What is Toyota's Branding Strategy that Keeps Toyota at the Top

I drive Toyota and love it! The company claims that “80% of all Toyotas sold in the last 20 years are still on the road today.” Agree to disagree; Toyota is a strong car, a tough brand and far ahead in the branding strategy as compared to its Japanese competitors Honda and Nissan.

According to Mike Stefaniak, a marketing communications professional;

“Toyota recognizes the difference between just marketing products and actually investing in creating a brand for the company. The company seems to know the value of creating a corporate framework to facilitate customers’ preference for the company’s products. Hence, a strong company reputation is contributing to the product being a safe choice.”

But why Toyota is a great auto brand? Since last thirty years, the company has built its brand around 5 key factors:

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Legends never die; Steve Jobs Who gave us Apple, iPod, iPad and iPhone will live forever!

People are sending RIP for Steve Jobs, inventor of Apple, a legend who survived from cancer at an early age, an inventor who created the best fonts for computers, and a presenter who won the hearts of many around the globe! Steve Jobs had massive following; I followed him for this art of public speaking! He gave us Apple to enjoy the experience of technology! A great man who will live forever …….

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Learning from an SEO Expert Entrepreneur

There are many SEO Experts, but only few might have learnet it with passion!
“I converted my hobby and passion in to a business, this gave me more exposure, learning and rewards” – Zamir Anjum, CEO EzineSEO

“I was bored with the routine and being punctual at work, my passion was to start my own business and be punctual for myself instead!” This thought prompted Zamir Anjum to land into entrepreneurial career. The business started in loose partnership so no documentation was done. By virtue of this experience, Zamir’s business had a successful start. However in 2008 conflicts with partner forced them to dissolve the partnership. At this point Zamir decided to work independently, it was a new beginning!

Read Complete story Click here

McDonald’s Marketing Strategy of Innovation and Trendsetting

McDonald’s is known for its innovative market positioning. There is no doubt that McDonald’s rapid growth is based on intelligent and smart business ideas based on the dynamics of business environment and societal changes. The restaurant which was started in 1948 with just one outlet now has its footprints across the globe. It’s global sales in 2010 was recorded at $24 billion with net profit rose to $4.95 billion last year, up 5% compared with 2009.
If we list the most known innovative ideas introduced by McDonalds, first thing that comes to our minds is the concept of Happy Meal – a combo meal for children featuring a free toy that made McDonald’s restaurants most demanded place for meals by kids across the globe. The second most interesting concept that the chain introduced in 1975 was Drive-thru, a brand new feel of comfort for “On the Go” customers to beat their hunger with quick purchase of meal. This idea now accounts for more than half of restaurant system-wide sales!

Read whole article CLICK Here

Do you Still Need an Effective Cover Letter?

I have written enough on how job search techniques are changing with the emerging dynamics of recruitment. It is now a known fact that more and more jobs are now available through social media networks as compared to traditional newspaper advertisements.

Not many people know that #jobs can help you job posted on twitter! Those who know this certainly have a clear advantage in the job market. With the emergence of jobsites such as Monster, Workopolis, Rozee, Bayt etc and social media network such as LinkedIn, job hunters are encouraged to register and leave their profiles for recruiters to search from a wide database.

The question however is: If the need for a well crafted cover letter remains or this is an obsolete tool?
In my opinion, the new recruitment process when the process starts on social media or via internet based applications, need for a cover letter is almost eliminated. Applicants need worry about a cover letter only if it is specifically requested by the advertiser.

There are many articles available on various websites, such as Harvard Business Review or Ezinearticles on how to write effective cover letter. In my views, is required, it should be prepared using the following structure:
CLICK for details

Quick Job Search Tips

What is Success? Theory Redefined!

Only yesterday, I had three instances when entrepreneurs I was talking with told me that they were not successful yet! When I asked them what makes them think that they were not successful? All three of them were unable to satisfy me, and honestly were struggling for words. These three conversations sparked my mind to search for the right definition of entrepreneurial success.

Ron Haynes, Founder of The Wisdom Journal writes in one of this article that:

“most people think that success is a wrapped up in things, but the truth is success is wrapped up in how you see yourself and how you are able to enjoy your life!”

Ron’s views are pretty self-explanatory. But my mind was still struggling to understand the deeper logic of entrepreneurial success! In the evening while I was browsing my facebook, I saw an update from my friend Ashraf Chaudhry.

“Marketing is not an event, but a process . . . It has a beginning, a middle, but never an end, for it is a process. You improve it, perfect it, change it, even pause it. But you never stop it completely.” – Jay Conrad Levinson.

Wahoo! And that was the beginning of an interesting thought process. I responded Ashraf with my own quote:

“Marketing is like universe. It has no end, but a new beginning when you reach to the edge!”
Based on this thought, I am able to come-up with an interesting explanation about entrepreneurial success: Click here for complete article

CV is a great marketing tool!

My lastblog published at ExpressTribune received an overwhelming response. Not only

was it widely read,commented, facebook liked, couple of readers emailed me their issues related to preparing good CVs particularly those with little or no working experience.

I fully agree with Mr Raza Abbas, who picked-up the blog from LinkedIn update and posted the following message:

Dear Mr. Hammad,
Thanks for sharing the article. Nicely written however the majority of jobs are found
though networking this is a global and local strategy, I would recommend you
focus to graduates on how to do networking; it is a skill that not many can know.
Thanks once again for sharing.
Take care,
Raza Abbas
Global Career Consultant
No one can deny the importance of networking; it certainly helps in tapping into the hidden job market. But at the same time, for those who are not well networked and are fresh to the job market, a quality

CV improves the changes for ensures an interview call. In my opinion CV is your key marketing tool. A job hunter needs to spend considerable time and energy while preparing a quality CV. If you search google, millions of resources will pop-up, but my blog focuses on few tips focusing the Pakistani job market.

You need to remember the following points while preparing you CV.
1. Be relevant:
2. Use Readable Format:
3. Be Creative:

Last advice for new entrants is to apply as many jobs as they can, this will increase the probability for more interviews. Click here for complete arcitle and best of luck with CV writing!

The Question is: Salesmen are Born or Developed?

Lately I was in discussion with my friend Ashraf Chaudhry: Are sales people born or developed? Ashraf said that “I have not heard any mother shouting in the labor room that she has given birth to a salesman”! Whereas my view is that sales is a natural skill every human being posses, however only few take the challenge as a professional salesman!

Checkout detailed article:

Key Interview Tips for Job Seekers

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I get emails and calls from youngsters waiting to enter the job market. Some of them are known through social media or other meet-ups, and also some who are referred through contacts. Most of them are MBAs – but even with such a degree, finding a job is becoming challenging.

I usually call people to meet in person. My focus has always been to help them learn the basics such as resume writing and exploring the hidden job market and when searching for job. One has to remember that although the economy is not doing great and job market competition is stiff, there are companies hiring new employees.

During the course of several years of voluntary work, I felt that a number of candidates get a job interview, but due to lack of preparation, they are unsuccessful!

Branding Lesson from Lady Gaga

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Recently I was following Lady Gaga who has established her brand extremely well. Her creativity is really inspiring. She is identifiable everywhere in the world. Following factors led her to a successful brand building:

1. She told her story over and over in the same consistent way and found millions of loyal fans by identifying herself as a “weirdo” who was completely different from the rest of the “pretty” girls who attended the same catholic school she did; not being the most attractive was not and is not an obstacle to be the most successful.

2. Projected her as “Mother Monster” to her fans who she calls “Little Monsters”, has made her mission to be the unifying factor and the role model for the underdog, the not so good looking, the geeky and the wacky, and they all love her because she is one of them. Even her most recent world tour was called “The Monster Ball” and her previous album is “The Fame Monster”.

Effective Websites – More Business for Small Entrepreneurs

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It is trendy to have business website, and trendier to have social media presence. Many small business owners when creating the website or establishing socialmedia presence try to do their best, but often complaint for not getting traffic on to their websites and social media. This blog will help them understand the basics they should watch before building a website or entering into social media. But before we go in that direction, let me talk about the ground realities:

A survey was conducted by SiteKreator explains that only 54% of small businesses update their websites less than 5 times a month. This includes content changes, adding applications, photos, news items, promotions, etc. Visitors often find outdated information on such websites. The survey revealed that small businesses that update website more than five times per month have +300% more website traffic than those who do not.

Key Interview Tips for Job Seekers

I get emails and calls from youngsters waiting to enter the job market. Some of them are known through social media or other meet-ups, and also some who are referred through contacts. Most of them are MBAs – but even with such a degree, finding a job is becoming challenging.

I usually call people to meet in person. My focus has always been to help them learn the basics such as resume writing and exploring the hidden job market and when searching for job. One has to remember that although the economy is not doing great and job market competition is stiff, there are companies hiring new employees.

During the course of several years of voluntary work, I felt that a number of candidates get a job interview, but due to lack of preparation, they are unsuccessful!

Download useful tips from HERE

Branding Lesson from Lady Gaga

Recently I was following Lady Gaga who has established her brand extremely well. Her creativity is really inspiring. She is identifiable everywhere in the world. Following factors led her to a successful brand building:


1. She told her story over and over in the same consistent way and found millions of loyal fans by identifying herself as a “weirdo” who was completely different from the rest of the “pretty” girls who attended the same catholic school she did; not being the most attractive was not and is not an obstacle to be the most successful.

READ FULL STORY - Click Here

The 100th Post - Publishing my 100th Blogpost is a Milestone!

My 100th post! Its a milestone I am publishing my 100th blogpost!

When I started writing my 100thpost, it was like a batsman facing a pacer on a fast track with a new ball on his 99! Those who have been in this situation can only understand the feelings of reaching this milestone of hitting a century!

Only in 2011, I have encouraged and also trained at least six corporate personalities to become bloggers. The recent one is Mr Saad Amanullah, CEO of Gillette Pakistan. In the league were, Dr Afra Sajjad, Head of Education for Middle East North African and South Asia at ACCA, Dr Habib Aslam Gaba, a renowned cardiologist, Emad Sohail and Huzaifa Shabbir Hussain, my colleagues from CIPE and Dr Muhammad Azam Roomi, Principal Lecturer, MBM Program Director at Bedford University at Luton, UK.

But this particular post is about me, how did I start and what did I learn during the course of thisjourney.

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From Marketing Manager to an Entrepreneur- Meet Shamim Akhtar

“In 1996, I landed into entrepreneurial career due to my passion to become a successful entrepreneur, it was a decision I will always rejoice! – Shamim Akhtar owner of Care Marketing.

A dynamic women entrepreneur, Shamim Akhtar believes in nature, her business is related to import and marketing of healthcare products made from natural ingredients.

According to Shamim “entrepreneurship is the only way to transform personal abilities in to economic and social development, help our own self and others, by initiating business ventures”.

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Effective Business Plan for Small Businesses

"If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail" isa quote by Benjamin Franklin.

However many small business do not start with proper planning. Most start-up entrepreneurs are categorized in the “accidental entrepreneurship” category where things happen as they happen, where fire-fighting is a norm and future is unpredictable.

Having spoken to many small business owners, I have come to realize that mainly due to the lack of capacity and business management skills, small businesses consider business planning a useless and time consuming exercise. They do not realize that an effective business plan helps businesses understand risks and define a pathway to success.

Simple business plan is a sketch of what the business would look like in due course, often called a blueprint for creating a successful business. For small businesses, there is no need for anything too complex. Their business plan is an equation of resources (financial, human, intellectual), inventory/service, market, marketing and in the end projected profits.

It is your business and you should prepare a plan to make it successful!
Read Details here

Social Media Presence and Online Marketing – Best Selling Tool for Small Business

Small business owners have one common problem, cash flow! One way to increase cash flow is by improving sales volumes. Online marketing is considered as one of the best tools for increasing sales. Days have gone by when business had to wait for customers to come to them, now is the time to reach out to your customers. The market is out there, social media sites such as facebook, twitter, linkedin etc have changed the way marketing was done. The recent one is Groupon which allows you to open your own online store.

Regardless of the size of business, I guess the most important thing for any business owner is to increase its sales by reducing the cost of sale, which enables him to improve the bottom line of the business.

Of these many options, generally, small business owners prefer to go for free opportunities. Amongst the most popular is the facebook fan page. Creating one is easy, but brining the fans to the page is challenging. I was talking to Abdi Beli, Owner of Saadia’s  Kitchen (a home cooked food delivery service) who said that he operates at “zero promotional cost” by using facebook and twitter to promote his business. Abid said that it requires patience and persistence in building the community. It took Saadia’s Kitchen one year to build a community of 3000. But now fans are brings more fans – it’s the multiplier impact now!

You will be surprised to know that brands such as Coca Cola has over 33 million fans on facebook and 350,000followers on twitter. Similarly Disney has 27 million fans on facebook and over 150,000 followers on twitter. Starbucks Coffee has 24 million facebook fans and 1.5 million twitter followers.

The above phenomenon is mindboggling! These are world top brands and can spend billions on TV spots, magazine and newspaper adverts and sponsorships, but the single reason for them bring present on social media, is their recognition of this medium as the fastest growing and the most engaging platform.

Now for small business, the key is to become active on social media. Unfortunately, I am not aware of any training program that could teach you the effective use of social media, so it will be a bumpy ride, at least in the beginning.

Considering the time social media initiative can eat-up, my suggestion for small businesses is to start small – establish presence on facebook and twitter. These two are easy to use and a number of individual business owners might have been using these already for social purpose. Hence turning these into business opportunity tool will not be too challenging.

Further reading please click

Total Web Solutions - From Worker to Owner in 5 Minutes – Meet Omair Ali

“Only five minutes were enough to transform me from an employee to an entrepreneur” Omair Ali – Owner of Total Web Solutions.

Omair Ali is a young entrepreneur running his IT company that provides website solutions and software development and maintenance services. Narrating his story Omair told me – “I had interest in software development from my student life. After completing my MIT, I opted software and web development as my career. In July 1999 I got job at a small IT company.

I wanted to learn and that was an excellent learning opportunity. In early times with this company I completed my Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) Optical Fiber Fusion & Mechanical Splices From RTTS also. Company was lean and there were only 2 development persons. Time was right with Y2K business opportunities and business was flowing in. In the next couple of years, the company expanded so my expertise and responsibilities too.”

Talking about the turning point in his career Omair said that, “The Owner was a young IT professional. 10 years in business, the business expanded and he was unable to manage the market demand and hence quality of our service started depleting. I was the front man facing the music from clients. I was frustrated because the company was not paying me enough and clients were also unhappy. I am a man of words, and here I was compromising my ethical values for my employer! It so happened, while I was seriously thinking about changing my job, a client advised me to start my own IT company – and that was the turning point – within the next five minutes, I was an Owner from a Manager!” Read further: Click

Home-Based Businesses Ideal for Home Makers

In depressed economy, home-based businesses can provide an excellent alternative source of income for many. Home-based businesses are particularly suitable for mothers that are unable to go out for a 9-5 job and also qualified or technically trained girls suffering from societal restrctions and are not allowed to leave homes. Particularly with the computer and internet technology, a number of businesses that can be successfully run from home.

In my view following are few interesting benefits of working from home:

Freedom: No boss, no specific dressing, no rigid work schedule. Choose a schedule that suites your lifestyle.

Less cost of doing business: No rent, no additional utility cost, no staff management cost, no commuting cost.

Family care: Specifically for those who have responsibility for family care, this is the perfect option.

Reduced Stress: No 9-5 schedule, no traveling hassle or traffic chaos.

For the past few years, I have been engaged in youth entrepreneurship program focusing economically deprived class. My experience proved that the biggest hurdle for starting a home-based business is the lack of a practical idea.

My colleague Muhammad Yasir has compiled a list of practical ideas for starting home-based businesses. These ideas can be downloaded by clicking here.

Social Media – How business can maximize on Social Media Outreach?

Needless to say that modern marketing is a blend of text book techniques and social media marketing  knowledge.

Push messages are now becoming history, it’s the time to engage your customer and with its phenomenal outreach, social media is the only tool that can help businesses engage with their customers. The challenge for  marketing professionals is to learn the logic of using social media effectively!

For the last couple of weeks I have been advising a friend of mine Zishan Jafri on developing social media presence for his business. I figured out that recently a number of companies have started jumping onto the “social media bandwagon”. Some of them realized the outreach and importance of social media, however a number of them just wanted to be there doing something on their social media.

The fact is that a number of companies do not develop a formal social media strategy. The process of developing their community is usually not the focus; they just want their presence on social media, particularly facebook. There is no doubt that with ever growing number of social media users, businesses no matter small or big need to use this medium to interact with their customers. But the question is how do you effectively use social media?

First thing first – Market Knowledge! It is essential to understand what your competitors are doing for promoting their brands and where do you stand in comparison of other market players. A basic social media audit can help in identifying your marketplace and your customer’s social hangouts, i.e, facebook, twitter, blogs, discussion groups etc. I advise that a social media audit should be part of a company’s market research policy.

A number of businesses also show concern about the extent they could suck into social media. And that is true! In many cases, a number of businesses fail to gain any benefit of having social media presence. It is essential for businesses to understand that social media marketing is a targeted effort; hence a business needs to define its priorities before engaging into social media initiative. Priorities can only be defined based on what milestones a company wishes to achieve i.e., brand development or repositioning, building customer relationship, improving market reputation, engaging potential customers, improving customer satisfaction etc.

But at the end of the day, social media is a science of what messages needs to go to whom and at what time of the day! On social media, feedback is usually prompt; hence the response needs to be carefully drafted in advance to suite the possible feedback or questions. However at times, prepared messages are not appropriate; this makes a call for an expert to consider drafting suitable response.

Blogging, which should be considered as an integral part of any social media campaign is heavily depended on content, and the quality of content attracts readers. Blogs generally focused on sharing information in a relatively detailed manner. I strongly suggest to embed videos, presentations and pictures in blogs to make content interesting. Blogs are good to attract readership on facebook and twitter. There are many social media book marking platforms such as Stumbleupon that could help in creating a viral impact of a social media campaign.

In my experience, social media campaigns can be effective only if businesses are able to integrate their social media properly. This means, having twitter, facebook, linkedin, blog, video content, pictures and presentations, all integrated to represent the same brand image. Integration is effective in creating a good viral impact and to increases customer retention within one space of social media.

Needless to say that a formal social media policy describing the objectives, deliverables and assigning resources both human and financial can only help reap the benefit of social media outreach. Zishan’s business is now social media enabled; the challenge for him to keep-up with the pace and watch his competitors closely!

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Sales and Customer Service – Eye contact is an essential element

Human eyes have mystical powers. However the ability to use this unique quality is unknown to many. I feel sorry for those sales and customer service professionals who do not make an eye contact with their customers. And if some of them do, their eyes reflect frustration!

Experienced sales and customer service professionals emphasis on three essential elements a nice smile, a perfect eye contact, and use of last name. These three elements are considered important in achieving greater customer satisfaction.

Read complete article: http://bit.ly/oqepEx

Zealous Technologies and NTelliSec – Meet the owner of these companies who started as part-time computer trader!

“People say it’s in your blood so I accept it this way – My business grows with simple formula, give the best to your clients and in return you will get business. Initially I used different online forums but at the end of the day a word of recommendation from your client to others proves to be best advertising forum.

” – Shahid Lakhani, CEO Zealous Technologies

I have known Shahid for over 15 years and call him a serial entrepreneur. He belongs to a business family, but refused to join the family business as he wanted to create his own identity as an entrepreneur. His initial business was selling computer hardware to friends and relatives. That was as a part time business during his studies.

Read detailed story here: http://bit.ly/qMpARl

Independence and Sense of Ownership led him to Entrepreneurship – Meet Mathieu Maréchal, CEO, Bewords, France

I’ve realized that an entrepreneur does not have to wait for the perfect moment to start his business, perfect moments barely exist, if you wait for that perfect moment you will probably wait your whole life. The best thing to do is to follow your ideas and work hard for it, always keep in mind that a human way of doing business is the best way to succeed. – Mathieu Maréchal, CEO, Bewords, France

Details are here: http://bit.ly/oUd6sk

Benifits of Trust Building – Have a Trust Account with People you know!

Before you want to withdraw money from a bank, what are two most necessary things you need to have?

You have to have a bank account

You have to have a balance in that account

No matter its business or family life, one most important thing that you need to consider is whether you are maintaining a “Trust Bank Account” with the people you are dealing with or not!

Read details on http://bit.ly/oRbwh1

.Life Without Limits – Nick Vujicic – Man with a Mission

We all are stuck in Haves and Have-nots. Life is a continuous struggle for most of us, not matter what, we need to work and work hard to overcome our have-nots issues. Look around, and you will find many frustrated faces, while trying to climb fast on their respective ladders, they often meet with surprises. These surprises pause their growth and advancements.

Clueless at that stage, struggle becomes even more challenging, and life becomes hopeless! But why this disappointment when generally, we have the ability to change our destiny? Stuck in the spiral of our thoughts, we disregard our human capabilities.
Imagine your life without both arms and both legs.

There is one man I met in the US, Nick Vujicic who was actually born as a disabled child! He was limbless, missing both arms at shoulder level, as well as legless. Meeting with a man who was born with such sever disability and seeing how he faced the challenges of his life was a lesson for me. A graduate in double major in Accounting and Financial Planning, Nick Vujicic is a renowned motivational speaker who focuses on “Teen Issues”. He has spoken in over 25 countries, engaging a large number. He plays football and golf, surfs and swims, isn’t that astonishing?

When Nick was born his father was so shocked he left the hospital room to vomit. It was difficult to raise a child with this condition, but both parents did their best to give Nick confidence and courage. His father made him swim when he was only 18 months old. He was constantly bullied at school and remained in hyper depressive conditions. At the age of 8, he tried to commit suicide by drowning himself.

The session I attended, Nick talked about failure and disappointments in life. He recalled those when he felt hopelessness, lonely and broken, when life was pointless, going to school was a pain. He said that the feelings were indescribable. His explanation on keep trying was an amazing. He said:

‘There are times in your life you fall down and you feel like that you can’t get up. Look at me, when I was a toddler, I tried standing stable for several hundred times, I failed every time I tried, but I continued trying, I continued gaining some extra strength every next time. I became aware of my abilities and technique; I soon learnt that I have a very low centre of gravity that helps in balancing my body.’

When a man with no arms and legs can gain strengths with his failures, why can’t a normal human being do this? To me it is a matter of making strong commitment towards your objectives that leads you to success, even in most challenging conditions.
Nick is thankful for what he has, not bitter for what he does not have. He tells people to keep on getting up when they fall and to always love themselves. In his views, “if I can encourage just one person then my job in this life is done.’”

If we all, with honesty, do our self analysis, we will realize the blessings we enjoy!

Inspire someone – share this blog.

Further readings: http://hammadsiddiquiblog.com/

Tools for Making Effective Presentations

Stage Fright is a common disease of our dynamic corporate world. Astonishingly, not many senior executives undergo a formal training in the art of public speaking or in making presentations. And only those senior executives who understand the importance of posture, pauses, blank spaces, facial expressions, flow and quality of words, variation of voice pitch and timings try to learn this art.


I take it as serious business.

After having attended a formal “Effective Speaking” training program in 1996 at the British Foreign Office training center in London, I was quite hopeful to develop my skills as an effective speaker and presenter.

This three day program covered the above techniques in addition to a session on effective writing. I remember our facilitators kept repeating;

“There is only one tool that helps deliver good speeches or presentations – Practice, practice and more practice”.

In the past 15 years, I have delivered uncountable presentations and spoke at numerous public forums, conferences and seminars. And equipped with what I learnt at British Foreign Office Training, I also tried to analyze various fellow presenters.

My observations confirm that particularly case of senior executive that did not go through a purpose-designed program, there always are three common key missing links:

- Control on body movements
- Voice variation
- Expressions

In my opinion, one cannot doubt the knowledge and quality of contents of an expert speaker. However if the above ingredients are missing, it is highly likely that your audience will lose interest. I have also seen that extensive and complicated presentations also cause severe damage to presenter’s ability to engage audience. I have also observed that some presenters keep going in the flow of their thoughts, and in trying to impress their audience forget that a normal human has a short attention time span. In my opinion, if your listeners can not retain 25% of what you have said – “you have failed to deliver your message”.

Let’s discuss the common what can be done to avoid “Presentation Disasters”:

Understand your audience:
Highly important. One must not prepare a presentation without knowing the audience. Try to gauge the level of education, expertise, areas of interest, issues faced, and then only develop your presentation. This is the only way to keep your audience engaged throughout.

Write from your heart:
Often I have seen people delivering presentations or speeches written by others. For trained and experienced presenters, this is okay, however if you have not contributed towards developing the presentation or speech, speaking from your heart will be too challenging, hence creating an impact too will not be possible.

Avoid reading from paper:
I am not a fan of reading from a written paper. Fine to do it only in case of a specific government level speech or expressing point of view, but for any other presentation, if you read from a paper, you are inviting a reputational disaster!

Practice:
Okay, here is the key – as I mentioned above, for making highly effective presentations, extensive practice is unavoidable. And when I talk about practice, I am not only suggesting “speaking practice” but also reviewing the flow and carefully thinking about expected questions and how to respond to these questions. Surprisingly, very few presenters follow this strict rule.

I have also seen presenters struggling with technical glitches, ask yourself:

- How difficult to have an additional soft copy of your presentation and a printed version?
- How difficult it is to check the microphone volume?
- How difficult it is to control the lights at the stage to avoid blindness?

And the final words:

“Your audience do not know what you would tell them next, so if you have forgotten a point, keep moving on, they won’t notice it”.

If you follow these points, you will be repeatedly performing better.

Happy presenting!!

Inspiring Self-made Entrepreneur - Owner of Sadia’s Kitchen – Meet Abid Beli

Real life stories are the best coach. Inspired with this thought, I requested my friend Abid Beli, owner of Sadia’s Kitchen, a small business run by husband and wife to allow me sharing story about his entrepreneurial experience. I am grateful to him for providing me information that some might consider confidential.


Sadia’s Kitchen is a popular brand for home made food. Abid and his wife Sadia started this business in 2009 with 10 customers. The business has grown to over 550 clients in two years.

To me Abid is spiritually an entrepreneur. He says that “I have been taking risks, and this is my key to success”.

Throughout his entrepreneurial journey, Abid kept tackling stiff challenges. He was amongst the first few South Asians who started an online business in 2001 by launching an online website beliscity.com. The website focused at information related to information technology. In 2003 orkut came into being where he made a group by the same name and initiated various business related activities. Business leaped in 2005 with the launch of Facebook. Belicity was now a renowned name. Abid is selling hot stuff at hot prices and making money. The business took a sharp turn when Abid lost every penny he earned over the last eight years in a business deal.

Again his faith on his entrepreneurial spiritually played its part and in 2009, he and Sadia came with this unique concept of providing home cooked lunches to offices and household customers. This is a 100% online business.

Menu is preset. One lunch contains two vegi and one meat item and his delivered in hotpots, and enough to feed two people. Sadia’s Kitchen Facebook page now has over 2,900 fans. Lunch can be ordered via email foods@sadiaskitchen.com or by making a call. Cost only $2.56 (Pak-rupees 220/-). A business that was started with a total investment of $ 140 only!

Considering the size of the market in Karachi, you would think that the growth has been slow. But remember, there is stiff competition with low quality street restaurants that provide sub-standard unhealthy food at a much cheaper price.

Sadia’s Kitchen is an excellent model with hardly any promotional cost and minimal overheads.

Abid says “I take online business seriously. Facebook, twitter and my blog are my marketing tools. I never market or advertise myself or my business on any other form of media. And I never will, reason is simple this is digital age and my USP is my active online presence”.

I asked Abid, how do people find you? He said, “simple – google me, or search tweets #homemade #freshfood #dailyluch #spices and you will find me”

There are four key lessons from this successful small business:

1. Entrepreneurs have courage to take risks at a very difficult situations. Perhaps most people fail to start their entrepreneurial journey because of their fear “FAILURE”.

2. For an entrepreneur, there is no failure; they only know the word “Learning”.

3. Small businesses can compete only on quality of product or service and by keeping their overheads at the minimal level.

4. Online presence is an essential element for small businesses.

Isn’t that inspiring?

Effective Cold Calling Improves Sales Volume

We all receive cold calls. This is considered as one of the most effective technique for improving sales. With outbound call centers established at India, Pakistan, The Philippines, Cyprus etc – cost of sales have significantly gone down.

From insurance companies, to selling broadband connections and training programs to holidays, there is an ever growing number of segments that are being covered by those sales people who have limited knowledge about the prospective customer. Therefore companies using this technique are working on share volume – more calls made, more potential for closing deals.

I consider cold calling an “emotionless challenge”. Funny enough, two strangers talking, one is trying to sell something that the other stranger is not interested – and chances of experiencing some kind of a hostile reaction – caller defending etc.

Cold calling is not salesmanship, asks a highly successful sales person to start cold calling, and he will chicken out. I consider cold calling as a separate profession altogether. Successful cold callers are special people; they can turn cold calls into sales.

The key point to realize is that cold calling is not about making sales. It's definitely not. It's about getting the chance to make the sale. Specifically, the purpose of a cold call is to set an appointment to explain the product features.

Following are four recommendations for Cold Callers:

• First phase is always a gentle warm-up by humble introduction.

• Engagement in conversation is important, if your subject is talking to you, that means he has time – cash it, as not many people spend time talking to strangers.

• Now is the time for need analysis – this is a tricky part. Now the war really warms up. You want to push and the subject becomes defensive. Keep pushing, gently though.

• Now your subject is really listening to you - This is the time to turn around and offer SPECIAL deals just for this individual, failing, take a chance and get appointment for calling in a couple of days.

How did I learn to respect co-workers?

1986 – I was 22 years – Studying

I needed to work to earn some extra income for the family. My first job was at a catering local company as supervisor. Key features of this job were long hours and low pay. But at least I was bringing some extra income to support the needs of my family.

The owner of this company Khurshid Ahmed was a seasoned businessman. He lived in Germany for many years, hence had extensive international exposure. He was my first mentor (although at that time, I did not know the meaning and value this word Mentor carries!)

One evening when I was supervising a major wedding dinner of over 1,000 guests, and was in the middle of usual chaos, I saw a waiter in the pantry, having a chilled cola. My young blood started rushing toward my head – I pulled him aside and shouted “what the hell are you doing here, dinner is being served and you are enjoying your cola?” “go back to your position immediately” I said and snatched the pop from him. He slowly walked towards the dinner lounge.

It was a big reception, my mentor was also present and at the time when I was shouting at the waiter, he sneaked in and heard me.

The party went well, customers were happy and waiters got heavy tip. End of story!

Not exactly – next morning, my mentor called me in his office. He offered me chair and also a cup of hot tea. I thought, I must have done a great job and this is the reward of last evening. I was wrong!

I was told that I was awful and I had almost ruined the whole function – Why, what did I do, naturally, I was surprised! My mentor came close to me and said “the waiter you were shouting at was a nice man, otherwise you, me and my partners would have been serving the guests, because with one call from the aggrieved, whole team of waiters could go on strike immediately”!

I was sweating, “sorry”, I said. “I do not need your sorry, you need to say it to that waiter” I was told. Realizing the sensitivity, I went to the pantry, hugged that waiter and said sorry for misbehaving with him last evening.

Matter resolved – But two lessons for me:

1. Control your anger
2. Never misbehave

Your Team Sucks!

It is too difficult to develop and retain an effective team! True.

The iconic industrialist Henry Ford said:

“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

One needs to take a deeper insight the above quote from Henry Ford and try to understand the concept based on an enlightening definition of team I came across was basically an acronym which said ;

T- Together
E- Everyone
A- Achieves
M- More

Perhaps the most important among them all was the importance of people working together in coherence and harmony. In all forms of organizational environment, it is the teamwork which spells the difference between the truly great organizations and those which struggle to survive and remain engaged in “Fire Fighting Process”.

During my 26 year career, I have seen numerous organizations that struggled to build effective teams. And the key reason to me was the “misconceptions in the process of hiring”.

Finding good people is a challenge. If you see most adverts are focused at attitude such but do not target behavior. What I learnt from my experience that behavior is something that can be seen and judged whereas, attitude is hidden and intangible. So if you hire for attitude, I am afraid, your team will suck!

Secondly, most job adverts mention “self-starters” – who can be a self-starter in a new place at a new environment and BOSS? Train and empower – let’s be honest, you are building a TEAM.

Do a bit of hard work while building a team. Move out of typical HR Style and Stay natural.

Talented people are fast learners and fast movers as well. To avoid losing team members, motivation and often a pat on their shoulders is needed. Delete the concept of ‘I’, and induce the concept of working together. This process of inculcating the concept of working together comprises of five simple steps:

• Hiring the right team
• Setting the direction
• Communicating the vision
• Listening and fixing issues
• Motivation and appreciation

Punch line: “Teams are effective only if they pursue the common objectives”