10 Jan

Creating a Powerful CxO Personal Brand, and its Corporate benefits

By TWB_ In Communication, Leadership, Strategic Marketing /   No Comments

A personal brand is not a new concept but for a CxO personal branding is not just about them, it is what it means to their companies. The value that your company derives from your personal brand may be the critical differentiator in a marketplace where companies compete for customers, investors, and employees.

How a CxO brand benefits your company

A powerful personal CxO brand can have tremendous corporate benefits because, 

  • A great CxO brand increases Company Credibility to customers: Credibility and trust have always played key roles in shaping business success but for a company, it is not easy to be seen as trustworthy — such a reputation is earned over years. However, if a high-level executive has a trustworthy, credible and believable personal brand, then their company is also seen as trustworthy, credible and believable. Anyone remembering Lee Iacocca being the face of Chrysler in its worst days knows that the trust to buy Chrysler came from him. Conversely, the loss of credibility of Travis Kalanick was leading to the loss of credibility of Uber.

 

  • A great CxO brand makes PR more Effective: Companies need all the competitive advantage they can get. A CxO’s distinct, authoritative personal brand gets easier traction than the company spokesperson. For instance, if your company needs facetime in front of the press it is easier to get a few columns in a magazine or for the magazine to profile the CxO, rather than for the magazine to profile the company. A CxO armed with a compelling personal brand — is the best pitch a company has — not just to customers but to media as well.

 

Building a powerful CxO brand

So it must be understood that both the CxO and the company are engaged in creating the CxO’s personal brand, right? Wrong. Corporate marketing and communication functions don’t always focus on individuals but rather on products and services and it is a big mistake — as we’ve seen above. Creating a powerful personal brand is also not trivial. It requires a deep dive into the individual’s attributes and competitive positioning to bring out the key differentiators, and regular communication to keep the brand relevant. It takes patience, time and smarts. Here are some attributes of a great CxO brand:

 

  • The CxO Brand is not a job description: Often, personal branding looks like a representation of one’s accomplishments and talent. Mostly it comes out as a job role, which it is not. When it is a job role it becomes interchangeable and dispensable. Some great personal branding can be seen in the case of Nandan Nilekani where he has become synonymous with character & predictable growth at Infosys to the point being brought back from retirement.

 

  • The CxO Brand is self-defined and rooted in real attributes: A CxO brand should be built around unique attributes and around the CxO’s personality. Is he/her a people person? Analytical? Brilliant? Insightful? To be effective CxOs need to have a rich, fully-realized concept of their own identity and the best way is to be genuine and authentic. People can see right through disingenuous communication and it is easy to manage an authentic personal brand on a daily basis.

 

  • The CxO Brand is not that of a Specialist: A deep dive into a specific domain is often boring for the employees you lead, interchangeable with another CxO and not inspiring. CxOs are generalists, they are multi-talented, multi-skilled, and open to many types of challenges. They stand out not because they do a few things well, but because they can do many things well.

 

  • The CxO brand should tell a story: If your personal brand isn’t telling a story there is nothing unique and personalized about it. You and your company are still vulnerable because you’re interchangeable. The most effective personal branding strategy is to build a true narrative around who you are, your life experiences and what you wish to influence.

 

  • The CxO brand has consistency and depth: Being consistent means to demonstrate consistency across your communication, gravitas, and appearance. Each of the aspects that your brand highlights have to be backed by tremendous depth of vision, knowledge, and content — consistently. Small inconsistencies can derail personal brand effectiveness.

 

  • A CxO personal brand is a lifelong project: A personal brand is a lifelong project that constantly evolves and changes. So be prepared to invest your time in the long run to build your brand.

Conclusion

A CxO personal brand can be a major force that works in favor of your company. Not enough companies know how to truly leverage the personal brands of their CxOs and not enough CxOs realize that a personal brand doesn’t just impact them at an individual level but impacts entire companies. It is imperative that the CxO take the time and effort to create a respected personal brand that bristles with authenticity and authority and is seen as an industry voice.

Rakesh Shukla, Chief Executive & Founder, TWB_ I The Agency for Technology Brands I www.twb.in

Rakesh Shukla, TWB_ CEO

Tech Entrepreneur, TEDx speaker & Philanthropist, Rakesh Shukla is a BTech-MBA & CEO of the world leader in communications for technology businesses with a worldwide Fortune 500 customer base. Rakesh is a speaker on Leadership, Strategic Marketing, Strategic Communications, creating world-class bootstrapped Startups & resurgence in business. He lives with 800 rescued dogs, has no work-life balance and will not have it any other way! Rakesh has been featured in 100+ interviews on the BBC, CNN, Al-Jazeera, CNN-IBN, NDTV, India’s national dailies etc.

Want to create a powerful Personal CxO brand?

  • TWB_ is the voice of many Technolgy CxO and provides a detailed analysis of how to brand, provides long term content support and digital presence to these CxO’s.
  • TWB_ makes complex technical and business ideas of technology leaders across the world easily understood by their stakeholders. Over forty Fortune 500 technology majors in Information Technology, Defense & Aerospace, Engineering, Energy & Life Sciences in the US, India, Europe, Taiwan, China & Japan leverage TWB_ expertise.
  • Call  TWB_ Bangalore 96860 59020 | Houston (832)689-6456 | Tel Aviv +972.544.603.612 or mail shift@twb.in
  • Get more TWB_ insights on the TWB_ Blog | LinkedIn | Medium  | SlideShare
Read More
Market & Competitive Intelligence I TWB_
27 Dec

Market Intelligence for Startups 101

By TWB_ In Leadership, Product Strategy, Strategic Marketing /   No Comments

Market intelligence can be the difference between success & failure of a startup. Market intelligence is mission critical in that it enables you to understand your competitors, customers, and other business environment factors. Most entrepreneurs do not fully appreciate the importance of market intelligence or approach it as a strategic business function though. 

For the most part, entrepreneurs think Market Intelligence is what large companies with their big desks of people churning numbers from a variety of sources including paid reports and open sources. A lot of startups, therefore, rely on gut feel and seat of the pants driving and the VC inputs – to shape and design their products, map out competition and gauge the response of the market they wish to disrupt. But it is not, and it should not be the exclusive preserve of large tech companies.

What does Market Intelligence answer for a startup?

Market intelligence is a good start point to gather evidence for the assumptions of your business. Evidence comes in the form of both qualitative and quantitative information, collected from primary and secondary research that mitigates risk and guides investment. This doesn’t occur only in large companies with a large budget. As an entrepreneur, your investment decisions are even more critical for your success because they may be based on critical cash flows.

What differentiates the custom Market Intelligence TWB_ provides? We focus on creating ‘actionable insights’ married to your strategy rather than more data on your desk.

Market Intelligence can help identify opportunities and monitor market threats. You can create a feedback loop of learning and action involving customers, competition and your marketing action. You can lower the risk of new products or services that you plan to introduce.  Some of what you can answer is,

  • Where, how and who are you going to sell to? That includes geography, pricing models etc.
  • What kind of business models exists? What is the size of each?
  • What are your potential and addressable market? What do you substitute and solve?
  • Are you really disruptive? What are you replacing?
  • Who are your direct competitors? Do they have a diversified portfolio? What is your competitive advantage?
  • How are you going to position yourself? How will you move with market plays
  • Do you compare product/technology claims?
  • What are your weaknesses and strengths in capabilities, USP’s, value & quality, financials, cashflow, people?
  • What is the regulatory environment?

TWB_ Market Intelligence synthesis

What is special about TWB_?

In one word ‘insights’ rather than more data. TWB_ does not just produce data points, rather,

  • Synthesizes research findings & develop insights
  • Uses a perceptual map to build your brand story
  • Defines market segmentation and explain its benefits
  • Conjoint analysis to compute the relative importance of product features
  • Compare various brands and attributes using a perceptual map
  • and lastly, bring a full portfolio of strategic branding and marketing content to help execute your plan

Market intelligence is critical and core process and TWB_ is the partner to produce reliable market intelligence that you factor into your strategic decision making. Market intelligence is an essential tool for viewing the marketplace and making investment decisions and TWB_ has been doing that for the largest telecommunication, life sciences, semiconductor and others for years. It is from that experience we know that it does not have to be a captive function, nor does it have to be standard off the shelf reports. Market Intelligence can be custom, agile, incremental to your needs and focused on actionables rather than data given your positioning and growth trajectory.

Rakesh Shukla, Chief Executive & Founder, TWB_ I The Agency for Technology Brands I www.twb.in

Rakesh Shukla, TWB_ CEO

Tech Entrepreneur, TEDx speaker & Philanthropist, Rakesh Shukla is a BTech-MBA & CEO of the world leader in communications for technology businesses with a worldwide Fortune 500 customer base. Rakesh is a speaker on Leadership, Strategic Marketing, Strategic Communications, creating world-class bootstrapped Startups & resurgence in business. He lives with 800 rescued dogs, has no work-life balance and will not have it any other way! Rakesh has been featured in 100+ interviews on the BBC, CNN, Al-Jazeera, CNN-IBN, NDTV, India’s national dailies etc.

Are you wanting to have real Market Intelligence to help make decisions?

Read More
Internal Communication with TWB_ I www.twb.in
25 Dec

7 ways your enterprise communications will change in 2019

By TWB_ In Communication, HR Communication, Internal Communications, Strategic Marketing /   No Comments

Communication is fundamental for an enterprise and you use Marketing Communication, Corporate Communication and Internal Communication to influence customers, partners, employees, shareholders, governments etc. 2018 saw key communication trends emerge with cloud-based systems from chats to telephony, the advent of video in the mainstream and inflection point of influencers over brand ambassadors with exponential digital reach.

Based on our experience with customers, in enabling their enterprise communication strategies in 2018, this is our take on what will create the most impact for your communication in 2019.

Democratization of Enterprise Communication

The speed of change outside and inside an organization is simply too great for communication to be the sole responsibility of a few ‘designated’ communicators. 2019 will require everyone to be a competent communicator and respond quickly to information that flows up, down, and across traditional channels. Enterprise communication will democratize. 

AI & Emerging Technologies

AI-powered chatbots are already powering customer interactions and they are set to raise employee & partner experience too. 60% of business-to-business companies are likely to redesign their processes to accommodate and ensure human augmentation for scalability and precision. What is your strategy? [Request a copy of the TWB_ book on Leveraging AI in the Modern Technology Enterprise]

Unified customer journey

While the idea of a unified customer or employee journey has taken root the journey still has to be mapped out for most organizations. The communication needs at each touch point yet to be ascertained. Transactional touch points — from invoices to product packaging to salary slips — will emerge as the key places to focus communication on as businesses realize attention spans here are short but attention is highly focused.

Visual & Print Communication

Pictures speak a universal language and with the need to connect to global customers as well as employees visual communication will continue to be a key communication trend both within and outside the enterprise. Print will see an upswing as well — as organizations realize that their focusing on digital only inadvertently closes down a key touch point. Digital and print can work together – and it creates simpler communication for customers.

Outsourcing of Communication

Creating relevant personalized communications requires enterprises to process data & preferences and manage presence across channels. Most organizations just don’t have the expertise to manage all three and it is therefore not easy to deliver relevant and personalized communications that appeal to the breadth of your customers’ preferences and across different media. Outsourcing communications can bring in expertise on demand, reduce costs, and diversify channel strategy. [Read more: TWB_ as the outsource communications partner of the Fortune 500]

Improved Storytelling

Markets will get noisier & storytelling will be the major differentiator between businesses that get noticed and those that don’t. Businesses and brands that create human connections through the art of story will rise. [Read more by TWB_ : Great storytelling for business leadership: What makes listeners connect? ]

Global Teams are driving Internal Communications

Teams are becoming the basic unit of business as more companies move away from hierarchical organizations to functional teams. Teams are likely spread geographically and members have diverse cultures and communication styles. Importantly teams need to resolve conflicts on their own and work through complex issues to arrive at consent on a course of action. This requires people to communicate even more effectively.

 

Rakesh Shukla, Chief Executive & Founder, TWB_ I The Agency for Technology Brands I www.twb.in

Rakesh Shukla, TWB_ CEO

Tech Entrepreneur, TEDx speaker & Philanthropist, Rakesh Shukla is a BTech-MBA & CEO of the world leader in communications for technology businesses with a worldwide Fortune 500 customer base. Rakesh is a speaker on Leadership, Strategic Marketing, Strategic Communications, creating world-class bootstrapped Startups & resurgence in business. He lives with 800 rescued dogs, has no work-life balance and will not have it any other way! Rakesh has been featured in 100+ interviews on the BBC, CNN, Al-Jazeera, CNN-IBN, NDTV, India’s national dailies etc.

Are you looking to create or improve how you communicate?

  • TWB_ makes complex technical and business ideas of technology leaders across the world easily understood by their stakeholders. Over forty Fortune 500 technology majors in Information Technology, Defense & Aerospace, Engineering, Energy & Life Sciences in the US, India, Europe, Taiwan, China & Japan leverage on TWB_
  • Call  TWB_ Bangalore 96860 59020 | Houston (832)689-6456 | Tel Aviv +972.544.603.612 or mail shift@twb.in
  • Get more TWB_ insights on the TWB_ Blog | LinkedIn | Medium  | SlideShare

 

Read More
Diversity in Leadership I TWB_
19 Dec

Diversity in Leadership starts with Inclusion at all levels

By TWB_ In HR Communication, Internal Communications, Leadership /   No Comments

Companies across India are looking at how to have Diversity at the Leadership level – and mostly they refer to lack of women in management. But diversity is not only about female and male, gay or straight, Hindu, Muslim, or Christian, young or old. It is about the diversity of individuals, ideators and executors, great communicators and less so, introverts and extroverts, controlling type and people type as well.

Having Diversity does not ensure inclusion. Diversity and Inclusion are nearly not the same things. Diversity by itself does not make people feel they belong — inclusion does. Diversity by itself does not accommodate differences of opinions — inclusion does. Diversity helps build inclusion by bringing in diverse viewpoints and creating an atmosphere in which people feel valued and have the same opportunities as others. Being an inclusive organization — where people focus on building common ground incorporating a range of views — rather than focus on differences can be a very powerful growth strategy.

Diversity is not a set of affirmative actions imposed on the organization — it is an output of the culture of the organization. Without adequate diversity being a lone female employee in a consistently all-male leadership team or being part of a minority where the leadership team converses in a regional language is common across the Indian tech industry. For an individual caught in that situation, it is difficult to feel motivated. 

This McKinsey study shows a significant relationship between a diverse leadership team and better financial performance. The top quartile for gender diversity are 15% more likely to outperform the industry average compared to companies in the bottom quartile. For ethnic diversity, that number jumps to 35%.

If the data proving that diverse organizations are more productive is not enough the cautionary tales from movements like #MeToo and #TimesUp should provide the impetus for tech companies to address diversity in their organizations.

What does diversity do?

Diversity at the leadership level is a consequence of hiring people who bring new perspectives to management meetings. Diversity is good because,

  • It gives you a larger pool of ideas: Diverse leadership teams have a larger pool of experience and points of view to draw from, which can help with finding solutions to problems and generating new ideas.
  • It increases staff retention and motivation: Seeing people ‘like them’ in positions of power is very inspiring for employees to stay longer in the organization and strive for promotions themselves
  • It gives you a larger talent pool to choose from: Diverse organizations find it easier to attract great and have a larger talent pool to choose from.
  • Makes for better business linkages: People from different groups and backgrounds often bring unique connections with them, which can lead to more networking opportunities for your company.
  • Makes for better Communication: Diverse companies are less likely to create tone-deaf and sometimes offensive communication than if they had a more varied group of decision-makers.

Lack of diversity stems from bias

People are hired on the premise that they can perform on the job and technical evaluations are pretty accurate. However, most organizational problems stem from a different place — that people don’t get along with other people. Biases in hiring and working together are the greatest bottlenecks. Families, friends, peers, education, religion, ambition etc influences how we see the world, and ourselves. These biases also shape our perceptions of what people are capable of.

A lecture on diversity will not erase these biases. Diversity is deeply related to culture and culture is difficult to change. If it must then it must first change at the top.  Developing diversity involves a cultural change and requires workshops, identifying and creating role models but most of all it involves a commitment by the organization’s leadership.

Building Diversity

The first step towards building diversity is actively seeking diverse people and seeking information from this diverse group. People from diverse backgrounds need to be seen as key variables in the process of problem-solving and decision making. Building diversity across an organization can only happen if there is an atmosphere where they can express their views without fear of repercussion. They can approach colleagues and manager for help and will not be viewed as weak if they do.


The Diversity Checklist

  • Leadership commitment: The first step is having leaders within the organization become visibly involved in programs affecting organizational culture change and articulating policies that govern diversity. To do so, you must display leadership that eradicates oppression of all forms. 
  • Having a Diversity and Inclusion strategy is not enough: Having a strategy has no meaning if it is not reflected in who the company hires and promotes. It only when the CEO downwards the organization realizes that to be the best they need to embrace diversity there is has a higher probability of being really inclusive, including right at the top.
  • Hiring from a range of backgrounds: Hire people who can bring new perspectives to your management meetings and relate personally with a wide range of your employees. But making culture more inclusive the first stop is the leadership team. Employees will always notice who you promote into positions of power.
  • ‘Diversity quotas’ are a double-edged sword: When you set ‘diversity quotas’ for your organizational and leadership teams, ensure that you are not dismissing good people for the sake of diversity. You don’t need a checklist of genders, ethnicity, religions, abilities and sexual orientations to promote talent you need caliber.
  • Building high-performance teams: Moving your workforce from larger organizations to teams that use the full potential of every individual is a great idea. Teams focused on objectives are forced to accept others for what they are.

Conclusion

Diversity is not just diversity in race, religion, sex, age but it is what makes an organization succeed — and typically that requires men & women, introverts & extroverts, controllers & thinkers, dreamers & doers, organizers & team members to reach the organizational goals.  

Rakesh Shukla, Chief Executive & Founder, TWB_ I The Agency for Technology Brands I www.twb.in

Rakesh Shukla, TWB_ CEO

Entrepreneur, TEDx speaker & Philanthropist, Rakesh Shukla is a BTech-MBA & CEO of the world leader in communications for technology businesses with a worldwide Fortune 500 customer base. Rakesh is a speaker on Leadership, Strategic Marketing, Strategic Communications, creating world-class bootstrapped Startups & resurgence in business. He lives with 800 rescued dogs, has no work-life balance and will not have it any other way! Rakesh has been featured in 100+ interviews on the BBC, CNN, Al-Jazeera, CNN-IBN, NDTV, India’s national dailies etc.

Are you looking to create or improve how HR Communicates?

Read More
HR Employee Communication I TWB_
18 Dec

How to Super-Charge your HR Communication: Inspiring Employees to Excel

By TWB_ In Corporate Training, HR Communication, Internal Communications /   No Comments
If you are reading this you perhaps handle the Human Resources(HR) function in your company and know the strategic role it plays in the workplace culture and employee performance. You are the first touch points for employee’s issues and communication requirements. In this environment, HR communication is far too important to leave to chance. Not doing it right causes employee engagement to drop, productivity to fall and business performance to suffer.

“Companies with highly effective change management & communication are 3.5x more likely to significantly outperform their industry peers. At the same time, only 40% of employees globally are highly engaged with their job – and the rate is declining”

First on ask yourself this question – do you operate across the communication spectrum in a planned way or do you communicate reactively what the management requires?

  1. Increasing Engagement: Communication focuses on connect staff and improve their job satisfaction, productivity, and organizational success.
  2. Employee Benefits: Communication focuses on increasing awareness of healthcare programs, compensation packages and more.
  3. Internal Policy: Communication focuses on new policies and reminders on existing ones.
  4. Health and Safety: Communication focuses on informing employees about health and safety issues and ensuring compliance.
  5. Communicating Change: Communication focuses on changes within the organization and organizations business environment.
  6. Workplace Wellness: Communication focuses on improving employee health, reducing absenteeism, and driving business performance.

Typically items 1 through 4 are overserved and 5 & 6 are underserved. Overall this communication is critical but not always exciting for employees so how do you make this communication stick? First on – use your marketing/ internal/ corporate communication teams’ playbook — better still rope them in!

Designing the communication

  1. Keep it fresh: Your employees don’t want to read the same thing. Reframe the communication, highlight a different aspect if resharing. Reduce ‘message wear-out’.
  2. Measure effectiveness: How many people opened the communication, how many acted on any follow-up action – always have some follow up action 🙂
  3. Use Data: What does the data say about employees’ behaviors and preferences. Capture, analyze, use. What do they need more of? What do they want less of?
  4. Focus on User Experience: What is the response you want to invoke? Marketers design for user experience by default and you should too.
  5. Mass Personalisation: How do you make the employee feel you are talking to him/her specifically? Is your salutation personalized? Do you communicate using their demographic – aspirational – lifestyle language (like marketers do)? Where do you reach them?
  6. Bring a sense of purpose: What makes your employees tick, what are their personal aspirations and how do you connect that to the workplace? What is the emotional connection to this and the emotional investment you see?
  7. Go Mobile: In the world where that is the preferred screen – how do you talk?

HR not just helps employees get aligned to corporate goals but increasingly they influence employees’ personal finance, their health, and their future. Creating a great employee experience starts with getting the right person getting the right message at the right time.

 

Rakesh Shukla, Chief Executive & Founder, TWB_ I The Agency for Technology Brands I www.twb.in

Rakesh Shukla, TWB_ CEO

Entrepreneur, TEDx speaker & Philanthropist, Rakesh Shukla is a BTech-MBA & CEO of the world leader in communications for technology businesses with a worldwide Fortune 500 customer base. Rakesh is a speaker on Leadership, Strategic Marketing, Strategic Communications, creating world-class bootstrapped Startups & resurgence in business. He lives with 800 rescued dogs, has no work-life balance and will not have it any other way! Rakesh has been featured in 100+ interviews on the BBC, CNN, Al-Jazeera, CNN-IBN, NDTV, India’s national dailies etc.

Are you looking to create or improve your HR Communications?

Read More
Internal Communication with TWB_ I www.twb.in
12 Dec

Internal Communications & HR are strategic partners

By TWB_ In Internal Communications /   No Comments

Organizational goals are achieved faster and more effectively when HR and Internal Communications partner to achieve higher employee engagement and employee happiness.

Have you faced a situation where critical changes in a company, be it senior management changes or M&A news comes to your employees via social or news media rather than from internal corporate sources — such as Human Resources (HR) or a corporate announcement? When it happens you surely know the adverse impact on employee trust & commitment. There is a tremendous body of research that points to the relationship between organizational success and employee involvement and open and effective communication with employees.

While there is a cost of failed communication and an incentive to manage communications the question is who should do the messaging? Should it rest with HR which is most concerned with employee needs, or should it rest with Internal Communications who are professional communicators? Both HR and Internal Communications are about influencing & persuading employees but they go about it differently —  it’s HR’s job to formulate policies and the communication professional to brand the message.

The need to partner

The role of HR communication is centered on what a business needs to achieve and why an employee would be motivated to achieve it. However, the HR subject-matter itself can be complex, wrapped in policy and difficult to communicate – let alone inspire a workforce. Internal Communication, on the other hand, focuses on employee engagement and how communication is created, managed and optimized and is a complex process that demands a unique set of skills. More often than not Internal communication professionals have a strong PR and communications background. It is imperative that specialists be hired for each role, but they work together for organizational goals. 

Internal Communication & HR 

  • A strategic relationship with HR: To begin with, most HR knowledge and information is kept confidential and on a need to know basis. In such a culture not just what to communicate but how to communicate is critical – which is not the core skill of HR staff members. Some organizations consider Internal communication an HR function but it is a strategic relationship.
  • Communication is strategic: With an empowered Internal Communication team one great advantage is it not only communicates the HR message to the employees but carries the employee message and perspective into advertising, branding and public relations. This further gets weaved into communications with areas like finance, marketing and CxO messaging.
  • Outside in-view for employee needs: The HR organization ‘is’ the employee engagement process and therefore a lot of communication needs and responses are assumed or implicit, something that the communications specialists are not likely to do. HR and Communications bring different perspectives.
  • Specialists understand branding: Internal branding is as important as external branding and professional communicators are trained to weave a branding & language depending on whether the message is going to employees or some other including current customers, prospective customers, shareholders, regulators, legislators, media and the external community.

Working effectively together

There are several ways HR and Internal Communications can build a strategic partnership, including

  • Empathy in communication: HR often has a very intimate & personal understanding of people, their motivations and goals which allows communication to touch their feelings and include their points of view.
  • Active listening: HR engages in a lot of active listening and being included in some of this engagement can make a tremendous difference to the communication that goes out to employees.
  • Trusted communication: Having an honest feedback mechanism between the HR, Internal Communications and employees is the best way to create a trusted communication channel, create high employee branding and minimize information gaps.
  • Common Intent: Dovetailing communication strategies and intent allows both HR and Internal Communication to focus on corporate goals and minimize duplicated effort.

Organizational goals are achieved faster and more effectively when HR and Internal Communications work as complementary departments to achieve higher employee engagement and employee happiness.

Rakesh Shukla, Chief Executive & Founder, TWB_ I The Agency for Technology Brands I www.twb.in

Rakesh Shukla, TWB_ CEO

Entrepreneur, TEDx speaker & Philanthropist, Rakesh Shukla is a BTech-MBA & CEO of the world leader in communications for technology businesses with a worldwide Fortune 500 customer base. Rakesh is a speaker on Leadership, Strategic Marketing, Strategic Communications, creating world-class bootstrapped Startups & resurgence in business. He lives with 800 rescued dogs, has no work-life balance and will not have it any other way! Rakesh has been featured in 100+ interviews on the BBC, CNN, Al-Jazeera, CNN-IBN, NDTV, India’s national dailies etc.

Are you looking to create or improve your Internal Communications?

Read More
Convert SMEs to Brand Ambassadors
30 Aug

How do you make your SMEs your Brand Ambassadors?

By TWB_ In Corporate Training, Strategic Marketing /   No Comments

Transition your tech savvy but media-shy SMEs into your brand ambassadors & industry stalwarts.

In the words of Peter Drucker ‘no matter what other roles you have in a company, you always have a sales role’.

Pretty much any company out there wants to engage more effectively with its stakeholders – internal and external  -customers included. In an increasingly engaged world with the amount of information that is available to your customers from your competition – how do you stand out? Is it a struggle to find people within the company that will engage for you? Are you struggling with this ball falling between marketing, sales, product management and other functions?

What if your SMEs were the best Authors & Presenters?

They are the ones who live with it, create it, troubleshoot it. But they also articulate it the least, and perhaps the least well because that has never been an expectation. What if the same SMEs wrote world-class content and were suave presenters?

It is NOT that difficult to help change your SME’s into confident communicators across mediums such as public speaking, presentations, and meetings, e-mails, or authoring high-quality papers and reports. And publishing and engaging with PR, Media and the industry.

How does TWB_ help make this transition?

TWB broadly provides two kinds of interventions:

  • A range of corporate trainings that allow for SMEs to write & present technical ideas in the form of content and language that is suitable for business audiences. This ranges from research papers, white papers, blog posts, op-ed pieces etc. They also learn to engage in inclusive conversations across these interactions.
  • A range of authoring services where we research and produce most of the technically tough content. These services support a range of professionals from SMEs to CEO’s. All are meant to articulate your position and proposition effectively.

Get TWB_ to make this transition. Your business will never be the same again because the people who understand your tech the best will now articulate it the best as well. It has a direct revenue impact.

Looking for a Strategic Marketing partner to create market wins?

  • TWB_ is the world leader in creating & publishing ‘deep content’ – that is Whitepapers, Position papers, and tech evangelism;  ‘engaging content’ – that is blogs, social media posts, explainer videos etc (1-2 minute); and training on how to. TWB_ is the leader in communicating technology. Any Technology. Any audience. Any platform.
  • Strategic Marketing, Branding & Positioning from TWB_ helps Fortune500 and startups win in the marketplace. Call  TWB_ Bangalore 96860 59020 | Houston (832)689-6456 | Tel Aviv +972.544.603.612 or mail shift@twb.in
  • Get more TWB_ insights on the TWB_ Blog | LinkedIn | Medium  | SlideShare
Read More
Worlds best whitepapers come from TWB_
20 Aug

How to write & publish the best whitepapers in the world?

By TWB_ In Strategic Marketing /   No Comments

Writing whitepapers is a pain, isn’t it? Your best brains — who should be writing them just don’t have the inclination. Besides even with the best ideas it requires methodical authoring and weeks of research, editing, layout design to make a top quality whitepaper. It is a system that has to work flawlessly several times a month!

Why write whitepapers at all?

Complex technical ideas that you wish to communicate to architects and CTO’s can’t really be communicated any other way. Whitepapers are a key part of the ‘deep content’ that customers look for to understand your take on a technology they are considering. Whitepapers are an essential tool in establishing credibility and generating leads.

How to author & publish the world’s best whitepapers?

You need to address several challenges – which department will author the paper? For instance, the marketing department may not always understand the deep tech. Or the product engineering may not be best to author in the first place because of language and representation? Then who will ensure research and cross-reference and the layouts and editing are of the highest quality?

It so happens that we have the process of creating the best whitepapers. So much so that chances are the whitepapers that your team downloaded for your choice of technology partners, servers, software, cloud computing infrastructure, security pretty much any large decision — came from TWB_. We write the best whitepapers for the Fortune 500 & for startups.

TWB_ is the Agency for Technology Brands

Looking for a Strategic Marketing partner to create market wins?

  • TWB_ is the world leader in creating & publishing ‘deep content’ – that is Whitepapers, Position papers, and tech evangelism;  ‘engaging content’ – that is blogs, social media posts, explainer videos etc (1-2 minute); and training on how to. TWB_ is the leader in communicating technology. Any Technology. Any audience. Any platform.
  • Strategic Marketing, Branding & Positioning from TWB_ helps Fortune500 and startups win in the marketplace. Call  TWB_ Bangalore 96860 59020 | Houston (832)689-6456 | Tel Aviv +972.544.603.612 or mail shift@twb.in
  • Get more TWB_ insights on the TWB_ Blog | LinkedIn | Medium  | SlideShare
Read More
Saturation Strategic Marketing from TWB_
08 Aug

TWB_ strategic marketing brings home a $200 million opportunity on a $30K spend

By TWB_ In Content, Marketing Content, Product Strategy, Strategic Marketing /   No Comments

TWB_ strategic marketing leveraging TWB_’s entire suite of services delivers a $200 million RFP to an Indian prime.

An Indian software vendor wanted to be in consideration for a $200million RFP from a US telecom giant.  However, the US company refused all attempts to make the Indian prime a respondent to the RFP since they felt the Indian vendor is not a product company of the same caliber as the other respondents including Cisco and HP. The customer felt that the Indian company did not have visible technological depth.

Making a play for the $200 million RFI

TWB_ was brought in to deliver the RFP from the RFI stage. TWB_ developed and worked on a 3-month plan to bring about the perception change for the customer which included a plan to develop a brand position for the solution, deep content to support this technology space and high visibility of this brand with the executive management of the customer.

The plan included,

Branding

  • Technology Branding: Branding not just as a name or a logo but with attributes of leadership, and aspiration in the defined space and the ability to deliver. From consideration a set of visual deliverables – logo’s, guidelines of the campaign, the language and brand promise are created. It is this that was followed through in all forthcoming communication.

Presence

Creating credible presence including

  • Event & Speaking engagement: Creating & delivering an Event & Speaking presence plan with the support of the marketing team of the Indian prime
  • PR/Media presence: Creating a PR campaign leveraging the existing PR partner to start plugging in the information that will be created for print as well as online distribution especially in the US and target trade & technology press.

Targeting

  • Creation & delivering on a digital ‘targeting plan’ included TWB_ drawing up a list of the most important execs of the US giant, and the most significant locations in the US where this particular technology base is located, as well as the most significant customers they have.
  • Then TWB_ draws out and delivers the most important aspect of this campaign – creates high visibility high volume presence on LinkedIn, Facebook and Google on these locations and these exec so these ‘ads’ follow them around – each leading to a high quality ‘engaging content’ artefact which in turn leads to a quality ‘deep content artefact’. This targeting allows spends to the focus on specific people, interest areas, and locations targets.

Intellectual Leadership

  • Engaging content: Creating & deliver ‘engaging content’ for the technology solution through blogs, social media posts, explainer videos etc (1-2 minute). TWB creates the content, does the branding and actually develops the assets.
  • Deep Content: Creation and delivery of ‘deep content’ once they ‘engage’ – this is done through White papers, Position papers, and evangelism. TWB_ created the topics for these artifacts, created the design of the content, researches develops and creates finished content including layouts

Over the next 3-4 months digital ads on Facebook, LinkedIn and Google would follow the execs. They would interact with quick engaging content. And would have access to deeply intellectual content. They would interact with Indian execs at trade conferences. The Indian prime for the RFI and then the RFP.

TWB_ Content & Strategic Marketing I www.twb.in

This saturation marketing situation showcases TWB_ entire ability to deliver a world-class in-house integrated solution including branding, research, authoring, content reuse and digital marketing. And a customer win.

Looking for a Strategic Marketing partner to create market wins?

 

 

Read More
Purpose and Meaning in Work I Rakesh Shukla, Chief Executive and Founder, TWB_
02 Jan

Finding Purpose and Meaning in Work: Growth and Transformation in the Leadership

By TWB_ In Communication, Corporate Training, Leadership /  7 No Comments

Dreading work is common. That’s why weekends were invented. Ah, it’s the weekend! Oh, it’s Monday!! Or you have a new assignment or a new boss or a restructuring is going on or maybe you’re simply bored in your role. And you ask yourself the question: Why am I doing this? Does my work have any meaning?

The quest for “meaning at work” impacts every job productivity and retention metric. Consider this:

  • A survey of 12,000 employees across companies and industries found 50% lacked meaning and significance at work (see The Energy Project).
  • Employees who derive meaning from their work are 3 times as likely to stay with their organizations, have 1.7 times higher job satisfaction and 1.4 times more engagement with the company.
  • “Meaning at Work” impacts longevity and productivity positively more than other ‘job satisfiers’ including:
    • Learning and growth
    • Connection to a company’s mission, and
    • Work-life balance!

So what can companies do to make their employees feel that their work has meaning? The short-term answer seems to be — making employees feel happy. Terms of employment, lavish cafeterias are all answers to that question — make employees happy. However, this ‘happiness’ is temporary. The other is to make jobs more creative, less monotonous and facilitate a sense of meaning with a career path. But they are still answers to different questions. A more significant one is to give the job meaning and purpose. So what then in meaningful work? 

What is the meaning of “meaning”?

Happiness isn’t the only ingredient to a life well-lived. Sometimes it’s not even a criteria. On the other hand ‘meaning’ is what causes people to go into unknown territories, motivates to do things out of the ordinary and causes personal growth and long-term satisfaction.

The trick is there is no one meaning of “meaning”. While it is important for each of us, it is also different for each of us. In the corporate context, one way to define meaning is through its negation: while companies are rarely good at finding “meaning” poor leadership is connected to a loss of meaning very quickly! There is a lot of research which shows meaning at work can be enhanced if employees have an opportunity to realistically reflect on their work & their contribution in the company and their respective lives. A few steps that are known to enhance this are (a) a culture of ethics (b) keeping high moral standards (c) executing on social responsibility that employees can support.

 

What can management do to give meaning to work?

The following steps allow management to engage with employees in a way that they find work life more meaningful:

  1. Discuss the meaning of the organization & their contribution to it: When employees understand the purpose of the organization and the positive impact it has on business and communities it allows them to be a part of something meaningful. This works best when employees have a clear view of the company’s goals, values and vision and plans for the future. Management should explain how every role impacts the greater organization. When employees see how their work contributes to that big picture it enhances their sense of meaning and purpose.
  2. Culture and community: Management should help their employees feel connected to communities or other employees that are impacted by the company’s products or services, so they understand clearly who it is that they are helping.
  3. Create a purpose: What is the difference between these 2 mission statements (a)“To be the most successful computer company in the world” and (b) “To be the most successful computer company for the world”? They point to a major meaning trap. When you say ‘for’, meaning comes from the impact of our work on others. People aren’t inspired by what they do, they are when they know they matter to others.

 

As an employee what can you do to give your work meaning?

The first thing to remember is that purpose is built, not found. Working with a sense of purpose requires thoughtfulness and practice. Here are some things you can do to find meaning at work:

  1. Become conscious that other people matter: If you have meaningful relationships at work you will find more meaning at work. A Gallup study found that the most engaged workers report having a best friend at work. Those reporting higher meaning are not necessarily those who are doing more, but those who have more meaningful relationships.
  2. Build social experiences: Purpose can be found in the simple things that connect colleagues. Sincerely asking a colleague how they are because you are genuinely interested not because it is small talk, will give meaning to both of you!
  3. Find what fuels you: ‘Meaning’ is not a vague idea it is tangible and you must look for it for yourself. If you value contribution find out how you can contribute to a group, or a customer or a community. If you value humour do you make colleagues, and customers smile?
  4. Don’t invest everything at work: Work gives meaning your life but it is only 1 of 4 parts that do —  faith, family, and community are the others. Life’s’ portfolio is a balance between these 4 things — faith in something bigger than each of us, your family that you nurture, your community that you impact, and success through meaningful work that creates value. Learn to focus on each in turn.
  5. Write a personal statement: One way to create more meaning is to define your purpose by making a personal declaration of purpose. It is a simple, succinct, jargon-free, and expressive. A statement about how you decide to live each and every day. For instance “I’ll always give my children the best opportunities they need”. Just stating it gives your life purpose even though nothing else in your job has changed. Now you know it has mean because it drives a purpose.

Purpose isn’t magic. It is something we must create. The fact is most of us don’t work for fun. For the most part, we work to earn money and to pay bills. Work in itself is a meaningful act of service — parents often work hard for their children, some work to support ageing parents. Focussing on what brings meaning to them will create meaning in your own life. With the right approach all jobs are meaningful.

 

Rakesh Shukla, Chief Executive & Founder, TWB_ I The Agency for Technology Brands I www.twb.in

Rakesh Shukla, TWB_

Entrepreneur, TEDx speaker, Philanthropist, Rakesh Shukla is a 1996 MBA graduate and 1993 BTech. Rakesh Shukla is the Founder & CEO of TWB_ which is the partner for technology & business content for Fortune 500 leaders worldwide. A motivational speaker he speaks on creating success from professional and personal failure. He divides time between his 2 homes in Bangalore and is called the ‘dog-father’ for being papa to the 750 rescued dogs that live with him at the VOSD Dog Sanctuary. Rakesh has featured in 100+ interviews on the BBC, CNN, Al-Jazeera, CNN-IBN, NDTV, India’s national dailies, and at TEDx talks.

 

 

Are you looking to create teams and employees with purpose?

Read More