Evolution of marketing : from 4ps to Interactive Branding

                                                                       
The term “Marketing” might be coined in the dawn of 20th century but the idea was prevalent since thousands of years. Similarly customers are also not a recent phenomenon; they would have been active since the first transaction was made. In the past century the realm of marketing had undergone constant evolution as a discipline. In the initial days marketing was a push concept where there was a constant tendency on the parts of the firms to push their products/services to the customers. In 1953 with “Neil Borden” coining the term “Marketing Mix” (4ps of marketing that is product, price, people & promotion) marketing took a leap as a discipline. In 60’s Theodore Levitt came up with the theory of “Marketing Myopia” that for the first time attempted to consider seriously the customer factor in marketing. In the coming years the significance of customers kept on increasing in formulation of marketing strategy by individual firms, 4Ps of marketing got transformed to the 4Cs (Consumer, Cost, Convenience, Communication).In the 21st century with computers and internets penetrating to individual households coupled with a plethora of popular Websites, Social networking sites, E-portals, Online communities etc the realm of marketing is undergoing a new paradigm shift. Now the customer is not only the central focus of the marketing strategy but is also the most active player of the branding exercise conducted by individual firms.

The new age customer¹

 The new age customer is very different from his/her previous counterparts. He is much more intelligent, confident and has much more understanding of various kinds of products & brands. A stereotypical new age customer 1can be assumed to be exposed to end number of media channels, is much more tech savvy and internet friendly. It can be assumed that the new age customer has a high sense of individuality and in this age consumerism buying for him/her is a very high involvement, fun driven process. There are across 1.96 Billion internet users 2 across the world. 90% of the internet users know at least one social media and every social media user is connected to 195 friends on an average3.There are 133 million blogs enlisted in the blog directory “Techorati”4.These facts explain the power and influence of the new age consumers. The probabilities are always high that a new age consumer is also an author with his own blog he uses to reflect his view points. He might also be a thought leader with his own friend circle in the social media sphere he can influence, a critic using these media platforms to criticize a product he doesn’t like and a brand ambassador using positive word of mouth in such social media platforms for something he likes. The strengths and skills that have been acquired by the new age customers cannot be discounted by marketers. These customers need to be involved actively in the branding processes.

Interactive Branding

American Marketing association(AMA) defines a brand as a "name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of other sellers. In reality brand is much beyond that, brand resides within the hearts and minds of customers, clients, and prospects. It is the sum total of their experiences and perceptions, some of which you can influence, and some that you cannot. These days with the help of Websites, E-manuals, E-brochures, Multimedia presentations, Clickable add banners interactivity between the customers and the firm increases many fold. While the customer gets a better brand experience the firm understands the behavior, interest and tastes of the customer in a better way. These interactive tools can also provide a good insight into the customer’s geographic location as well as demographic profiles.

Note:- ( New age customer means well off customers from the developed and developing nation.


2. Source: www.internetworldstats.com

3. Source: Online Media Gazette.
)

Abu Dhabi's economic vision 2030: brief discription

Computer image of Louvre Abu Dhabi, part of cultural district project,Saadiyat islnads, Abu Dhabi (source: ConstructionWeekOnline.com)                                                          
Abu Dhabi had made great strides in economic development, in the past few decades. Blessed with huge amounts of petroleum resources, the biggest emirate of UAE enjoys high, growth, per capita income and  fiscal surplus. In spite of the fact that Abu Dhabi has huge oil reserves which will last for another 150 years, it aims to diversify its economy to various other sectors and wants to build a more stronger and sustainable Abu Dhabi, both socio-politically as well as economically. The overall plan for this transformation had been named as, Abu Dhabi vision 2030 and the key think tanks involved in planning are, general secretariat of the executive council, department of planning and economy and Abu Dhabi council for economic development. The given blog is an abstract of the roadmap for the overall economic and social development goals, intended to achieve by 2030. # , $

Introduction

Abu Dhabi vision 2030, as the name suggests, is basically a long term strategic plan to transform the emirate of Abu Dhabi into a world class economy by, diversifying into various sectors, integrating with the global economy, optimizing govt. resources and investing in social & physical infrastructure. The govt. of Abu Dhabi had identified nine areas defining the social, economic and political future of the emirate: large, empowered private sector, knowledge based economy, transparent and optimal regulatory environment, premium healthcare, education and infrastructure assets, optimization of resources, complete domestic and international security, continuation of strong and diverse international relations, maintenance of traditions, heritages and cultural assets and strong contribution to the federation of UAE. (gsec.abudhabi.ae, 2008)

Policy priorities, areas of policy focus and associated objectives (gsec.abudhabi.ae, 2008)

There are basically two primary economic priorities, one to achieve economic development and second formulation of policies so that the benefits can be shared by every section of the societies. To achieve these two given priorities, there had been seven areas of policy focus:

Build an open, effective, efficient and globally integrated business environment: this includes, enhancing transparency, streamlining govt. processes, facilitating investment and modernizing business laws etc.

• Adopt a disciplined fiscal policy that is responsive to economic cycles: this includes diversification of govt. revenue sources (rather than depending on just oil revenue), optimize govt. spending etc.

• Establish a resilient monetary and fiscal market environment with manageable levels of inflation: includes enhancing regulations on banking sectors, leveraging monetary tools to contain inflation, developing less speculative financial markets etc.

• Drive significant improvements in the efficiency of labor markets: includes encouraging emirtaization of work force, expanding the base of skilled labor force and reducing unskilled labor, enhancing labor market process.

• Development of a sufficient and resilient infrastructure capable of supporting the anticipated economic growth: includes ensuring high level of energy production to meet future requirements, implementing safe and efficient transportation system, enhancing the availability of ICT (information communication technologies)infrastructure and encouraging its adoption, maintaining ecological sustainability.

• Develop highly skilled and productive work force: enhancing productivity of workforce with the help of high investment in training and education sector, optimizing the allocation of labor etc.

• Enable financial markets in becoming the key financier of economic sector and projects: includes increase in savings and deposits, enhancing performance of financial markets, encourage investments in economic sectors and projects.

Abu Dhabi’s economic policy priorities  (gsec.abudhabi.ae, 2008)

• Building a sustainable economy: In the past few decades Abu Dhabi had made huge economic progress on account of its oil and natural gas reserves, in 2005 its per capita real GDP rose to $ 55, 200 and is considered as one of the richest nations in the world. In spite of such a phenomenal growth, there are structural flaws in Abu Dhabi’s economy; petroleum sector had been contributing half of the GDP with a non oil trade deficit of  21 Billion US Dollars  in 2006. Similarly more than half of the workforce had been working in the construction  and the govt. sector. Thus overdependence on petroleum coupled with concentration of work force make its economy susceptible to fluctuations in oil price. In order to achieve economic sustainability along with a balanced economic growth, it aims to diversify into various other non oil sectors with a focus on export. (An approach for export is necessary since an inward looking approach will not nullify the dependence on fluctuation oil prices, by making these sectors dependent on petroleum revenue for their  investment). Another area where Abu Dhabi is looking forward is diversification of its workforce by developing a vibrant SME (small and medium enterprises) segment. It wants to build national champions in the form of big enterprises and around the national champions, plans to build a cluster of SMEs. A vibrant SME segment will result in innovation and better productivity of work force.

• Ensuring, economic growth be shared among various sections of Emirate: Another area of action, is distribution of wealth generated from economic growth among every sections of society, ensuring strong social development and regional economic growth. It aims to achieve this by, investing in education sector, encouraging participation of females in the workforce, attracting skilled expatriate workforce and stimulating balanced regional growth with investments in various physical and social infrastructure. (especially in the western region which lags behind the Abu Dhabi and Al-Ain region)

Engines of Abu Dhabi’s future economic growth:

Hydrocarbon plays a very important role in over all GDP of Abu Dhabi and  will continue to do so in the nearby future. But along with it the Emirate also aims to diversify into other capital incentive and export oriented sectors in which it can have an advantage. (gsec.abudhabi.ae, 2008)

• Petroleum :- Abu Dhabi has huge oil reserves; it is among the top five crude oil exporter and top twenty five natural gas exporters (it supplies natural gas primarily to the Asian economies). It is active in the entire range of petroleum business such as, exploration, production, transport, refineries etc. The major oil producing company in Abu Dhabi is ADNOC (Abu Dhabi national oil corporation), other entities active in the sector are IPIC (international petroleum investment companies), Abu Dhabi national energy, Mubadala etc. Due to low production cost and economies of scale Abu Dhabi’s petroleum sector makes a profitability of more than 15%, the global average. In its future economic vision also ,petroleum sector continues to be high up on its agendas. In the coming decade, ADNOC aims to upscale the crude oil production by 3.5 Million barrels a day with the help redevelopment of existing fields and development of new, smaller fields. It also aims to increase its output in other related areas with the help of investments in better technologies.

• Petro chemical: - Abu Dhabi is endowed with huge oil and gas reserves and also has a very well developed petrochemical industry, based on which it aims to target a higher pie of the hydrocarbon value chain. It has large current capacities in Ethylene, Polyethylene and fertilizer segments and plans to build further on it. It is also expanding its production facilities in China and other international locations so that it can position itself strongly to the global market, especially  Asian markets.

• Metals: - In this area Abu Dhabi has plans to expand into Iron, Steel, Aluminum production as well as other advanced materials. It does not have sizable metal deposits of its own, but has access to state of the art industrial cities with excellent infrastructure, low cost energy, world class transportation system and comparatively economical skilled work force. Moreover produce of the metal production unit canl be used as raw materials for the fast growing manufacturing sector of Abu Dhabi.

• Aviation, aerospace and defense :- the given sector valued at approximately 500 Billion US dollars is another growing fields where Abu Dhabi intends to become a global player, it has the basic infrastructure upon which it wants to develop further to become a global player.

• Pharmaceuticals, bio technology and life sciences: - Another interesting sector with a annual output of around 700 Billion US dollars, where Abu Dhabi wants to diversify. Presently the industry is at a nascent stage in the Emirate and requires significant investment. In order to be a successful player Abu Dhabi also requires putting considerable efforts in many areas such as, intellectual property rights, international trade agreements, drug testing facilities etc. One another factor that can be beneficial for the given sector could be the huge investment made by the Emirate state in health care infrastructure and education.

• Tourism: - Though still far behind in attracting tourists like its cousin Dubai (which is visited by some 10 Million tourists annually), tourism is another area where Abu Dhabi is making huge investments. It is investing in grandeur projects for building its competencies in various forms of tourism such as sports, business, cultural and lifestyle etc. Abu Dhabi has developed state of the art luxury resorts, shopping malls, golf courses, convention centers, and has invested in many extravagant projects like the Ferrari theme park and Sadiyat islands to attract various types of tourist segments. The govt. has an ambitious plan of attracting 7.9 million tourists by 2030, to accommodate this anticipated increase in tourists the Emirate state is also investing hugely in developing hotels, number of hotel rooms are expected to increase to 21,000 by 2013, 49,000 by 2020 and 74,000 by 2030. (AMEinfo.com, 2008) Not only is it making huge investments, in infrastructure but also in other bran building activities. The tourism board of Abu Dhabi namely ADTA (Abu Dhabi tourism authority) has opened offices all across the globe such as England, Germany, China etc and taking strong marketing initiatives to promote brand Abu Dhabi as a great tourist destination. The Emirate realizes the fact that not only tourism a great revenue earner, but also there are other benefits associated such as , enhancement of SME segment thereby leading to diversification of enterprise base, strong brand building for the Emirate state and earning of foreign capital.

• Health care equipments and services: - valued at $ 300 Billion in 2007, this another lucrative segment where the Emirate wants to expand. It intends to successfully compete in the market by developing world class medical infrastructure. Equipped with state of the art airline and airport facilities, it can be reached comfortably. Along with investments in state of the art hospitals, another area that needs attention is attracting talented medical professionals.

• Transportation, trade and logistics: Abu Dhabi had a long tradition of trade and  wants to carry it further. It has got huge advantage for becoming a trading hub because  of great infrastructure in the form state of the art ports, airports, airlines and road infrastructure and strategic advantage of being placed just on the cross roads of West and East and North and South.

• Education: - The Emirate has one of the most advanced educational systems in the region but with respect to international standards the sector is still in its initial stage. Given the fact that it wants to transform into a knowledge based economy, education sector is high up on its agenda. It is making huge investments in building new teaching facilities and state of the art research centers along with attracting some of the best talent in the education sector. Along with being a lucrative sector in itself, education sector will play a very important role in developing other core sectors by supplying highly skilled workforce.

• Media: - Media is growing at the rate of 25% in the Middle East region. Abu Dhabi intends to be a media hub in the gulf region by investing in advanced technologies in the nearby future and attracting the best talents with high pay package and high standard of living.

• Financial services- The financial sector in Abu Dhabi is expected to make huge strides in the nearby future. With further economic development there will be huge demand for a wide range financial services like commercial banking, investment banking, insurance, corporate and project finance services. Financial sector at the Emirate is open for foreign player enabling the infusion of more capital, talent and competition.

• Telecommunication: - Abu Dhabi intends to be a regional service center for telecom services. Telecomm is primarily a high tech and capital intensive sector that requires constant investment in keeping the infrastructure up to date. Abu Dhabi has advantage on accounts of its sound financial conditions, existing infrastructure and strategic geo graphical locations. Telecom sector will also help in its long term aim of diversifying its work force by contributing as well as requiring skilled work force and attracting highly skilled expatriate population.

• Enabling sectors: - In order to fulfill its ambitious plans of developing various core sectors, it will be investing in developing various enabling sectors like construction, food and beverages, machineries, electrical equipments etc.

Out of the 12 sectors. Energy- Oil and Gas, Chemicals, Aviation, Health care, Pharmaceuticals,
Metals and Hotels are global focus sectors where as Education, Media, Transportation, Financial services and Telecommunication are regional focus centers.

Measures of success  (gsec.abudhabi.ae, 2008)

Abu Dhabi has ambitious targets for its economic growth and social development, which needs to be properly benchmarked and monitored. The overall plans will be benchmarked against some of the other transformational economies like Norway, Singapore and New Zealand etc. The entire future plan will be implemented in blocks of five years with every block having specific agendas for every sector. The salient features of its target are as follows:

• By 2030 it aims to increase its GDP fivefold.

• By 2030 targets, 64% of GDP coming from non oil sectors

• By 2030 targets an unemployment rate of 5%, thereby effectively achieving almost 100% employment.

• With increased productivity, Emiratization of workforce, achievement of full employment and diversification of economy, aims to increase the per capita income by more than 50% by the stipulated time period.

• National asset formation,  including investments and exports should increase by five folds and domestic investments should be doubled during the stipulated time periods.

• Abu Dhabi will protect itself from unfair trade practices and dumping by actively participating in international trade organizations like WTO (world trade organization).

• Today Abu Dhabi has a dependency rate (number of dependent members on an earning member) of 1:4, but  aims to make it 1:2 by 2030 with the help of huge investments in world class education centers and encouraging females to join the workforce.

# the plan was incepted in 2006 and finally the detailed roadmap was prepared by 2008, hence most of the data are with respect to the year 2005 and 2006.

$ It is just an abstract of the overall plan, there had not been any analysis done by the author

References:-

1> Gsec.abudhabi.ae, 2008, executive summary , The Abu Dhabi economic vision 2030, p-5, available at < http://dpeols.adeconomy.ae/dpe/ADVision/english/economic-vision-2030-executive-summary-mandate2.pdf >

2> gsec.abudhabi.ae, 2008, Required policy priorities: areas of policy focus and associated objectives, The Abu Dhabi economic vision 2030, available at < http://dpeols.adeconomy.ae/dpe/ADVision/english/economic-vision-2030-the-vision.pdf >

3> AMEinfo.com, 2008, Abu Dhabi plans tourism makeover, available at < http://www.ameinfo.com/186749.html >

4> gsec.abudhabi.ae, 2008, economic priorities of Abu Dhabi, p- 23 to 41, available at < http://dpeols.adeconomy.ae/dpe/ADVision/english/economic-vision-2030-section-1.pdf >

5> Gsec.abudhabi.ae, 2008, Engines of Abu Dhabi’s future economic growth, p- 113 to 119, available at < http://dpeols.adeconomy.ae/dpe/ADVision/english/economic-vision-2030-section-3.pdf >

6> gsec.abudhabi.ae, 2008, Measures of success, available at < http://dpeols.adeconomy.ae/dpe/ADVision/english/economic-vision-2030-section-4.pdf >

Brief introduction to business tourism

                                                          
In the coming blog the author will like to give a brief introduction to business tourism. Business tourism one of the key components of the overall tourism industry comprises of both inbound as well as outbound tourist who visits a place for business purpose. It consists of conferences, meetings, exhibitions, outdoor events etc.


Salient features of business tourism:-

• Since business tourism involves top ranking executives from business it is of high value both in terms of service expected as well as in terms of yield.

• It is active throughout the year.

• It can stimulate investments in a region.

• It can boost leisure tourism. It had been seen that 40% of the business visitors to a destination do return to the destination along with their family. ( Corporate expenditure survey report, 1998)

• Top quality infrastructure and other facilities are needed in order to business tourism to flourish.

• Generally business tourism does not have any side effects on the local ecosystem. Hence it is considered as a very sustainable form of tourism.

Types of business tourism:-

• Conferences and meetings: - Conferences and meetings constitute a major part of business tourism. It includes Annual general meetings, sales meetings, training courses, management meetings, business presentations.

• Exhibitions: - exhibition provides a friendly platform where seller and buyers can meet cordially and deals can be finalized. There are basically three types of exhibitions, public exhibitions where the exhibits are sold to general public, business exhibition where the exhibits are sold to a narrow set of business customers often coming from a particular industry type and business/public exhibitions where the customers are both business houses as well as general public.

• Incentive travel: - are the tour packages provided by business to its employees and external sales agent as rewards.

• Corporate events: - it consists of a wide range of events such as client entertainment programs, vendor entertainment programs, incentive travels, meetings, conferences etc. the definition of corporate events are very wide and often overlaps with other types of business tourism.

• Outdoor events: - primarily consists of wide range of outdoor activities such as car shows, Christmas fairs, music concerts, culture and art festivals, firework display etc.

Factors influencing business tourism:-

• Sound infrastructure, availability of top quality hotels, transportation, communication network.

• Frequent airline service.

• Moderate climate.

• Investor friendly government.

• Availability of big conference halls along with meeting rooms and hotels in the nearby vicinity.

References:- Business tourism briefing, Available at < http://www.businesstourismpartnership.com/pubs/briefing.pdf>

Branding blunder that Vivek oberoi does:diffrent offscreen and onscreen image

Well it had been a week over here at Sheffield and the author is off to write his second blog & the topic is related to one of his favourite areas of interest: Indain film industry.
The author intends to talk about one of the most talented but most wrongly marketed Bollywood actors Vivek Oberoi, the kind of roles that he plays and the kind of media image that he maintains. One must understand that in a nation like India where both films and actors are adored heavily,every actor is a brand in himself.Every actor has both real as well as latent brand value that can be cashed in the form of asking price for films, stage show charges, endorsements etc.Media plays a very important role in deciding the exact brand value of these actors in the eyes of there customers that is the general public. Many a times there are actors like Ritesh Deshmukh,Arjun Rampal who are over rated in the media and then there are actors like akshaye khanna and vivek oberoi who are grossly under rated.*

Though the author does not intend to go into very details of every actor but will like to point out a very big blunder that Vivek as well as other actors do too often: Maintaining an altogether different image on and off the screen.One must admit that though these days actors in Bollywood are experimenting a lot with there roles, but in spite of that there is a specific kind of roles for which every one is known for. For exp:- Ajay devgan is known for playing serious roles,Salman Khan is known for playing roles of strong headed guy, roles that require throwing lot of tantrums and attitude,Sanjay dutt is known for playing mafia kind of roles and Sahrukh khan for romantic roles.Though Vivek himself had played so many different kind of roles but primarily he is some one who had always been appreciated for rough and rash roles. Be it the role of a dreaded criminal in shoot out at lokhandwala, an aspiring gangster in Company, and the no non sense young guy of Road.Vivek is some one who looks best when he has to play an earthy character, a character which does not reside in some fancy world but comes from the world of darkness,some thing that exemplifies the baser instincts of the human character.Even in his upcoming film Raktha Charitra where he is playing a south Indian feudal lord he is looking magnificent.He is some one who is always associated with grave and grey kind of characters, but when it comes to his off line life he has altogether a different image.He pretends to be too good and humble. Here the problem arises. People in India have a fixed image for every actor, they love to see them in that only. If an actor is rash and grave on the screen then they expect the same off the screen too.If he is a goody goody kind of guy on the screen then the same is expected from him off the screen too. The author is not saying that there is any harm in being a good boy but in case of vivek oberoi it creates an identity crisis. At one hand when he plays the role of a gangster and on the other if he tries to flatter Salman Khan in some media conference then it's obvious that normal public will find it tough to relate with him.He must understand the commonsensical fact that a hero who plays the role of a bhai or a gangster is not expected to plead in public, to try impressing some one knowing the fact that the other person do not even care a damn. Based on the type of role which he does ,Vivek really needs to change his way of behaving in public.There is no harm in showing humility but the essence of a mafia should not be missing nor should the style.The gravity with which he plays his role should not be found missing.The silent arrogance needs to be there not only on the silver screen but also in the real world. After all a brand is what the world perceives you.
(*:- Views are personal in the particular case)

The Arab community: what they have and whta they dont have

Well the author has reached united kingdom for his student exchange program and beside enjoying the English autumn one very important purpose he is having is to interact with the international community and to have a first hand experience of their culture, beliefs and their strengths and weakness with respect to the global business framework. Today the author is going to write on the Arab community:-

Strengths
1> Relationship based business: In the Arab world relationships matters the most. In contrast to their European or American counterparts where two negotiation parties have the tendency to shoot directly to the main agendas, the Arabs give a lot of emphasis to relationships. Business is never discussed initially. Initial time is always devoted to relationship building and once the relationship is built business follows. In the Arab world gestures have a great importance, customs and tradition play a very important role. And it is these gestures that do help a lot in building relationships.

2> Good negotiators: Arabs have always been traders. Trade had been the life line of Arab economy, as a result of which it had been seen that they are not only good sales man but have great knack for negotiations too.

Weakness
1> Continuous hardworking ability is missing in them: in contrast to their other counterparts they do not have the ability put continuous effort. They do put a lot of effort when needed, but cannot continue it for a longer period of time and this is something that really kills there prospect as strong professionals. In the modern world of business sustained effort is really needed if one wants to succeed. For this flaw of there even the Arabs can't be blamed completely. lot of credit goes to the environmental factors of the Arab world also. The weather had always been hostile in the arab land.So it had been some how tough for them to continue putting hard work. More over economies of countries like Bahrain have relied on stuffs like Pearl, fish etc. For these things one does not need to put continuous effort. One needs to work hard only when needed and then after the harvest can rest for large time.

2> Lack of awareness in brand building activities: Though the Arab world is really growing very fast but still when it seems as if they are not yet very well versed with modern business practices. One of them is there disinterest towards long term brand building practices. When ever the Arab invests in some brand building activity they want a very quick result. But practically this is not the possible. Modern brand building takes a large amount of time. It's not something that can be done in a very small time.

(Views here are based on the authors own understanding of the Arab people, his readings on the Arab world and his interaction with people who have worked in the Arab world.)

Why is Rahul Gandhi not appropriate for the post of PM?

He has the killing Persian looks, is one of the most media savvy street smart politicians and is touted as the PM in making by many. The author is talking of none other than the scion of Gandhi family Mr.Rahul Gandhi. Though Mr. Gandhi is considered as next PM who can lead India to newer heights, the author has got strong opinion against him.
(To be very frank the author will like to make it very clear that he does have reservations for the Gandhi family and Congress regime but today the discussion will be solely on objective facts)

Author will also like to make it clear that:-

1> Mr. Gandhi cannot be deprived from the post of PM because his original name is Raul vincy:- Though Mr. Gandhi is from Italian origin but that does not mean he cannot be the PM. As long as the person is capable and efficient enough to carry on the responsibility even an Alien will do.

2> Mr. Gandhi cannot be the PM because it will affirm that India is a monarchial democracy:- Well author will like to reiterate that India just needs a capable and efficient PM, it does not matter whether he is a Monarch, Autocrat, Plutocrat, Socialist, Communist or anything else.

Now the point comes why cannot he be the PM

1> What kind of experience he has?:- when Dhiru bhai Ambani launched his sons Mukesh and Anil he didn't give them the profile of a Ceo, they were initially inducted as normal management trainees, once they gained ample experience senior profile where given to them. The same must hold true for the PM's office in India, the job requires very high degree of capability and experience and cannot be executed by any neophyte. If Mr. Gandhi is really serious to execute this great duty with full efficiency then he should have taken some portfolio in the current ministry and tried to learn how things really work. If he thinks that just because of the Gandhi surname ruling and administration is a part of his DNA then probably it’s a blunder that the nation might has to bear.

2> Mediocre academic background: Though academic background is not a prerequisite for the post of PM, but having a good background is an added edge. In spite of all the rumors that Mr. Gandhi has degrees from big foreign universities, the fact is that he had been a below average student who just managed to pass during his St.Stepehens days and could not even get a post graduate degree.

3> Lacks aggression and eloquence: since the past six years Mr. Gandhi is visiting the parliament as a MP. But hardly there had been a single incident where he would have shown some courage or eloquence which is the prime requirement for a leader.

4> Is unaware of realities: Born and brought up in a situation of paranoia and isolation he is devoid of the ground realities of India. In Narendra Modi’s words he is like a fish born and brought up in a captive atmosphere of an aquarium.
(Views are personal)

Branding: the 360 degree edge

Today author intends to write on a very important field of marketing and branding known as 360 degree of branding. It should be known that between any brand and its target audience there happens to be many touch points, there are many media channels through which a target audience can get to know a particular brand. It can be the regular once print media, TV, radio, hoardings, live shows and demonstrations, emerging once like web medium or even something unconventional as theatre or street plays. Often it had been seen that just one or two medium is used to promote a brand but when a company decides to use each and every one of the available medium, when it tries to communicate at each and every one of the touch points then this approach is known as 360 degree of branding.
It is quite evident that 360 degree of branding is an expensive as well as time consuming approach and cannot be used too often, but it becomes extremely essential when a brand has to be launched in the market. Whenever a brand is launched it needs a very high degree of recognition. If all the existing media channels are not used then the chances are very high that the nascent brand might not get the amount of exposure it should have got to be successful. One must understand that whenever a brand is launched the very first thing which it needs to be successful is awareness among the general public. Once the awareness sets in and people began to start making perceptions for the product then only the final selling can happen. If the general awareness itself cannot happen at the first go , perception for the brand let alone final sales is never going to be realized. So it’s very essential that whenever a product or a brand is getting launched companies rather than choosing one or two media channels must go for a 360 degree kind of approach where the newly evolving brand can be communicated through end no of media channels. A point that has to be considered over here is that often 360 degree branding does not end up in huge sales figure ,the reason being that communication efforts get diluted over a large no. of channels but it does provide a huge amount of brand awareness that can be capitalized over a period of time in making sales.
One reason the author intends to write this blog is that often start ups are not willing to spend much on brand promotion. Rather than going through the 360 degree frame work, now day’s entrepreneurs prefer just one two media channels in which the web medium predominates. Given the rate at which web penetration is increasing day by day the importance of the web medium along with the social networking sites cannot be discounted but at the same time it will be fool hardy to neglect other regular channels like the TV, radio, newspaper, magazines ,hoardings etc. Every medium has its own importance; every medium has its own takers. So it is in the interest of startups that they should try utilizing whatever touch points they can in order to create brand awareness for their newly launched product. One must understand that for a newly launched product branding should be wide spared covering as much audience it can cover.

Book review: In Search of Excellence

                                                                         
Today the author attempts to write the review of one of his best book ever. A book that escalated his
interest in the world of management like anything.

INTRODUCTION


In Search of Excellence (here after referred as ISOE) written by two management consultants Tom Peters and Thomas Waterman is among some of the best written management books ever. The book has been among the best bestsellers in the world with more than 3 million copies sold worldwide. It was written by surveying 43 best companies in America. The fundamental idea of the book was to find out what drives excellence in a company. What is that common factor which is common in all the top notch and top performing company? The story of writing the book is also very interesting. In 1977 McKinsey director Ron Daniel launched two projects; the first and major one, the Business Strategy project, was allocated to top consultants at McKinsey's New York corporate HQ and was given star billing. Nothing came of it. The second 'weak-sister' project (as Peters called it) concerned Organization - structure and people. The Organization project was seen as less important, and was allocated to Peters and Waterman at San Francisco. Peters traveled the world on an infinite budget, with license to talk to as many interesting business people he could find about teams and organizations in business. He had no particular aim or theory in mind. But after the conduction of the in depth analysis Tom tried to prove that it is not systemized philosophies, high level of no. crunching and bureaucratic systems that make a company great, it’s the so called soft sides such as culture and people that makes a company great. In a way ISOE was an attempt by Tom to refute the ducker’s principles of management that heavily relied on systematic frameworks. The essential message of In Search of Excellence is very simple:-

• People


• Customer


• Action

Main ideas of the books:

The book is based on the 7s framework of “Mckinsey”:-

• Structure


• Strategy


• Systems


• Shared values


• Skills


• Style


• Staff




The book is fundamentally divided into eight chapters. After their conclusive study the authors found that there are eight parameters that are always very important for a company’s success.

1. A bias for action, active decision making - 'getting on with it'. Facilitate quick decision making & problem solving tends to avoid bureaucratic control

2. Close to the customer - learning from the people served by the business.

3. Autonomy and entrepreneurship - fostering innovation and nurturing 'champions'.

4. Productivity through people- treating rank and file employees as a source of quality.

5. Hands-on, value-driven - management philosophy that guides everyday practice - management showing its commitment.

6. Stick to the knitting - stay with the business that you know.

7. Simple form, lean staff - some of the best companies have minimal HQ staff.

8. Simultaneous loose-tight properties - autonomy in shop-floor activities plus centralized values.

The best part of the book is that the top 43 American companies are from various backgrounds. These companies include IBM, McDonalds, Caterpillars, 3M, and Walt Disney etc.

The common theme of the book is that it is the kind of culture and shared values that are built in a company are actually responsible for its success and profitability. The book puts huge emphasis on building a culture of innovation. It strictly says that the world is changing (the world here means the business world) and to survive and constantly deliver in this chaotic world it is very important that modern companies should innovate and evolve constantly. Until unless the innovation factor is not there it is very hard to grow continuously, but innovation in itself is not very easy. It is such a dimension that needs to have a very strong culture to support. A culture that isn’t dependent on any particular but on a set of factors. It talks about giving more and more freedom to people, who are in line jobs, who are more close to customers. Because it is these people who are at the front, a CEO dressed up in a resplendent suit may not know what is happening in the field very soon, but the field worker who remains at the market for most of his time can get the glimpse of changes very soon and so it is very essential that authority and freedom must be given to him. Because until unless he will not have this he cannot deliver the message to the upper echelons. The book also has a great message to the top executives of the firm. The book suggests them that they should also try to be visit the field and rather than always getting restricted to their glass chamber they must assign some days of the year where they can directly visit the field and can have a firsthand experience of what actually happens in the field. For this the book gives the example of Walt Disney where the bosses are supposed to visit the field at least once in a year, they are supposed to be dressed as cartoon characters and they greet various customers. These kinds of experiences always make top management close to their customers and help them understand the general psychology of their customers. It also states that the most successful companies are those companies that promote their employees to innovate. Even in the entire process if the firm loses some money they really don’t care much. Additionally when it comes to innovation it’s not essential that innovation will be driven by the top team of scientists only, it can even be driven by normal workmen working in the floor. To strengthen this point the book has given example of companies like 3m which known for coming up with a very high no. of innovative products every year. The book takes a critical view on the “Bean Counters”(Bean Counter is the term used for top B-school graduates in the time of 60’s and 70’s in America, they were highly systematic in approach and used a wide range of numerical tools .) The book is not very supportive of the stands taken by the bean counters. Bean counters were known for doing a return of investment analysis for everything that was done. According to the book such an approach might look sophisticated in the beginning but hampers the qualitative aspect of a company in the long run.

Conclusion

The book is wonderful read that has its own unique flow. The best part of the book is the maverick approach followed by the authors, anyone who has a penchant to do something unique and to think of a situation with a non stereotypical approach, this book is a must read. The book is highly inspiring and very systematic in approach. It’s among the very few books of its time that had tried to consider the “people factor “and “Culture factor” in the success of a company. Another important strength of the book is that it is based on the fundamentals of solid research rather than assumptions.

Though like any other good piece of work it has its regular flaws too. The book primarily focuses on companies that have American origin. The time when the book was written lot of Japanese firms were also rising but hardly any focus is given upon them. Secondly many of the things that the book talks about are in general vague in nature and cannot be described very easily. The book also does not have any analytical tools as such.

But all in all the book is a great read and can be read by all sorts of people such as corporate, Entrepreneurs, Managers, students and general readers etc.

The martial art of marketing

As someone who has always been passionate for "marketing as an art”, author attempts to describe the martial art of marketing, the hidden skills and art which good marketers should have. Having said this the blog does not attempt to write the obvious ones like good communication skills, better negotiation power blah,blah,blah(these are the fundamental requirements & no one can be a good marketer without them)

• A marketer has to be a great "Mind Reader": A marketer has to be great in reading mind of other's. Marketing is such a profession where one is exposed to end no. of people ranging from customers, suppliers, clients, channel members etc. He is never independent in making decisions which depend heavily on the other factor mentioned above; hence he has to read the mind of others beforehand to craft his game plan.

• A marketer has to be a good actor: As discussed in the above point he has to communicate with a lot of people. Many a times his job includes a lot of negotiations, communications & other related stuffs, has to don many hats at the same time, many a times has to pretend things. For all such a good acting skill is a prerequisite.(May be that’s why all the great marketers in India such as Bharat dabholkar, Alyque Padamsee, Sohail seth etc have background in theatre)

• A marketer should be creative with his computer skills: Marketers are suppose to give lot of presentations, many a times in front of people who might not have much of the subject related knowledge. Under such situation what does matter is not content but the creative aspects of the presentation.

• Knowledge of music is an add on: Marketing requires a lot of networking with people. It had been seen that music (includes all the three parts, dancing, singing and instruments) is a great tool in helping people do networking with others.

• An indulgence with various forms of art helps one understand and evaluate alternatives: Marketing is such a profession where one needs to have the hunch of understanding and evaluating available alternatives, needs to have the insight to think beyond the obvious. Having an interest in various forms of art such as acting, music, and writing can help you hone these required skills. (Because the world of art is something that attempts to look at the world in its alternative form)

Though marketing has its own analytical and mathematical sides but the author believes primarily it’s an "ART" or rather a "Martial Art" where one needs to don many hats at the same time, use the best of the available techniques, the realm of human psychology has a very important role to play and creativity is the best weapon to attract and stimulate someone. Due to all these things marketing requires individuals to be well aware (and if possible well equipped) with different facets of art.

Blogs have edge over Books

                                                                 

The author is of the opinion that in the realm of management following a good blog might be much fruitful than reading a management book. Though there are many reasons for that but fundamentally it’s the very basic nature of blogs and books that gives advantage to the blog over the books.These can be summed as follows:-


• Blogs are always latest and books are always old:- One must understand that the realm of business management is very dynamic and changes very fast. It takes many years to write a book,hence a book can never be latest,by the time a book undergoes its idea phase and by the time it comes to publication there is always a gap of few years .Even the latest of the books will talk about something that had taken place some 4-5 years back. In contrast to this a blog is always latest,fresh and captures the present situation in a better way.

• Blogs are to the point where as books have a high degree of redundancy:- Blogs are always to the point but on the other hand books have high degree of redundancy. A book needs to be of few hundred pages, as a result of which even if the author does not want he has to repeat certain stuffs end no. of times. This makes the book boring after some time.

• Comments add value to blog:- Comments add lot of value to a blog,it helps in understanding it better,gives additional information and can also add counter views. No such facility is available in book.(Though these days stuffs like book reviews can be of some help but they cannot be as instant as comments)

• A blog has a very high degree of variability where as books are generally written on a single idea:- An author can write an end no. of posts on various issues on the same blog.Thus following such blogs give eclectic knowledge. In contrast just take any management book such as Positionong,Judo Strategy,Hard Ball etc and you will see that it’s the same central idea that keeps on repeating itself.


• Blogs are small ,books are too large:- last but not the least books are so large that one has to think twice whether to go for it or not, in contrast blogs are small enough to at least not de motivate you from reading it.

(Well having said this author will like state few facts based on his experience:-
1> One should not jump directly to blogs. Initially one should try to read few good books first
2> The given analysis is more applicable for business management related stuffs.
3> Views are personal)

Blue Ocean Strategy for BJP

This article will be a confluence of two widely divergent ideas that is, management principles and Indian politics. It attempts to design a blue ocean strategy for BJP.
(Non Indian readers please note that BJP also known as the Bhartiya Janata Party is a national political party of India that believes in Hindutava)
(Blue ocean strategy is a strategic approach that tries to capture non customers for a firm by providing them cost efficient value innovation)

Before carrying forward the analysis 1st we must understand the customers and non customers of BJP.
Customers:-
1> Any Hindu fundamentalist be it a hard core or a moderate.
2> Educated Urban class(Delhi is an exception)
3> Business class people and Brahmins(BJP is also sometimes known as Brahman Baniya party)
4> Others(that include people from various socio economic classes that cannot be categorized)

Non customers:-
1> A large amount of Indian population that is politically inactive,do not have any opinion of itself, and often rely on any crap that the media tells them(The author is of the opinion that Indian media is highly biased against the Hindutava forces of India and often portrays them in negative light( views are personal))
2> A large part of rural poor
3> people from scheduled caste and scheduled tribes(There is another tendency In Indian media of  portraying Hindutva as something anti-dalit )
4> Marxist (Both hardliners as well as moderates)
5> pseudo seculars(India has a good chunk of such people)
6> South Indians in general (baring Karnataka)
7> Muslims and Christians (Includes both hardliners as well as moderate)
8>Others (again those that cannot be categorized)

Now other than hardliners, from the red camp and from the religions of Islam and Christianity ,BJP has the potential of attracting all other class of non customers)

Presently, BJP is hugely spending its resources:-
1> Hindutava:-
a) Genuine issues:- such as terror attacks, safety concerns of people, respect of national symbols, Cow slaughter etc.
b)Not very genuine issues:- defending any crap that is related to Hinduism even that might be something like the caste system, defending a shankra charya who had been involved in murder case, or any other Hindu ritual that does not make much sense these days.
2> Opposing the incumbent central govt. for any action it takes.
3> Maintaining strong ties with other Hindutva factions such as Rss, Vishawa Hindu parishad, Ram sena,Shiv sena etc.
4>Projecting leaders like Narendra Modi & Varun gandhi as the new face of Hindutva.
5> Struggling hard to solve its internal differences.

Now the author attempts to do an ERRC analysis

(ERRC is eliminate, reduce,raise & create analysis where some of the existing parameters are reduced or eliminated where as some are raised and some new are created)

Eliminate:-
1> Anything that shows the irrational side of Hindutva should be scraped completely from the party agenda(Its good for party as well as Hinduism also)
2> Internal troubles of the party.
3> unwanted minority bashing

Reduce:-
1> Reduce, pestering the incumbent govt. for anything and every thing.It sends wrong signal to the media.
2> Reduce Strong ties with parties like Rss and ram sena(though this really does not mean that ties should be completel cut off, because provide essential force to the Hindutava movement but BJP must understand that general Hindu psyche dislikes very aggressive viewpoint)
3> Reduce activities that deals with symbolic side of Hinduism. Stuffs such as national song etc does not make much sense in the present scenario (Though the author finds them very important)

Raise:-
1> Raise activities that are focused more towards development rather than religion.

2> BJP govts (as well as allies)have done phenomenal jobs in states like Madhya Pradesh,BiharGujrat,Chattisgarh etc. BJP must try to promote strongly on these lines.

3> Karnataka:- Karnataka is the 1st South Indian state where, BJP had formed its government,so strategically it has great significance ,but unfortunately nothing substantial have been done by the govt over here. Since Karnataka can be the launching ground for spreading the influence in other south Indian states,  BJP needs to take extra care for carrying out strong development works over here.
4> Though hard-line Hindutava is dangerous but there are lot of important issues that needs to take care of, including terrorism, Kashmir crisis,conversions in the name of money etc. These issues should be raised seriously ,not only will it be good for the health of nation but will also help in garnering support of a large no. of people who in general are politically inactive but do fear such stuffs.
4> Promote Modi and Varun for their vision (also developmental activities in Modi's case),not for Hindutava

Create
1> Take initiatives for the development of the Scheduled and backward classes of India. Hindutava(moderate) cannot be a Viable idea until unless these people will remain marginalized.
2> Take strong action against illegal Immigration:- India especially its eastern and north eastern parts are infected heavily with illegal immigration. West Bengal itself has some one crore illegal immigrants(thanks to the local government).BJP must try to garner public support on such issues.

Though this alone is not sufficient and as a party BJP needs to take a lot of other steps but these steps if taken properly can surely convert a lot of non customers into customers.

(Views here are personal and attempt to see certain things with a very objective approach, the blog does not intend to hurt any one)

Disadvatanges of being too Mathematical in Approach

                                                                                                                                                                
In the present world of management there is too much of reliance on mathematical and analytical thinking. As someone who tries to observe managerial sphere with a very keen perception the author, does not find this trend very appealing. Now before doing a thorough analysis it will be good if the point be made very clear that there is no grudge against mathematics in general and the author also admits the fact that these are of extreme significance for management as an approach but the ongoing trend where it is infiltrating into each and every aspect of managerial thinking, is something that needs a revisit. The reason for this goes as follows:-

1> In Mathematics 2+2=4, in reality it is not the case. In real world business scenario 2+2 might be 4, 3,5 or even 14 or -4. Mathematical tools are too much mechanical in approach, now having a robust mechanical model in practice makes things very easy to understand and can be comprehended easily by the takers but one must understand that might be far away from what might happen in reality. Just because a mathematical model is robust enough does not guarantee that it will be correct also.

2> It kills the qualitative approach of a manager:- For a successful manager it is essential that he should be well versed with qualitative as well quantitative approaches. But relying too much on the quantitative approach and using a quantitative framework for each and every managerial situation might undermine the qualitative approach in some one.

3> Mathematical models cannot go beyond the obvious: - One must understand that any analytical or mathematical model always considers the available and existing frameworks. But is some one really wants achieve a major breakthrough he needs to think beyond the obvious which is not possible by depending on mathematical thinking approach. One must understand that something like a Ford's "T model", Southwest’s low cost aviation service, Toyota’s "Just in Time" were not the outcome of some mathematical thinking. They were purely based on the ability to think beyond the obvious, to understand the latent demand of the customers, to catch the hidden loopholes in the system and these abilities really don’t come with mathematical thinking but with experience, with the knowledge of the qualitative aspects of a problem, with systemic thinking and beyond that the guts to explore something that had been unexplored so far and to execute the findings with confidence.
Having said this will like reiterate that mathematical thinking also has end no. of advantages but will like to describe this in details in some other blog.

Blue Ocean Strategy

“BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY” or BOS is a revolutionary management philosophy that questions all the conventional wisdoms that have been predominant in the management circles till date. It consists of a very radical view that if one wants to beat competition the only way that is possible is to not focus on your competition. The idea came first into picture in the form of a bestseller namely “BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY” written by two INSEAD professors “W. Chan Kim” & “Renée Mauborgne” in the year 2005. The book talks about creating blue oceans that is uncontested market space. So far the traditional wisdom had been to fight against competition, most of the successful management theories in field of strategy such as “porters five force” “resource based model” and “delta model” basically talks about gaining competitive advantage with the help of product differentiation and price cutting. Such kinds of strategic moves are known as “RED OCEAN” strategy where companies fight bloody warfare against each other. It had been seen that though such moves might give a firm competitive advantage over another and can also result in top lines but since a large amount of resources are wasted in fighting against the competition ,cutting price and providing high end solutions to the customers at lower price it often ends up affecting the bottom line. Contrary to this belief “BOS” talks about creating blue oceans or in other words uncontested market space. It says that rather than focusing on existing customers and devising strategies to beat competition in order to get a larger share of the existing market space, companies should try to focus on the large share of population that has so far been the non customers of the company. Rather than trying to woo the same existing customers by giving them higher service at lower price the prime focus of the firms should to achieve value innovation. According to the book “VALUE INNOVATION” means:-


“ Value innovation is created in the region where a company’s actions favorably affect both
its cost structure and its value proposition to buyers. Cost savings are made by eliminating
and reducing the factors an industry competes on. Buyer value is lifted by raising and
creating elements the industry has never offered. Over time, costs are reduced further as
scale economies kick in due to the high sales volumes that superior value generates.”


THERE ARE FEW THINGS THAT IS VERY FUNDAMENTAL TO BLUE OCEAN STRATEGY:-

1> “BOS” fundamentally tries to capture the non customers of a company.

2> “BOS” proposes to shift the focus away from competition.

3> “BOS” proposes “avoid segmentation and to look at the commonalities between customers and non customers spread across various profiles”.

4> “BOS” talks about diverting from existing industry norms and coming up with value innovation.


Along with proposing a strategy Blue ocean strategy also consists of various strategic tools that can be applied to implement “BOS” in real life business situations. These are:-

ERRC FRAME WORK:-

A strategic frame work which plans to :-

1. ELIMINATE:- eliminate few of the product features that are not required by the non customers.

2. REDUCE:- Reduce few of the product features in comparison to the industry standard that are not very essential for non customers.

3. RAISE:- Raise the standard of few of the product features higher than the industry standard.

4. CREATE:- Create few new product features that can fulfill the requirements of non customer .



MENTAL MODEL:-

In order to implement “BOS” it is very essential that the way companies think needs to be changed .Until unless there is no paradigm shift in this, it will be very difficult to implement “BOS”. There are fundamentally two kinds of paradigm shift that is very important over here.

1> Focusing on non customers:-

Companies need to start focusing on their non customers rather than customers. Focusing on non customers can give them various kinds of new insights which otherwise is very difficult to obtain. Non customers are generally classified into three types .These can be:-



a) Customers who are mentally your non customers but occasionally do use your product out of some compulsion.

b) Customers who have the needs for the kind of service your industry offers but who still prefers to choose an alternate industry to fulfill their needs.

c) Customers who are far away from your industry and they are not at all willing to use your product/service.



2> Try to see the commonalities rather than specific requirements: - Often it had been seen that large amount of resources get wasted in segmenting the existing customers and providing them high value services. An alternative approach could be rather than trying to concentrate in differentiation, companies can try generalization. Between customers and non customers there is always some kind of commonalities. There are some basic requirements which are shared by people across both the customer as well as non customer bases. Companies should try to leverage this and try to come up with such cost efficient solutions that can fulfill the main requirements of both kinds of people that is those who are customers as well those who are non customers. That may help in increasing the market share by leaps and bounds.



UTILITY, PRICING, COSTING, ADOPTIBLITY MODEL:-

1> UTILITY: - In order to make a new product a big hit in the market it is very essential that the product must have exceptional utility for its end users. The very same principle holds true for blue ocean strategy,”BOS” calls for coming up with value innovation, but this value innovation will not serve any good until unless it does not have exceptional utility in the non customer base.

2> TARGET PRICING: - Along with utility it is very essential that the price should be fixed in such a way that it can be afforded by a wide range of customers.

3> COST: - Along with price it is also essential that the cost of innovation and producing the product should be very much within the limits of the budget of the company. Proper pricing cannot be done until unless costing is not with in budgets.

4> ADOPTIBLITY: - the new innovative measures should find easy adoption both amongst the customer base as well as among the employees of the company.

Anxiety can drive to experiment something new in life

The up coming blog that I am going to write will basically deal with the positive side of anxiety, so far lot of negatives have been said on the anxiety factor, and frankly speaking being anxious is a very uneasy state of mind, though it is neither painful nor torturing as such but it creates such a chaos in your inner world that every thing seems to disturbed, any ways this not the point of discussion, the point of discussion is that this state of inner volatility can also do a great good provided if it is used in a proper way .This state can really motivate you to take new resolutions in your life and to implement something new, some thing more positive in your life .

At first it might seem a bit counterintuitive that how come there be a relationship between anxiety and taking a new resolution .But there is a fundamental relationship between them . As human beings we all suffer with some sense of incompleteness and incompetency and we do want to remove it, we always make plans to take something new in life but unfortunately most of the times it gets restricted to planning only .We hardly implement in practice, the reason being the underlying pattern of our habits which is so deep in us that we do not find it easy to break this down .externally we might have some sort of angst with us but internally we are habituated with the way we live and are with complete peace with us ,internally we do not want any change . Now the good part of anxiety is that it creates a lot of inner turmoil, suddenly the so called equilibrium that the mind had created comes to a crash .we start doubting ourself,suddenly we are at some unease with our self, the so called habitual set up that was developed by us disintegrates temporarily. Now this period of temporary disturbance is the most fertile ground for doing some thing new,in this situation of chaos of yours there is no predetermined habitual inclination to stop you from doing some thing new , in anxiety you get the freedom to start any thing new .(In fact rather than freedom it is more of a need , you really want to do some thing new to pacify your anxiousness , to suppress your uneasiness)

The point that has to be taken care of is that anxiety can get you started but after that to continue some thing for a long period of time you need a decent amount of self discipline and dedication .Once the dose of anxiety goes down old habits will like to come back but with a lesser vigor , at such time you need to be a bit more patient and cautious . You need to be committed towards your new found practice for a while, after that over a period of time this new commitment of yours will become a habit and both you and inner being will be used to it .

So next time when ever you suffer with an attack of anxiety don't panic, rather try to use this opportunity for some better purpose .