The Invisible Glass Ceiling !!!

Ever wondered why India Inc. is surging ahead riding on the brains of only the best men and so few women in the country? The corner offices and the top managerial levels are all filled with deserving men, but where are the women, whom we see at organizations handling important portfolios?

The answer lies in the deep-seated Indian mentality. Somewhere down the journey in their careers, women get lost midway, some giving up their careers after marriage or child birth and in some cases, both.

There is another reason for the severe paucity of women in the hot seats of organizations. Research shows that only a mere 4.5% of women directors sit on the boards of Indian companies, while male directors constitute the rest 95.5%. It is not that women do not deserve to be in decision-making positions of the companies that do India proud on the international platform. Instead, it is the invisible glass ceiling present at workplaces that keeps women from getting to the top.

They are often bypassed and overlooked when a top position is being considered. Women often have to handle the egos and expectations of male colleagues, and only a handful of women have managed to break the glass ceiling that keeps them from reaching the upper echelons of management.

True, that India Inc. threw its weight behind the Women’s Bill, which promises to give the fairer sex a bigger role in the political arena when it becomes law, but it is time to pause and think whether some amount of reservation is also needed to achieve the same gender balance in its boardrooms as well.

There are two factors that may help to contribute in achieving an equality of sexes in the boardrooms. One is to put in place a policy that encapsulates the spirit of gender equality amongst professionals, and the other is to gradually propel a cultural shift within an organization. Merely putting a policy in place might not help in changing the deep rooted mentality of people.

Some women, who have been able to break through the glass ceiling and have made it to the top are of the opinion that the work culture needs to be changed first, which involves a bottom-up approach; the mentality needs to be changed at the grass roots, which will drive diversity, and then a policy can be put in place to implement it.

At the same time, it has been proven that changes in policies first can bring about refreshing changes in a country’s work culture and introduce gender diversity in private institutions.

Norway serves as an unprecedented example of the same. In 2003, the government introduced a policy that required 40% of the boards of all publicly listed companies to be filled by women, as opposed to the prevailing rate of 7%.

Maybe it’s time that India took a chapter out of Norway’s policy and proceed to introduce something similar.

There isn’t a dearth of competent women out there who can take board seats, and once shareholders are forced to look beyond the ‘old boys’ club’, they will find enough women to fill them.

Reservation might not be the best way out, but the ball has to start rolling at some point. Sometimes extra efforts are needed to encourage and empower women, and quotas can serve as transitional means to overcome initial blockages.

The Pursuit of Brand Building: Is PR the answer

The advent of second generation economic reforms came with the mushrooming growth of several business enterprises, increasing consumer options. However emergence of innumerable brand created a clutter in the market. . Thus advertising and PR agency creates a market awareness. However, the horizons of PR are still unexplored and under-used. However PR raises the big debate whether it has more credence and reliability associated as compared to advertisement.

An effective media strategy strives to build strong brands to achieve expected returns. It has become an extremely challenging job for every individual and every company in present competitive environment. To achieve this goal marketing executives employ 'advertising strategy.' Though for most of the marketers or manufacturers, advertising is not turning out to be as productive to their expectation. It has been noticed in a survey that 83 percent of companies are not satisfied with the results they receives from their advertising campaigns. Advertising, most of the times, does not work well due to the scepticism, cluttering of products, high cost, when an organization is operating in a huge and open market.

On the other hand Public relations, is far better than advertising both in terms of spending as well as delivering the message. The reason for which PR is considered more effective in accomplishing the market goals as compared to advertising because it is driven by the 'third-party endorsement. Public relation has the element of credibility, clarity and cost effective.

THE BIG FIGHT – AD Vs PR

Advertising isn't working very well because advertising is self-promotion.  People are very skeptical of ads.  The source of all those nice things said about your company and its products is you, and people just don't believe it.  Another reason why advertising is not working very well these days is because of "clutter", which is the magnitude of commercial messages being delivered within a short period of time.  There are just too many messages to absorb, and clutter is getting worse every year.  In addition, advertising is very expensive, especially if you have a big market to cover.

If you were to find a marketing action that worked much better than advertising at a much lower cost, you would have a huge competitive advantage.

Prospects believe third-party endorsements, and in marketing "belief" is everything.  If prospects don't believe your message, you will waste huge amounts of time and money trying to get your message across.  Third-party endorsements are believed because the third party has nothing to gain.  They are only trying to help.  They are either an expert on the subject who has already investigated your product, or they own your product.  The advantage to you as the person who does not own the product, or who does not have time to investigate your product, is, with no cash outlay and no risk, you get the benefit of the experience of others.

PR agencies thereby have a definite and huge potential to cater the existing needs of Indian contemporary market in the coming times. PR agencies by and large are not only accountable for brand building but also depict a nice as well as the real image of brands. This accounts for the credibility and sustainability factor which the glitzy and glamorous world of advertisement fails to deliver. The future might also witness a progressive shift of legally binding protocols for every corporate house to tie-up with PRCI (Public Relations Council of India) certified agencies in order to ensure a credible corporate existence of the clients in the market.

Public Relations have a significant role to play as world trade, free market systems, trading blocks, and industrialized, industrializing, and subsistence economies attempt to reposition themselves regionally and internationally, a new energetic and vibrant ethos permeates world order. At the onset of the third millennium, PR promises actualize and propagate new visions, directions, and challenges of new products and services. With this has come an overwhelming responsibility on PR as a part of strategic communication in accomplishing the goals and dreams of nations and its peoples. 

Selling the invisible- marketing the intangible

Cash may be King, but Marketing is everything.

You might have invested in your business, set up a plush office, and may be offering world class products. But who’s buying? Where are your customers? What have you done to let people know that your product X is the best in your segment and that you are providing the best value for money?

The answer to these questions is the one magic word- Marketing. It is the strategy your firm devices to target the right audience at the right place at the right time, which in turn will maximize the return on investment and increase revenue.

While devising a strategy to target your consumer, marketing simultaneously also needs to be a process to create value for the customer. It is a set of activities to educate, communicate with and motivate the target customer about the firm’s services or the company’s products.

In this context, I may say that introducing a new refrigerator in the market with unprecedented features and marketing the USPs of the same will attract a flock of customers in this commodity driven economy. A new healthy soup, or a low-cost mobile phone with world-class features will be lapped by the consumers, if you market your product well. You set a price for your product, you place it in the right points of sale and you promote your product well, and voila! You have a raging success with your product.

Your consumer will see the product, test it and buy it. Your customer care and post-sales service will take care of the rest. A winning formula.

But what if you are selling the invisible? A service… it’s intangible, it is consumed as soon as it is produced and every service experience is different from the other. For example, a low cost airline like Indigo or Spice Jet- they provide you a service that suits a middle-class wallet, and yet they strive to give you world class customer service, so that you keep coming back to them.

Services can only be availed and not owned as in case of a product. This makes your consumer more demanding of excellence, as the duration of a service experience is much shorter compared to that of a product.

People are the most important element of any service or experience. Every service that is rendered is a different experience. Hence your employees are the most important part of your business if services are what you deal with. People buy from people that they like, so the attitude, skills and appearance of all staff need to be first class. Well trained and competent service personnel are your aces for success. Effective customer service is also vital, as the customer service associates are the face of your company. They make or break your brand.

Process is another element in your marketing strategy. The way you deal with your consumers and heighten their experience in sampling your service, creates a brand value for your service; this in turn contributes to the success of your business.

You need to deliver value through people and process when it is services that you are marketing. These physical factors will help you sell the invisible. Marketing the intangible is possible only when your marketing is not intangible.