Know about Chatbots

Messaging platforms are coming of age, and chatbots are all the rage now, they are touted as the next app like wave in communication industry. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are advancing by the day, there is a layer of it being added to everything we know, smart cars, smart homes, smart shoes and of course messengers have become platforms on which commerce and brand communications are being built now.

There are three key drivers shaping the market for chatbots. Firstly, large communication technology companies from the likes of Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Google are making it conducive for building chat based products, they have opened up their respective messaging platforms for developers to build and innovate on top of it. Even Apple has announced APIs for Siri, a move to allow developers into what has been a walled garden so far. So to say, chatbots are no longer standalone products but part of an ecosystem just like how apps are built and distributed on app stores.

Secondly, there's a rising usage of Messengers over traditional SMSes; recently, Zuckerberg announced that 60 billion messages are sent over Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp every day, together they are thrice bigger than the 20 billion SMS sent. WeChat in China has set an impeccable precedence to show the world how a thriving metamarket can be built within a chat app. WeChat is more like a virtual hypermarket on top of which others businesses have built stores through chat apps.  

Third macro factor driving the rise of chatbots is the Gen next's growing preference to chat based interfaces. Messaging has surpassed social media to become the preferred method of communication for millennial. Mary Meeker's research shows that 69 percent of millennial prefer web/internet chat, social media, and messaging to other channels such as talking on phone or IVRS. In past decade we saw brands enabling customers to do everything online, from ordering pizzas with emojis to banking with hash tags, we have seen it all. Chatbots is the emerging new world order.

All of this gives genuine reasons for marketers to consider investing their time and efforts to build chatbots and make it an effective means to allure new wave of customers their way. Chat apps/ bots is not a magic wand one can wave to make a product or service awesome. In foreseeable future, chatbots are only likely to be another customer touch point or an interface to existing business, it can perhaps slowly replace the load on IVRS and Email based customer support.

Chatbots are slowly evolving into an enabler, a digital concierge. But that evolution comes with a subset of challenges, one of them is the multi-agent problem. Consider this, Google's upcoming messenger Allo allows user to add @Google in a group chat and invoke it for getting answers or to get things done. Besides the multi-agent problem, there's another task for marketers to grapple with, to ensure a seamless experience for people using chatbots and smart assistants. 

Communication is a tough business:the way a message is written is not how people preceive it. Just like humans have selective distortion problems, bots have context and natural language processing (NLP) problems. For now, the only jobs chatbots can take away are that of a few helpless souls working at call centres with pseudo American names and a fake accent.

Skills for Success in Digital Marketing

Given the ever increasing growth of spend on Digital Media; there is a constant demand of skilled digital marketing professionals. There are two types of digital marketing skills one should look at: Soft Skills, which are related to aptitude and attitude of a person Technical Skills, which are related to specific aspects of digital marketing.

For anyone who wants to be successful in Digital Marketing, there are no pre-requisites in terms of educational qualification and technology skills. Even if you are not a graduate or have no understanding of technology, you can successfully acquire Digital Marketing skills as long as you are committed and passionate about Digital Media. Given the dynamic nature of Digital Media, one should have the following soft skills to be successful in leveraging digital marketing.

Communication Skills: On Digital Media, an organization communicates with its target audience through text, image or video. The quality of this communication will naturally determine the outcome of any digital marketing campaign.

Creativity: Given the overload of information on Digital Media, marketer’s needs to be creative enough to ensure that their campaigns stand out among competition.

Analytical Skills: One of the key advantages of digital marketing is the amount of real time data available to measure progress of any campaign. If you want to leverage this data to optimize a campaign for success, you should have strong analytical skills to analyze this data and make intelligent decisions to fulfill your campaign's objectives.

Passion: While passion is not a trait specific to career in digital marketing, it is one of the fundamental reasons for one's success in learning and leveraging digital marketing. As shared by various thought leaders, passion determines your success and happiness for anything you do in your life and digital marketing is not an exception.

Quick Learner: Digital Marketing is one of the most dynamic fields. How quickly you can adapt to the changes in the digital medium will determine how well you can conceptualize and execute digital marketing campaigns. 

Multi-tasker: There are multiple views about multitasking. Given the real time nature of digital marketing and that too spread across multiple channels, multitasking is one of the important skills for any digital marketer. 

Thirst for knowledge: Your ability to remain abreast with latest trends across various digital media will play a significant role in your success in leveraging this medium for your personal and organizational growth. 

Social Skills: Digital medium especially Social Media is all about engagement and collaboration. How well you connect with others will determine your ability to satisfy your customer's needs on this medium. Moreover, your social skills will help you learn from others and take their support to improve the success of your digital marketing campaigns. 

Willingness to Experiment: There are no fixed rules about digital medium. Also, there are no boundaries for success on this medium. Your ability to constantly experiment along with your strong analytical skills will play a crucial role in successfully strategizing and executing digital marketing campaigns.

Comfort with Technology: While you do not need to be a programmer or have strong technical skills, technology plays an important role in digital marketing. For example, you can multiply the efficiency of digital marketing campaigns or efficiently measure the performance through technology. Your comfort with technology will determine how well you embrace it and leverage other technical resources, who manage technology for the ultimate success of your digital marketing campaigns. 

Facts about Padma Awards

The government of India had released data regarding all Padma Awards – Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri – given since 1955. As per the data a total of 4,284 Padma Awards have been given between the 1955-2016 period.

Of every five Padma Awards at least one comes from Delhi which accounts for 793 cases (18.6%). Delhi is followed by Maharashtra with 748 awards and Tamil Nadu with 384 awards. In 63 years since 1955, Northern India has got 1558 Padma Awards which is about 36.6% of the total awards. This means one of every three Padma Award comes to Northern India. Southern region got only 898 awards which is about 20.96%. North East region, however, has got only 161 which is about 3.75%.

Congress led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) during 10 years of its tenure (2004-2014) gave about 1,169 Padma Awards. This means at least 27.29% (over 1/4^th) of total Padma Awards given since 1955 were during UPA. Bharatiya Janata Party led National Democratic Alliance government in last two years has given 215 Awards.

About 54% (2,311) of Padma Awards given since 1955 were for Arts, Medicine, Literature and Education. Of the 2,311 awards, art topped the list with 924 awards followed by Literature and Education with 850 Awards and Medicine with 537 Awards. The highest number of Padma awards in one calendar year was given in 1972 when 148 Padma Awards were announced. Interestingly, no awards were given in six years 1978 to 1979 and 1993 to 1996.

Leadership Lessons from Goddess Durga

Navratri is the most exuberant and zesty festival. Goddess Durga is celebrated with an unmatched fervor at this time. She is one of the strongest links that noticeably binds this nation of diverse people. While the Goddess inculcates great devotion in us, she also offers us some very profound life lessons that hold a wealth of meaning even for the management world.

The word Durga, from the root word ‘Durgam’ itself, embodies fearlessness. Remaining true to our convictions in the face of each adversity, however, big or small it may be, gives us an unshakeable inner strength. The stronger we are from inside, the move fearless we are perceived on the outside. These three together go a long way in ensuring success in the long run. Goddess Durga rides a tiger, it’s a metaphor showing – a fearless being can go on to tame problems and situations even as fierce as a tiger and came out as the winner.

Durga Maa with her eight hands epitomizes the word ‘multi-tasking’. Multi-tasking not only saves time, but it also keeps us mentally active and agile. Multi-tasking makes us independent of the vagaries of time and resources. Notice any idol or statue of Goddess Durga – the most prominent feature that arrests our attention is her beautiful, calm and serene visage which sports big yet watchful eyes.

Big eyes are a symbol of having a 360 degree vision so as to know where one needs to reach. But just knowing the destination does not complete the journey. The watchfulness symbolizes a constant eye on your journey to your goal. While watchfulness is desirable, the Goddess serene visage also cautions to bear equanimity within us. A composed leader manger can accomplish much more than an agitated one.

Goddess Durga comes to us in 9 different avatars on the 9 days of Navratri. There is a very simple management lesson hidden here. Leader Managers be ready to don a different hat for different situations. Be yourself but adapt your style, tone, stance, manner and involvement as per the situation on hand. Just how one Goddess Durga binds millions of hearts and together in worship and faith – be the glue, the link that binds people together. Unravelers lose their reason for being very quickly.

Lastly, but most importantly, when all other powerful Gods failed to stop the unstoppable demon Mahishasura, the supreme being too had to take a form of Goddess Durga to vanquish the unconquerable. Herein lies the biggest lesson our society and management world can learn - leadership qualities and gender independent.

What is Helicopter Money?

Helicopter Money is a phrase coined by economist Milton Friedman that signified a helicopter dropping currency from the sky. It refers to an unconventional monetary policy tool that means printing large sums of money and distributing it to the public to simulate a flagging economy. It is considered a way to jumpstart the economy during deflationary periods.

Developed markets, mainly Japan and those in Europe are struggling to stimulate their economies with loose monetary policies and even negative interest rates. As a result, global financial markets are now betting that central banks, starting with Japan, will resort to this concept to boost demand and inflation.

Deflation, or falling prices, can seriously damage an economy. This is because when prices are falling, consumers and businesses become reluctant to spend as they feel the item will be cheaper the next day. Japan and the Eurozone are experiencing this and therefore, the Bank of Japan and the European Central Bank have been resorting to different tactics to try and reverse this phenomenon.

This can have disastrous implications of its own. Things can spiral out of control when a government finances itself in such a way. This is because when there is inflation, there is a tendency to increase interest rates and in turn, borrowing costs. So, money loses its value and commerce can come to a standstill.

Though quantitative easing does consist of central banks using created money to buy government bonds, not everyone agrees that it is Helicopter Money. Though, it does mean printing money to fund government deficits. With quantitative easing, the central banks buy assets that the government has to pay back. Yet, some analysts equate Helicopter Money to the policies of countries like Japan dealing with a deflationary situation.