There is a famous quote ‘Be prepared for the Worst and hope for the Best‘ however, most of the times we do not have the foresight to predict the worst which gives us less time to prepare for the future. An ideal example of this saying is the ‘Lehman Brothers Collapse’ in the year 2008 which caused a financial meltdown and adversely affected every possible sector. Jobs were wiped out and still the world economy is struggling to recover from the crash.
Though it is very difficult to look out for a job [irrespective of your work profile, experience, etc.] during the time of crisis, it is definitely not impossible. As a job seeker, you need be smart, proactive, well-connected with job consultants in India and act positively when a ‘good opportunity knocks your door’. One thing that has changed significantly since that period is the ‘positive’ impact of technology on every aspect of our lives, including job search 🙂
Network with a purpose
Irrespective of your experience, expertise; when it comes to job-hopping you can never follow a linear approach. Since organizations now have many touch-points where they publish the same openings e.g. job portals, business networking websites, etc. it becomes critical that you stay updated about the same. You need to build a formidable & reliable network, whether it is in the online or the offline space. Focus on ‘building a network, rather than network building’ so that you utilize your time on things that matter the most!
Choose the best staffing solutions
When you think about job search, you would always think about posting resumes on job sites and sending the resume to traditional recruitment or staffing companies in India. However, you have to identify which recruitment agency is genuine or reliable since there is a possibility that a lesser-known recruitment agency might try to extract money from the candidate with the promise of getting them a job. No matter how desperately you are searching for a job, you should always stay away from such recruitment agencies.
There are reliable staffing solutions in India like the ManpowerGroup that have been around for many years, have the required expertise in hiring, career development, executive search, etc. They also offer outplacement services for organizations [large, SME, startups] in case of any untoward incident in an organization that results in employees being laid-off. If an organization is looking to hire people for leadership roles, they can utilize their service & network to hire the best people for their organization.
Highlight your ‘primary’ & ‘secondary’ skills
There are many of us who would be working on the same domain for many years and eventually that ‘domain skill’ becomes your primary expertise. Unless you are a ‘domain expert’ and irreplaceable in your organization, it is always advisable to have some secondary skills so that it helps you when things are not going your way! A fresh graduate has an opportunity to choose his/her own career path and they even have the flexibility to try out various options at the start of the career.
There is always a debate on whether you should be a ‘generalist’ or ‘specialist’ & it all depends on whether that ‘skill’ is in demand or not. If you are in the technology sector, you need to keep yourself updated with the latest technologies so that you are no longer a part of the herd that has the same skill-set
Which according to you are some of the methods to stay relevant in the job market, please leave your suggestion in the comments section…
The value of digitally influenced spending in emerging markets will approach $4 trillion by 2022, amounting to about 50% of all retail spending in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. But the dynamics will vary widely between markets, requiring B2C companies to ‘de-average’ their offerings in order to succeed, according to a report by The Boston Consulting Group [BCG] that was presented at the World Economic Forum. The report is titled Digital Consumers, Emerging Markets, and the $4 Trillion Future.
Half of the population in emerging markets worldwide is now connected to the internet, the report says – a stunning increase from 2010, when fewer than a quarter of those in emerging markets were online. In addition, by 2022, nearly 900 million more emerging-market consumers will be online, versus just 80 million new internet users in developed markets. That means that more than 90% of all internet newcomers during the next four years will be from emerging markets.
Smartphone penetration doubled in emerging markets between 2013 and 2017, from 22% to 44%, and smartphones are the preferred way for people in these markets to access the internet. The report was led by BCG’s Center for Customer Insights [CCI] and is based on a survey of more than 15,000 urban internet users in Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Morocco, the Philippines, and South Africa.
Nimisha Jain, a BCG partner in New Delhi, who leads CCI in emerging markets, said
Emerging markets are on the brink of a major digital revolution. The share of digitally influenced retail in total retail spending will surge from 33% in 2017 to 47% by 2022. There are major differences across emerging markets, however – and in order to succeed in those markets, B2C companies will have to approach each one differently.
China is leading other emerging-market countries in internet usage, with 20% of its retail sales already coming from e-commerce. But e-commerce is advancing in other emerging economies, too. Overall, e-commerce in emerging markets will grow from about 15% of all retail sales in 2017 to 20% of all retail sales in 2022. The online portion of retail in China already exceeds that of the United Kingdom [16%], the United States [13%], and Germany and France [11% each].
A Shift in Consumer Behavior
Even more dramatic in emerging markets will be the growth of digital influence—the effect of information that consumers collect online, often by smartphone, on their online and offline purchases. By 2022, there will be $3.9 trillion in digitally influenced expenditures in emerging markets, BCG forecasts. That huge number represents both a challenge and an opportunity for B2C companies, the authors say.
How digital influences consumer behavior differs by country and by category. The report identifies three stages of digital evolution: digitally aware, digitally advancing, and—farthest along – digitally evolved. People in China [now in the digitally evolved category] are the most apt to turn to the internet for help in making a retail purchase; 39% percent of retail spending in China is digitally influenced. Brazil, India, and Indonesia [which are in the middle category, digitally advancing] have high levels of digital influence [35%, 14%, and 12%, respectively], but relatively low levels of online spending [between 3% and 5%]. Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, and the Philippines are in the first category, digitally aware. In these early-stage countries, a variety of factors, from modest-size middle classes to a relatively undeveloped fintech ecosystem, have constrained the growth of e-commerce.
When a country’s markets advance from one digital stage to the next, consumer behaviors change, too, the report shows. One such change is in the expectation of a better experience, whether that takes the form of something practical like a good recommendation engine or something fun like the ability to see oneself in a shirt or hat that one is considering buying.
Altogether, 81% of people in digitally evolved markets say that they look for a fun or enjoyable experience in deciding where to buy. In contrast, the shopping experience matters to only about one in four people in digitally aware markets, and to only one in ten people in digitally advancing markets.
Another difference relates to how people pay for their online purchases. In less advanced digital markets, cash on delivery is still common – used by 88% of Filipinos, 86% of Moroccans, 58% of Kenyans, and 54% of Nigerians. In more advanced digital markets, buyers almost always pay for online purchases digitally – whether through an online mobile wallet or a credit or debit card. For instance, 94% of Chinese use a digital method of payment, as do more than three-quarters of Brazilians. In addition, Chinese consumers make 70% of their online purchases through smartphones, a level of mobile commerce that sharply exceeds the level in developed countries. In 2016, Chinese mobile payments were nearly 50 times as great as those in the US.
Jeff Walters, a BCG partner and CCI’s leader in Greater China, said
One lesson of this study is that emerging market consumers aren’t uniform in their behaviors. Different markets have distinct requirements. This is something any online seller would learn if it tried to enter China without appreciating the need to create a fun experience or if it tried to do business in parts of Asia or Africa without understanding the workings of cash on delivery.
Developing Economies’ Use of Social Media
Social media is a big part of digital influence in emerging markets. In CCI’s survey, 95% of Filipinos and 74% and 73%, respectively, of Kenyans and Moroccans say they sometimes use social media to guide their retail purchases. At 37%, Indian consumers are the least apt of all emerging-market consumers to use social media to guide them in making a retail purchase; if they are looking for an online source of information, internet users in India are much more inclined to go to a shopping website.
Social media is also popular as a venue for direct e-commerce, whether through a brand’s social media account or in peer-to-peer transactions in which consumers buy and sell from one another with no intermediary. Peer-to-peer transactions over social media are especially popular in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand.
In all emerging markets, air travel is the category most subject to digital influence and the product or service most likely to be bought online, with mobile phones a close second, the survey shows. But countries can be outliers in certain product categories. For instance, Brazilian consumers are much likelier than Indian or Indonesian consumers to buy a small appliance online. And Indian consumers don’t book their holidays online at anything like the same frequency that Brazilian consumers do.
BCG’s report comes at a time when emerging markets are growing at three times the rate of developed markets and contributing much of the world’s growth. In the last two decades, according to the World Bank, emerging markets’ share of the world’s gross domestic product has risen from 11% to 28%, and their share of global household consumption expenditures has risen from 11% to 24%.
In what will no doubt be one of the most exciting developments to watch, home grown JetSetGo, that currently manages the largest fleet of private jets and helicopters in India announced its plans to bring the dream of flying cars and on demand urban air transport one step closer to reality starting nowhere else but right here in our own country.
Rather than piling dozens or hundreds of people into big jets that fly back and forth between crowded airports or spending countless hours stuck on city roads, the company announced plans to use its existing fleet to provide inter-city and intra-city air shuttle services in smaller jets and through vertical take-off and landing [VTOL] making full use of the third dimension to blast traffic jams into the past. With initial launch routes starting from September 17 between Mumbai and Bangalore along with helicopter shuttles within Mumbai connecting to surrounding industrial clusters like Tarapur and Vapi, the company wants to use learnings from these routes to further expand offerings across the country thereafter.
This comes close on the heels of Uber’s Elevate initiative and the 19+ companies that have drawn active investor interest globally from Larry Page’s Kitty Hawk to Airbus’s Vahana and Boeing’s bets on electric cargo and passenger aircraft to develop the new age flying machines of tomorrow which now increasingly appear closer to reality than people once believed.
Already enabling amongst the highest number of non-scheduled aircraft movements across the country, Kanika Tekriwal, CEO and Co-founder of JetSetGo believes solving the problem of technology that most companies are racing towards only solves one part of the problem. What is equal or arguably more important is having an enabling environment from a regulation standpoint, creating the right level of initial customer demand to bring these flying cars to market, understanding to bridge infrastructure gaps and complex operating dynamics till the world makes a full transition to the Jetsons world of flying cars are all equally important.
Even if available, it likely will be some time before people and regulation warm up to ‘flying’ their own cars versus driving as one is used to now. So early adopters to bring flying cars to market are likely to be fit for purpose ride sharing platforms most possibly through a more asset heavy and a more regulated model. The challenges here are far greater than those faced by existing ride sharing platforms where it was all about an aggregation play.
Since we have already solved parts of the problem by aggregating private jets and helicopters the closest proxy at the moment to flying cars and operating and managing them, it now is all about trying to expand our on demand air charters to a much broader market segment in a cost effective, seamless and a sustainable manner. Since the first generation of electric aircraft are likely to carry no more than 4~5 passengers, much like a private jet, a point-to-point air shuttle service as a premium offering at the right price points for superior value is the first step towards building that new age platform and market appetite to usher in electric flying cars into our country over the coming years.
Only time will tell a Jetsons future will come to fruition, but for this proudly desi-made multiple award winning startup that has risen against many odds now making the movers and shakers of India move from any Point A to Point B in the fastest possible manner, they are bringing it one step closer to reality. Consumers interested in zooming through the third dimension can book a ride at SkyShuttle
Traditionally released by the Central Statistical Office [CSO] of the Government of India, Quantta has used its extensive database on the Indian Economy to provide an advance signal to senior leaders in Government about the state of the economy.
Using data from several sectors, that drive growth, it predicted a First Quarter growth rate of 7.83% indicating that the Indian Economy is firing on all cylinders. The actual numbers released this evening by the Central Statistical Office showed a GVA growth of 8.00% very close to the prediction made by the collaborative effort between NITI Aayog and Quantta.
The Indian Economy has shrugged off the effects of macro-economic factors such as the implementation of GST on the road to growth to zoom ahead with GDP predicted to grow 7.85% in FY 18-19 by economists in Quantta & Niti-Aayog. The Services and Construction sectors have shown strong growth and growth in the energy demand indicates a robust commercial and industrial sector.
The Leading Economic Indicator Index being developed by Quantta Index in collaboration with NITI Aayog was put up on the website of Quantta here on the 29th of August 2018. Their analytically designed and empirically validated estimate of 7.83% Q1 GDP growth are a shade below the GVA of 8.00%. Congratulations to the entire team for being proven right.
It is a proud moment for Quantta to work with the highest echelons of Government to provide an advance warning system so that the Government can take proactive action to drive growth in the Indian Economy
The GDP growth comes on the back of several headwinds, including a hardening of oil prices. India imports approximately 220 million tons of crude oil each year pegged at approximately US $87.725 billion according to the Ministry of Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell. Also, in the past year the Indian Rupee has depreciated from ~ Rs. 64 to the US Dollar to over Rs. 71 to the US Dollar. Despite this, ‘we expect the Indian economy to do well in the first half of Financial Year 2018-19’.
The proprietary algorithm uses machine learning, that uses data from several sectors such as aviation, railways and cement to predict the state of the Indian economy. The algorithm was tested using ten-year historical data. The model showed over 80% confidence level in predicting the historical GDP figures.
Also, the model was able to accurately predict the directionality of the economy. The outcome would be the ability to provide early warning signals to the Government of India for course corrections if any. Quantta worked with a small team at NITI Aayog which provided help and support to develop the algorithm. Quantta is a full stack technology platform focused on the Indian Economy. They have built cutting edge tools to collate, aggregate, and organize behavioural insights into customer behaviour.
On the occasion of Hindi Diwas, Microsoft has shared details of how AI powered technologies are breaking down barriers across devices, operating systems and applications, helping improve productivity and the computing experience for India’s 422 million plus Hindi language users. These advances are in line with Microsoft’s commitment towards democratizing technology across products to enable more people to use the powerful benefits of computing in their native language.
Image Source – AI
A host of Microsoft’s digital tools across its Windows 10 and Office 365 products are leveraging Artificial Intelligence [AI] to transform the way a Hindi language user communicates with computers and works with the applications in typical productivity scenarios. Features such as Dictate and Presentation Translator for Office 365 and Cortana, Microsoft Narrator and Windows Ink for Windows 10 are providing Hindi language users with innovative ways for user-device interaction and access to intelligent technologies like never before.
To know more about how Microsoft is breaking the linguistic barriers by enhancing the experiences of communication for Hindi languages users in India and across the world, click here
The third edition of Drivers for Deploying Speech Analytics 2018, an annual survey commissioned by Uniphore Software Systems revealed that 60% of Indian companies deploy speech analytics for marketing initiative support and quick identification of customer intent, equally. This is in line with the finding of the previous year’s survey underlining the growing relevance of speech analytics in increasing sales and delivering superior customer experience. Root cause remediation of customer experience failures came a close second with 58%.
Image Source – Uniphore
In North America and South East Asia, the top driver for deploying speech analytics was quick identification of customer intent. This is in line with the global trend. At 46% identification of customer intent emerged as the primary driver, globally.
During the 2018 edition of the study, Opus Research interviewed 502 decision-makers across the regions and varying verticals like Banking, Financial Services, Insurance, Telecommunications, Business Process Outsourcing, Retail, Consumer Products, Transportation & Travel. The sample spanned North America, South-East Asia [India, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines] and Western European [UK, Germany] regions.
Speaking while unveiling the survey, Umesh Sachdev, Co-founder & CEO, Uniphore, said
The findings of the survey reaffirms what we are witnessing in the market place. Enterprises globally are looking at speech recognition technology to mine the big data that resides in their customer contact centers. Today, on an average about 52 million hours of data is recorded every day in these call center of which only 1% of the data is analyzed.
A speech recognition tool like Uniphore’s auMina which is powered by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, can help enterprises analyze the entire data quickly and in real time as well. This can help unleash critical data for delivering better business outcomes and empower organizations to provide superior customer experience.
Primary Drivers for Deploying Speech Analytics [India Only]
The survey revealed a clear shift from compliance which emerged as a clear driver in the 2017 edition to long-standing drivers with direct impact on customer experience and loyalty. The list of drivers that bracket the 40% value include core customer experience concerns [e.g. remediate root cause of CX failures and support escalation of service calls], as well as classic workforce management/optimization issues. This establishes a direct link to business objectives which also falls into this bracket, including to support marketing initiatives and increase sales and collections.
Issues under investigation closely parallel surveys conducted in 2016 and 2017, giving Opus Research the opportunity to observe year-to-year changes and draw conclusions about the implications for companies as they contemplate the potential of speech analytics solutions to support their customer care and general business objectives.
The complete report of Drivers for Deploying Speech Analytics 2018 is available here.
About Uniphore
Uniphore Software Systems is a leading provider of Speech Recognition solutions for enterprises and has worked with over 70 enterprise customers and served over 4 million end users. It has offices worldwide including in USA, Singapore and India with 150+ employees. Uniphore’s investors include John Chambers, IDG Ventures India, IIFL, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Ray Stata, YourNest Angel Fund and India Angel Network. Uniphore was founded in 2008 at IIT Madras.
Truecaller announced the significant success brands have seen on its Advertising Platform. Truecaller Ads, a uniquely designed platform, not just captures the attention of users without invasion or interruption, but also eliminates the appointment viewing condition for brand visibility. Its programmatic advertising strategy has generated a repeat customer rate of 70% among existing advertisers, helping companies reach their audiences.
Companies are increasingly showing an appetite for Truecaller’s unique programmatic ads and with the festive season around the corner, brands and verticals are looking at in-app advertising platforms to enhance brand visibility and drive scalability.
Talking about his experience, Amit Tiwari, Vice President Marketing, Havells India Ltd,said
This is the first time we used Truecaller as an outreach platform. It provided us with a large-scale India-wide reach of over 40 million unique users in a single day. We used it as a platform to connect with our potential customers and received genuine responses from quality audiences.
Commenting on his interaction with the platform, Sidharth Rao, CEO, Dentsu Webchutney, said
We have always recommended Truecaller to our advertisers and have consistently seen the platform over-deliver its commitments. With the help of Truecaller, our client’s messages have been delivered to their users through a brand roadblock with absolute simplicity. We have had a remarkable experience in marketing several product categories such as automobile, OEM and consumer tech to name a few through this platform. We believe Truecaller will play an integral part in our media buys for the upcoming festive season of 2018, with more of our clients looking to showcase their own unique stories.
With the growth of internet penetration in the country, mobile specific advertising will dominate the digital advertising space in the years to come. Truecaller reaches 100 million daily active users allowing brands to gain phenomenal traction for their campaigns on the platform.
Tejinder Gill, VP Sales & Head of India Operations at Truecaller, said
Our advertising platform has achieved some great feats since its inception, especially since the unique ad delivery system which enables a brand visibility after every call from an unknown number. With marketers and CMO’s shifting their strategies from mobile first to mobile only, advertising platforms such as ours are best placed to help achieve their objectives. Around the festive season when audiences have their eyes wider open than usual, we must work together with our partners to overcome our hurdles and achieve our objectives together. Needless to say, our advertisers have been overjoyed with the results.
More details about Truecaller Ads are available here.
How much money a person is ready to part with for rent is indicative of the lifestyle the person wants to maintain. The brand of the mobile phone a customer carries may reveal the amount of house rent they might be willing to pay. A recent study conducted by Housing and Makaan,indicates that customers using a phone that costs more than Rs 50,000 would be willing to pay 20% higher rent with an average budget of Rs 25,000 per month.
Data from the study suggest that on average, a user with a Phone Price Bucket [PPB] of less than Rs 10,000 would be ready to pay anywhere between Rs 10,000 to Rs 17,000 per month depending on the city with an average budget of Rs 14,000 per month. The study indicates that customers who own a phone between Rs 10,000 ~ 20,000 would likely be willing to spend an average of Rs 16,300 per month on a rental home. Customers who spend between Rs 20,000 to Rs 50,000 on their phone would be willing to pay 27% higher than the previous category and their average budget would likely be Rs 20,700 per month.
Rental cost trends in key cities
Mumbai has the maximum average rental at Rs 23,000 per month which is 30% higher than Chennai that offers home at an average rent of Rs 17,600 per month.
New Delhi’s average rent closely follows Chennai’s and is at Rs 17,300 per month followed by Hyderabad at Rs 16,400 per month.
Kolkata, where average rental rates stand at Rs 11,400 per month is the most inexpensive location when it comes to rent among the major metros. Pune at Rs 13,200 per month is the next pocket-friendly rental hotspot.
45~47% of property seekers in Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad use a phone that is in the range of Rs 10,000~20,000 to search for homes on rent. However, rental home seekers in New Delhi used a phone in the range of Rs 20,000~50,000 category.
About 49% of rental home seekers in Kolkata searched properties for rent with a phone that falls in the bracket of Rs 10,000~20,000. However, the next big bracket is of users who use a phone within Rs 10,000.
Commenting on these trends Ravi Bhushan, Group Chief Product and Technology Officer,Housing.com, PropTiger.com, Makaan.com said
High-end mobile phones are predictive of a person’s economic status. The choice of brand of phone and housing is indicative of the lifestyle one wants to maintain and a correlation between the two is intuitive. The study confirms that customers who spend higher on their gadgets will naturally do so for their homes as well but quantifies it for the first time.
Tracking the trends and demand
About 85% of the demand lies within Rs 20,000 per month category. Statistics also show that maximum phone users searching for rental homes own a phone priced between Rs 10,000 to 20,000. The next big category is that of consumers who own phones worth Rs 20,000~50,000 followed by those who own phones priced less than Rs 10,000.
The average national rental budget is Rs 14,000 per month and the majority of Indians are looking for affordable rental properties.
Following the trend, about 47% of prospective tenants in tier II cities were looking for properties priced between Rs 10,000-20,000 per month. Just like other major metros barring Kolkata, most users have phones in the range of Rs 10,000 to 20,000.
About 22% of property seekers, nationally, are looking for homes priced within Rs 10,000 per month. Among major cities, Kolkata has maximum seekers within this range at 26% followed by Chennai at 25%, Pune at 23% and Tier II cities at 22%.
In almost all the cities, affordable to mid-priced rental homes are majorly in demand, and less than 2% rental home seekers are likely to want homes priced above Rs 50,000 per month.
Within this category, Mumbai [2.44%], Hyderabad [2.42%] and Noida [2.19%] witness the most number of buyers in the premium category of rental homes. Data suggest that these property seekers are either iPhone users or Samsung Galaxy Premium users.
Common phones used for property searches include iPhone and Android phones such as Moto G4, Galaxy J Series, Acer Iconia, Lenovo Vibe, Honor, HTC Desire and other brands including Redmi, Oppo, and Vivo. The cities included in the study are Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Noida, Gurugram, Greater Noida, Pune.
