In the previous article on employee motivation, I talked about how employers have the capacity to re-motivate those within the organisation when they start viewing their jobs as being a routine humdrum. However, this begged the question – should motivation be reserved only for those who are dealing with a low point in their career? What about those that have potential, those who are overachieving in their positions, those who have the capacity to contribute further to the organisation?

Employees should be looking towards star employees within their organisation and giving them due motivation as well as assurance. I mean, you do want your best to stay and continue playing an important role, right?

The first option is by having a one-on-one conversation with your employee, discussing and illustrating their career prospects with them. Convince them that their future lies with the organisation, and be an active contributor in helping them shape their vision. The intention of the talk is to establish confidence within your employee, and highlight the value they have for the organisation. Chances are that they will already be thinking about future plans – it’s on you to show them that they have buy-in to the organisational outlook.

Here’s the catch though. There should be some hedging in place, and employers / managers alike must mention and reiterate that there are no guarantees in place! Both parties should be aware of the multitude of factors which can interrupt the positive trajectory which they have worked so hard to achieve. Remember to preface any potential unforeseen factors which could alter the outcome of the discussion, and utilise the informality of the conversation to reinforce disclaimers throughout the talk.

Finally, be sure to tell them that they themselves are the final determinant of their own path. Sure, external factors play an important role, and it is extremely valuable to identify what these factors are, and how they can affect you. However, it is imperative that employers highlight accountability as a winning formula, and make sure that at the end of the day, their employees take responsibility for where they eventually end up.

Link: 3 Essentials for Spontaneously Mentoring Your Star Employees

Image Source:

(1) theoriginalwinger.com

(2) indulgencesandwhims.blogspot.com

Benjamin Lee Cheng Han | Benjamin is a student of International Relations at the University of Nottingham, currently exploring unchartered realms in the Public Relations field. Writing is clearly his interest – a decisive contributor to his foray into the public relations industry. To date, he boasts the proud record of having tamed one of the office cats, and drinking expired tea from the pantry.

Stress can be a b- … well, let’s just leave it at that. In a society where all aspects of life are increasingly interconnected, the integration of stress into our daily lives has also become more prevalent. Too much spillover work from the office, either do overtime or bring work back home? Stress! In-laws dropping by for the weekends, and the house is a mess? Stress! Stress! A stack of articles to be converted into content for the blog? Stress! Stress! Stress!

The textbook approach to stress is by completely ridding yourself off of it. This suggests that you actively attempt to uproot the causes of stress, and remove these negative thoughts and feelings from your life. However, this type of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ mentality can only work in certain scenarios – and dealing with stress isn’t one in which it is particularly effective. Instead, there are other ways in handling stress.

No, standing by and allowing stress to cave-in isn’t quite the most effective way! In the grander scheme of things, stress can actually be used as important tool to not only get by our daily lives, but also to be leveraged as an advantage in dealing with everyday tasks. The key is in identifying the suitable strategies to use stress for good, instead of it being a detrimental, irremovable aspect of life.

As with the image above, how we view stress is dependent on the framework which we use. It could be read as ‘Good’ or ‘Evil’, varying between focus on the black outline or on the white spaces. Similarly, stress can be seen as a pump-up, motivating factor instead of being a malignant mechanism dragging you downwards. The strategy is not in denying or ignoring stress, but engaging with it through a positive lens. 

Another way in dealing with stress is by taking a step back, and not let stress be the definition of you. Instead of allowing stress to be stapled on as a part of your everyday routine, acknowledge it as merely being a response to whatever issues at hand you may be facing. Learn how to unhook from stress. Don’t let it become an emotion that strangles your capacity to deliver results. Redefine it as a feeling you experience, and that will allow you to move forward, without having to constantly think of ways to remove stress.                                            

Stress is a natural response to the myriad of things we face in the world. By focusing on how to combat and remove stress, we introduce more aspects of life to stress over! Instead of completely disconnecting from stress, we should learn how to use stress to our advantage. Stop stressing about stress, okay?

Link: How to Use Stress to Your Advantage

Image Source:

(1) sexyfoodtherapy.com

(2) twitter.com

(3) janetsmithwarfield.com

(4) kauppalehti.fi

Benjamin Lee Cheng Han | Benjamin is a student of International Relations at the University of Nottingham, currently exploring unchartered realms in the Public Relations field. Writing is clearly his interest – a decisive contributor to his foray into the public relations industry. To date, he boasts the proud record of having tamed one of the office cats, and drinking expired tea from the pantry.

Delivering results is an organisational process – achieving sales targets; attending coaching / training sessions; brainstorming ideas for a client proposal – all represent instances whereby expectations are put forth, and expected to be fulfilled. However, when unrealistically high targets are imposed onto organisational personnel, this has the potential to trigger and motivate harmful behaviours amongst those affected.

Either from a managerial perspective (managing those who have been given unreasonable expectations) or from an employee perspective (having been asked to deliver impractical results), there are certain ways in effectively dealing with unrealistic targets which have been requested by those higher up on the organisational ladder. Instead of relying on tactics to achieve short-term results, without considering the impact on the long-term prospects of the organisation, Liane Davey suggests a guideline to managing unrealistic expectations.

Firstly, one should learn how to question unreasonable targets before accepting them as part of your responsibility. This definitely sounds easier than it seems, as you must make sure to not sound as if you are rejecting the goals when you voice out your concerns, which could lead to disastrous career repercussions. The correct approach is by being calm and rational in highlighting your concerns, then provide the necessary facts to substantiate your doubts about the targets.

An alternative approach if you wouldn’t want to advocate for a more reasonable target is by requesting for the resources to get the job done. Instead of changing the initial targets, you can request for options to enhance your capacity in completing the task at hand, such as additional staffing to increase productivity and relieve burden, or tools for reducing administrative burden, either for your team of for yourself.

After deciding the path to achieving the targets, you – either managing the team or as being part of the team – should then have an open discussion to define off-limit options. Tactics such as upselling minimal value products / services or listing unprofitable sales prices to reach targets should be explicitly ruled out from the get-go. By establishing clear boundaries for acceptable and unethical behaviour, you stand to create strong social pressure within the team, so that everyone acts in accordance with preset guidelines.

Although a culture of comparison could have the potential to motivate certain people in reaching their targets, more often than not, they have damaging effects on the mentality and productivity of those working to achieve the target. As an employee, one should avoid using oneself or another as a baseline in gauging success; as a manager, one should be quick to focus on the strategies which are working, instead of the individuals having success.

By applying typical management tactics, they tend to backfire as they do not conform to the added pressure usually associated with unreasonable targets. Even though Liane Davey’s suggestions specify steps to be taken by managers in charge of teams being dealt unfeasible goals, when broken down, these measures apply across all those affected, and should act as a reference point in dealing with unrealistic expectations.

Link: Managing a Team That’s Been Asked to Do Too Much

Image Source:

(1) blog.vernalmgmt.com

(2) businessinsider.com.au

(3) huffingtonpost.co.uk

Benjamin Lee Cheng Han | Benjamin is a student of International Relations at the University of Nottingham, currently exploring unchartered realms in the Public Relations field. Writing is clearly his interest – a decisive contributor to his foray into the public relations industry. To date, he boasts the proud record of having tamed one of the office cats, and drinking expired tea from the pantry.

Starting any business venture is a big step. Do not take it lightly. Research shows that 80% of new businesses fail within the first two years. Yes, scary statistic, and true, but one has to prepare themselves for that eventuality. Not everyone or everything succeeds, and that’s OK. Failure is OK; as with every setback we learn valuable lessons for the future.

Flipside; there are things that we can do to improve our prospects. Lets ask why 80% of these businesses fail? Is it because the entrepreneur’s idea was a failure? Probably not. Is it because the entrepreneurs product was not wanted by the market? Probably not. What it is more likely to be linked to is a deeper understanding of the role of the entrepreneur within the business and its broader environment.

Many entrepreneurs have great ideas. Sparking with endless passion, the entrepreneur knows their product (or service, or design, or whatever) extremely well – better than anyone else. That’s great. But: this knowledge is only one small part of the entrepreneurial equation.

Suddenly, you have a business. Staff that need to be paid. Accounts that need to be kept. Sales that need to be made. An office that needs to be coordinated. Information floods in; but our entrepreneur is still there with his/her great idea. A lack of broader business processes is what leads the charge to failure.

When starting out, it’s important to gain financial literacy. Understand the sales numbers, cost of sales, proportion of overheads to total revenue; and make intelligent decisions from that. Don’t over-borrow to fund your new business – it has to be paid back. Maybe a silent partner or an angel investor – great news, but they will be expecting you to be on top of the numbers too, if not more so than the minimum.

Financial illiteracy is one of the biggest causes of business failure. Accountants, auditors, professional managers undertake years of study and on-the-job experience to learn their way around numbers – you have about a month! It’s a challenge, but the end result will be an entrepreneur who is well able to make informed decisions based on real facts. As much as the passion is important, this is counter-weighted by reality, and the need to see a return on investment, either for the entrepreneur, or their investors.

Likewise, developing interpersonal and human resources skills become essential. Starting out on a low budget often means asking friends, or worse, family, to work for us. A big NO-NO-NO! This is dangerous to the friendship, and hard to be an objective manager over people we know on a social level. Or, we can hire staff. But, we are a start-up – not that attractive to job-seekers. You don’t have a Google or Yahoo office; and are therefore less attractive to potential employees. Ultimately, top echelon staff are hired in more established businesses (or simply become our entrepreneurial competitors), and we are left with a resource pool that is not as ideal as desired.

We have to accept compromises, we may pay a little less; but at the same time, are we ensuring our team is performing to their best available outcomes? Managing people is often a big challenge for new entrepreneurs. It’s not only managing people who understand your offering on the technical level, but others too, on the operational level, such as sales, or accounts. We need to motivate each and every team member.

Moreover, we need to develop our own skills to work with our team – handling leave scheduling, holiday pay, sick leave, EFP and SOCSO, writing contracts (that aren’t going to get us into trouble), and most of all, ensuring our cash flow is in on time to ensure our team get paid on time. The biggest responsibility an entrepreneur has as an employer to ensure their team members are paid on time, so that they can meet their own obligations. Much like the captain goes down with the ship, the entrepreneur should never get paid until the team does.

Another new challenge is marketing. Knowing your consumer, how to reach them, and how to position your offering. Marketing can at times be the biggest shock for entrepreneurs. With such an indepth knowledge of their product, it often becomes difficult to separate out what they need to be telling others, from what they actually tell others. Simple things are taken for granted, and our communication efforts to potential customers might go awry.

Ultimately, an entrepreneur needs a crash course in business. It’s not important to master everything, but a successful entrepreneur understands broad basics, and has a handle on many of the issues that may face the business. And, they learn the ropes fast as the business progresses. This will put them ahead of their game, as they will understand more about what influences their venture than just their own product.

This is where both community and government have to play their part; offering accessible resources for entrepreneurs to develop their craft and gain new appreciation for all things business. Something that we here at Metanoia will move into next year, as the start-up scene in Malaysia is expending tremendously – but the success rate is not changing.

Image Source:

(1)   companyincorporationsg.com

(2)   learninggrank.com

(3)   entrepreneur.com

(4)   tomo360.com

Craig J Selby | Craig is a long-time proponent of structured and measured change. His early career saw him teaching marketing and management at a variety of Universities and PTE’s in his native New Zealand, where he quickly climbed the management ladder to head several private sector institutes. Needing to do that little bit extra, Craig formed his own consultancy firm and was engaged by many in the sector as a trouble-shooter - responsible for internal auditing, restructuring and redevelopment of many departments and institutes in order to remain competitive in a highly contested market. This involvement motivated him to branch out and work with other industries - focussing on change and development as a core theme in business survival. When Craig moved to Malaysia, he went back into the Education sector to share his ideas with local private sector educational facilities. In 2009 Craig co-founded Orchan Consulting Asia, an award-winning Public Relations agency. His areas of specialisation are Crisis Management Communications and Change Management.

Clients are both a necessary and an evil. Whilst on the whole, most are great people, there are a few who fit into other categories. And, that’s ok! After all, we are there to do a job (we don’t have to be the best man or bridesmaid at their wedding), and as such, our level of professionalism towards the client must always be at its highest. What we say behind closed doors in our office however, well, I’ll let you leave that to the imagination.

Managing clients is a tough tightrope to walk. On one end of the spectrum, you can have a very free-and-easy client-supplier relationship, bordering towards friendship, in which the lines of professionalism can become blurred. This, although a positive client-supplier experience, can lead to problems, as deadlines shift when a favour is needed, a little extra work is done here or there and not adequately billed, or one does not know how to say ‘no’ to a request which is outside of the agreed scope. It also creates issues of expectation – the supplier will always be there, 24/7 for the clients, and conversely, as the client likes us, our role is safe. 

Countering this is the client from … lets just say, a difficult client. What makes a difficult client varies – it could simply be a language or communication issue, it could be personal (you just don’t gel, or you genuinely dislike each other), it could be a lack of understanding of respective roles and how they work in symbiosis, or it could be an indecisive or inept client who has bitten off far more than they can chew. Regardless, if your client is a difficult person, it is best to identify the cause of the friction as early as possible and address it. 

If its communication or language, find ways around the issue, and restructure how you communicate to suit that person. After all, we adjust our communication style for nearly everyone we meet anyway; this may just be a few more adjustments. If its personal, look at reassigning people on your team, or putting someone else as the face to the client. Often a change in personality or representative helps a lot, even though the person doing the work or pulling the strings has not really changed. If its ineptitude, and sadly, this happens far too often; educate your client. Help them to understand what you do, how it is done, and how the outcomes help them. Give them pointers to make them feel more empowered, even if they still don’t have a clue what’s going on. Occasionally, take one for the team, and let the clients superiors think they came up with an idea or a strategy, or at least were active participants in it.

But, there are other types of clients too. Clients who are unresponsive. Again, you need to look deeper at why. Is it their workload? Is it their prioritisation? Is it their understanding? Or are other factors at play?

Our job is to uncover these issues, and to work on smoothening the client-supplier relationship. At the end of the day, business is business, and if communication, expectations, and relationships are maintained on a professional level, the client-supplier dynamic should be relatively smooth sailing.

Taking this broad discussion a step further, we can all learn to understand our clients better. This will help build a better relationship between everyone. Clients on the whole are only interested in progress and timely outcomes. They are not so concerned with how or where you work, but that the tasks are done, on time, and to the standard benchmarked. 

In most cases when they ‘freak out’ about something, it is more likely to be about them, than it is you. Clients get frustrated for many reasons, and more often than not you are the straw the breaks the camels back, not the core of the problem. Focus on helping them feel heard, helping them to calm down, and figuring out how you can resolve things. When a client reaches out, this is the chance to be the knight in shining armour. 

Don’t let communication with clients go dark. There are times when the client may drop the ball, or go silent. Keep up the communication from your end. Create an “if we don’t hear from you plan” so that you can continue your work, even if the client is stretched beyond their capacity. Look into other channels of communication to help the client stay on top of things. Pick up that phone. And, if there is a more sinister reason behind their sudden silence, address that ASAP so that things can proceed. 

Managing clients and their expectations is really about open, direct, and regular communication. Get everyone on the same page from the beginning, and streamline the process. Everyone involved will appreciate the clarity. 

Each strategy is going to be different depending on the client, their level of seniority, experience, and involvement with the supplier. Regardless, keeping it professional at all times is the most important.

Personally, I have had clients on both ends of the spectrum. Some I have stayed friends with; others I have not. Inept clients are frustrating, but by maintaining very detailed communication records in black and white, you bases are always covered. By looping others into the experience, it can help shape behavior. And if all else fails, and you are in the position to do so, just agree to disagree, and acknowledge that the chemistry is not great. Sometimes the simple act of acknowledging the tension cuts through it like a knife, and the issue dissipates. 

Image Source: 

(1) cxmmarketinggroup.com

Craig J Selby | Craig is a long-time proponent of structured and measured change. His early career saw him teaching marketing and management at a variety of Universities and PTE’s in his native New Zealand, where he quickly climbed the management ladder to head several private sector institutes. Needing to do that little bit extra, Craig formed his own consultancy firm and was engaged by many in the sector as a trouble-shooter - responsible for internal auditing, restructuring and redevelopment of many departments and institutes in order to remain competitive in a highly contested market. This involvement motivated him to branch out and work with other industries - focussing on change and development as a core theme in business survival. When Craig moved to Malaysia, he went back into the Education sector to share his ideas with local private sector educational facilities. In 2009 Craig co-founded Orchan Consulting Asia, an award-winning Public Relations agency. His areas of specialisation are Crisis Management Communications and Change Management.

The nature of the workplace climate is very akin to that of … (for lack of a better word) nature itself. There are constant shifts which revolve around the organisational structure, such as personnel changes, retrenching of departments, and even promotions amongst colleagues – all of which could potentially disrupt familiarities which we have established for ourselves. The onus is on us to realise the effect of these changes, and respond accordingly. For instance, how should you approach the situation differently when your peer is now your boss / when you are now your peer’s boss?

When a relationship shifts from peer-to-peer to employee-to-manager, it is imperative that both parties accept the new role that is established. As coaching and evaluation of employees are a part of managerial tasks, a certain degree of “social distance” between both parties should be in place, to ensure efficient and effective employee assessment. Sure, existing friendships should not be forgone and ignored. However, the professional relationship between both parties should be acknowledged as well.

After accepting the new roles which both sides have adopted, they should then identify new ways of working together within the organisation. Mutual discussion should address different ways of cooperation going forward – you could explore ways to support your peer-turned-manager in accepting his / her new authority over you; you could demonstrate your willingness in offering guidance from your new-found authority. Both parties are responsible for removing any potential discomfort / unease stemming from the shifting power dynamic, and cooperate to develop new and improved ways of moving forward.

An improved flow of communication must also be determined to further facilitate the new relationship. Previous interpersonal linkages should not affect key concerns within the organisation, and should adhere to professional boundaries. For instance, as a manager, honest comments on workplace commitments should be addressed, even to your closest friends – likewise, as an employee, you should give feedback on organisational policies which you disagree with, even if they were suggested by your buddy-turned-manager.

The ideas shared above were inspired by an article from the Harvard Business Review titled, “What to Do When Your Peer Becomes Your Boss?” by Amy Gallo. Although she only focuses on one aspect of the change of power, I believe that both parties (peer-turned-manager and peer-turned-employee) are responsible for conjoining their efforts in establishing an effective professional relationship. The original article can be found at What to do When Your Peer Becomes Your Boss.

Image Source: Harvard Business Review 

Benjamin Lee Cheng Han | Benjamin is a student of International Relations at the University of Nottingham, currently exploring unchartered realms in the Public Relations field. Writing is clearly his interest – a decisive contributor to his foray into the public relations industry. To date, he boasts the proud record of having tamed one of the office cats, and drinking expired tea from the pantry.

Often, when discussing change or crisis / reputation management, we can identify internal aspects which require attention – personnel engagement, leadership involvement, financial planning…; or that of external factors – competitors’ position, industrial climate, public opinion… Here at Metanoia, we’ve oft provided insight into which phases need emphasis at which particular time – what to do at the beginning of a crisis; steps to initiate effective change management; highlights of maintaining a positive reputation; you get the gist of it.

However, there is a level-zero before everything; before all the planning, before executional ideas are drafted, before crises even occur for contingency procedures are enacted. Level zero is our own brain. Before any strategies are operationalised, there lies yourself – your mindset, established perceptions about the workplace, behavioural habits and practices, etc.

It’s already difficult to change extra-body organisational tasks such as the organisational climate, or leadership engagement with change processes; rewiring our own brains represents no simple feat either. But before initiating change processes, or managing reputational crises, one should first look at improving aspects of our own mindset, aspects which when improved, can further contribute to successful management of extra-personal involvements. Developing refreshed thought processes can have a positive impact not just for the organisation, but for your personal wellbeing as well.

First off, look at creating a conducive environment and personal routine. The mind creates associations between your surroundings and what is absorbed under those circumstances, and familiarises the digested content with the particular surrounding. For instance, writing a proposal whilst having coffee creates the potential for coffee to trigger remembering what was written when presenting it.

Working with adequate breaks also potentially increases productivity, as opposed to working consecutively long hours. By taking periodic breaks, your brain is given due rest, and is given the necessary time to refresh before resuming on tasks at hand. Of course, some jobs require constant and fixated attention – but thirty (30) seconds? One (1) minute? A brief break doesn’t entail a trip to the coffee shop for an Americano, just enough time to reinvigorate your focus.

Although the original article draws direct links on rewiring your brain to become a leader, we here at Metanoia believe these ideas apply on a more holistic level. By changing your mindset positively, you don’t just seek at becoming a better leader, but also for personal betterment, and to more effectively contribute to the organisation.

Ideas for the blogpost are credited to the original article on Entrepreneur, titled ‘Rewiring Your Brain to Become a Better Leader’ by Mike Moradian, Executive Director of HonorSociety.org.

Image Source: linkedin.com

Benjamin Lee Cheng Han | Benjamin is a student of International Relations at the University of Nottingham, currently exploring unchartered realms in the Public Relations field. Writing is clearly his interest – a decisive contributor to his foray into the public relations industry. To date, he boasts the proud record of having tamed one of the office cats, and drinking expired tea from the pantry.

For some of us, the Age of Manufacturing and the Age of Information probably ring a bell. However, as the world is now transforming into the Age of the Customer, business strategies have gradually diverted and been shaped by empowered customers across the world.

Today’s customer-led market has created a paradigm shift in the business environment – from being customer-centric, or customer-focused, to now being customer-obsessed. Think about it, customers today have higher expectations towards a more consistent, and personalised customer experience. Ultimately, it is essential for brands, and companies to meet these expectations as this will show how they value their customers’ needs.

To be clear, we have a number of brands out there which focus on putting their customer first. However, how many have truly succeeded in this? While many brands today pay lip service to customer-centricity, a market research company, Forrester predicted that brands or companies that are “customer-obsessed” will be more likely to take on the advantage from their competitors; especially when a brand has unique stories to tell. Speaking of which, a customer-obsessed company focuses its business strategies that could enhance knowledge of, and engage personally with customers in order to deliver exceptional customer experiences. This is when engagement will be put forth in fulfilling this strategy.

With technology opening up an abundance of engagement opportunities, customers are now not merely just the buyers of products and services, instead, they have now become more actively involved with brands – sharing their voices in shaping up their favourite brand – simply to ensure consistent brand experiences no matter where, when, and how they engage with the brand.

The following article by Zarina Lam Stanford touches on how the evolution of technology has made customer obsession within the reach of organisations.

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The Age of the Digitally Savvy Customer

The explosion of customer data provided by social and digital have put extreme power in the hands of marketers, provided we learn how to wield it. A decade ago, the challenge for brands is to collect insight and data on their customers in order to properly segment them for the right marketing approach.

Today, it is no longer sufficient for brands to own intelligence about customer demographics, past purchase decisions or even what they have browsed through at the last visit.

Data is live. Technology is live. Customers are making decisions in the moment, live. Marketing must therefore be live and ready to deliver that tailored experience involving customers’ past data, present contexts and predicted future behaviours.

Digital disruptors such as Uber and AirBnb have arisen today because they are serving a gap in addressing customer needs, live. These companies have built a business model that is hinged on the evolving customer needs and experience.

However, in today’s cluttered market, where almost 30,000 new products are being introduced into the market every year, identifying that unique market opportunity has become a lot more challenging.

The R&D cycles of the past, where mega products take months in the making, are being challenged in favour of iterating new services in a scalable form until customer needs are met. Savvy, forward-thinking marketing leaders are already looking beyond campaigns to analyse the dynamic, multi-faceted relationships between customers and brands.

Building a Customer Obsessed Brand

Customer obsession is built on three (3) key principles:

Firstly, marketing’s number 1 role is to be relevant and serve a customer need. The first litmus test is always to think about whose needs we are serving and why. This is particularly true in what is emerging to be a C to B world where the consumer is leading businesses and where the customers’ customers are driving the transformation.

Secondly, the days of a single transaction is gone. Today, the obsession with customers has to be built over the entire life cycle of their purchasing experiences, over time and on a repeated basis.

Finally, and most importantly, brands must keep in mind that customers are humans too.

Their lasting relationship with a brand is a blend of their personal and professional experiences through different personas. Customer obsessed brands must think about the human value and purpose that resonate with these personas.

This is what I call humanisation of brands and this will differentiate the customer-obsessed brands from their competitors.

Research by the Harvard Business Review suggests that customers exhibit higher loyalty with brands if they associate with the brand at an emotional level. Brands that successfully connect with customers are fulfilling a deep and unconscious desire, which is highly personal and reflects the sum of the individual values and goals.

To attain this level of customer intimacy, brands must first build a relationship that is anchored on a shared value and purpose between the customer and the brand. Focusing on building this trusting relationship, and understanding when, where and how they want to be engaged, is a far more important criterion today than the next product launch. 

Thanks to technology, digital transformation has become a major driver for businesses and consumers alike. From the way consumers evaluate choices to how supply chains are managed to Internet of Things, technology has allowed brands to reimagine their relationships with customers.

In fact, in a recent study commissioned by SAP of 19,000 consumers of brands within Asia Pacific and Japan, digital experience by consumers strongly correlates to key business-performance metrics such as customer loyalty and advocacy.

However, many today are still struggling to make sense of the deluge of data flowing through the organisation. While organisations now know that data can help marketers make decisions at the right time, using the right means, with the right content, what is more important is to have a single view of the customer across the organisation.

To do this, marketing needs a platform that is capable of breaking down silos of disparate data pools in the organisation. Sales data must merge with social listening, customer profiling, merchandising and even supply-chain data to create a comprehensive matrix of the customer universe.

In the digital age, customer relationships must evolve and look beyond what drives sales to building an emotional connection with customers. Brands with a clear purpose tied to human values will surpass those who don’t.

At the highest level, sophisticated brands today are already making emotional connection with customers, reinventing functions from product development right down to supply chain to centre on them.

Harvard Business Review has revealed that fully connected customers are 52 percent more valuable than those who are just highly satisfied. Can any brand afford not to be customer obsessed?

Inspiration:  Customers Obsession is About Humanising Brands

Image Source:

(1) influitive.com

(2)  linkedin.com

Chia Yi Jing | Bubbling with enthusiasm, bright ideas, and confidence, Yi Jing set foot in the PR world with Orchan Consulting, where she was offered permanent employment after a successful internship. She is determined to make her mark in the industry, and her bosses know that she will. 

Entrepreneurship is a journey, and everyone goes through it a little bit differently to each other. Realising that there is a rise of individuals embracing the field of entrepreneurship, the profound thought that sparks our minds today is “what makes a successful entrepreneur?” That said, individuals who have longstanding passion and interest for their business idea, and are determined to connect with like-minded entrepreneurs have better opportunities to stay ahead of the others.

Starting your own business requires an idea to begin with – this is when entrepreneur is born. A business will only thrive when it is founded with a big idea that works – something that would fulfil the needs and wants of a specific niche market, or something that would further create business opportunity to diversify the products or services for other target markets. 

Most people own the idea, and yet they are unsure of when and how to best execute it. Knowing that ideas play a significantly pertinent role in business, entrepreneurs who embark on this journey has to have the capacity to execute the ideas and turn it into a functional, viable organisation. And if not, they are bound to fail. For many entrepreneurs who are more of a thinker, rather than a doer, this is a frightening notion to know after all. As such, one needs to consistently be in action to be successful while they catch the entrepreneurial bug.

Take a look at the following article and case study from Harvard Business Review (HBR) by Andy Molinsky in which he shares how can idea-oriented entrepreneurs become doers and learn to raise money, pitch to investors, hire, and fire employees — especially when it forces them outside their personal and professional comfort zones?

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Case study: An owner of a software company told me about how anxious he felt making sales to customers. He loved developing the product, and he also enjoyed speaking about the product to potential clients, because he truly believed in it. But when it came time to making the “ask,” he’d freeze. He’d stumble, bumble, and in many cases, simply not even ask for the sale. The CEO of a small consulting firm I spoke with lamented how hard it was for him to spread the word about his company at conferences and networking events because of his introverted and shy nature. And the CEO of a start-up internet company deeply believed in the mission of his company, but struggled morally when pitching potential employees on the “dream” without disclosing the full reality: they might not have enough runway of cash to make it through the month.

The first step is to actually recognise — and own up to — the challenges. None of us likes to admit our weaknesses and flaws, but in order to improve, we have to. Each of the successful entrepreneurs I spoke with ultimately recognised the importance of these necessary but difficult tasks and that, in many cases, they were things they had been avoiding or procrastinating about — to the detriment of their business.

The next critical step is to embrace your purpose and mission, because that is going to give you the motivation and courage to actually take the necessary leap. For example, Maran Nelson, CEO of Clara Labs, said this about the power of conviction with respect to acting outside her comfort zone as a CEO, especially when fundraising: “The most important thing I’ve learned about fundraising is just really fundamentally believing in what you are doing. Knowing that it is good. You have to know what you are doing is good and that it must exist in the world.” Conviction is the feeling, deep down, that what you’re doing — and even struggling with — when acting outside your comfort zone is worth it. That the pain is worth the gain. And given the inherent challenge many tasks present to budding entrepreneurs, having this conviction is a critical part of the puzzle.

Finally, the last piece of advice I learned from speaking with entrepreneurs is the importance of finding your own way. Just as there is no one-size-fits-all strategy for becoming an entrepreneur, there also is no one-size-fits-all strategy for learning to act outside your comfort zone. For example, if you need to pitch to investors but hate asking for money, script out the first few sentences of your message, or bring a colleague with you who makes you feel more confident or who can help with your pitch. Or remind yourself of your mission before stepping into the room, so have purpose top-of-mind, which may make it easier to pitch. Whatever it is, you can find your own way of handling these necessary but difficult moments. The entrepreneurs I spoke with who were successful at acting outside their comfort zones were able to find simple ways like these to be effective, without losing themselves in the process.

In the end, most people equate entrepreneurship with ideas. But for many, the real entrepreneurship happens internally — with the process of stepping up, having courage, and doing things that you never thought you’d be able to do. By flexing your behaviour and learning to act outside your comfort zone, you’ll be well on your way toward achieving your goals.

Inspiration: Being a Successful Entrepreneur Isn’t Only About Having the Best Ideas

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Chia Yi Jing | Bubbling with enthusiasm, bright ideas, and confidence, Yi Jing set foot in the PR world with Orchan Consulting, where she was offered permanent employment after a successful internship. She is determined to make her mark in the industry, and her bosses know that she will.