Welcome Message

***Hearty Welcome to Customer Champions & Master Minds ***

I believe " Successful CRM/CXM " is about competing in the relationship dimension. Not as an alternative to having a competitive product or reasonable price- but as a differentiator. If your competitors are doing the same thing you are (as they generally are), product and price won't give you a long-term, sustainable competitive advantage. But if you can get an edge based on how customers feel about your company, it's a much stickier--sustainable--relationship over the long haul.
Thank You for visiting my Blog , Hope you will find the articles useful.

Wishing you Most and More of Life,
Dinesh Chandrasekar DC*

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Hitachi’s Inspiration of the Year Global Award 2013 – Hitachi Innovation Council (HiC) & Hitachi Tools & Solutions (HiTS)

Dears,


Our parent company Hitachi Ltd conducts the “Inspiration of the year” global competition every year for the group companies to compete and exhibit the innovations. The total number of entries this year for all six regions (China, Europe and Africa, India, Japan and Other regions, North America, Southeast Asia) was 244. There will be three winners from each region who will receive the inspiration of the year global award. This year our entry Hitachi Innovation Council (HiC) & Hitachi Tools & Solutions (HiTS)” from GDC had won the third prize from India region. This is a monumental achievement for all our consultants, who have put in their heart and soul in building these innovative solutions.

HiC & HiTS are the initiatives started by Hitachi Consulting India team to build innovative differentiators that would help us to build a competitive advantage as well help us to execute the large scale Oracle transformation projects on time and on budget. The team had developed “11 Differentiator Tools” over a period of a year with dedicated time and effort spent by some our expert Oracle Consultants. The team had demonstrated the Hitachi's Mission, Value and Vision in creation of these innovative tools & solutions. There is great collaboration and sincere effort by every member of this team to make this innovation possible.

The solutions were judged based on the following parameters
  • Does the entry demonstrate creativity, innovation and not being tied to tradition or methodology?
  • Does the entry demonstrate open and honest communication with one another and customers? / Does the entry demonstrate stakeholders' exact needs?
  • Does the entry demonstrate contributing to creating products and services that are unique and differentiating?
  • Does the entry demonstrate learning from the past and reflecting on this experience?
  • Does the entry demonstrate listening to stakeholders and colleagues and reflecting their advice?
  • Does the entry demonstrate what was done to inspire other people?
  • Does the entry demonstrate work being done with strong determination to achieve the goal?
  • Does the entry show collaboration with other Hitachi offices or companies across the world?
  • Does the result of the activity add real value to society?
Our entry to this contest was based on the innovative differentiators we built with the following 11 different solutions: Siebel Rover, HiFAST-Hitachi's Finance Activity Status Tracker, Project Pulse, Hi FIVE, Appgrade, MDM QuickAssess, Hi Shrink, HCC SOA On-board Package, BankON, ECOLens and SCMNet.


All these tools are unique and delivered UVP for respective Oracle practices to win deals and also execute the projects with predictable time and budget. Every tool goes through an internal evaluation right from the ideation stage and some of the tools were given to customer for beta testing. All the feedback which are valid were incorporated before the launch of the tool.  The core team comprising of practice leads and managers inspired our consultants to participate in this initiative and we have today over 50 consultants registered and many more want to join this initiative. At a global level many stakeholders appreciated and want us to build newer solutions every year. These initiatives were executed with utmost determination to launch this tool within a year’s time. The team worked extra hours over and above their project commitments to develop these tools on time with very limited financial investments. Today these tools are launched across multiple geographical locations and helping us to win new deals.

It’s really a great inspiration and how we can change things around us when we have the right attitude and skills. Our hearty congratulations to all the 50+ consultants and respective leaders for their enthusiasm, energy, innovation and attitude to make things happen. Better.


Hitachi delivers innovations that answer society’s challenges. With our talented team and proven experience in global markets, we can inspire the world.

Best Regards
Dinesh Chandrasekar

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Aspire to Inspire Series - Chapter 3

Dears,

How do you explain when things don't go as we assume? Or better, how do you explain when others are able to achieve things that seem to defy all of the assumptions? For example: Why is Apple so innovative? Year after year, after year, after year, they're more innovative than all their competition. And yet, they're just a computer company. They're just like everyone else. They have the same access to the same talent, the same agencies, the same consultants, and the same media. Then why is it that they seem to have something different? Why it is that Martin Luther King led the Civil Rights Movement? He wasn't the only man who suffered in a pre-civil rights America, and he certainly wasn't the only great orator of the day. Why him? And why is it that the Wright brothers were able to figure out controlled, powered man flight when there were certainly other teams who were better qualified, better funded ... and they didn't achieve powered man flight, and the Wright brothers beat them to it. There's something else at play here.

  All the great and inspiring leaders and organizations in the world -- whether it's Apple or Martin Luther King or the Wright brothers -- they all think, act and communicate the exact same way. And it's the complete opposite to everyone else. 

Why? How? What? This little idea explains why some organizations and some leaders are able to inspire where others aren't. Let me define the terms really quickly. Every single person, every single organization on the planet knows what they do, 100 percent. Some know how they do it, whether you call it your differentiated value proposition or your proprietary process or your USP. But very, very few people or organizations know why they do what they do. And by "why" I don't mean "to make a profit." That's a result. It's always a result. By "why," I mean: What's your purpose? What's your cause? What's your belief?Why does your organization exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? And why should anyone care? Well, as a result, the way we think, the way we act, the way we communicate is from the outside in. It's obvious. We go from the clearest thing to the fuzziest thing. But the inspired leaders and the inspired organizations -- regardless of their size, regardless of their industry -- all think, act and communicate from the inside out.

Let me give you an example. I use Apple because they're easy to understand and everybody gets it. If Apple were like everyone else, a marketing message from them might sound like this: "We make great computers. They're beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly. Want to buy one?" "Meh." And that's how most of us communicate. That's how most marketing is done, that's how most sales is done and that's how most of us communicate interpersonally. We say what we do, we say how we're different or how we're better and we expect some sort of a behaviour, that. Here’s we have the best lawyers with the biggest clients, we always perform for our clients who do business with us. Here's our new car: It gets great gas mileage, it has leather seats, buy our car. But it's uninspiring.
Here's how Apple actually communicates. "Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly. We just happen to make great computers. Want to buy one?" Totally different right? You're ready to buy a computer from me. All I did was reverse the order of the information. What it proves to us is that people don't buy what you do; people buy why you do it. People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it.

This explains why most of the people  are perfectly comfortable buying a computer from Apple. But we're also perfectly comfortable buying an MP3 player from Apple, or a phone from Apple, or a Mac from Apple. But, as I said before, Apple's just a computer company. There's nothing that distinguishes them structurally from any of their competitors. Their competitors are all equally qualified to make all of these products. In fact, they tried. A few years ago, Gateway came out with flat screen TVs. They're eminently qualified to make flat screen TVs. They've been making flat screen monitors for years. Nobody bought one. Dell came out with MP3 players and PDAs, and they make great quality products, and they can make perfectly well-designed products -- and nobody bought one. In fact, talking about it now, we can't even imagine buying an MP3 player from Dell. Why would you buy an MP3 player from a computer company? But we do it every day. People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it. The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have. The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe. Here's the best part:

None of what I'm telling you is my opinion. It's all grounded in the tenets of biology. Not psychology, biology. If you look at a cross-section of the human brain, looking from the top down, what you see is the human brain is actually broken into three major components that correlate perfectly with the golden circle. Our newest brain, our Homo sapiens brain, our neocortex, corresponds with the "what" level. The neocortex is responsible for all of our rational and analytical thought and language. The middle two sections make up our limbic brains, and our limbic brains are responsible for all of our feelings, like trust and loyalty. It's also responsible for all human behaviour, all decision-making, and it has no capacity for language.

In other words, when we communicate from the outside in, yes, people can understand vast amounts of complicated information like features and benefits and facts and figures. It just doesn't drive behaviours. When we can communicate from the inside out, we're talking directly to the part of the brain that controls behaviour, and then we allow people to rationalize it with the tangible things we say and do. This is where gut decisions come from. You know, sometimes you can give somebody all the facts and figures, and they say, "I know what all the facts and details say, but it just doesn't feel right." Why would we use that verb, it doesn't "feel" right? Because the part of the brain that controls decision-making doesn't control language. right. “Or or you're leading with your soul. Well, I hate to break it to you; those aren't other body parts controlling your behaviour. It's all happening here in your limbic brain, the part of the brain that controls decision-making and not language.

But if you don't know why you do what you do, and people respond to why you do what you do, then how will you ever get people to vote for you, or buy something from you, or, more importantly, be loyal and want to be a part of what it is that you do. Again, the goal is not just to sell to people who need what you have; the goal is to sell to people who believe what you believe. The goal is not just to hire people who need a job; it's to hire people who believe what you believe. I always say that, you know, if you hire people just because they can do a job, they'll work for your money, but if you hire people who believe what you believe, they'll work for you with blood and sweat and tears. And nowhere else is there a better example of this than with the Wright brothers.

Most people don't know about Samuel Pierpont Langley. And back in the early 20th century, the pursuit of powered man flight was like the dot com of the day. Everybody was trying it. And Samuel Pierpont Langley had, what we assume, to be the recipe for success.I mean, even now, you ask people, "Why did your product or why did your company fail?"and people always give you the same permutation of the same three things: under-capitalized, the wrong people, bad market conditions. It's always the same three things, so let's explore that. Samuel Pierpont Langley was given 50,000 dollars by the War Department to figure out this flying machine. Money was no problem. He held a seat at Harvard and worked at the Smithsonian and was extremely well-connected; he knew all the big minds of the day. He hired the best minds money could find and the market conditions were fantastic. The New York Times followed him around everywhere, and everyone was rooting for Langley. Then how come we've never heard of Samuel Pierpont Langley?

A few hundred miles away in Dayton Ohio, Orville and Wilbur Wright, they had none of what we consider to be the recipe for success. They had no money; they paid for their dream with the proceeds from their bicycle shop; not a single person on the Wright brothers' team had a college education, not even Orville or Wilbur; and The New York Times followed them around nowhere. The difference was, Orville and Wilbur were driven by a cause, by a purpose, by a belief. They believed that if they could figure out this flying machine, it'll change the course of the world. Samuel Pierpont Langley was different. He wanted to be rich, and he wanted to be famous. He was in pursuit of the result. He was in pursuit of the riches. And lo and behold, look what happened. The people who believed in the Wright brothers' dream worked with them with blood and sweat and tears. The others just worked for the paycheck. And they tell stories of how every time the Wright brothers went out, they would have to take five sets of parts, because that's how many times they would crashbefore they came in for supper.

And, eventually, on December 17th, 1903, the Wright brothers took flight, and no one was there to even experience it. We found out about it a few days later. And further proof that Langley was motivated by the wrong thing: The day the Wright brothers took flight, he quit.He could have said, "That's an amazing discovery, guys, and I will improve upon your technology," but he didn't. He wasn't first, he didn't get rich, he didn't get famous so he quit.

People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And if you talk about what you believe, you will attract those who believe what you believe. But why is it important to attract those who believe what you believe? Something called the law of diffusion of innovation, and if you don't know the law, you definitely know the terminology. The first two and a half percent of our population are our innovators. The next 13 and a half percent of our population are our early adopters. The next 34 percent are your early majority, your late majority and your laggards. The only reason these people buy touch tone phones is because you can't buy rotary phones anymore.

Best Regards
DC*

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Journey to the Cloud CRM from Enterprise CRM - TechGiG Webinar



The greatest opportunity as well as the  greatest challenge today is to decipher the cloud strategy for your enterprise. In the recent Gartner report   published in April 2013 the authors provide insights into why the worldwide CRM market experienced 12% growth in 2012, three times the average of all enterprise software categories.  Gartner cites demand they are seeing from their enterprise clients for CRM systems that can help acquire customers, analyse and act on customer behaviours, and increase all-channel management performance.  

Big data inquiries are also increasing in CRM, driven by the interest enterprise clients have in getting more value from social network data and interactions. Gartner states that they are seeing their enterprise clients seek out easier-to-deploy CRM systems compared to on-premise alternatives.  The report states that many enterprises are now replacing their legacy systems with SaaS/Cloud-based CRM systems as well. In this webinar I would like to take the participants through the cloud journey and what it takes to migrate from enterprise CRM to a Cloud CRM solution. We will discuss about the strategies, options and implementation approach. 


Key Questions answered:
  • What is Cloud /SaaS CRM means to an Enterprise ?
  • How to cut out a Cloud CRM Strategy?
  • What are options we have today in the market ?
  • How do I implement the Cloud CX ( Customer Experience) Solution
  • What are all the Do’s and Don’ts of Cloud CRM Migration from Enterprise CRM?
  • As a IT professional what I need to do to make a successful career in the Cloud CRM world?
Regards
Dinesh 

Friday, August 30, 2013

Aspire to Inspire Series -Chapter 2

Dears,

NEVER LOSE AN OPPORTUNITY WHICH CAN GIVE YOU SOMETHING UNFAMILIAR. Never cling to the past, and always remain open and experimental... always ready to walk on a path which you have never walked before. Who knows? – even if it proves useless, it will be an experience.

EDISON WAS WORKING ON A CERTAIN EXPERIMENT for almost three years continuously, and he failed seven hundred times! All his colleagues, his students, became completely frustrated. He would come every morning happy and bubbling with joy, and ready to start again. It was too much: SEVEN HUNDRED TIMES AND THREE YEARS WASTED! Everybody was almost certain that nothing was going to come out of it. The whole thing seemed to be useless... just a whim.

THEY ALL GATHERED TOGETHER AND SAID, 'We will become mad! This man goes on being happy and every day he comes and starts again as if he has completely forgotten that three years have been completely wasted.' They talked to Edison and told him, 'We have failed seven hundred times. Now it is a complete failure. We have not achieved anything, we have to stop.'

EDISON LAUGHED UPROARIOUSLY. He said, 'What are you talking about? Failed? We have succeeded in knowing that seven hundred methods won't be of any help. If there are one thousand possibilities, we have closed seven hundred. Now there are only three hundred there. WE ARE COMING CLOSER AND CLOSER TO TRUTH EVERY DAY! Who has told you that we have failed? We have knocked on seven hundred doors and they were not the right doors, but we have learned one thing. There was no other way to learn that they were not the right doors. If we had not knocked, we had no way of knowing. We may have been standing on the first door continuously thinking that this is the right door... but now we are certain that seven hundred doors are false. This is a great achievement!'

THIS IS THE BASIC SCIENTIFIC ATTITUDE: if you can decide that something is false, you are coming closer to the truth. Truth is not available in the market so that you can go directly and order it. It is not ready-made, available; you have to experiment.

So what I suggest is, ALWAYS REMAIN EXPERIMENTATIVE. And never become smug; never think that whatsoever you are doing is perfect. It is never perfect. It is always possible to improve upon it; it is always possible to make it more perfect.


Regards

Dinesh

Friday, August 23, 2013

Aspire to Inspire Series - Chapter 1

Dears


This is one of the SADDEST stories ever told in Hollywood. His name is Sylvester Stallone. One of the BIGGEST and Most famous American Movie superstars. Back in the day, Stallone was a struggling actor in every definition. At some point, he... got so broke that he stole his wife's jewellery and sold it. Things got so bad that he even ended up homeless. Yes, he slept at the New York bus station for 3 day as Unable to pay rent or afford food. His lowest point came when he tried to sell his dog at the liquor store to any stranger. He didn’t have money to feed the dog anymore. He sold it at $25 only. He says he walked away crying.

Two weeks later, he saw a boxing match between Mohammed Ali and Chuck Wepner and that match gave him the inspiration to write the script for the famous movie, ROCKY. He wrote the script for 20 hours! He tried to sell it and got an offer for $125,000 for the script. But he had just ONE REQUEST. He wanted to STAR in the movie. He wanted to be the MAIN ACTOR. Rocky himself. But the studio said NO. They wanted a REAL STAR. They said he "Looked funny and talked funny". He left with his script. A few weeks later, the studio offered him $250,000 for the script. He refused. They even offered $350,000. He still refused. They wanted his movie, But NOT him. He said NO. He had to be IN THAT MOVIE.

After a while, the studio agreed, gave him $35,000 for the script and let him star in it! The rest is history! The movie won Best Picture, Best Directing and Best Film Editing at the prestigious Oscar Awards. He was even nominated for BEST ACTOR! The Movie ROCKY was even inducted into the American National Film Registry as one of the greatest movies ever!

And do you know the first thing he bought with the $35,000? THE DOG HE SOLD. Yes, Stallone LOVED HIS DOG SO MUCH that he stood at the liquor store for 3 days waiting for the man he sold his dog to. And on the 3rd day, he saw the man coming with the dog. Stallone explained why he sold the dog and begged for the dog back. The man refused. Stallone offered him $100. The man refused. He offered him $500. And the guy refused. Yes, he refused even $1000. And, Believe it or Not, Stallone had to pay $15,000 for the same, same dog he sold at $25 only! And he finally got his dog back!

And today, the same Stallone who slept in the streets and sold his dog JUST BECAUSE he couldn’t even feed it anymore, is one of the GREATEST Movie Stars who ever walked the Earth!

Being broke is BAD. Really BAD. Have you ever had a dream? A wonderful dream? But you are too broke to implement it? Too tiny to do it? Too small to accomplish it? Damn! I've been there too many times!

Life is tough. Opportunities will pass you by, just because you are a NOBODY. People will want your products but NOT YOU. It’s a tough world. If you ain’t already famous, or rich or "connected”, you will find it rough. Doors will be shut on You. People will steal your glory and crash your hopes. You will push and push. And yet NOTHING WILL HAPPEN.

And then your hopes will be crashed. You will be broke. Damn broke. You will do odd jobs for survival. You will be unable to feed yourself. And yes, you may end up sleeping in the streets.
It happens. Yes, it does.

BUT NEVER LET THEM CRUSH THAT DREAM. Whatever happens to You, Keep Dreaming. Even when they crush your hopes, Keep Dreaming. Even when they turn you away, Keep Dreaming. Even when they shut you down, Keep Dreaming.

NO ONE KNOWS WHAT YOU ARE CAPABLE OF EXCEPT YOURSELF! People will judge you by HOW you look. And by WHAT you have. But please, Fight on! Fight for Your place in history. Fight for your glory. NEVER EVER GIVE UP!
Even if it means selling all your clothes and sleeping with the dogs, IT’S OKAY! But AS LONG AS YOU ARE STILL ALIVE, Your STORY IS NOT OVER. TRUST ME.

Keep Up the Fight. Keep your dreams and hope alive. Go get it. 

Friday, August 2, 2013

What Inspires Us ?

Dears,



Inspiration is about the people who will stop at nothing to make a positive difference to other people’s lives, they inspire us. As Steve Jobs famously said: “The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” There are lots of these crazy ones at work today trying to make the world a better place, but there is always room for more.
We get major inspiration hits when we are expressing ourselves, becoming more self-aware and pushing ourselves to achieve new levels of capability. This is why two of the top five most inspiration rich industries are fine art and sports. Both require a ton of self-expression, self-awareness and growth to succeed. It is also achieved through enabling others to grow. The remaining top three industries where professionals express a high frequency of inspiration are religious institutions, non-profit management and professional training & coaching. All of these industries are about helping others realize their potential.
I am inspired by one of the  leaders who dare to dream and have the grit, resilience and determination to see those dreams through, regardless of the many times they fall down along the way. Dr Venkataswamy founded the amazing Aravind Eye Hospital when he was 58 years old, a successful eye surgeon despite being crippled from rheumatoid arthritis, a former physician in the Indian Army. His mission was audacious: to eradicate unnecessary blindness. His start was humble: a tiny “hospital” with just eleven beds. Nearly 40 years later, Aravind has treated more than 32 million people performing more than 4 million surgeries. Called Dr V by most, he would say, “Intelligence and capability are not enough. There must be the joy of doing something beautiful.” You cannot help but feel the spirituality expressed by the best of the human heart and mind in the halls of this most extraordinary dream, made real simple by starting and then doing.
To do good work, we often reach for a vague thing we call inspiration. It’s hard to pin it down, but you know it when you see it. Inspiration adds joy and meaning to the process of creation, whether you’re writing a piece of code or preparing PowerPoint presentation. So why is it that some of us are visited by only rare and fleeting spurts of inspiration, while others seem permanently driven by a grand sense of purpose? The reason is we don’t see a purpose of our work and we see it as a burden to complete every day. The purpose of our work is a source of our inspiration. However the little you think you do is making a big difference to a person in other corner of this world.
As you are reading this post about inspiration keep in mind that you need to identify your own personal source of inspiration. Go into it with an open mind, it might be something unexpected or it might be a more nuanced combination of factors that are hard to cover in one blog post. Once you do, I can’t promise the road will be easy, but I can guarantee that you will surprise yourself with the energy and passion that you bring to bear on your work. For me, however, inspiration comes from solving meaningful problems with people I admire and love to work with. Deep, far-reaching challenges that keep me thinking, engaged, and ultimately energized. Looking back, I can see time and again I was most inspired and did my best work when I was trying to solve meaningful problems with people whom I love to work with.

If there has been one lesson I’ve learned in my career it is to forget the external pressures you may have, and just focus on one thing: doing what you love. Hone your skills. Each one of you has hopefully through your experience found a passion, and now your future is about continuing to learn and polish your skills. The skill without inspiration is a Job and skill with inspiration is a passion @ work.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Unlock the Leader in You

Dears,

I believe we are all natural born leaders, but have been deprogrammed along the way. As children, we were natural leaders - curious and humble, always hungry and thirsty for knowledge, with an incredibly vivid imagination; we knew exactly what we wanted, were persistent and determined in getting what we wanted, and had the ability to motivate, inspire, and influence everyone around us to help us in accomplishing our mission. So why is this so difficult to do as adults? What happened?

Then many of us got hit with the institutionalized formal education known as college or university. Unfortunately, the traditional educational system doesn’t teach students how to become leaders; it teaches students how to become polite order takers for the corporate world. Instead of learning to become creative, independent, self-reliant, and think for themselves, most people learn how to obey and intelligently follow rules to keep the corporate machine humming. Today most of us want to follow and very few of us want to lead. Leadership is not a designation it is a privilege to do more. An effective leader creates Leaders not followers. There is leader in every one of us just waiting to be unleashed but we would never let him come out if you want to be follower forever. So first believe that you can lead it doesn’t matter who you are and where you are at this point of life.

Developing the Leader in you to live your highest life, then, requires a process of unlearning by self-remembering and self-honoring. Being an effective leader again will require you to be brave and unlock the door to your inner attic, where your childhood dreams lie, going inside to the heart. I have listed few pointers for you to consider in your leadership journey.

Leadership starts with Humility. To be a highly successful leader, you must first humble yourself like a little child and be willing to serve others. When you are humble, you become genuinely interested in people because you want to learn from them. And because you want to learn and grow, you will be a far more effective listener, which is the #1 leadership communication tools. When people sense you are genuinely interested in them, and listening to them, they will naturally be interested in you and listen to what you have to say.

SWOT Yourself. SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Start by listing all your Strengths including your accomplishments. Then write down all your Weaknesses and what needs to be improved. Make sure to include any doubts, anxieties, fears, and worries that you may have. These are the demons and dragons guarding the door to your inner attic. By bringing them to conscious awareness you can begin to slay them. Then proceed by listing all the Opportunities you see available to you for using your strengths. Finally, write down all the Threats or obstacles that are currently blocking you or that you think you will encounter along the way to achieving your dreams.

Live with Passion. Regardless of how busy you are, always take time to do what you love doing. Being an alive and vital person vitalizes others. When you are pursuing your passions, people around you cannot help but feel impassioned by your presence. This will make you a charismatic leader.

Dream Big. If you want to be larger than life, you need a dream that is larger than life. Small dreams won’t serve you or anyone else. It takes the same amount of time to dream small than it does to dream big. So be Big and be Bold! Write down your One Biggest Dream. The one that excites you the most and pursue it every day, come what may.

Vision. Without a vision, we perish. If you can’t see yourself winning that award and feel the tears of triumph streaming down your face, it is unlikely you will be able to lead yourself or others to victory. Visualize what it would be like accomplishing your dream. See it, smell it, taste it, hear it, feel it in your gut.

Endurance .Victory belongs to those who want it the most and stay in it the longest. Now that you have a dream, make sure you take consistent action every day. I recommend doing at least 5 things every day that will move you closer to your dream.

Honor Your Word. Every time you break your word, you lose power. Successful leaders keep their word and their promises. You can accumulate all the toys and riches in the world, but you only have one reputation in life. Your word is gold. Honor it.

Get a Mentor. Find yourself a mentor. Preferably someone who has already achieved a high degree of success in your ecosystem. Don’t be afraid to ask. You've got nothing to lose. Learn everything you can from their lives and model some of their successful behaviors.

Be Yourself. Use your relationships with mentors as models or reference points to work from, but never copy or imitate them like a parrot. Everyone has vastly different leadership styles. History books are filled with leaders who are soft-spoken, introverted, and quiet, all the way to the other extreme of being out- spoken, extroverted, and loud, and everything in between. A quiet and simple Gandhi made a great difference as a leader and not necessarily you need to be extrovert and outspoken.


Give. Finally, be a giver. Leaders are givers. By giving, you activate a universal law as sound as gravity: life gives to the giver, and takes from the taker. The more you give, the more you get. If you want more love, respect, support, and compassion, give love, give respect, give support, and give compassion. Be a mentor to others. Give back to your community. As a leader, the only way to get what you want, is by helping enough people get what they want first

Regard
DC*

Friday, May 31, 2013

6 Pillars of Happiness & Success

Dears,

Few years back I used to look at every challenge as a problem and today every problem I see as an opportunity. What many of us lack the most is bravery when our businesses are confronted with profound transformations. Most of us find excuses not to face reality. We just try to manage the way through the storm, hoping that good times will come back and business will go back to the good old “normal”. When actually we should take bold measures and think in a radically new way about the future of our industry.

I've had the great fortune to have absorbed, and continue to absorb, some priceless gems. From the bottom of my heart, I thank the many people that have had a positive influence in my life and for those that continue to do that right now. For many years I pondered over to understand what makes me happy and successful. Finally, I realized that happiness within and making others successful really makes you successful. So, packaged together I can sum up the 6 Pillars for success and happiness:
1: Follow your dreams. Follow your passion. Love what you do. Believe you can achieve. Plan it out and decide on your action steps to make the dream become a reality. Take the steps and set the wheels in motion.
2: When faced with a tough decision, be prepared to listen to positive and loving guidance from those around you who may have seen a positive step that you may have missed or a consideration you may have chosen to ignore as not relevant. These people are your guardian angels. They are a true gift of kindness.
3: On the other side there are people that are your advice monsters. Don't pay attention to negative and unhelpful comments such as, you'll never make it, it's for people that know people, you’ll never get the opportunity, you’ll be banging your head against a brick wall, etc. These people may mean well, but generally they are reflecting their own insecurities and self-limiters on to you. Ask yourself, what have they done and what are they doing with their own lives? Are they a role model for me?
4: If someone in authority says, “No, you can't do that!” acknowledge the reason they give as to why and then invest time into looking at other options that may not have been noticed or realized before, by you or the person in authority. Where there’s a will, there’s a way and if something is so strong in your heart and is a true passion and a real goal, then more often than not it is meant to be and a path will be revealed.
5: Consistently treat people with genuine respect and embrace them with faith .You'll be amazed at how even those who at first may have appeared uninterested, unhelpful, obstinate and a real jobsworth, will be very willing to help you out. Stand your ground, be bold, be loving, respectful and always polite and you will see how many closed doors start to open up for you. Doors will open that you didn't even know were there.
6: Always have an open mind and a hungry for innovation < Stay Hungry Stay Foolish >. Always aim to raise your game. How can I be better? How can I work smarter? How can I be more impact full  How can I be kinder? How can I be more caring? Never stop taking on new learning, new reading, new professional development and training. The day we do that we start to stand still. If we choose to stand still it goes without saying that many around us will keep moving forwards. This means, in essence, that the minute you stand still you start to go backwards.

Enjoy the ride :-) I welcome below your thoughts, observations and experiences.
Love
DC*

Saturday, May 4, 2013

"Quotes that will change your Life"

Dears,

One thing that always helps me through the ups and downs is to connect with some of the greatest minds. Below are just a few of my favorite quotes:

1. “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
- Peter Drucker
2. “Winners never quit and quitters never win.”
- Vince Lombardi
3. “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
- Steve Jobs
4. “My biggest motivation? Just to keep challenging myself. I see life almost like one long University education that I never had — everyday I’m learning something new.”
- Richard Branson
5. “Every time you state what you want or believe, you’re the first to hear it. It’s a message to both you and others about what you think is possible. Don’t put a ceiling on yourself.”
- Oprah Winfrey
6. “It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”
- Bill Gates
7. “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
- Warren Buffett
8. “One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don’t choose your passions; your passions choose you.”
- Jeff Bezos
9. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
- Thomas Edison
10. “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”
- Albert Einstein
11. “As long as you’re going to be thinking anyway, think big.”
- Donald Trump
12. “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
- Winston Churchill
13. ”Genius is 1% inspiration, and 99% perspiration.”
- Thomas Edison
14. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
- Mark Twain
15. “The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”
- Vince Lombardi
16. “If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.”
- Napoleon Hill
17. “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”
- Bill Cosby
18. “Success is not what you have, but who you are.”
- Bo Bennet
19. “Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t so you can spend the rest of your life like most people cant.”
20. “To win without risk is to triumph without glory.”
21. “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”
22. “There is only one success- to be able to spend your life in your own way.”
23. “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.”
24. “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”
25. “What is not started will never get finished”
26. “When you cease to dream you cease to live.”
27. “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”
28. “The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake- you can’t learn anything from being perfect.”
29. “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”
30. “The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.”
31. “Choose a job that you like, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
32. “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”


Hope you got your dose of inspiration, Now aspire to Inspire

Regards
DC*

Sunday, April 28, 2013

2013 CRM Market Share Update - Whats in For you ?

Dears,

This article is based on the Gartner report on the CRM/CxM market.

Last year, four out of every ten CRM systems sold were SaaS-based, and the trend is accelerating.
In the recent Gartner report  Market Share Analysis: Customer Relationship Management Software, Worldwide, 2012 published April 18, 2013 the authors provide insights into why the worldwide CRM market experienced 12% growth in 2012, three times the average of all enterprise software categories.  Gartner cites demand they are seeing from their enterprise clients for CRM systems that can help acquire customers, analyze and act on customer behaviors, and increase all-channel management performance.  Big data inquiries are also increasing in CRM, driven by the interest enterprise clients have in getting more value from social network data and interactions.
Key take-aways from the report include the following:
  • The CRM worldwide market grew from $16B to $18B attaining a 12.5% growth rate from 2011 to 2012.
  • 80% of all CRM software in 2012 was sold in North America and Western Europe.    North America CRM sales grew 16.6% from 2011 to 2012.  The highest growth regions of CRM sales between 2011 to 2012 included Greater China (26.9%) and Latin America (24.3%).
Worldwide CRM software spending by subsegment shows Customer Service and Support leading all categories with 36.8% of all spending in 2012 ($6.6B), followed by CRM Sales (26.3%, $4.7B), Marketing (includes marketing automation) (20%, $3.6B) and e-commerce (16.9%, $3B).   The following chart shows the distribution of revenue by category:



  • Worldwide was SaaS-based.  Gartner states that they are seeing their enterprise clients seek out easier-to-deploy CRM systems compared to on-premise alternatives.  The report states that many enterprises are now replacing their legacy systems with SaaS-based CRM systems as well.  Enterprise clients also report that SaaS-based CRM systems are delivering net-new applications that deliver complementary functionality not possible with legacy and previous-generation CRM platforms.
  • Ten fastest growing CRM vendors as measured in revenue Annual Growth Rate (AGR) in 2012 include Zoho (81.2%), Hybris (78.6%), Teradata (70.4%), Bazaarvoice (56.2%), Marketo (54.3%), Kana (44.2%), Demandware (43.9%), IBM (39.4%), Technology One (37.1%) and Neolane (36%).
  • Communications, media and IT services were the biggest spenders on CRM in 2012 due to their call center requirements.  Manufacturing including Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) was second, and banking & securities were third.
There is a paradigm shift happening in the CRM Space. Are we ready for the ride

Regards
DC*

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Oracle Fusion Cloud CRM Demos

Dears,

I have enclosed some of the Oracle Cloud CRM Demos for your quick review. Watch this space for Hitachi Consulting Cloud CRM Demos < in Near Future >












Some More


Oracle Cloud CRM Demos for you





Regards
DC*