Employee Loyalty and Work Place Context

William Anderson, Director of Engineering at Forbes raises vital issue about employee loyalty. He raises two important questions

1.       What is loyalty to the organization?

2.       Why does the Loyalty Die?

In his thought provoking insight, he says, Loyalty is not about length of stay. Many employees stick around even if they find workplace bad for them.

I think there could be two reasons

-          The Employees have no choice due to their lack of knowledge, skill, experience or attitudes.

-          It is believed that all workplaces are same, hence hang on instead of facing uncertainty believing the proverb - Known Devil is better than unknown Angel.

Loyalty Defined

It is finding solutions at workplace and contribute for the growth of the organization even in adverse conditions. Of Course without cursing & complaining about the organization, policies and the boss.

It is the ability to focus on the responsibilities rather than finding excuse for non-performance. Results may not be favourable but the sincere efforts matter in a long run.

The second issue is Why does the loyalty die?

The possible reasons are as follows

-          The firm don't live up to their promises to the employees and hence there is lack of trust. The Employees have feeling of being exploited.

-          The feeling among the employees that there is lack of support to them in difficult times, honest efforts are not being recognized and in many cases sycophancy thrives instead of performance.

-          There is a lack of integrity among the employees and focus on personal goals and achievements rather than organizational growth.

-          The feeling of unable to deliver or failing to make any change that ultimately leads to the frustration and outburst.

The solution may be found in works of the genius, Prof. Sumatra Ghoshal, he says the smell of the place must change for the purposeful actions to take place. He gives following matrix to change the smell of the place.

Existing Workplace Context	Desired Workplace Context
Contract	Trust
Control	Support
Compliance	Discipline
Constraint	Stretch

  

Dr. Sushant T. Joshi

Real Character

One day a famous government officer met a highly respected elderly master. Being mighty, he wanted to prove that he was the superior person.
He asked the master, "Old monk, do you know what I think of you and the things you said?"
The master replied, "I don't care what you think of me. You are entitled to have your own opinion."
The officer snorted, "Well, I will tell you what I think anyway. In my eyes, you are just like a pile of shit!"
The master simply smiled and stayed quiet.
Seeing that his insult had fallen into deaf ears, he asked curiously, "And what do you think of me?"
The master said, "In my eyes, you are just like the Buddha."
Hearing this remark, the officer left happily and bragged to his wife about the incident.
His wife said to him, "You arrogant fool! When a person has a heart like a pile of dry shit, he sees everyone in that light. The elderly master has a heart like that of the Buddha, and that is why in his eyes, everyone, including you, is like the Buddha!"

The real character of an individual can be judged on the basis of what he/she talks or thinks of others.

Redefining Education System

 

After observing the pedagogy, examination system, attitude of teachers in UG and PG courses across all universities and Institutions, I think we need to rethink of focus areas
 

1. Examination should be conducted to find out what students know and not to find faults and fail them. When I see educators saying that if they have set the papers nobody would have passed the exam. This is terrible attitude of an Educator. More failure need not necessarily be a good system and quality education. In fact it is worst possible system as it destroys the moral of the students.
 

2. I do not know whether more the complex subjects better is the programme is right. In my opinion the course should be comprehensive not complex. The first task is to make students feel confident of the subjects that they are learning and making it complex and lengthy by adding not so needed topics just to make it look difficult is unproductive exercise.
 

3. If the system of learning is not choice and aptitude based it does not work. Students should be given choice and choice should not be based aptitude and not on market demand. The learning will be better and result will also be good. Teacher must help students understand what they are good at.
 

4. Holistic understanding is better than super specialization approach of leaning or the end product will be machine and not a human being. This is true especially for humanities, commerce, and management courses which are purely non technical.

Machines are designed to do a specific jobs not human beings.

Learning should result in joy and not end up in exercise in obtaining a degree.

10 Commandments for a Leader

• Motivation does not work, a leader should create a desire for purposeful action taking.


• superficiality is common in all organizations don't encourage it in your organizations.


• Avoid hasty promises.


• Leaders make commitments more difficult instead of trying to make quick buy-ins.


• Leaders force people to consider conflicts, doubts, anxiety and ambivalence.


• Leaders must discuss the difficulties rather than painting the rosy picture of necessary task.


• Leader makes conscious effort to prevent sycophancy and allow constructive criticism.


• Leaders must identify and prohibit artificial behaviour, talks and most importantly artificial and hence superficial meetings.


• Reward excellent failures and punish mediocre success.


• The only Strategy is "Doing Things".

Ideological Bankruptcy and India

Wish you all a very happy Independence day….!!!

Sixty four long years. More than a life span of an average Indian. The Doordarshan will play some patriotic songs, PM will hoist the flag will repeat the same speech about the how government is working for the common man, our growth, the govt. schemes for poor people and so on so forth. We all know nothing of that is true but we will still listen. All news channels cover the flag hoisting ceremony and debate about PM speech. Come 16^th August we will forget about our nation. Patriotism for us has become an enjoyment and holiday twice in year. We remember our nation only on 15^th August and 26^th January.

We Indians have become ideologically and intellectually bankrupt. The financial bankruptcy that US and Europe is facing can be easily tackled as they have still not become ideological bankrupt. People in those countries stand for their rights, they are concerned for their country; they care for their country so they will do everything to come out the financial crises. We as Indians have shown no sign of this kind our concern in last sixty years. There is enough of evidence to show that we have reached a situation where we just do not care for our nation. Every individual including me are responsible for the state of our nation today.

Let me give certain situations to explain my point of Ideological and Intellectual Bankruptcy

In last 64 years we have not been able to reduce poverty. In fact all the growth stories talk about no of billionaires and millionaires but not but how much poverty reduction.

In 1947 we had sex ratio of about 990 females per 1000 males, as per 2011 census it stands at 940 females per 1000 males. Clear decline in our ideological and value quotient. We are a culture where we worship woman as Devi. We seems to have forgotten that.

64 years and not been able to provide proper healthcare facilities to common man. Just week before we saw a case wherein people are forced to sleep in toilets at major hospital in Delhi because they did not have money to pay for facility.

Infrastructure is a bottleneck for growth, we know that but we are still not connected to every village by road. Everyday we are building only about 4 kms of road which will take another 50 years for completion of road network. We are facing acute power deficit. Lakhs of villages face more than 12 hours of average power cut.

In 1947 our literacy rate was 14% today it is 74.20%, in 64 years we could not even achieve primary education to all in our nation. We have spent thousands of crore rupees for the same. It shows we are only good at planning and not execution. May be we do not want everyone to be educated.

The country is facing inflation more than 7 % since last 2 and half years. We are supposed to have economist prime minister and the party in power claims to be working for the common man of this nation. What we got is 8 to 9 deadlines set by Government to bring inflation down, which never became the reality. We are supposed to have great brains in the world but none of the issues concerning the common man are solved.

We Indians still believe in dynastic politics and kept electing election after election same politicians, their relative, sons, daughters, in laws and the list is never ending.

We are a democracy but we Indians still treat our politicians are kings, where as are they are our servants.

We have never raised our voice against anything exception was time of emergency. We are basically become insensitive to every issue whether it is corruption, failure of governance or our fundamental rights.

I do not remember a protest against the issue that matter to us like terrorism.

India must have had most number of terror attacks than any other country in last 64 years. We are still keeping quite and take a pride in calling ourselves resilient, May be one candle march to offer condolences to the families who lost their beloved and over.

We have never got angry for anything.

When some like Anna Hazare, Kiran Bedi start some movement we still watch it as spectator and never think of participating.

If we browse social networking sites you will find more comments discouraging these movements, raising doubts about the success of these movements. Sadly the youngster of the nation saying that. How can we raise doubt about success when we never tried these methods of change?

It is not that nothing has happened good in India but then you need to understand that there is law of averages. Some good has to happen.

We do not even care to exercise our fundamental right to vote. In fact I feel it is our duty. We enjoy the Election Day as one more holiday.

We never believed in giving tax for the development. Every time we think of evading tax. That has created black economy. Most no of people who kept their money in swiss banks are Indians. We never ask for receipt of the money we pay to the service providers whether it is retailer, goldsmith and so on. Our only endeavor is to make sure that we do not have to pay legitimate tax.

The insurance schemes are sold in India in the name of saving tax not for life security, this is the reflection of out mentality of tax saving or tax evasion.

The previous generations have failed in giving us the idols that we should look at. This puts added responsibility on us not to make the same mistake as that of our predecessors.

These are just few things but enough evidence to prove that we have become insensitive to our own problems, we do not want to fight or we follow no ideology except the ideology of ignorance? Are we not capable of thinking and take right decisions?

Our methods have found no solution to our problems, and we have run out of ideas to find new ways to tackle the problems. A major concern of inflation bothering common man has not been to able to solved for last 3 years given the fact that we have an eminent economist as our PM.

We as nation have never registered our protest or showed our displeasure even on the issues that affect us.

Is this not ideological and intellectual bankruptcy?

We have to start all over against let us pledge that we will become catalyst for change and really transform the nation for ourselves only.

Let us not give chance to ourselves to crib, let us do it. Let us achieve real independence from corruption, dynastic politic, terrorism and all evils that are stopping us to be Incredible India.

Let us not forget scarifies made my people who lost their lives to make us see free India.

Join Anna Hazare’s anti corruption movement and let these movements continue till we really feel that we have become Incredible India and Incorruptible India.

Proud to be Incorruptible and Incredible India

Jay Hind………

Reality of Govt Lokpal Bill

Writing a blog after almost a year and writing for a cause. Support for the Lokpal bill proposed by team Anna, Arving Kejariwal, Kiran Bedi.

Today after drama of having joint lokpal committee UPA govt finally tabled the bill in parliament. I said drama of having joint drafting committee because even without that committee we would have got the same lokpal bill. Govt has done what it wanted to do. A poor, toothless lokpal bill and make a joke of the democracy and public. So tempted to call this bill as jokpal bill.

Let us understand why we need the bill and how can we have control on corruption after the strong lokpal.

1. We all agree that our Incredible India has actually Corrupt India. A farmer wants to get 7/12 property extract he has to pay bribe to get it, need a bed in govt hospital pay for it, pay to file FIR, pay to get driving licence, pay to get cast certificate, pay more that the price to get ration on your ration card, even pay to get death certificate. Corruption has become a painful reality for common man if India. From PM to peon in Gram Panchayat office every one is corrupt.

2. Why no action against anyone, the reason is very simple; we do not have Independent inquiry and prosecution agency. All agencies that we have like CBI, Police, CID or even Special investigation teams all are puppets in the hand of govt. So everyone knows nothing is going to happen. All corrupt people have got natural immunity.

3. If we want to really make India incorruptible and thereby Incredible we need a very strong independent agency to look into all level of corruption cases from village to Delhi. Lokpal is a solution to the problem

4. Lokpal is not one person but it is panel of 11 members selected by independent panel every eminent personalities of India which includes all sections of society.

5. Today we have CBI's anti corruption wing, after lokpal that wing should come in under lokpal so that instead of two agencies it will be just one agency to deal with corruption cases. So that the common man knows whom to complaint for corruption cases.

6. As mentioned earlier from PM to peon in Gram Panchayat office everyone will come under scanner of Lokpal which includes judiciary also. Any complaint files against anyone PM, Ministers, MPs, MLAs, MLCs, Govt officiasl, judges; in short anyone will be investigated and prosecuted by Lokpal.

7. Person who files complaint will get security cover so that more and more people come forward and dare to fight against corruption.

8. Lokpal should have powers to dismiss govt officials and also recover loses from the guilty ones if proven guity. Imagine 1.76L cr can be recovered from A Raja, 70000 Cr can be recovered from Kamadi and many more.

Instead making all that mentioned above possible what Govt has proposed is a weak advisory nature Lokpal bill who is not independent. Let me explain it point by point

1. Prime ministers (only after demetting the office), CM's, Judges of any level, Low cadre govt officials do not come under lokpal. Only Group A Govt officials come under lokpal. So common mans worries are still unaswered. He still has to pay for ration card, cast certificate, death certificate. Who will benefit? The answer is no one.

2. As per govt bill Lokpal is elected by majority of people seating in Government. So naturally it will be puppet in the hands of Govt. as that of CBI today. How can it be independent agency?

3. CBI's anti corruption wing will continue working as it is it will not be under Lokpal. So technically you have two agencies for the same purpose. How will decide which case or scam will be investigated by whom? Answer not known in present lokpal bill.

4. Lokpal is just investigation agency can not prosecute the accuse as per Govt. draft that means it is just advisory in nature can not take action against the corrupt. What the use of such Lokpal?

5. Person filling complaint if found false complaint will be jailed for two years on the other hand the corrupt person will get three changes prove himself guilty. Whom are they trying to save?

6. Lokpal can only investigate and not prosecute. In this case how is it different from the existing agencies dealing such cases.

Now the youth of the country must decided who they want to support to. Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejariwal, Kiran Bedi and many more are there to guide us let us take the advantage and make our nation

Incorruptible India... Incredible India

Jay Hind ...........!!!!!!!!

Oil Price Deregulation and Common Man

Oil prices have gone up second time in last six month. Government wants to deregulate the oil prices and let the market decide retail oil price. A good move but do no think a good one for a country like India with 2/3rd of its population living under a dollar a day. Especially hike in kerosene and LPG will further create huge worries for common man, already suffering from food inflection.

57% percentage of retail petrol price is a tax component. If a price is raised by Rs. 1, there will be raise of 57 paise in taxes. The total cumulative effect will result into raise of Rs. 1.57 in retail petrol price. More the rise in oil prices in international market more will be tax component and higher will be resultant retail price.

For the sake of the common man, Government should think of possibility of a fix tax component to avoid cascading effect and some relief to country men. e.g. a tax component of Rs. 10 per litre of petrol, so even if the oil prices in international market move up or down, the raise or fall in retail price will be in proportion to that and will avoid cascading effect of tax component.

Possibilities are immense but there should be political will for implementation. Let us hope that the 'Govt. for Aam Aadami' really works for 'Aam Aadami" and not for Private Oil Companies.

Jugaad Management

'Jugaad', very commonly and regularly used term in India. In fact it is said that most of the things happen in India is the result of 'Jugaad'. Governments survive on 'Jugaad'. Commonwealth Games will be hosted by India later this year. The success of the games will depend on 'Jugaad'. 'Jugaad' is basically a quick fix especially in bad situations. Interestingly many companies today consider 'Jugaad' as new management style. I came across the new offer by Tata Docomo, one can pay Rs. 20 for a day and he/she gets 200 sms free. Whenever customer wants to avail the sms service he/she has to pay Rs 20 and get 200 sms pack for a day. Again 'Jugaad'.

Few examples of Juggad Management

1. A Dhaba (road side restaurant) in Punjab uses a washing machine to make lassi.

2. A Scooter is modified and converted into Floor Mill.

3. A bicycle is used as sprinkler in a farm

Many more of these little tricks or Innovations are very common in India. Companies may find solution in 'Juggad Management' to beat competition, reduce the costs or even manage resources more effectively.

Jugaad Management may finally get the deserved attention and due credit.

'Go Beyond' MBA

If I have to ask a question to my dearest students, why would they take up professional education (MBA, Engineering, Medicine etc)? I am sure most of them would tell me that they can expect a good job. Jobs are plenty and candidates seeking the jobs are also plenty yet we find students wondering for a job and companies trying hard to get the suitable candidates. This clearly shows that there is a huge gap between what is expected and what is available.

Students must realize that they may not get a job of their choice only because they have a degree from a govt. recognized and university approved college. They must possess the right skills required for the job, application of the concepts that they learn and anticipation for the futuristic technologies.

Students must choose the school, university or college based not only on affiliation and govt. recognition but need to look at the curriculum, faculty and right exposure. Indian School of Business (ISB, Hyderabad) is the best example of such B school. Everyone can not enter ISB but there are other colleges and B schools who will equip you to be future leaders. There are courses with industry support e.g. TV18 group supports post graduate program in Media and Entertainment, Indian Institute of Banking and Finance supports PG program in Banking and Finance. One must 'Go Beyond' the conventional courses and acquire new skills.

All the best.

Responsible Bad Shah?

Mr. Shahrukh Khan was interrogated at Airport in USA in a closed chamber for about an hour and a half, breaking news of all the news channels in India.  A same thing appears in the next day news papers on front page.  Independence Day celebration, Hon. Prime Minister’s speech is on page 2.  The Badshah gives it a communal color by quoting: “ they detained me because of  my name is Khan”. This I think is ridiculous and very impulsive reaction from a responsible individual who calls himself the king of bollywood.  There were similar events in the past and people like Hon.  Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, Mr. George Fernandis, Mr. Neil Nitin Mukesh, Mr. Amir Khan and many more were questioned in USA.  People having surname Patel do not get USA visa easily. But I do not remember any body in the above mentioned list has ever given such an impulsive reaction and made it a sensitive communal issue even if it is one.  I do condemn the interrogation but on the other side we also need to understand that the irresponsible comments and blowing the issue out of proportion could make the matter worst and toxic for the secular fabric of our great nation. We already have it too many problems to solve.

We also can not forget that after 9/11 America did not even have a single incident of terror attack whereas we celebrate when do not have such major incident for 100 days. The difference is the security checks that are in place there and lapses in India. There no one is VIP and we have too many to handle.  We need be more rational rather than just making it an emotional issue and branding everything communal.  As a nation we must protest such act by USA or any other nation. No one has a right to insult our respected citizens but just associating these things with communalism should be stopped. We will only suffer from this.

Few days before Mr. Mahesh Bhat and Mr. Imran Hasmi had made allegation about an apartment in Mumbai and branded it as communal. Two days later, the members of the same apartment filed complaints about these two, after that no news from these celebrities and self proclaimed victims.

One needs to be very careful and responsible before making any public statements. We definitely have freedom of expression but while exercising these rights we also need to remember out duties and responsibilities. The news channels seem to be forgetting basics of journalism and after TRP’s and catching eyeballs. Controversies have become new mantra of publicity.

Sensationalizing the Information

Since last four days all the news channels are behind a breaking news that is of Mr. Shiney Ahuja alleged raped his maid. For next few days they will show all the drama unfolding, creating breaking news every now and then and one fine day will forget and will be behind something else. The journalist on national channels debating the laws related to rape cases, asking experts in the field of law about fate of Mr. Ahuja. This is all beyond imagination. Few days before one idiot from bollywood created a scene on ramp (same person gets Padmashree Award) that became a breaking news and we found people defending the ugly act on national news channels. Lot of things happening around deserve simple condemnation are made complicated, discussed, debated and sometimes supported. I wonder: is this meaning of journalism? Not a single media is unbiased and just restricts itself as a medium of information. Last week I read a news in one of the highest selling local news paper about the owner of rival news paper alleged threatening someone without naming him, but they made it so obvious that everyone understands it and finally passed expert comments about the persons character. While doing that somehow I felt they also forgot the ethics their profession. The same media few months back had declared Arushi’s father, Dr. Rajesh Talwar (if you remember the case of honor killing according to the news channels) a killer even before the investigation was over by police. Same thing is happening in all the cases, the media has become a judge and passing a judgment about all that is happening around.

The media today has not remained only a medium of information but they have become moral police (forgetting their own morality). They do not have independent opinion about the issues but full of bias. Of course this bias is understandable as they all are revenue models and doing it for profit.

We had years of state owned television channel telling us pro government news and information and now we have 100 odd independent news channel (it has become oxymoron now a days) sensationalizing the information to market their channel.

Can Indian ever get the matured and truly independent version of the news? This is the question that remains unanswered.

Ethics and Politics

“The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions gives beauty and dignity to life” (Albert Einstein).

The question is raised time and time again, whether morality should not be the life-artery of good organization. Nevertheless, world-wide crime and white collar crime in particular seem to be at the order of the day. It would appear that morality is considered in theory only.

When we look at the political outfits in our country I doubt whether these people even are familiar with the terms like morality or ethics.  The party manifestoes have becomes just one more documents. I think we do not need the manifestoes we need report cards. No alliance is based on ideologies. Mr. Amar Singh talking about some sting operations carried out by Mr. Sanjay Dutta on one of the union minister. He does not make it public so that he can bargain with Congress for criminal cases against his party chief. On the top of that he also admits the same on national TV. Mr. Varun alleged made provocative statements, he is put behind the bars and booked under (IPC 307) attempt to murder case and NSA is used against him. May be this was right thing to do in given situation. But when Mr. Lalu talks about running a roller on Varun, Mr. Vaiko threatens bloodshed if anything happens to LTTE chief, Mr. D. Shriniwas says same thing what Varun has alleged said, no action is taken against these three gentlemen. The question is : If the law is same for all then why is this discrimination? That means something is wrong somewhere. Like this and many incidents are happing every day. That is why the question whether morality is considered only in theory.

This could be very pessimistic view of Indian political scenario but the solution does not lie in not voting. The real solution is voting responsibly.  

Politics of Reliefs

Today was the last day of 14^thLok Sabha. It is may be just a week before notification for general election by CEC. Mr. Finance Minister cum Mr. External Affair minister cum Mr. Proxy Prime Minister (Mr. Pranab Mukharjee) announced Rs. 30,000 Cr . tax relief, Mr. Home Minister announced 6% hike in DA (on the same day when the inflation recorded at the lowest level in the last 12 months), Mr. Petroleum Minister is hinting one more price cut and Mr. Commerce Minister announced some relief for exporters by announcing a duty cut. All this could have and should have been done earlier and not on single day. Now that the elections are near, we may see another round of these popular announcements happening. Though these steps are necessary there is a grey side to this as well. Fiscal deficit is going to be really something to be seriously worried about.

It is very difficult to understand why you need to hike DA of central government employees; when 30% to 40 % salary hike was given to them (6^th pay commission) not long back. When the price of crude oil has stabilized at around $40 since last two months and already prices have been reduced twice in the last month, was one more price cut required? Of course I am happy personally with the price cut but may be it is not good for the country’s financial health.

The question is how long our governments are going to politicize the reliefs given to common man without rationale behind it. The bigger question is how long we, the people of this great nation being fooled by our governments.

 

Youth and Poverty

The whole world today is fighting the recession. The impact of this unprecedented situation can be seen on the Indian youth as well. When see the young generation, they give me an impression that most of them have not done shopping for a long now. Some people I find them wearing younger sister’s top and jeans which is either very tight and most of the times short. Poor kids have to either wear it as low waist or short. The case is not different as far as boys are concerned. They also have content with shirts of father or younger brother so either it is too loose or a short for them.  If somebody gets new shirt stitched he makes it sure that it is not too long in fact it is about 6” less. Girls whenever a Kudata is stitched make sure that it is as short as possible.  When I see them, I am reminded of an old movie Golmal. The protagonist in the films when asked by the boss: “why do you always wear short kudata?”  He gives the boss a philosophical answer: “If all men start wearing the kudata which is short by 6” it can solve the clothing problem of millions of people in the country”.

I think the youth today is inspired by similar kind of thought and have taken up the task of fighting against the recession and poverty. Indeed a noble cause. But as all the wars ask for sacrifice this one is also tough on these kids. They are not getting a right fit dress or something that suit them and end up being wardrobe tsunamis. I pray for the success of the mission that these people have undertaken. 

Technology Enabled Efficiencies for Retail

“Technology can not root transformation but definitely accelerate the process of transformation”. The sea change in the way the retail business is carried out in the past from the days of barter to traditional retail formats till now when we see established format, one may notice the role of technology and how technology has speed up the process transformation the last decade. In future a retailer needs to accelerate the change process and one sure ways of success is adoption of right technology. Technology has enabled businesses and consumer to build efficiencies on the basis of the ability to receive and transmit data at a faster speed. This information has today become critical for achieving efficiencies in all aspects of retailing. Inventions in various fields have created numerous opportunities for retailer to make that as a part of innovation process that is profitable proposition for customer as well as the firm. Technology will encourage the smart shopping. This paper discusses various technology driven applications and processes that are used by the retailing and some insight into the technology for the future.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)                                                    

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders. The technology requires some extent of cooperation of an RFID reader and an RFID tag. By the year 2010, RFID tags will be attached to most of the consumer products, turning ordinary products into smart products, the most important concept of the store of the future. RFID not only help retailer manage inventory, but also help increase sales. e.g. At Prada’s, Newyork store, the RFID tags on the clothing is scanned at the doorway. The scan activates a video screen in the changing room that displays other clothing and accessories that are complementary to the item the customer chooses.  This feature resulted in an increase in complementary sales at the Prada Store.

Microsoft Tag

Microsoft Tag creates unlimited possibilities for making interactive communications an instant, entertaining part of life. This application transforms physical media (print advertising, billboards, product packages, information signs, in-store merchandising, or even video images)—into live links for accessing information and entertainment online. With the Microsoft Tag application, just aim your camera phone at a Tag and instantly access mobile content, videos, music, contact information, maps, social networks, promotions, and more. It is designed from the ground up for maximum performance with the limited cameras on most mobile phones. Advanced image-processing techniques decode even out-of-focus barcode images, which means Microsoft Tag works with the fixed-focus camera lenses common in most mobile devices. The possibilities are endless for retailers, consider following scenarios:

You go to a store and check out a bathing soap, you see Microsoft tag on the box, you use your Mobile phone Microsoft Tag Reader and you could be shown promotion around the box, you can compare prices with other brand bathing soap with content analysis and of course benefits of each of these.

You go to a store and check out Godrej processed packaged Green Peas and using Microsoft Tag Reader application on your phone you are taken to the Sanjeev Kapoors website and are shown Recipes around the product. You are also shown the nutrition information about the product. This will ensure that you buy other ingredients along with the product for the recipe you

You buy a Laptop from Electronics and see a Microsoft Tag on the backside of Laptop. You click it using Microsoft Tag Reader app on your mobile and voila, you just registered your Laptop. You may also be shown the accessories you can buy for your laptop.

Point of Sale Automation

On it’s packaging, each product carries a barcode, which uniquely identifies it and distinguishes it from all others in a shopping basket. At the checkout, an automatic scanner (slot scanner or handheld reader) reads each barcode on the product. The barcode is decoded to reveal the Article number it represents. This number is passed to a computer, which matches it against a file and retrieves the price to be charged along with a description of the product and related details. Both price and description (and other relevant data) are then printed on the billing receipt.

With the help of barcode technology, retailer can record the identity of every item sold. They can re-order more quickly, reduce their stocks and have financial and marketing information at their fingertips with unbelievable speed, accuracy, and detail. For consumers, it means accurate billing, faster checkouts (and a happy shopping experience).

 With increase in consumer footfalls, retailers are now progressing to use mobile-POS systems. Mobile devices enable shopping clerks to carry these handheld computers in rush time for on-the-spot transactions. Mobile POS devices feature an integrated reader (to scan individual items), MSR (for credit card authorization), and wireless-connected portable mobile printer (to generate bills).

 Digital Signage

Digital signage refers to a variety of technologies used to replace traditional retail signs. Instead of static print signs and billboards, digital signage is composed of electronic signs dispersing content and messages in the most targeted, interactive way.

Liquid crystal displays, plasma display panels and scrolling message boards are a few of the more common in-store devices used to project full-motion video, sound and text. Digital signage enables a retailer to control and display their messages quickly and effectively.

The Digital Sign Network:Creating a digital signage system involves building a network of electronic devices that are controlled remotely from a central location. These devices present information via digital signage software to a targeted audience. Digital signage devices in the network may be plasma or LCD monitors, kiosks, projection displays, HDTVs or other electronic devices.

Using digital signs in a retail environment has many features and benefits not offered by static displays and signage. Dynamic digital signage can grab a customer's attention and influence their purchasing decision right at the point of purchase. It also eliminates the high cost of creating and distributing print ad campaigns. Digital signage is instant and offers the ability to change promotions immediately for various products or particular customers. Another advantage of digital displays over static is that retailers can earn money with their digital signage network by selling advertising space to their suppliers.

Whether it is intended to build a brand, influence customer behavior or simply provide information, the dynamic visual experience created by digital signage should ultimately increase sales. In order to achieve that goal, retailers will need to design the appropriate system.

Soft Safety Tags

This technology is being used by most of the retailer for garment merchandising today. This technology reduces labor time for retailers and reduces the damage caused to clothing by hard tags. The new soft tags are paper thin, flexible, and attach to an inconspicuous area on a garment, or can be embedded into the fabric.

While the product protection attributes of the soft security tags are similar to traditional hard security tags, the process of handling them at the point-of-sale (POS) is different. With hard tags, a device at the POS alerts the associate to remove the tag; with the soft tags, however, that same device automatically deactivates the soft tag, which remains in the garment, eliminating a step.

Soft tags are mostly attached in the sewing operation and withstand processes like garment dyeing and acid washing. The tags must also stand up to processes after the garment reaches the consumer's hands, such as machine washing and dry cleaning, without breaking apart and possibly damaging the merchandise.

Benefits

• Less damaging to garments that traditional tags
• Provide increased security
• Discourage black market sales of designer merchandise
• Require less sales associate labor

 Multi media Kiosk

Multi media kiosks are a versatile way to extend customer service and marketing efforts. A multi-media kiosk that provides customers with access to information needed to plan an entire party. Using touch screen technology, customers can compile a list of items, including prices, which need to be purchased. They can also receive information on where to find the items in the stores where these kiosks are located.

Further advances in kiosk technology allow for access to the company's web site and other specially selected sites. In addition, large flat screen kiosks can double as in store signage for special promotions, price updates (if connected to a corporate host), and new products.

Benefits

• Can be a point of differentiation for store
• Increased promotional/marketing opportunities
• Increased customer service

Virtual Showroom

Instead of walking around a showroom floor, customers will be able to view computerized images of room interiors and furnishings. The technology has the potential to offer thousands of home-decorating items that cannot be displayed on the retail floor.

The system replicates the exact dimensions of rooms, as specified by customers, and incorporates images of products the customer is considering. It provides a computer generated, three-dimensional, image of how the room would look with the planned additions. Customers can mix-and-match different colors, styles of wood, and patterns for the kitchen, bath, bedroom and great room.

With the aid of this new technology, to provide an environment where a store can truly collaborate with its customers. It makes buying accessories and furnishings much easier because it eliminates a great deal of the guesswork. If customers do not know the dimensions of their rooms, one can have some typical room layouts that can be used to give the customer a general feel for how a new cabinet or fixture would look. Furthermore, the technology offers the opportunity for other exciting retail applications. It could be used to put together a digital outfit, allowing the customer to experiment with different shoes and accessories.

Benefits

• Can display more options that on an actual show floor
• Eliminates need for customer guesswork
• Fewer customer returns
• Increase in customer satisfaction
• Creates increased sales opportunities (a customer interested furniture may become interested in window treatments)

Neural Networks

A neural network is an information system that recognizes objects or patterns based on examples that have been used to train it. Each training example is described in terms of a set of characteristics and a result. Neural networks often do well with identification and discrimination tasks even when some information is missing because they operate by applying numerical weights to many different characteristics. In its learning phase the neural network uses statistical methods to optimize a set of internal weights that relate each inputs to each of the possible results. This is a numerical attempt to mimic the typical human ability to recognize and relate various variables and its impact on the output.

In this case neural marketing is used to evaluate consumer expectations and simulate a response to those expectations by adjusting components of the marketing mix. Data available for each store includes:

• Selling square feet
• Inventory
• Unit sales volume
• Sales personnel information
• Competition factor
• Local advertising expenditures
• Promotions

Using these variables a network can be trained and then used for sales forecasting. Clearly neural networks have an ability to understand relationships in a data set. This can be made use of in numerous ways. Prerequisite for accurate results is efficient Management Information Systems (MIS).

Personal Shopping Assistance (PSA)

The Personal Shopping Assistances (PSA), which are small tablet computers clipped to shopping cart, are activated with a loyalty card. A customer can simply find the products that he/she needs by typing out the words on the touch screen. He would be then directed to the correct aisle – floor plan included. Regular purchases show up on a favorite list, with price and location. Special offers are flagged up as the customer moves from one section to another. This technology also enables the customer to write out the shopping list online – at home or work – and soon it will be automatically downloaded to the PSA. The integrated scanner provides a running total of the shopping and fast track treatment at the checkout. This is future store initiative of METRO Group. This initiative is a cooperation project between METRO Group, SAP, Intel, IBM and T systems.

Conclusion

Technology will no doubt play a key role in creating future successes. Using the technology to collaborate with suppliers to make supply chain more agile in response and more efficient. Use technology to empower customer may be the new business reality for retailer. There is a need to understand the requirement and adopt appropriate technology solution to create sustainable efficiencies.