The Power of Intangibles!!!!

The Financial crisis creating jitters in the economies across the world, a sinking feeling seeps into our minds. Is this just the beginning or is this the end …. not of the crisis but of many businesses associated with it! Whatever it is, one fact is crystal clear. This is an era of versatility, blends, quality, creativity, innovation, changes and of how we are prepared to adapt to such changes. Major investment banks like Lehman brothers, Merrill Lynch, American International Group etc. down in the dust only gives further importance to the intangibles, qualitative, indirect & transforming!

Only if we could align these intangibles strategically with the tangibles & quantitative profits!

The question is .... How? Is it possible to align Non-Business functions in an organisation with profits & core business strategy?

Fortunately, the answer is Yes! …. And unfortunately it is not a cakewalk for the organisations. Further this process cannot be simply copied from one organisation to other. This is the beauty of intangibles. They are like the flowers in your garden. They need to be diligently nurtured until they blossom, and only a few flourish!

The need of the hour for organisations is to focus on their Non-Business functions such as Corporate Communications, Branding, Human Resources etc. and slowly but steadily align them with their core business strategy. The results shall surface the power of the intangibles.

TCS had everything well in place. A market leader with a solid campaign of "Beyond the Obvious", until swiftly arrived a herd of organisations like Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, HCL etc. and they too started delivering "Beyond the Obvious"!

It is easy to tread on a path once made and that’s what was exactly happening with TCS. It took Infosys just 20 years to reach where TCS took half a century. TCS had made the path for others to tread. But a pioneer has to be special, it must have the foresight to feel the jitters before they actually arrive, it must have the patience, diligence and maturity to believe in the powers of intangibles …. And that’s what exactly TCS did!

Thus, arrived the "Experience Certainty" campaign! It took a great deal of effort from the Branding & Corporate Communications team to re brand TCS both internally & externally …. But they did and are reaping its benefits by leading from the front, not only in the tangible profits but also in the intangible drivers & enablers which are nothing less than silent killers for the competitors!

Look what the mighty Apple has done to the world! Its core competency lies in Classical Marketing, which most organisations consider as an overhead. With cheaper, equally attractive and technologically advance products available in the market from other brands, the world craves for Apple. This is the beauty of intangibles. The amazing product has the power of strategically aligned equally amazing intangible branding & marketing.

Attrition is striking all IT companies hard. Talent Retention becoming increasingly important for organisations to make their quantitative profits, they have realised the importance of innovation in HR processes and aligning them with their core business strategy.

Marketing is no longer an overhead, Branding is no longer a secondary issue, Corporate Communication is no longer just Public Relations, HR is no longer only common sense …. And I am talking about purely technology based organisations!

The sooner your organisation realise this, the better …. Jitters are no longer giving you a second chance!