<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss version="2.0"
	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
	xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom"
	xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/"
	xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/"
	>

<channel>
	<title>The web economy blog</title>
	<atom:link href="http://www.stalkked.com/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://www.stalkked.com</link>
	<description>Web economy blog  with advice on internet economy and changing economic trends. Web economy blog with focus on future economy.</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Thu, 02 Sep 2010 06:48:21 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2</generator>
	<language>en</language>
	<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
	<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
			<item>
		<title>Performance Management</title>
		<link>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/09/02/performance-management/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/09/02/performance-management/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Sep 2010 06:48:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Management]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stalkked.com/?p=238</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Performance management includes activities to ensure that goals are consistently being met in an effective and efficient manner. Performance management can focus on the performance of an organization, a department, employee, or even the processes to build a product or service, as well as many other areas.
Performance Management as referenced on this page is a [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.stalkked.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Performance_management.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-239" title="Performance_management" src="http://www.stalkked.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Performance_management-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" /></a></p>
<p>Performance management includes activities to ensure that goals are consistently being met in an effective and efficient manner. Performance management can focus on the performance of an organization, a department, employee, or even the processes to build a product or service, as well as many other areas.</p>
<p>Performance Management as referenced on this page is a broad term. See Aubrey Daniels for a detailed explanation of the origin of the term Performance Management (PM) which was coined by Dr. Aubrey C. Daniels in the late 1970s to describe a technology (i.e., science imbedded in applications methods) for managing both behavior and results, the two critical elements of what is known as performance.</p>
<p><strong>Where PM is applied</strong></p>
<p>The PM approach is used most often in the workplace but applies wherever people interact—schools, churches, community meetings, sports teams, health setting, governmental agencies, and even political settings. PM principles are needed wherever in the world people interact with their environments to produce desired effects. Cultures are different but the laws of behavior are the same worldwide. Armstrong and baron (1998) defined it as “A strategic and integrated approach to increasing the effectiveness of organizations by improving the performance of the people who work in them and by developing the capabilities of teams and individual contributors”</p>
<p>It is possible to get all employees to reconcile personal goals with organizational goals. One can turn around any marginal business and increase productivity and profitability for any organization, with the transparent and hidden forces embedded in this process. It can be applied by organisations or a single department or section inside an organisation; as well as an individual person.</p>
<p>The process is a natural, self-inspired performance process and are appropriately named the self-propelled performance process (SPPP).</p>
<p>It is claimed that the self-propelled performance management system is:</p>
<p>1. the fastest known method for career promotion;</p>
<p>2. the quickest way for career advancement;</p>
<p>3. the surest way for career progress;</p>
<p>4. the best ingredient in career path planning;</p>
<p>5. the only true and lasting virtue for career success;</p>
<p>6. the most neglected part in teachings about management and leadership principles;</p>
<p>7. the most complete and sophisticated application of performance management;</p>
<p>8. the best integration of human behaviour research findings, with the latest management, leadership and organisational development principles;</p>
<p>9. the best automated method for organisational change, development, growth, performance and profit;</p>
<p>10. the surest and fastest way for increased motivation, productivity, growth, performance and profitability for both the individual and the organisation;</p>
<p>11. the best career builder and career booster for any career; and</p>
<p>12. inspirational, as it gets people moving, makes them self-starters in utilising own talents and initiative, automatically like magic.</p>
<p>First of all, deriving from the strategic plan, a commitment analysis must be done, where a job mission statement is drawn up for each job. The job mission statement is a job definition in terms of purpose, customers, product and scope. The aim with this analysis is to determine the continuous key objectives and performance standards for each job position.</p>
<p>Following the commitment analysis, is the work analysis of a particular job in terms of the reporting structure and job description. If a job description is not available, then a systems analysis can be done to draw up a job description. The aim with this analysis is to determine the continuous critical objectives and performance standards for each job.</p>
<p><strong>Benefits</strong></p>
<p>Managing employee or system performance facilitates the effective delivery of strategic and operational goals. There is a clear and immediate correlation between using performance management programs or software and improved business and organizational results.</p>
<p>For employee performance management, using integrated software, rather than a spreadsheet based recording system, may deliver a significant return on investment through a range of direct and indirect sales benefits, operational efficiency benefits and by unlocking the latent potential in every employees work day i.e. the time they spend not actually doing their job. Benefits may include :</p>
<p><strong>Direct financial gain</strong></p>
<p>* Grow sales</p>
<p>* Reduce costs</p>
<p>* Stop project overruns</p>
<p>* Aligns the organization directly behind the CEO&#8217;s goals</p>
<p>* Decreases the time it takes to create strategic or operational changes by communicating the changes through a new set of goals</p>
<p><strong>Motivated workforce</strong></p>
<p>* Optimizes incentive plans to specific goals for over achievement, not just business as usual</p>
<p>* Improves employee engagement because everyone understands how they are directly contributing to the organisations high level goals</p>
<p>* Create transparency in achievement of goals</p>
<p>* High confidence in bonus payment process</p>
<p>* Professional development programs are better aligned directly to achieving business level goals</p>
<p><strong>Improved management control</strong></p>
<p>* Flexible, responsive to management needs</p>
<p>* Displays data relationships</p>
<p>* Helps audit / comply with legislative requirements</p>
<p>* Simplifies communication of strategic goals scenario planning</p>
<p>* Provides well documented and communicated process documentation</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/09/02/performance-management/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Team Building</title>
		<link>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/09/01/team-building/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/09/01/team-building/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Sep 2010 04:20:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Management]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stalkked.com/?p=234</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Team building refers to a wide range of activities, presented to businesses, schools, and sports teams, religious or nonprofit organizations designed for improving team performance. Team building is pursued via a variety of practices, and can range from simple bonding exercises to complex simulations and multi-day team building retreats designed to develop a team (including [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.stalkked.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/team_building1.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-236" title="team_building" src="http://www.stalkked.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/team_building1-300x219.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="219" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Team building</strong> refers to a wide range of activities, presented to businesses, schools, and sports teams, religious or nonprofit organizations designed for improving team performance. Team building is pursued via a variety of practices, and can range from simple bonding exercises to complex simulations and multi-day team building retreats designed to develop a team (including group assessment and group-dynamic games), usually falling somewhere in between. It generally sits within the theory and practice of organizational development, but can also be applied to sports teams, school groups, and other contexts. Team building is not to be confused with &#8220;team recreation&#8221; that consists of activities for teams that are strictly recreational. Teambuilding is an important factor in any environment, its focus is to specialize in bringing out the best in a team to ensure self development, positive communication, leadership skills and the ability to work closely together as a team to problem solve.</p>
<p>Work environments tend to focus on individuals and personal goals, with reward &amp; recognition singling out the achievements of individual employees. &#8220;How to create effective teams is a challenge in every organization&#8221; Team building can also refer to the process of selecting or creating a team from scratch.</p>
<p><strong>Reasons for Team Building</strong></p>
<p>Reasons for Team Building include</p>
<ul>
<li>Improving communication</li>
<li>Making the workplace more enjoyable</li>
<li>Motivating a team</li>
<li>Getting to know each other</li>
<li>Getting everyone &#8220;onto the same page&#8221;, including goal setting</li>
<li>Teaching the team self-regulation strategies</li>
<li>Helping participants to learn more about themselves (strengths and weaknesses)</li>
<li>Identifying and utilizing the strengths of team members</li>
<li>Improving team productivity</li>
<li>Practicing effective collaboration with team members</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>What are Team Building Exercises and what is their purpose?</strong></p>
<p>Team building exercises consist of a variety of tasks designed to develop group members and their ability to work together effectively. There are many types of team building activities that range from kids games to games that involve novel complex tasks and are designed for specific needs. There are also more complex team building exercises that are composed of multiple exercises such as ropes courses, corporate drumming and exercises that last over several days. The purpose of team building exercises is to assist teams in becoming cohesive units of individuals that can effectively work together to complete tasks.</p>
<p><strong>Types of Team Building Exercises</strong></p>
<p><strong>Communication Exercise</strong><strong></strong></p>
<p>This type of team building exercise is exactly what it sounds like. Communications exercises are problem solving activities that are geared towards improving communication skills. The issues teams encounter in these exercises are solved by communicating effectively with each other.</p>
<p>• Goal: Create an activity which highlights the importance of good communication in team performance and/or potential problems with communication.</p>
<p><strong>Problem Solving/Decision Making Exercise</strong><strong></strong></p>
<p>Problem Solving/Decision making exercises focus specifically on groups working together to solve difficult problems or make complex decisions. These exercises are some of the most common as they appear to have the most direct link to what employers want their teams to be able to do.</p>
<p>• Goal: Give team a problem in which the solution is not easily apparent or requires the team to come up with a creative solution</p>
<p><strong>Planning/Adaptability Exercise</strong><strong></strong></p>
<p>These exercises focus on aspects of planning and being adaptable to change. These are important things for teams to be able to do when they are assigned complex tasks or decisions.</p>
<p>• Goal: Show the importance of planning before implementing a solution</p>
<p><strong>Trust Exercise</strong><strong></strong></p>
<p>A trust exercise involves engaging team members in a way that will induce trust between them. They are sometimes difficult exercises to implement as there are varying degrees of trust between individuals and varying degrees of individual comfort trusting others in general.</p>
<p>• Goal: Create trust between team members</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/09/01/team-building/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Skills Management</title>
		<link>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/31/skills-management/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/31/skills-management/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:39:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Management]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stalkked.com/?p=230</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Skills management is the practice of understanding, developing and deploying people and their skills. Well-implemented skills management should identify the skills that job roles require, the skills of individual employees, and any gap between the two.
Overview
The skills involved can be defined by the organization concerned, or by third party institutions. They are usually defined in [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.stalkked.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Skills-management.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-231" title="Skills management" src="http://www.stalkked.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Skills-management-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Skills management</strong> is the practice of understanding, developing and deploying people and their skills. Well-implemented skills management should identify the skills that job roles require, the skills of individual employees, and any gap between the two.</p>
<p><strong>Overview</strong></p>
<p>The skills involved can be defined by the organization concerned, or by third party institutions. They are usually defined in terms of a skills framework, also known as a competency framework or skills matrix. This consists of a list of skills, and a grading system, with a definition of what it means to be at particular level for a given skill.</p>
<p>To be most useful, skills management needs to be conducted as an ongoing process, with individuals assessing and updating their recorded skill sets regularly. These updates should occur at least as frequently as employees&#8217; regular line manager reviews, and certainly when their skill sets have changed.</p>
<p>Skills management <em>systems</em> record the results of this process in a database, and allow analysis of the data.</p>
<p>In order to perform the functions of management and to assume multiple roles, managers must be skilled. Robert Katz identified three managerial skills that are essential to successful management: technical, human, and conceptual*. Technical skill involves process or technique knowledge and proficiency. Managers use the processes, techniques and tools of a specific area. Human skill involves the ability to interact effectively with people. Managers interact and cooperate with employees. Conceptual skill involves the formulation of ideas. Managers understand abstract relationships, develop ideas, and solve problems creatively. Thus, technical skill deals with things, human skill concerns people, and conceptual skill has to do with ideas.</p>
<p>A manager&#8217;s level in the organization determines the relative importance of possessing technical, human, and conceptual skills. Top level managers need conceptual skills in order to view the organization as a whole. Conceptual skills are used in planning and dealing with ideas and abstractions. Supervisors need technical skills to manage their area of specialty. All levels of management need human skills in order to interact and communicate with other people successfully.</p>
<p>As the pace of change accelerates and diverse technologies converge, new global industries are being created (for example, telecommunications). Technological change alters the fundamental structure of firms and calls for new organizational approaches and management skills.</p>
<p><strong>Employees who benefit</strong></p>
<p>Skills management provides a structured approach to developing individual and collective skills, and gives a common vocabulary for discussing skills. As well as this general benefit, three groups of employees receive specific benefits from skills management.</p>
<p><strong>Individual employees</strong></p>
<p>As a result of skills management, employees should be aware of the skills their job requires, and any skills gaps that they have. Depending on their employer, it may also result in a personal development plan (PDP) of training to bridge some or all of those skills gaps over a given period.</p>
<p><strong>Line managers</strong></p>
<p>Skills management enables managers to know the skill strengths and weaknesses of employees reporting to them. It can also enable them to search for employees with particular skill sets (e.g., to fill a role on a particular job.)</p>
<p><strong>Organization executives</strong></p>
<p>A rolled-up view of skills and skills gaps across an organization can enable its executives to see areas of skill strength and weakness. This enables them to plan for the future against the current and future abilities of staff, as well as to priorities areas for skills development.<span id="_marker"> </span></p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/31/skills-management/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Management Styles</title>
		<link>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/30/management-styles/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/30/management-styles/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:39:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Management]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stalkked.com/?p=227</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Management styles are characteristic ways of making decisions and relating to subordinates. Different management styles can be employed dependent on the culture of the business, the nature of the task, the nature of the workforce and the personality and skills of the leaders. This idea was further developed by Robert Tannenbaum and Warren H. Schmidt [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.stalkked.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/management-styles.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-228" title="management-styles" src="http://www.stalkked.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/management-styles-300x204.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="204" /></a></p>
<p>Management styles are characteristic ways of making decisions and relating to subordinates. Different management styles can be employed dependent on the culture of the business, the nature of the task, the nature of the workforce and the personality and skills of the leaders. This idea was further developed by Robert Tannenbaum and Warren H. Schmidt (1958, 1973) who argued that the style of leadership is dependent upon the prevailing circumstance; therefore leaders should exercise a range of management styles and should deploy them as appropriate..</p>
<p><strong>Autocratic</strong></p>
<p>An Autocratic style means that the manager makes decisions unilaterally, and without much regard for subordinates. As a result, decisions will reflect the opinions and personality of the manager; this in turn can project an image of a confident, well managed business. On the other hand, subordinates may become overly dependent upon the leaders and more supervision may be needed.</p>
<p>There are two types of autocratic leaders:</p>
<ul>
<li>the Directive Autocrat makes decisions unilaterally and closely supervises subordinates;</li>
<li>the Permissive Autocrat makes decisions unilaterally, but gives subordinates latitude in carrying out their work.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Paternalistic</strong></p>
<p>A more <strong>Paternalistic</strong> form is also essentially dictatorial; however, decisions take into account the best interests of the employees as well as the business. A good example of this would be David Brent or Michael Scott running the business in the fictional television shows <em>The Office</em>. The leader explains most decisions to the employees and ensures that their social and leisure needs are always met. This can help balance out the lack of worker motivation caused by an autocratic management style. Communication is again generally downward, but feedback to the management is encouraged to maintain morale. This style can be highly advantageous when it engenders loyalty from the employees, leading to a lower labor turnover, thanks to the emphasis on social needs. It shares disadvantages with an autocratic style, such as employees becoming dependent on the leader..</p>
<p><strong>Democratic</strong></p>
<p>In a <strong>Democratic</strong> style, the manager allows the employees to take part in decision-making: therefore everything is agreed by the majority. The communication is extensive in both directions (from subordinates to leaders and vice-versa). This style can be particularly useful when complex decisions need to be made that require a range of specialist skills: for example, when a new ICT system needs to be put in place, and the upper management of the business is computer-illiterate. From the overall business&#8217;s point of view, job satisfaction and quality of work will improve. However, the decision-making process is severely slowed down, and the need of a consensus may avoid taking the &#8216;best&#8217; decision for the business. It can go against a better choice of action.<br />
As the autocratic leaders, democratic leaders are also two types i.e. permissive and directive.</p>
<p><strong>Laissez-faire</strong></p>
<p>In a <strong>Laissez-faire</strong> leadership style, the leader&#8217;s role is peripheral and staff manage their own areas of the business; the leader therefore evades the duties of management and uncoordinated delegation occurs. The communication in this style is horizontal, meaning that it is equal in both directions, however very little communication occurs in comparison with other styles. The style brings out the best in highly professional and creative groups of employees, however in many cases it is not deliberate and is simply a result of poor management. This leads to a lack of staff focus and sense of direction, which in turn leads to much dissatisfaction, and a poor company image.</p>
<p>We could perhaps include &#8220;accountable hierarchies&#8221; as a sub group here. Please see &#8220;Elliot Jacques&#8221; in reference to this&#8217;</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/30/management-styles/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Management Consulting</title>
		<link>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/27/management-consulting/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/27/management-consulting/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Aug 2010 09:45:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Management]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stalkked.com/?p=224</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Management consulting indicates both the industry of, and the practice of, helping organizations improve their performance, primarily through the analysis of existing business problems and development of plans for improvement.
Organizations hire the services of management consultants for a number of reasons, including gaining external (and presumably objective) advice and access to the consultants&#8217; specialized expertise.
Because [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.stalkked.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Management-Consulting.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-225" title="Management Consulting" src="http://www.stalkked.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Management-Consulting-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Management consulting</strong> indicates both the industry of, and the practice of, helping organizations improve their performance, primarily through the analysis of existing business problems and development of plans for improvement.</p>
<p>Organizations hire the services of management consultants for a number of reasons, including gaining external (and presumably objective) advice and access to the consultants&#8217; specialized expertise.</p>
<p>Because of their exposure to and relationships with numerous organizations, consulting firms are also said to be aware of industry &#8220;best practices&#8221;, although the transferability of such practices from one organization to another may be problematic depending on the situation under consideration.</p>
<p>Consultancies may also provide organizational change management assistance, development of coaching skills, technology implementation, strategy development, or operational improvement services. Management consultants generally bring their own, proprietary methodologies or frameworks to guide the identification of problems, and to serve as the basis for recommendations for more effective or efficient ways of performing business tasks.</p>
<p>Management consulting grew with the rise of management as a unique field of study. The first management consulting firm was Arthur D. Little, founded in 1886 by the MIT professor of the same name.<sup>]</sup> Though Arthur D. Little later became a general management consultancy, it originally specialized in technical research. Booz Allen Hamilton was founded by Edwin G. Booz, a graduate of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, in 1914 as a management consultancy and the first to serve both industry and government clients.</p>
<p>After World War II, a number of new management consulting firms formed, most notably Boston Consulting Group, founded in 1963, which brought a rigorous analytical approach to the study of management and strategy. Work done at Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey, Booz Allen Hamilton, and the Harvard Business School during the 1960s and 70s developed the tools and approaches that would define the new field of strategic management, setting the groundwork for many consulting firms to follow. In 1983, Harvard Business School&#8217;s influence on the industry continued with the founding of Monitor Group by six professors.</p>
<p>One of the reasons why management consulting grew first in the USA is because of deep cultural factors: it was accepted there, (contrary to say, Europe), that management and boards alike might not be competent in all circumstances; therefore, buying external competency was seen as a normal way to solve a business problem. This is referred to as a &#8220;contractual&#8221; relation to management. By contrast, in Europe, management is connected with emotional and cultural dimensions, where the manager is bound to be competent at all times. This is referred to as the &#8220;pater familias&#8221; pattern. Therefore seeking (and paying for) external advice was seen as inappropriate. However, it is sometimes argued that in those days the average level of education of the executives was significantly lower in the USA than in Europe, where managers were Grandes Ecoles graduates (France) or &#8220;Doktor&#8221; (Germany), though this is very difficult to quantify given the vastly differing management structures in American and European businesses.</p>
<p>It was only after World War II, in the wake of the development of the international trade led by the USA, that management consulting emerged in Europe. The current trend in the market is a clear segmentation of management consulting firms.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/27/management-consulting/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Promotion (Marketing)</title>
		<link>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/26/promotion-marketing/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/26/promotion-marketing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 26 Aug 2010 04:30:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Management]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stalkked.com/?p=221</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Promotion is one of the four elements of marketing mix (product, price, promotion, distribution). It is the communication link between sellers and buyers for the purpose of influencing, informing, or persuading a potential buyer&#8217;s purchasing decision.
The following are two types of Promotion:

Above the line promotion:      Promotion in the media (e.g. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.stalkked.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Promotion-marketing.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-222" title="Promotion (marketing)" src="http://www.stalkked.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Promotion-marketing-278x300.jpg" alt="" width="278" height="300" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Promotion</strong> is one of the four elements of marketing mix (product, price, promotion, distribution). It is the communication link between sellers and buyers for the purpose of influencing, informing, or persuading a potential buyer&#8217;s purchasing decision.</p>
<p><strong>The following are two types of Promotion:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Above the line promotion</strong>:      Promotion in the media (e.g. TV, radio, newspapers, Internet, Mobile      Phones, and, historically, illustrated songs) in which the advertiser pays      an advertising agency to place the ad</li>
<li><strong>Below the line promotion</strong>: All      other promotion. Much of this is intended to be subtle enough for the consumer      to be unaware that promotion is taking place. E.g. sponsorship, product      placement, endorsements, sales promotion, merchandising, direct mail,      personal selling, public relations, trade shows</li>
</ul>
<p>The specification of five elements creates a promotional mix or promotional plan. These elements are personal selling, advertising, sales promotion, direct marketing, and publicity. A promotional mix specifies how much attention to pay to each of the five subcategories, and how much money to budget for each. A promotional plan can have a wide range of objectives, including: sales increases, new product acceptance, creation of brand equity, positioning, competitive retaliations, or creation of a corporate image. Fundamentally, however there are three basic objectives of promotion. These are: 1.) To present information to consumers as well as others 2.)To increase demand 3.)To differentiate a product.</p>
<p>There are different ways to promote a product in different areas of media. Promoters use internet advertisement, special events, endorsements, and newspapers to advertise their product. Many times with the purchase of a product there is an incentive like discounts, free items, or a contest. This is to increase the sales of a given product.</p>
<p>The term &#8220;promotion&#8221; is usually an &#8220;in&#8221; expression used internally by the marketing company, but not normally to the public or the market &#8211; phrases like &#8220;special offer&#8221; are more common. An example of a fully integrated, long-term, large-scale promotion are My Coke Rewards and Pepsi Stuff.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/26/promotion-marketing/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Marketing Management</title>
		<link>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/25/marketing-management/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/25/marketing-management/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 25 Aug 2010 04:38:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Management]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stalkked.com/?p=218</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Marketing Management is a business discipline which is focused on the practical application of marketing techniques and the management of a firm&#8217;s marketing resources and activities. Rapidly emerging forces of globalization have compelled firms to market beyond the borders of their home country making International marketing highly significant and an integral part of a firm&#8217;s [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.stalkked.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Marketing-management.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-219" title="Marketing management" src="http://www.stalkked.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Marketing-management-300x177.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="177" /></a></p>
<p>Marketing Management is a business discipline which is focused on the practical application of marketing techniques and the management of a firm&#8217;s marketing resources and activities. Rapidly emerging forces of globalization have compelled firms to market beyond the borders of their home country making International marketing highly significant and an integral part of a firm&#8217;s marketing strategy. Marketing managers are often responsible for influencing the level, timing, and composition of customer demand accepted definition of the term. In part, this is because the role of a marketing manager can vary significantly based on a business&#8217; size, corporate culture, and industry context. For example, in a large consumer products company, the marketing manager may act as the overall general manager of his or her assigned product To create an effective, cost-efficient Marketing management strategy, firms must possess a detailed, objective understanding of their own business and the market in which they operate. In analyzing these issues, the discipline of marketing management often overlaps with the related discipline of strategic planning.</p>
<p><strong>Structure</strong></p>
<p>Traditionally, marketing analysis was structured into three areas: Customer analysis, Company analysis, and Competitor analysis (so-called &#8220;3Cs&#8221; analysis). More recently, it has become fashionable in some marketing circles to divide these further into certain five &#8220;Cs&#8221;: Customer analysis, Company analysis, Collaborator analysis, Competitor analysis, and analysis of the industry Context.</p>
<p>Customer analysis is to develop a schematic diagram for market segmentation, breaking down the market into various constituent groups of customers, which are called customer segments or market segmentations. Marketing managers work to develop detailed profiles of each segment, focusing on any number of variables that may differ among the segments: demographic, psychographic, geographic, behavioral, needs-benefit, and other factors may all be examined. Marketers also attempt to track these segments&#8217; perceptions of the various products in the market using tools such as perceptual mapping.</p>
<p>In company analysis, marketers focus on understanding the company&#8217;s cost structure and cost position relative to competitors, as well as working to identify a firm&#8217;s core competencies and other competitively distinct company resources. Marketing managers may also work with the accounting department to analyze the profits the firm is generating from various product lines and customer accounts. The company may also conduct periodic brand audits to assess the strength of its brands and sources of brand equity.</p>
<p>The firm&#8217;s collaborators may also be profiled, which may include various suppliers, distributors and other channel partners, joint venture partners, and others. An analysis of complementary products may also be performed if such products exist.</p>
<p>Marketing management employs various tools from economics and competitive strategy to analyze the industry context in which the firm operates. These include Porter&#8217;s five forces, analysis of strategic groups of competitors, value chain analysis and others. Depending on the industry, the regulatory context may also be important to examine in detail.</p>
<p>In Competitor analysis, marketers build detailed profiles of each competitor in the market, focusing especially on their relative competitive strengths and weaknesses using SWOT analysis. Marketing managers will examine each competitor&#8217;s cost structure, sources of profits, resources and competencies, competitive positioning and product differentiation, degree of vertical integration, historical responses to industry developments, and other factors.</p>
<p>Marketing management often finds it necessary to invest in research to collect the data required to perform accurate marketing analysis. As such, they often conduct market research (alternately marketing research) to obtain this information. Marketers employ a variety of techniques to conduct market research, but some of the more common include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Qualitative      marketing research, such as focus groups</li>
<li>Quantitative      marketing research, such as statistical surveys</li>
<li>Experimental      techniques such as test markets</li>
<li>Observational      techniques such as ethnographic (on-site) observation</li>
</ul>
<p>Marketing managers may also design and oversee various environmental scanning and competitive intelligence processes to help identify trends and inform the company&#8217;s marketing analysis.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/25/marketing-management/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Communications Management</title>
		<link>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/24/communications-management/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/24/communications-management/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 24 Aug 2010 05:45:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Management]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stalkked.com/?p=213</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Communications management is the systematic planning, implementing, monitoring, and revision of all the channels of communication within an organization, and between organizations; it also includes the organization and dissemination of new communication directives connected with an organization, network, or communications technology. Aspects of communications management include developing corporate communication strategies, designing internal and external communications [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.stalkked.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Communications-Management.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-214" title="Communications Management" src="http://www.stalkked.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Communications-Management.jpg" alt="" width="375" height="250" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Communications management</strong> is the systematic planning, implementing, monitoring, and revision of all the channels of communication within an organization, and between organizations; it also includes the organization and dissemination of new communication directives connected with an organization, network, or communications technology. Aspects of communications management include developing corporate communication strategies, designing internal and external communications directives, and managing the flow of information, including online communication. New technology forces constant innovation on the part of communications managers.</p>
<p>As a manager, one must take a contingency approach to communicating with their employees and communicate on a personal level. It’s the manager’s responsibility to determine if their employee’s personality falls under the following: Reactors, Workaholics, Persisters, Dreamers, Rebels, or Promoters.</p>
<p><strong>Communication management and project management</strong></p>
<p>In project management, communication management must address the following questions:</p>
<ul>
<li>What      information needs to flow in and out of the project?</li>
<li>Who needs      what information?</li>
<li>When is      the information needed?</li>
<li>What is      the format of the information?</li>
<li>Who will      be responsible for transmitting and providing the information?</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>The weekly reporting method</strong></p>
<p>One simple and popular communications method is called the weekly reporting method: every employee composes an e-mail report, once a week, including information on their activities in the preceding week, their plans for the following week, and any other information deemed relevant to the larger group, bearing in mind length considerations. Reports are sent to managers, who summarize and report to their own managers, eventually leading to an overall summary led by the CEO, which is then sent to the board of directors. The CEO then sends the board&#8217;s summary back down the ladder, where each manager can append an additional summary or note before referring it to their employees.</p>
<p>Eventually, each employee will receive a long e-mail, containing many or all of the above-mentioned summaries, from every level of management; reading the full result is rarely a requirement. Curious or ambitious employees are considered more likely to read the result; task-centered employees, however, are not.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/24/communications-management/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Customer Relationship Management(CRM)</title>
		<link>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/23/customer-relationship-managementcrm/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/23/customer-relationship-managementcrm/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:16:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Management]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stalkked.com/?p=210</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a broadly recognized, widely-implemented strategy for managing and nurturing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support. The overall goals are to find, attract, and win [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.stalkked.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Customer-relationship-management.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-211" title="Customer relationship management" src="http://www.stalkked.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Customer-relationship-management.jpg" alt="" width="280" height="281" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Customer relationship management (CRM)</strong> is a broadly recognized, widely-implemented strategy for managing and nurturing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support. The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new clients, nurture and retain those the company already has, entice former clients back into the fold, and reduce the costs of marketing and client service. Customer relationship management denotes a company-wide business strategy embracing all client-facing departments and even beyond. When an implementation is effective, people, processes, and technology work in synergy to increase profitability, and reduce operational costs.</p>
<h3>Benefits</h3>
<p>These tools have been shown to help companies attain these objectives:</p>
<ul>
<li>Streamlined      sales and marketing processes</li>
<li>Higher      sales productivity</li>
<li>Added cross-selling      and up-selling</li>
<li>Improved      service, loyalty, and retention</li>
<li>Increased call      center efficiency</li>
<li>Higher      close rates</li>
<li>Better      profiling and targeting</li>
<li>Reduced expenses</li>
<li>Increased market      share</li>
<li>Higher      overall profitability</li>
<li>Marginal      costing</li>
</ul>
<h3><strong>Related Trends</strong></h3>
<p>Many CRM vendors offer Web-based tools (cloud computing) and software as a service (SaaS), which are accessed via a secure Internet connection and displayed in a Web browser. These applications are sold as subscriptions, with customers not needing to invest in the acquisition and maintenance of IT hardware, and subscription fees are a fraction of the cost of purchasing software outright.</p>
<h3>Phases of CRM</h3>
<p>The three phases in which CRM can help to support the relationship between a business and its customers are, to:</p>
<ul>
<li>Acquire: a      CRM can help a business in acquiring new customers through excellent      contact management, direct marketing, selling and fulfillment.</li>
<li>Enhance: a      web-enabled CRM combined with customer service tools offers customers      excellent service from a team of trained and skilled sales and service      specialists, which offers customers the convenience of one-stop shopping.</li>
<li>Retain:      CRM software and databases enable a business to identify and reward its      loyal customers and further develop its targeted marketing and      relationship marketing initiatives.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Challenges</h3>
<p>Despite the benefits, many companies are still not fully leveraging these tools and services to align marketing, sales, and service to best serve the enterprise.</p>
<p>Tools and workflows can be complex to implement, especially for large enterprises. Previously these tools were generally limited to contact management: monitoring and recording interactions and communications. Software solutions then expanded to embrace deal tracking, territories, opportunities, and at the sales pipeline itself. Next came the advent of tools for other client-facing business functions, as described below. These technologies have been, and still are, offered as on-premises software that companies purchase and run on their own IT infrastructure.</p>
<p>Often, implementations are fragmented; isolated initiatives by individual departments to address their own needs. Systems that start disunited usually stay that way: siloed thinking and decision processes frequently lead to separate and incompatible systems, and dysfunctional processes.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/23/customer-relationship-managementcrm/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Facility Management</title>
		<link>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/19/facility-management/</link>
		<comments>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/19/facility-management/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 19 Aug 2010 05:08:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Management]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.stalkked.com/?p=207</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[
Facility management is an interdisciplinary field primarily devoted to the maintenance and care of commercial or institutional buildings, such as hospitals, clinics, hotels, resorts, schools, office complexes, sports arenas or convention centers. Duties may include the care of air conditioning, electric power, plumbing and lighting systems; cleaning; decoration; groundskeeping and security. Some or all of [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.stalkked.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Facility-management.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-208" title="Facility management" src="http://www.stalkked.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Facility-management.jpg" alt="" width="335" height="237" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Facility management</strong> is an interdisciplinary field primarily devoted to the maintenance and care of commercial or institutional buildings, such as hospitals, clinics, hotels, resorts, schools, office complexes, sports arenas or convention centers. Duties may include the care of air conditioning, electric power, plumbing and lighting systems; cleaning; decoration; groundskeeping and security. Some or all of these duties can be assisted by computer programs. These duties can be thought of as non-core or support services, because they are not the primary business (taken in the broadest sense of the word) of the owner organization.</p>
<p>It is the role of the facility management function (whether it is a separate department or small team) to coordinate and oversee the safe, secure, and environmentally-sound operations and maintenance of these assets in a cost effective manner aimed at long-term preservation of the asset value, and also other janitorial duties such as making sure the environment is properly cleaned and sanitized for its tenants. In those cases where the operation of the facility directly involves the occupants and/or customers of the owner organization, the satisfactory delivery of facility-related services to these people will be an important consideration too; hence, the term &#8220;end-user satisfaction&#8221; is often used both as a goal and a measure of performance.</p>
<p>The term facility management is similar to property management although not exactly the same. While both manage the day to day operations of a facility the property such as cleaning, maintenance and security, similar to Janitors, one must not confuse it with such a title. The property manager has an expanded role which includes leasing and marketing activities whereas the facility manager role focuses on existing tenants who usually are owner occupants. An important feature of facility management is that it takes account of human needs of its tenants in the use of buildings and other constructed facilities. These softer factors complement the harder factors associated with the maintenance and care of engineering services installations.</p>
<p>According to Atkin and Brooks, an important concept in the facility management field is that of outsourcing, where the owner enters into an arrangement with external organizations to provide one or more services in preference to their being provided through internal arrangements. The reasons for this action can vary, including lack of in-house resources, lack of expertise and pressure to reduce costs. Unfortunately, confusion can exist because of the close association that facility management has with outsourcing. The two concepts are not synonymous; rather, outsourcing is one means for providing facility-related services to the owner organization.</p>
<p>Facility management is performed during the operational phase of a building’s life cycle, which normally extends over many decades. As such, it will represent a continuous process of service provision to support the owner’s core business and one where improvement will be sought on a continuous basis. It is essential that decision-making in the preceding design and construction phases is therefore properly informed about operational requirements if the facility is to provide optimal support to the owner’s business. In this connection, facility management can be seen as an integral part of a coordinated and controlled process of design, engineering, construction and operations. Where a facility is provided on a turnkey basis, for example design-build-finance-operate (DBFO), the consortium responsible for the delivery of the physical asset and then operating the core service will need to understand implicitly the day-to-day demands in managing that facility. Under such arrangements – typically public-private partnerships (PPP) – owner-operators must fully integrate operational thinking into early design decision-making.</p>
<p>A major challenge facing facility owners is reducing demand for energy for economic reasons, but also because energy consumption goes hand-in-hand with carbon emissions. Reducing energy during the operational phase of a facility&#8217;s life similarly reduces carbon emissions. When considering that 30-40% of a country&#8217;s total carbon emissions is attributable to buildings and other constructed facilities, it is clear that operations and, hence, facility management have a significant role to play</p>
]]></content:encoded>
			<wfw:commentRss>http://www.stalkked.com/2010/08/19/facility-management/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
		</item>
	</channel>
</rss>
