Executive Presence - Leading with confidence and authenticity

 

Something that has caught my eye lately is this term called "Executive Presence". I have been getting many emails to enrol for a program on the topic, and I wanted to know more! 

A simple search threw up many links. It seems like a relatively new title for a topic that has always existed for leaders. In simple terms, "Executive Presence" is about the qualities that are required to project oneself confidently as a leader. Those with this quality are able to command respect and trust and stand out and thus, are chosen to take on higher responsibility.

A few aspects that are key to making your presence felt:

1. Gravitas, or how you act, is at the core. The word 'gravitas' sounds very heavy, but an easy way to understand it is to think of someone who is not just authoritative but also calm, composed, and authentic. Gravitas includes the following points:

I think of Shri Rama from our epic Ramayana, who fits perfectly as a leader with Gravitas.

2. Communication, or how you speak. Another important aspect to Executive Presence is communication skills, not just what you say but how you say it. It includes the below: 

There are many examples from our history and epics. However, to me, Shri Krishna is THE one who clearly is able to speak with conviction and uses effective storytelling skills to impart knowledge and lead Arjuna in the Mahabharata war. The Bhagavad Gita is a fine example of the same.

3. Appearance, or how you look. The way one presents oneself is equally important for the topic of Executive Presence, and it's not about style/beauty but about being appropriate for the occasion. 

Who comes to your mind when you think of the above?

Why is this even important?

It's important to bear in mind that there may be biases in your work environment that you need to overcome. How do you navigate them?  

How about the time that you need to be distinct and prominent? 

How can you get your team to respect you and follow you?

Executive presence is not about changing your personality but actually about understanding yourself better and becoming more of yourself - someone to look up to and to be taken seriously. 

Are you looking for some personal handholding? Would you like a checklist to assess your executive presence? You can reach out to me at: hustellebyanupama@gmail.com

"If you don't need the sheepskin, don't enroll"

 

This post is a continuation of my review of the book titled The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman. The title of this post is a quote by the author in which he discusses the cost of obtaining an MBA degree. 

In India, the MBA program at top-tier colleges like IIMs (A, B, C) costs around Rs. 25 lakhs. The newer IIMs are charging less than Rs. 20 lakhs. Check this article for more details: https://www.shiksha.com/mba/articles/iim-mba-fees-structure-blogId-19877.

If you omit the IIMs and look at the fees for the next set, XLRI Jamshedpur, SPJIMR Mumbai, FMS Delhi, etc., the fees range from Rs. 15 lakhs to Rs. 58 lakhs depending on the subject of interest. A B-School like ISB Hyderabad charges around Rs. 41 lakhs as fees. 

How does one get into the top colleges? For starters, one will have to write the CAT or the Common Admission Test which is conducted annually. You can search the internet and get more details on the CAT.

Coming back to the book, what Josh Kaufman says is that while the MBA program has benefits, the price to pay to be a part of this cohort is huge. The two-year time spent on the course plus the high fees to be part of this network is not worth it according to him.

He quotes a study by Jeffrey Pfeffer of Standford University and Christina Fong of the University of Washington in this regard. Their paper titled "The End of Business Schools? Less Success Than Meets the Eye" analyzed forty years of data to look for evidence on whether business schools make their graduates more successful. 

The study brought out some startling insights that are relevant even today: 

1. What is taught in class is not exactly what happens in the real corporate world. Theory is different from practice. B-schools emphasize theoretical/abstract models that have very little practical value in the real-world life of a manager. 

2. Getting an MBA degree does not guarantee career progression or better performance. The study found little or no evidence linking the degree with success on the job (salary, promotion, job performance). Many business leaders do not have this degree and therefore, it is not essential. 

3. B-Schools are more focused on research and less on teaching once again proving that the degree has very less real-world relevance. Professors are rewarded based on the number of papers they publish and not how they teach their students or how useful their insights are for managers. From my own experience teaching at a B-School, I can tell you that the emphasis is so much on publishing in academic journals, that often the topics chosen are irrelevant and add no value to practicing managers.

4. The degree is a status symbol or a badge and is not an actual toolkit for leadership. The MBA degree is perceived as valuable and serves more as a credential not at all indicating whether the person holding the degree has any managerial expertise.

5. The Purpose of B-Schools is unclear. Do they want to be professional trainers or do they want to teach and be an academic institution?

6. Soft Skills like Empathy, Communication, Leadership, Ethics, etc. that are more important for running a business, are not taught at B-Schools and instead they focus on quantitative analysis, data modeling, finance, etc. This leads to having managers who are smart but not necessarily effective. 

In the end, the authors of the study suggest that B-schools need to evolve:

1. To reflect real-world challenges. 

2. Focus on teaching and providing practical insights along with research

3. Faculty must have both academic rigor and industry experience

4. Learning outcomes have to be prioritized rather than just the ranking of the school.

Imagine paying such high fees and not getting it's worth! And less said the better if one gets an MBA degree from a Tier-2 or Tier-3 B School that is at almost every nook and corner in major cities in India. 

Josh Kaufman quotes the above study and makes a point on how getting the MBA degree might put you in debt for which you will have to work a decade or more just to break even. Interesting! Isn't it?

Would you like more insights like these from the books I read? Or are you feeling that you are not sufficiently equipped with skills to further your business? Let's change that! I offer personalized coaching and soft skills training for professionals and small entrepreneurs who want to lead with confidence and clarity.

Get in touch with me: hustellebyanupama@gmail.com

Is it important to have an MBA degree to be a successful entrepreneur? A new book that I'm reading - The Personal MBA

 

Hello all! It's been a while since I posted. I've been busy reading a very interesting book by Josh Kaufman titled "The Personal MBA...a world-class business education in a single volume". 

This is just the book for those who are in business or planning to go into business but do not have an MBA degree. And this book came at a time when I was actually thinking about writing a post on the same subject after I remembered a conversation I had had with students in one of my classes. Having taught at a B-School and worked with entrepreneurs, this was an interesting subject to talk about. 

I will write a detailed review once I'm fully done. For starters, this book is like a 'crash course in business'. It is about having experience as a teacher. 

For those of you wondering whether you need an MBA to be a businessman/woman, here's what Josh says very early in the book "Skip business school. Educate yourself" 

He lists three problems with Business Schools:

1. MBA is expensive and ROI is questionable

2. Many of the things taught in an MBA program are outdated, he even calls it worthless as it doesn't teach how to start or improve a real operating business, which means working knowledge is not there.

3. Having an MBA degree does not guarantee a high-paying job and nor does it make one a skilled manager or leader.

His advice - "instead of spending huge sums of money to learn information of questionable value, you can spend your time and resources learning business concepts that matter"

Stay tuned for more as I continue to read. Will keep posting small snippets from the book as I go. 

Here's a link for you to pick up the book if you are also a reader:

https://www.amazon.in/Personal-MBA-World-Class-Business-Education/dp/0670919535

My product is excellent. Now customers will come swarming through the door

 

What is this concept all about?

One of the first few concepts in marketing, The Product Concept focuses on having the best quality products, performance and features and assumes that customers will favor products them. It advocates businesses to focus on making superior products and improving them over time. Assumption is that customers prefer these qualities in a product and will come to buy them.

Known as the "Better mousetrap" fallacy, many entrepreneurs believe that they have the best product and customers will do anything to buy it. And in addition they may feel that marketing is not required, product will sell itself. 

What does this concpet focus on?

• Product features - continuous improvement on these features
• R&D (Research & Development) led business
• Assumes consumers only look at good product and nothing else

How is this different from the previous Production Concept?

Production Concept is all about scale and mass production aiming to reduce costs and assumes customers want products that are affordable and easily available. The Product Concept, on the other hand focuses on quality, features and innovation and assumes customers are looking for better and improved products. 

You may be thinking that isn't this what all of us as consumers really want? Yes, but only if:

a. The product is niche and you are willing to pay a price for owning that kind of product

b. It is disruptive or game-changing in the market

c. In industries that are all about innovation

What could possibly go wrong? 

Falling in love with your product is the biggest trap in the case of the Product Concept. And, what is wrong with that? Think of what loving someone actually makes you do. It means that you ignore the possible faults of that person, ignore good advice by well-wishers, become completely dependant on that person for everything, forget what is happening around you, do irrational things that might end up causing more stress/anxiety eventually. A similar thing happens when you fall in love with your product and this is Marketing Myopia.

Is Product really The King?

With the ever-changing consumer preferences and trends, can a company survive only with great product? When we think of examples of great products that have been very successful over a period of time, brands like Apple, BMW, Google, Nike, Coca-Cola, etc. etc. come to mind. But it is important to remember that these companies not only have great products but also great marketing that is able to keep up with the times and continue to rule the category they operate in. 

There are many examples of brands and companies that have fallen into the trap of having good products and assuming consumers will continue to support them but have actually vanished from the market. 

Here's a case:

Kodak 

Eastman Kodak Company was founded in the year 1888 in New York, USA. It was the company that invented digital photography through their cameras. Their mission in the early 20th century was to make photography accessible to all. As George Eastman said "You press the button, we do the rest." 

They invented the roll film and literally controlled the film (85% Market Share and photo print market (90% market share). They became so popular that when one thought of photography, one only thought of Kodak and were global leaders due to their superior design and quality of the films.

Advertising campaigns:

One of the most famous ones was the "Kodak Moments" campaign, which became part of pop culture, was launched in 1993 aimed at encouraging people to capture life's precious moments. Through emotional storytelling, the ads often showed family occasions, travel memories, and sentimental events. 

"Share moments. Share life." was another campaign released in the 1990s promoting Kodak film and digital products, including their photo CDs and early digital solutions.

Then came "Take Pictures Further" in the 2000s where both digital and regular products were promoted. 

Some of their ads that I found on the net:

You can watch an ad on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqeeM9Ranww&t=1s

I also found some old ads that were released in India. Here's the famous Kodak Girl ads released in Times of India in the 1920s:

I found it very interesting to see and learn that a lot of work was done in promoting the product and its usage. So, what could have gone wrong? Where is Kodak today?

1. Kodak focused exclusively on films, their quality, technology etc., that they missed the entire digital trend.

2. While they seem to have invented the digital technology, they didn't cash in on it commercially. That is really strange!

3. All their focused a lot on the emotional value of films but didn't incorporate the digital behaviour of customers once the digital trend took over.

4. The focus on high quality prints was made under the assumption that consumers were only looking for this aspect while actually consumers were more focused on instant sharing rather than film quality. 

By 2000s, both digital cameras and smartphones became more popular and with smartphones focusing on cameras, Kodak's revenues from film went down drastically. Their competitors like Canon, Sony, HP included, focused on digital imaging. While Kodak, like an afterthought, tried to enter the digital imaging space, they were unfortunately too late. They finally filed for bankruptcy in 2012. A sad end to such a great company. 

Here are a couple of news articles on the same:

https://www.financierworldwide.com/eastman-kodak-finally-exits-bankruptcy

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-16625725

What can we learn from this debacle:

1. Don't be so proud of your product that you fail to recognise what's happening around you. Don’t fall in love with your product.

2. People change, keep your eyes open. In Kodak's case especially, consumers were looking for instant sharing and convenience, not just print quality. 

3. Marketing must lead innovation. While one can invent a great product, but without the right marketing, it won’t survive.

4. The brand story needed to keep up with the times. While the “Kodak Moments” worked in the print era, in the digital age, the message needed to shift.

There are many other brands that have been caught in a similar drift. Blackberry, Polaroid are other examples. 

These brands/companies have realised it the hard way, that one also has to take into account pricing, advertising/promotional activities, distribution, sales, etc. in order to be able to be successful and long-lasting.

Would love to hear your thoughts. Do share any other brands that you have come across that fall into this category. 

References:

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/t/tap/7977573.0009.107/--finding-family-in-the-times-of-indias-mid-century-kodak-ads?rgn=main;view=fulltext

https://hbr.org/2016/07/kodaks-downfall-wasnt-about-technology

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/9025492/Kodak-moments-a-history-of-Eastman-Kodak-in-pictures.html?image=10

https://www.businessinsider.com/these-were-the-gorgeous-kodak-ads-that-made-photography-popular-2012-1#-10

https://adage.com/article/ad-age-encyclopedia/kodak/98606

https://www.youtube.com/user/Kodak

https://www.businessinsider.com/why-kodak-failed-2012-1

https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2104567,00.html

https://hbr.org/2004/07/marketing-myopia

Malcom Gladwell's book: David & Goliath Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants

Hey there! Welcome back. This is a long read, load yourself with a cup of coffee and maybe samosas.

Today I decided on sharing some learnings from this book. This is an old book, released in 2013 but its just the right book for entrepreneurs. The book begins with the story of David and Goliath. Who are they? 

(AI generated image above)

David is a young shepherd boy from a humble background who is courageous and confident. 

Goliath, on the other hand, is a giant of a man. He is not only very tall but is also physically strong and also wears a full body armor. He is not only menacing and intimidating but also carries a javelin and a spearshaft. 

Long story short, David decides to take on Goliath when none on his side is willing to and defeats him with only five stones and a slingshot. 

The story has been wonderfully narrated by the author himself. Watch it  here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziGD7vQOwl8

The author uses this story as an analogy to highlight the common beliefs and assumptions we normally make about strengths, weaknesses, advantages and disadvantages. (The story, by the way, is very commonly used by Marketing Professors in class too about how certain small companies have successfully taken on large companies)

What were the assumptions that David's side were making about Goliath?

a. Goliath is very powerful because of his physical strength

b. They all jump to conclusions about what they think Goliath is capable of. They think they know everything about him based on how he looks

In reality, Goliath is

a. Slow - his height, weight, armor everything adds to his slowness

b. His reactions are abnormal. Like, for example, he calls David to "come to me" instead of aggressively going after David as soon as he sees him without any protective gear. 

c. He thinks it's an insult to fight David

d. He doesn't seem to have any situational awareness of what is going on around him. David had actually changed the rules of the game and Goliath was unable to see (both literally and figuratively)

The author points out that an important lesson is "the powerful and the strong are not always what they seem".

The book then describes stories from various real-life situations to further illustrate how underdogs overcome obstacles and how perceived disadvantages can lead to unexpected success.

Some interesting lessons:

1. Using unconventional methods are actually the reason why underdogs win. Malcom gives examples of a basketball team winning by playing full-court in every game, which usually is not done to end up in national championship. He also talks about how Lawrence of Arabia who led the revolt against the Turkish army defeats them by using unconventional means as he had far lesser resources when compared to the formidable Turkish army.

The question he asks is "When we see a giant, why do we automatically assume that the battle is his for the winning?"

2. What we assume to be as advantageous can actually be disadvantageous and vice versa. Here he gives an example of how a man who was put through difficulty by his father actually ensured that he values money and becomes successful in life. So much so that this man now has a big house in a rich neighbourhood and all the facilities that he only dreamed of as a child. But what was troubling the man now was how to bring up his children with similar lessons when the economic conditions are way more different than his childhood. One sentence that struck me was "People are ruined by challenged economic lives. But they're ruined by wealth as well because they lose their ambition and they lose their pride and they lose their sense of self-worth." There is an interesting graph he puts out at this stage to make a point. Have a look.

3. Little fish in big pond or big fish in small pond? Malcom shares two stories. First one is of the art group called The Impressionists from the 19th century who were the pioneers of the modern art movement. They were mocked, rejected and ridiculed for their style and were not accepted by the traditionalists. They had to take a call on whether they would pursue the traditional galleries or do something on their own. Finally they decided to exhibit their paintings independently rather than at the most prestigious gallery called Salon and go on to become most recognised and today most galleries display their work. "We strive for the best and attach great importance to getting into the finest institutions we can. But rarely do we stop and consider - as the Impressionists did - whether the most presitgious institutions is always in our best interest."

The second story is of a high-achieving student by name Caroline Sacks who chooses to enrol in Brown University, which is an Ivy League university to pursue her interest in science over a lesser known one. While she was doing brilliantly through high school and was at the top of her class, her decision to join an Ivy League university where everyone in her class was brilliant, makes her feel inadequate and she struggles both with her confidence and her grades and she finally drops out. Malcom calls her experience as "relative deprivation" - which means that "we form our impressions not globally, by placing ourselves in the broades possible context, but locally - by comparing ourselves to people in the same boat as ourselves. Our sense of how deprived we are is relative". "We underestimate how much freedom there can be in what looks like a disadvantage. It's the Little Pond that maximizes your chances to do whatever you want."

He concludes that being a Big Fish in a Small Pond is not a bad idea afterall. 

4. The Theory of Desirable Difficulty - In this part of the book, Malcom explores how underdogs come to excel. He takes the case of dyslexia here and notes how many innnovators are actually dyslexic. His examples include Richard Branson, Charles Schwab, Craig McCaw, etc. He looks at two possible interpretations of this achievement:

a. These people are so smart and so creative that nothing could stop them

b.  They succeeded, in part, because of their disorder - meaning, they learned something in their struggle that proved to be of enormous advantage

Here Malcom highlights the case of one David Boies who struggled to read as a child and after graduating from high school worked on a construction site. But he goes on to become one of the most famous trial lawyers in the world by simply using his superior listening and memory skills. He learns by listening and asking questions and simplifies issues to their basics while his opponents got bogged down by excessive detail. 

Two new phrases that I learnt here -

• "Capitalization learning - we get good at something by building on the strengths that we are naturally given" 
• "Compensation learning" -strategies used to overcome knowledge limitations or weaknesses in a specific area, often by developing new skills or applying existing ones in a different way. 

Malcom also explores the traits of innovators and says innovators are: 

Open, Conscientious and Disagreeable. (Disagreeable meaning they are willing to take social risks - do things that others might disapprove of)

There's an example of the IKEA founder Ingvar Kampard who sold unassembled furniture at prices much lower than competition and when other manufacturers decide to boycott IKEA, Kampard decides to outsource it to Poland which was at that time in a mess. 

One paragraph that stands out in this chapter "The one trait in a lot of dyslexic people I know is taht by the time we got out of college, our ability to deal with failure was very highly developed. And so we look at most situations and see much more of the upside than the downside. Because we are so accustomed to the downside. It doesn't faze us."

Desirable Difficulty suggests that not all difficulty is negative and that obstacles give one the courage to take chances that one would never otherwise have taken.

5. A virtue can be made out of a necessity. Malcom takes the example of children who have lost a parent during their early years of life go on to lead successful lives as innovators, artists and entrepreneurs becoming eminent in their field. He also brings in the study of historian Lucille Iremonger on American presidents that showed twelve out of the first forty-four US presidents lost theri fathers while they were young.  

6. The conquering of fear produces exhiliration. "Courage is not something you already have that makes you brave when the tough times start. Courage is what you earn when you've been through the tough times and you discover they aren't so tough after all". Druing World War, the Germans continuously bombed London and thought that the trauma would destroy the courage of the British people but in fact, the opposite happened. With many misses, Britishers became more courageous than they had ever been before.  

7. The Limits of Power - It has to be seen as legitimate, or else its use has the opposite of its intended effect. Too much power can be counterproductive. People resist unjust or oppressive authority. "More is not always better; there comes a point, in fact, when the extra resources that the powerful think of as their greatest advantage only serves to make things worse". 

Malcom gives the example of harsh policing in Northern Ireland that lead to worsening the rebellion that was going on. The British made the mistake of believing that their resources, weapons, soldiers and experience were far superior to the insurgent elements that they were trying to contain. Respectful engagement could have calmed tensions.

 "When people of authority want the rest of us to behave, it matters - first and foremost-how they behave" 

8. Legitimacy is essential to Authority

The Principle of Legitimacy has three parts to it:

- First, people who are expected to obey authority must feel that their voices are heard

- Second, the law has to be predictable

- Third, the authority has to be fair and can't treat one group differently from the other.

If the above are missing, even the most powerful cannot maintain their control.

9. There's always a choice. Malcom gives examples of parents who have lost their children but choose to do something to help others in similar situations rather than just wallow in grief. The grief actually turns them into activists and they are able to give a more deeper sense of meaning to what is happening. They find their purpose in this madness.  

The book thus is full of instances where ordinary people and groups use out-of-the thinking and off-beat/unusual ways to defeat powerful people. 

The key takeaway is that to be an underdog does not mean it is a disadvantage, it can be an opportunity to turn the weakness into a unique strength. This is applicable to any aspect of life be it business, war, education or life in general. Those who seem to be at a disadvantage can actually reverse their situation by innovating, altering and taking advantage of unexpected strengths. 

I'm a small start-up/enterprise. I don't need a Marketing Manager!

You are the founder/owner of your small business/ start-up. You have come up with the idea for your product, you have spent time, money, effort in thinking of a name, how you want to sell, where you want to sell, how much you want to sell it for, whom you will sell it to, etc. etc. You are in control of the product, the sales efforts, follow-ups, suppliers and whatever else that is required to keep the business going. You are a one-man/one-woman show spending your time 24/7, being hands-on in everything. What possibly would a marketing person do in such a set-up? And also you may be concerned how much you will have to pay out to engage them.

This is the most common issue faced by many new enterprises that may have no bandwidth to take on new people. But before we look at whether a marketing person is required or not, let's look at the role of a marketing person. Here's a visual representation of the role of a marketing person:

Just like you dear entrepreneur, a marketing person is expected to juggle many roles, roles that are aimed at adding value to the business. Let's quickly look at what each aspect is all about.

1. Manage brand - sustain and grow: Brand management is a subject on its own, will write about it extensively. Simply put, it means increasing the value of the brand amongst various stakeholders. You would want your brand to be recognised widely and respected for what it offers to customers. Think of your favorite brand and why it is on top of your list. In today's world, where there are so many optoins for consumers, think of why they should buy your brand. A marketing person's role is to find that unique proposition and make the brand stand out so that a customer chooses your brand again and again despite having so much choice.

2. Developing and executing promotional activities - A marketing person handles activities that promote the brand - company brand or product brand. It could be consumer offers or trade promotions or on-ground activities all aimed at making the brand more visible for improving sales.

3. Aid distribution - the marketing manager works with the sales team to ensure that products are placed on the right shelves for consumers to pick up easily. Think of kirana shops, large retail stores, exclusive stores, etc. Where do you want to make the product available?  Who is the customer and where does she live and shop? 

4. Target the right customer - the whole world is not your customer. You won't have the time/effort/money to chase everyone. Imagine if you are a baby products manufacturer, would you go after young, unmarried man with your messages? The role of the marketing manager is to find that right customer and send the marketing messages to her. This leads to less wastage of precious resources. 

5. Generate leads - the marketing manager creates awareness for the products/services, evaluates media channels to be present on, create content, advertise, have marketing campaigns, engage on social media,etc. with the end goal of ensuring there is a list of potential buyers or a pipeline whom the sales people can follow up on. 

6. Aid new product development - this is a key responsibility. Think of coming up with new product ideas, working with R&D, developing the right packaging, giving it a name, logo, launch campaign, planning how to go into market, etc. The marketing manager is hands-on on these responsibilities.

7. Research - another big responsibility as it means that one should know what is happening in the business environment - be it competitors, consumers, industry, trends, etc. One has to pore over data and be able to filter out what's important for the business. 

8. Boost sales and income streams - all activities have to finally result in increasing revenues for the company. This is a key metric to analyse whether the activities undertaken have lead to an increase in sales. 

What kind of skills or competencies should a marketing manager have?

1. Communication skills

2. Analytical skills

3. Long term planning

4. Project management

5. Ability to lead and work with teams

6. Creativity

7. Problem Solving

8. Well versed with digital/social media

When should you, as a start-up, hire a marketing manager?

a. If you have a working product

b. When you have decided that your organisation should grow beyond just your efforts

c. When you are planning to expand into different cities or across different channels

d. When you want to focus more on sales and raising funds 

If you are not ready for a full-time hire, you can consider hiring free-lancers or agencies. 

Need to remember that despite all your efforts to drive your enterprise, if you remain unknown or just limited to family/friends, nobody is understanding the value that you are bringing through your products/services, if you don't know where your next sale is going to come from, it is not possible to grow. 

Need help? Reach out to me at hustellebyanupama@gmail.com