In this issue

The cover theme of the March-April issue is ‘community power’. Experts—Howard Partridge, author of The Power of Community; Christine Comaford, author of Power your Tribe; Muniinder Anand, Center for Creative Leadership; and Chris Dyer, author of The Power of Company Culture—share their views on various aspects of this subject.

We have featured an exclusive interview with Rasmus Hougaard, founder of Potential Project, on how leaders can enhance their performance by being mindful. Another interview with P C Musthafa, co-founder of iD Fresh Food, gave insights on the aspects of building brand trust. Kumar Mehta, author of The Innovation Biome, highlights the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of innovation whereas Archana Jerath from SHRM points out the pitfalls and challenges of a flat organization.

A special section, Customer Cues, throws light on three different perspectives of consumer needs, demands, and changing dynamics with experts Niranj Sangal, OMA Emirates; Christopher Higgins, IdeateLabs; and Rati Shetty, BankBazaar, exploring different angles of consumer connection. Jean-François Manzoni, Albrecht Enders, Anand Narasimhan, Thomas W Malnight, Bettina Büchel, Goutam Challagalla and Ivy Buche, IMD, elaborate on the result of transformation in organizations.

In our regular sections, we have Denise Lee Yohn, author of FUSION busting myths on organizational culture. Morgen Witzel, The University of Exeter Business School, describes the power of ideas and their implementation.

Connections Not Cliques

the effective leader: Howard Partridge the community rider: Christine Comaford network perspective: Muniinder K Anand the impact of connection: Chris Dyer

5 mins

Packaged Goodness

Speaking at a conference at Harvard Kennedy School recently, iD Fresh Food cofounder P C Musthafa said, “We build trust by trusting our consumers and went by the policy—if you want someone to trust you, you should first trust them.” With its unwavering focus on quality, the company is busting the myth that packaged foods are unhealthy. That they serve one million idlis a day is a testimony to their customers’ trust in them.

4 mins

Customer Cues

Change Your GameA study carried out by McCarthy Group showed that close to 84% of millennials do not trust traditional advertisements. Further, another study by Fractl and Moz showed that they consider ads to be disruptive and close to 63% of them block advertisements. They have an average attention span of eight seconds.* This implies that marketers have a very small window to send their message across. So how can a brand best engage with them?

4 mins

Customer Engagement

To deal with the demand for tailored one-to-one customer/company conversations, businesses are using AI. By 2020, Gartner predicts that 85% of customer interactions will be handled this way.* Increasingly, companies are experimenting new ways to engage their customers. The crux lies in understanding the demands of the more empowered and knowledgeable customer.

4 mins

'Repeat' Value

“Companies that do a very good job of retaining their customers and developing the value of everybody over time should be awarded a much higher multiple than another business that does not retain their customers as well, even if the historical revenue patterns look exactly the same.”* This makes a case for businesses to focus on retaining their existing customers through innovative practices.

4 mins

Keep It Slim

Researchers Raaj Sah and Joseph Stieglitz argue that hierarchic style organizations produce problems like the rejection of good projects without reason. The greater the number of organizational decision-making layers, the greater the probability that a good project will be rejected that would have otherwise had a positive impact on the company’s growth.1 Are flat organizations then the ideal solution for a faster go-to market strategy?

3 mins

Driving Innovation

The US Patent and Trademark Office describes innovation as “…a word that touches every facet of our everyday culture from business to science and even the arts. Innovation is often associated with creating new things or ideas and includes improving upon old ones too. Businesses around the world have a great need to continuously innovate to stay competitive in the global marketplace and to bring consumers the latest and greatest products and services. But innovation is not defined by just a single event or even a single brilliant idea. Innovation is truly about a process, a series of steps that begins with human imagination and creativity and results in the creation of something of value for society to enjoy.”*

7 mins

Rock The Boat

Thomas Edison rightly said, “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.” Ideas are simply solutions to problems. Its execution can spark change, and within an organization, it can lead to progress.  

8 mins

Transformation Journeys

IMD professors explain in detail the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of successful transformation journeys.

10+ mins

Why People Buy

When you begin a conversation with a prospect, you start by building bonding and rapport. With this connection established, you can move toward the Pain Step by establishing an up-front contract with the prospect. Among other things, the up-front contract dictates that you both are committing to a certain amount of time to go over his agenda as well as yours.

4 mins

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The Smart Manager Magazine Description:

The Smart Manager, India's first world-class management magazine, was founded in 2002 by eminent business historian Dr Gita Piramal with Harvard Business School Dean, Prof. Nitin Nohria with the mission of updating managers and business practitioners in India with the latest thought-provoking strategic ideas from experienced, world-class managers, academics and consultants from across the globe. Over the years, the magazine has carried articles authored by illustrious management gurus such as the late CK Prahalad and Sumantra Ghoshal, Jack Trout, Ram Charan, Gary Hamel, Gay Haskins, Jagdish Seth and Lynda Gratton. We believe that "managers are the best teachers of managers" and most of our articles are written in the first person by top-tier CEOs such as Kumaramangalam Birla, Sunil Mittal, Aditya Birla, KV Kamath, Santrupt Mitra, Rajeev Dubey and S Ramadorai. We also have relationships with a number of B-schools around the world, apart from most top-level schools in India.

The Smart Manager hosts the Tata Consultancy Services Smart Manager Case Contest, the most prestigious competition of its kind in the Indian print media. The contest, with a cash prize of INR50,000 per issue, sees wide participation from national and international business managers and students. 
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