same designation connotes different job functions and levels in different organisations. For example ‘Regional Manager’ is a frontline function in some companies but a second line function in others. Similarly, ‘Area Manager’ is a frontline function in the pharmaceutical industry but a higher (second line/third line) function in the FMCG industry.

The following example illustrates a typical description of KFA in sales management:

· Achieving sales and collection targets and budgets for the state/zone with a team of six frontline managers and forty medical representatives. (Sales management function)

· Training and development for better performance, overseeing strategy implementation and identifying leadership potential for future. (Human resource development function)

· Identifying new markets and new business avenues for possible future expansion. (Business development function)

· For those at fairly senior level, meeting key (trend setter) customers would be one of the objectives of fieldwork in addition to gathering marketing intelligence and overseeing implementation of strategies. (Marketing management function - senior sales managers have a role in marketing management)

The following example illustrates a typical description of KFA in product/marketing management:

· Achieving targeted market share, unit and volume sales for the allotted portfolio of products.

· Budgeting promotional strategies, designing promotional strategies and ‘selling’ product targets and strategies to field personnel.

· Training and development of field personnel on the technical and promotional aspects of products and strategies.

· Identifying new products/segments and tracking market trends in technological and other developments to maintain the company’s ‘lead’ in the industry in specific product markets/segments.

· Working in the field with the specific objectives of gathering information about implementation of strategies and gathering firsthand market intelligence.

· For those at fairly senior level, meeting key (trend setter) customers would be one of the objectives of fieldwork in addition to gathering marketing intelligence and overseeing implementation of strategies.

ACHIEVEMENTS: Make a bulleted/numbered list of the major achievements of your career with those pertaining to the last assignment first and listing them chronologically backwards. Again, mention only specific, quantifiable achievements, not vague generalisations.

You may use examples mentioned in the explanation for career summary above, but you can be more exhaustive. This does not mean that you may mention the detailing prizes you won as a medical representative when applying for the position of a National Sales Manger. Use discretion and list achievements apt for the position you are applying for.

Remember you have to sell yourself within the two-page limit just as you were used to three-minute detailing in the doctor’s chamber early in your career.

LISTING SKILLS: This is a tricky area. Every one in the marketing/sales function has good communication skills! But good verbal communication skills are an advantage as one moves up the ladder; good written communication skills are an added advantage.

Man management/HR skills are desirable. The ability to train and develop people to grow in their careers is a plus.

At times it may be necessary to get rid of people who are incapable of being developed but this should not be assumed to be a positive skill. This is an admission of failure to develop people.

However, there is always a gap between the theory and practice of HR. So if you have such achievements, instead of writing ‘expert in getting rid of dead-wood’ in your CV, save it for a mention at an appropriate time in the personal interview.

On the other hand you may mention, ‘rigorous discipline and team work in faithful implementation of strategies, paid rich dividends in my career.’

CAREER AT A GLANCE: Use a table for the employer to have a glimpse of your career beginning with your current job chronologically backwards till entry level.

GAPS IN CAREER: If there are any gaps in your career (right from your last educational qualification), be sure to have a reasonable explanation for them - you are sure to be quizzed about the gaps at the time of your personal interview.

At the same time do not try to fuzz them in your CV. Your interviewer is sure to spot any such attempt.

PERSONAL DETAILS: In this section just list your name, educational and professional qualifications, any training programmes attended, only if they pertain to your career, address and telephone numbers where you can be reached.

You may list your language proficiency and IT literacy, which is increasingly becoming essential both in sales and especially in marketing functions.

Do not list all your achievements in college, debating societies et al. A black belt in Karate may not be an essential qualification for a sales manager unless the company decides to physically discipline errant customers!

Similarly, your prospective employer may not be interested in details of your family members unless you are the daughter or son-in-law of the minister for petroleum and chemicals. So save your CV of such details.

REFERENCES: It is not necessary to provide references for all jobs. You may provide them if specifically asked for. In any case most employers nowadays check your antecedents with your present / former employers. (Please be prepared for this!)

WILLINGNESS TO RELOCATE / EXPECTED SALARY: You may mention these in the cover letter if the employer specifically calls for such information. Otherwise, best leave the ‘expected salary’ bit for an appropriate time in the personal interview.

COVER LETTER: Please always enclose your CV along with a brief, polite cover letter to the prospective employer. In this you will be able to briefly summarise your career, indicate ‘how keen you are to join the organisation’ and look forward to ‘a meeting for a personal discussion’ which ‘would benefit both the prospective employer and you’.

DO NOT BE TOO CLEVER BY HALF: If you are employed, do not try to assess your ‘market value’, by applying blindly to box number advertisements. Your CV might land on your own employer’s desk.

ALNASCHAR AND PYGMALION

2009-07-27T20:15:00.020+05:30

It is axiomatic to say that ‘developing a positive outlook is the first step in the process of self development ’. However it must be clearly understood that positive outlook without positive action (or effort) amounts to daydreaming and the two must be clearly distinguished.

The difference is as between Alnaschar and Pygmalion. Alnaschar in the ‘Arabian Nights’ daydreamt of the wealth he would make by selling his glassware. In the story Alnaschar was lying at a high perch and daydreaming, with the basket containing glassware at his feet. He would sell his glassware to make profit; invest the money to buy more glassware and sell it to make more profit. This process would go on and on till he became rich enough to seek to the Sultan’s daughter as a wife. In his dream Alnaschar had a tiff with his wife and gave her a kick. Only in reality he kicked the basket containing glassware which fell from the high perch and the glassware tinkled into pieces.

Pygmalion was the protagonist in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. He was a sculptor who carved the statue of a woman in ivory and fell in love with it. The goddess Aphrodite (some say that it was her that Pygmalion carved) brought the statue to life and Pygmalion married the woman.

The story inspired George Bernard Shaw to write his famous play Pygmalion, which was made into a theatre play and a film twice in 1938 and 1964. In Shaw’s play, Henry Higgins a professor of phonetics wages a bet that he could train a cockney flower girl to pass for a duchess. The professor succeeds in training the flower girl to acquire the accent and etiquette of upper class society.

The second film was the famous My Fair Lady, in which Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn portrayed Professor Higgins and Eliza Doolittle, the cockney flower girl respectively. In it Eliza successfully posed as a mysterious lady of patently noble rank at an embassy ball - despite the presence of a Hungarian expert in phonetics, who was also trained by Higgins. Wasn’t this theme replicated in dozens of Indian movies in various languages?

Shaw’s play has quite a few lessons for success seekers. The professor had enormous confidence in himself and his ability. Eliza was confident that with positive action (effort) she could metamorphose herself into an upper class lady. Her original intention in seeking to develop herself was only to obtain a job in a flower shop. Both succeeded because of their positive outlook. Remember the original Latin play was Metamorphoses.

In psychology the Pygmalion effect (a.k.a. Rosenthal-Jacobson effect or teacher-expectancy effect) refers to situations in which some students perform better than others simply because their teachers expect them do so. It is a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. (Rosenthal, Robert & Jacobson, Lenore. Pygmalion in the classroom. Expanded edition. 1992. New York: Irvington).

The gurus of self-development are right when they say that positive outlook increases the chances of success manifold when it is coupled with positive action (or effort). The following real life story illustrates this principle.

Many readers queried about the identity of the sales manager whose real-life experience was narrated in the previous article. He dislikes identifying himself; but his name means Vishnu. So let us call him Vishnu! This story too like the previous one is from Vishnu’s early days as a sales manager.

Vishnu was based at Mysore. He was to manage a sales team in south-west Karnataka - between Mysore in the south, Mangalore in the west, Ranibennur in the north and Tumkur in the east. Shortly after his posting Vishnu had to induct Sri, a probationer at Tumkur. Regretfully he had to sack the previous sales person for malfeasance.

Sri was almost fresh from college, having worked in another company for less than six months. He was highly enthusiastic and a bundle of indefatigable energy. Hailing from Tamil Nadu, Sri did not speak a word of Kannada or Hindi with which one would have been intelligible in some parts of his territory.

Tumkur had a strong, well-knit trade association that was able to make or mar the marketing fortunes of many companies and was dictating to the industry. The association laid down a rule that its member retailers would stock only the first three ‘brands’ that were introduced in any generic category. The issue was so stark and so unique that it was a topic of discussion for the entire industry but none could do anything about it. Even the MRTP act could not be invoked as the association coached its members to ward off queries by claiming there was no demand for products except those allowed by it.

A few months before Sri joined, his company launched two new products that were not only expected to be large revenue earners but would also augment the company’s image as a research-based organisation. As all this happened in the late eighties much before the product patent regime, some companies had already introduced products in the two categories and according to the rules of the trade association Sri’s new products were barred entry.

Sri’s company knew the ground realities because of which, in fact it gave Sri’s predecessor only nominal targets for the two products. Sri was frustrated. For although his superiors would understand the situation, he would have had to helplessly listen to his colleagues’ success stories when they met for their regular six-weekly briefing sessions.

Sri discussed the problem with Vishnu. Both of them met the office bearers of the trade association to seek their help in resolving the issue. This did not help but the duo found that one of the office bearers was the dominant voice in the association. Vishnu advised Sri to court him although they did not expect any immediate gains. This went on for some months during which Vishnu counselled Sri not to be disheartened but to persist with his efforts irrespective of the results.

Then there appeared a brief window of opportunity. The office bearer whom Sri courted indicated that because of a rift in their executive committee the ‘three-brand-rule’ would be suspended and he should try to cash in on it. Thus forewarned Sri immediately swung into action and worked like a mad man. He called on all potential customers every day and some more than once in a day for the next one week which amounted to 25 – 30 calls a day, three times the normal work output. Although Tumkur was a small town this was something only a person totally committed to his task could or would do. Sri informed his customers about the availability of his products and sought their support. The customers appreciated his sincerity and Herculean efforts (for once the expression is neither an exaggeration nor a mere figure of speech!). They were happy to support him instantly as they too were aware of the traders’ overbearing monopoly but could not help succumbing to it.

In time the executive committee resolved its differences and the suspension of the ‘three-brand-rule’ barely lasted a week but the demand created by Sri for his brands was so intense that the retailers were not able to revert to their earlier stance. Eventually they decided that Sri’s brands would get a one-off exception even after the ‘three-brand-rule’ was resumed. They had also decided that any new brands Sri introduced would automatically qualify for the exemption.

The story could well be an example of leadership or followership but it certainly is an example of the Pygmalion effect. The student lived up to his teacher’s expectations!

We are sure you would like to trace Sri’s path to success. Well, Sri followed his leader when he was transferred to another state, to a larger area where too he replicated his tremendous success in Tumkur. He was promoted but not being content, moved on to another organisation for a larger position and then on! He took up an overseas assignment and had a stint in

Russia

. (We’ll find out if he would like to share his experiences in a country that had sounded the death knell to a religion called communism.) He is back in

India

for a high level assignment in international marketing.

DEVELOPING A POSITIVE OUTLOOK

2009-02-13T13:08:00.004+05:30

The first step in the self development process is to inculcate a positive outlook towards life. The success one yearns to achieve in life varies from individual to individual.

As the poet said:

Some for the glories of This World; and some
Sigh for the Prophet’s Paradise to come;

And the poet mused that there was no point in sighing for a ‘prophet’s paradise’. Therefore he advised, “Whatever you wish to do, do it now!” (Of course the noble poet meant doing some useful work!)

Ah, take the cash and let the promise go,
Nor heed the music of a distant Drum!

In order to illustrate the concept of outlook to life, a small parable is often quoted:

The three stone cutters

In the parable, a philosopher - a practical philosopher, who travelled, observed, and analyzed events, not an armchair philosopher - was wandering in his quest to understand the meaning and purpose of life.

He came across three stone cutters working at a stone quarry. The work of the stone cutters was to break large boulders using heavy sledge hammers into smaller and smaller pieces till they could be manipulated into masonry. This, they did, in an unvarying routine throughout their working day and day after day throughout their working life. The philosopher asked all three of them the same question: “What are you doing?”

The first stone cutter answered the question with some asperity: “Can’t you see; I am breaking stones.”

The second answered with humility: “Sir, I make a living by cutting these stones.”

The third answered with obvious relish: “I make stones that may someday be used in the construction of a beautiful monument!”

The three stone cutters were doing the same work, for the same number of hours everyday and paid the same amount of money. But each looked at his work differently:

The first one cursed his work, his life, his existence and may be even the world around him.

The second one was neutral; he was neither jubilant nor unhappy about his work and life - in his view he merely existed.

For the third no work was menial; he was able to see nobility in the work he did.

The parable has a number of lessons. But firstly it should not be misunderstood. It was not to lull human beings into accepting whatever life offered and be happy with it. If it was, the world would have been full of happy stone cutters. There would have been no quest for knowledge and no progress. The ancient Rishis would not have gazed into Sunya (nothingness) to come up with the mathematical symbol ‘0’; there would have been no advancement in the science of mathematics; there would have been no chakra (wheel) by extension. Newton would have eaten his apple; and the world would have remained flat in human perception.

The first lesson may be drawn from the first stone cutter. If he cursed his work, who or what forced him to continue doing it? He could have or should have sought to do something that he liked. Then he would have liked his work, his life, his existence and the world around him. The lesson may be summed up as: ‘learn to love your work or seek to do the work you love!’

The second lesson is for the majority; the mediocre that makes up the majority for whom life is mere existing not living. A little harsh perhaps but true - because the majority of people are stoic; they are neither happy nor unhappy; they just accept whatever comes their way instead of striving to improve their lot and the lot of people around them.

The third lesson is, not to be unhappy with what one does not have; nor to wallow in self pity or seethe with fury against the ‘cruel world’ but to seek whatever glory one can in the work one does. There would be no point in a stone worker cursing himself - or the world - for not being a scientist and win a Nobel Prize. But could he not work to produce a beautiful sculpture or a grand edifice? The moral is a slight inversion of the first: learn to love your work or strive to elevate it to a higher plane!

A changed attitude to life works wonders.

We have agreed at the outset, that we do not pack these pages with text book wisdom! Therefore, it is necessary to narrate a real life experience: This is the story that a sales manager experienced in the early days of his career. He was posted to a new a area and asked to lead a team that was performing below par. It was a young team but beset with a lot of problems. One specific brief that was given to him was to get rid of a probationer who was no good. The view was that the probationer was argumentative and negative minded. The sales manager however felt that he should not do any axing without thoroughly analysing the issue. He found that the probationer had strengths and weaknesses.

On the positive side he was aggressive and bold, strengths highly desirable in sales professionals. On the negative side he was indeed argumentative and negative minded which was probably attributable to his family background. His father was a trade union leader and subscribed to a particular political philosophy, a trait which the boy subconsciously imbibed. Secondly in his work habits he was not ‘up with the lark’ as against the sales profession’s maxim expressed in the saying: 'an early bird catches the prey'. This was found to be because of a constitutional problem which could be easily corrected. There were some problems in the territory too. In the past, there were frequent changes of sales personnel in the territory; demand for the company’s products was dropping; there was attrition of distributors and no one was coming forward to take the line. All these factors added to the probationer’s negative attitude.

The sales manager patiently counselled the probationer listing first his strengths and what he could achieve in life - not just in his job or career - if only he had confidence in himself and corrected a few habits which he explained was not difficult at all. The professional help the sales manager rendered to the probationer is immaterial to this story but because he did not give up and constantly worked to change his protégé’s attitude he was able to bring about a remarkable transformation. In about a year the probationer was not only confirmed in service but was topping performance charts in the entire division. More importantly he shed his trade union proclivity and was beseeching his mentor to help him move up the career ladder!