A Distinct Candle is Extinguished!

“I am announcing, with a heavy heart, the sudden demise of my beloved father, Asif Javed Mir, due to heart failure on 18th December,2013. I request to everyone who knew him, in any capacity, to pray for him. May Allah bless him in the life hereafter. Ameen.”

Muaaz Asif Mir.(son)

Writer’s Checklist

When writing a technical report ask yourself following questions:

• What is reader’s name and job title?
• What are reader’s chief responsibilities on the job?
• What is reader’s educational background?
• What is your reader’s professional background (previous positions or work experience)?
• What is reader’s attitude toward the subject of the document?
• What will the reader do with the document: file it, skim it, read only a portion of it, study it carefully, modify it and submit it to another reader, attempt to implement recommendations?
• What are the reader’s likes and dislikes that might affect his/her reaction to the document?
• How will your reader’s physical environment affect how you write and package the document?
• What is your purpose in writing?
• What is the document intended to accomplish?
• Is your purpose consistent with your audience’s needs?
• How does your understanding of your audience and of your purpose determine your strategy: the scope, structure, organization, tone, and vocabulary of the document?
• Are there any organizational constraints that you have to accommodate?
• Are there any informational constraints that you have to accommodate?
• Are there any time constraints?
• Have you checked with your primary reader to see if he or she approves of your strategy for the document?

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Positioning Strategy Decision

The challenge facing a manager is deciding  which positioning strategy is most appropriate in a given situation. The choice of a strategy is made easier when the following three questions are considered. First, who are the likely competitors, what positions have they staked out in the marketplace, and how strong are they? Second, what are the preferences of the target consumers sought and how do these consumers perceive the offerings of competitors? Finally, what position, if any, do we already have in the target consumer’s mind? Once answered, attention can then be focused on a series of implementation questions:

• What position do we want to own?
• What competitors must be outperformed if we are to establish the position?
• Do we have the marketing resources to occupy and hold the position?

The success of positioning strategy depends on a number of factors. First, the position selected must be clearly communicated to target customers. Second, as the development of a position is a lengthy and often expensive process, frequent positioning changes should be avoided. Finally, and perhaps most impotant, the position taken  in the marketplace should be sustainable and profitable.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Channel Evaluation

Channel evaluation is a multidimensional construct and includes both performance measures of the channel and measures of contribution to consumers by th channel. These measures of channel performance have been grouped under three main dimensions also known as 3Es, i.e., Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Equity. Effectiveness is further subdivided into delivery and stimulation.

• Delivery is defined as a short term measure of how well the channel meets the demand for service outputs placed on it by the consumption sector.
• Stimulation is defined as a long term, goal oriented measure of how well the channel member stimulate latent demand to reach optimum levels of demand.

Efficiency is further subdivided into productivity and profitability:

• Productivity is defined as the efficiency with which output is generated from resources and inputs used. In essence, productivity is a measure of physical efficiency.
• Profitability is a general measure of financial efficiency of channel member, in terms of return on investment, liquidity, leverage, growth patterns in sales and profits, growth potential in sales and profits, market share, average inventory maintained, etc.

Equity is the extent to which marketing channels serve problem-ridden markets and market segments, such a disadvantaged or geographically isolated consumers.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures

Traditional Control Systems

Traditional Control Systems are based on setting standards and then monitoring performance. These systems include three categories of controls: diagnostic controls, boundary systems and interactive controls.

• Diagnostic Control Systems (such as budgets) allow managers to determine whether important targets have been met and if necessary, to figure out why they haven’t been.
• Boundary Control Systems are policies that identify the boundaries within which employees are to operate. Ethical rule against accepting gifts from suppliers are an example.
• Integrative Control Systems involve controlling employees interactively, by questioning them face to face.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Defining Issues & Priorities

Ensure that the key issues facing business have been realistically defined in light of the current and rapidly changing business environment. There is nothing new about this requirement, but the fact is that very few management teams actually take the time and apply the discipline necessary to objectively define and prioritize the key issues that can make or break their business. The issues of inferior quality, higher cost products, lower productivity, and nonresponsive service plague manufacturers for the better part of the recent past. Many companies in industries such as steel, automotive, machine tool, textile, farm and construction equipment suffer badly as a result. Only few companies address these issues in effective ways. Most are unable to clearly identify the key issues, set priorities, and develop the necessary business plans to overcome the underlying problems.

While the specific issues vary for different companies and industries, the management mindset should not vary. To deal effectively with an increasingly turbulent environment, priorities must be set so the business can survive unexpected blows, adapt to sudden dropping changes, and then capitalize on smaller windows of opportunity that develop and close much more quickly than they have in the past.

Many progressive managers kick off their planning process with a session aimed specifically at getting agreement on key issues and priorities. Accepting these priorities require a shift in the way most managers think and act, such as:

• Liquidity becomes a more important objective, often more important than reported earnings. It provides the flexibility to deal more effectively with unexpected events than is possible when everything is tied up in fixed and slow moving assets.
• Productivity gains per dollar of capital and per employee must be achieved annually. These reductions must exceed inflation and achieve demonstrably lower costs.
• Innovation must never stop. Demonstrable product and process improvements must be achieved year after year.
• All cycle and response times must be continuously reduced.
• A “frightened” sense of urgency must be the way of life in all parts of the business.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Marketing Plan

A marketing plan embodies the strategic marketing management process. It is a formal written document that describes the context and scope of an organization’s marketing effort to achieve defined goals or objectives within a specific future time period. A formal written marketing plan represents a distillation of and the attention and interrelated analytical processes. It is the tangible result of an intellectual effort.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Closing the Customer Gap

The gaps model says that a service marketer must first close the customer gap between customer perceptions and expectations. To do so, the provider must close the four provider gaps, or discrepancies within the organization that inhibit delivery of quality service. The gaps model focuses on strategies and processes that firms can employ to drive service excellence.

Customer perceptions are subjective assessment of actual service experiences. Customer expectations are the standards or reference points for performance against which service experiences are compared and are often formulated in terms of what a customer believes will or should happen.

The sources of customer expectations consist of marketer-controlled factor (such as pricing, advertising, and sales promises) as well as factors that the marketer has limited ability to affect (innate personal needs, word-of-mouth communications, and competitive offerings). In a perfect world, expectations and perceptions would be identical: customers would perceive that they receive what they thought they would and should. In practice these concepts are often separated by some distance. Broadly, it is the goal of service marketing to bridge this distance.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Appointing a Dealer

1. The Branch Manager perceives a need for an additional dealer in an area. Need occurs if any existing dealer leaves or is removed. It could also happen when the company expands into new territory.
2. The Branch Manager has to convince the general manager of the division about the need for anew dealer.
3. The selection process for the dealer begins with placing advertisements in newspapers and trade magazines inviting applications. Applications for dealership are directed to the concerned branch manager.
4. The branch manager then reviews the application forms and prepares a shortlist if necessary. The company has not laid down any concrete guidelines for shortlisting at this stage. The branch manager is allowed to exercise his discretion.
5. The shortlisted applicants are interviewed by the branch manager along with the regional sales manager of the division. Whatever additional information is required is obtained from the applicants during the interview. The dealers are evaluated on:
   1. Prior business record
   2. The capability of maintaining and running his own showroom
   3. Financial strength
   4. Inventory: The dealer must have enough working capital for maintaining specified level of inventory. This condition is however is applied only in the case of dealers whose territories are located considerably away from a branch office. This is because there is a company owned warehouse along with every branch office and for dealers located in the same cities there is no necessity to maintain separate inventory
   5. Contacts with customers
   6. Availability of salesforce to service customer effectively. In addition, technicians also need to be present to meet the after-sales service requirements of the products
6. The final selection decision is made after talking with the bankers of the applicant. This is done to check the veracity of information regarding financial strength and prior business experience. It is only after the company is satisfied regarding all aspects of he information, that it sends the dealer an appointment letter
7. The appointment letter lays down several terms of the contract that have to be fulfilled by the dealer. The company expects the dealers not to sell any competitors’ products. The dealer is also expected to conduct his business only within the clearly demarcated sales territory allocated to him by the company.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Channel Management, & Physical Distribution Management

Channel management and physical distribution management together comprise the place variable of the marketing mix. Channel management and physical distribution management, though closely related, are quite distinct from each other. While physical distribution deals with logistics, warehousing, and inventory management channel management is much broader and is concerned with the entire process of setting up and operating the channel for meeting the company’s objectives. Channel management must be well underway before the physical distribution management can even be considered.

Under channel management, the company deals with external organizations. The company uses these external organizations. The company uses these external organizations also known as intermediaries, to achieve its objectives of profitability and customer satisfaction, and in turn ensure that the channel members’ objectives are also satisfied.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir – Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures