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Risk Management

What is Risk Management?Without referring to the millions of websites and documents knocking about that talk about Risk Management, I want to try and give a simple view from the perspective of someone who has to manage risk day to day across major projects. This is real risk management, hands on.Of course, “Risk” and “Risk Management” will have variations of the same general meaning depending on the circumstances or context to which it is applied, but in principle, all risk management will follow more or less the same process.So, what is a Risk? A risk can be any influence on an expected or planned outcome that changes that outcome. In child-talk, it’s anything that could stop you getting what you want or expect.Here’s an important note: Risk hasn’t happened yet. If the outcome has already changed as a result of a risk “happening” then it’s no longer a Risk, it’s an Issue and has to be managed differently.So basically – A risk is something, anything, that could happen that will impact or change a desired or planned outcome. There are so many different ways to state this that, as simple as the concept is, it can easily get confusing. Let me give you an example;”If it rains today then the field trip has to be cancelled” – the risk is that it may rain. The impact is that the planned trip will have to be cancelled. Risk Management is recognizing the risk potential analyzing the probability and impact and either mitigating it or preparing alternative options that will allow the original plan to succeed.Risk Management 101On some of my projects in Asia I’ve had to seriously consider the impact of rain on project outcomes. I was on one job in Korea, Seoul, where we had a limited time to move a banks’ trading office from an old building that had been sold off, to a new building. The old building owner declared bankruptcy and sold off the office block. The new owner, the government, kicked everyone out on short notice. We had 3 months to find a new building, fit it out and move 200 staff including 120 trading positions.This really tested my teams Risk Management ability. This was a working business, the only window to move the 200 staff was over a weekend – after trading stopped on Friday evening and before it started on Monday Morning. Guess what, we had a Typhoon heading in, and for those that don’t know how things work in Asia – Typhoons are given warning signals as they approach by the local authorities.Each signal indicates a level of “threat” and or probability of a direct strike. As the signal rises in strength the threat (and danger to life and property) becomes imminent and public services shut down. People are told to go home or stay off the streets and, for several hours to several days, everything grinds to a halt.I had a stressful time managing risk by the hour. The decision to roll back the move to the old office or proceed and hope we got everything in before the typhoon hit was a 15 minute review, every 15 minutes for the first half of the weekend. That was Risk Management like I never had to manage before. Risk Management is critically important to project work.What is Risk Management?So, the meaning of “What is a Risk” should, I hope, be graphically clear now..? Risk Management is the process of managing risk as it relates to specific circumstances. The techniques, tools and processes used to manage risk are quite pragmatic and common-sense. But we all know that there’s no such thing as “Common Sense” so the best way to get a consistent framework around managing risk is to learn some best practices based on industry proven templates and methodologies.I’m not here to push one methodology or best practice against another. I have my personal preferences based on my industry and experience but I know and have seen many other project managers use varying techniques and tools in Risk Management, all valid and most of them effective at doing the job.In a follow up article I will talk more specifically about Project Risk Management. I’ll share some templates and examples and hopefully stir up some discussions too. There’s no one right way to do Risk Management but there is a consistent framework that should be followed and there are some very good industry standards in Risk Management space.

3 Social Marketing Services That You Should Be Using To Get Traffic

There are some social marketing services that you should definitely be using if you want to start getting more traffic to your website. The ultimate aim of social marketing is to spread the word. It’s a form of viral marketing. In the old days of internet marketing, you had to manually set up referral marketing campaigns and do things such as eBook marketing to get people to pass around your content, and get free visitors back to your site.In today’s times however, social marketing has highly evolved. There are more than 1 way to get referral and viral traffic back to your site automatically without you doing a thing. But you have to make sure that you know what you’re doing with the traffic once you get it. But that’s a topic for a different day. There are tons of social marketing services out there that can boost your credibility, reputation in your niche, and ultimately income.Now what you don’t want to do is use poor social marketing services that can get you banned from sites, or even get you blacklisted. Some people find this out the hard way. If you think buying 5,000 Facebook likes, or 5,000 subscribers to your Twitter account is an effective way to market and get more sales online, you’re definitely wrong. Some people think that if they just can “look good” online people will think they’re an expert and then will start buying from them. This couldn’t be farther from the truth.People don’t buy because they think you’re popular. People buy because they believe you have a good solution to a bad problem that they have. If all you have to offer is 5,000 Facebook likes to a person who’s having acne problems, then you won’t get the sale. So don’t invest in social marketing services that will only make you look good, but doesn’t have any effect on how much sales and profits that you get.Now I mentioned that I wanted to go over some social marketing services that you should be using to get traffic to your website. I’m about to list some of my favorite tools to use and how I use them, and how you can use them also to get the positive results in your business that you’re looking for. And don’t be afraid to invest in paid social marketing services also, because sometimes these paid services offer automation tools that are worth the money. Here’s the first social marketing service that you should be using:1) TwellowTwellow is like the “Yellow Pages” for Twitter. If you want more Twitter followers, this is where you should start. You can sign up here and browse through your niche categories, and start following people who have similar websites or Twitter profiles that you have. This is a free and easy way to start getting more Twitter followers without having to resort to a software that may get you banned from Twitter.In fact, a long time ago there was this paid automated software that was very popular called “Tweet Adder”. It was so popular that a second version was made and it was called “Tweet Adder 2″. It allowed you to massively get thousands of related Twitter users to follow you and start marketing to them.Needless to say, it was so successful and popular (and against Twitter’s terms of service) that anyone who was found to have used it at any point was banned from Twitter.People were building massive Twitter followings and using their “direct message” box (DM) to solicit leads and traffic from people. This got out of hand and a solution was needed to stop this poor practice from continuing. So peoples’ accounts got disabled, and they were no longer to use their Twitter profile to acquire business. And ultimately, “Tweet Adder” was shut down and discontinued. Here’s another social marketing service that you should be using:2) HootsuiteNow I did mention earlier that there are some paid social marketing services that you can use to automate your marketing. Hootsuite is one of these tools. Hootsuite provides a wide range of social marketing tasks that can be performed. And it’s 100% legal and doesn’t violate any terms of services on the social media platforms and websites online.One of my favorite features of Hootsuite is its ability to have your social media content posted automatically. What you would do is input some pre-inserted content into Hootsuite and specify when you want the content to be sent out. This saves a lot of time and if you have a website that already has a ton of content on it, this would be a great way to get it syndicated on the internet.And as you already know, if people on your social media accounts like what you are sending them, they are going to forward your information to their friends and colleagues also – give you more free eyeballs to your website and content. Hootsuite is great, and offers a TON of other social marketing services, but just this 1 alone is worth the investment.Here’s another social marketing service that you should be using:3) AddThisAddThis is social media button platform that allows people to instantly share your content automatically on their social media accounts. AddThis allows you to insert code onto your website or blog, and have social media icons appear on every page of your site. If someone lands on a page on your site or blog that has great content, they can instantly click on a social media button on your page and share your content with their followers.This is a quick and easy way to get free syndication without you doing a thing. And AddThis is free!These 3 social marketing services are tools that you will want to use if you want to strengthen your social marketing campaigns and obviously get more traffic to your website. They’re simple, and while 1 is paid (Hootsuite), it’s highly recommended that you invest in it for the longevity of your website and business.

When Brands Hack Your Brain and Work As Placebos

In the previous article we discussed how placebos are excellent problem solving tools. They are ideas that are planted in our minds. When these ideas stick, they trigger beliefs. And beliefs trigger change. In a sense they hack our brains.As instruments of change, placebos have an important role to play in medicine, marketing, product development, religion etc.It doesn’t really matter what the facts are but belief in the potency of a weird tasting energy drink, military flags and uniforms, homeopathy, a swoosh sign or some female beauty exotic potion have led to creation of large companies, institutions and brands. These ideas or brands are long-lasting since they trigger a significant positive change in their consumers or followers.Placebos, in the field of medicine, have helped alleviate chronic pain, depression, rheumatoid arthritis, high blood pressure, angina, asthma, ulcers,Parkinson’s disease and even cancer.Placebos in medical terms are ‘pharmacologically inert medications’.Medically speaking, placebos can be a pill or an injection.In a non-medical world the placebos could also be ideas or brands, a good-luck charm, a ritual, a perfume that we wear on a first date.In this article we explore the thesis that powerful brands are not any abstract, obtuse constructs. Good brands are effective placebos. Brands work because placebos do. In this article we explore instances of how brands work as placebos. We also give a preview to how the brands harness the phenomenon of placebo effect to trigger a set of beliefs in their consumers.The ‘Real Thing’ is not so real after allFor those who swear by their brand of cola (it’s unique taste, flavour etc.) it is pertinent to ask whether ‘the taste’ is really such a big deal. Do you actually ‘taste the thunder’ or ‘taste the feeling’? Or is it all in the mind, a placebo. The effect of a brand as a placebo was proven when Baba Shiv and team proved that a cola tastes very differently when the respondent knows that it is the ‘real thing’ (a Coke) versus the same cola being labeled as a generic brand. Subsequent researches by other researchers showed that if the image of Coke was shown the perceived impact of the taste was higher.Are you having a ‘branded headache’?Another study done on women respondents in the UK, regularly suffering from headaches by Daniel E. Moerman highlighted the impact of branding on efficacy of analgesic pills.Women respondents were given four options- a branded analgesic (of a widely advertised and known brand), generic analgesic, branded placebo, generic placebo. The branded analgesic was perceived to be more effective than the generic analgesic, similarly the branded placebo was more effective than generic placebo. The branding of the pill enhanced the perceived effectiveness of both the active and the inert drug. Thankfully, the active drug was perceived as more effective than the placebo inert drug. Thank God, for small mercies.Is the money spent on expensive branded shoes worth it?Similarly a study by Frank Germann answered the question whether you will golf better with a branded putter? In other words it poses a question that all of us want an answer to – whether all the money that we have spent in buying expensive shoes or sport gear is worth it. And the answer is ‘Mostly Yes’.In the Germann study the participants were tasked to complete putts on a putting green using an identical quality of putter. Half of the golfers were told that they were using a Nike putter, and the other half were not told the brand name of the putter. On an average participants who thought they were using the Nike golf putter needed fewer putts to sink the golf ball.In a similar type of experiment conducted in a very different arena (of a scholarly maths test as opposed to a sporty golf game) the results were very similar. The participants of the study were given the same quality of foam ear plugs during a maths test to improve concentration. One half was told that it was a 3M ear plug and another half didn’t know the brand. Akin to the golf experiment, the group wearing 3M ear plugs got more questions right.Germann’s results indicate that strong performance brands can cause an effect akin to a placebo effect. The use of an iconic performance brand which performs a related task, boosts the confidence level of participants by providing greater self-esteem and lowering the performance anxiety of the participants. This leads to better performance outcomes.Another interesting observation was that the impact of the performance brand as a placebo was strongest in novices. The efficacy of the placebo effect was inversely proportional to the skill level of participant. In other words, expert golfers or brilliant math students received little or no performance boost through usage of the performance brands. This explains the ‘Mostly Yes’ part of the answer. So unless you are a good mathematician or a brilliant golfer, the money spent on the performance brand was worth it, at least in part.While we are on this topic, an interesting trivia is that when Nike signed up Michael Jordan in the 80s, and named a shoe after him, they expected sales of 3 million US dollars in a year. They eventually ended up selling 100 million plus worth of “Air Jordans”.Does a ‘Beauty Patch’ work?Dove conducted an actual ‘placebo test’ called the beauty patch experiment wherein they claimed that the participants who took part in the experiment would enhance the perception of their own beauty after the use of the ‘beauty patch’. Participants reported a significant increase in their perception of their own beauty and was surprised to discover that the patch was a placebo. Dove was truthful in a sense that they told their participants that this patch would change ‘perceptions of beauty,’. The patch managed to change perceptions fairly effectively, as echoed by the participants themselves.So there is overwhelming evidence that brands work like placebos by improving performance or changing perceptions. Brands as placebos give us a confidence boost, reduce our anxiety in doing tasks and help us perform better.The role of brands as placebos in the urban jungle, rat raceWhile we are at it, let us discuss the need for brands as placebos in our fairly stressful life in a fast paced urban environment. Living in a dense city and a hyper-competitive environment is quite unnatural and very stressful for a human being (who until a couple of centuries ago was living in villages). As a result, we require a fair dose of self-esteem building,confidence-inducing placebos to help us navigate the urban jungle & the debilitating rat races. Brands thus play a crucial role, and act as placebos boosting our confidence, improving our performance, changing our perceptions and altering our beliefs.Jonathan Haidt talks about self-placebbing, wherein we spend a considerable amount of time administering a placebo to ourselves. These placebos work as signaling mechanisms to ourselves and our peers. Many products that we use have a utility and an ulterior placebo function. At a utility level, a Ferrari is car which does the job of transporting you from A to B. In dense & congested cities, in terms of utility it is a rather average means of transport, where a two wheeler is generally faster. But at an ulterior placebo level, Ferrari serves as an excellent aphrodisiac, a huge confidence booster or a very effective signal to humiliate a business rival.So even though a Ferrari goes at twenty kilometers an hour in a bumper to bumper Mumbai traffic, as a confidence or self esteem boosting placebo, it rather outclasses a Honda Civic.Is 10x priced wine, 10x more tasty?Likewise, there are a lot of luxury brands that have a basic utility function, but deliver extremely well on the ulterior placebo function. Expensive suits, thousand dollar cigars, gadgets, obscenely priced single malts etc. are all products that deliver strong placebo effects to the rich & famous men. An expensive wine is not ten times more enjoyable than a good affordable one, but it does administer a huge confidence-inducing social status placebo.The female beauty industry is not just about beautySo while men splurge on their placebo toys, the women have perfected the usage & rituals of self-placebbing into a fine art form. They have patronized a huge industry that delivers powerful doses of placebos to womankind- the female beauty industry, which is bigger in size than the education industry. A lot is made of utility function of the industry i.e. of enhancing the beauty or ‘the sex-appeal’ of women. The fact of the matter is it takes very little to attract the attention of the opposite sex. You need basic grooming and a sexy outfit to attract attention of the opposite sex. It does not take a long and tiresome regimen of two hours to appeal to the opposite sex. The two hours of beauty regime is actually a process of administering a confidence placebo to oneself.In India, marriages are great occasions to observe these self-placebbing rituals. In North India, one usually finds that marriage procession are generally delayed. One of the primary reasons for this is that the women on the groom’s side take ostensibly long to get decked up. And amongst the women folk the grannies, usually take the longest time and have to be literally begged to finish their beauty regimen. On occasions they need to be dragged out of beauty parlours so that the marriage procession can depart. One would imagine that the grannies would not be very keen in attracting the attention of grandpas that would show up at the event. But they have an acute need to give themselves a big confidence placebo. One of the grannies I know went for an expensive set of teeth transplant just so she could smile confidently in marriage pictures.Placebos need to be slightly absurd to work and need to follow a certain set of rules to be perceived as effective. We discuss these rules in the forthcoming article. Suffice it is to say the cosmetics work well as a placebo because they follow some of the basic rules of an effective placebo.The cosmetics are insanely overpriced (and therefore assumed more effective) and very time consuming to administer(a lot of extra effort heightens the placebo effect).In mature markets, the ulterior placebo attribute is critical to differentiateFirms spend a lot of time innovating and crafting a differentiated product proposition focusing on the features and utility function of their products. However in mature markets where products and services are more or less similar, tapping into a belief system, and positioning the brand based on its ulterior placebo attribute may be a more potent way for the brand to gain traction. In fact to take this argument a bit further, building in product or packaging attributes or usage rituals into the product or service may heighten the placebo effect and therefore the perceived value.Having said that, not every placebo works with everyone, and the efficacy of a placebo also differs based on various factors, which we shall cover in subsequent articles. For a brand to take a shot at being an effective placebo, the brand has to tell a story which latches onto the belief system of a subset of population. This subset must believe your story to be authentic for them to buy into the story of your brand. They must connect with the story at a deep, meaningful level and ‘perceive’ it to be true. This encourages trial for the brand. Recently, there has been a huge outrage in India concerning Hindustan Unilever’s brand Fair & Lovely, so much so that the brand has to re-name & position itself as Glow & Lovely. But there was a time, when a big subset of population brought into the insecurity linked with dark skin colour, and the brand delivered a steady dose of fairness linked confidence placebo to millions of women.Obviously it goes without saying that a premium brand has to deliver well on the utility function, maybe marginally better than a lower priced variant. So an expensive bag has to be well stitched, well crafted. But for the brand to be truly perceived as premium it has to deliver a strong placebo effect. The brand has craft a unique story and possibly include some attributes that heighten the placebo effect. And thereafter, the brand has to deliver on the brand experience being consistent to the story told.If the story connects to the core customer’s beliefs then the brand has a decent shot of delivering a strong placebo effect. These core customers then become your brand’s early adopters and evangelists. They narrate the brand story as their own, and convert other consumers. They help grow a small market into a large one.So for example if you believe, as a consumer, that your brand of sneakers XYZ is cooler than competition ABC, and wearing XYZ makes you feel cooler, then for all purposes you perceive yourself to be cooler than your friends wearing ABC. And with the brand’s placebo effect at play, you get a significant boost to your confidence and self esteem. This emboldens you to give your cool avatar a shot, and helps you overcome any insecurities that you may have had. This acts like a self fulfilling prophesy, and one confident step leads to another. And lo & behold, you are the new cool person in town! Now that you have clearly brought into the story of XYZ it is time for you to validate the story you are telling yourself. One good way of doing that is to persuade your friends wearing ABC to switch to XYZ.Communication strategy vital to accentuating the placebo effectBesides the brand story, the communication or persuasion strategy also plays a key role in accentuating the placebo effect of brands. Cacioppo and Schumann conducted a study wherein they manipulated participants’ interest in an ad for the “Edge razor”. They informed the participants that the participants could select from brands of razors (high relevance to the ad) or brands of toothpaste (little relevance to the ad) as compensation for participating in the study. Subsequently they subjected the participants to a strong arguments ad (Edge blade gave twice as many close shaves than nearest competitor) or weak arguments ad ( Edge blade gave no more nicks or cuts than competition).Both these arguments were presented by a celebrity endorser or an ordinary citizen.The study found more persuasion for strong than weak arguments when the razor advertisement was higher in personal relevance (razors as compensation) versus when lower in relevance (toothpaste as compensation). Besides there was a larger impact of the celebrity endorser when the ad was low as opposed to high in personal relevance.To conclude, good brands work more effectively because of the placebo effect. Like all placebos, good brands are ideas that are planted in our minds. When these brand ideas stick, they trigger beliefs. Belief is a powerful drug. It is a drug that works best at the deepest levels of the human mind, affecting it both consciously and subconsciously. So it is not possible to fully understand how a placebo or a good brand works at a subconscious level.Good brands are well positioned and packaged placebos. And like all good placebos they serve a real need, and solve a real problem. They are excellent problem solving tools. And like all placebos, they do so without incurring any significant side-effects. After all, when compared to more violent options, Ferrari is a relatively harmless way to humiliate a business rival.