Ratner Effect - How to Destroy a Multimillion Dollar Company in 10 Seconds

Ever heard of Ratner Effect?

Gerald Ratner inherited his father’s jewellery business in 1984. Within six years he had turned a small retailer into a multimillion-dollar empire.

He made it so successful that it seemed every British high street had a Ratner’s store or one of the associated companies he had brought up.

People loved his store because it offered affordable products to the working class. In fact it was generally known and the place where working-class boys bought rings for working-class girls.

Life was going well for Ratner, expensive cars, houses, boats, women and he frequented many high society events and was rubbing shoulders with Margaret at Number 10.

Yes life was good until the fateful day when he was guest speaker at the Institute of Directors on April 23, 1991 attended by over 6000 business people and journalists.

Asked how was it possible for his company to be selling a sherry decanter for the extraordinary price of £4.95 he answered, to the amazement of his audience and his shareholders, the following:

“How can you sell this for such a low price?”, I say, “because it’s total crap.”

To make sure that he really made a good job of it he also stated that his company:

sold a pair of earrings for under a pound, which is cheaper than a shrimp sandwich from Marks and Spencer, but propbably wouldn’t last as long.

Additionally the company’s shares dropped £500 million in a matter of days. Gerald lost his playboy lifestyle as well as his job and the company had to do a Phoenix and rename themselves ‘Signet Group’.

So the Ratner Effect is not related to 'generations' or 'platforms' - it is simply that if the CEO of a company calls his own products crap, he will be believed. That will instantly devalue all their products and cause collapse of prices, sales, profits.

Amazing Fact - Fear of No - 13

Paraskevidekatriaphobia
or
Friggatriskaidekaphobia
or
Triskaidekaphobia

Have you ever heard of these terms?

Definitely all of them relate to a certain phobia but the common thread between the three words is No 13 which is considered to be inauspicious in the western world. It derives its negativity from the Apollo 13 mission.

Triskaidekaphobia refers to "Fear of No 13"

Friggatriskaidekaphobia and Paraskevidekatriaphobia refer to "Fear of Friday the 13"

2012 is one such year where we have three Fridays coming on 13th.

Facebook Apps: What to Know Before Allowing Access

Every day I log-in to my Facebook account, I see 5-6 apps requests and ask myself if I should allow the app to access my profile. I hope everyone faces more or less the same situation. Facebook has become bigger and increasing in size every day, so it become more crucial to understand privacy implications and how your personal identifiable information will be used.

So next time before hitting the 'allow' button on any app ask yourself these question to fully understand these Facebook apps.

How much access these apps have? 
Facebook recently launched a new control screen which allows user to learn more about the application and what information it requires to run. Some apps require your public information, e-mail address, interest, demographic information etc.

Depending on your personal privacy preferences, you should make sure you review the app’s permission requests. Remember that once you install apps, your personal information can be shared with those developers.

How much control do I have on these apps?
The new app install screen gives you more authority in terms of restricting access to apps, as well as controlling activity visibility in your friends network. The audience selector allows you to decide visibility of app activity.

So with this new app install screen you have more control over apps and how they access your infromation.

Facebook Timeline for Brands - New Timeline Releasing This Month

In September 2011, Facebook introduced a interesting transformation of profile pages for is over 800 million users with the Timeline format.

The Facebook timeline generates scrapbook like collages covering entire history of user on the social network.

At the time of launching of Facebook timeline for users, the company announced that it will roll-out the timeline for brands which inspite of being consistent with user timeline will not be a carbon copy.

It is expected that the facebook timeline for brands will be announced at Company's Feb. 29 Marketer Conference.

The new pages for brands will start in beta with a handful of partners and then be released to more marketers in stages, according to the sources.

More details will be unfurled at its first-ever fMC event, a day-long conference in New York on Feb. 29 that's specifically for marketers.

1600 Layoffs At P&G - Power of Facebook and Digital Marketing

Banking on the power of Social and other digital marketing tactics, Procter & Gamble Co. is planning to eliminate about 1,600 non manufacturing jobs, including some in marketing.

Chief Financial Officer Jon Moeller suggests that it would be within the range of the company's usual restructuring efforts and will result in $240 million annual savings. Overall the cuts only make up about 3% of the estimated 129,000 employees.


Chairman-CEO Bob McDonald said that he expects P&G's advertising costs to moderate as it moves more spending into digital media, where the sheer number of options and availability of largely free distribution drives down expenses.

Mr. McDonald said, "In the digital space, with things like Facebook and Google and others, we find that return on investment of the advertising when properly designed, when the big idea is there, can be much more efficient," 


He also cited the example of recent Old Spice campaign which generated 1.8 billion for P&G in free impressions. He said "there are many other examples I can cite from all over the world."

Social Media Marketing Cheat Sheet

Still struggling with various social media marketing networks? Designed for small businesses, the “cheat sheet” provides some basic tips, lingo and relative audience size for various social networking sites.

Social media marketing cheat sheet, Social Media Cheat Sheet

5 Bad Management Tactics - Avoid to Become Bad Boss

Managing people is not an easy job. But is it so difficult that you resort to certain dirty tricks which are unprofessional and can label you as a Bad Boss?

There are certain bad management moves which are often used in business world. I have identified 5 bad management tactics and also the better ways to handle these challenges. Try to adopt the best management practices which will led better results without hurting anyone.

1. 'Be a Professional'
Scenario: You want low and mid level employees to work for 60 hours a week but can pay only for 40 hours.

Bad Manager - Tries to resort on the statement "Be Professional" and tries to convince the employees to extend their working hours irrespective of the fact that the work is regular and does not requires extra hours to put in.

Good Manager - Know the worth of emplyee and pay accordingly. If its not possible for you to decide then...work on your business model because its not viable.



2. 'I am Helpless'
Scenario: Emplyee expects a big raise which is not really deserved.

Bad Manager - Tries to avoid conflict by citing various unverifiable conditions or forces (like salary guidelines, HR Policies or Investor policy) which prevent him from doing this or else he would "really love to do, if it were possible".

Such vague statements never resolve the issue but increases resentment.

Good Manager - Discusses with the employee the real reasons because which big raise will not be coming. Tries to find out the areas of improvement in performance of employee and works on it with the employee to get better results next time.


3. High Employee Turnover 
Scenario: You want to reduce the expensive employee turnover.

Bad Manager - Believes fear is the best tool to handle this. He will email articles about bad economy, high unemployment rate etc. He may discuss the possibility of a layoff at staff meetings.

Good Manager - Improve your hiring process to find better fits for the jobs you need done. The better the fit, the lower the turnover.


4. Showing the Carrot
Scenario: You have a valuable employee which you want to retain, but can't pay what he's actually worth.

Bad Manager - Makes a series of vague, flowery promises devoid of actual commitments, details, and timelines. By Sshowing illusory carrots, the bad manager hopes that the valuable employee will stay put and keep quiet.

Good Manager - Create a great work environment where your star emplyees truly enjoy working, even though they might get paid elsewhere.


5. Sacrificial Goat
Scenario: You want to raise a controversial idea to top management but dont want to risk your image damage publicly if the idea back fires.

Bad Manager - Asks an employee to present at the big meeting, calling it a chance for them to 'gain some visibility.'And adds his idea into the presentation, if it hits the ceiling he gets the credit and if it fails employee is sacrificial goat to blame.

Good Manager - Discuss the idea with top management in one-on-one meeting before bringing the idea in public forum.