Media, Management, Marketing and Life in India

New Internet Stats

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Higgins) — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:41:00 +0000

From Marketing Charts and ComScore:

People accessing Facebook from a mobile phone:

Jan 09 - 11.8 million. Jan 10 - 25.1 million. 112% growth

People accessing Twitter from a mobile phone:

Jan 09 - 1.05 million. Jan 10 - 4.7 million. 347% growth

Percentage of phone users accessing social media from a mobile phone:

Jan 09 - 16.5%. Jan 10 - 11.1%.

Percentage of mobile social networking activity by age range:

13-to-17-year-olds - 7%
18-to-24-year-olds - 16%
25-to-34-year-olds - 34%
35-to-54-year-olds - 36%
ages 55 and up - 7%

This one is just looking at Americans:

American's viewed 32.4 billion online videos in January 2010. That's about an average of 105 videos for every person in the country!

Snapshot – Indian Home Video Market

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Higgins) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 09:49:00 +0000

Growth in number of DVD players in India :

2007 – 12 million
2009 – 40 million
expected to grow by another 12 million per year.

However, the value of DVD sales is falling:

2007/8 – 350 Crore
2008/9 – 320 Crore (estimated)

The industry estimates that 90% of home film viewing is of pirated material. Despite aggressive cost cutting in DVD prices, many companies have not seen demand increase.

It seems to me that the biggest problem to be countered in combating piracy is distribution. Firstly of films, and secondly of legitimate DVD.

In terms of films, a huge weakness in the Indian distribution network is the lengthy delays in prints moving from the larger cities to smaller cities. No one wants to wait weeks to watch the films that the media is raving about, so buying pirate DVDs seems like a ‘fair’ option to people living in smaller towns. The cost of making enough film prints to cover all cities is prohibitively high, so the only solution to this is the steady roll out of digital cinema.

In terms of DVDs, until the police work to remove the pirate DVD stalls from train stations and shopping areas, it is simply easier for most people to purchase pirated material rather than original DVDs. Now that companies like Moser Bayer are offering real DVDs at almost the price of pirated ones, if the availability of purchase locations was as convenient as it is for pirated material, then most consumers would prefer the higher quality of real discs.

When Moser Bayer began their discounted DVD strategy, their announced plans included selling the DVDs from stalls and roaming carts. I don’t know why they haven’t pushed ahead with this?

(Stats from Screen India, Oct 2nd 09)

Quick Numbers – Indian Cinema Attendance Statistics

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Higgins) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 02:38:00 +0000

Dodona Research in the UK specialises in studying the cinemagoing habit of various countries. Here’s a couple of titbits from their India 2009 report:

The often quoted stat that 4 billion cinema tickets are sold each year in India is likely very inflated – the accurate figure is probably around 1.5 billion.
At the end of 2002 there were 80 multiplex screens, now there are over 1250. This year there will be around 190 million admissions.
While multiplexes are booming, traditional single screens are rapidly closing. The time delay in moving prints from the multiplexes in cities to the single screen theatres in rural areas allows pirates to make copies available before the film releases – stealing much of the audience. Over 3000 screens have closed in the last 7 years. There are currently approximately 7,600 screens operating which will this year sell around 1.4 billion tickets.
Average ticket cost at a multiplex is Rs.88. (This sounds a bit low to me? i have visited multiplexes in smaller towns and they typically seem to charge Rs.70 – 100. In bigger cities the ticket price is easily Rs.120-250.)
In 2007, Multiplexes accounted for less than 30% of total box office takings. By 2012 this figure will be over 50%. However, 75% of tickets sold will be for single screen theatres.

The development of the Indian cinema industry is matching the pattern followed by other countries:

Cinema is changing from mass audience entertainment to focus on a smaller, middle-class demographic
Audience taste is gradually shifting to more sophisticated, international films

Motivating Top Managers in Changing Times

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Higgins) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 11:38:00 +0000

Of the many roles of a manager, ‘manager as coach’ is probably the one i have always found to be the most important and impactful for a company. I find that the most successful managers are actually the ones that are constantly developing their team members. Firstly this makes the team more productive/successful but as team members can take over more of the management duties, the manager in turn can complete even more high-level work.

This theory works perfectly well throughout most levels of an organisation. But what happens when you reach the top? A company’s senior management (CEO, CFO, CIO etc) are each specialists in their fields, and are, typically, successful managers who have worked their way up. Can a CEO ‘coach’ the executive team?

An article in McKinsey Quarterly explores the role of a CEO as an ‘emotional’ coach to the top management team.

When the economy or other aspects of the business environment change rapidly, senior managers can be thrown off guard. They have reached a level of seniority by delivering results through certain strategies and market assumptions. Suddenly those strategies no longer work. Often, the managers most affected are the ones who have been most successful in the past, as they may have never faced potential failure.

When a senior manager suddenly realises that their strategies are no longer working, at a time when their actions are most under scrutiny and the fate of the company may be at stake, the most automatic reaction is fear. Fear of losing their job, their reputation, and their identity as a senior manager.

“Spiking levels of fear can convert frank, flexible, open, and self-reflective leaders into defensive, close-minded, rigid, and literal ones. These leaders may take things personally, feel persecuted, cease productive self-reflection, and lose the ability to process new information and respond to difficult situations. Others in the organization will notice this, of course, and will let the executive know in subtle ways—reinforcing fear and defensiveness.” (1)

This is the point that a CEO needs to step in with a coaching mentality, not on a technical level, but an emotional one.

The first step is to create an environment where managers will be comfortable in recognising and hopefully verbalising their fears. Often this can be achieved by the CEO personally discussing their own fears, and by reaffirming trust in the manager. The work environment needs to stay positive and upbeat, with real transparency about employee job security and industry prospects.

Step two is to overcome denial. Because they don’t want things to change, managers can ignore or misinterpret the evidence of change. The CEO needs to find ways to force senior managers to look at things from a fresh perspective and abandon the old assumptions that are blocking their thinking.

Step three is to encourage managers to start learning. A new business environment has new risks, challenges and opportunities that all need to be mastered. Customer behaviour can radically change, forcing a rethink of marketing and promotional strategies and budgets.

(1) A CEO’s guide to reenergizing the senior team, Derek Dean, 2009

Why is Reading so Much Hard Work?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Higgins) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 01:45:00 +0000

Lev Grossman at the WSJ has written a fascinating piece on the state of modern novels.

The key question that this answers for me is:

Why are books such as Harry Potter or Twilight, which are read and loved by hundreds of millions of people of all ages, considered to be ‘young adult’, unliterary, too-easy? The fact that you are so engrossed in the pages that you can move through the entire novel within days, is somehow a bad thing.

Conversely, why are novels that are ‘critically acclaimed’ but read by almost no one, because no one can finish them and recommend them to friends, held up as real, literary stories?

The answer to this is - the Modernist writers.

Prior to the mid-1800s, stories reflected the life of those times. Quiet; lit by gas lamps and candles. Generally speaking, the fastest you could travel was the speed of a horse, and even they needed rest. Steam powered trains and ships were opening up an era of travel.

For the generation born in the late 1800s however, these stories held no relevance. Their world was noisy and dirty. Lit by electric lights and powered by internal combustion engines – they witnessed the birth of mass media, mass market advertising, psychoanalysis. War transformed from horse cavalry to tanks and bombers.

They created a new style of writing. They sought to capture the confusion, loneliness, and messiness of real life. Life wasn’t structured, leading to neat, happy endings. They threw ‘plot’ out the window. They layered their writing with symbolism, allegory and a requirement for the reader to analyse and interpret. Who is speaking a particular line of dialogue? Is it the protagonist, or his conscience, or an external narrator, or a new character? You decide.

This introduced the element of ‘difficulty’ that critics so prize today. Writing was no longer for the mass market – it was for those with the education, and interest to pore and struggle through these books seeking to unlock the real meaning within.

An easily-understood, exciting, and readable story has become supermarket fiction. Cheap. A little embarrassing. A somewhat guilty pleasure.

Grossman argues that now, after 100 years, things are finally changing. A whole new breed of writers are developing novels that are both intelligent and highly readable. These books don’t need deep analysis and deep patience. He suggests writers such as Michael Chabon, Jonathan Lethem, Donna Tartt, Kelly Link, Audrey Niffenegger, Richard Price, Kate Atkinson, Neil Gaiman, and Susanna Clarke.

I think I’ll look into this myself. I’ve finished the Twilights and Harry Potters.

Getting Things Done

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Higgins) — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 03:26:00 +0000

"Getting Things Done" or GTD to its (sometimes cultish) followers is a time/action management system put together by David Allen.

The core strategy behind GTD is to get all your tasks out of your head and onto paper/computer/pda/whatever. So rather than keeping multiple to-do lists scattered around plus trying to remember a bunch of stuff to do, you get everything written down in one place and you can focus your mind on actually completing tasks.

Next you avoid handling these tasks multiple times. When you, for example, get an email, if you can complete the request in under two minutes then you do it immediately, if not you put it on a to do list, or delegate it, or delete it. No more keeping hundreds of emails just sitting in your email box that you occasionally scan over and consider doing something about.

Michael S. Hyatt has written extensively about his experiences with this system, here are a series of his posts. If you find this stuff interesting or helpful then there are many more resources scattered about online.

How to Shave Ten Hours Off Your Work Week

My Current Workflow System

Overcoming Email Overload, Part 1

Overcoming Email Overload, Part 2

Overcoming Email Overload, Part 3

Breaking Email Addiction

How to Get a Faster Response to Your Email

Yes, You Can Stay on Top of Email

The Not To-Do List

Recovering the Lost Art of Note-Taking

Workload Triage

The Importance of the Weekly Review

The Quarterly Review

Slay Your Dragons Before Breakfast

Enjoy!!

Perspectives on the US Government Bail-Out of the Auto Industry

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Higgins) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 04:21:00 +0000

The US government is still struggling with the issue of what to do with the big car manufacturers (whose CEOs flew to Washington on separate private jets to ask for billions of dollars of government money to help their companies survive). Yesterday, Congress set a deadline of December 2nd for the car makers to present a plan to show how they would become financially viable.

Should the government be bailing out these companies?

Wall St Journal:

"Big companies. Big numbers. It is hard for any politician to say, “So what, let them go bankrupt.” But the sad reality is that to save Detroit, Washington will have to destroy Detroit. A merger of GM and Chrysler won’t do away with Detroit’s ever-expanding pension and health-care liabilities or its onerous UAW contracts. And it won’t fix the Big Three’s issues with poor product design or quality control. The Big Three needs a radical restructuring dictated by the bankruptcy process–or some variation on it–and not a government plan that tinkers with the status quo. So here is a proposal: Let each of the Big Three do what is in the interest of its shareholders and creditors. Let them try and merge with each other–if they can. Let them each file for bankruptcy-law protection–when or if necessary. When Chrysler goes bankrupt, let GM or Ford or a foreign rival pick up Chrysler’s assets on the cheap. If GM or Ford head into bankruptcy, let the government step in–but only on punitive terms.

Punitive terms? Reduce all management, worker and retiree pension and health-care benefits. Remove all union contracts. Replace senior management and the boards. Haircut the creditors and recapitalize the companies."

BusinessWeek:

"Washington would impose conditions and promise strict oversight, but it simply can't push through the kind of transformative change the industry needs. There would be too much political opposition, and regardless, the bailout sums being bandied about—$25 billion of taxpayer dollars, for starters—would only keep the Big Three heaving along, basically as they are. It's a life-support solution, not a cure.

That's why the boards of the automakers should take the courageous step of putting their companies into bankruptcy."

Harvard Business Publishing:

"The same people who want GM to live or die on its own will often use Darwinian concepts of "survival of the fittest." But evolution is about life or death, eat or be eaten.

If you see a dog about to be hit by a car, you don't say, "that dog deserves to be weeded out," or "What about the other dogs that are competing for kibble?"

No; you save the dog. Business isn't about evolution, it's about existing lives. If we can spare some suffering, why wouldn't we?"

New York Times:

"If G.M. or Chrysler were to go under, tens of thousands of people would be thrown out of work. Pensions would be in danger, potentially putting taxpayers on the hook for the bill. Auto suppliers would start defaulting on their debts. Dealers would close. But if General Motors and Chrysler were to merge, with some sort of government assistance, the story might end pretty much the same. The combined company would probably limp along, laying off thousands of people every few years. Then — bet on it — G.M.-Chrysler would come back and ask for another bailout. It has happened before: Chrysler was rescued by the government over two decades ago. Now here it is again, cup in hand.To make a combined General Motors-Chrysler work — let alone flourish — the company would need to do everything that is impolitic. It would have to virtually win big concessions from the U.A.W., cut salaries and benefits, and lay off a lot of people, fast. Oh: and it would also have to make cars that people actually want to buy. Washington cannot help there."

Indian Social Networks Survey Results

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Higgins) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 02:05:00 +0000

Business Today recently published a survey on Indian social media use. Some highlights:

India has an estimated 17 million people who use social networks like Orkut, Facebook, Linkedin etc. (Yes, this is almost the population of Australia, but considering India's billion residents there is obviously scope for significant growth in the future.)

Contrary to the belief that these sites are only used by younger people, 78% of working executives above the age of 35 use social networks, as so 70% of senior managers (VP and above).

Companies are starting to look towards these networks. During the IPL competition, the Mohali team successfully used Facebook to connect with fans.

Ad spends on social networks are between 4.4% and 9% (depending on whose numbers you believe) of total ad spends on digital media, which in itself is only about 1% of India's total ad spends.

Brilliant (and free) website tools

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Higgins) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 04:31:00 +0000

Great compilation of free website tools for anyone who is working on a website, whether personal or business.

I find that so often in India, websites suffer from one of the following:

- someone has let a designer loose on the site, resulting in a heavy flashy site with no consideration for search engine optimisation.

- No one has performed any sort of usability testing. Outside India, any company I have worked with, even small organizations, has done some sort of testing before putting a website online. This can just be sending a link to a small group of customers and asking for their feedback, or visiting them at their offices and asking them to use the site while you watch. Within India, the structure and design of a site are often a management decision, perhaps made by just one manager based on what they 'feel' is best.

- As companies have grown in the booming economy, their websites have sprawled. New pages and sections have been added without anyone stepping back to look at the overall site.

This set of tools can help you get an idea of your site, from the readers viewpoint. You can see how fast your site loads, simulate how the readers eys will move over your page, survey your site visitors and test out different page designs. And thats just for starters!

Enjoy the tools here at grokdotcom.

Professionalize your Twitter profile and crazy up your Facebook status.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Higgins) — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 09:58:00 +0000

If you are just using Twitter to chat with friends, then it doesn't really matter what you put on your profile. But, if you are using it for your company or to build your reputation, it can pay off to put a little bit of effort into changing the default avatar and spicing up your profile page.

Socialdesire has a video with tips on this here.

And just for fun, if you want ideas for unusual and funny ideas for facebook status updates, try
generatus.com. As the name suggests, it is an status generator. If you use it before everyone else discovers it, then people might think you are original and clever. Time is running out.

Microblogging: if you don't use it yet, you probably will soon!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Higgins) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:06:00 +0000

Microblogging is quickly becoming a popular way to disseminate information, be it news, gossip, sales announcements, product updates or corporate conversations.

How does it work? You use your computer or mobile phone to write a short message (140 characters), which is passed on to anyone who has elected to ‘follow’ your messages. Sort of like sending an sms to a group of people, who can then see other people responses. Similar also to facebook etc 'status updates'.

So who do you choose to ‘follow’?

It could be your group of friends, for planning social events. It could be your favourite shops, to hear about last minute sales. It could be news agencies like CNN, so that you always have the latest news updates. Or, it could be thought leaders in your industry so that you can learn about their latest opinions on events, strategies, software and tools.

The most popular software for microblogging is twitter (www.twitter.com) , and there are dozens of good websites that will help a completely new user get up and running quickly.

On several occasions, such as the Mexico City and Chinese earthquakes, news of the disasters was spreading via microblogging up to an hour before major news networks had reports up. People who were actually at the locations were sending warnings, descriptions of what was happening and letting their friends know that they were ok, using Twitter within minutes of the quakes striking. As their friends replied, the original messages were passed on to new groups of friends, and so word spreads.

The obvious warning in all this, is not to write anything that really shouldn’t be distributed or that you would be later embarrassed by, should a future employer choose to have a look at your online presence.

Microblogging is also becoming common in the workplace. Imagine being able to send an instant message to your colleagues: “we are looking at dealing with company XYZ, has anyone worked with them before?” or “our team just found a solution to problem ABC, contact us for info”. Many large technology companies are already using internal microblogging programs that allow employees to tap into each other’s knowledge on an ongoing basis.

Companies can also follow the microblogging world for customer service, by constantly searching for references to their companies name. A message from a ranting customer will be instantly noticed and the company can quickly respond. Dell Computers has multiple employees who monitor twitter posts and respond directly to problems. Dutch Railways uses twitter to announce delays in real time.

If you want to get started, or are already using twitter and want to look at add on programs, check out: here, here and here

Facebook Applications - What Works?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Higgins) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:04:00 +0000

Facebook is massive and still showing little sign of slowing down – 80 million users, the most popular photo sharing site on the internet, the 6^th most trafficked site online. Every week or so, some friend who has determinately and passionately held out against joining, joins. Either they creep in and silently make a profile and try to casually add each of their friends, as if they were always on Facebook, but for some reason didn’t have you on their list. Or, they make a big fuss about joining, like those people who talk loudly and laugh as they walk into a bar.

As with any other successful online application, Facebook draws lots of people who want to make money. You think people design those millions of applications that you are asked to add to your profile just for fun? Sure, some people do, but overall the industry is still trying to figure out what works, what doesn’t and how to make moolah.

Initially, there was lots of fuss about the power of Facebook to target your marketing to precise demographics. But as it turns out, overtargeted ads are just creepy. Living in India, when I see on-page ads that say “Looking for fun now – in Bombay” with a picture of a white model standing on a beach?? Or when the ad throws back your exact age at you? Yuck. Thankfully they don’t work very well. According to Steve O’Hear at ZDNet, “click through rates have been on the extremely low side — 0.04% based on 1.4 million impressions”.

Successful applications can be so simple. Charging Facebook users $1 to send a little picture of a gift to someone? Not even a real gift, just a picture of one. Even if 0.01% of Facebook’s users did this just once each week, you still make $416,000 each year.

No one wants content.

You don’t go to Facebook to look for information. You go to connect with people – thats it. Successful applications are based around this. Funwall, Graffiti, Sell your Friends etc. The next step is how to earn money out of these. As an example – Favourite Books allows you to share your favourite titles with your friends, along with convenient links to Amazon. Users can easily buy books that their friends recommend, Amazon sells books and pays a commission to the application developers. Everyone is happy.

So there’s the key rule for Facebook applications – they have to facilitate communication. The ones that don’t, quickly fade away. If you can develop an idea that is so interesting or fun that people will pay to use it, then all the better.

Writing Tips - Chicago Manual of Style

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Higgins) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:44:00 +0000

The Chicago Manual of Style Online (CMOS) is a great resource for when you have to write documents in formal English and need help with all those niggling punctuation and grammar issues. Unfortunately it is not free, and so not much use to people who only have to write these sorts of things occasionally.

What is free, however, is their Q&A page. Amazingly they also manage to make the answers interesting and occasionally witty and even sarcastic. You can sign up to a monthly email newsletter of that month’s questions.

Here’s an example:

Q. I’m editing a textbook that references a play. Should it be “Act 3,” “act three,” or “act 3”? A solution to this mystery would be greatly appreciated. I’ve looked at CMOS a hundred times for help with this issue.

A. Wow—a hundred times? If you can suggest how we can make section 8.194 more clear, we’ll try to do better in the next edition: “Words denoting parts of long poems or acts and scenes of plays are usually lowercased, neither italicized nor enclosed in quotation marks . . . act 3, scene 2.”

Public Speaking – Will History Remember You?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Higgins) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 02:39:00 +0000

Endless management resources tell us that public speaking is an essential skill for management, whether to inspire a team, convince investors, or assuage the public when something goes wrong.

For those who are not naturally gifted in this area, all it takes is practice. There are endless courses run by every type of trainer (presentation, voice, sales) and management coach. While working at Whistling Woods, I was approached several times about hosting “Acting Skills for CEOs”, courses that cover subjects such as controlling space, projecting your voice, and interacting with the audience.

For those who wish to practice at home, a great way to start is by studying famous speeches. These pieces of oratory are in the history books, not just because of the historical context, but also because of the language, the phrasing, the imagery and the diction.

Here is a list of The 35 Greatest Speeches in History, courtesy of The Art of Manliness. Open the link and have a look.

Here’s the thing – these speeches won’t teach you that much just by reading them…. You have to say it out loud. Print one out, take it home, and pace around your bedroom pretending to be Churchill.

You know you want to.

Do You Understand SEO?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Higgins) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 01:47:00 +0000

For anyone who hasn’t yet come to grips with even the basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), a slightly scary thought: A recent report estimates that 49% of internet users use a search engine on a typical day, up from a third in 2002.

Despite this massive growth in search engine useage, many freelancers, and even design agencies that are building websites have limited awareness of how search engines actually work. When browsing websites of Indian companies, I am constantly amazed at websites that are actually negatively-engineered for SEO. A new company in a competitive industry with an all-flash website? Pages with headings and keywords imbedded into images? There is nothing to search for. How useful is a beautiful website that no one can find unless they remember the exact company name?

Even if the designer does understand SEO, it is easy to place it in the too-hard basket. If the client doesn’t know to ask about SEO then it is a far easier task to design a pretty website and hand it over. Initially the client will be happy, until they realize that they don’t show up in search rankings and someone points out that they have to redesign their website.

Even if you aren’t actively working on a website, you still owe it to yourself to understand how SEO works. When you search for something in google, the pages that appear are not necessarily the best possible results, or the most up-to-date information. Often, they are simply the websites who have best mastered SEO techniques.

By knowing what to look for, you will better appreciate whether a search result is appearing because of its respected content, or because of SEO manipulation.

Here are a couple of resources to get you started:

Search engine optimization, from Wikipedia

Beginner's Guide to SEO

Some advice from Google

Creative Industries and the Online Fan- How to Balance Your Time?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Higgins) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:53:00 +0000

Three great posts here from Merlin Mann (best known for his ‘Inbox Zero’ methodologies).

Creative workers, whether writers, artists, musicians etc, are increasingly working online, or at least on their computers, and within easy reach of email, skype, web forums, social networks. At the same time, they are being encouraged to engage with new media as a way to ‘get personal’ with their audience (readers, listeners, viewers). At what stage can this start interfering with your actual work? Merlin’s posts discus where to draw the line.

Many large advertising agencies or other companies where creative thought is encouraged, will provide ‘thinking spaces’ – rooms where people can think and work uninterrupted by the normal office clamor. How can a self employed artist translate this into their own work? How do you productively divide your time between generating new work and developing relationships with fans of your current work or other practitioners in your field?

Enjoy!

Part 1: Making Time to Make: Bad Correspondence

Part 2: Making Time to Make: The Job You Think You Have

Part 3: Making Time to Make: One Clear Line

Exciting Careers - Interactive Producer

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Higgins) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:02:00 +0000

Guinevere Orvis at Aboutnewmedia has a great post answering a question that she is often asked: “What is an Interactive Producer?

Previously, when you wanted a website, you hired a website designer. Then, when you wanted more traffic, you hired an SEO expert. Then, to make it more customer friendly, you hired a usability expert. Now, you want to add a facebook app, twitter feed, a podcast, management blog and you are considering a mobile phone app. Who do you turn to?

An Interactive Producer!

The range of responsibility is pretty much comparable to a film or television producer, in that an interactive producer doesn’t need to have detailed technical knowledge regarding each aspect of their job. Instead, they need a broad overview of each technical area and the project management skills to pull together the work of disparate and possibly unconnected team members, on time and on budget. Often these are client-facing positions so people skills and good presentation are essential. If that isn’t enough responsibility, senior interactive producers are often called on to provide strategic advice on marketing and interactive technology, as agencies look for new angles to keep their clients ahead of the pack.

How do I become an Interactive Producer?

While the job title was first used 6-8 years ago, for most companies this is still a fairly new job description. As such, specifically tailored courses are still uncommon, but are evolving out of multimedia and web design programs at a range of schools. Technically, skills in MS Office, MS Project, MS Visio, Photoshop, After Effects, HTML, Flash, XML, SHTML, JavaScript and CSS may be required. Professionally, most companies will look for at least 3-5 years in webdesign/multimedia/online journalism, preferably in project management roles

In developing countries, such as India, both the number of people with internet access and the available connection speeds are booming. Greater online audiences draw companies to establish a greater online presence, creating demand for professionals who can guide corporate managers through the web 2.0 minefield. A specific challenge in a society as multicultural as India’s is ensuring usability and appropriate content across multiple cultural and language groups.

What are your experiences? Are you an Interactive Producer, or looking to get into this field? How does this role change between developed and developing countries?

Welcome to Management, Marketing and Life in India

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Higgins) — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 13:35:00 +0000

Most Indian companies are strongly hierarchical, top-down organizations; very few place any emphasis on staff development, training and coaching. For young managers seeking to improve their skills, this problem is compounded by business school teachers who may have no real-world management experience and may teach from an outdated curriculum.

This blog is for managers, young and old, who wish to better themselves. Mangers who want to learn the best way to run a team, to plan their time, to understand social and new media, to keep up with the latest theories on management and marketing.

It will feature interviews and advice from experienced managers, links to great articles, blogs and podcasts and a roundup of the latest concepts and tools that are being discussed and utilized around the world.

The internet is full of blogs on every aspect of management, so why another one? What sets this website aside from other management blogs is that this information will be interlaced with Indian perspective and thoughts on how this content can best be integrated with Indian social/cultural/economic sensibilities.

Please leave comments to mention any topics you would like to see covered, or any other suggestion that you wish to pass on.