Customer Relationship Management is a strategy that seeks to engage an organization’s culture, processes and technology in analysis and interaction activities that acquire, retain and develop customers to secure long term profitability for the organization. It is a comprehensive approach that provides seamless integration of every area of business that touches the customer - namely marketing, sales, customer service and field support - through the integration of people, processes and technology. Moreover it is a business strategy that seeks to improve the company’s profit and revenue generating ability by better understanding its customers and delivering value to them.

The building blocks of CRM allow an organization to manage this cycle and use the knowledge on customers to enhance the Life Time value of the customer portfolio. No organization has perfect information on its customers. Knowledge of customers is continuously enhanced through the CRM dynamic. Much of CRM is about gaining customer loyalty: its role, within your organization, should be to attract your target customers, convert them to lifelong customers through your high level customer service and build a relationship between them and your company. Since so many pitfalls exist in the implementation of a CRM strategy, it is important to first have a clear idea of how CRM fits into your business model.

 It is necessary to examine your infrastructure with respect to your strategic needs. Examine the technical roadmap that exists throughout your organization and determine what existing infrastructure you have and what you need to get where you want to be. This involves identifying gaps in the company, defining new business processes, identifying core competencies, and exploiting them to help your company achieve its goal Where Do We Begin With CRM? Begin with an assessment of your current CRM situation and determine where you want to be and what are your limits. You can then choose the approach that best meets your company’s needs.

There are five dominant approaches to CRM: 1.) Marketing Automation 2.) Sales Automation 3.) Service and Fulfillment 4.) Customer Self-service 5.) ecommerce CRM improves a company’s method of doing business, which is good for the company and its customers. Essentially, the lessons and principles of customer relationship management need to be applied to the full range of stakeholders throughout an organization’s value chain. Recommendations Use the Gartner’s 8 Building Blocks of CRM framework to make sure you cover all the elements. Assess yourself relative to the different Value Development Frameworks - CRM, Sales, Service and Marketing. Understand where you are and where to go next. Quantify the gap relative to your desired state to understand where the competition are and are going. Tailor to your own unique situation. Understand what dimensions are shaping your CRM. Don’t do everything at once - focus on one axis at a time and at one step at a time Key Drivers: Supplier transactions become more efficient with direct access to inventory and other related data Business Partners collaborate more effectively with access to shared data. Customers derive increasing value from the information content of product and service. CRM applications, when driven by analytics, are sending a strong message to the market – ROI can be realized, and a unified customer view is essential.

For more information regarding CRM readiness training workshops please visit our website.

The recent Economic crunch has exposed many weaknesses in organizations. Organizations have seen their dashboard indicators turning red and they are faced with tough decisions to make. Executive teams went back to the board rooms and revisited their strategy in an effort to put plans to survive and stay in business. The Question was "what shall we do know? Do we drop our scorecards and KPIs? Which projects should we drop? Do we cut down on our work force?

For months, many leadership teams have had only one strategic goal in mind: survival. Grander visions have been forgotten. Research from Boston Consulting Group suggests that corporate hibernation only works if recessions are short, if the outside world goes back to the way it was before, and if all your competitors are equally inactive. In 2009, not one of these conditions apply.

Companies realized that they need to go back to a Quality driven culture. Showing the added value to their customers through quality initiatives seemed the only logical strategy at this time. So what quality plan should be adopted? The role of the quality team now seems to have more presence at the senior management meetings.

"MUDA" as Japanese call it is the waste in organizations. We are not talking about industrial waste here. We are talking about process waste. Service and administrative processes are full of waste.

The Lean Workshop helps organizations gain a good understanding of Lean concepts and their application in a non-manufacturing environment. It introduces service and administrative functions to lean fundamentals and their application to improving quality, productivity and cost. The workshop is highly interactive and filled with application activities (the ‘teach and do' approach) so that participants can transfer what they learn back on the job. Additionally the Six Sigma and traditional quality tools seemed to attract more users. Companies have gone into full throttle with their quality drive. They have realized that staying in business can be only driven by an efficient process clear of waste and defects and with a workforce that have Quality mindset.

The Marketing concept states that a firm's goal should be to identify and profitably satisfy customer needs. In Marketing Warfare Al Ries and Jack Trout argue that marketing is war and that the marketing concept's customer-oriented philosophy is inadequate. Rather, firms would do better by becoming competitor-oriented.

To illustrate their point, Ries and Trout compare marketing to a football game. If a team simplClosey identifies the goal line and moves the ball towards it without regard to the competing team, they most likely will be blocked in their effort. To win the game, the team must focus its efforts on outwitting, outflanking, and over-powering the other side. This is the case in football, war, and marketing according to Marketing Warfare. Because of the importance of the competition faced by the firm, a good marketing plan should include an extensive section on competitors.

Marketing Warfare using the war metaphor talks about the various strategies for winning. The authors have done a great job in using studies like Von Clausewitz' On War, to show what works and doesn't work in war or in marketing.  The most memorable part of the book was the fact that historically, if you wanted to win a battle, you need to have more people on the battlefield than the enemy.  The authors therefore recommend going after niche markets since the enemy doesn't have many if any people on your niche battlefield.  This led to a great saying in another book of theirs, 'If you aren't number one in your category, create a new category.'  I strongly recommend this book because the authors speak from experience and the information is something that can immediately be put into practice.

The book does not only focus on warfare strategies, but also discusses the characteristics of a good marketing general who leads his troops to win in a nasty battlefield that is the human brain.

"Ideas are the currency of success."

Edward de Bono

Innovation, improving quality of services and products, reengineering, self and organizational change are all vital issues that begin with creative ideas. So, what is creativity? A simple definition of creativity is the ability to generate new ideas by combining, changing or reapplying existing data and ideas. What is it, then, that enables few people to have creative breakthroughs while the majority only gets creative breakdowns or paralysis? Are some people "born" with creative abilities? Or is creativity a skill we can learn? Meirc training and consulting in Dubai will answer these questions in our Creative Problem Solving and Decision Making training program in Dubai where the theme of Innovation and Creativity is covered.

Innovation is thought of as putting creative ideas to work and practice. In business, innovation is converting creative ideas into new processes, services or products by which a company can make money or attract new customers.  Across all industries, innovation has always been one of the key engines of organizational growth and sustainable competitive advantage.

Maher Rayes

Meirc Training & Consulting

Dubai

While many of us agree that the Balanced Scorecard is an excellent Strategic tool, the implementation has not been that easy and hence the return on investment on such an initiative has been minimal! The question is why? Based on my recent consulting and training experience, and the feedback that I get from clients and friends, here is what many believe are the main reasons:

* Lack of accountability in the organizations (for results, rewards and career growth)
* Poor understanding by all across the organization about the process prior to implementation
* Lack of senior management involvement
* Lack of on-going training
* Very high expectations
* Rewards in many companies are still not 100% tied to targets


What is missing?

What is your experience on the above!
Meirc Training & Consulting is offering a series of training programs in 2010 under the umbrella of "Strategic & Planning" including the Balanced Scorecard. Several topics will be presented and discussed in those programs, including but not limited to: importance of vision and mission statements, SWOT analysis, developing strategic goals, objectives, KPI's and units of measures. We also talk about the importance of initiatives at all levels and how to set SMART targets to move the organization towards its vision.

Body language is a powerful concept which successful people tend to understand well.

So can you.

The study and theory of body language has become popular in recent years because psychologists have been able to understand what we 'say' through our bodily gestures and facial expressions, so as to translate our body language, revealing its underlying feelings and attitudes.

Body Language is also referred to as 'non-verbal communications', and less commonly 'non-vocal communications'.

The term 'non-verbal communications' tends to be used in a wider sense, and all these terms are somewhat vague. The terms 'body language' and 'non-verbal communications' are broadly interchangeable.

For example:

Does body language include facial expression and eye movement? - Usually, yes.

What about breathing and perspiration? - This depends on your definition of body language.

And while tone and pitch of voice are part of verbal signals, are these part of body language too? - Not normally, but arguably so, especially as you could ignore them if considering only the spoken words and physical gestures/expressions.

There are no absolute right/wrong answers to these questions. It's a matter of interpretation.

A good reason for broadening the scope of body language is to avoid missing important signals which might not be considered within a narrow definition of body language.

It is safe to say that body language represents a very significant proportion of meaning that is conveyed and interpreted between people. Many body language experts seem to agree that that between 50-80% of all human communications are non-verbal. So while body language statistics vary according to situation, it is generally accepted that non-verbal communications are very important in how we understand each other (or fail to), especially in face-to-face and one-to-one communications, and most definitely when the communications involve an emotional or attitudinal element.

Body language is especially crucial when we meet someone for the first time.

We form our opinions of someone we meet for the first time in just a few seconds, and this initial instinctual assessment is based far more on what we see and feel about the other person than on the words they speak. On many occasions we form a strong view about a new person before they speak a single word.

As a conclusion, understanding and interpreting Body language is a very important skill for all levels of managers and supervisors and that is the reason for covering this important topic thoroughly at our Managerial and Superviosrs programs at Meirc Training & Consulting. we truly belive that this skill is a must nowdays for all levels of managers who want to build rapport with thier enployees, colleagues, and management.

The Claim

In my training program, Brand Management: From Concept to Equity, I claim that "Brand Management" is the new marketing. Some of the brightest participants to the course argued that this is an exaggeration. Brand management is too narrow a concept, they say, to replace, displace or override a proven discipline such as marketing. Universities, they contend, routinely offer courses and degrees in marketing not branding; and, comparatively, the demand for marketers on any job-search website or in the specialized pages of newspapers far outnumbers the demand for brand managers. As such, those alert participants continue, how can you Mr. facilitator (me), make such an outlandish claim? At most, they concede, brand management is a branch of marketing; an important or interesting branch maybe, but nevertheless only a branch.

What's the Value of Definitions?

Let's examine the issue a little bit more closely. Philip Kottler defined marketing as ‘human activity directed at satisfying wants and needs through processes'. This definition is really so encompassing that one may find it hard to limit it to a single teachable discipline. Such a broad definition could justify claims that marketing is the umbrella under which disciplines such as management, leadership, psychology, finance, accounting, even IT, engineering, and more would take cover. I don't have an issue with such a description; I really don't: As a lifelong marketer I often had to use similar descriptions to defend the independence of my department against the onslaught of short-sighted bureaucrats. Other disciplines also use wide definitions to inflate their worth. Look at this one for finance management: ‘The planning, directing, monitoring, organizing and controlling of the monetary resources of an organization'. Looking at Finance in this way would make all other disciplines subservient. Deciding on which products to sell, whom to sell to and how to sell will affect generation of profit and cash; therefore, according to the definition, should fall under the responsibility of ‘Finance'. However I think we all agree that these are the rightful realms of marketing. The point is that business disciplines are too intertwined at the top for ‘definitions' to be a clear guide for segregation.

Let's Start with the ABC

So, to explain my claim, I will use a different approach. The A B C of marketing, the first thing taught in any marketing class is the 4 Ps. These Ps, all of us marketers know, represent Product, Place, Promotion and Price. Of course, each one of those Ps is expanded into its different components; ‘Place' for example is made up of the channel of distribution and its various elements, the geographical reach of the product, the outlets where it would be available, where it will be stocked, the location inside the outlets where you will find the product etc... And marketing we are taught, is the balancing of all these components in order to satisfy the mission and vision of the organization as related to the satisfaction of customer needs.

Brand management has to do with positioning, in the mind of the customer, a certain impression of a product so that, in the end, she chooses ours over that of any other. We are taught that in order to achieve that feat brand management has to balance not only the four Ps of marketing but three additional ones also. The first P is Promise, for ‘Brand Promise'; the last P is Performance as the performance of the brand in the market; the five ‘bridge' Ps are made up of the original Product, Place, Promotion and Price of marketing and include People as an additional key component. So, starting with the brand promise we should achieve performance by manipulating the five other Ps. At seven Ps against four, I'd say brand management needs not have any feeling of inadequacy.

A Complementary Perspective

Whichever way I look at it, I see no strict separation between marketing and brand management. The aim of both is to manage products or services so that their chances of success are maximized. But brand management is a relatively newer, more dynamic discipline. Without neglecting any of the precepts of marketing it expands some areas and emphasizes others in line with our increased understanding of how the mind works:

• Product positioning in marketing looks at the relative position of the product Vs its competitors in the market; Brand positioning will add to that the way this position is perceived by the mind of the customer. All in all, a very powerful improvement!
• Customer loyalty is a concept of great importance in marketing. It is the pinnacle of customer segregation: Loyal customers are highly desirable and marketing gives us tools to manage this group. Brand loyalty looks at the same thing but with greater emphasis on understanding how the brand interacts with the mind of the customer making her or him loyal. A useful new perspective when attempting to understand what makes a customer loyal.

What do YOU think?

There is of course much more that can be said on this matter. So, I would like to close this article by asking you, the reader, about your opinion regarding what some of the participants to my training program called an "outlandish claim". Why do you agree (or not) that Brand Management is the new Marketing? Let me hear from you.

The definition of job satisfaction that is mostly used in research is given by Edwin A. Locke (1976) who defined job satisfaction as "a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from the appraisal of one's job or job experiences".  Locke's definition implies that when employees evaluate their jobs, as when they assess anything else important to them in life, they involve both, their thinking and feelings.  Thinking and feelings are thus both closely linked and generally are responsible of creating a certain distinctive employee attitude toward job satisfaction.  Every individual thinking and feelings are largely influenced by the person's individual background, life experiences and personal perceptions.  Subsequently, one can simply conclude that the job satisfaction of an employee is directly related to the employee's own perception of how satisfying the job is to him or her independently of many other organizational conditions or circumstances.   Locke's theory suggests that job satisfaction is determined by a discrepancy between what the employee wants in a job and what he/she has in a job.  How much one values a given aspect of his work, say for example the degree of autonomy in his/her job, moderates how satisfied or dissatisfied one becomes when expectations are or aren't met.

Frederick Herzberg's Two-Factor theory (1950's) (also known as Motivator-Hygiene Theory) attempts to explain job satisfaction in the workplace using a slightly different model.  According to Herzberg, there exist two dimensions to job satisfaction: ‘the motivation dimension' and ‘the hygiene dimension'.  The Hygiene dimension, according to Herzberg, includes factors such as company policies, supervision, salary, interpersonal relations and working conditions. The Motivation dimension, on the other hand, includes factors such as employee's achievement, recognition, the job itself, responsibilities and advancement. According to Herzberg, Motivation factors are more truthfully associated with employee job satisfaction and can lead to fulfilling the employee's needs for meaning and personal growth and therefore will create a more "satisfied" workforce with greater performance, creativity, loyalty and commitment.

One practice found effective in many job circumstances and conditions is the ‘TPU' model we preach and practice at our own organization, Meirc Training & Consulting; TPU stands for ‘Treat Me Well", "Pay Me Well", and "Use Me Well". Treat me well; means treat me as an individual and as an employee. Know me as a person not as a number or a title. Understand my personal values before you try to motivate me.  Pay me well; means pay me objectively, not subjectively, pay me according to a scaled system - not your or someone else's opinion, and pay me on time. Use me well; means allow me to work on things I enjoy. Allow me to make mistakes! ... and keep me busy with work not legwork. 

The Harvard Professional Group (1998) sees job satisfaction as the essential factor that "leads to recognition, income, promotion, and the achievement of other goals that lead to a general feeling of fulfillment". To the employee, job satisfaction creates a sense of gratification on both the emotional and personal dimensions which often produces a positive work attitude. A satisfied employee is more likely to be loyal to his or her manager, the team, and to the organization as a whole.   For the organization, satisfied employees are more likely to create a more optimistic and dynamic work environment which more often leads to a work culture marked by efficiency, effectiveness, and enhanced productivity.

During one of his interviews after his retirement in 2001 from being CEO of GE for twenty years, Jack Welch commented that the most challenging part of his career as a manager was to grow others.  He said that one of his most satisfying part of his job was the challenge of developing his employees so they can achieve their own personal potential, not only that of the organization.   John Tu, CEO of Kingston Technology, the company that was rated among the best 100 companies to work for in America for five years in a row since 2002, also in one of his TV interviews, strongly commented that the only way to keep employees morale high is to treat them with respect, fairness, and give them a space to grow.

In conclusion, job satisfaction is strongly correlated with the individual's preferences, values, and subjectivity, and also with organizational culture, environmental circumstances, and management and leadership conditions. Therefore to get the best out of our people, to motivate them, and to retain them requires organizational wide programs, initiatives, and practices that support and reinforce the important day to day behavior of the managers as they themselves work on keeping their employees motivated.

How do you see job satisfaction from your own perspective or experience? How can we best motivate our employees here in this part of the world i.e. the GCC and the Arab region?  Your opinion matters, please share your comments with us.


References


Muna, F. (2001). Seven Metaphors on Management: Tools for Managers in the Arab World. Gower.

Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2009). Organizational Behavior (13th Ed.). Pearson Prentice Hall.

Saari, L. M., & Timothy, J. A. (2004). Human Resources Management. Wiley Periodicals, Vol. 43, No. 4, Pp. 395-407.

Meirc is offering "Project Management Skills" training program in the period of January 17 - 21 in Dubai. Project Management Skills program is a great introductory course. Several topics will be presented and discussed including basic project management terms and concepts, WBS, newtwork diagramming, critical path analysis and resource planning. In addition, we will be discussing tools and techniques to control the project such as variance analysis and earned value ananlysis.

The training course is accredited by PMI and all the topics discussed will be in full compliance with PMI

Preparation for PMP - Dubai

Meirc is offering a Preparation for PMP Certification training course in JW Marriott, Dubai in March 21 - 25. This course will be facilitated by Alaa Elbaz, MBA, PMP. The following is information about the course.

Objectives:
By the end of class, participants will be able to:
Get a jump start to prepare for the PMP exam
Understand how to manage a project in compliance with the Project Management Institute (PMI) standards
Understand the project management framework, processes and the nine project management knowledge areas in addition to project manager professional & social responsibilities
Recognize Project Management Book of Knowledge "PMBOK" and PMP exam Certification
Understand and apply project management skills, tools and techniques to deliver on time within budget
Identify key concepts not mentioned in the PMBOK

The program is designed for
Personnel who are interested in sitting for the PMP certification. The class is designed to provide the necessary foundations and resources

 Preaparation for PMP