Want to Break Habits? Make Some

Coming out of a habit is not an easy task. All of us have habits that we want to get away from - but its hard! I was listening to an HBR ideacast few days ago and really liked some thoughts. The idea behind the whole thing was that its not as important to feel bad about your habit and convince yourself that "I will not do it". But, it is important to train yourself on "This is what I will do" when I am about to become the victim of my habit. So, if you want to quit cigarette  - don't convince yourself again and again on "I wont smoke next time". But, tell yourself what will you do when you want to smoke - i.e. train yourself on "I will chew a gum" next time I want to smoke. This trains the mind that the right sequence to follow is not to smoke but to chew a gum. Soon, you mind will be asking for gum and not smoke.

So, break the bad sequence by training yourself on an alternate sequence and not by simply stopping to do the old one.

American Football Teams

AFC East
Buffalo Bills - New York
New York Jets - New Jersey
Miami Dolphins - Florida
New England Patriots - Massachusetts

AFC North
Baltimore Ravens - Maryland
Cleveland Browns - Ohio
Cincinnati Bengals - Ohio
Pittsburgh Steelers - Pennsylvania

AFC South
Houston Texans - Texas
Indianapolis Colts - Indiana
Tennessee Titans - Tennessee
Jacksonville Jaguars - Florida

AFC West
Denver Broncos - Colorado
Kansas City Chiefs - Missouri
San Diego Chargers - California
Oakland Raiders - California

NFC East
Dallas Cowboys - Texas
Philadelphia Eagles - Pennsylvania
Washington Redskins - Maryland
New York Giants - New Jersey

NFC North
Minnesota Vikings - Minnesota
Green Bay Packers - Wisconsin
Detroit Lions - Michigan
Chicago Bears - Illinois

NFC South
Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Florida
Atlanta Falcons - Georgia
New Orleans Saints - Louisiana
Carolina Panthers - North Carolina

NFC West
Arizona Cardinals - Arizona
St. Louis Rams - Missouri
San Francisco 49ers - California
Seattle Seahawks - Washington

Amazing post by:

Link to Article: https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/articles/retail_digital_economy_retail_2020_ten_trends/print

Ten Trends That Are Reshaping the Retail Industry Retail 2020 by Pierre Mercier, Rune Jacobsen, and Andy Veitch August 09, 2012

Retail 2020: Ten Trends That Are Reshaping the Retail Industry

More on Retail 2020

• Competing in a Changing Industry (https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/articles/retail_digital_economy_retail_2020_competing_in_changing_industry/)
  
• Ten Trends That Are Reshaping
  the Retail Industry

• The New, Customer-Centric Retail Model (https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/articles/retail_digital_economy_retail_2020_new_customer-centric_retail_model/)

The retail industry is undergoing a major transformation right before our eyes—and it's just the tip of the iceberg. Given the accelerating rate of change, what is your company doing to adapt and stay relevant today and into the next decade? The future will belong to those agile industry players that can rapidly renew themselves—and refuse to cede ground to the competition.
As discussed in BCG's Retail 2020 report, the following ten trends are profoundly changing the retail industry:

1. Empowered, Discriminating Consumers. With access to product information, price comparisons, and user reviews, consumers can make informed decisions—and widely share their complaints. For retailers, the bar is rising, and they must add meaningful value to what shoppers can find for themselves, both online and in stores.

2. Ubiquitous Connectivity. With the Internet available at work, at home, and on the go, consumers will be full-time shoppers and most purchases will have some online aspect. Smartphone numbers will be in the billions by the end of this decade.

3. Buying Local, Going Green. Shoppers want to consume in a responsible, sustainable way. They want to purchase from organic and local vendors, and want proof of product origins. But it remains to be seen whether they will pay more for green products.

4. Explosion of Consumer Data. Points of sale, social media, corporate websites, and tracking URLs are generating an enormous amount of consumer data, but few retailers are capable of fully exploiting the potential value of this input. It will take time, because the volume of data is still growing faster than the ability to process it.

5. New Age of Marketing. With more data on customers, their online activities, and purchasing patterns, retailers will be able to create more targeted marketing campaigns—once they figure out how to mine the insights. This will require experimentation and calibration—and consumers will have limited tolerance for misguided marketing efforts.

6. Scientific Retailing. By applying smart algorithms and deep, data-driven analytics to the unprecedented volume of data from multiple sources, companies can optimize all aspects of their business, including inventory levels, pricing, warehouse space, assortments, shelf displays, and staffing.

7. Growing Retailer Power. The top five grocery stores in the U.S. now have a 33 percent share of the market—up from 25.5 percent in 2000. As their spending increases, they have more clout with suppliers. But in several categories, the increased retailer power may tilt toward large Internet players or marketplaces as their growth outpaces the brick-and-mortar competition.

8. Maturing Retail Technologies. A wide range of maturing technologies is allowing companies to streamline backroom functions and increase efficiency, helping to offset higher labor costs. While these are part of the solution for brick-and-mortar retailers, they won’t fundamentally alter the relative economics between store-based and online transactions.

9. Blurring Boundaries Among Channels, Formats, and Brands. CVS is selling fresh food, grocery stores have in-house bank branches, and bookstores have cafés selling Starbucks coffee. Rather than thinking in terms of channels, consumers are simply opportunistic. If they have a need and can fulfill it easily and conveniently, they will.

10.Challenged Store Economics. The rise of online buying is eroding store traffic, forcing retailers to rethink their costly real-estate assets and merchandising formats. How valuable will bricks and mortar be in the future and for what role? Dynamics will play out very differently by category and location.

12 Key Social Media Takeaways

12 Key Social Media Takeaways from Top Social Media Experts

COURTESY socialmediatoday via CMO.COM...

At Instant E-Training we recently concluded our popular “Social Media for Business” WebConference and Certification event. We had over 23 live Social Media training sessions conducted by over 18 leading social media experts. Understandably, there were some pearls of wisdom thrown by all our experts over the course of 6 weeks. So we thought to compile what we thought were 12 key takeaways from our Social Media WebConference event. You can implement these for your business right away. So here are 12 key Social Media takeaways by 12 Social Media experts:
1.Act – If you aren’t getting pushback then you aren’t pioneering – Erik Qualman
Don’t be afraid to try new things and get reactions. Every pioneer makes a bold statement which not everyone always agrees to initially. Often people will hesitate to try new things, but don’t let that discourage you. Act, make bold choices and interact with your audience.
2. It’s not about creating accounts, It’s what you do with them – Krista Neher
There was once a time where companies and organizations created accounts just to say that they had them. Now, it is imperative to use them to connect well with your audience. Make your company one that can be personable and one that people can connect with.
3.Collaboration is necessary for Social Media success– Chris Barger
“No other business strategy executes independently; social shouldn’t either”.
All of your social media efforts should align themselves with the same purpose and remain consistent. Along with that, your whole team should also be on the same page with what their role is in order to work together effectively. Involve your legal team, build social media policies, and keep everyone in the know.
4. Life is not about being liked it’s about being effective – Chase McMichael
The goal with Facebook and social media is not just for people to merely nod their heads in agreement and throw a thumbs up, but to take action. It’s about getting your customer to be actively engaged with your product or organization through social media. You need to have the right content to facilitate the greatest interaction. Find the common interests that your brand’s audience shares and give them what they want. The goal is that through their engagement people would have a great sense of what your company is about and choose you when given the opportunity.
5. Content Isn’t Great Until It’s Shared – Lee Odden
Give your audience something worth talking about. Create content that is music to their ears. You can create this share worthy content via a blog and re-purpose it in many fashions. Participate in the conversations that form and engage the growing network to motivate your audience to share.
6. Twitter Golden rule – Give before you get – Hollis Thomases
You need to give your followers things of value to them. Don’t just ask for a sale – instead give them thoughts, ideas, and tweets worth re-tweeting. You want to give your audience information that is of value to them. It is then that they will pay closer attention to what you have to say. Just don’t expect to receive anything, and give, give, give. If it is done right, you will start to naturally get the attention you want.
7. Figure Out Your Customer’s Dream & Sell them – Brian Carter
Remember that the medium is the message. Something that you might share in an email might not be as well accepted as it would be on a Facebook wall. Whatever it is you share, you want it to be memorable. Selling the dream doesn’t mean the product itself, but rather what it represents for your audience. Sell them awe, connection, belonging, fun, happiness.
8. For small business owners, Word Of Mouth Starts With You– Sima Dahl
For a small business owner, no one is going to retweet for you or share your posts like it usually is the case with big brands. So the conversation starts with you ….Creating memorable moments starts with you. Select a social media channel, assess your content, start a conversation, and be creative. Be a real person with real honest opinions. Find people, engage them, and tell them what you are up to. Encourage the conversations that proceed.
9. Our networks are our most important assets – Neal Schaffer
Our personal and professional networks are the most important assets we have and so we should treat them as so. LinkedIn is a great way to access and form that network. Our network provides us with credibility and possible opportunities. On LinkedIn you can join groups, participate in events and even be introduced to new people that your friends and colleagues know. We have a platform to listen, engage, and connect. It’s simple and a great way to tap into one the most important assets you have.
10. Online Video can help captivate, engage, and stimulate your audience – Bob Tripathi
Videos are great because they captivate the viewer’s attention and stimulate their senses via sight and sound. They keep the viewer engaged. In most cases emotion is easily conveyed and thoughts are easily spread. It can be consumed on a variety of devices, making it also easily accessible. People are able to engage with this media by liking, sharing, and commenting, making this a valuable tool in persuasive efforts.
11. What can be found, can be optimized – Bob Tripathi
If there is any content found on the internet, there is a way to enhance its searchability via the web. Whether it be a blog post, video, or a website be sure to use the right keywords, tags, and phrases to ensure those who go searching will find you. Know what your audience is searching for and how they go about looking for it. There is always a way to enhance your content by way of optimization whether be it your web site, videos, images, or any other digital asset.
12. You cannot qualify a gain without the ability to measure it – Marshall Sponder
Not all social media marketing efforts lead to a ROI. You might need to examine your goals and modify them in order to measure your ROI. Figure out your goals and determine how you will measure progress. The ROI comes from tracking what was invested to execute your plan against the results as outlinedby way of Social Media Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). Find a practical way to measure and qualify your gain.

Interesting Readings from McKinsey

1. GOVERNANCE How leaders kill meaning at work Senior executives routinely undermine creativity, productivity, and commitment by damaging the inner work lives of their employees in four avoidable ways. 2. GOVERNANCE The executive’s guide to better listening Strong listening skills can make a critical difference in the performance of senior executives, but few are able to cultivate them. Here’s how. 3. STRATEGY A CEO’s guide to innovation in China Dynamic domestic players and focused multinationals are helping China churn out a growing number of innovative products and services. Intensifying competition lies ahead; here’s a road map for navigating it.

4. STRATEGY Three snapshots of Chinese innovation Chinese innovation is evolving in diverse ways and at an uneven pace across a range of different industries. Presented here are ground-level views from three of them: automobiles, semiconductors, and pharmaceuticals. 5. OPERATIONS The human factor in service design Focus on the human side of customer service to make it psychologically savvy, economically sound, and easier to scale. 6. ECONOMIC STUDIES What’s in store for China in 2012? Despite food price inflation and a stagnant housing market, China should maintain a rapid rate of growth, argues a director in McKinsey’s Shanghai office. Read his ten predictions for the country this year.

7. ECONOMIC STUDIES Working out of debt An update of our research on the efforts of developed countries to work out from under a massive overhang of debt shows how uneven progress has been. US households have made the greatest gains so far. 8. ENERGY, RESOURCES, MATERIALS Five technologies to watch Innovation in energy technology is taking place rapidly. Five technologies you may not have heard of could be ready to change the energy landscape by 2020. 9. ORGANIZATION Motivating people: Getting beyond money This 2009 article argues that an economic slump offers business leaders a chance to more effectively reward talented employees by emphasizing nonfinancial motivators rather than bonuses. 10. STRATEGY Are you ready for the era of ‘big data’? Radical customization, constant experimentation, and novel business models will be new hallmarks of competition as companies capture and analyze huge volumes of data. Here’s what you should know.

Slightly late but not too much. Trends in mobile and social media. Data upto 2011 but very relevant in spotting where things will go:

http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/18/mary-meekers-2011-presentation-on-internet-trends-slides/


Another report on social media:
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/report-details-rise-of-social-media/#h[]

Raising trillion dollars by taxing the rich is the solution? Think about which one is sustainable - increase money inflow or decrease governments operational inefficiency? I wonder what Mr President's advisers are thinking.

Who is ahead of the game? - Chinese War for No. 1 Spot

I read an article recently that claimed that that USA is more than No. 1 economy in this world and there is no comparison between China and USA. He cited China's medical system, which is at a stage today that USA passed 30 years back. I agree with his hypothesis and I not only think that US did it 30 years back, but USA is still moving in a big way. Recent disruption in Japan raised questions on USA's capabilities for evacuation in the advent of a similar event. Well, look at China. They have only 11 reactors operating and they are constructing an additional 10 each year. Who is overseeing that?

As you can testify using gazillion trivial examples, that USA has taught innovation and governance lessons to this world. Its core strength is the constant infusion of super-brains from all over the world. USA encourages that brain to think and act ahead of time and build innovative systems when the rest of the world is adopting 10 year old technologies and criticizing most technology evangelists.

This should be noted that total no. of nuclear plants in most Asian countries are less than what USA has in one state. USA has adopted nuclear power years back and controlled it well so far in a much broader geography. We should audit those countries first that have almost no experience and trying to do it in one shot. These countries need to first build the credibility that they "care" for human beings more than their reputation by  relaying correct information and asking for help when needed.

Seven steps to better brainstorming

A. Plan

1. Know your organization’s decision-making criteria

Likewise, what constitutes an acceptable idea? At a different, smarter bank, workshop planners collaborated with senior managers on a highly specific (and therefore highly valuable) definition tailored to meet immediate needs. Good ideas would require no more than $5,000 per branch in investment and would generate incremental profits quickly. Further, while three categories of ideas—new products, new sales approaches, and pricing changes—were welcome, senior management would balk at ideas that required new regulatory approvals.  

2. Ask the right questions

Decades of academic research shows that traditional, loosely structured brainstorming techniques (“Go for quantity—the greater the number of ideas, the greater the likelihood of winners!”) are inferior to approaches that provide more structure.¹ The best way we’ve found to provide it is to use questions as the platform for idea generation.

It’s easier to show such questions in practice than to describe them in theory. A consumer electronics company looking to develop new products might start with questions such as “What’s the biggest avoidable hassle our customers endure?” and “Who uses our product in ways we never expected?” By contrast, a health insurance provider looking to cut costs might ask, “What complexity do we plan for daily that, if eliminated, would change the way we operate?” and “In which areas is the efficiency of a given department ‘trapped’ by outdated restrictions placed on it by company policies?”²

3. Choose the right people

choose participants with firsthand, “in the trenches” knowledge.

B. Execute 

1. Divide and conquer - The real action

To ensure fruitful discussions like the one the catalog retailer generated, don’t have your participants hold one continuous, rambling discussion among the entire group for several hours. Instead, have them conduct multiple, discrete, highly focused idea generation sessions among subgroups of three to five people—no fewer, no more. Each subgroup should focus on a single question for a full 30 minutes. Why three to five people? The social norm in groups of this size is to speak up, whereas the norm in a larger group is to stay quiet.

When you assign people to subgroups, it’s important to isolate “idea crushers” in their own subgroup. These people are otherwise suitable for the workshop but, intentionally or not, prevent others from suggesting good ideas. They come in three varieties: bosses, “big mouths,” and subject matter experts.

The boss’s presence, which often makes people hesitant to express unproven ideas, is particularly damaging if participants span multiple organizational levels. (“Speak up in front of my boss’s boss? No, thanks!”) Big mouths take up air time, intimidate the less confident, and give everyone else an excuse to be lazy. Subject matter experts can squelch new ideas because everyone defers to their presumed superior wisdom, even if they are biased or have incomplete knowledge of the issue at hand.

By quarantining the idea crushers—and violating the old brainstorming adage that a melting pot of personalities is ideal—you’ll free the other subgroups to think more creatively. Your idea crushers will still be productive; after all, they won’t stop each other from speaking up.

Finally, take the 15 to 20 questions you prepared earlier and divide them among the subgroups—about 5 questions each, since it’s unproductive and too time consuming to have all subgroups answer every question. Whenever possible, assign a specific question to the subgroup you consider best equipped to handle it.

2. On your mark, get set, go!

After your participants arrive, but before the division into subgroups, orient them so that your expectations about what they will—and won’t—accomplish are clear. Remember, your team is accustomed to traditional brainstorming, where the flow of ideas is fast, furious, and ultimately shallow.

Today, however, each subgroup will thoughtfully consider and discuss a single question for a half hour. No other idea from any source—no matter how good—should be mentioned during a subgroup’s individual session. Tell participants that if anyone thinks of a “silver bullet” solution that’s outside the scope of discussion, they should write it down and share it later.

Prepare your participants for the likelihood that when a subgroup attacks a question, it might generate only two or three worthy ideas. Knowing that probability in advance will prevent participants from becoming discouraged as they build up the creative muscles necessary to think in this new way. The going can feel slow at first, so reassure participants that by the end of the day, after all the subgroups have met several times, there will be no shortage of good ideas.

Also, whenever possible, share “signpost examples” before the start of each session—real questions previous groups used, along with success stories, to motivate participants and show them how a question-based approach can help.

One last warning: no matter how clever your participants, no matter how insightful your questions, the first five minutes of any subgroup’s brainsteering session may feel like typical brainstorming as people test their pet ideas or rattle off superficial new ones. But participants should persevere. Better thinking soon emerges as the subgroups try to improve shallow ideas while sticking to the assigned questions.

3. Wrap it up

By day’s end, a typical subgroup has produced perhaps 15 interesting ideas for further exploration. You’ve been running multiple subgroups simultaneously, so your 20-person team has collectively generated up to 60 ideas. What now?

One thing not to do is have the full group choose the best ideas from the pile, as is common in traditional brainstorming. In our experience, your attendees won’t always have an executive-level understanding of the criteria and considerations that must go into prioritizing ideas for actual investment. The experience of picking winners can also be demotivating, particularly if the real decision makers overrule the group’s favorite choices later.

Instead, have each subgroup privately narrow its own list of ideas to a top few and then share all the leading ideas with the full group to motivate and inspire participants. But the full group shouldn’t pick a winner. Rather, close the workshop on a high note that participants won’t expect if they’re veterans of traditional brainstorming: describe to them exactly what steps will be taken to choose the winning ideas and how they will learn about the final decisions.

C. Close

1. Follow up quickly

Decisions and other follow-up activities should be quick and thorough. But the odds that concrete action will result from an idea generation exercise tend to decline quickly as time passes and momentum fades. communicate the results of the decisions quickly to everyone involved, even when an idea was rejected. While it might seem demoralizing to share bad news with a team, we find that doing so actually has the opposite effect. Participants are often desperate for feedback and eager for indications that they have at least been heard. By respectfully explaining why certain ideas were rejected, you can help team members produce better ideas next time. In our experience, they will participate next time, often more eagerly than ever.

 

Courtesy McKinsey & Company:. Read full article here:

https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Strategy/Strategy_in_Practice/Seven_steps_to_better_brainstorming_2767

 

 

Basics of wines

White wines for sweetness and red for tennics. In order of sweet to dry for white:

Ice Wine
Muscat or Muscato
Gewurtztraminer
Sancerre
Reisling
Pinot Grigio or Pinot Gris
Sauvignon Blanc
Chardonnay

For red wine, I wouldn't classify it as sweet - maybe more fruit forward and/or less tannic, but because the grape skins come into contact with the liquid during the fermentation process, this is why reds are drier than sweet:

Beaujolais
Grenache
Pinot Noir
Shiraz
Zinfandel
Merlot
Cabernet
Petite Sirah
Nebbiolo

Which industries will florish in 2011 - CEOs say all but VCs are cautious

An excerpt from a trusted source... 

The VCs' cautious tone changes when it comes to certain investment sectors. They overwhelmingly expect dollars to increase for consumer Internet and cloud-computing software companies (82% and 80%, respectively). Those sectors also happen to be the two that VCs labeled as most likely to see investment "froth," meaning over-funded.

Likewise, a majority expects investment to rise in health-care IT, mobile and software-as-a-service. But they were much less optimistic about more capital-intensive industries such as energy, medical devices, biopharmaceuticals, financial services and hardware.

So, which industry do you belong to?

Courtesy - McKinsey & Company

In this, our final Top Ten Newsletter of 2010, we've rounded up the most popular articles among readers this year. Topics they were most interested in include decision-making biases, digital marketing, and management in uncertain times.

1. STRATEGY Global forces: An introduction Five crucibles of change will restructure the world economy for the foreseeable future. Companies that understand them will stand the best chance of shaping it. A related video highlights the value of tracking global forces and how to build them into corporate strategy. 2. BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY Clouds, big data, and smart assets: Ten tech-enabled business trends to watch Advancing technologies and their swift adoption are upending traditional business models. Senior executives need to think strategically about how to prepare their organizations for the challenging new environment. In a set of accompanying podcasts, leading experts offer their views on how these trends will evolve and change business models. 3. MARKETING A new way to measure word-of-mouth marketing Assessing its impact as well as its volume will help companies take better advantage of buzz. An accompanying podcast focuses on how marketers can use word of mouth to influence consumer behavior.

4. STRATEGY The case for behavioral strategy Left unchecked, subconscious biases will undermine strategic decision making. Learn how to counter them and improve corporate performance, and explore an accompanying interactive showing the biases most pertinent to business and the ways they can combine to create dysfunctional patterns in corporate cultures. Plus, take this brief survey on how you make decisions, and we'll send you feedback on how your decision-making style compares with those of other respondents and on how to avoid any biases you may be prone to. 5. GOVERNANCE Why good bosses tune in to their people Know how to project power, counsels Stanford management professor Bob Sutton, since those you lead need to believe you have it for it to be effective. And to lock in your team’s loyalty, boldly defend their backs. 6. ORGANIZATION How centered leaders achieve extraordinary results Executives can thrive at work and in life by adopting a leadership model that revolves around finding their strengths and connecting with others.

7. CORPORATE FINANCE Creating value: An interactive tutorial In this video presentation, McKinsey partner Tim Koller explores the four guiding principles of corporate finance that all executives can use to home in on value creation when they make strategic decisions. 8. ORGANIZATION Retaining key employees in times of change Many companies throw financial incentives at senior executives and star performers during times of change. There is a better and less costly solution. 9. MARKETING Unlocking the elusive potential of social networks To realize the marketing potential of virtual activities, you have to make them truly useful for consumers. 10. ORGANIZATION Boosting the productivity of knowledge workers The key is identifying and addressing the barriers workers face i