How the Internet affects business: top of the sales funnel and an instant reference- “value” check

Most organizations that are not pure-play internet (like Amazon.com) do not seem fully understand how the Internet affects their business. The  top of the sales funnel and an instant reference- “value” check are two ways the internet affects your business: Internet can fill top of the sales funnel: And this can be huge. Between searchContinue reading “How the Internet affects business: top of the sales funnel and an instant reference- “value” check”

Innovation and US jobs: two types of opportunity- of iPhones and frozen yogurt

Given the substantial interest in previous posts about how innovation creates jobs here are some more thoughts on exactly how these jobs can happen. But first about innovation which is at its most basic level is: doing something new. The newness can be huge like when the iPhone was introduced or can be just openingContinue reading “Innovation and US jobs: two types of opportunity- of iPhones and frozen yogurt”

Campbell’s Soup focuses on millennials with Moroccan Style Chicken Soup

Sounds like Chicken Soup for the soul– but this time the 140 year old Campbell's Soup is trying to reach millennials for whom mere Chicken Soup is not enough. Leading the transformation at Campbell Soup is CEO, Denise Morrisson who had spoken at the Yale Conference last year. Millennials  (Gen Y)  are far more openContinue reading “Campbell’s Soup focuses on millennials with Moroccan Style Chicken Soup”

Paypal mobile payments for McDonald’s France can open up vast Indian retail opportunities

Paypal is testing mobile app payments for McDonald's in 30 restaurants in France. If it works, then there might be a roll-out to over 30,000 McDonald's worldwide. The number 30,000 sounded really small so here is a reality check. How many Starbucks are there in the world? Under 17,000 worldwide ,or just over half theContinue reading “Paypal mobile payments for McDonald’s France can open up vast Indian retail opportunities”

Online video gaming becoming free as digital content doesn’t need the gym business model

The gym business model requires a monthly membership fee because there are only so many treadmills and ellipticals. Online video gaming followed the gym model to huge success but things are slowing down because someone who plays multi-player online (MMO) games can really engage in a couple of games and paying a fixed $15 aContinue reading “Online video gaming becoming free as digital content doesn’t need the gym business model”

Content In-page Analytics in Google Analytics helps understand your sales funnel

Google Analytics has a tab under "Content" called " In-Page Analytics " which is a quick and ready way to look at how your sales funnel is doing. Let's understand with an example of a company that has four types of products categorized as A,B,C and D. You know that the final sales contributions are:Continue reading “Content In-page Analytics in Google Analytics helps understand your sales funnel”

Product Innovation Charters must define market by needs and value and not your product

Product Innovation Charters (PIC’s), still tend to be defined around whatever industry or product the organization operates in. Thus, if you make cars and are trying to innovate to the next model your entire focus on building up the PIC is based on the existing car and its technical specs like mileage,technology, space,speed and so on. By just staying with this “internal” focus innovators make a big mistake.

Lessons learnt: Internal Organizational Culture and the CMO- Joel Ewanick ousted at GM

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is outwardly focused always looking at the market and customers- right? Wrong if you see the recent ouster of Joel Ewanick the CMO at GM

The Smiley Curve of Innovation-celebrating the American spirit 4th of July

This is the July 4th weekend in America and celebrations are  underway – and it's a great time to think about the Smiley Curve of Innovation. The Smiley Curve came to my attention reading Fareed Zakaria's great book "The Post-American World," and here are some thoughts on "The Smiley Curve of  Innovation " this AmericanContinue reading “The Smiley Curve of Innovation-celebrating the American spirit 4th of July”

Keeping professional contacts updated needs one more step : Tweets no longer automatic to LinkedIn contacts

Keeping professional contacts updated needs one more step as Tweets are no longer automatic to LinkedIn contacts .You need to specifically share blog posts,Tweets or any other material through the LinkedIn share option. So till Friday June 29, the distribution channel was Blog Post—>Twitter—> LinkedIn. Now it is Blog Post—>Twitter. It was just after aContinue reading “Keeping professional contacts updated needs one more step : Tweets no longer automatic to LinkedIn contacts”