10 Things You Can Learn From the Apple Store

The Apple Store is the most profitable retailer in America, generating an average of $5,600 per square foot and attracting more than 20,000 visitors a week.

In the decade since Steve Jobs and former head of retail, Ron Johnson, decided to reimagine the retail experience, the Apple Store not only reimagined and reinvented retail, it blew up the model entirely and started from scratch. In his research for The Apple Experience, Carmine discovered ten things that the Apple Store can teach any business in any industry to be more successful:

1. Stop selling stuff. When Steve Jobs first started the Apple Store he did not ask the question, “How will we grow our market share from 5 to 10 percent?” Instead he asked, “How do we enrich people’s lives?” Think about your vision. If you were to examine the business model for most brands and retailers and develop a vision around it, the vision would be to “sell more stuff.” A vision based on selling stuff isn’t very inspiring and leads to a very different experience than the Apple Retail Store created.
2. Enrich lives. The vision behind the Apple Store is “enrich lives,” the first two words on a wallet-sized credo card employees are encouraged to carry. When you enrich lives magical things start to happen. For example, enriching lives convinced Apple to have a non-commissioned sales floor where employees feel comfortable spending as much time with a customer as the customer desires. Enriching lives led Apple to build play areas (the “family room”) where kids could see, touch and play on computers. Enriching lives led to the creation of a “Genius Bar” where trained experts are focused on “rebuilding relationships” as much as fixing problems.
3. Hire for smiles. The soul of the Apple Store is in its people. They are hired, trained, motivated and taught to create magical and memorable moments for their customers. The Apple Store values a magnetic personality as much, if not more so, than technical proficiency. The Apple Store cares less about what you know than it cares about how much you love people.
4. Celebrate diversity. Mohawks, tattoos, piercings are all acceptable among Apple Store employees. Apple hires people who reflect the diversity of their customers. Since they are more interested in how passionate you are, your hairstyle doesn’t matter. Early in the Apple Store history, they also learned that former teachers make the best salespeople because they ask a lot of questions. It’s not uncommon to find former teachers, engineers, and artists at an Apple Store. Apple doesn’t look for someone who fits a mold.
5. Unleash inner genius. Teach your customers something they never knew they could do before, and they’ll reward you with their loyalty. For example, the Apple Store offers a unique program to help people understand and enjoy their computers: One to One. The $99 one-year membership program is available with the purchase of a Mac. Apple Store instructors called “creatives” offer personalized instruction inside the Apple Store. Customers can learn just about anything: basics about the Mac operating system; how to design a website; enjoying, sharing, and editing photos or movies; creating a presentation; and much more. The One to One program was created to help build customers for life. It was designed on the premise that the more you understand a product, the more you enjoy it, and the more likely you are to build a long-term relationship with the company. Instructors are trained to provide guidance and instruction, but also to inspire customers, giving them the tools to make them more creative than they ever imagined.
6. Empower employees. I spent one hour talking to an Apple Store specialist about kids, golf, and my business. We spent about ten minutes talking about the product (a MacBook Air). I asked the employee whether he would be reprimanded for spending so much time with one customer. “Not at all,” he replied. “If you have a great experience, that’s all that matters.” Apple has a non-commissioned sales floor for a reason—employees are not pressured to “make a sale.” Instead they are empowered to do what they believe is the right thing to do.
7. Sell the benefit. Apple Store specialists are taught to sell the benefit behind products and to customize those benefits for the customer. For example, I walked to the iPad table with my two young daughters and told the specialist I was considering my first iPad. In a brilliant move, the specialist focused on my two daughters, the ‘secondary’ customer who can influence a purchase. He let the girls play on separate devices. On one device he played the movie, Tangled, and on the other device he brought up a Disney Princess coloring app. My girls were thrilled and, in one memorable moment, my 6-year-old turned me to and said, “I love this store!” It’s easy to see why. Instead of touting “speeds and feeds,” the specialist taught us how the device could improve our lives.
8. Follow the steps of service. The Apple Store teaches its employees to follow five steps in each and every interaction. These are called the Apple five steps of service. They are outlined by the acronym A-P-P-L-E. They are: Approach with a customized, warm greeting. Probe politely to understand the customer’s needs. Present a solution the customer can take home today. Listen for and address unresolved questions. End with a fond farewell and an invitation to return.
9. Create multisensory experiences. The brain loves multi-sensory experiences. In other words, people enjoy being able to see, touch, and play with products. Walk into an Apple Store upon opening and you’ll see all the notebook computer screens perfectly positioned slightly beyond 90-degree angles. The position of the computer lets you see the screen (which is on and loaded with content) but forces you to touch the computer in order to adjust it. Every device in the store is working and connected to the Internet. Spend as much time as you’d like playing with the products—nobody will kick you out. Creatives who give One-to-One workshops do not touch the computer without asking for permission. They want you to do it. The sense of touch helps create an emotional connection with a product.
10. Appeal to the buying brain. Clutter forces the brain to consume energy. Create uncluttered environments instead. The Apple Store is spacious, clean, well-lit, and uncluttered. Cables are hidden from view and no posters on placed on the iconic glass entrances. Computer screens are cleaned constantly. Keep the environment clean, open, and uncluttered.

The three pillars of enchantment are likability, trustworthiness, and quality. Apple’s engineers take care of quality, and the Apple Store experience personifies likability and trustworthiness.

Taken from: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2012/04/10-things-you-can-learn-from-the-apple-store.html#axzz256gR11Zi

Churn Reduction Strategies for Telecom Industry

The telecom industry has evolved a lot during the past decades and has undergone vast technological changes from old Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) technologies to new Internet Protocol (IP) based equipments and technologies. As technology evolved, many players started offering variety of products at competitive rates thus creating choices for customers. This competition has created loosing of customers to other companies for many telecom players.

According to Hughes¹ (2010) in an article published by database marketing institute, says that all industry faces with customer churn, especially telecom companies whose churn ratio would average between 10 to 67 percent per year. It costs a lot of money to acquire a new customer in most telecom companies. When a customer leaves, the company loses not only the expected future revenue from the customer but also the resources they spent to acquire the customer in the first place.

Educating Customers or Database marketing

Industry retention surveys published by few researching companies have shown that while price and product are significant, most people leave any service because of displeasure with the way they are treated. They would not be looking around for other products or services if they were happy with their current provider.

A telecom provider has many opportunities for customer education. They have to explain how their services work, why their customers need them, how they can use them, why their services are better than all the other competing providers, what they are doing to support their community, how to save money with their special promotions etc.

The more dialogue a company can create with their customers, the better the relationship. Better educated customers are higher revenue-generating customers.

Next thing to focus more on will be related to issue solving. This could be related to billing or something related to their financial. Company need to take a look at their problems and realize what they exactly want. It is always better to keep a track of their problems which will help the company back in future. Next best thing that can be done is that ‘always let customers know about what the company is going to do with the problem, like how we are going to solve it or whom to contact if the problem is not solved.

Next thing to focus more on is about ‘Tracking customer Emails’ and exploit in a proper way. Know what each customer wants and let them know what the company has to offer them through these emails.

Another strategy is to pick the customers who have been using the service for long and generating money since beginning of the concerned service. Offer them a gold or platinum status. Send a ‘thank you’ letter or a gratefulness letter telling them that we appreciate doing business with them.

The Dual or Triple Play in Telecommunications

According to Hughes² (2010), one of the most productive strategies is to sell the customer a second or third product. This is particularly effective in reducing churn if the product prices are structured so that the purchase of second and third products reduces the monthly price to the consumer of the first product. Otherwise known as “bundling,” this tactic can also greatly reduce the acquisition cost of the second and third product or what is said to be the ‘switching cost’. This also helps customers to find what he /she wants from a single basket rather than looking for buying different services from different suppliers. If targeted at the right audience, this would definitely help a company to boost their retention rates.

In the industry there are basically two types of buyers which include 1) Early adopters and 2) Mainstream buyers.

Early adopters are the one who always wanted to try new product. It includes 10% of the consumers. So the bundling offer will work better on them.

Considering Mainstream buyers, it includes two categories. One who always looks forward to save money the other who always cares about quality and service. So for the first category it is comparatively easy to offer these bundled services as they look for a good cheap deal rather than paying different companies, different deposit amounts and monthly rentals. A good economical plan would definitely bring them to our customer base. But for the second category in mainstream buyers it may not work well as they will only focus more on the quality of service they get from their internet or Video TV they already have.

A recent topic by Pyramid research³ also supports these, as they say that the telecom companies who adopted these kinds of bundling offers are generating 1 to 1.5 revenue generating units per customer compared to a normal single play telecom company.


Other Strategies which could be adopted:

Reviewing price plans:

Study each customer individually, and develop price plans for each of them that recognize their value and reward them. Make a personal message to each customer rather than making it a public announcement.

Predicting Churn:

The database always says about the potential churners. Find them and send them a personal message with a brilliant offer.

Good referral programmes:

It helps the customers to become the advocates of a company’s products. Let them decide whether the product is better or not. This also helps to bring transparency in the transactions.

Knowing the Calendar:

Customer churn will normally happen in certain months compared to other. So understanding this and identifying active churn months will also help to reduce churn rate.

1) Hughes, A.M (2010), Churn reductions in the telecom industry, Database Marketing Institute, http://www.dbmarketing.com/telecom/churnreduction.html
2) Hughes, A.M (2006), Is the Triple Play Working? Database Marketing Institute, http://www.dbmarketing.com/telecom/files/Artic276.pdf
3) http://www.pyr.com/

Shifting to Customer-Centric Marketing Strategy

During the marketing classes we all have heard about the four ‘P’s (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) which is also known as the marketing mix. It has always been the best parameters to control the internal as well as external constraints of the marketing environment.

In today’s hyper competitive world, the four P’s are no longer an effective model to penetrate and exist in a market. Through the power of mass media, channels and technology, the control has slowly shifted from marketers to consumers. This is where ‘customer-centric marketing’ comes into existence which is now considered as the new model for marketing effectiveness.

Customer-Centric Marketing

According to Chaffery1 , “Customer-centric marketing is an approach to marketing based on detailed knowledge of customer behavior within the target audience and then seeks to fulfill the individual needs and wants of customers.” It centers on the needs and wants of the customer, and not about what the marketer or seller wants a customer to buy. Thus by understanding the needs, wants and problems of the customer, businesses could gain direct insight into them and build a mutually beneficial relationship and rapport. Understanding how a customer or prospect is engaged with the brand and then tailoring resources, products, services, and communications to reflect their engagement level demonstrates a customer-centric business approach.

Thus;

• Customer-centric approach is more like creating relationship sales by understanding your customers as opposed to product or promotional approach.
• It focuses more on the satisfaction and mutual relationship with the customer
• Communication becomes an important factor to get regular feedback from customer
• Will be investing on potential customers thus avoiding vain investments on low potential customers
• Sales will be generated as a result of a solid relationship, listening and problem solving
• Customer information will be integrated across marketing, sales, and service departments
• Integrated mass and direct communications with the customers will be made regularly

To help frame a customer-centric strategy, Forrester2 has identified five key dimensions which marketers must focus on:

1) Establish a customer-centric marketing culture;
2) Rethink business processes;
3) Create a centralized view of the customer;
4) Use analytics to drive customer communication; and
5) Invest in a consistent measurement framework.

Why companies should change to customer-centric approach?

There are many benefits by switching to a customer-centric marketing approach and adjusting marketing practices to deliver relevant messages through multiple channels.

• The first reason would be ‘an improvement in selling and customer experience’ as there are no sales tosses
• Least expensive marketing program and improved referrals
• Marketing investment will be better aligned with customer profit potential
• Increase in profits through customer loyalty. Customers will buy over a long period of time
• Lasting business relationship
• Raises awareness and optimizes appeal

Conclusion

A comprehensive view of the customer helps marketers to deliver productive customer experiences, support marketing measurements, and drive new business opportunities. The first step towards greater profits is to recognize that company profitability is driven by customer-level profitability. Long term investments in the right customer base will definitely help businesses to position themselves to prosper and succeed.

1. Chaffery, Dave. 2008, Customer centric marketing definition, from; http://www.davechaffey.com/E-marketing-Glossary/Customer-centric-marketing.htm
2. Source: Defining an Enterprise wide Customer Contact Strategy, Forrester, Research, Inc., October 22, 2008.

Approaching a VC? Here is a checklist

This is a talk by Siliconindia.com to some VC's about the important factors that can help these entrepreneurs to improve their chances of getting funded.

Important thoughts being given by VCs:

Do you have a Team to lead?

A company may have a big business idea, but working individually may not help it to achieve the objective. It is the team which may help one's idea to convert into a profitable product or service. Anurakt Jain, Analyst, Draper Fisher Jurvetson India said, "VCs invest in a team, so sell the team. A start-up should know well about their team members before pitching to VCs."

Pitch

The process of raising fund can be one of the more physically and emotionally draining parts of starting a business. It can go on for weeks or months, taking away focus from business. As an entrepreneur seeking funding, one need to demonstrate that he/she is very clear about his/her idea and how he/she would build an economically viable business around it. Rajesh Vakil, Head, Siemens Venture Capital, India said, "Put together a good investor presentation that covers all aspects of the business plan. A weak presentation can put off VCs easily." Speaking on the similar lines, Jain said, "The first 5-10 minutes of pitch to VCs are very crucial - get VCs on the hook. Describe the company in one-two lines - that would be helpful in running the business as well."

What is your USP?

While explaining about the product or service, a company need to avoid using jargon and adjectives. VCs say that startups should explain the product or service in simple language and emphasize its competitive edge or USP. Manav Sethi, COO BigMaps said, "The basic objective of a start-up should be to show that there is a need of this product or service in the market."

Business Plan

For any start-up, the purpose of presenting a business plan should be to show the potential to investors that if they invest in its business. Vakil said that a business plan must have a very effective executive summary, and in that summary a company should highlight the market, the product or service, management team, stage of the startup, location, market, market size, business, business model, capital structure, capital required and exit options. He also asked these startups to critically evaluate the business plan and do a market opportunity analysis to determine scalability of business. "Ask honestly "Will you fund this if it was someone else's business plan," added he.

Customer Base

Before presenting to VCs, a company needs to evaluate the customer business case, benefits and payback. Also, it needs to know in details about its existing customers as well as its potential customers. Any company can?t have any better evidence than customers to prove its claims about the marketability of its product/service.

A company needs to understand that it is in the market to sell a product, its business idea, which can't be sold unless its customers are satisfied with the product, which they plan to buy. Raghu Batta, Partner, Ojas Ventures said that startups should always make something or sell a service that people want.

Revenue Model

To make it easier for VCs to understand the financial plan, a company need to do a proper thought out strategy that may also help in company's growth plans. Vakil says that preparing a sound financial plan is very necessary for long run, and also a company needs to keep an eye on the total funding requirement over subsequent rounds till scale up and its impact on investor's ROI.

He also advices companies to analyze its present and future margins in detail, bearing in mind the potential impact of competition. The monetary projection should also include the sale prices or fee charging structures of your product or service.

Marketing Plan

Having everything, but no marketing plan can force any start-up to taste the failure soon. The objective of marketing plan should be to convince the VCs that the market for its product/service can be developed and penetrated. Also, the marketing plan should have all the details including pricing, distribution and promotion strategy for the product or service. All these details must be supported by verifiable data.

Apart from these few thoughts, VCs feel that in India first time entrepreneurs are unclear in their own heads about what their idea is about. In fact, many are even not able to articulate it in an easily understood manner either. Adding to this, these VCs also think that startups should raise the fund at right time. Vakil said, "VC funding taken prematurely can be very expensive capital, and company may end up giving up its ownership to the VC." He also thinks that startups should never think of raising fund if the business is not scalable. It will probably waste time unsuccessfully trying to raise finance. The real danger however is that, incase it succeeds; it does not only lose an opportunity to run a lifestyle business that is personally lucrative but is stuck with an unhappy investor.

Taken from Sikta Samantaray's article on siliconindia.com

Organised Retail In India

Retailing-An Introduction

The word "Retail" originates from a French-Italian word "retailler" meaning someone who cuts off or shreds a small piece from something . Retailing includes activities of marketing and selling products or services to end consumers for their own household or personal use. Retailer is a Person or Agent or Company or Organization who is instrumental in reaching the Goods or Merchandise or Services to the End User or Ultimate Consumer.

Kinds of Retailing

Unorganised

Traditional or Unorganized retail outlets are normally street markets, counter stores, kiosks and vendors, where the ownership and management rest with one person only. This sector accounts for two thirds of the market and requires low skilled labor. These are highly competitive outlets, with negligible rental costs (unregistered kiosks or traditional property), cheap workers (work is shared by members of family) and low taxes and overheads.

Organised Retailing

Organized retailing comprises mainly of modern retailing with busy shopping malls, multi storied malls and huge complexes that offer a large variety of products in terms of quality, value for money and makes shopping a memorable experience.

Retailing Scenario in India

Most of the retail sector in India is unorganised, which were known as mom-pop stores. The biggest advantage in this sector is the consumer familiarity that passes on from one generation to the next. The transformation stage of the retail sector started in late 1990's. The emergence of pure retailer has started at this stage as it is been perceived as a beginner and the organised retailing is getting more attractive. In India, the retail business contributes around 11 percent of GDP in 2005 . Of this, the organized retail sector accounts only for about 3 percent share, and the remaining share is contributed by the unorganized sector. The main challenge facing the organized sector is the competition from unorganized sector.

Transformation of the Retail Scenario in India

As Indian retailing is witnessing rapid transformation in different areas of business by using ascendable and gainful retail models across different categories, consumers started accepting the modern retail irresistibly. The unorganised market is making its way for modern retail formats such as malls, provision stores, hypermarkets, discount stores etc. Most of the malls started expanding from metros to tier 2 cities as part of the expansion plans. Consumers are more attracted to these because of the shopping experience they provide and extra facilities like food court, entertainment which is set under one roof.

Demand and Supply Factors

Economic growth: Economic growth is one of the major demand factors of Retail sector in India. Rapid economic growth has resulted in greater disposable incomes for the booming Indian middle class. Disposable incomes are expected to rise at an average of 8.5% p.a. till 2015 . Higher numbers of working women have also increased both consumption and purchasing power. Real GDP grew at an annual rate of 9.4% in the fiscal year 2006 (ending March 2007), the fastest expansion for 18 years .

Demographics: A tidal wave of young adults are entering India's consumer society with rising aspirations, new lifestyle requirements and an insatiable demand for consumer brands. A large number of young working populations between the age of 24 and 35 are also a major factor.

Urbanization: Urban areas are the engines of productivity and growth in the country. Urbanization is associated with higher incomes, improved health, higher literacy, improved quality of life and other benefits. The Indian urban population is projected to increase from 28% to 40% of the total population by 2020 and incomes are simultaneously expected to grow in these segment .

Media Explosion: TV, Internet, radio & Press have the power to influence the population when it comes to promotion. Compared to previous years the presence of media has become more important. Our televisions have over 200 channels: international, national, regional and local. And the print media is still strong in this area. The radio is opening up and growing by the day.

Infrastructure Development: Real Estate development, ownership of private transport, banking/credit are other factors which comes in the demand side. The real estate story in India is growing bigger by the day. Industry experts believe that Indian real estate has huge demand potential in almost every sector -- especially commercial, residential and retail. Organized retail is expected to create a demand for around 220 million square feet of retail space by 2010 . Ownership of private transport gives accessibility. Credit facility is also playing a major role as the availability of it is more liberalized and the rates of interest are in an affordable position.

Competition: As the market is a mix of organized and unorganized players, it is obvious that there will be a competition from the unorganized and the future stores.

Pricing: Pricing will be a crucial variable due to its direct relationship with a firm's goal and its interaction with other retailing elements. The importance of pricing decisions is growing because today's customers are looking for good value when they buy merchandise and services. Price is the easiest and quickest variable to change.

Scale of Operations: Scale of operations includes all the supply chain activities, which are carried out in the business. It is one of the challenges that the Indian retailers are facing. The cost of business operations is very high in India.

The Human resource factor: As this sector has only recently emerged from its nascent phase, sourcing right talented people and training them will be a major factor.

Organized Retail in India

Organized retail business in India is very small but has tremendous scope and is expected to grow faster than GDP growth in next few years. Research done by the Tata Strategic Management Group (TSMG ) indicates that over the next 10 years, the total retail market in India is likely to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.5 per cent (at constant prices) to USD374 billion (Rs 16,77,000 crore) in 2015. The organized retail market is expected to grow much faster, at a CAGR of 21.8 per cent to USD55 billion (Rs 246,000 crore) in the same time frame, garnering around 15 per cent of overall retail sales. Based on their projections, the top five organized retail categories by 2015 would be food, grocery and general merchandise; apparel; durables; food service; and home improvement.

Last few years witnessed the growth of retail sector in India. Growth of this sector led to the entry of foreign players, expansion plans, use of new technologies and processes. Supply chain plays a major factor in new era retailing because of their complex structure which includes different suppliers, retailers and other third party suppliers. Supply chain includes activities like proper relation and communication with suppliers, stock management, cost cutting and reducing wastage, which is one of the major factors.

Conclusion

Finally, it is important to note that value is function of not just price, quality and service but can also be enhanced by personalization and offering a memorable experience. In fact, building relationships with customers can by itself increase the quality of overall customer experience and thus the perceived value. But most importantly for winning in this intensely competitive marketplace, it is critical to understand the target customer's definition of value and make an offer, which not only delights the customers but also is also difficult for competitors to replicate.

*An excerpt taken from my own paper submitted during MBA.*

Outsourcing – A Strategic Advantage

Outsourcing – An Overview

In today’s hyper competitive world, businesses have understood that the best way to stay competitive is to outsource multi business activities to firms in offshore locations. This concept was initiated way back in 90’s, and has now become a trend as it take advantage of the power of information technology from far away locations to bring in economies of scale and cost competitive operations for executing and supporting a client's mission-critical
projects. As the economy across the world is in a declining stage, cost reduction has become one of the top agendas of most enterprises. India has now emerged as one of the hub for IT outsourcing as the country offers the most skilled workforce with least cost involved in it. For many firms in different countries, outsourcing to India has become a successful business model more than a mere cost cutting tool.

The Benefits

Cost Benefits: Outsourcing to India could bring many advantages to companies. One major benefit is accessibility of best quality services in a cost effective way. Services such as Call center/ Voice support, Consulting, Back office support; other business processes etc. can help you save 50-60%, when outsourced.

Concentrating on Core Business: Outsourcing helps large as well as small businesses to focus on their core business activities thus saving on time, infrastructure and even manpower thus avoiding unnecessary fixed investments. By outsourcing all your non-core functions, your employees can be put to better use. It also helps in saving maintenance as well as changing infrastructure cost thus improving revenues.

Operational Expertise: Outsourcing helps to access operational expertise which is too difficult or time consuming to develop in house. Outsourcing partner will be able to deliver much better services by understanding the requirements.

Benefits from Time Zone: Another benefit from outsourcing to India is time zone advantage. Compared to the time zone in Germany, India is +4:30 hours ahead. So critical works can be done much faster and brings businesses a competitive edge.

The Language Advantage: Most of the human resources in India are fluent in English. Apart from English, most other languages including German, French and Spanish is widely taught and spoken for business purposes.

Conclusion

Outsourcing makes great benefits to companies whether, small or big around the world. But the key point is to find the right partner for your outsourcing needs.

Outsourcing and Recession

This is one of the most discussed topics across the industries; especially in Information Technology, Accounting services, Legal, Documentation, Logistics etc. There has been a debate going on, whether to outsource or insource projects. There are many advantages and disadvantages in doing both insourcing and outsourcing.

Insourcing is beneficial when a company wants to offer its works to other internal party yet not a part of the organization by keeping close contact and to maintain excellent working atmosphere. The negative aspect of insourcing is the availability of necessary resources at competitive prices. Here time and availability becomes major factors. Whereas, Outsourcing happens when a company (Outsourcer) hires the services and infrastructure of another company (Outsourcee) that would otherwise be done by in-house staffs

Outsourcing offers many advantages to businesses. Cost savings and flexibility are the main two quoted advantages of outsourcing. Most of the outsourcees work from countries having infrastructures and human resources at low cost compared to other countries. So this would definitely bring huge savings on project cost or cost related to the services. Flexibility as said before is another advantage of outsourcing. The outsourcer company can use their resources on a better way and more time could be allocated for strategizing, planning and marketing. It also helps to reduce overheads of outsourcer Company. Here the outsourcer Company will only be paying outsourcee Company for what they have actually produced. As outsourcing
can be advantageous most of the times, there are also few disadvantages of outsourcing which includes lack of direct managerial control, unfavorable contract lengths etc. But this could be managed if the outsourcee company has more focused project management teams who could deliver expected results on time. Most of the outsourcing companies are offering quality workforce to meet the precise demands of their clients and to develop a rapport in the industry.

Outsourcing during recession – Is it beneficial?

Recession is often said to be a period of an economy where there has been a negative growth in the Gross Domestic Product for more than two quarters. During this stage people and companies usually takes steps to reduce the outflow of money. Here the success factor depends on how to create more margins from low investments and spending.

There have been many researches and surveys conducted related to the spending of companies on products and services during recession. Most of the surveys and researches concluded that enhancing efficiency and improve productivity by spending less is the key. These studies prove that opting to outsource and improve the product and service margins would create more liquidity and feasibility in the company.

Most of the companies in countries like India have taken steps to provide quality services at low cost and bring more flexibility to Outsourcer Companies. Most of the Outsourcee companies have project management softwares and teams to analyze the cost of a project.

Thus, it is always sensible for businesses to outsource its services and beat the recession slumps.