7 Traits of Highly Admired Leaders

Highly Admired Leaders

A leader is a force multiplier. When teams truly believe in their leader, they are able to do accomplish incredible things.

What makes leaders highly admired? Well, there are some traits of leadership that make people stand out. These traits help individuals rise to another level and inspire trust in others.

Great leaders are able to connect, inspire and elevate their followers to the next level. Here’s a look at some of the most admired qualities of leaders:

1. Stay Positive

Stay Positive

Great leaders always set their sites on a lofty goal. They aspire to reach and push others to higher levels all the time. They know how to create a happy,  motivated and focused team for achieving shared goals.

When things go wrong and don’t work as per expectations, good leaders take charge of the situation. They confront problems and do not blame others. They resolve to provide solutions and in the process inspire others to do so as well.

Even in the worst situations and catastrophic failures, they do their best to save individuals and teams. They know that they are responsible for the well being of their teams. They stay positive and encourage others during tough times.

2. They take ownership of their mistakes and failures

No one is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes, but rarely do leaders admit their failures. A leader who can openly admit his mistakes and failures builds a rapport with the team.

The most admired leaders take ownership of what they do, especially the mistakes. Many leaders are quick to blame others and try to point fingers in adverse situations. But great leaders take responsibility and make others accountable too.

3. Results

Results

A leader is admired when he can deliver the results. Whether it is the sports teams or corporate ones, the truly outstanding leaders deliver the results.

How effectively a leader can maximise the strengths of his teams shows his mettle. The truly capable leaders have the ability to look ahead, to plan, anticipate and achieve great results.

Admirable leaders have the ability to anticipate trends, see what others miss and rally their teams to achieve remarkable things. They are able to visualise and communicate goals with clarity to energise people around them.

4. Focus

Focus is one of the most important things for leaders today. A great leader is always doing the things that create maximum value. They know the importance of energy, time and focus. They maximise their impact by focusing on the things that are truly important.

A great leader always helps the teams to focus on the right things. Leaders align their teams in the right direction and eliminate all distractions. They know what needs to be achieved by themselves & by others.

Great leaders focus on strengths of people and combine them in a way that everyone benefits from each other. They have clarity and bring intense focus to do things that seem impossible for others.

5. Collaborate without Ego

Collaborate without Ego

The leaders need to collaborate and work with people to succeed. Many a times, leaders are let down by their ego. They are unable to check their egos and it often leads to conflicts with others.

Leadership is the ability to bring out the best in people, helping them to improve and making a positive contribution to everyone around you.

The truly admirable leaders are able to build bridges and find ways to collaborate with others. They know the art of making connections, fostering long term relationships and helping people succeed.

6. Value Everyone

A good leader treats everyone fairly without any bias. The standards are same for everyone and you can expect no undue favours from them.

Leaders create an environment where people know what they do is important. They know that their contribution matters, they know they are valued and want to be part of the team.

A leader ensures that people are driven by important things that will add meaning and create impact. They know how to bring everyone to a common platform where people can make contribute towards a bigger cause.

7. They Do it Themselves

They Do it Themselves

People rarely listen to leaders, they simply watch what leaders do. Leaders never expect others to do what they don’t do themselves. They walk the talk. They are authentic, committed and know what it takes to be successful.

A great leader backs people when they are down, supports them in failures and prepares them to take on bigger challenges. A leader leads by examples in all he is doing. He is setting the benchmarks by his own performance and work ethics. When the team can look up to their leaders, they rise to his standards and achieve great thing in the process.

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How to Build a Strong Brand in the Digital World

how to build digital brands

As of March 2019, there are 4.3 billion internet users in the world according to Internet World Statistics. Bird the electrical scooter company reached the valuation of $1 billion in 1. 25 years. It is the fastest startup to reach the valuation of over $1 billion.

There are scores of start-ups which have reached the landmark unicorn status in less than 3 years. Compare this with earlier generations that took decades to touch the reach & valuations that these start-ups enjoy.

The fast growth of several of these start-ups can be attributed to digital technologies. They have been able to reach out to their customers and scale their products and services to customers.

The way businesses operate and transact is undergoing transformation in the internet driven world. People have access to vast networks of friends, information and connections in the digital world.

Here are 8 tips for building your brand in digital world and how you can reach out to more customers:

1. Define your Audience

Define your Audience

The first step in building a brand is knowing your target customers. Identify the ideal customer base for your products and services, what they like, dislike, need etc.

Create a strong messaging to address the core group and customer base for your products and services. Great brands learn to communicate the benefits for the customers in a subtle way. They reach out to the emotions of people and build a strong connect with them. Consistent messaging leads to brand recall and creates a stronger perception of your company.

Here are few examples:

Housewifes with spare time

Tech savvy & young business persons

College students eating out

Executives and busy professionals

2. Determine Goals

Going online without a clear roadmap will lead you nowhere. Don’t copy what others are doing, but build your strategy around your strengths and weaknesses.

Think about what customers need to know and learn about you. How you can market your best products and services to them. Do you want to create an online store or simply want to create a strong branding presence?

Many brands with a successful digital presence start with basic branding and marketing. If you are able to generate a steady stream of users with your digital marketing efforts, these are highly likely to generate business opportunities for you as well.

3. Visual Design and Aesthetics

Visual Design and Aesthetics

How do you differentiate yourself in the marketplace? One of most effective  ways companies can do that is by great designs. The designs are playing an increasingly bigger role in building bigger and better brands.

Companies are employing designs to provide interactive solutions to their customers today. Whether it is their websites or products & services, successful companies are able to use good designs to connect with the customers.  

Good designs are able to help a brand communicate its messaging, build superior products and services, engage and attract customers. The digital world is highly visual and companies need to create compelling experience for their customers today. 

4. Delight Customers

The customer has more options than ever before. If you have to stand out, you need to deliver great experience for the customers. A delighted customer is the best marketing strategy for a business.

The digital tools make it very easy for customers to spread the word about your business. Look at everything from customer’s perspective and reengineer things according to their needs.

Gaps can be harmful, but if you take care of issues proactively for customers they are likely to recommend you to others too.

5. Positive Difference

Positive Difference

Would anyone care if your company were to disappear today? Great brands give customers a reason to bond with them. They create a positive difference in the lives of their customers and stakeholders.

The digital world is full of noise. But when you communicate with purpose, consistency and make a positive difference, your brand will get noticed. It will create its own sphere of influence. It will be able to attract great opportunities and spread hope.

6. Create & Promote Content

Before you go online, your company should create a content strategy. A good content strategy takes care of customer pain points, addresses their concerns and helps them provide valuable information.

Successful brands are able to create a style and voice that suits their target audience. For e.g. brands like Coca-Cola, Virgin etc are able to create a positive and vibrant tone.

Your brand needs to identify its tone, core messaging and create high quality content around it. You can create videos, interactive blogs, GIFs, infographics, white papers for your customers.

Next, you can prepare a content promotion plan. The number of shares and links to your content is a good metric to see the extent of its popularity.

7. Think Digital

Think Digital

Companies need to understand the psychology of digital users. The purchasing behavior of customers has changed today. Any purchase begins after doing a Google search. People tend to research before they buy stuff more than ever.

When brands create high quality content and promote it, they are likely to be higher on searches. Companies need to build their products and services for digital consumption.

How companies use their blogs, social media channels and online presence to reach customers can make a huge difference.  Creating valuable content, promoting it on the right social media channels and attracting the ideal customers is all part of the winning strategy.

8. Find Influencers

We are living in an era of too much noise and little substance. It is easy for companies to get lost in the crowd.

With social media and online platforms playing a bigger role in building brands, it serves well to have a network of influencers. These influencers are known for their expertise, skills and relevant followers.

A social media influencer leads conversations, sets the agenda and shapes opinions about organizations and brands. These major influencers can be identified by their presence on social networks, their organic reach, followers on twitter and LinkedIn, the influence of their networks and how well connected they are.

When your brand is endorsed by key influencers in your field, it builds a favourable image and establishes its credibility.

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10 Immutable Laws of Marketing

Immutable Laws of Marketing

If you want to be in business you have to know, how to market yourself, and you have to know how to do it well. A lot of people think that building good products is all that matters. But, building a good product is only the beginning. A lot of companies struggle because they cannot market their products and services to the right audience. 

Companies like Apple, Nike, Coca-Cola have achieved incredible success due to their marketing strategies. With effective marketing, you can anchor your product in your customer’s mind and then turn them into loyal fans. Success in business is really understanding people psychology and winning them through various ways.

Here we are going to discuss some laws of marketing which can help your business position your products and services much more potently.

1. Law of Leadership

Law of Leadership

Being a Leader in the market can make your brand get noticed and win customers. When you are the first company in the market, you get to set the rules of the game. It is far better than having to play by someone else’s rule. Most of us know the first man on the moon but no one remembers the second.

You have to either be the first or the best. Position your brand in a way where you can be a leader in your category at least in some niche areas. When you can position your brand in a unique way, you can build leadership and following for your company.

2. Law of category

It’s very hard to get leadership position where competition already exists, it’s better to create a product in new category, than trying to play the catch up game. Like if you cannot make a new video camera than try to make a sport camera like GoPro did, if you can’t be the first photo-sharing app than be the first photo sharing app where you can have amazing experience like Instagram. Find out your USP and which category you can dominate.

3. Law of Mind

Law of Mind

No one remembers the first search engine, everyone knows Google. Sometimes it’s not possible to be the first in the market, but you can still be the first in the consumer’s mind. It’s possible with great messaging and quality products. This the key and this can allow you to overcome some of your flaws.

Winning businesses are able to win the hearts and minds of their customers before anyone else does. They do it through repeated advertising, quality solutions and taking care of their customers.

4. Law of Perception

Marketing is not about products but about perception, reality doesn’t exist. What we called reality is the perception of reality that we create in our minds. This is the reason why Apple is so successful and iconic. It’s the perception built around their products that offer them an unprecedented positioning.

Marketing is the way you change the perception of the consumers about your brand. How you deliver your message goes a long way in creating your positioning. If you think that your product is good enough and you are able to convince your customer that it’s best, than people are definitely going to buy.

5. Law of Focus

Law of Focus

Marketing requires establishing a deep connect with the prospects. As a brand, you have to build an association of your brand with the consumer. For e.g. when you think of search, you think of Google. Room sharing is snyonymous with AirBnB. Your messaging and focusing on the right keywords can make a big difference to your chances. Successful brands are able to create a unique messaging and phrase word which connects them to their consumers.

6. Law of Failures

It’s not possible to work out a successful strategy for your products and success in one go. Quite often the difference between failures and success is persistence. Great brands know how to fail, take learnings and iterate towards building successful strategies for launching their products.

Risks, failures and experimentation are crucial for getting the combination right. The best companies are able to execute better because they take learnings and improvise their strategy according to the market feedback.

7. Law of Perspective

Law of Perspective

Marketing is a long term game. No great brand is built overnight. It takes time for people to connect with brands. Constant, consistent and deliberate messaging can help companies to build the right connect with their prospects.

The best brands are able to take a long-term view of things to build their company. They avoid short term measures that can have detrimental long-term impact on the company.

8. Law of Opposite

The market has enough place to accommodate different players. You dont have to be the leader all the time for building a winning business, as long as you’re different, you can still create your space. Coca-Cola is the market leader in the FMCG consumer space, but Pepsi has been able to establish itself as a strong brand too.

Most markets reward players when they play to their strengths instead of simply copying their competitors. A brand must stay true to its purpose and communicate authenticity to its customers.

9. Law of Sacrifice

Law of Sacrifice

Everything has a price tag. No brand is every built without sacrifice. You have to know everything inside out in your market. You need to know what the customer needs are, how your product will serve them, the tagline of your product, the market demands & constant changes to adapt. Nothing worth having is served on a platter. Be ready to pay the price to build something big.

10. Law of predictability

How will you respond to change and an unpredictable future. You never know what will be thrown at you. Unless you have deep knowledge of your industry, your positioning and strategy, things will be difficult. The best brands are built around strong strategies and execution. They know how to communicate and win clients, because they understand what they are doing.

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How Google Works by Eric Schmidt

This video is a summary of the book How Google Works by Eric Schmidt. The book outlines the key practices and processes followed by Google. It has some invaluable insights on management.

 

 

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8 Ways to Improve the Value of Your Company

Improve the Value of Your Company

Building a valuable business is the goal of every company. As per Edelman Trust Barometer, 48% consumers said they wouldn’t associate with a company they distrust. As many as 37% consumers stated they would pay more for a product sold by a company they trust.

The way a business is evaluated can be quite complex. But there are some fundamentals that can help companies to boost their valuations. Trust is one of the factors that makes businesses highly valued. When a business generates value for its customers and can be trusted, it is valued highly.

The way a company is run, operated and moves forward with respect to the future can be displayed in some key performance metrics. Here’s a look at some strategies that can be used for improving the value of a business.

1. Customer Growth and Satisfaction

Customer Growth and Satisfaction

How does your company generate its revenue? Are your current customers happy with your products and services? Is your customer base expanding fast enough? Are your customers loyal to your business? These are some of the questions that can help you evaluate your business.

The numbers and strength of your customer base are great indicators to evaluate your company’s value.

A business with big and loyal clients will always do well in the long run. When the retention rates of customers are high, it indicates that the business is doing things well. A loyal customer base indicates strength.

Good businesses invest in client relationships and retention. They know it is their customer’s success that will make their business successful.

2. Niche Products & Services

Differentiation is the way to beat the competition. Are you able to differentiate yourself in the marketplace? Any business needs to create its loyal customer base for survival and growth. A business with niche products and services will be able to attract a higher valuation.

A valuable business is able to demonstrate and uniquely position its offerings in the market. When the quality of your products is appealing to the customers, it augurs well for the future.

A lot of businesses can leverage their intellectual property, products & services, patents etc. for business valuation. Companies with rich intellectual property & portfolio are able to command a higher premium.

3. Market Size

Market Size

What is the size of the market that you are tapping into? Is your product or service well positioned to take on a big market size. Typically, the investors and business valuers look at the size of the market for determining the value of a business. If your business has unique positioning, solves a client pain point and the market size is huge, you can really make a great return from your business.

4. Processes & Documentation

You need to keep things organised, documented and follow best practices. The record keeping is imperative not just for the audits, but also for enforcing processes in your organisation.

Whether it is the employees, customers or your shareholders, they will know what is expected. It helps people get the perspective of things for your business and its policies.

It means creating structured documentation around accounting, employee policies, records of transactions and keeping them properly organised.

When the organisation has streamlined processes, how to guides, good documentation and policies, it makes things easier for everyone. It also helps in assessment of the key parameters and performance of a business.  

5. Financial Ratios

Financial Ratios

The financial metrics of a company are crucial guidelines for its valuations. It doesn’t serve as a fool proof method, but gives very good indicators on the performance and value.

What is the working capital required for your business? Is your business profitable? Are your customers well segmented in various markets? The Assets to liability ratio, income, long term investments etc are important for analysing the value of your business. A good business offers consistent and growing returns for its shareholders spread over an average time period.

6. Sustainable USP

How does your business position itself in the long run? Does it have significant competitive advantages? Is it meant to go the distance? What are the existing strengths of your business that will be sustained in the long term? Is your management team well equipped to bail your company out of trouble?

These are some of the important questions that provide a rough guideline on the unique selling proposition for your business.

7. Operational Efficiency & Profits

Operational Efficiency & Profits

The way your company utilises and maximises resources speaks volumes about its capabilities. The best companies and start-ups create water-tight and efficient operations that maximise value for all stakeholders.

These companies build a culture of efficiency, do progressive work and use technology for optimising resources. These companies reduce indirect costs, eliminate waste and streamline important processes to increase profitability.

A company with good profitability and streamlined processes can increase the value of your business to potential investors & buyers.

8.  Diversity & Depth

Determining the future prospects of a company in constantly changing business scenario is quite hard. The valuation of a business need to determine the odds of your survival and growth in the future.

Many companies are leaders in their segments, but fail to pivot at the right time causing their downfall. Case in point being Nokia, which was an undisputed leader in mobile space. But it failed to adapt to the smartphone era.

The products and services of a company, its people and management are all key resources that add value. A multidisciplinary product and services background, diverse portfolio and high quality offerings will also be helpful for increasing the value of the company.

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27 Quotes on Simplicity for Higher Living

Simplicity Quotes

Simplicity is the ultimate power that can lead us to higher living. When you want more and more, you are never satisfied. But when you strip off the unnecessary you live with much more freedom and joy.

Many of the greatest people in the world embrace simplicity. They know what is important to them and don’t run after things to please other people. Simplicity gives them strength, because they don’t waste their energies in useless wants and pleasures.

Steve Jobs once said, “That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

Here’s a look at some of the most powerful quotes on simplicity to help you rise in your life.

1. “Simplicity is complex. It’s never simple to keep things simple. Simple solutions require the most advanced thinking.”

Richie Norton

2. “There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth.”

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy

3. “It is always the simple that produces the marvelous.”

Amelia Barr

4. “Live simply, so that others may simply live.”

Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa

5. “You can only become great at that thing you’re willing to sacrifice for.”

Maya Angelou

6. “Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough.”

Charles Dudley Warner

Charles Dudley Warner

7. “Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

8. “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.”

Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton

9. “Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness, but it is greatness.”

George Bernard Shaw

10. “As beautiful as simplicity is, it can become a tradition that stands in the way of exploration.”

Laura Nyro

Laura Nyro

11. “Those who have the ability to be grateful are the ones who have the ability to achieve greatness.”

Steve Maraboli

12. “Comfort and simplicity are two keys that I follow when it comes to fashion.”

Fawad Khan

Fawad Khan

13. “Simplicity is the outcome of technical subtlety. It is the goal, not the starting point.”

Maurice Saatchi

14. “A vocabulary of truth and simplicity will be of service throughout your life.”

Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill

15. “Understanding reduces the greatest to simplicity, and lack of it causes the least to take on the magnitude.”

Raymond Holliwell

16. “The role of genius is not to complicate the simple, but to simplify the complicated.”

Criss Jami

Criss Jami

17. “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

Albert Einstein

18. “Greatness, generally speaking, is an unusual quantity of a usual quality grafted upon a common man.”

William Allen White

William Allen White

19. “Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.”

John Maeda

20. “I have three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.”

Lao Tzu

Lao Tzu

21. “The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”

Hans Hofmann

22. “The waste of life occasioned by trying to do too many things at once is appalling.”

Orison Marden

Orison Marden

23.  “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

Leonardo da Vinci

24. “The simplification of life is one of the steps to inner peace.”

Mildred Norman

Mildred Norman

25. “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”

Confucius

26. “I believe that things can be expressed very powerfully through simplicity.”

Johann Johannsson

Johann Johannsson

27. “People often associate complexity with deeper meaning, when often after precious time has been lost, it is realized that simplicity is the key to everything.”

Gary Hopkins

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8 Emerging AI technologies that will Impact the future

Emerging Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence will change the world beyond our imaginations. These changes have already started and impacting our lives. The future will be driven by machines and algorithms. As per PWC, business leaders said they believe AI is going to be fundamental in the future. In fact, 72% termed it a business advantage.

The AI technologies are making huge waves. The self driving cars, the AI driven applications for healthcare and voice based assistants like Alexa are proof enough of the AI technological prowess.

AI technologies will be one of the most disruptive technologies impacting industries, business, society and our lives. As the market and demand for AI grows, here we look at some of the emerging AI technologies:

1. Speech Enabled Systems:

Speech Enabled Systems

Speech recognition has always been a fascinating subject for computer scientists. It is now finding way into our day to day operations. Whether it is Google voice search, Alexa or Siri virtual assistants, voice based systems are making great progress.

The interactive voice based systems will find more uses in self driving cars, enterprise application software and many of our day to day tasks can be accomplished using simple voice commands. For e.g. enterprise systems will be able to have intelligent conversations with you, based on the data pool and machine learning tools.

2. Creative AI:

The AI systems are not just capable of learning and analysing data, but also use it creatively to build art & design. The machine enabled systems are capable of taking art images as inputs and even create new images based on its learnings.

In a fascinating development, AI algorithms are now capable of generating music and assisting composers. The music generating algorithms analyse millions of conversations, newspaper headlines, social media conversations to suggest inputs for composers.

The AI generated novels and textbooks are already done. The future will see more books, articles and novels written by AI systems with realtime information and updations.

3. Future Professionals

Future Professionals

With the advancement of natural interactions between humans and machines, self learning algorithms, the future professionals will be AI driven systems. It is not hard to see that even in the most complex of fields like medical science, the AI systems are performing quite well.

They are able to assist with diagnosis of diseases after studying patient information and data. The AI driven systems will also be good in legal matters, where they can provide inputs and predictions based on previous case histories.

The AI based learning systems can be used as personalised tutors. These tutors will be able to train students based on individual capabilities, strengths and learning abilities. The AI systems will be able to present information in different ways to augment learning for humans.

4. Robotic Process Automation:

A lot of manual labour work in factories is getting done using robotic process automation. The human actions are mimicked by machines and robots. These methods are used for manufacturing and advanced automation across industries.

With the rise of AI technology, the robotic automation is improving itself on regular basis. The feedback and learning data is used for improvement in business processes.

The convergence of robotic process automation and AI will spark new capabilities for doing things. When robots are equipped with cognitive automation, machine learning, analysis and natural language processing capabilities, they will take over many tasks from humans.

5. Virtual Agents

Virtual Agents

A virtual agent is a program that can interact with humans. Virtual agents are used for customer support, service and smart home automation etc. With self learning capabilities, the virtual agents will play a bigger role in our day to day lives.

Everyone will be able to use a virtual assistant on mobile enabled devices like smartphones. The virtual agents will be like personalised assistants and will help you with things you need.

6. Devices interacting with Human Brain

Yes, this will be very much possible. The human brain signals and impulses will be able to interact with devices in the future. It may well be possible to study many psychological illnesses and their cures. The human brain is one of the most fascinating technologies, AI scientists are trying to establish links and connects to see how the capabilities of human brains can be replicated by machines.

The advances in human brain and computer interfaces will open new avenues for medical science possible.

7. Image Recognition

Image Recognition

Image recognition allows you to identify & detect objects or features in a digital image or video. AI is used for learning about data patterns from the images and build self learning applications on top of this.

The ability to understand images and videos using advanced AI and Machine learning tools can open new avenues for humans. For e.g. drone based systems can be deployed for evacuating humans in cases of natural disasters using AI tools.

The image recognition systems will replace passwords and authentication checks at most places. There is increasing use of AI algorithms to mine data to predict diseases, fraud detection, billing systems and bank cards etc.

8. Emotion Recognition

This AI technology allows software to read, analyse and understand the emotions on a human face using advanced image processing, voice data processing.

The AI systems are capable of predicting your emotional state with high accuracy. The facial and vocal analysers can be used for customer service. The technology can also suggest marketers the best time to contact their leads based on the prospect’s mood.

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