Having the right leadership can transform a business, but finding and affording top-tier executives full-time isn’t always feasible. Fractional CXOs offer a smarter alternative: access to expert leadership on-demand, without the commitment of a permanent hire. Let’s dive into the ROI of Fractional CXOs and why they’re becoming a go-to solution for businesses seeking impactful results. Immediate Value Without Delay Time is critical, especially when your business is facing challenges or pursuing growth opportunities. Fractional CXOs step in quickly and start delivering value from day one. Their ability to hit the ground running means your business can address key issues without waiting months for a hire to settle in. Specialized Expertise Without Long-Term Commitment Hiring full-time leadership is a big commitment, both in terms of cost and time. Fractional CXOs solve this challenge by offering deep expertise tailored to your specific needs—whether it’s scaling operations,...

  Mapping the startup landscape can be an insightful exercise, one that throws up as many don’t’s as do’s. In hindsight, successful or failed startups would point to many defining factors and one that invariably stands out is the viability of a venture’s marketing strategy. We are living in times when stories are all that matter - narratives that are endorsed in a social media driven eco-system and which get translated into the right optics for your product or service. Controlling this narrative is a matter of investing in marketing resources efficiently.     In a conversation with Forbes magazine, Kipp Bodnar, CMO of  HubSpot, a business growth platform , has an interesting observation to make regarding startups and their marketing approach, “They have one marketer. They essentially have 30-50 hours of labo u r a week. The firm/marketer decides to do the following 1) W eekly email newsletter 2) Social media communicat ion 3) M arketing automation 4) Monthly ...

Yes indeed, these are exciting times. We are inching towards a fully digitalised world, all thanks to the rapid advancement in technology.  But this comes with its own set of challenges that confront every part of the society and business is no exception. Businesses have had to evolve strategies and embrace new technologies to keep pace with this rapid transformation be it the increasing use of AI  and automation for a variety of purposes,  the use of various software, 3 D printing, collaborative consumption etc. What is the issue ? But one issue that continues to remain steadfastly in the current fast moving digital era, is the issue of talent sharing across domains. Even as the employment landscape and norms are changing with the emergence of the gig economy and businesses themselves are resorting to the contractual method of work on an increasing scale it is pertinent to ask how fair is it to restrict the natural flow of talent possessed by profe...

A leader who thinks and brings his thoughts to reality impacting several people to learn, inspire, create with his innovative ideas, while demonstrating change and replicating success, at a larger scale comes under Thought Leadership. Such people bring about a radical shift in innovation [1] , design and vision by affecting industries and also entire ecosystems. They revolutionize their surroundings to such a large extent, simply by what they do, that they automatically enroll more and more people to join in their efforts. Thought Leaders are learned and informed people, sometimes with years of research and knowledge under their belt as well as experts in their domain. Their stories are covered widely, contributing to the success they are today. By de facto standards, one looks-up to successful people. It is but natural for human beings to ‘Follow the Leader’ but more so, as it is ingrained in our psyche through several systems such as education, psychology, business modalities, semi...

The air was ripe with the fruity flavours of pomegranates and berries, while the sturdy mountains of Teheran were still capped with snowflakes. The flamboyant and modernist ruler of Persia, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi suddenly fled his vast kingdom in the face of emerging opposition from the conservative Islamic cleric Ayatollah Khomeini. Shah’s escape overseas marked the end of 2, 500 years of Persian monarchy in Iran and the beginning of hard-line Islam, and a revolution that was to plunge the nation into the throes of chaos and unrest. Why did the mighty Shah flee so suddenly like a deer encountering a hungry lion? Perhaps he had predicted the tumult his country would undergo thereafter…Perhaps he had gauged his declining popularity…Perhaps he knew he could do nothing to stop the spread of hard-line Islam and that of the Ayatollah. Was it his intuition? Or premonition? Or a vague hint about the conspiracy that was to transpire? Fast-forward 41 years and the winter months of...

It is no secret that India is the top outsourcing destination in the world. In a US survey, 82% of US based companies voted for India as their most preferred choice for software outsourcing. It has also become the preferred destination for IT outsourcing with approximately 65% of all outsourced IT jobs, according to Booth & Partners. This same model of outsourcing can be gainfully used by companies to source digital marketing services from leading edge professionals based in India. The huge cost advantage that India offers over the US and other Western economies for comparable world-class services should in itself make outsourcing a winning proposition at a time when efficiency more than any other factor stands between the life and death of most businesses. But that’s just the start: With Partners like Outsourced CMO dedicating proven digital marketing specialists with years of quality experience to these companies the India deal becomes pretty much irresistible. ...

Environmental degradation has been hitting the headlines across the globe for quite some years now. Corporates, governments and consumers are beginning to realize that unsustainable production poses a grave danger to mankind.   This realization has lately given an unprecedented boost to green consumerism that started as an idea in the Western societies way back in the 60s and 70s. The impulse to go green is gaining momentum among consumers. Nielsen’s 2015 Global Corporate Sustainability Report says, 66% of consumers would spend more on a product if it came from a sustainable brand. Up to 73% of the surveyed millennials had a similar view and this trend continues.    It is no surprise that Millennials, often called the green generation are driving the sustainable movement.   According to a globalwebindex study done in 2018 over 60% of Millennials (aged 22-35 years) say that they are ready to pay extra for eco-friendly products, closely followed by Ge...

The latest buzzword in marketing is empathy. Many companies are successfully utilizing the power of empathy to push their brand to the next level.  Some examples: Philips invented a miniature version of a CAT scanner called the ‘kitten scanner’ along with  toy animal characters that were used as patients and a TV screen to dispel the fear of MRI among children   P&G ad released in time for London Olympics 2012 shows the trials and tribulations of mothers raising young athletes.   Microsoft’s interactive site Anatomy of a Data Breach that explains how data is stolen and how one can protect own data. Enhancing empathy not only outside your company but also inside is great for your business.  Yet, according to a 2019 survey by Businessolver, 92% of employees feel that their bosses do not give enough importance to empathy. But what has it got to do with marketing success? The same study says that 93% of employees are more likely to...

Marketers react to a saturated market in different ways. Many are discouraged by the very thought of entering a saturated market, others find it tough to survive in such market yet there are other entrepreneurs who not only survive but grow in a saturated market. Then there are those who are at the start of their business journey but are unfazed by a market filled with potential competitors and carve out a niche for themselves in this very market.    So what is the secret of winning business in a saturated market? A saturated market is, in fact, a thriving market with tremendous demand and hence offers a great opportunity for growth. Thus entrepreneurs need not be intimidated by a saturated market. Instead, they should see it as an opportunity to tap into the tremendous demand that is the hallmark of such a market. According to Seena Sharp the author of Competitive Intelligence Advantage , a saturated market is a sign that there is a lot of opportun...

Over years marketing adapted well to changing times. From the Silent Generation and the Baby Boomers to Gen X and Gen Y, every period in time has heralded its own marketing challenges. Even so, the challenges posed by Gen Z to marketers are incomparable, as it is the first ‘digital native generation,’ a population that has never seen a world without the Internet and digital technology. The denizens of Gen Z have integrated technology seamlessly into their lives.   This necessarily means that any company   wanting to win today must make full use of the Internet and the social media and must be digitally accessible at all times. But why is Gen Z so important for marketers? Well, for starters Gen Z represents USD 44 billion in purchasing power, as reported by the “Uniquely Gen Z” study conducted by the IBM Institute for Business Value.  The Gen Z is a market of high but fickle spenders with no strong brand loyalties, the study found. Seventy five per c...