Monday 8 June 2015

Business Strategy for Efficient Markets & Economic Rents

Every organisation that is in the market for profit, aims to having equal access to all information pertaining to economic actors, so that it can formulate and execute winning strategy for itself. It thus means, although preferring to be alone but having no option, organisations fight for market information. Thus, giving rise to ‘EFFICIENT MARKETS’. In essence market is built of many organisations but is characterised & known by behaviours of those actors which are dominant in the market. Consequently, prices are known to every one for a product, as they are in a chain from raw material to finished goods; only changing their role of input to output.  It does mean that one has to price its product in such a way that it is neither overpriced nor under-priced.  Overpriced products will not get sufficient buyers and under-priced products will be deluged with buyers and therefore may not be able to supply to all. Automatically efficient markets eliminate odds and works for bringing in equilibrium constantly.

Despite having Efficient or perfect markets, organisations work for better & better ECONOMIC RENTS that is better than average return on investment.

This pull and push of the market and its players, forces to look for strategies which can adequately support a player’s wish for higher rent. But incoherent selection of business strategy instead of helping a business may lead to its failure and wiping off from the market. There are innumerable strategies in the business literature from Ansoff’s Strategy Matrix to Porter’s five forces but they are based on different dimensions and meant to be used for different situation. For example BCG matrix is to know cash flow status of an organisation while Porter’s work well for setting up a new business and that too should be used for single business. These strategies are generally employed to increase economic rent and very precisely make an organisation know what factors can effect it so that the organisation can take counter steps.

Another important aspect to know is difference between business tools and full-fledged business strategies. Like, SOWT analysis, Learning & Experience Curve, Life Cycle are some of the tools being used to decipher a business health. These tools entirely differ and therefore be used not as a strategy as is the case for BCG Matrix, GE/McKinsey Matrix etc.


Strategists and readers, when you look for a tool or technique, first you should clearly spell out what are you looking for.

Thursday 4 June 2015

11 skills successful organisations must have

Times Jobs

11 skills successful organisations must have

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A high-performing team comprises of distinctly defined roles and well-rounded collection of personality archetypes

 By Rajesh Tripathi

Working with a team can be exhilarating and challenging too. In the world of business, this means that when individual roles and responsibilities aren’t well-defined, individuals get testy, the team dynamics go haywire and the project suffers as a result.

Popular theories say a high-performing team comprises of distinctly defined roles and well-rounded collection of personality archetypes.

Here’s a guide to 11 personality types that forms a successful team:

1. An expert: Expertise is the one skill a team cannot do without. Every new team needs at least one genius to get off the ground.This is the person that possesses intimate knowledge in a field that your project encompasses. This person gets down to business and accomplishes tasks.

2. A leader: This person is responsible for mediating conflicts, facilitating communications between team members, and keeping everyone on course. The leader will schedule and guide the course of meetings but that doesn’t mean being the only speaker or leading all meetings. A good leader sets appropriate standards of behaviour, knows how to delegate and let go of the reins and provides members with development opportunities and coaching.

3. The researcher: The researcher is always asking questions and then finding answers. If you need more information to complete your project, it’s important to have a strong researcher who can get it for you. Their special talent is that they ask the overlooked questions that can avert a future impediment. This natural private eye knows the quickest way to the best resources and is the person everyone goes to with the most puzzling questions.

4. The planner: Planners are naturally self-motivated. They’re also driven to organise processes and give order to the world around them (good news for others working in their orbit). Rather than being people-pleasers, they’re more dedicated to making decisions for the good of the project over winning a popularity contest. Trust that their skills will deliver the project in the estimated period of time. Natural planners love lists, charts, and calendars. They’re punctual, able to see the curve in the road (and incoming curve balls) and often have strategies for improving a process or increasing team efficiency.

5. The communicator: It talks about natural communicators, not just the talkative ones but individuals who are naturally inclined to reach out to others and share information with the entire team. Communicators are also good at persuading just about anyone to jump on board and give the team the help it needs. Your communicator might be the person with the longest list of contacts, and knows someone for just about anything you need.

6. The connector: Shows respect for the views and contributions of other team members, shows empathy, listens, supports and cares for others, consults others and shares information and expertise with them, builds team spirit and reconciles conflict, adapts to the team and fits in well.

7. The networker: This member easily establishes good relationship internally and externally, relates well to people at all levels, builds wide and effective networks of contacts and uses humour appropriately to bring warmth to relationships with others.

8. The visionary: This member is able to see the big picture and then develop the plan on how to get there. The person understands the need for meaning and purpose in followers, and uses that need to inspire followers to achieve more and to build better futures. Followers feel motivated by the vision and often feel a sense of solidarity within the group because of the common cause.

9. The creative: These members have a tendency to get caught up in their world of imagination, problem solving, and conceptualising. They might not always be the clearest communicators, diplomats or deadline-makers, but pair them with a savvy planner and you could almost spin gold! Every team benefits from a creative thinker in the group, someone who can deliver fresh ideas and solutions that let the team’s work stand out from the crowd.

10. Commercial acumen: This member keeps up to date with competitor information and trends, identifies business opportunities for the organisation, maintains awareness of developments in the organisational structure, demonstrates financial awareness, controls costs and thinks in terms of profit, loss and added value.

11. The flexible – A flexible team member can consider different points of views and compromise when needed. He or she doesn’t hold rigidly to a point of view and argue it to death, especially when the team needs to move forward to make a decision or get something done. Strong team players are firm yet open to what others have to offer — flexibility at its best.
The author is vice-president and head corporate HR at GHCL