Working Women during Lock down

Campus Blog Category, IILM University, Uncategorized

 

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This blog is meant for those working women who are struggling to find a balance between work and home responsibilities when working from home during the lock down.

Working women are used to managing personal and professional commitments and maintain a balance between the two. Then why things are getting difficult for them when they have got an opportunity to work from home?  Earlier, most working women depended on day care and household helpers to shoulder the responsibility of children and household chores. At this time that support is gone. Now they have to take care of washing dishes, cleaning the house, cooking and maintaining an order at home and spend time with family members and also take care of their work commitments. Each front has to be managed during the same time.

Based on my experiences and observations I have found that women stretch themselves to manage both front even if it means neglecting their own need of personal time. The best part is that they love taking care of others need before their own.

Think of a situation where you are on an office call and suddenly your child needs help or you are in the middle of meeting a deadline and you also are responsible for cooking for the Family.  What do you do at such times? Every person will respond to these situations in the best possible way but the point I am making is that this kind of situation can create pressure on you to manage both front.

I have tried to put down few tips that may help you during this time  

  1. Self-Care: It is important to first take care of yourself mentally, physically, last but not the least spiritually as well. So, maintain a healthy diet, sleep properly, take breaks between work, do some breathing exercise, practice mindfulness and find some time to relax. You can use app like Calm for guided meditation.
  2. Organize yourself and your time better and create a routine. Pen down the work that you need to complete
  3. You have to learn to prioritize and work in smart ways. Don’t build pressure on yourself by trying to attain “perfection” at this time
  4. If you are beginning to feel that there is too much on your plate then try to delegate work at home to other family members
  5. Don’t hesitate to take help and support from your colleagues at work when required.
  6. Pursue your own interests and hobbies and give some time to yourself
  7. In case you are getting stressed out then it is normal, don’t beat yourself down as you are doing the best you can
  8. Talk to family member or friend you trust
  9. Give credit to your self for managing both!

Hope these tips help you at this time!

Take Care & Stay Blessed!

 

Classroom equity: Creating educational equality

Career Development (Placement), Faculty, General Blog, IILM University, , , , , , ,

Everything that happens in the society is a consequence of human actions. Even though it may seem like a roundabout route, any effort to build a brighter future must begin with a change within human beings themselves.

The way we distinguish our own lives is also the way we distinguish the lives of others. When we have a sense of our own dignity, we recognize the dignity of others and value their lives too. The most fundamental way to achieve peace and happiness is to help people around the world to the greatest extent to reveal the treasure of inherent dignity in their lives.

No epidemic or any other cause is worth depriving students of their right to education. Teachers should not be masters who offer themselves as paragons, but enablers who guide students towards achieving their goals.

It is important that we afford students the highest respect as individuals in their own right. Helping students grow requires total commitment on our part. There is a fine adult inside every child. We need to direct our voices to that inner adult. We must never treat children in a dismissive or condescending manner, assuming they won’t understand and thinking its okay not to fully explain things.

We must believe in students’ immense potential, and strive to develop their innate capacities as well as our own. The more we broaden our own minds, the more we can inspire and foster the students. That is why our growth is indispensable to our efforts to help others grow.

We, at IILM University, Gurugram believe in our students, trust them unconditionally and encourage them to grow and excel professionally as well as personally. We believe in providing immeasurable source of support and encouragement to them. Our effort to provide Liberal Education gives our students the flexibility, knowledge and wisdom to pursue their passion.

Fostering students contributes to our own growth. Teaching students makes us wiser. Learning together with our students and advancing together with them is a path of lifelong youthfulness, giving us fresh perspectives and vitality.

How Much Insurance Do You Need

General Blog, IILM University, Uncategorized

 

There is always a question as to how much of Life Insurance is enough. An amount which would take care of one’s loved ones. The concept of Human Life Value provides the answer to this question . How much Life insurance do I need?

Moment Of Truth
It was in cold winter of December in Delhi in the year 2017,I received a call from my very close friend .It was  to help the family of his close relative with insurance claim payment . Sadly, it was a Death Claim payment. The father aged 52 years had died after protracted illness at the hospital. The son was in front of me ,a lad of not more than 20 years.He was carrying all the documents related to the life insurance of his late father. Depressed and almost teary eyed, he pleaded to help him with the claim amount . An early payment would help him to settle certain loan and liabilities.I could make out that the family is under debt and certain liabilities. While leaving ,he did ask me about the likely amount of the claim payment!

I went through the papers and was curious to know how much insurance does the deceased had. I was shocked to find he almost had no insurance. Merely Rs. 5 lakh for a person who was making Rs.30 lakh a year. Also , he had no pension policy. I called the insurance consultant and asked him about the highly inadequate amount of insurance on the life of the deceased . He was defensive and told me that it was with lot of persuasion he could persuade the deceased to insure himself for even this paltry amount. He informed me that the deceased believed investing in real estate and stock market and considered insurance to be bad investment with no sizable returns. Even the wife of the deceased was not very open to insurance.

One fine evening while returning from my office I got a call from the son and during conversation at his own he revealed that the majority of the investment of his late father was in property and a good amount in stock market and presently both are under stress. Though equity would give them cash apart from taking hit on mark to market losses on a few securities, the paper work would delay the process. Further, investment in properties would take good amount of time to realize and would not serve the purpose . He requested that since the family needs immediate cash, the timely payment under life insurance policies would be quite helpful.

I went through the documents again. I found that in all there were 5 policies ,the earliest was of the year 1990 and the latest being 2004 with sum assured ranging from Rs.50,000 to 1 lakh. Finally , I told the son that at the best ,the total payment would be Rs. 7-10 lakh. His face fell and he murmured that it is highly insufficient even to settle the loans taken. Frankly, I do not come across such situation so often and that is very helpful. The son asked me how much insurance does one need. I told him that it is usually 10 to 20 times of the annual income. He was silent for a moment and I knew very well that he was doing some numbers in his mind!

Human Capital

May be 20 times can be treated something very much theoretical, but it does give a sense of how inadequately most of the people are insured. Now, the question is how does one determine the value of insurance cover to be taken.Life Insurance is about securing economic value only. No amount can compensate for the emotional and other losses the family undergoes.This economic value is rooted in the concept of Human capital.What it indicates is the innate production capacity within each individual and their earning potential.The core of the concept is that investments are made in oneself with the expectation of future benefits.Perhaps it is the reason why parents and even working adults invest money and time in good education in India to land up in good colleges and ultimately good companies with decent pay package.

How does life insurance figures out in all this? It was Peter L. Bernstein in his famous book on risk mentioned that despite the world’s enormous wealth, the human capital by far the largest income producing assets for the great majority of the people. Further,Bernstein connects life insurance with human capital by his refrain:”Why else would so many breadwinners spend their hard-earned money on life-insurance premiums?”

Human Life Value(HLV)

Historically, reference is found in Code of Hammurabi which gives semblance of determining the value-Human Life Value. This code was used to determine the compensation allowed to the relative of an individual killed by a third party. The semblance of the concept is also observed in Kautiliya Arthasastra, Manusmriti,Koran, Bible and early Anglo-Saxon law.

The first application of HLV concept to life insurance happened in the year 1880s.Human Life Value is a measure of the future earnings less self maintenance costs such as food, clothing and shelter. If one looks from the view point of one’s dependents, the breadwinner’s HLV is the value of the benefits that the dependent can expect.An organization would look at the value added by the employee to the enterprise as an employee’s Human Life Value to it. In other words, a person may have more than one HLV.

Five Percepts of Human Life Value

In the year 1927,Solomon S.Huebner published a volume titled The Economics of Life Insurance which dealt exclusively with the HLV concept.His five percepts or admonitions regarding HLV which are relevant even today after a century are reproduced as under:
1.The human life value should be carefully appraised and capitalized.The HLV is based on the fact that persons who earn more than is necessary for their self maintenance have a monetary value to those who are dependent upon them. Thus, it is the present value of that part of the earnings of individuals devoted to family dependents and others who benefit from these individual’s earning capacity. Whenever, continuance of a life is economically valuable to others, an economic basis for life and health insurance exists.
2.The human life value should be recognized as creator of property value. HLV is key to turning property into productive force.In other words, the HLV is the cause and property values are the effect.
3.The family is an economic unit organized around the human life values of its members. The family should be organized and managed, and its economic value finally liquidated, in the same manner that other enterprises are organized, operated , and liquidated.
4.The human life value and its protection should be regarded as constituting the principal link between the present and succeeding generations.The realization of the potential net earnings of the breadwinner constitutes the economic foundation for the proper education and development of the children in the event of the breadwinner’s premature death or incapacity and the protection of children against the burden of parent financial support.
5. In view of the significance of human life values relative to property values, principles of business management utilized in connection with property values should be applied to life values.Principles such as appraisal, conservation, indemnity, and depreciation should be applied to the organization, management , and liquidation of human life value. These principles are applied to property values for decades.

One’s HLV is subject to loss through (1) premature death;( 2) illness, injury ,or incapacity; (3) retirement; and (4) unemployment. Any event affecting an individual’s earning capacity has a corresponding impact on her HLV.The probability of loss from death and incapacity is significantly greater than from the other commonly insured perils. In contrast to the loss due to other perils, death peril results in a total loss to the potential estate.The same is true of some health events.
Life Insurance and health insurance make possible the preservation of an individual’s HLV in the face of an uncertain time. The HLV concept provides the philosophical basis for systemizing the insurance purchase decision.

 HUMAN LIFE VALUE COMPUTATION

Let us now calculate the economic value of an individual in a simple manner based upon the income of an individual devoted to the family step wise step as follows:
1.Make a good estimate of average annual earning

Determine the percentage of future raise expected.Based upon the percentage of raise expected .calculate the average salary for the working years.. One may also factor in income from investments as well.
2. Out of 1 deduct cost of self maintenance, life insurance premium, income tax and other expenses , etc.
3. Determine the working period of the individual
Deduct the retirement age from the present age..

4.Selection of discounting rate
This rate would determine the present value of the future earnings of the individual.

An individual aged 35 years devotes for an example Rs.6 lakh annually towards various expenses of his family. He wishes to retire by the age of 60 years . The discount rate in the case is 6 percent. The human life value in the case would be around Rs.77 lakh. Simply put, this is the amount of insurance the individual needs on his life. Make a Plan to meet the target amount over the years. Also review economic value  periodically and modify the plan.
The case I mentioned at the beginning, the amount of insurance was highly inadequate. It was not even sufficient to clear the debt.
Lastly, one must insure but fair enough so that it takes good care of loved ones in one’s absence .
In my next writing I would share with you another approach of determining the Human Life Value.

The top emerging education trends 2020- Universities of the future

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The current situation and future of the world seems to be undergoing a rapid change. People are struggling hard to maintain their livelihood, remain relevant to their organizations, struggling to keep their jobs, basically an all-out fight for survival. What does this downturn present for Education and Universities of the future, how will they get recruit students when they can’t meet them or see them. The future of Edutech will lead this foray, the top trends will emerge in education and only the fittest and most futuristic will survive

 

Digitize Education– Taking all popular courses online partnering with Elearning providers like Udemy, courser and Upgrad for exclusive customized course packs for students. The Universities of the Future need to see the learner trend evolving. Elearning tools like Microsoft teams, Zoom, Google classrooms, interactive learning apps, breakout rooms, VR/AR led experiences, cloud based platforms are all the new normal.

Democratize Education– All the cards are on the deck, the Elearning model makes everything accessible to the learner and they engage in their own time. The sessions, videos, assignments are all available for all to view and access, most content companies have made their content free for all, to empower and support the learning continuum.

Dematerialize Education-This era will see the increased dependency and reliability on online content, this learning model does not need books, note pads, stationary, bags and traditional items. It is the need for digipads, stylis, earphones, access to databases and ELearning software.

Demonetize Education- Education providers can no longer command a price premium, with Ivy league institutions having gone free with world class courses, India’s topnotch institutes taking their content online students have a wide access to the best.

Only organizations that can envision the future, prepare and provide for them will thrive, the world is changing faster than we imagined. The learner of tomorrow is a highly digital being, plugged into technology, with a wide access to unlimited information, learns at her/his own convenience maybe at work. The jobs have changed and companies will look for new skills, its time Universities recoiled and reformed themselves. The future student will learn remotely, online and in his own time….realtime.

 

Redefining Digital Marketing Strategies Through the Lens of COVID 19 Scenario

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In current lockdown situation due to Covid-19 pandemic, for some of you it must be a work from home schedule and for few of you, it could be just home quarantine with surfing social media for entertainment news and information. The busy schedule of individuals from morning to evening gets converted into surfing and engaging with social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Whatsapp etc.
In view of the escalation of corona virus (Covid-19) cases across the world, businesses are reviewing their digital marketing strategy and making an opportunity to tap potential customers and engagement with existing customers.
In this scenario internet has proliferated the whole world, social media platforms becomes, the Game-Changer and online advertising campaign has become the core of marketing strategy. The pandemic situation has bought significant change in consumer behavior, internet and social media consumption. It has become necessary for brands to rethink, how they connect, engage and relate to the consumer. Research released by Gartner shows that several leading brands across the world have successfully adapted to these changing scenarios, and suggest digital ways that brands can manage their ways through difficult times.
Leading companies from automobile, banking, consumer durables and FMCG sectors across the world are emphasizing on social distancing, exercising brand building activities and creating awareness through social media platforms to fight against Covid 19.
Companies like Audi, Volkswagen, Coca Cola, Nike and McDonald have changed their logos on their social media pages like Twitter, Instagram and promoting the message of social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic which makes their ad campaign getting viral.
McDonald’s has changed its logo on Twitter page, separating the golden arches, saying “separated for a moment to always be together.” Coca Cola also created its Ad-campaign on Twitter, its brand script is normally connected letters. Now the image script is spread apart, with the tag line saying “Staying apart is the best way to stay connected,”
Along with this global brands, some of the Indian corporate brands like Reliance, Godrej Group, Mahindra and Mahindra, Paytm, Hero-cycles have made practical contributions to the fight against COVID-19,by making donations of funding ,supplying medical solutions, Hospital setup etc and prompted their efforts via social media platforms.
To summarize the above, i believe, during current crisis, redefining digital marketing strategies through the COVID 19 scenario, has become need of an hour. Social media ad campaigns play a crucial role to spread awareness, raising funds and customer engagement. Many brands have shifted its focus towards digital marketing platforms, as consumers are spending more time on these platforms. Brands are also promoting online content like blogs, short videos to connect and win consumer engagement.

Image Source: https://www.guideautoweb.com/en/articles/54621/social-distancing-volkswagen-and-audi-lead-by-example/

GAME CHANGE!

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Can’t help but write on or in context of Covid-19. The hangover is ‘novel’ too. That’s the power of the invisible, it seems, sweeping across the mighty forts and displays of awe-inspiring ‘development’ of God’s creation with brains – Homo Sapiens. The yet unconquerable, invisible-microscopic-protein something has caught us sapiens on the wrong foot – of careless greed and stubborn pride. The resultant ‘halt’, as it now seems, and as I feel, was long coming and inevitable. Bleak and daunting as the scenario might seem now, the soul of humanity from the time of Adam, knows well, that humans will rise, build and thrive……again.

Challenge is huge and unprecedented, as game has changed. World economy and Industry 4.0 is ready for an inevitable facelift globally. The present pandemic brought about a change in perception of needs and wants in the consumers and business owners. New business models will have to be developed to cater to the altered consumer behaviour for many established industries and sectors. Industry 4.0, for generations to come, will be remembered as being ‘Novel’, for whatever Novel Corona virus did to it!

Even though, hardly any economic or business activity is happening these days, trends will start brewing and taking shape. Some new use cases or trends for economy and Industry 4.0 are presented below:

  1. Make-in-India mission will get a boost as domestic manufacturing will be preferred and help the economy grow.
  2. Automation will generate positive arguments in its favour. We witnessed during this pandemic when factories and processing units, using human labour were shut due to fear of contagion. More and more businesses will now see adoption of automation.
  3. Digitalization will accelerate for obvious reasons of reduced ATM access, paper cash contagion etc.
  4. On the job front, more jobs will be created in the digital arena as a result of need for setting up of data centres and expansion of digital infrastructure.
  5. An increasing number of start-ups in the healthcare sector will emerge, as health and sanitation has become a top priority as never before. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan will get a new fillip and its necessity in peoples lives and psyche will get highlighted.

The new trends mentioned above are just a few. Use cases abound in arenas of politics, security, research, finance, international trade, travel and tourism, work and home space, leisure and day-to-day life. Sliver of hopes or ‘silver linings’ are always there and waiting to be changed into opportunities and leveraged both during and post-pandemic. The discussion is open to all. More views will bring more ideas and maybe, plant seeds of innovation and creativity in some mind, somewhere. Students can think, mull over the trends and come up with probable emergent scenarios.

The ‘lockdown’ is the best time to ease out the many ‘extras’ from our lives, think, focus and prepare. Nobody gets this solitude, again, ever.

Dawn of a New Revolution in Business Affairs

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Military forces all over the world have always responded to environmental changes with extreme agility by bringing about an innovative adjustment in the nature of the warfare. Termed as Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA), this phenomenon relates to ingenuity in the use of a new technology coupled with modifications in the doctrine and concepts, which lead to widespread alterations in the fundamental characteristics of military warfare.

The world of business has also had its own share of innovations and innovative use of technology which has transformed the landscape of business and revenue models. The advent of digitization has only sped up the process with every model looking to optimize the use of technology. Whilst this has resulted in disruption in various industries such as entertainment, mobility, hospitality, etc, there are many that have still not been able to derive the maximum benefit.

The current situation forced upon us by COVID-19 is unprecedented and is enforcing a Revolution in Business Affairs. Forced upon by the requirement of social distancing to control the spread of the virus, all organisations have scrambled to embrace technology, change their strategies and working models to keep their operations running. All the industries and businesses have entered a chaotic world and should take a leaf out of the military books to revolutionize their operations.

Emerging out of this chaotic situation will require a paradigm shift in the way the businesses operate in the future. The extensive use of technology such as AI, VR and AR would enable organisations to be more efficient. Further, the use of online collaborative tools and cloud computing would also optimize the use of human resources. The current situation would lead to many organisations recognize the value of employees working from home in terms of productivity, reduction in costs due to drop in load on the infrastructure and leverage them for altering their revenue models.

In this age of Industry 4.0, the dawn of the new Revolution in Business Affairs and its ramifications need to be understood by all business leaders and strategic planners. The organisations that evolve stronger, smarter and more powerful from this catastrophe would be the one that recognizes the opportunity for transforming their operational and cost efficiencies.

Operations and Global Supply chain disruption by COVID – 19

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The Corona Virus has had a large impact on the global supply chain industry. As per the report from Dun & Bradsheet – “ 938 of the Fortune 1000 companies have a tier 1 or tier 2 supplier that has been affected by the virus”. We’ve heard in news and through different social networking sites, the brands like Apple, Microsoft, Nissan, and JCB about the disruption they’ve felt as their factories in China are either closed or are operating with limited production capacity.

Effect of COVID 19 on Global Supply chain

China is the global center of production and is a major source of finished goods and products. With China being locked down, the global pipeline of parts and components, has become emptier. This pipeline feeds directly to producers, manufacturers, and distributors worldwide. Thus, if the disruption continues, many manufacturers and retailers can see their operations suspended and businesses coming to a standstill.

China is also a major market for consumable goods and services. The COVID- 19 event has come down as a major impact on the demand of these goods and services for the relevant industries spread across the world, the United States of America and Europe in particular.

Global Supply chain: Fragile nature

There have been many instances in the past which have disrupted the global supply chain earlier as well. Consider for instance the 1999 Taiwan Earthquake, 2003 SARS epidemic, 2011 Japan Earthquake. With Taiwan being a major exporter of memory chips in 2011, the earthquake cut off a major source of memory chips for computer manufacturers, driving up RAM prices drastically in the international market. The 2011 earthquake that struck Japan affected many automotive manufacturers who relied heavily on inputs coming from Japanese factories, thus disrupting the demand and supply in the market.

An analysis of the global supply chain shows that it is very fragile and the following are the major reasons which are responsible to lend it to this character.

· Reduced inventory levels: The concept of JIT manufacturing (just-in-time) increases efficiency and lowers the cost of the supply chain, but it also leaves supply chains less resilient to these kinds of sudden shocks and shortages occurring in the world.

· Rigid supply chains: This wouldn’t be a problem if companies were running flexible supply chains. Thus in times of stress, they may move order volumes to alternative suppliers. However, very few companies don’t do so, leaving them unable to locate and communicate with alternative suppliers when unexpected disruptions arise in their supply chain leading to a tangible impact on production.

· Manual supply chain management: A key reason supply chains become rigid is because they are managed manually. Changing orders or shifting suppliers is a lengthy and complex process and is a luxury few businesses have in times of stress

· Lack of supply chain transparency: Businesses are still unaware of what’s happening in the first tier in their supply chain, so they can’t figure out where production capacity risks occur. So that makes effective control of a situation like the COVID-19 outbreak almost impossible.

· Consolidated center’s of production: The globalization of supply chains has led to the creation of specialist production zones — towns or countries specializing in the manufacture of certain main goods. These have helped ensure the availability of key supply chain components and lowered the overall production cost. And while this is useful when times are healthy, when there is uncertainty it may cause problems That’s because there isn’t the capacity in other parts of the world to plug the gap in supply.

What to look at now

Leading companies are taking several actions to combat the effects of COVID – 19

• The leading companies are considering to shift there available inventory from the present quarantined zones to the areas which are either away from the quarantine zones or near the ports.

• The companies are constantly working with Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers by either securing allocated supplies or by ensuring overtime assembly capacity .

• Firms are taking proactive measures by keeping inventory and raw materials which are currently in shortage in impacted areas.

• Firms are also negotiating for future air transportation as capacity becomes available to avoid the ocean freight based lead times.

• The Major players are actively looking to substitute the components or the raw materials in situations where the primary supplier has been affected and secondary source has not been affected.

• Few of the Industry giants are also considering to redesign the product or alter the material certification where the reliable alternate sources are not readily available.

• Industries who currently have their manufacturing units in China are considering to introduce the new products to the alternate manufacturing locations.

Where to focus next

Improve supply chain visibility

There is an urgent need to ensure a greater supply chain visibility in the system. It is needed to provide a sight into the capacity constraints in the first, second-and third-tier suppliers. When looking further into their supply chains, multinational producers will achieve a more complete and comprehensive supply chain mapping of the assemblies and sub-assemblies.

Model new risks and costs

There is an urgent need to get visibility of the supply chain in the network and provide a line of sight and capability. There is a need for new tools and technology that can provide more information. Risk assessment tools that use machine learning, for example, may identify trends that may suggest futuristic opportunities or threats in geopolitical and global health, macroeconomic and other related areas.

Focus on resilience
The persistent nature of such outbreaks would continue to shift the focus of the global supply chain operations toward more a rigorous proactive modelling and multiple dimensions. The COVID19 outbreak is likely to result in a long-term reconfigurations in the supply chain globally to create an inbuilt resilience in the system.

Customer Engagement for profitable business outcomes

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This blog is intended to make the concept of customer engagement easy to understand, so here I use the 5 W’s and 1 H to make the reading interesting and relevant.
Customer engagement as a field of study is of recent interest in marketing management and it is still evolving. ‘Engagement’ as a term was used in behavioural studies to refer to ‘employee engagement’, hence it has roots from social sciences.
Though there is no single acceptable definition of customer engagement yet, however researchers do agree that customer engagement strategy is an essential element for customer satisfaction and retention in this growing competitive market.

What is Customer Engagement?
Mckinsey defines customer engagement as a personal connection that exists between a consumer and a brand that gets stronger over a period of time leading to mutual exchange of value. CE is a two-way relationship that thrives on fulfilling customer needs and thereby generating profits for the brand.
According to Gallup Customer engagement is an emotional connection between the customer and the company and this emotional connect influences customers future purchase decisions.

Why Customer Engagement?
We should understand why customer engagement strategies be implemented in any organization. Few of the benefits are mentioned below:
• Customer engagement is tied to business outcomes
• Engagement strategies enable the level of transparency that customers seek
• Customer engagement ensures retention of existing customers in a cost effective way.
• Customer engagement help organisations to acquire new customers at a negligible cost

Where & when can customers be engaged?
One of the important driver of customer engagement is technological advancement. With growth of internet and use of smartphones customer engagement is just a click away. Competitive pricing by telecommunication network providers and reasonable prices of smartphones has accelerated the internet usage by consumers. The number of smartphone and internet users are increasing worldwide with 95% users in advanced economies, 60% users in emerging economies like India.

Smartphones allow customers to engage in activities that entertain them, connect with their loved and complete their task on hand. Hence Smartphones coupled with internet connectivity paves way for the marketers to engage with customers anywhere and everywhere.

Who are engaged customers?
The engaged customers may be called as the ‘ideal’ consumers that every business desires to have. Highly engaged customers eventually become potential promoters of the business and advocate the brand to prospective consumers. However all engaged customers may not generate profits for the organisations, hence strategy to engage customers needs to be designed cautiously.

How engaged Customer feel and behave?
Enngaged customers often express greater satisfaction with the brand and they feel emotional bond with the brand.The engaged customers admit that they trust the brand and continue being loyal to the brand in future.Engaged consumers certainly add value to the business by buying 90% more frequently and spend 300% more compared to other customers annually. Further they may even indicate their fondness for the brand by declaring that it is the only brand that they would like to purchase in the near future.

Hence it can be concluded that an organization employing customer engagement strategies is only going to improve its profitability through customer satisfaction and retention.

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/digital-india-technology-to-transform-a-connected-nation

Smartphone Ownership Is Growing Rapidly Around the World, but Not Always Equally


Gallup, A. M., & Newport, F. (2010). The gallup poll: Public opinion 2009. Blue Ridge Summit: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Human Capital – An Imperative

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Human capital is the collective resource possessed by the citizens and individuals in a country and can be measured over decades to actually gauge the development of a country; human resources play a most significant role in developing a sustainable competitive advantage and efficiency for an organization, society and the country. The collective human capital resources include the talent, skills, knowledge, education abilities, experiences, intelligence, judgment…and this forms the collective intellectual wealth in the country towards achievement of long term goals.

The concept of human capital is rooted in the economic literature (Becker, 1996). He also highlighted that human beings will always be associated with their skill, health, and values, thereby defining human capital; while they can be separated from their assets and properties. It is as important as infrastructure for economic development. Human capital complements physical capital (viz the infrastructure) in the production process and is an important input to technological innovation and long-run growth. Human capital is created through development of skilled, trained and efficient work-force by providing education, health care facilities; skilled people can create new ideas & so expenditure on education, health, on on-job-training are key instruments of capital formation. Human capital is what people accumulate over their lives, enabling them to achieve their potential as contributory members of the society.

The Scottish economist Adam Smith commented, “The acquisition of talents during education, study or apprenticeship, costs a real expense, which is capital in a person. Those talents are part of his fortune and likewise that of society.” Human capital adds up to large benefits for the economy of the country, the region and global development— some countries become more prosperous as more human capital accumulates.

Economists, like Harbison, Schultz, Kuznets, Kendrick and Denison all emphasized that a key aspect for the progressive growth of developed countries and America is their increasing spends on education, social health and reskilling resulting significant improvement in the level of human capital formation. On the contrary a major reason the underdeveloped countries suffer from lower economic growth, is the lack of focus and investments in human capital.

As per Prof. Galbraith observed, “The larger part of our industrial growth comes not from more capital investment but from investment in men and improvements brought about by improved men.”

As per the World bank report, 2018, more than 260 million children and youth in poorer countries are receiving no education at all. World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim highlighted in Foreign Affairs, “The world today faces a – human capital gap.” The Human Capital Project launched by the World Bank is a global effort to accelerate investments in people for greater equity and economic growth.

https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/video/2018/10/11/invest-in-me-the-human-capital-project

A report from the Economic times highlighted that the 15th Finance Commission, the HRD ministry has pitched for a Rs 36,000-crore higher education plan, towards the imperative of an employable workforce to be developed over the next decade . The ministry emphasized a ‘4E growth mantra’— educate, energize, employ and empower .The team also underlined the need to boost higher education with a focus on

  • Quality and cognitive skills, for e.g. a Choice Based Credit System has been recommended for the undergraduate students.
  • Energizing wellness backed with universal affordable health care, for e.g. initiatives of Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) have been launched for the economically vulnerable sections of the society.
  • Increasing employability through linking of education and skills and focusing on higher skills integrated in education. Skill Based education through Universities have already been launched, with specialized labs, industry connect and centers of excellence.

The Organization for Economic development (OECD) further defined different ways to measure human capital taking a range of indicators viz

  • Skills and qualifications ,Education levels ,Work experience, Ability to innovate ;
  • Social skills ( Communication ,Intelligence ,Emotional intelligence ,Judgement, Creativity)
  • Personality – hard working, harmonious in an office ,Habits and personality traits
  • Geography – Social peer pressure of local environment can affect expectations and attitudes.

Basis a World Bank report between 10 -30 percent of per capita GDP gross domestic product (GDP) differences amongst countries are attributable to cross-country differences in human capital. Typically human capital also fosters social capital. Surveys typically find that educated people are more trusting of others.

Human Capital is an imperative and Economic growth is impacted positively in the long run as human capital develops, and indicators which are directly visible are good health, increased urban income generation and reduction in crime and social unrest (Carmeli & Schaubroeck, 2005).