INTERNATIONAL// Francois Hollande of the French Socialist Party became the 24th French President in closely contested elections on May 6, 2012, taking charge of a debt-ridden nation. A champion of ‘government stimulus programmes’, Hollande belongs to the breed of leaders who believe that it is the state’s duty to protect the downtrodden. Therefore, his victory is being seen as a blow to the austerity drive sweeping across Europe currently. Hollande takes over the running of the country in difficult times, as France lies knee-deep in debts. The nation is also divided over how to integrate immigrants, while at the same time preserving its national identity. The President-elect, whose image has been that of a ‘vehicle of change’ across Europe will be watched closely as he makes his first moves. Hollande’s win left Left parties jubilant. This is the first time since Socialist Francois Mitterrand (1981-1995) that a Leftleaning politician has been at the helm of power in France. “There are people who, thanks to us, are now hoping. They are looking to us and want us to finish the austerity drive,” Hollande told an exuberant crowd of supporters at his first official speech at Paris’ Place de la Bastille. “You are a movement rising everywhere in Europe, perhaps even across the world,” he added. In a close contest, Hollande defeated Nicolas Sarkozy, the hard-driving President, who was seen as an America-friendly leader, and one who led the country in its worst economic crisis since the Second World War. However, according to the French media, it was Sarkozy’s policies, and equally his personality, that led to his defeat. France witnessed a strong voter turnout of 81 per cent. When 95 per cent of the votes were counted, results showed Hollande to be at a lead with 51.6 per cent of votes compared to the 48.4 per cent of Sarkozy. A victim of voter rage, Sarkozy had introduced spending cuts in expenditure in Europe which ousted government and leaders in the past couple of years. Upon winning Hollande’s party reached the iconic plaza of the French Revolution, waving flags and climbing the base of the central column. In his victory speech he said, “Too many divisions, too many wounds, too many breakdowns and divides have separated our fellow citizens. It is all over now.” He also added that, “The foremost duty of the President of the Republic is to unite... and face challenges that await us.” Hollande said that his first act after the election will be to write letters to European leaders seeking renegotiation of a budgettrimming treaty, to bring the continent’s economies together. Since Sarkozy and Germany’s Angela Merkel led the cost-cutting treaty, critics are now worried over the potential conflict within the Franco-German couple.

ENTERTAINMENT // SRK got himself a five-year ban from Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium after a scuffle with a guard. According to SRK, the guard manhandled a group of children who accompanied him, including his daughter. Since it is a non-cognisable offence, the actor was not arrested.

ACCIDENT // Thirteen Indians were among the 15 passengers who were killed in a plane crash in northern Nepal in May. The plane which was carrying 21 passengers crashed after it hit a hill-top while attempting to land at a high altitudinal airport. Only six passengers survived. The list of survivors included three Indians, two Danish nationals and a Nepalese airhostess. The aircraft, Domier 9N AIG, belonged to a private carrier, Agni Air. The accident came as a recap of an earlier crash which took place eight months ago near the same spot. Ten people were killed in the crash. According to the Rescue Co-ordination Committee of Tribhuvan International Airport, the plane flew from the resort town of Pokhara and was on its way to Jomsom. It crashed at 9:30 am local time while landing on top of a mountain airstrip. The possibility of a technical fault has not been ruled out. Among the deceased was an Indian child actor, Taruni Sachdev, who had played a small but significant role in the Vidya Balan and Amitabh Bachchan starrer Paa.

SPORTS // Team Williams’ Venezuelan driver Pastor Maldonado registered his victory at the Spanish Grand Prix, outsmarting stars like Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen on May 13, 2012, in Barcelona. Maldonado finished his final of the 66 laps at the Catalunya Circuit 3.19 seconds ahead of Alonso, giving Formula One its fifth winner of the season so far. There were more reasons to cheer. The 27-year-old driver became the first Venezuelan to win a GP and gave Williams its first victory in eight years. The victory also coincided with team Principal, Sir Frank Williams’, 70th birthday. On a sombre note, a fire broke out in the team’s garage injuring more than 30 people and damaging equipment. The incident that happened 90 minutes after the finish, also raised concerns about the competence of F1’s fire crews. According to news reports, the firemen looked helpless in the face of the disaster.

NOMINATION // Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, industrialist Anu Aga and Bollywood actor Rekha became the latest Members of the Rajya Sabha, as the Centre announced their names in the new list of entrants for 2012. President Pratibha Patil approved the names under Article 80 of the Indian Constitution which allows the President to nominate 12 Members to the 250-Member Upper House. The decision to nominate cricketer Sachin Tendulkar was received with mixed responses. Actors Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan lauded the honour, while Opposition leader Ravi Shankar Prasad pointed out that the Parliament was ‘serious business’ and that Tendulkar would be expected to attend his sessions regularly. “I know with this nomination, there will be even more responsibilities for me,” said Tendulkar. However, the cricket legend failed to take his oath as a Parliamentarian even two weeks after his name was announced, as did Rekha, leading to an argument on whether celebrities should participate in politics. Industrialist-cum-social worker Anu Aga, also a member of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council, took her oath within two weeks of the nomination announcement.

VIVEK WADHWA: My father was in the Indian Foreign Services and as a result of that even though I was born in New Delhi, I never really lived in India. As a family we stayed in Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia (in fact, I am an Australian citizen) and the US. When I was really young my father was posted in New York. Even though the stint was not a very long one, it was long enough to deeply impress me. Growing up, I often dreamt of going back and the first opportunity I got, I jumped on a plane to head off to New York for a Master's in Business Administration. I was doing pretty well in Australia. But there was always a sense of alienation and a feeling of being able to do only that much in the country. Despite being a citizen I felt like a foreigner. And I faced some xenophobic incidents. Having said that, I do not believe that there is such a land which is super-sanitised or super-sensitised minus any form of discrimination. India is divided along the lines of region, religion and caste. The north does not trust the south, the south believes it is cleverer and then there is that entire religious divide which is ridiculous. Parts of USA does not trust its immigrants. One should not make the mistake of judging an entire population of a country by stray incidents alone. Having said that, at an official level, Australia was yet to learn what to do with its immigrants policy-wise. And given my ambitions and aspirations, I felt that the US was a better fit and it felt more like home. It was a limitless land of opportunities. Honestly, India was never an option. Until quite recently, India was not a place where unbridled ambition could be realised. It is only recently that the country has witnessed major growth. Today it is a great time to be in India. Unfortunately, even if I would have grown up there, I would have joined the hundreds of youth who made a beeline for the US. I came to NYU to do my MBA and stayed on after I received an offer from Xerox Corporation. It was the company that helped me apply for a Green Card. I was married soon after. Post-marriage, the two of us decided to try living in Australia–to see if I felt differently about the country. I did not. The second stint made it even clearer that I really wanted to be in the US, so we shifted. I was in the IT field and wished to rise within the corporate world. But fate had other plans. I was in First Boston and for them I had developed a technology to automate the way slants of the computer system were developed. It was such a successful project that IBM—a technology firm—came to First Boston—an investment bank—to commercialise the technology and fund a company. Strange to have a tech firm offer capital to a bank to develop technology, but it happened. And I became an accidental entrepreneur. That was in 1990 and the software firm called Seer Technologies was tremendously successful. We grew to become a $120-million company in five years and soon took it public. Seer Technologies broke all industry records. My second company was called Relativity Technologies which was also super successful till the Dot Com bubble burst which impacted us in a big way. The company got into trouble and I turned it around and then I suffered a massive heart attack at the age of 45 years. I woke up in the hospital fighting for my life while one of my venture capitalists was trying to steal the company from me. It was the only healthy company in their portfolio and obviously an Indian already dying would not fight back, they thought. Indians were not aggressive enough and preferred not to sue people. The venture capitalist wanted his brother to be the CEO of the company. I survived, got out of the hospital and took them on. They were stunned that I was fighting back because no one dares to go against powerful venture capitalists. I won the lawsuit in a big way. By then I was sick of the IT industry, the greed and the ruthlessness of the world. So, I decided to exit that world and become an academic. Believe it or not, before I joined Duke University I did a small stint as a Bollywood producer. My youngest child, an America-born raised outside India, might I point out, suddenly developed a burning passion for Bollywood. When he expressed his desire to become a film star I decided to help him out. Within a short while my son became completely disenchanted with Bollywood and returned to the tech world, to which, I can safely say he belongs. I too exited from the crooked Hollywood-Bollywood worlds. Sitting on a hospital bed after a near-death experience, seeing my former friends try to steal my company, the negativity of Bollywood, all these experiences have added a lot to my character—I guess they have made me fearless. After my attack I did a lot of soul searching: if I am given a second chance would I do things differently? I realised that I would. I would do more for others. So, the attack was the turning point of sorts—while during my stint as a company builder, the goal was just wealth and money, it became much more in the later years. It was all about giving back and it has been a more rewarding experience. It is good to see Indians become so successful as a community in the Silicon Valley. I guess the success is owing to the fact that the community learnt to put their differences behind when they came to this country. In the US, there are no Bengalis, Gujaratis, Hindus or Muslims. They are just Indians. As I have pointed out in my columns in the start-up world, success is about networks and mentors. This is why most Indians are successful in the Silicon Valley— they have established their mentoring networks and actively helped each other. Despite constituting only six per cent of Silicon Valley’s working population in 2000, this group founded 15.5 percent of the Valley’s startups between 1995 and 2005. The first generation of successful founders took it upon themselves to mentor the next generation. I have often called the US and especially the Silicon Valley as the largest meritocracy in the world. As I have been more and more integrated into its world, I have also come to realise its shortcomings. There are very few Blacks, Hispanics and women who are represented in the group. There is still a massive bias against these communities and gender roles are still strictly endorsed. Therefore, my current endeavour is to put the spotlight on this discrepancy— between the projected image of the Valley and the reality of it. It is never easy to do this job—I also receive threats when I try to suggest that not everything is as rosy as one would think in the land of opportunities, however, as I have said before, my life has toughened me up to a great deal. Since I have become an academic, I have also been a vocal critic of US policies, especially those relating to immigration of skilled workers. Unless it corrects its flawed immigration policies and lets skilled workers be a part of the technology industry the reverse brain drain will continue. I strongly believe that. Having said that compared to several parts of the world, America is a fair country. Admittedly, in any other part of the world I would have been deported for my strong views. Instead, the US government awarded me an official recognition (Outstanding American by Choice) in appreciation of my efforts to make the country more competitive. The country continues to amaze me—because it knows how to award the voices of dissent as long as they are for the better of the society. And that is why I believe some countries lead the world and its economies, because it believes in dialogue, disagreement, debate, challenging norms and thinking outside the box. These are qualities that all developing nations (including India) should learn. And it should look within itself to find solutions to local problems. Each problem is unique. In America society’s heroes are not just political figures, but opinionated, non-conformist entrepreneurs. And that is because the Americans respect independent thinking. If from the childhood, a child is encouraged to pursue her dreams, challenge authority, she learns to work in tandem and to compete. The American Dream is of working hard, thinking smart, perseverance till one achieves success. And when the success is well earned it is also celebrated. America should recognise its unique strength—that it welcomes foreigners. Through American history: wave after wave of immigrants has landed on American shores, embodied its values, and helped its citizens think smarter. And thinking smart and green are the ingredients for long-term success for any country.

Not just his surgeon’s scalpel, his business brain and ‘undoctor-like’ attachment to his patients ensures that Dr Naresh Trehan stands out.

PRESENT: Gianormous is not a word. However, there are times when one needs to resort to not words to describe something as big as Medanta–The Medicity. Walk in through its doors and straight up is the OPD (out-patient department) sign flanked by two, tall marble screens. Carved on them are ivory-white trees; exquisite in their details. These are the wishing (mannat) trees at Medanta. This is where patients and families—who knows, an occasional doctor or two—make their wishes by tying ruby-red threads to its branches. At their base are two stone bowls. One simply reads mannat (wish) while the other states a vital truth; each life is precious. It is a hospital after all, and there are wishes galore. The lower branches, crimson due to the threads, stand testament to that fact. On the left of the entrance are the reception areas, on the right are the refreshment corners. Yes, everything exists in plural in this place. Built over 43 acres with 45 operation theatres, 350 critical care units managed by 20 specialists and 1,250 beds, Medanta is a massive operation. The nerve centre of this bustling medical hub is in its first floor which mainly consists of a long corridor—sterilised and hushed—which leads to a small sitting area with steel chairs, almost never empty unless the main man is missing. The man in question is the founder, chairman and managing director of Medanta; Dr Naresh Trehan. Dr Trehan needs little introduction in India. He is a medical administrator who has served as a personal surgeon to the President of India since 1991. He has been granted the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan. But to his patients and to their families, he is more than a celebrated doctor—he is the doctor. Trehan is respected because he judiciously avoids the lessons of “non-involvement” that most of his ilk learn early in their careers. “Unless you are emotionally involved you can’t do your best,” he lets you know. In fact, in one of his older interviews he had compared his involvement with his patients to the Chipko Movement. “I told the doctors at Medanta: chipko (stick on) to your patient and do not let him slip out of your hands. Hang on to his life, like you would hang on to your own.” It is this dogged devotion that makes him a hero in his patients’ lives. On the day DW was to meet Dr Trehan, there was a man—a father—also waiting for his turn, along with other families. People usually wait patiently for Trehan and when he does enter a room everyone sits up. The doctor has that effect. On that day as he entered Trehan’s chamber, the father took the seat closest to the black desk and awaited his turn as Trehan navigated interview questions (“Why don’t you copy-paste what I have said in my previous interviews? What, you never do that?”). When his turn came, the father passed on his file and lay a shaking hand on the table. It was the doctor’s turn to quiz, “Is he still feeling the spasms?” (Yes.) “What does he play?” (Soccer.) After a moment’s pause, he looked up beaming and said, “Please ask him to play as much as he wants. He is just feeling post-surgery muscle spasms. They would pass, anyway a 14-year-old shouldn’t worry too much.” The case is closed. The father rises and finally, he is genuinely smiling. Watching the interaction one wonders, who does he treat more? The patients or their families? Well, both. In a country where words such as “pull” or “connection” are used to extract the best medical facilities, it is often a family that needs more care after a loved one’s ailment. It is no wonder then that Trehan and Medanta are so well respected—the doctor makes mandatory rounds of all wards, everyday. The hospital with its advanced technologies and techniques draws all sorts of people to far-off Gurgaon and the patient demography proves that—Africans, South-east Asians, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis, every nationality is present there. There are the better-off waiting for their turn, with people you do not normally see in ‘posh’ receptions of five-star hospitals—and it is a fivestar hospital as far as facilities are concerned; Medanta ranks the best in Asia in liver and kidney transplant surgeries. It is one of the few that conducts minimally-invasive, robotically-controlled cardiac surgery and beating heart surgery. Trehan’s patients consider him to be a Scalpel King. Not without reason. He loves conducting surgeries. “If I spend four hours in a surgery I am not tired. I can go on for 24 more hours and still be happy.” Currently, Trehan performs approximately 12 operations a day, meets patients, families, media, his Board and investors. And he is frequently spotted at Page 3 dos. How does he manage all that? “By not thinking about a schedule and jumping right in. Plan, but do not waste time thinking whether you can do it, just do it.” He could be the Nike man or he is simply well-trained. “For seven years Dr Frank Spencer (his mentor) trained us like commandos in his medical boot camp. We slept for four hours. I was barely at home.” On the flip-side, he missed his daughters’ childhood. And Shyel and Shonan (“I don’t know what the names mean, ask Madhu, won’t you?”) grew up with an “absentee father”. Trehan makes sure that he does not repeat the same mistake with his granddaughter now. Talking of his legendary time management skills, Dr Savita Dhillon, director of the Medanta Duke Research Institute, admits, “He is so focused. I believe it has something to do with a tremendous sense of discipline. Interestingly, he manages to make it all look so easy.”

PAST: Trehan’s journey began in a three-roomed apartment at Connaught Place which he shared with an elder sister, Neena, (incidentally not a doctor), a Sindhi gynaecologist mother and a Punjabi father, an ENT specialist. Parents had travelled to New Delhi from Lahore (Faisalabad) post-partition. After the Centre granted the Senior Trehan a flat at Connaught Place, the couple converted two rooms into chambers, while the family happily lived in the third one. “The house was always filled to the brim with patients. Watching my parents interact, I was slowly being indoctrinated. In Class X, I took up biology as a ‘special subject’. That was the first time I made a conscious career statement and proved that my parents’ work had left an imprint. I knew that the sense of gratification was immense in this profession. Much like the Stockholm Syndrome, I grew up to love my captor. But it was not an overnight decision.” In fact, while still in school (Modern School, Barakhamba Road) there was a time when Trehan wished to be a pilot. He went on to study at Hindu where at a party he met his future wife, Madhu Trehan, hailing from one of the most influential media families of India. Fate intervened and Trehan was soon off to King George’s Medical College, Lucknow. After completing his internship at Safdarjung Hospital, he obtained a scholarship from American Board of Surgery and American Board of Cardiothoracic Surgery. Finally, he went on to practice at the New York University Medical Centre from 1979 to 1988. “There was something positive about heart surgeries—those nearly dying and breathless would come out smiling after surgery within some days. Next to that I found neuro-surgery depressing.” Though he switched soon after, there was a catch—Trehan decided to train under the legendary Dr Frank Spencer and none else. “I was a ‘rock star’ complete with a handlebar moustache and sideburns. Dr Spencer must have been shocked to see me,” says Trehan with a laugh. It was Dr Spencer who taught him his greatest lesson. (Along with The Godfather—yes, the film). “On a given day your patients and families will treat you like god. As long as you do not believe it, it is okay. If you do, that’s the beginning of the end,” Dr Spencer would inform his students. By 1976, Trehan had performed his first surgery on a 55-year-old man, a father of three. The operation took four hours and he was exhausted yet elated by the end of it. “Dr Spencer pushed me to grow and create new highs. Even today, I strive to do better. It is such people who question everything, every time, and try to grow, who are able to grow positively.” By mid-1980s Trehan was earning over $1.5 million a year as a Manhattan heart surgeon. Then, he dropped jaws by deciding to move back. “Indian patients kept on reminding me that I was needed more here than there. Not everyone could afford to travel to the US to get themselves operated.” Upon his return, he had two options—to be on his own or practice with an established institution. He did what he was meant to do; finance his vision of a private heart institute and research centre thus forming Escorts Heart Institute and Research Centre (1988). Under his guidance, within decades, Escorts grew to be one of the largest heart institutes in Asia with 325 beds, nine operating theatres and satellite operating rooms in five cities. By then Trehan was the most prominent heart surgeon in the country. He had operated on political figures, businessmen and celebrities. He was a celebrity himself with a Padma Shri, a Padma Bhushan, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award and Dr BC Roy National Award in his kitty. Dr Trehan was also the president of the International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery. It was around that time that he thought of the concept of Medanta–The Medicity. But a doctor proposes and management disposes. A string of controversies and a management change later, Trehan packed up and left Escorts, working with Apollo for a while. That idea of an integrative health care system and a facility that would usher in a new era of alternative and cutting-edge medicine in India continued to niggle. So he did what he does best—jump right in. He approached Siemens, and numerous proddings later the `1,200-crore project, with Trehan as its chairman, began. Trehan personally oversaw the building of this “integrated health care facility” fashioned after Mayo Medical School and Johns Hopkins Hospital. Its aim; to educate doctors and teach them that they do not need to run to the west to start meaningful research. And he did all that and turned his venture into a commercial success—a fact that he doesn’t shrug off. In fact, he brushes aside allegations that suggest doctors do not make good entrepreneurs. “We are better-equipped to guide and manage hospitals since we are less driven by the thought of profit and more by gratification derived from treating patients. As I have said before, medicine is a business with a soul. We need to think of what we are doing and what we want to do. We do not want any business person coming to us and telling us how to do our surgery and earn money,” he asserts. In his characteristic bluntness he points out that he is a “social capitalist”. Just as he does not mind accepting that he is an occasional smoker and social drinker (two glasses of wine max, seven hours of sleep later and mandatory exercise session in the morning).

FUTURE: These are desolate times for Indian medical care. Private health sector’s dignity is waning and the common citizen’s perception of health care, especially private health care system, is that it is rotten to its core. “I was aware of all the notions. So I felt that the need of the hour was to create an organisation that has a transparent billing system and governance. With Medanta I wished to create such an environment,” he stresses. A member of a patient’s family vouches that Medanta does try to “stay clean”—at least more than others. “An injection that we paid for which was to be used during my husband’s operation was expensive. There was no way that I, or my husband who was unconscious at that time, could know if it was indeed used. It was not. And I was returned the money by the authorities. It is these little points that make patients trust Medanta. It is so easy to fool patients and families when they are at their vulnerable best. Medanta does not take the easy way out,” says she. Dr Trehan dismisses the idea that India’s health care sector’s prominence remains on a decline even after 60 years of Independence. “That time when the health sector was treated as a step-child is past,” says he. “I look after my patients, the administrative bit of the hospital and call myself an entrepreneur. I don’t see why someone can’t do all that,” again that amazing time management Guru. When he started Medanta, despite establishing top-notch cardiac care, Trehan missed a system where there was similar expertise in other specialties. “We needed a space where the unique Indian conditions could be treated. The Indian gene is very different and we should be able to find ways to cure our conditions.” Thus, Medanta’s emphasis is on Indian (Asian) gene, body, its well-being and medicinal traditions. It has the Medanta Duke Research Institute and the Integrative Medicine Department—both slated to play important roles in the future of the hospital. The “Indian theme” of Trehan’s dreams continues even in the design details of the buildings, in its signages and in the mannat trees. “Today I take pride in stating that there is no other institution in the world, including Mayo and Cleveland, which has such talent across the board. We collectively strive to deliver care which is better than any other institute in the world. One day we hope that a major chunk of global research will be conducted right here at Medanta. And that we would be able to treat problems that ail us and help others as well.” He has several similar hopes, wishes and dreams. One wonders, among those thousands of ruby-red threads, is there one that the good doctor has tied?

Articulate your Social Media Strategy for an Enterprise

The adoption of social media has been increasing in enterprises at a rapid pace across the world. As the social media ‘behaviour’ or the way it engages with the community, forms an impression about the brand of the enterprise in the minds of the prospective and existing customers, it’s imperative to have a well-articulated and detailed strategy in place. There are seven key decisions for drafting the social media strategy. If your enterprise has already embarked on the social media journey, it may be helpful to revisit some or all of these on a periodic basis to ensure an efficient Social Media presence.

1. OBJECTIVE: This is the first and most important step. The primary motivation to be on social media should be well defined. For instance, it may be for boosting sales, enhancing brand awareness, crowd sourcing ideas or raising funds in case of non-profits. There would be ‘spill overs’. For instance, the objective of improving brand image may result in increased sales. However, it’s important to prioritise and thus target efforts towards the focus area. Based on the level of success in achieving the primary objective, later on the enterprise can focus on other areas.

2. SELECTING SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS: Based on the dedicated bandwidth available to engage on social media, and the Social Media Platforms ( Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc) which ‘influence’ the target audience the most, the next key decision is to select a mix of social media sites which enterprise may like to engage on. The enterprise should never commit the mistake of being present on ‘all popular platforms’, just because it’s a fad. There may be a high possibility that the audience is not engaged appropriately, either because of lack of response from the enterprise or absence of TR stimulating content tailored to that particular platform. This will result in a negative brand perception.

3. CONTENT STRATEGY: Depending on the target audience, the next step is to decide the core messaging, identify the form in which to serve the content (video, picture or text), select the timing (when most of the audience is logged in to the social network) and set the frequency (periodicity of delivering the tweet, status update et al).

4. PLANNING THE ENABLING ORGANISATION: One of the critical choices at this point is to decide whether to outsource the execution of social media presence or do the same in-house. While there are pros and cons for both, it’s always beneficial to build capability in-house and dedicate executives having an in-depth understanding of the enterprise offering and the community members (fans on Facebook, followers on Twitter, etc). Community Manager (CM) is the key interface and voice of the enterprise on any social network. Besides CM, content creators or curators and design team also needs to be identified.

5.ESTABLISHING WAYS OF WORKING: The CM should be well connected to the various departments or functions like R&D, HR, and Marketing, etc. within the enterprise. This is required as there may be query or a grievance pertaining to a particular department of the company seeking in-depth information. The time to respond to a particular query internally (from the department to the CM), the time to respond to the community member externally and other SLAs (the extent to which information can be shared taking into account confidentiality, etc) should be agreed on between the CM and the department, functions. Also in case of conflicting views between the CM and the respective department on how to respond to a query or address a grievance, the escalation mechanism should be worked out in a detailed manner. This is important to give timely and adequate reply to the community member.

6. CRISIS MANAGEMENT: Crisis may strike in the form of a virus attack (posting repeated messages) or hacking of the community page or a particular community member trying to repeatedly tarnish the image of the enterprise by posting negative messages or a particular status update/tweet by the enterprise received in poor light by the community. A mechanism should be worked out for responding to all such crisis situations clearly nominating the respective personals/executives to be involved.

7. SOCIAL MEDIA ROI MEASUREMENT: The enterprise needs to decide on which metrics to monitor for measuring it is RoI linked to the objective and also to continuously improve its social media engagement. The metrics can be operational like number of views (YouTube), retweets, Followers ( Twitter), Likes ( Facebook) etc. Or business linked like increased sales, cost of handling a customer query etc. It can also be a mix of the two. Tools to track social media metrics across platforms can be leveraged by the enterprise for measuring RoI. For instance, Adobe SocialAnalytics and ‘Social Reports’ in Google Analytics aim to measure Social Media RoI and provide insights.

Great ideas and clever people aren’t the only arsenal your marketing plans need. Often, technology is the missing link

DOES YOUR CMO have a tech strategy? Nope, that’s not a typo. I am talking about a technology strategy, not a marketing strategy. And before you ask, for a marketer, technology isn’t limited—and definitely should not be mistaken to be limited—to social media. Technology for marketing is a different ball game, and has significant implications on how you run the function. For example, marketing technology can mould how valuable company information is being treated. A little-pondered over corporate secret is that most sales teams and recruiters have their most-current data on public platforms like LinkedIn. Not because—as is popularly whispered— they want to hide it from the prying eyes of their bosses; not even because they are planning to scoot from the company with the data. Most simply, they do it because many companies have not provided an in-house equivalent which is as easy and intuitive to use. I’ll bet even most of you have your most updated contacts database either on Facebook or LinkedIn as well. Customer contact information is just the tip of the iceberg, although that is mission-critical information. It goes without saying that customer knowledge is the biggest marketing weapon. If your marketing team has information on them in their personal social networking accounts, they have access to the customers’ wedding dates, birthdays, food preferences, annual income, credit card number and a whole lot more. That’s a lot of data, and makes predicting milestones, like pregnancy, for example, a breeze—as one retail chain did! They used that information well to promote their baby care business, where catching them as early as possible hugely impacts sales and of course, loyalty. The retail chain began by sending expecting parents coupons for things that would be relevant to be a new parent. To reduce the big brother effect of the exercise, they made sure they added offers on other household items too. Almost every company today is drowning in data—very valuable data, very BIG data. But unless you have the right analytics system in place, it’s not data, it’s just noise. Depending on how big the data trove is and the size of your business you could consider simple, free, cloudhosted tools, or go in for a high-powered solution like Unica. For example, as a marketer, one of the most frustrating things is to go for trade shows, collect a 1,000 cards, and then have sales tell you six months later that nothing has converted. In fact, half the prospects have not even been contacted. Now, depending on which team you’re on, it’s tempting to blame the quality of the event, or the quality of the sales approach. But actually the problem is a technical one. If you had a system in place which could triage the leads, automatically map them to existing prospects or clients, remove those locations where you have no dealer network, and then send an automated message to all of them, imagine how much faster and more efficiently things would move. Imagine, further, that this was linked to the customer contact system and you actually could see and control how often and how each prospect was contacted. This isn’t sales utopia—it is simple tool usage. Sadly, it’s the bit that somehow gets left out when IT buys its sales system. There are other obvious smart tech usages possible. Many of us have tablets now, and playing games, reading and doodling on them are absolutely wonderful. But does your firm have an app that allows customers to interact with you, and learn about your products? Often, when someone begins talking about IT solutions and smart apps, many marketers switch off. They dismiss these ideas as only viable or executable for big companies. But, that’s old-tech thinking. Today, thanks to the cloud, there are solutions priced as low as `1,000 a month. For example, you can host your contacts on constantcontact.com and run your newsletter from there. Surveys can be run on surveygizmo. com and there are many such options available. Deploying apps and IT solutions suited to your needs can strongly impact your company’s ability to deal with your customers. Brands not knowing us well enough is a situation we all face. I’m actually quite fond of certain brands I use; I’m even loyal to some of them so it hurts when they treat me badly. Given a choice, I don’t go back to the brands that have done that to me. Mostly though, the person giving me the brush-off has no idea of my past history with the brand. In the rare cases that they do, they are not incentivised to treat loyal/ profitable/happy customers any differently. (Here, I’m not talking about employees who don’t care enough about their company’s reputation to deliberately ignore customers, though that is also not that uncommon!) Every company hunts for that one sharp differentiator— the usual levers are supply chain, distributor network and product uniqueness. But what about knowing your customers better than anyone else? Wouldn’t that be the ultimate differentiator? And, what if you could use that knowledge to customise their user experience to make sure that different types of customers are treated in the manner they find most welcoming. Wouldn’t that be great for business? Banks like Citibank, ICICI and HDFC do this. Once your spends are consistently high, you’ll find an automatic upgrade to a higher status card. You’ll also find yourself being offered loans and vacations. Behind the ability to do this is a lot of technology which analyses customer information. Ever wondered why you get a call from the bank when you’ve suddenly spent a lot of money on your card? That’s a fraud prediction engine at work. Here, technology makes customers happy, brings in revenue and reduces losses for the firm. What’s the equivalent of that for your firm? I recently came across an interesting story on a medical product. A reputed pharma company wanted to re-engineer their product—which sold at around $20,000—to be able to price it at $4,000 for an emerging market like India. The R&D team (that was outsourced to India) analysed the bill of materials and realised that they could reduce the cost by around 40 per cent by dropping all the customer experience bits. That was the engineering viewpoint. But the marketing viewpoint was that the 40 per cent is what made people pay the balance 60 per cent! Do you know what component of your product is customer experience? So, what should a CMO do? How can s/he use technology to enhance customer experience, and derive insights from it? Here are my three rules. First, analyse the customer experience and put down all the ways in which technology can improve it. Second, study all your stakeholders, and understand how your relationship with each of them can be improved by technology. Finally, understand current business bottlenecks and see how technology can improve those.

From being a bride at 15 years to a mother at 16, to running a beauty empire, Shahnaz Husain, the czarina of Indian beauty business, has done it all...

I was born into a conservative family. But, I was fortunate to have a broad minded, Oxford-educated father in Chief Justice NU Beg, who put me through La Martiniere in Lucknow and an Irish convent (Queen Mary’s) in Allahabad. He instilled in me a love of poetry and English literature and imbued within me the right combination of traditional values and progressive ideas. In school my favourite subject was English Literature—I loved poetry and still do—and I loved the creative arts. I used to take part in poetry-writing and essay competitions. I remember that I won an award from the Governor of Allahabad. However, I had to comply with existing traditions and entered into an arranged marriage at the tender age of 15, becoming a mother by the time I was 16 years. From my childhood I learnt to love and respect the rich heritage of India. In fact, one of the traditions that I inherited was natural and herbal therapy. Faith in herbal healing was very much a part of my family tradition (my mother had a fair milkand- roses flawless complexion). She always followed traditional beauty treatments, mixing herbs and ingredients at home, to care for her own skin and hair, and ours. As a young girl, poised on the threshold of life, I always wanted to make a difference, but I did not know that I would be a successful entrepreneur someday. Of course, my life was on a very different course. Even though I was a mother at 16, life seemed perfect. But I was bored with the drudgery of endless routine. Then the mental upheaval began. I was always interested in beauty and in making others beautiful, so I decided on beauty as a career. I was determined to get the best training possible and decided to work my way to the prized institutions of the West, to learn cosmetic therapy and cosmetology. My husband was posted in Tehran at the time, as head of foreign trade with the State Trading Corporation of India. I was not a college graduate, but I loved to write, so I started writing articles for the Iran Tribune. Somehow, I was convinced that if I was highly-qualified in my field, I could have the world at my feet. So gradually, I worked my way to leading institutions like Helena Rubinstein, Christine Valmy, Swarzkopf, Lancome, and Lean of Copenhagen. While training in London, I came across instances of damage caused by chemical treatments. It changed the course of my life and career. I wanted to find a natural alternative that was safe and without risks. From my family I had inherited faith in natural healing and my study of Ayurveda convinced me that it could offer the ideal answers to modern cosmetic care. I came back to India and started my first herbal salon in the verandah of my home in New Delhi, in 1971, in a very small way. In order to implement my ideas of natural beauty care, with an emphasis on the good health of the skin and hair, I established customised beauty care, with a personalised style, based on individual needs and problems. I adopted the concept of “herbal care and cure”. It was a totally unique, pathbreaking concept. I rejected the existing salon treatments and devised my own. I also began to formulate my own products using plant ingredients and natural substances, based on the ayurvedic system. Today, the salon treatments and products have become breakthroughs in natural beauty care. We have become known, not only for our treatments for general beauty care, but also for our therapeutic products and salon treatments for problems like acne, hyper-pigmentation, scars, premature ageing, dandruff, hair damage and hair loss. Once I started my salon, I became totally involved in devising treatments and formulating products, based on ayurveda. It was a totally new field at that time and there was plenty to be done. I have also been interested in designing. I have made use of it in designing our line of accessories and gift items. I also design my own clothes. It was because of my mother that I followed natural beauty care from childhood. It is from her that I learnt to have faith in nature and natural beauty remedies. I remember that henna used to be applied on our hair. It used to be mixed with amla, yogurt and lots of eggs. We also applied ubtan, made with gram flour, ground almonds, dry and ground mint leaves, rose petals, turmeric, cream of milk or yogurt. We used cleansing grains and rose water, which I later incorporated in our products. In fact, I incorporated the henna and other treatments, like our body packs, scrubs and hair oils. Ayurveda is the oldest and most organised system of healing. It has a long history of safe usage. Ayurvedic texts contain the details of a staggering number of plant products, minerals and natural substances, along with their medicinal properties, their methods of collection and extraction, as well as specific combinations of complementary herbs. It includes treatments and prescriptions for skin and hair care, as well as specific skin and hair problems. Ayurvedic ingredients offer safety from the side-effects of synthetic and chemical ingredients. Importantly, ayurveda is a holistic system, which takes diet, exercise and lifestyle into consideration. In fact, ayurveda offers the ideal answers to the demands of beauty care. It is difficult to choose only one, because we use hundreds of ingredients. But some of the most versatile are sandalwood, neem and rose. Trifala, a combination of three herbs, has varied uses. It comprises of amla, haritaki (Terminalis chebula) and vibhitika (Terminalis belerica). Neem leaf infusions have been used to cure skin diseases and are still used to relieve itching, soothe rashes, create a germicidal environment and clear inflammatory conditions. Neem contains organic sulphur compounds, which have a healing action. The first Shahnaz Husain product was Shalife—a nourishing cream—which was used for massage in our salons. In fact, today it is our fastest-moving product used in salons worldwide. I am often asked how I got to where I am today—by following my heart or my head? I believe to be really successful, a combination of both is necessary. One must have an instinctive feel for the market and future trends. Strategy is also important. Our business strategies have been unique. Apart from our franchise system, we have never relied on commercial advertising. Instead, I relied on word-of-mouth believing that a satisfied client was the best advertisement. In fact, our products grew out of clinical usage, based on massive client feedback. As already mentioned, I opened my first herbal salon in my own home. I began to extend my salons on a unique franchise system. I started encouraging homemakers to start a beauty salon in their own homes. This way they could have a career and yet be close at hand to care for home and family. I trained them and gave them the Shahnaz Herbal franchise by which they could carry out my specialised treatments. It was the beginning of my franchise system and beauty training academy. The fast-paced extension of the Shahnaz Husain Salons and other ventures is due to our franchise system. Today, the Shahnaz Husain franchise has become a successful business model, with tremendous international goodwill and demand. We operate in more than 100 countries, with our franchise ventures and direct product distributors. From one herbal salon to a worldwide chain of ventures, it has been a phenomenal journey. Entering the international market was the biggest challenge. I participated in the Festival of India in London in 1980 and was given a counter in the Perfumery Section at Selfridges. In the face of fierce competition, to stand up alone and sell India’s ancient civilisation in a jar was not easy. To everyone’s surprise, the entire consignment sold out in three days, breaking the store’s existing cosmetic sales records. It resulted in a permanent counter at the London store. From there, we moved on to Harrods in London, Galeries Lafayette in Paris, the Seibu chain in Japan, La Rinascente in Milan and El Certe Inglis in Spain. The Shahnaz Husain Group has experienced the increasing demand for Indian ayurvedic products across the globe. We recently launched our product sales again at Selfridges, the famous London store, where our sales have transcended all expectations. It just indicates the global demand for ayurvedic beauty care. One of my greatest achievements is representing India at US. President Obama’s World Summit of Entrepreneurs in Washington DC in April 2010. It was not only a great honour, but also an international recognition for ayurvedic beauty care and my spirit of entrepreneurship. I was also invited by Harvard Business School and MIT at Boston, USA, to speak on how I established an international brand without commercial advertising, highlighting the strategies I adopted to establish my global network of franchise ventures. Recently I spoke to students at the University of Oxford on Women Entrepreneurs in India and the London School of Economics on India’s rising global influence. From one herbal salon to a global chain of franchise ventures, it has been a phenomenal journey. The brand’s future plans include concentrated international branding, strengthening and widening our global chain of franchise salons, beauty training institutes, shops and spas. Product innovation has helped our organisation to remain a dynamic one. In fact, beauty care in India is fashioned after the Shahnaz Husain products and innovations. So we will continue to launch new and revolutionary products. Our recently launched “platinum range” has stormed the international markets. In our mission to spread ayurveda, our international presence is gaining further momentum. Our forays into the international market in ayurvedic beauty care have been a phenomenal success story. We are expanding our footprints across the globe. Together my daughter and grandsons will take ayurveda and Brand India to more countries within a year. My family is an intrinsic part of my beautiful world and they are in my plan with a crusader’s zeal, the way I am. They have been groomed with meticulous care and together we will lead the entire cosmetic world into the next century, with ayurveda. A major thrust in growth during 2010 and coming years will be the increasing demand for spa and wellness treatments. Salons are including spa treatments or are being converted into “day spas” offering both salon and spa services. In the Shahnaz Signature Salons, we have found that apart from basic services, treatments like anti-ageing facials, rejuvenation, body massage, body polish, hair spa treatment, have steadily gained in popularity. We will be extending our ayurvedic spas, and also converting salons into day spas, where treatments will be geared towards revitalisation, rejuvenation and stress reduction, upholding the principles of holistic care. We have introduced a new repertoire of treatments, using traditional ingredients. I think every woman owes it to herself to look her best. Lack of time is a very poor excuse. A daily beauty routine actually takes only a few minutes. I always say, beauty is power—brain and spiritual power. In my book The Book of Absolute Beauty, I have written, “A beautiful woman is one who values herself physically, mentally, emotionally and even spiritually.” Yes, beauty is a total impact of all these aspects. Mind and body are inter-related and interlinked. The state of one reflects on the other. There is yet another dimension—the soul. How can beauty be complete without taking inner beauty into account? To be a complete person, you not only have to work on your external beauty, but also develop your inner beauty.

Looking Back

Beauty is not merely my career. It is the sole purpose of my existence. I cannot think of anything else I would have rather done. (As told to Rohini Banerjee)