Communicating value and Value Engineering

It is images and benefits that are bought by the customer - not the product per se!   The image that Thums Up (the cola drink) creates: is of a refreshing, "feel-good" and energising drink - the benefit is the sweet & activating taste of a heavy carbonated drink ... This is the IMAGE + BENEFIT combo which impels purchasers to go for Thums Up!

The process of marketing is value delivery, based on image building and benefit transfer, Thus, in today's context, even though the Govt. may like to have plain unbranded generics in the market, messaging value is of paramount importance.  Given the price control regime for pharmaceuticals and the simultaneous importance of value delivery in the market, today, value engineering is becoming significant in corporate planning and activities. 

VE or value engineeering involves crossfunctional teams that analyse the product offerings and the process (raw material to shopfloor to market) thoroughly, in a continuous manner, to constantly cut costs and at the same time improve the value offerings (a simple thing would be to promote high margin products or have same size bottles for various liquid products to help lower inventory or going in for PET bottles for reducing breakages, decreasing freight weight and at the same time improving product appeal to the patient (the bottle will not break if it accidentally falls down in the patient's house ...)).

Value offered by a product includes:

a) Use value: the functional value eg., paracetamol is an analgesic and antipyretic.  This can also include aesthetic aspects, for example a good flavour for a paediatric liquid formulation will improve, use value of the brand.

b) Esteem value: prescribers are motivated to be associated with the brand persona, for instance, Calpol is the No. 1 paracetamol brand, due to its quality image and its consistent promotion in the prescription market.  On the other hand, Crocin has become an OTC (over-the-counter) brand and lacks the prescription support - so vital for pharmaceuticals, hence, Crocin does not have as much esteem value for a prescriber as Calpol, since Calpol is a prescriber's brand and Crocin is an OTC brand.  In fact, every prescription for products like Calpol and Dart are important: each prescription has the potential to create a new OTC customer. 

Another example: there are doctors who would like to be associated with MNCs and Indian companies with a superior image.  It is the esteem value of corporate brand image that drives this interest among doctors.

c) Cost value: refers to the cost of all entities that are required to make the product available for consumption.  This includes labour, electricity, packaging, product promotion, distribution etc.  A thorough analysis of cost helps control cost parameters and add to the profit margin.  The cost value can also be the cost of the product as perceived by the customer.

d) Exchange value: refers to the attributes of the product which helps exchange the product to something else of value, desired by the person.  Thus, if a doctor desires the value of patient confidence in him/her,  then he/she will prescribe a product which will provide this exchange value!

PMT (Product Management and Training) personnel are always on the hunt for communicating or messaging  a novel and exciting value of their product (s) to their prospects or customers.  Messaging the value of product offerings is a challenging task.

The message should attract attention (A), create interest (I), promote desire (D) in prescribers to prescribe and ensure the action, ie., the doctor should prescribe (A is for action).  This is the AIDA value of the message, which is an important stimulus for demand creation (through prescriptions or retail purchase or purchases by patients).

The UECE value framework (ie., Use value, Esteem value, Cost value and Exchange value) of a product can help PMT personnel to fashion suitable messages and promote market demand.  One can analyse the product from the above value framework and create attractive messages that ensure brand registration, brand recall and brand prescribing/purchase habit.

For instance here is a cursory analysis of Dart:

Use value of Dart: analgesic antipyretic tablets, relieves pain and fever, improves performance (through caffeine, reduces morbidity).

Esteem value of Dart: The brand trusted for decades, by generations, prescribed by a wide circle of doctors (of all specialties including ophthos, ENT, and OBG segment besides GPs), sells one tablet every second ...

Cost value of Dart: Offers the power of three drugs, synergistic activity at a low rate, another approach would be: cross-functional teams can also analyse if costs can be cut and value improved through value engineering efforts (this is also in the ambit of cost value).

Exchange value of Dart: The power brand that creates patient satisfaction and patient loyalty ...

We live in an age of message overload ... doctors are bombarded by pharma messages: 'please prescribe me' yells every other brand in the pharma brand sphere.  The value analyis method will help create logical messages that appeal to the target segment (doctors, retailers, and end consumers) to improve the PERCEIVED VALUE of product/brand.  Ultimately it is images and benefits that build bonds and trust relationships in the market - and this makes the sale!

Today, NGOs, Govt. bodies and the society as a whole, are all striving to decrease MRP of pharma brands, retailers are lobbying for unbranded generics (which will serve their agenda), which the retailers hope will also reduce MRP of pharma brands - all these happenings will finally cause strain on manufacturers.  Hence, this situation is giving rise to the importance of value engineering across the pharma firmament and marketers will also have to resort to creative messaging of brand values to prospects and customers.

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An interesting new sales promotion in the market

The above is a picture of Daily Bread's Healthy Whole Wheat  Bread - Daily Bread is a premium bakery chain of Bangalore.  The pleasant surprise to the bread buyer was a free 35 g pack of Strawberry oats from Britannia (worth Rs. 10/- along with the whole wheat bread). 

What was interesting and very appealing is the intelligent bundling in this offer: whole wheat bread is obviously purchased only by the health conscious and oats has its irresistible allure as a healthy food.  Any whole wheat bread buyer will be charmed by the offer and will be amenable to buying the oats brand from Britannia later on when he or she considers.

Potential danger!

Now the moot question is will Daily Bread Whole Wheat Bread users switch over atleast partially from Whole Wheat Bread to Brittania oats?  It is an interesting market study subject.  Probably some students of marketing should take a survey of regular whole wheat bread buyers from Daily Bread and measure the qualitative and quantitative impact of this interesting (whole wheat bread + Britannia oats) sales promotion offer.

There are bright chances of Britannia oats cannibalizing atleast partially the market of Whole Wheat Daily Bread since they are both positioned for the healthy snack time or breakfast time.

Take my case itself: if I like Britannia oats (I am yet to try the free packet), I will probably substitute the whole wheat bread, with Britannia brand of oats - atleast partially -  for some variety in my snacking or breakfasting - and thus reducing my consumption of whole wheat bread.

So is this a win-win sales promotional offer?

My final analysis as a marketer is that this sales promotional offer is more in favour of Britannia and less in favour of Daily Bread. 

However, one needs to validate this with questionnaire based study, collect primary data and may be apply statistical processing (apply null hypothesis, and see if my hypothesis is statistically significant or not).

Moral:

Marketing approaches are best analyzed using the Edward de Bono six thinking hat technique: see the situation from creative angle (green cap), emotional angle (red cap), facts and figures point of view (white cap), positive thinking (yellow cap) and finally, negative angle (black cap).  After a discussion and thorough analysis the suitable marketing approach has to be adopted.

Daily Bread oats!!

Perhaps if Daily Bread had offered their brand of oats free along with their brand of whole wheat bread, it would have made a whole lot of marketing sense to Daily Bread.

Any way I will be looking as a keen marketing student to various marketing conversations and media reports on this Britannia + Daily Bread (Whole Wheat Bread) sales promotional offer.  As a consumer, I am happy with this bundled offer!!  Thanks for reading this blogpost, please scroll down and read all other blogposts, click on older posts wherever required, kindly recommend this blog to your acquaintances.

Motivation, a process

The above is the picture is of Jack Canfield described as America's No. 1 Success Coach!  He is a motivational speaker and author of 'Chicken soup for the soul' series of books.

If one asks, what is a managerial working?  The answers are, typically:

• Planning
• Organizing
• Staffing
• Controlling
• Leading
• Development of people
• Measuring
• Integrating

However, there is one theme underlying all of managerial or any other organizational work - it is the management of MOTIVATION.  In all pharma companies, strategic, planning and operational working depends on the underlying and taken-for-granted aspect: motivation.  In fact, the person most successful in pharma marketing and management is the one who can motivate himself and others to work towards preset objectives.

Motivation is the desire to do things.  It refers to a process that supports, elicits, and controls certain required behaviours.  Thus, if the target behaviour is to have a MR (Medical Representative), go out everyday with a planned bag and implement the marketing programs such as meeting 10 doctors and performing planned in-clinic activity, then there should be a process which supports, elicits and controls this MR behaviour.

The process of motivation depends on intrinsic and extrinsic factors.  Those factors internal to the person are intrinsic factors.  For instance, the inner drive in a Product Manager to understand the triggers responsible for sales of his product, is an intrinsic factor.  This inner intrinsic factor motivates the Product Manager to go out to the field, meet doctors, talk to MRs, train MRs or other field personnel and further it helps the Product Manager chalk out specific demand boosting strategies, promotional inputs and other specific marketing programs.  Let us say, through market analysis, and working in a field, a Product Manager understands that Product A which has support in General Surgery, is not well patronized by ENT doctors.  Based on this insight, the Product Manager will chalk out ENT doctors' oriented marketing programs, to generate prescription flow and sales of Product A.  For the process of motivation to succeed the intrinsic factor should be strong.

What motivates a person?

The extrinsic factors of motivation include - money, status, relationships and network, and other creature comforts (including food, beverages etc).

The intrinsic factor - fundamentally responsible for a person's work habit or a certain way of living/working - is: 'a deep desire to defend oneself from loss and harm'.  If a MR knows that lack of involved work can cause harm to him in terms of loss of prescriptions, sales and finally his benefits, then the MR will be motivated to work with high involvement.  However, if the MR does not visualize the loss to himself, due to his demotivated workstyle, then the MR will continue to be lackadaisical.  This applies to any field manager or product manager too. 

Thus, the visualized knowledge of a certain activity to make a difference to himself or herself will motivate the individual to behave in a particular manner.  If a Product Manager is confident that his product promotional input or strategic insight or his joint field training work, will be recognized and it will make a difference to himself and to his organization, then the Product Manager will be motivated to involve in that activity.

Motivating people

The challenge for managements and managers is creating, constantly improving and making the process of MOTIVATION effective and efficient.  It should be appreciated that motivation is not a single thing, it is process.  Motivating people is a process involving many elements and not just the boss.

Motivating 100% target achievement

The common denominator of all motivational processes is that the individual, group, team or organization should achieve 100% of all the targets ie., sales target, production target, despatch target, profit target, brand equity target, doctor coverage target, best place to work target (for HR people) and so on.

The weakness of most motivational processes is the overreliance on one factor for achieving the desired output. 

For instance, a firm may believe MR activity is 100% responsible for sales outputs.  They will then fashion out motivational processes in those lines to ensure high MR activity.

Another firm may believe quality of MR activity is 100% responsible for sales outputs.  This firm will then have motivational processes accordingly, laying emphasis on PMT ie., product management and training.

If a firm believes PMT activity is vital, then motivational processes will focus on them too.

Yet another pharma firm may focus on CME and mailer activity, which they believe is really responsible for motivating prescribers and hence they will have motivational processes in the firm on those lines - this is specially true of super-specialty product divisions.

Ultimately motivational processes in the organization depend on business model, product type and range, general market conditions and requirements, values, understandings, goals, beliefs, culture and philosophy of the organization.  If a firm believes that finally it is knowledge that drives success for the firm, then the motivational processes in the firm will be to acquire, disseminate and practice knowledge so that the firm achieves its objectives.

Auditing motivational processes in the organization

It may appear funny or ironic - but many firms will not have a clear idea of the motivational processes in the firm.  The granting of an annual increment is the main motivational process to most firms!  However, motivation is a complex subject.  Producing desired work behaviours will not be possible only through annual increments.  Creating motivational processes is more subtle, it involves intangibles, creating feel-good factors, work enrichment, providing positive reinforcers and rewards on a continuous basis, training, morale boosting programs and other concepts. 

The rise of Mankind Pharma, now the trailblazing growth of Eris Lifesciences, the resurgence of Astra Zeneca, the impact of Aprica Pharma, Corona Pharma/Remedie and the like in various pockets of Indian pharma market has got more to it than just operational planning, strategic focus, and overall planning and execution. 

These firms have actually hit the right button of MOTIVATIONAL PROCESSES which is encouraging desirable behaviours in their employees and external customers (doctors, chemists, and stockists). 

In today's pharma market conditions, the time is ripe for pharma firms to map, collect data, gain insights, audit, analyze and understand the MOTIVATIONAL PROCESSES in the organization for internal employees and external customers (and associates).  The need is now for a comprehensive picture of status and structure of motivational processes operating in the firm.  Then the next step is to improve the motivational processes of the firm - as a continuous thing. 

Improving the motivational processes is a delicate, intensive and intricate task which will involve changing layouts, language used, cultural symbols, reward systems and so on.

Ultimately (1) people do business with people (2) people work for people (3) people behaviour if desirable will produce productive and good results for a firm.

CONSIDERING THE STATUS AND CHALLENGES OF PHARMA FIRMS today, IT WILL NOT BE A SURPRISE IF PHARMA FIRMS CREATE A CMO (CHIEF MOTIVATION OFFICER) for the firm - a CMO who will be responsible for motivational processes and practices of the firm and will have key result areas for himself too - to show his contributions to the top management. 

End of article thoughts

In the above picture we see the photo of my father-in-law who is a landlord and practicing Indian style astrologer (at Nava gruha krupa, Gardadi, between Gurvayankere and Venoor, South Kanara district, half hour from Dharmasthala, Karnataka (Ph.: 08256 - 278050 or 9972725717, languages he knows Kannada, Marathi, Tulu, and broken English and Hindi)).  He is dedicated to his profession.  He is passionate about it.  His day starts from 6.30 am till may be 11.00 pm - there is a continuous stream of people all through the day for consulting him.  When he takes breaks for his routine activities the people wait for him patiently to come back, at the verandah, where he practices. 

Mr. A G Patwardhan (my father-in-law) provides astrological remedies to Hindus, Jains, Muslims and Christians in their style of faith.  Best of all he still, at the age of 65 years, is down to earth, no airs, and considers himself a learner and practitioner of his profession.  He does not have a fixed charge (based on their feeling, the clients voluntary give him some money, if my father-in-law feels the client has overpaid him - he stuffs some money back into the pocket of the client!).  The educated, police, bank managers, doctors, business people, illiterate, politicians, and even cheats, thieves and murderers have come to him for astrological consultation.

I was there at his place for four days in April 2012 and was fascinated by his cases and continuous practice.  I was fascinated by his self - motivation.  When I asked him why he works ceaselessly or does not have any fixed fees - he laughed and said it satisfies him to see the smile of benefit in his client's face.  He reiterated that at his age - only such intangibles motivate him.  He leads a simple life ... hence, reflecting on him I have researched and written about MOTIVATION in this blogpost.

There have been interesting cases in his astrological practice:

(1) Once, a local politician and temple trust chairman had come to him and asked him to come over to his house as he was having a lot of trouble in recent past (fires, damage to his house, illness and accidents to the house inmates).  My fil (father-in-law) started seeking answers to the problems through his 'prashna jyothisya' astrological practice.  He saw the indication that the person had gotton some gold illegally into the house.  When he enquired the person said 'no', to which my fil said sternly: 'it appears to me from this 'jyothish knowledge' you have stolen gold!'  The person panicked, took him to an inner room and confessed to have gotton a gold coin from the temple offering to the house!  Apparently this caused the problems in the house to the house inmates (there is a brahma rakshasha concept), this was finally ameliorated through my fil's advice...

(2) A couple came to him and said their two children then 16 and 15 years old were missing for a few years, so they were wondering what to do.  After the prashna jyotishya session, my fil said one would come back in a month's time and the other after two months, and he recommended some poojas in the temple.  He gave a hint that the boys were in a jail and would be released.  He asked the couple to bring the elder boy to him when he comes back. 

To the couple's surprise, the elder boy came back after a few days. Accordingly, the couple came with the elder boy to my fil.  The elder boy gave his story: apparently, some of the elders of his village who had migrated to distant cities, one of them motivated them to come along with them - and in a particular city the boys were used to rob a bank, the boys were trapped in the bank, caught by police but the elders escaped.  The boys were taken to the juvenile prison jailed and the elder boy who was released came back, the second son came back two months later.

(3) An elderly Muslim couple came with their problem: their daughter after marriage was staying with them, the son-in-law was missing for about two years, so they wanted to know what to do - should they go in for remarriage of their daugther?  After the prasna jyothishya session my fil said that the son-in-law would come back in 3 or 4 days and will reunite with the daughter.  The couple was puzzled, yet they followed some instructions as per Muslim traditions as advised by my fil.  The son-in-law came back on 4th day, apparently he had gone elsewhere to earn money, which he did and now was reunited with his wife.  They all came for a thanksgiving visit to my fil's place.

To the typically modern city bred Indian and to the westerner the above narrations may sound nonsensical.  Remember I - Sunil S Chiplunkar - am also educated and scientifically trained: I have B Pharma, M Pharma, PGDMM and PGDHRM to my credit.  I have also travelled a lot and seen many things in life.  So do not discount above writings.  There are many things of traditional knowledge, which are unknown to modern society people.  My father - in -law is also a man of stature, and his brothers are highly learned Professors etc.  My father-in-law due to necessity concentrated on agriculture and traditional knowledge.  During his youth he was known as 'Michael Jackson Patwardhan'.  A progressive farmer, my fil had the best rubber plantation and had won awards.  The reason for his success in rubber cultivation?  Well, in the sapling stage, wild pigs would attack rubber saplings and eat the bark making the rubber trees narrow and low yielding.  My fil had arranged speakers in the rubber plantation and would play Michael Jackson audio songs which would chase away the wild pigs, the result was his rubber plantation had wider and robust rubber trees!  This was reported in newspapers too in late1980s.

Anyway, coming back to the subject of motivation, it is no doubt that motivational practices and processes are making the difference for organizational results.  The concept of motivational processes need to be taken more seriously and comprehensively for a competitive edge, rather than as knee jerk reaction (Oh! Sales are poor - well, increase incentives and bonus offers to the trade and offer costlier gifts to doctors, this will motivate field people, doctors and chemist retailers - so we will get improved sales).  Motivational processes need to be well thought out, comprehensive, proactive and should cover employees and customers: organizational results are tied to motivational processes and practices of the firm.

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Organizational effectiveness

E Sreedharan: the brand persona for ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS

The above man known for his no-nonsense leadership style has achieved remarkable organizational feats: establishing and creating new milestones (he has planned and executed the Metro concept in India, Konkan Railway ...). E Sreedharan is the personification of organizational effectiveness concept and leadership.

Picture 1 seen above shows a ship in distress - the rough seas are tossing the ship and giving the sailors a tough time.

In below Picture 2, we see a ship in placid waters, the crew are having a routine and a relatively comfortable time compared to above picture.

The entire premise of work life (and for that matter, family life) depends on two words: EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY. We need to be effective with the mandate given to us by the management, and we need to be efficient too. On these two words depends the entire output of our work life.

This is also true with reference to the organization. At the organizational level too, the watch words are effectiveness and efficiency. The outputs created by the organization should be in line with investor, management, customer and other stakeholder expectations.

What does organizational effectiveness depend on?

An organization is a group of people with common objectives. The organization is characterized by systems and sub-systems. Thus, an organization's effectiveness depends on individual effectiveness and system/sub-system efficacy. Effectiveness is the degree to which problems are solved or objectives achieved. Thus, organizational effectiveness is high if the degree to which it achieves objectives is high. If an organization through thorough analysis of its financial muscle, marketing prowess, production and manufacturing capability etc, assigns a certain sales figure as its objective, then the degree to which it achieves this target is a measure of organizational effectiveness. The mission, objectives, or goals of an organization are not necessarily in terms of sales outcomes - there are profit objectives, brand equity goals, employee stability goals, geographical expansion targets, manpower expansion objectives, customer service and market coverage objectives, and other key result areas. Once the objectives are established the effectiveness of an organization refers to how much (and to what extent) of the objectives it has achieved (or the percentage of achievement).

Managers, other employees and organizational strategies are deployed so that the firm or organization can achieve high effectiveness. If a product is not of predetermined quality, then the quality systems and personnel are not effective, if the marketing goals are not met, then the marketing personnel are not of expected effectiveness ... Thus, the management and HR challenge is to create conditions that produce effectiveness in line with top management and organizational expectations.

The toughest thing for firms is to establish objectives and a work environment that creates effective performance in the entire spread of the organization. The final bottomline in organizational management is effectiveness.

IN LIFE...

honestly it is only about the outcome or the output - that is what life is about. When a girl's father hands over his daughter to a suitable groom, what will he see? Obviously, the father will see into the boy's personality, habits, talking style, behaviour, work profile, educational qualifications, cash flow (salary and other commitments), problem solving attititude (ability to provide solutions), energy level (no father-in-law wants a lazy son-in-law!), assets, family culture, personal achievements and whether the boy will be able to afford a comfortable life for his daughter and future family. In essence, the girl's father will be impressed by the boy's future effectiveness as a householder - he will see if the boy has all the ingredients to become an effective householder. He can ill afford to have a son-in-law who will give excuses or shy away from taking responsibilities or always comes up with alibis or problems (and not practical solutions).

Thus, the name of the game in personal, family, community, social, and work life is effectiveness.

The next factor is efficiency. How fast is the employee, how accurate is the employee, and when he does work is it with minimal or negligible wastage (of time, resources etc)? However, the primacy is for individual and/or personal effectiveness. Efficient employees ought to focus on effectiveness too.

What are the factors that promote individual effectiveness?

1) The competence and other attributes of the individual - for eg., the MR's ability to detail, negotiate, keep records, do the homework, plan the calls and activities, practice, have interest, do hard work , be committed, and the tact to manage the power games of the organization to ensure his effectiveness is not diluted ...

2) The training and other back up from the organization which promotes individual effectiveness. For eg., strategic directives (in which direction should the MR put his efforts), and strategic inputs (or collaterals like leave behind literatures, small gifts, CDs etc).

3) The will of the organization and management to utilize resources (human and material) to achieve the organizational objectives (at individual and system level), the organization should ideally back its people to accomplish their tasks - it involves a will to develop and use people, marshal human and material resources to be effective at the organizational level.

4) The continuous motivational programs and processes which ensures people are on their toes and morale is high (this includes compensation packages, career development, promotions, job enrichment etc).

5) Organizational culture which promotes transparency, systems, processes and other forms of professionalism.

6) Ability of the organization to have functional conflicts and not dysfunctional conflicts (which is a result of negative power games). Political management skills are vital in managerial life, however, the final goal should be organizational effectiveness - organizational politics that cause dysfunctional conflicts can be a drag on organizational effectiveness.

While above 6 dimensions promote organizational effectiveness, there are other high level concepts like technology base of the firm, financial strength of the organization, legacy, philosophy, and management culture which have a vital influence on work effectiveness.

Finally - last but not the least - leadership makes the difference, as we see E Sreedharan is a classic example of 'value based effective leadership for organizational effectiveness'.

Now coming back to the other ship pictures - HERE ARE TWO QUESTIONS FOR THE READER TO PONDER ON:

1) When a ship is in distress, will there be maximum effectiveness to work collectively and achieve the goal of saving the ship?

2) When the ship is in placid waters, will the sailors perform effectively or will the comfortable environment create just a wee bit of slackness?

Parting snap:

The following picture is not taken in Germany, it is our own Bangalore's Namma Metro world class metro station. We rode on Namma Metro (M G Road to Byappanahally and back on 8.4.2012) (though the electronic signboard in the photo says Byappanahally the metro station is M G Road, the sign board is showing that the platform is for Byappanahally bound metro train).

From reader's left to right: My mother - Latha S Chiplunkar, Madhuprita (daughter), Rushang (son) and Manjula (wife) at M G Road Namma Metro station (8.4.2012) waiting for the Byappanahally bound Metro to arrive!

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Goa rocks - ACHIEVING THE WOW FACTOR

Three cheers to Manohar Parrikar - the new CM of Goa (above photo) who has reduced petrol price by Rs. 11 per liter. Three cheers to Taj Vivanta Holiday Village, Candolim, Goa for a super property and quite good service (first photo).

Success concepts in pharma marketing based on the service concept?

Succeeding in the services market is a Herculean task - today the hotel segment has a lot of potential for growth - still it is not a seller's market, say as it was 10 years back. There is a lot of competition and start-up hotels require more gestation period to break even. Moreover, growth is not guaranteed, since competition is making everyone eat the humble pie.

The pharmaceutical marketing sector has always been ultra-competitive and now the challenge is to deliver the WOW factor every time to doctors, chemists, stockists and purchasing or indenting agents (in institutions). It is a well known fact, that sales happen not only on the basis of rationale but very much on emotional factors that bring customers to the brand experience again and again.

For instance when the electrolyte energy drink products bring a satisfied smile on the patient's face, it is the greatest motivation for prescribers to continue prescribing the electrolyte energy drinks.

How to offer the WOW factor?

The first rule of delivering a WOW brand experience, is that the customer or prospect or influencer (like doctor) should never FEEL CHEATED. Cheating implies not living up to the expectations or promise made. When you enter Taj Vivanta Holiday Village, Goa you expect a certain class in the way things happen, the entry, the food quality and variety, the ambience, the soft skills of staff, service empathy, and the way they manage customer requirements or requests. It is not that each and every whim and fancy needs to be catered to, what is vital is the way the requests are managed, it is an art to say NO in an agreeable way! However, cheating implies being immoral, giving false expectations, manipulating, putting down another person, victimization, win-lose transactions, going beyond boundaries of a relationship (as in adultery or emotional cheating of one's life partner), absence of natural justice, or in simple sense not playing to the written and unwritten rules.

When a Pfizer MR enters the clinic, the doctor has certain expectations on the deliverables and service inputs, if this is not done, the doctor feels cheated. It is so with all other companies - the expectations are based on the image of the company - the doctor has certain expectations to which the MR, product, and other service elements should live up to.

The fundamental premise of servicing is that the service provider MR or field person or HO person has to be a problem solver. A person who does not give a problem as an answer to a problem but tries to offer a solution to the problem, is a problem solver. This requires, knowledge, commitment, involvement, messaging skill, analytical talent, imagination and creativity, presentation & persuasive ability to make the solution appealing.

Going beyond customer expectations

Creating the WOW experience requires investments to create such an experience - it is as serious an expenditure as capital expenditure to create new production facilities or expansion of manufacturing plants. Le Meredian has currently launched a campaign to create a WOW experience at the sensory level. Their cafes or restaurants are coloured to create a sensory appeal - for example at Le Meredian Delhi, as the elevator moves up and one sees the floor of the restaurant it looks like a coffee pattern, the aromas at various places are also controlled - for instance an invigorating and energizing aroma at the coffee cafes etc. There is a sensory basis for offering a WOW experience at Le Meridian today, and they have made huge investments to deliver continuously this WOW experience.

Today, the challenge is to add value to service concepts in pharmaceutical marketing thus, rendering the WOW experience - yet at the same time, having an operationally sound philosophy. There is no point offering a WOW experience through financial profligacy. Striking this balance is the sagacious marketing approach of the present challenging times.

Cheating is a universal phenomenon. The idea is to have systems and approaches that do not encourage cheating and always try and keep lowering the cheating levels - intraorganizationally between employees, between bosses and juniors etc and when transacting with external customers and prospects.

This can be done through various system based approaches. This system based approach to promote maximum transparency is not easy - yet that is the only enduring philosophy or approach which works. When transparency is lost or blurred to tide over various challenges temporarily, weakness starts seeping in, and finally the system caves in one day.

Manohar Parikker has a tough task - he has got his post on the basis of voter expectations - he has to deliver the WOW experience to his voters every day, it is not an easy task!

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Employment ready!

A pleasant face: Ajit strikes a pose

Two young employees (Mr. Bhaskar and Mr. Sumit)

Recently, my colleague who had to deliver a talk on being "Industry Ready" for students at a pharmacy college, asked me to give some inputs for his talk.

Here are some tips to becoming employment ready!

1) Being employment ready means dropping many of our college goer notions & care free behavior, and becoming very sober. The employer is investing monies on us (the employee) - and the employer expects ROI (return on investment), we should be conscious of this fact (this does not happen in college!).

2) It is also means having the ability to handle your colleagues, juniors, seniors and bosses. This relationship management skill counts a lot. You should have the ability to move with all in a professional way – not coming too close yet winning trust and confidence.

3) The most important attributes are: co-operative attitude and being reliable. People lose confidence if you are not reliable. Time sense and punctuality is a part of reliability. There are people who procrastinate (ie., postpone things) – this is a major impediment to winning confidence of others. It is also a key thing to know how to follow-up and get things done, this requires you to be proactive, plan well, and be active (do not be lazy!). These characteristics make you reliable and this quality is required for success in the industry or anywhere else.

4) Hygiene and etiquette factors are vital. Clipping nails, being clean shaven, having trimmed hair, wearing sober, clean and ironed clothes (stripes or plain shirts are the best choice), avoid casual wear, and ensure that you wear black or brown sober leather shoes.

5) Knowledge and knowledge hungry attitude is vital. Knowledge is not only from the books - it is also the knowledge from the environment, understand the written and unwritten rules of the environment, how to greet people, what is the best body language to have in the employment milieu etc.

6) Empathy is vital for success. It is important to try and be in another person’s shoes. This helps in improved communication. Empathy helps you understand the 'power-line' 'or who's who' and 'how powerful a person is' in any organization. Every person has an ego - so boost it with 'ego massage words' - but do it genuinely. Understand the ego and power status of individuals - and move accordingly. Remember: when the ego of powerful people is hurt they have the potential to harm you considerably.

Empathy also helps you be humane.

7) Communication is a key to success – knowing how to message, write and talk to colleagues, bosses, and juniors is important. Learn how to give speeches, and talk to groups of people. This will help. Try to learn colloquial words too so that you can assimilate into the environment. It is a part of the enculturation process.

8) Knowing how to move with office people in non-official hours is also a vital input to success in employment life.

9) Talk positive, give positive strokes to others, do not berate (ie., curse) and do not gossip. It is safer this way.

10) Humor is very vital – but strike a balance, do not be clownish.

11) Remember: there is no ideal situation, we should have a problem solving attitude. Go anywhere and everywhere only expecting problems, and that you are required to help solve problems. There will be all types of problems: technical, relating to your boss, or with the company, or with juniors, or with labour, or with systems, emotional etc.

12) Also understand, there is never enough money or salary. When you get an increment, it will seem good, after two or three months, it will not be an attractive salary anymore because you would have changed your expectations. So do not get job satisfaction based only on money - otherwise you will never be satisfied in professional life. Obtaining satisfaction by doing positive things and having problem solving attitude will help.

NEVERTHELESS THIS does not mean not wanting to grow financially - growth in salary and perks is very important, however, it is not the only thing.

Never feel overwhelmed if you get a reward, or depressed if you do not get a reward - remember true worth will always attract value. Develop your worth.

13) The main stumbling block in employment life is comfort zone: we do not want to meet strangers, or handle strange situations nor do we want new things or new experiences, because we feel it will cause discomfort. But if you have a problem solving attitude you will never get any discomfort zone in your life - all experiences will be comfort zones, so have a problem solving attitude. Enjoy the problem solving process, identification of problems and applying knowledge with imagination - this creates solutions. Compete with oneself to constantly improve. A learning attitude will help in being adaptable. When you are adaptable you survive and thrive. Problem solving attitude creates outputs - we are ultimately recognized by our outputs and these outputs are our identity and saviour.

Learning does not end with college, a new chapter of learning begins with employment, learn from others without inhibition, ask and learn, acquire knowledge and skills. Take cues from the environment and learn the new tasks or new skills. When I was in the field I had no exposure to computers, however, with office positions, I went on to acquire the requisite skills, this is the importance of learning attitude.

Never compare and feel belittled or do not feel superior to others. Compare with others or other entities to understand how to do things better and effectively. Compare to learn not to develop complexes (ie., inferiority or superiority complex, life is short, do not waste time on such 'complexes'.).

Learn the tasks in your job profile well and improve on it. Learn new skills and gather new knowledge too. Observe, ask, practice, and take lessons to learn your job aspects. Try and master your job.

14) Be disciplined - do not consume liquor or tobacco. If you have to consume liquor due to peer or colleague pressure, restrict it to 1/2 or 1/4 peg - use it only for keeping company. Avoid these bad habits - when you get money, job and professional circles, sometimes these bad habits will tail you and they have the potential to spoil your future. Remember, the only person happy with alcohol consumption is Mr. Vijay Mallya because he makes his money through your bad habits. Gandhiji was honestly right: 'Sharaab abhishaap hain'.

Do not be rigid when it comes to being a part of alcohol consuming circles: be a part of such circuits so that you get the relationship mileage - yet do not encourage and belong to it. Strike a balance so that you do not lose out in life due to orthodox behaviour.

Learn "street smart" concepts by observing "street smart" people, and apply the concepts if required. Be in the know of "street smart" concepts.

15) Remember people's names, designations, greet people before talking about the main issue, learn to talk light topics like weather, etc, admire others, congratulate others, greet them on special occasions, this networking habit is very vital. SMS will help you network better.

16) Learn the spirit of mutuality or 'give and take' to establish win-win relationships, this will make people comfortable with you. Indulge in 'give and take' even without asked (understand the nature of the social contract: when you get your first salary, buy things for your parents, even though they do not ask you, because this is the social contract of the relationship).

17) Participate in professional events like IPC (Indian Pharmaceutical Congress) do not cut off from professional platforms, write articles in professional journals etc.

18) Be defensive - not offensive. Being defensive means you respect yourself and others. Learn to self-love and present yourself in various situations firmly and confidently.

Defend yourself absolutely. Prevent perceived harm to yourself. Remember: there are performance expectations in each situation - understand the 'said and unsaid', 'written and unwritten' performance expectations and try to achieve them.

Negotiate the performance expectations (qualitative and quantitative) with your boss, if required, and make it realistic so that you are safe and at the same time there is mutuality. Performance is of three types:

a) expected performance

b) actual performance

c) perceived performance

The third thing is tricky - many a times, even if your actual performance is excellent, the perceived performance by people who matter may not be that - they may think your performance is very bad. So ensure that you are safe from the angle of perceived performance too.

Help others but help yourself too.

19) Dress well and appropriately, you are not well dressed till you wear a smile! Be emotionally stable, do not lose your temper or feel ecstatic, control your emotions - be balanced, be dedicated to the problem solving attitude (in a way, each moment of the day is a problem solving moment). Balance your work life, social life and family life.

20) Finally, it is character which triumphs: language group, caste, colour, creed or other considerations provide you temporary advantages or disadvantages - only character will help you - on a long term basis.

The above list is certainly not exhaustive, but it will help. Please read all other blogposts, scroll down and click on older posts when required to read all other posts, recommend this blog to others.

Pharma learnings from Kingfisher and Indigo

In the above picture we see that the organization is an entity that creates an output (satisfying customer requirements). An organization refers to a group of people working towards a common goal. The output created by an organization is in line with the firm's vision and mission. The identity of the firm, it's survival, growth and image, and the destiny of the firm - all depend on the output. It is important to constantly understand what the output of a firm is from the customer or prospect's point of view. It could be a -

"value-for-money preposition", or it could be the

"services in exchange for prescriptions" or it could be

"hi-quality product preposition" or it could be

"R & D or intellectual image of a company" or

"ingenious products like patented electrolyte energy drinks in Tetra Pak technology or patented sterile haemocoagulase topical solution etc"

- the output of a firm is both TANGIBLE AND INTANGIBLE.

Understanding these aspects, shapes future activities of the firm. Finally, it is the output which is responsible for the financial picture of the organization.

In the above, we see marketing as a function that provides value addition and creates brand identity, brand image, brand equity, communication, and facilitates value delivery.

Marketing deals with the 4 Ps: product, price, promotion, and placement (distribution and availability). Marketing also deals with the communication mix which include: sales promotion (bonus offers), personal selling (MR efforts), packaging, advertisements (eg., in medical journals), and publicity (activities which result in word-of-mouth particularly in target doctor or target pharmacist circles).

Marketing includes the physical evidence, process and people too. Finally, marketing helps increase throughput, market penetration, facilitates sales, stimulates and catalyzes the exchange process, helps retain current customer base and nets in more customers through conversion of prospects into customers and strengthens brand equity.

There are many other dimensions of marketing: such as product positioning, developing an emotional bond of trust, modifying the lifestyle or prescribing behaviour or even the therapeutic style or approach and ensuring improved quality of life for society and patients (ie., reducing morbidity and mortality).

Operations is an all encompassing function that envisages creation of value added outputs that satisfy all stakeholders including customers. Operations includes sourcing (of raw materials, outsourcing or own manufacturing), processing, marketing and other operations in providing the output. It is a wider perspective of things.

Operational focus varies from firm to firm. For instance, Mankind did not devote energies to set up a US FDA manufacturing facility (as was the trend), its operations was to focus on improving market share and brand sales. The operational focus makes the difference.

Many a times, firms do not know what output they are actually creating or what they are supposed to create (as per customer requirements) - they are going by the established LEGACY OPERATIONS. For eg., a firm like say, Indoco or Franco Indian has its legacy - and operations are embedded in this legacy. Now are the operations in tune with the contemporary market reality? Or are the operations having some unidentified strengths (parts that are not exploited) that can help bring in more revenues? If the analysis is done not just from the marketing angle also from the operational perspective, this will provide more insights to firms.

Akums is an interesting business plan, this firm offers latest formulations on contract manufacturing basis. The output of Akums is about helping pharma marketers create better outputs - Akums is aiming at this synergy and this is Akum's operational focus.

There are several ways to introduce a new product. The most common way, is to look into the IMS market reports (for promising markets, where there are market gaps) and see the 'best-fit new me-too product'. This product should fit into the company operations or company marketing coverage and style. The idea is to introduce the new brand hoping to hit a gold mine in the marketplace.

This approach does work and has worked - but one should analyze if the new brand is the best fit from the marketing angle or operations angle of the firm? This is the call that one has to take through analysis.

Investors, futurists, product developers, marketers, entrepreneurs, customers, prospects, intermediaries ... all have one question on their mind - which is the next big thing round the corner? From where will my next big growth come from?

Everyone instinctively knows, although they may not like it, there is no product or service (or for that matter - organization or human being) that is permanent - things will not continue to be the way it is now. The fact is, there are changes happening continuously which will rewrite the future and people want to know the future before it swamps them! Now this curiosity is OK after all it is a part of the survival instinct!

20 years back no one thought that the typewriter would get obsolete. I remember how my sister went for early morning typing classes when she was in pre-university. Today, the keyboard has replaced even the electric typewriter which was considered a durable invention. Things are getting smarter and even smarter!

Smart trend is to stay

The future bet is on continuously creating smart products and smart working - here smart chiefly means intelligent or thoughtfully done: Apple has done it - Google has done it, Microsoft has been trying to do it, but it goes by LEGACY OPERATIONS this is their handicap!

There should be a sense of ingenuity in the output that appeals to the prescriber and/or patient. This will create the winning horse (CLASSIC EXAMPLE: ELECTROLYTE ENERGY DRINK FOR Rx MARKET IN TETRA PAK PACKAGES). And the smart product ought to smartly fit into the overall operational paradigm of the company. The me-too market is big in pharma but very crowded and fierce-some. Smart products may or may not be in the me-too product market.

Hypothetical example:

Let us say, Sun Pharma is strong in the OBG and neuropsychiatry segments - and presume they have two options: (a) let us say Sun Pharma has a product for the mass GP market and (b) the have one more product for the critical care segment (which is also a specialty market).

Which product will Sun Pharma invest in (in the current market scenario)?

From the marketing angle the GP oriented product is definitely attractive, however, from the operational angle it is probably more sagacious for Sun Pharma to invest in the critical care segment oriented product. Chances of making it big in the critical care segment is better for Sun Pharma.

The above hypothetical discussion differentiates between operations and marketing based approaches.

Consider another hypothetical example:

Imagine Himalaya Drug Company, which has a powerful herbal based company image, now, what if they deviate from this herbal active based business and launch into allopathic anticancer range? After all the company has money, requisite pharma experience, good brand image, and the market too is attractive. Perhaps there is also marketing sense in this approach, however, is there operational wisdom in this move? That is the point between being marketing oriented and operations oriented.

OPERATIONAL SUCCESS VERSUS MARKETING SUCCESS: The Kingfisher and Indigo example

Today Kingfisher airlines is in deep deep debt and really in red. Whether this is management blunder or an artificially created crisis - one will never know. However, was it a great idea for Kingfisher beer brand to fly as the Kingfisher airlines - now this is easy to analyze and comment - since it is hindsight wisdom (!), but probably the top management mindset of Kingfisher airlines was not operationally tuned to succeed in the airline market.

Mr. Mallya is a good marketer but operations probably, was not his tastiest cup of tea, now this is just loud thinking - and hindsight wisdom (which is the easiest form of wisdom!).

On the other hand Indigo seems to have its operations recipe just right! INDIGO IS GREAT FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Is the success of Indigo a marketing success or operations success? Probably both (but mainly operational excellence at work!).

What about Kingfisher? The answer: a great marketing success, but A WORRISOME OPERATIONAL DISASTER.

Operations management is a very interesting discipline encompassing planning, product selection, product design, service design (since all product companies also have associated services), organizing, control and conversion process. Excellence in operations management, ensures organizational outputs that meet customer requirements at the lowest cost.

There was a time of hefty margins in the pharma business. One could launch me-too brands of generics with the maximum growth in the market without looking too much into operational aspects, the operational framework would develop according to the marketing requirements and results. However, now, creating operational infrastructure is costlier, competition is hot and margins are thinner. Price undercutting, competitive clutter, freebies, cash incentives and very aggressive bonus offers ... all these make the concept of marketability just one of the considerations. Operational rationale of a new product launch is critical and operational excellence is very important.

The roots of the operations structure of a company is in the DNA of the firm. For eg., Mankind played with a new operational structure, Mankind focused on outsourcing (rather than own manufacturing), processing, providing the product along with impelling services to the prospect prescribers - the value of the output was such that the output value helped create maximum market share and brand growth for Mankind. Zuventus, Mcleods, and Eris Lifesciences are also in this game.

The challenge ahead in pharma India is relooking at LEGACY OPERATIONS (which could be the Achilles heel) and creating OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE ALONG WITH BEING MARKETING SAVVY. Operational aspects are as vital as marketing in the current scenario.

Please do scroll down and read all other post, click on older posts as and when required, kindly recommend this blog to your acquaintances.