How to set up Smarter Work Goals?

With most organizations kicking off fresh appraisal cycles, employees need to once again set their annual goals. Set smarter work goals that are better aligned to organizational priorities and your own focus areas.

Focus On Results – Your goals should be outcome oriented and impactful on key business metrics. Find ways to make your goals ‘measurable’ – it makes things easier for both you and your manager at the time of a review. Set goals that make you step out of your comfort zone and take on new challenges.

Keep Goals Aligned – While specific goals will depend on your exact line of work, in general you should align your goals to the strategy of the organization you work for. Become familiar with your company’s strategy and that of your manager, going up the organization ladder. Align your goals to their goals for optimal success.

Pay attention to Reskilling – Reskilling should definitely be one of your main goals this year. This will help you stay relevant to your profession and work environment. The concept of reskilling is the backbone of sustaining business momentum. It ensures you can address the requirements of your company and its customers. Stay focused on bridging skill gaps as well as demonstrating a high degree of learnability and inquisitiveness.

Keep the Dialogue going – It is essential to discuss your goals with your manager and your team. This dialogue can help you clearly define your goals and to adjust and change them as the environment changes. Regularly checking with managers and colleagues on how you are progressing with your goals will help maintain momentum.

Concentrate on Relevance – Your work goals will be no good unless they are relevant to the company and the environment you are operating in. Make sure your goals are relevant by taking the pulse of the industry and your company’s performance. It is also important to have good industry mentors who can objectively guide you on future trends.

Native Advertising

Advertisers and publishers are not new to ad blocking. It has been in existence since the time of desktop publishing. Over the last couple of years they have rushed to native advertising primarily because of the sharp rise in ad blocking. It works with the theory that if an ad is harder to identify as an ad, it would perform better against ad blockers.

Take fashion brand Lifestyle promotional campaign that highlighted its end of season sale. For the announcement ad, the company tied up with popular content site, and created a fun and engaging article on the types of people on average shopper would meet during a sale. The good thing is publishers are actively handholding advertisers to get around entry hurdles.

Twitter India, for instance offers brands the know to how to leverage native advertising through a host of products such as Promoted Tweet, Promoted Trend, and Native Video, that surface in the form of content that the user is familiar with. Brands need to be where their customers are, but that is increasingly a challenge as consumer’s consumption of content today takes place across multiple platforms from TV to online to mobile apps.

There are few things to remember while using native ads. Always add value for users. If users find the branded content informative and in line with their interests they’ll read and share it. Native content that is identified as sponsored and has a clear call to action performs the best. Being transparent is important to retaining the user trust and leading to engagement. Since native ads look and behave like the content around it, strive for quality content that’s good as the editorial content.

While consumers transition between devices they expect the content to be consistent whether on desktop or mobile and that goes for advertising too. Native ads are especially effective for cross platform campaigns, from PC to mobile. The look and feel of the native ad should be in line with the content on the page. Native ads flow in with the user content experience. With digital video consumption is on rise, and the user love for short snacky content, brands need to explore native video as well as stretch the creative boundaries on content genres.

Measuring Digital Economy

The dramatic rise of the digital economy presents unique challenges to the bean countries who try to measure the size of national economies. Most economic activity was about the production of standard stuff such as wheat or steel. The growing use of modern barter or peer to peer deals in what has been described as the sharing economy?

For example, we use to book airline ticket through a travel agent. Now, airline site allow us to book tickets on our own. The effect is same, but what used to once be a market transaction that involved payment to a travel agent has now become a household activity for which no money is paid. National Income has actually declined even though the underlying transaction is the same.

There is very unique way digital products are priced. They have high fixed costs but zero marginal costs. A software company spends big bucks to write its code. It can replicate this code at zero cost. Or think about a new age music band that can distribute its new album at minimal cost over the Internet despite the initial high costs of recording. The prices of many digital products tend to fall to zero because of their unique economies.

Many business models are designed to create other revenue streams such as advertising since the main product is given away free to build a large customer base. There is again not much agreement on how to capture these changes in national accounts. GDP is the cornerstone of all national economic statistics. It measures how much output is produced in a country in a particular period.

The digital economy presents a new set of challenges. Economists have struggled to understand what the transition from an economy of atoms to an economy of digit actually entails. Most of the emerging debates are not about the productivity effects of digital economy. They are more about how to measure an economy where some important distinctions are getting blurred.

Internet can make India Billion Digital Economy

Internet users in India are growing with rapid pace. It took 10 years for India to get her first 10 million users and another decade to hit the first 100 Million. Then the pace quickened. The next 100 Million came in three years between 2010 and 2013, and the third 100 million took only 18 months. Internet users crossed 300 Million in December 2013. By 2018-19, Internet users will reach to 500 Million. A digital population of 500 Million can transform India’s economy, business landscape, governance, and society beyond recognition.

Internet users could spawn an economy worth $200 Million from interrelated activities. This is a four-fold increase from where we are today and growth will come in three years. By 2018, every second Indian will have access to Internet. The biggest growth will come in E-commerce, which will expand five-fold, while education and healthcare via mobile internet will expand Internet use. Digital Marketing will be the key method to reach out your business to people via search and display advertisement.

Internet could also catalyze entrepreneurship and wealth creation. Global investors are already chasing Indian startups. With 500 Million internet users it will be equal to the size of Europe. There are challenges like low bandwidth, but that won’t prevent the upcoming Internet Tsunami. In each of next five years, India can see a startup of worth $1 Billion. Internet growth will also lead to massive job creation. About 4 lakh people now find direct employment because of Internet. This will expand to 20 Lakh by 2020.

Internet will also improve governance. According to etaal.gov.in, which tracks internet transactions, E-governance transactions increased from 0.5 Billion to 1.7 Billion between 2013 and 2014. However, there are many challenges too. Internet costs can harm Indian population. It may become very expensive in future. 90% of India’s population use pre-paid connection with average monthly recharge of Rs 50 to Rs 70 and 3G recharge of Rs 150. It will be very difficult to sell big data plans and in a huge cost.

More people are going online via free Wi-Fi or paid access. About 45 Million access Internet in Public areas and time spent online has gone up from 10 Minutes per day to 45 Minutes now. Government is also planning to make certain places in Metro cities free Wi-Fi enabled. So far Internet penetration in India has been in English while for new users demand for local languages will increase. According to reports, 10% rise in Internet penetration increases economy by 1.08%. If Internet were a sector then its weight in GDP would be greater than that agriculture and utilities. 

2014: The Year of Elections and E-commerce

Another year is on the end and India is on the positive side of the growth bench. The year was more of the E-commerce, Elections, Digitalization, and their advertisement on Social Media. E-commerce sector got Billions of funding from other countries whereas Elections in India were the example of role of Social Media in attracting, delivering message, and knowing people. In both areas, Advertisement on social media played a big role. In my opinion advertisement, growth in 2014 was more than any other year.

This year, according to an estimate, advertising spends were increased by 12.5%. E-commerce was clearly the dominant category that showed significant increase in spending. Instead, the business ended up growing 10%. E-commerce companies including companies those that run popular sites Flipkart, Snapdeal, Jabong, Olx, and Quickr spend around Rs. 750 Crore in advertisement. These companies launched TV commercials, and in the un-up to the festive season that started in October, many companies went into advertising drive. It is not sure if e-commerce companies will remain as aggressive with their advertising in 2015.

It is a small component of India’s Rs.38 Trillion overall retail trade industry. Yet the, e-commerce format with sales of Rs. 1 Trillion managed to create the buzz in 2014. The year highlights were, Amazon raised $2 Billion in Indian e-commerce space followed by Softbank invests $627 Million in Snapdeal and $210 Million in Ola cabs. Flipkart also gets $1.7 Billion funding, taking valuation at $7 Billion. Footfalls in shops during festive season drop in favor of e-commerce and many more in the sector.

Advertising in Elections came on the back of a Rs. 300-350 Crore blitz by BJP in the parliamentary elections it won and another Rs. 200 Crore by the Congress. This year was more into Digitalization in India. Digital Advertising was more than the print advertising. Government spent Rs. 251 Crore on print advertising between April and November, 20.3% lower than the same period a year ago. Between April and November, Spending on Television advertisement also declined by 8.43%. Digital advertising grow by 30%.

Except ads, Elections in India saw a major change. People came into engagement through Social Media, Radio ads, and all the campaigns launched by PM were successful in making some impact. Everyone was aware of the activities of PM and other leaders. On the other hand, Indian Economy holds a momentum of growth. Inflation came into control at the end of the year. Oil price saw major decline after a decade and decline of $1 in Oil price, save India Rs. 3500 Crore.

Investors and businesses from other countries are investing in India because they find a promising and consistent government in country. PM vision of converting cities into smart cities and bringing in technology in every sector will improve work environment in India. Small businesses will grow and more business will emerge. Agriculture sector will also be benefitted, which holds the 52% contribution to Indian GDP. After so much in 2014, experts see better times ahead. There is high probability of Interest rates being cut. More spend on advertising will be there and everybody is hoping that more money will come in the country.

“E” Emerges Everything

Many important things, without which we cannot live, surround life. I was thinking about certain important things in one’s life and then suddenly I realize something. I asked my friend about it and start writing on a piece of paper. I appreciate the way she thinks and how fast she thinks. She said many words and I wrote them on paper. What I find is the importance of alphabet “E” in life. I thought that it is the power of “E” which drives everyone life. I will share every word here and will share my views on it. There are many more words but I felt these play an important role or meaning.

The first word came to my mind was Electricity and Electronics items. It is very difficult to live without electronics items these days. With increase in use of electronics items, digitalization is increasing in the world. Soon, India will emerge as the world power in Digitalization. Next is E-commerce. We all know how fast e-commerce business is growing in India. It is expected to reach $11.8 Billion by next year. EBay is among one such company. This year e-commerce businesses all over the world broke many records.

Environment is another word on which major countries of the world are keeping their focus. Increase in global warming and disasters are a major concern. Carbon emission from industries is also an issue. In G20 Summit 2014, President Obama talked about the need of control on Carbon emissions. Then we have the role of Engineers in the world. They are the ones who develop this world.

In life, Entertainment is also necessary. With increase in Sports events, Media, Television channels, and movies, entertainment industry emerges as a new developing industry in the world. Inside the corporate world, ethics of an employee play an important role in driving an organization. Education, Enthusiasm, Eagerness, Emotions are important in life.

Employment level of a country always affects an Economy. More Employment is generated more number of people will earn and spend money which is good for an economy to grow. This is the major concern in Europe since last three-four months. Increase in Empowerment is must for a country. The last and most interesting is the Entrepreneurs. There had been many entrepreneurs in the past and many more are emerging. India will produce the maximum number of entrepreneurs in the world. For me Entrepreneurship is living a lifestyle and creating employment for others.

There are many more words, which start from “E” and are important in life. These are Endurance, Enemy, Example, Everlasting, Excitement, Easy, Emergency, Exercise, Equipment, Europe and many more. All of us use one of these words daily. The idea behind this article was to look out for important words or terms used by people around us and most of them start from “E,” and I realized the power of “E” in one’s life.