Discussion on leadership styles - Autocratic and Democratic

For implementing any change in organization or to make important decisions, managers follow different leadership styles such as autocratic and democratic. Both these leadership styles must be used appropriately by managers.

Autocratic- In this style, authority will be completely in the hands of managers. That means manger will not consult the employees or subordinate while making decisions. It is a one way communication and its advantages are:

• Quick decisions can be made here as managers need not to consult any group or member.
• Can be a better option when manager has to deal with large number of workforces.
• More controlling power
• Provides great motivation to managers.

More workload on managers and teams depending completely on managers are the two drawbacks of this style.

Democratic- In this style, employees will be valued by considering their opinions, thoughts and ideas. That means manager consults the workers before making a decision. It is a two way communication and its advantages are:

• Creates motivation in subordinates
• Complex decisions can be made easier
•  Develops a positive working environment
• Chance of improving leadership skills in employees

Democratic approach is not feasible in large organization as decision making process takes very long time.

Both these leadership styles have positives and negatives; so managers must use these styles in appropriate situations for implementing changes in workforce or organization.

Management Theories in 20th century

Managers use various techniques, methods and principles to manage the human resources in organization. The important management theories can be classified as:

• Scientific school of management-  Taylor, Gantt, Gilbreth
• Classical school of management- Weber, Fayol, Follett, Barnard

Scientific school of management

This approach scientifically determines the best ways to manage human resources and productivity of individuals in an organization. Basic ideas in scientific management are:

• Developing new procedures to execute the tasks
• Creating co-ordination between management and employees
• Dividing the work in equal shares to each team
• Using a universal selecting, training and developing programs throughout the organization.

Frederick Taylor’s- Taylor is the father of scientific management, he proposed management theory based on personal experience at steel plant. The important aspects in Taylor’s theory are:

• More productivity- By using appropriate methods and tools, the task can be executed at less time with less number of workers.
• Incentive system- Employees who meet the goals effectively must be awarded with good amount of incentives.
• User-friendly relation- Management and labour must be communicated well to execute the tasks so a user-friendly environment must be created.

Henry Lawrence Gantt - In support to Taylor’s theory, Gantt developed a chart to plan or schedule day to day work. How much of work is done at each stage of production can be determined very easily through this graph. This chart was named as Gantt and it is being used by various organizations in scheduling the tasks and projects.

Frank and Lillian Gilbreth- A time-and-motion study was introduced by Gilbreth based on working speeds of employees. Frank observed that while performing a task in teams, some employees are productive where as some employees are inefficient and very slow at work. Based on this, he removed useless motions to improve performance. This study promotes the individual workers in an organization. Social and psychological problems of workers were also considered in Gilbreth’s management theory. 

Classical School of management

The flow of information in an organization can be understood from these classical management theories.

Max Weber- According to Weber’s theory an organization should not be managed by a single personal, particular organizational structure and rules must be used to manage an organization effectively. Weber called the ideal organizations as bureaucracy; some of the characteristics of it are well-defined hierarchy, division of labour based on skills, maintaining complete records and specifying rules and regulations.

Henri Fayol- Fayol proposed 14 different management principles; those can be used as guidelines for organizing and managing human resources. These principles are widely used by modern-day managers.

Mary Parker Follett- Setting common goals and objective for all the employees is the main aspect in Follett’s theory. Today most of the managers are using the concepts specified in Follett’s theory, for example, employee opinions and views must be considered while making important decisions.

 

Chester Barnard- The idea of ‘informal organization’ was first introduced by Barnard; this idea helps in creating effective communication all over the organization and improves the coordination among employees. According to him success of any organization depends on cooperation of its employees.

Thus both classical and scientific management theories help today’s managers in handling human resources or workforce in their own way. Scientific and classical management theories differ from each other in some aspects; all the scientific management theories concentrate on productivity of individuals where as classical management theories focuses on the total organization.

Employee motivation and appraisal programs

Introducing motivation programs in an organization can bring out the better performance of your employees. In most of the organizations, managers take the responsibility of motivating employees or subordinates. Increasing employee productivity, better outputs at less time and at low labour costs are some of the major benefits of motivating employees. 

The percentage of mistakes in work can be reduced through motivating because employee will have more concentration on the tasks. Increasing co-ordination among team members and reducing clashes between employees can also be done through motivation and proper communication. 

Motivational factors in small and medium sized businesses:

• Attractive wages or salaries
• Ensuring job security
• Providing special incentives based on the work
• Treating the subordinates with respect
• Different allowance like medical claims, house rents, traveling allowances and many other.
• Flexible working options
• Recognizing and appreciating the employee’s work
• Encouraging to learn new technologies or procedures
• Offering promotions based on performance
• Manager’s helping attitude towards employees. 

The above mentioned motivational factors can create good relationship between management and employees. Managers conduct an appraisal program quarterly or yearly to assess the individual staff performance. Rewards or incentives must be provided based on employee performance. Loyalty of employee towards organization is another added advantage from these reward programs.

My Blogging Experience - A to Z of Blogging

I would like to share my blogging experience with all the readers out there. Hope my experience and tips can help in improving your blog. Don't trust the shortcuts like Buy traffic to your site, Get approval from AdSense in just one week, Buy AdSense accounts and Receive 1000 page views in just one day or a hour. In my view all these things are rubbish, only good content can help you in getting good amount traffic and approval from ad networks. Successful blogging is not an easy thing, you have to be patient and act smart according to the changing trends.

Understand and follow these few questions for comfortable blogging

1. How to create a blog or website

You can create a blog for free using blogger or word press, click here to find How to create a blog . You can go for godaddy.com for getting a paid domain (website) for you. Choose a URL which is catchy and suits to your blog content.

2. How to write good content and post it

Choosing a good topic to write is one of the important task to be performed very carefully. The article or post must be optimized with keywords. Make use of  Google keyword tool while choosing and writing the topic. You can obtain best results if you choose keywords with low competition.

Never copy or reproduce content from other blogs or websites, use your own ideas to produce the content. Always concentrate on quality of content rather than quantity of content. You must be able to post articles at least thrice a week and try to write 400 to 600 words in an article. Before posting the content check for grammar, spelling and sentence mistakes.

3. How to increase traffic to your blog or website    

Today you can find thousands of articles on a single topic, so where do your article stands in this competition.? Only good content is not enough to be recognized by the world, you must market your website and articles. Submitting your site to search engines and related directories, using social networking sites, creating quality back links are some of the ways to market your blog.

• Submit your website or blog to search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, Alta vista, AOL, Ask etc. Check this related article to find How to submit blog to Google, Yahoo and Bing - Click Here
• Use social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ etc. to bring some readers to your blog. Provide sharing buttons to the readers so that they can post it on their profiles (More number of readers..!!).
• Submit your links to social news websites like Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit etc. (Personally i love Digg and StumbleUpon). You just have to register and submit your links to the site.
• Try to comment on other blogs, if you are one of the top commentators in their site then they will provide a back link to your blog.

Make use of Google webmaster tool and Google analytic to submit your blog sitemaps and to estimate your blog performance. In first month you may receive just 10 to 20 unique visitors a day, Don't worry... you can improve that gradually. You can get 100 to 200 unique visitors a day after 6 months (off-course it totally depends on your articles quality and marketing abilities).

4. How to get approval from Adsense 

Don't apply for adsense account immediately after creating a blog or website. Wait for at least 6 months to popularize your blog. If you got rejected from Adsense more than three times then next time they may consider you as a spammer or they may neglect your application fourth time. So be careful, before applying to Adsense make sure you have fulfilled all the requirements like good number of posts, unique content,  good amount of traffic and back links. Adsense never accepts adult sites, copied content sites, spammers etc. so don't dare to apply if you have unacceptable content in your blog.

Many SEO experts says that number of posts must be directly proportional to amount of traffic to your blog, so don't post too many article without any traffic. Make sure that you have at least 30 to 40 articles in your blog and 200 to 300 unique visitors a day before applying for Adsense account. Try your luck...!!!

There are various alternatives to Adsense like infolinks, Adbrite, Kontera, Chitika etc. According to my knowledge Adsense is the best and trusted ad network, but it is not easy to get approval from it. At times, you can also use Infolinks, it generates text ad links in your content.

Please post a comment for any suggestion, appreciation, doubts and better services.

How to submit your blog to Google, Yahoo and Bing

In order to get traffic to your blog, it must be indexed in search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. I hope this article help new bloggers in submitting their blog to search engines.

Submit blog to Google

1. Go to the link (Google Webmaster Tools) - Submit Link to Google

2. You will find a screen like below, Just enter your blog URL, Captcha and click on submit request

3. So now you are done..!!! Your request will processed and blog will be indexed in Google within 24 hours.

Submit blog to Yahoo and Bing

1. As Bing and Yahoo merged their site explorers, you just have to submit the blog to Bing webmaster tool to be indexed in both the search engines at a time.

2. To signup with Bing webmaster tool you must have a windows LiveId. (For example articles@hotmail.com or articles@live.com)

3. To create a Window LiveId click here - Windows LiveId Signup

4. After creating a Id, go to Bing webmaster tool link - Bing Webmaster tool Signup 

5. Sign in and click on Add site to submit your blog

 6. Enter blog URL and click on Submit

7. After submitting blog URL, verify you ownership. Click on second option - "Copy and paste a tag in your default webpage" to get HTML code.

8.  Now go to your blogger account to  paste the verification HTML code. 

Blogger Dashboard --> Design --> Edit HTML. Find <head> and paste the HTML code just after the head tag.

9. Click on Verify in Bing webmaster tool and wait for one week to get approval from Bing.

Please post a comment for any suggestion, appreciation, doubts and better services.

Training and Development programs at Tesco

Tesco employed people from different backgrounds and cultures so it can be expected that staff can have different behaviors, skills, knowledge and talents. Thus, training for employees is necessary for executing a particular task related to organization. Both organizations and employees can be benefited through training and development programs. On-the-job and off-the-job are the two training methods used by Tesco to train their employees. Providing coaching from experts and mentoring the employees regularly are the two basic processes occur in on-the-job training. Off-the-job training helps in developing individual skills of an employee, in the sense this training can generate new team leaders to organization.  Business objectives and goals can be injected to the employees through this training. In Tesco, Employee abilities and skills were improved by various development programs; both managers and trainees take part in these development programs.

Roles of Trainee in development program are:

• Recognizing and agreeing need of development
• Attending various workshops and conferences held by organizations.
• Use the feedback from managers to improve performance

Roles of manager in development program are:

• Building a new personal development plan
• Guiding and training employees according to requirement
• Regular performance reviews and providing feedback to the trainees

Benefits of training and development are:

• Employees can be more productive, skilled, organized and flexible.
• Staff can get an opportunity to learn about new methods or technologies.
• Decision making ability of staff can be improved so that new leaders can be evolved.
• Increased motivation and job satisfaction for employee.
• Organizations can reach their business objectives and can serve the customers more effectively

Workforce planning at Tesco

Workforce planning is one of the important tasks in the hands of managers; it identifies the number of employees required for organization in near future. Tesco maintains a workforce planning table and reviews it for every three months so that it can meet the demand for staff continuously.

As Tesco entered into new product categories and opened stores in different countries, various new jobs were created. Tesco controls its organization at six different work levels such as interacting with customers directly, heading the staff, maintaining operating unit, recommending changes in strategy, improving performance and developing new goals and objectives for organization; each of this level requires people with different qualifications and abilities. 

Providing job description and specifications are necessary while starting recruitment process. Job description includes what is the designation and what are the role and responsibilities of it. Specifications include skills and qualification required for particular job. While recruiting, Tesco first conducts an internal talent plan that means it prefers own employees for higher positions. Encouraging talented staff is one of the aims of conducting internal talent plan. If there are no suitable people, then Tesco goes for external recruiting. Tesco created a separate website “www.tesco-careers.com” for advertising the vacancies and it welcomes online applications for particular positions. Selection process includes identifying the best candidate suites for particular position, Screening all the applications, calling the suitable candidates for interview, Conducting second level of interview if necessary and Sending offer letter to the person is the selection process used at Tesco.

Employment legislation must be followed by every organization while recruiting and maintaining staff. Gender, race, nationality and religion discrimination must be avoided while recruiting people into organization. Minimum wages, safety and health are other important legal aspects in maintaining staff. Safe procedures, equipments and machinery must be provided for employees at work place. Tesco provided safe working environments and it also trained their staff on "how to tackle with dangerous situations". Tesco is paying minimum wages to daily checkout staff based on number of hours and days worked. 

Thus, workforce planning creates a clear picture of future human resource need for an organization. Recruiting right number of candidates at right location and at right time is the main motive of workforce planning. A use-friendly recruiting and selection process of Tesco helped them in meeting the demand for staff.

Agni 5 will be a major milestone for India

April 19th 2012

The dream missile of Indian Scientists " Agni-5 " launched successfully today. Agni-5 can aim up to 5000kms and it can be included in Indian army force after completing all the testing formalities. Indian prime minister Mr. Manmohan Singh and defense Minister Mr. Antony congratulated all the scientists on successful launch of the missile.

Antony adds " The nation stands tall today.  We have joined the elite club of nation. All the parameters of mission achieved successfully and it is a major milestone in history of Indian missile research and development program."

Agni - 5 missile Launch

Initially launch was planned on April 18th 2012, but due to bad weather conditions and safety reason DRDO postponed it to 19th April.  Scientists launched Agni -5 from Odisha at 8:07 in the morning, it reached the target (southern Indian ocean) after 15 minutes.

"Salute to all the Indian Scientists. Stand together to honor our scientific community"

Leadership Styles and Motivation to Employees At Tesco

Tesco is a familiar UK based organization which is providing grocery items and general commodities to customers all over the world. As a result of strong business strategies, Tesco ranked as third largest retailer when calculated in terms of profits. 

Tesco is under the administration of many skilled people who are best in the industry. As it is into various categories of businesses like electronics, food items, furniture, clothing, DVD rentals, internet services, books retailing and many more, different groups were developed to handle all the activities effectively. Even though Tesco created coordination among staff and different teams by strong management and leaders, few group coordination problems occurred in some stores. Different managers handle the problems in different ways, for example Berian is one of the managers in Tesco who is heading a team of 17. Letting the team members to decide a solution for problem is the leadership style followed by Berian. This kind of approach motivated the team members and provided very positive results to Tesco. 

Autocratic approach- decision making is completely in the hands of manager, Democratic approach- asking for team members opinions while taking a decision are the two important leadership styles in decision making process. Tesco managers used both of these approaches timely. Tesco uses Critical Success factor (CSFs) which guides the staff towards team work and customer focus. 

Decision making is one of the important processes to be executed by managers; In Tesco managers value the team members’ opinion and suggestions within agreed boundaries. 

To continued growth it is very important to motivate the employees, Tesco always motivated its staff by providing an opportunity to learn new things and by increasing job satisfaction through various incentives, rewards and proper recognition. Standards of working improved in order to meet the product quality and to satisfy the customers more effectively.   

 

Tesco encouraged its employees through various appraisal, incentive and reward systems. In 2006, Tesco shared its success with employees by offering almost 78million pounds worth shares as incentives. ‘Save As you Earn’ and ‘Buy As You Earn’ are the two different Tesco schemes introduced to benefit its employees. Tesco also provide pension schemes based on employee service and performance. Tesco identified the problem of staff by conducting a viewpoint survey and solved them very quickly by taking necessary actions. Tesco believes that “Happier staff means better customer service”.

PESTLE analysis of Tesco

Political factors - Now Tesco is operating business in 14 courtiers all over the world, so its performance may be influenced by the local legislative and political conditions. Employment laws specified by local government must be followed in order to avoid legal hurdles. Most of the governments encourage the organizations to provide employment for local candidates so that local people can be benefited more. All kinds of jobs like low-paid, highly flexible, more skilled, highly-paid and local based jobs are available in stores like Tesco. Tesco employed different categories of people like students, elderly workers and disabled people for low labor rates. Tesco followed the employment legislation and other laws properly in every country where it has stores. 

Economical Factors - Demand for a product in market, price of the product and profits of an organization depends on the economic factors like interest, inflation rates and local unemployment levels. Organizations cannot have control on these economic factors, but it can show adverse effect on organization performance. Tesco is still completely depending on UK market even though it has stores in different countries, which mean if UK market collapsed or affected by any economic factors, Tesco will be in greater amount of risks.

Social Factors- Demographic changes and change in customer behaviors, attitudes are the important social factors which can show effect on business. As Tesco is into food business it has to examine the customers constantly, because today every customer is choosing healthy and tasty food items. Tesco understood the recent social changes and included non-food items in their sales list, thus it attracted more number of customers in the market.

Technological factors- Importing new technologies into business can be an advantage for organization as well as customer. In Tesco, using of advanced technologies improved customer satisfaction. Technologies used in most of the Tesco stores are:

• Electronic shelf labeling
• Electronic Point of Sale
• Radio Frequency Identification,
• Electronic Fund transfer system
• Self check-out machines

Customer can feel more convenient as product is readily available to them. The above mentioned technologies helped Tesco in improving the stocking and distribution processes. 

Legal factor- Tesco performance is directly affected by some of the laws specified by governments. For example, Food Retailing Commission enforced to use standard pricing for products. That means retailers must not change the prices without any notice and it should not demand the payment from suppliers. Most of the companies try to change product prices regularly in order to attract customers towards them and to hold its position in market. Tesco reduced prices on promoted products where as other product prices increased so that it implemented politically correct pricing laws.  

Environmental factors- Organizations must take the social responsibility while developing products. Cutting wastage while product manufacturing, decreasing the usage of resources and reducing environmental damage are the important specifications to be followed by companies like Tesco.

Assignment on Motorola or Dissertation topics on Motorola

Motorola is a renowned company in electronics field which is providing mobiles, semi-conductors, wireless technologies and microchips to user all over the globe. In 2011, Motorola is divided as two different companies- "Motorola Solutions" and "Motorola Mobility". Important topic on Motorola are listed below, click on the topics to see detailed description of each topic.

1. Marketing Mix of Motorola - 7P's 
2. SWOT Analysis for Motorola 
3. SLEPT or PEST Analysis of Motorola Or External influence while promoting a Motorola product 
4. Market Segmentation of Motorola 
5. Motorola Branding and Its advantages 
6. Boston Matrix for Motorola 
7. ANSOFF Matrix for Motorola

Important Countries, Capitals and its Currencies

How many countries are there in the World..? Do you know..??  There are 196 countries Approximately.

It is very difficult to remember 196 countries, capitals and their currencies, So a list is created with 70 famous and important countries in the world. Countries and their capitals are listed continent wise here. North America (1-8), south America (9-14), Europe (15-32), Asia (33-59), Africa (60-68), Australia (69-70).

Note- If you are preparing for any exam or interview related to geography then learn these 70 countries, we feel this will be sufficient.

Tricks to Remember the countries capitals and their currencies

• Remembering currencies is very easy if you concentrate well. North America - Dollar, South America - Peso, Asia - Rupee and Dinar,  Europe - Euro and Krone, Australia - Dollar. Most of the countries in a continent are using same currency (For example - Argentina, Chile, Uruguay using Peso Currency and they belong to same continent North America)
• While learning Countries and Capital keep a Map in front of you. So that you can remember easily.
• Use code word to remember. Try to create code words for every thing if you can (even if they are silly or funny).
• For example Iran - Tehran (Ran end of the both words). 
• Denmark - Copenhagen (Mark = Pen, To mark any thing you need a pen).
• Finland - Helsinki (Fin take it as Pin = Hell, If you Scratch yourself with Pin then it will pain and it feels like Hell)

Countries - Black, Capital - Red, Currency- Blue

1. United States Of America (USA) - Washington D.C. -  US Dollar 
2. Canada - Ottawa - Canadian Dollar 
3. Barbados - Bridgetown -  Barbados Dollar 
   
4. Trinidad and Tobago - Port of Spain -  Trinidad and Tobago Dollar
5. Jamaica -  Kingston - Jamaican Dollar
6. Panama - Panama City - Panamanian Balbao
7. Mexico - Mexico City - Mexican Peso
   
8. Cuba - Havana - Cuban Peso
9. Argentina - Buenos Aires - Argentine Peso
10. Chile - Santiago - Chilean Peso
11. Colombia - Bogota - Colombian Peso
12. Uruguay - Montevideo - Uruguayan Peso
13. Paraguay - Asuncion - Paraguay Guarani
14. Brazil - Brasilia - Brazilian Real
15. United Kingdom (UK) - London - Pound Sterling
16. Ireland - Dublin - Euro
17. Portugal - Lisbon - Euro
18. Spain - Madrid  - Euro
19.  Poland - Warsaw - Zolty
20. Italy - Rome - Euro
21. Greece - Athens - Euro
22. Austria - Vienna - Euro 
23. Belgium - Brussels - Euro
24.  France - Paris - Euro
25. Germany - Berlin - Euro
26. Netherlands - Amsterdam - Euro
27. Sweden - Stockholm - Krona
    
28. Norway - Oslo - Norwegian Krone
    
29. Denmark - Copenhagen - Krone
30. Switzerland - Bern - Swiss Franc
    
31. Ukraine - Kiey - Roubel
    
32. Finland - Helsinki - Finnish Markka
33. India - Delhi - Indian Rupee
34. China - Beijing - yuan
35. Russia - Moscow - Rubel
36. Afghanistan - Kabul - Afghani
37. Sri Lanka - Colombo - Sri Lankan Rupee
38. Pakistan -  Islamabad - Pakistan Rupee
39. Bangladesh - Dhaka - Taka
40. Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur - Ringgit
41. Singapore -  Singapore - Singapore Dollar
42. Indonesia - Jakarta - Rupiah
43. Bhutan - Thimphu - Ngultrum
44. Myanmar Or Burma - Naypyidaw - Myanma Kyath
45. Thailand - Bangkok - Baht
46. Japan - Tokyo - Yen
47. Bhutan - Thimphu - Ngultrum
48. Iraq - Baghdad - Iraqi Dinar
49. Iran - Tehran - Rial
50. Israel - Jerusalem - Shekel
51. Kuwait - Kuwait City - Kuwaiti Dinar
52. UAE - Abu Dhabi - UAE Dirham
53. Saudi Arabia - Riyadh - Riyal
54. Jordan - Amman - Jordanian Dinar 
55. South Korea - Seoul - Won
56. North Kores - Pyongyang - Won
57. Maldives - Male - Rufiyaa
58. Nepal - Kathmandu - Nepalese Rupee
59. Philippines - Manila - Peso
60. Egypt - Cairo - Egyptian pound
61. Kenya - Nairobi - Kenya Shilling 
62. Ethiopia - Addis Ababa - Ethiopian Birr
63. South Africa - Pretoria -  South Africa Rand
64. Namibia - Windhoek - South African Rand
65. Nigeria - Abuja - Naira
66. Zimbabwe - Harare - Zimbabwe Dollar
67. Libya - Tripoli - Libyan Dinar
68. Uganda - Kampala -  Uganda Shilling
69. New Zealand - Wellington -  New Zealand Dollar
70. Australia - Canberra -  Australian Dollar 

Please leave us a comment if you liked the post or if you found any mistake here.

ANSOFF Matrix For Motorola

The opportunities available to an organization in terms of product and market can be analyzed through this Ansoff matrix tool.

The corporate growth opportunities for Motorola identified using Ansoff's Matrix tool four factors- 

"Market Penetration- Penetrating the market with existing products and customers.

 Product Development - Developing new product for existing customers.

 Market Development - Attracting new customers for existing products

 Diversification - Developing new product to attract new customer."

 These four factors depicted in the following figure:

 Figure Shows ANSOFF matrix

Initially Motorola released car batteries into market, later it entered into mobile phones and network equipment markets. Motorola developed various new products and penetrated the markets successfully. These market penetrations created good market share for Motorola.

Thus, according to this tool, growth of a business depends on whether it markets an existing or new product in existing or new market.

Boston Matrix for Motorola

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is a management tool which categorizes the product portfolio with four different labels such as star, Dogs, Cash cows and question marks. Here BCG tool is used to determine the market growth and market share of Motorola.

Labels in BCG tool refer to:

• Stars- High market growth and share
• Dogs- Low market growth and share
• Cash flow- Low market growth and high market share 
• Problem child- High market growth and low market share

 Figure shows Boston Matrix 

Initially Motorola was a star that means it attained high market growth and high market shares because of low competition. But in recent times, it fell in problem child area i.e, high market growth and low market share due high competition from new entrants.

Latest Top 5 search engines

These ranking are provide by Articlesworld blog based on Alexa traffic ranks. Date- 19th March 2012.

1. Google

Google helps users in searching required information, images, videos and many more. Google is holding its top position from very long time, Google ranked as 1 by Alexa.

2. Yahoo

Global ranking for yahoo is 4, where as it occupied 2nd rank in the category of search engines. Free mailing, chat rooms, searching information and news are some of the facilities provided by Yahoo.

3. Baidu.com

Baidu.com is a Chinese search engine which grabbed global rank 5 in Alexa rankings, in search engines category it is the 3rd most popularly used one. Baidu is Chinese language oriented and it helps users in searching movies and MP3 music.

4. yandex.ru

Yandex is a Russian search engine and it is into online since 1997. Its global ranking is 23 and 4th in search engines category. 

5. Bing.com

Bing is one of the popular English search engine after Google and Yahoo. You can find local news, products, images, videos and  different kinds of information by using Bing search engine. Its global ranking is 26 and grabbed Rank 5 in search engines category.

Other popular search engines-  Ask, AOL, Altavista, dogpile.com, search.com, info.com, goodsearch.com, infospace.com, webcrawler.com. mywebsearch.com.

Market research - Primary and Secondary

Primary and secondary market research provides valuable information about market segments, demand and customer preferences.  

 

Secondary research- This research is preferable when an organization is expanding its business or introducing new products or services. This kind of information can be gathered from previous business studies, trading structures, reports and census information. 

Advantages:

• Information can be gathered very quickly and easily
• Less expensive when compared with primary research and can easily examine large sectors.

Disadvantages:

• Already available data may not suit to the required criteria of an organization.
• Inaccurate information- as the collected data may be old and out of date.

Primary Research: This research is preferred to examine particular needs of a business. Surveys, opinions, interviews, focus groups and field examinations are some of the ways of primary research. 

Advantages:

• Accurate as it offers complete information
• Provides targeted information to organization
• Proprietary information- Information will not be shared to any other firm or source.

Disadvantage:

• Time consuming process- as the information has to be gathered by approaching sources personally.
• Very expensive

Marketing objectives when planning a promotional campaign

The promotional strategy of an organization must be carried out based on the established marketing objectives. Most of the organizations compare the business growth before and after promotional campaigns so that the effectiveness of promotional strategies can be identified. 

The process of promotional campaign includes identifying the marketing prospects, deciding the communication channels or mediums to be used, establishing objectives, creating promotional mix, identifying the message to be conveyed through advertisements, deciding the budget specifications and finally determining the promotion campaign effectiveness. 

Some of the prime objectives of an organization while developing a promotional campaign are:

• Reaching the maximum number of customers existing in electronic market.
• The actual features, specifications and special technologies included in the product should reach to the customers.

Thus, an effective promotional campaign must focus on specified objectives and these campaigns must  help organizations in popularizing the products and creating interest in the mind of customers.

SLEPT or PEST Analysis of Motorola Or External influences while promoting Motorola products

While endorsing any product in market various internal and external factors can influence the organization rigorously. A SLEPT and PEST analysis is carried out in order to identify the external factors such as Social, Legal, Economic, Political and Technological that are effecting Motorola organization when promoting a product into industry. 

Social - This factor includes local customer preferences, life styles and all demographic aspects. Motorola grabbed the market shares by understanding social changes time to time. Thus, consumer behavior must be considered while promoting a product in local markets.  

Legal - Consumer safety, health and employment law are some of the legal aspect to be considered before promoting the product. As Motorola is providing cellular phones it is very important to ensure the product safety. 

 

Economic - This external factor showed great impact on Motorola business growth as it included the interest and trade rates. Some times the price of products may also depend on this factor. Motorola accelerated the sales in various countries (particularly in developing countries) by promoting products which suits to local needs and by taking advantage of local interest rates. For example, Motorola released very low cost mobile phone in Indian rural areas as Indian government offered low interest and trade rates there by increased its sales tremendously. 

Political - Any government around the world lists the laws, rules and regulations to be followed by organizations. Some governments also specify- which product can be promoted in the local markets and which can not be promoted. Motorola always followed the local government policies, tax procedures and employment law in order to avoid political problems for the organization. 

Technological - New technologies and innovations in the market brought revolutionary changes to products and services. These technological changes resulted in easy communication, cost reduction, and better services. Motorola modified its designs, features and specifications for catching up the standard technologies using today. For example, recently Motorola introduced first true Android tablet and most powerful smart phones with 4G connections to capture today’s market shares. 

SWOT Analysis of Motorola

Strengths 

• Reacting to the situations and challenges very quickly
• Zeal to lead the world of electronics by launching innovative designs and various novel technologies.
• Motorola existed as strong competitor in the market because of having strong alliance, acquisitions and mergers. 

Weaknesses

• An out-dated management style of Motorola is one of the weaknesses as it can effect important decisions related to company operations. 
• Quality of the product is not up to the mark when compared to its competitors. 
• Customer service is one of the biggest weaknesses, many complaints registered saying that “executives doesn’t react after the sale”. 

Opportunities

• New ventures, business partners and alliances can increase the dealings of Motorola.
• Introducing new product categories into market can make Motorola more competitive.

Threats

• All other competitors like Nokia, Samsung are providing high quality products at low prices.
• Network equipments (semi-conductor) business is gradually decreasing from past few years.

Nokia launched 41 Mega Pixel smart phone - "Nokia 808 PureView"

Nokia launched its new product with the name "Nokia 808 PureView" on 27th February 2012 in Barcelona, Spain. The surprising feature in this phone is 41 Mega Pixel camera, Can you believe it?

In addition to high resolution camera it offered 1080p full HD Video recording facility, Carl Zeiss lens, LED Video light and Xenon Flash, So now you can be able to take some professional pictures even in dark conditions. The name "Pure View" is justified with 41MP sensor, Nokia sets a new standard in Smart phones market.

Specifications

Type - AMOLED Capacitive Touch Screen

Battery - Stand by 465hours and Talk time 11hours

Memory (Micro SD) - 16GB internal memory

                                 48GB Maximum extendable external memory

Head phones - 5.1 surrounded Dolby speakers

So what are you waiting for..?? Want to know its price..? Yes definitely.... It may cost around 29000 to 30000 thousand in Indian Rupees. 

We will update the review of 'Nokia 808 PureView" very soon. If you have already bought it, please feel free to post the review.

Motorola Branding and its advantages

Branding is essential in order create recognition for a product or company in market. Creating logos, names, designing features and symbols are also the part of branding. Branding has great impact on customer, for example, if trader shows two identical products one is branded and other is unbranded then customer tend to buy branded product as branding creates the image of quality and reliability.

Motorola has a very strong brand name in global market since it was introduced. Even though Nokia, Samsung and other electronic firms in the market has better brand name, Motorola is still holding its position by using intensive branding strategies. “Intelligence Everywhere” is the new Motorola brand promise phrase, which is unifying the marketing efforts.

The branding strategies available today are: Generic, individual and family, out of these three Motorola is using family branding as it can popularize all their products under the same brand name.

The major advantage gained by Motorola due to family branding is, promotion of one product profited other Motorola products. Loyalty, reorganization, image of quality, competitive advantage and image of reliability are some of the prime benefits gained by Motorola due to branding their products.

Today Motorola brand name and its logo are very popular in cellular phones and network equipment market. Because of branding, Motorola increased its sales and it resulted in more profits for company. Thus, branding also played a crucial role in the success of Motorola products as it added value to the product in terms of quality, price, and reliability.

Motorola Market segmentation and Benifts of it

It is very difficult to satisfy all the customers in market as they have different requirements and preferences. Market segmentation process can help the companies in identifying and satisfying the different customer groups. In mass marketing, same strategies and marketing mix can be applied to all the customers where as in target marketing the strategies can be made based on different categories of customers. Thus, targeting market can provide effective results to an organization.

Generally, market segmentation can be done on different bases like:

• Psychological segmentation which is based on values, approaches and behavioral patterns
• Demographic segmentation on the base of age, income, sex, education etc. 
•  Quality-wise, Use-wise and volume-wise segmentation

Motorola used demographic type to segment the market. The customer groups recognized by Motorola are:

• Business users or Professionals - Today every organization is using phones for executing and communicating the important tasks quickly. So this segment can generate huge income to Motorola organization.
• Fashion seekers - People who always keep updating with latest trends comes under this segment (Mostly age between 20-40).
• Technology interests - Customers who always shows interest on the latest technologies and new features belongs to this segment (Mostly highly educated and age between 20-45).
• Social life lovers - Customers who wants to make new friends and communicate with their family comes under this segment.

 The benefits attained by Motorola organization due market segmentation are:

• Retaining more number of customers in the market
• Meeting the customer requirement with more effectiveness as Motorola announced different offers for different segment of customers.
• More profits for the company.
• Sustaining in the market for a long time by holding its competitive position.
• Made various adjustments to the product by recognizing market changes

SWOT Analysis of Tesco

"SWOT analysis is used to evaluate Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of an organization"

Strengths

• High brand value- Tesco has strong brand name in UK market, so other parts of the world also believed in Tesco brands initially. Quality products and using new ways to create great shopping experience for customers helped them in increasing brand value.
• Tesco online process- Tesco offers online services to their customers and it is one of the best ways to generate revenues. 
• Leader in UK market- Tesco is recognized as the best grocery items retailer in UK markets.
• Raising market shares- Gradually Tesco marketing shares are improving all over the world.

Weaknesses  

• Complete dependence on UK market is one of their major weaknesses for Tesco.
• Serial acquisitions and debt reduction

Opportunities

• Concentrating more on non-food retailing
• Growing as skincare retailer (Health and beauty)
• Focusing on international growth

Threats

• Strong competitors in market such as Wal-mart or Asda
• Expanding its business to the international level could be very expensive.
• Overseas profits may fall
• Price war between UK retailers