BUSINESS AS USUAL? NOT IN AFRICA Aug - Sept. ‘09 Quality for a lifetime Is the Current Global Economic Recession Threatening the Survival of your Company/Job/Business? OR Are you Just Sick and Tired of Your Company/Job/Business? If Yes, LEARN HOW East Africa’s Professionals & Business Leaders are coping in these Uncertain Economic Times? Visit: www.smartprofessionals.net Tel: 0738 420 317 / 0723 838 873
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BUSINESS
AS USUAL
?
NOT IN AF
RICA
Aug - Sept. ‘09
Quality for a lifetime
Is the Current Global Economic Recession Threatening the Survival of your Company/Job/Business?
OR
Are you Just Sick and Tired of Your Company/Job/Business?
If Yes, LEARN HOW East Africa’s Professionals & Business Leaders are coping in these Uncertain Economic
IIII n our 2nd year of success we are glad to be participating at the AGOA forum in Nairobi It is said that insanity is doing the same thing in the same way and expecting a different result. It has also been said that you can be an ordinary person with extra ordinary results . The secret is work in an extraordinary way. Our advise to the many entrepreneurs around is very simple. Stop doing the ordinary to resolve the same never ending problems or challenges you face. Challenge your challenges. With the landing of the fibre optic cable that is expected to revolutionize our country’s infrastruc-ture, we urge you to embrace technology in your business. Allow ICT to change your operations. If you run a tours & travel company, why install radio equip-ment limited to particular frequencies in the tour vans when you can equip each car/ van with af-fordable smart phones for use by the drivers and clients? While your staff use these for email and communication with the office, clients can enjoy uploading real time pictures and videos to their blogs or You tube. Opening your inner eyes is very possible by shutting your physical eyes. Perked up inner ears hear and listen better than the physical year. Stepping out of your shoes allows you to feel the world differently This is what our businesses need to make it this century Happy 2nd Anniversary everyone.
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Next EditionNext EditionNext EditionNext Edition After AGOA? What happens with After AGOA? What happens with After AGOA? What happens with After AGOA? What happens with
the opportunities?the opportunities?the opportunities?the opportunities?
Congratulations to Eagle Afric
Holdings for participating at
the AGOA Forum
The African continent is a land of
great opportunity. Only knowledge, tremen-
dous work ethic, positive attitude, self confi-
dence and a desire to succeed, goodwill, per-
sistence, perseverance and determination will
bring forth rewards.
Bottom line, international business
success begins with an attitude of acceptance.
Acceptance for a whole combination of things
that we will be addressing in the ensuing para-
graph.
As more and more companies go
global, astute businesspeople are finding that
knowledge about other countries' cultures and
customs can enhance their working relation-
ships--and thereby affect their businesses'
bottom line
A Spirit of Acceptance
The key to insuring smooth international rela-
tionships, lies in cultivating an open-minded
spirit of acceptance towards other people and
cultures. Acceptance and appreciation for
other cultures requires willingness to explore
and cooperate. This can lead to strengthening,
appreciation and acceptance. There need not
be loss of identity or compromised values.
Research and Training Pay Off
When the Thom McAn Company tried to sell
footwear in Bangladesh, a riot ensued, injuring
over 50 people. The company's executives
had not known that Thom McAn's signature,
printed inside the shoes resembled the Arabic
script for "Allah." Outraged Muslims concluded
that shoe manufacturers were trying to get
Bangladeshis to desecrate the name of God by
walking on His name-a double insult because
the foot is considered unclean in their country.
Had Thom McAn executives expended the
effort to learn more about the culture to which
they were marketing their products, they could
have saved the time and money required later
to polish up their image and rebuild goodwill.
Executives in today's global market-
place encounter many and varied cultural rules
and protocols. Each has its own nuances, and
the rules have many exceptions. In order to
learn and stay current, corporations benefit by
keeping consultants on retainer who are natives
of the countries with whom they do business.
Such people prove to be valuable resources for
instruction in values and customs, as well as the
business etiquette specific to each country, such
as gift-giving, handshaking and table manners.
Cross-cultural training goes a long way in devel-
oping the sensitivity, knowledge and appreciation
for other cultures that are so vital to business
success.
When Hosting
Suppose you are preparing to entertain a distant
aunt whom you have not seen since childhood.
You would take steps to insure her comfort, such
as inquiring ahead of time about what she likes
to eat and whether she follows any particular
dietary guidelines. You would probably do some
advance research to learn what special interests
or hobbies she enjoys, and whether there are
any conversational topics about which she is
particularly sensitive or on which she holds
strong feelings. As business host to your foreign
counterparts, it behooves you to do your home-
work in much the same way on other cultures,
their diets and customs. Suppose that you are
picking up an international businessman at the
airport and then taking him to dinner before drop-
ping him off at his hotel. He enters your car and
immediately lights a cigarette. Because you have
studied up on his culture, you know that his
country does not have laws regulating smoking,
and that it is not considered rude to smoke with-
out first asking a host's permission. As you pull
up to the restaurant, you might gently inform your
guest that your city does not permit smoking in
restaurants and in business offices, and that
most people expect guests in their homes to ask
permission.
The Key Components
Success in Africa and most of the other markets
as an entrepreneur requires one to be:
Respectful - Respect for other people and cul-
tures is critical if businesses are to flourish in the
global marketplace. Anything less puts interac-
tions at risk of seeming insincere, condescending
and manipulatory. Executives who approach their
international counterparts as equals, and expend
the effort to learn all they can about their cul-
tures, will find the commitment pays off in more
comfortable and profitable business relation-
ships.
Visionary - An international vision will focus your
efforts to be aimed at the highest levels of
achievement. 2nd place just will not do for you.
Perceptive - the ability
to identify the risk vs. reward in an un-
dertaking and more importantly to main-
tain the proper balance between the
two at all times
Decisive - The innate ability to thrive
on decision making, clear and inde-
pendent thought as well as extreme
dedication to your livelihood
Master of the self - Transformation of
your positive attitude into greater self
confidence, that translates into greater
achievement in the business world
Persistence - persistent and focused
actions of a dedicated person ultimately
lead to the highest levels of achieve-
ment in any area of pursuit
Passionate - With all the planning in
the world, if you do not have passion,
you will not have the enthusiasm or
desire needed for your success across
the borders. Enthusiasm is needed to
keep going through the ups and downs
that all businesses go through. You are
more likely to fail in both productive
ways and financially because if you do
not have the enthusiasm and positive
attitude necessary to get you through
the slow seasons or even to make the
good, better. On the other hand you are
more likely to achieve success faster
and in better financial ways in both the
short and long term.
Other success components include
having:
Effective competitive strategy
Formulating an effective competitive
strategy is another key success factor.
A competitive strategy enables a com-
pany to project and position itself in a
targeted manner in foreign markets
Thirst for Knowledge
Doing business at home may work for
all of us in great ways and sometimes
with eyes closed. But after saturating
the local market and you need to cross
a border or two, every entrepreneur
needs to thirst and hunger for knowl-
edge beyond the normal. Knowledge is
power and continued education will
always be vital for your business
success
Business Principles
underlying, often unconscious and unin-tentional beliefs can undermine otherwise
well-planned business efforts
To conduct business with peo-ple of other cultures,
put aside preconceived notions and strive to learn
about the culture of your coun-terpart.
Succeeding in Africa Page 3
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Marketing automation technology has a direct impact on bottom-line cost reduc-tion and top-line growth. For a very con-servative definition, marketing automa-tion is seen as technology that helps automate marketing management and customer engagement. In some cases marketing can be automated with formal-ized processes, but excluding technol-ogy, this is more marketing optimization and process. Technology can automate manual, repetitive, mundane tasks in the marketing function and therefore, would be seen to exclusively provide the source of marketing automation.
There are two sides to marketing auto-mation:
• Marketing Management Automa-
tion. This encompasses automation of internal marketing processes and includes things like budgeting and planning, workflow and approvals, the marketing calendar, internal col-laboration, digital asset creation and management, and essentially every-thing that supports the operational efficiency of the internal marketing function.
• Customer Engagement Automa-
tion. This encompasses automation across one or more marketing chan-nels: email, the website, intranets, direct mail, and dozens of marketing channels. In other words, the tech-nology helps automate the process of engaging with customers across one or more channels. This might include setting up an email cam-paign, sending it out, and tracking performance; or creating a new home page with a contact form; or more importantly, managing commu-nication with a prospect across mul-tiple channels and tracking their be-havior to identify the relative poten-tial to purchase.
The line between marketing manage-ment and customer engagement is very thin , and technology providers that de-liver marketing automation typically auto-mate elements of each.
Most companies search for technology to address a specific business pain: "need to improve internal productivity and process"; "need to send more per-sonalized emails"; "need a more engag-ing website"; etc. As a result, it's critical to understand the different solutions that fall under marketing automation to invest
in the right technology for the organiza-tion's resources and culture.
Without a measurement and analytics component, all "automated" technology is of little more value than a car without a steering wheel. As such marketing auto-mation must return actionable data that
can be analyzed and benchmarked over time to consistently improve perform-ance - otherwise what's the point of automating in the first place? The data is then transformed into actionable insights that allow an organization to make better decisions over time.
Why Invest in Marketing Auto-
mation?
The value of marketing automation is that it has the potential to impact the top and bottom lines of an organization.
Marketing management capabilities ad-dress operational efficiency, productivity and cost savings.
Customer engagement helps maximize the demand for products and services -- the top line - which is some way to measurably quantify and justify the tan-gible impact marketing has on the top and bottom line in one easy-to-use solu-tion. This is the driving force behind adoption of marketing technology.
However, very many companies apply an integrated marketing platform that centralize the marketing management and customer engagement capabilities in one solution. Research consistently demonstrates that marketing automation has a long way to go before it joins the ranks of Customer Relationship Man-agement sales force automation, and ERP (enterprise resource planning) in terms of widespread adoption.
Admittedly there is a discernible correla-
tion between performance and the use of automated technology in the market-ing function. However, it's important to note, that well performing firms display a unique set of organizational capabilities that allow them to extract more value from technology investments.
Despite the noted benefits, challenges abound when it comes to automating marketing activities.
These include:
• multiple siloed niche solutions for automating marketing activities. This is a huge problem for most organiza-tions. Data silos, multiple interfaces and a general inability to holistically tie together performance and mar-keting leave many in the manage-ment level frustrated.
• the recession and harsh economic times. It hardly seems the time to make major purchase decisions about marketing automation technol-ogy investments. However, the re-cession might be the most forgiving time to work out new processes and add capabilities that automation will bring to the organization.
In conclusion
Marketing automation will be a critical component for every organization to grow market share after the economy is over. Nobody expects stunning perform-ance during a recession, so it's the best time to toss in a few strategic plans.
Again, companies that achieved the highest performance in key areas like revenue, conversion and return on in-vestments are more likely to use market-ing automation technology. These are the organizations that are achieving the highest performance during the reces-sion and, therefore, will be in a position to sustain a competitive advantage after the recession is over.
Technology in Business Marketing Automation
Data integration has become the foundation for extracting limitless value from marketing automation
Page 10
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