Month: April 2016

How to Increase your Customer Base

Posted on by admin in Corporate Governance, Small Businesses, Uncategorized

 

We were privileged to have Mrs. Ijeoma Olujekun, Brand Manager at Evron Food Store, as a facilitator at our recently concluded MSME Roundtable. Ijeoma shared her experiences with building a customer base from scratch and gave us some serious tips with us on how to create and develop rich, fruitful and mutually beneficial long term relationships with individuals; helping us to convert these individuals into a customer base.

Here are some key points of her presentation:

  • Every business starts with zero customers
  • There is always a customer for your product, irrespective of the product.
  • Define your target customer (your #1 Customer) and tailor your marketing efforts to meet the needs of that customer
  • Meet your customers at the point of their need and through their preferred mode of communication
  • Do your customer research diligently
  • Create an enhanced user experience for your clients
  • Sell a lifestyle, not a product
  • Identify your value proposition early
  • Sometimes in the business journey, your value proposition may have to change in order to reach your client
  • Create Win-Win relationships with your customers
  • Nobody cares about your brand except you; make it your mission to transfer the vision of your business to the minds of your customers
  • Understand the customer Lifecycle
  • Sometimes you need to do something iconic to get noticed!
  • Value your customer data like you value your life
  • You need to be on every platform that enables you communicate and engage with your customer!
  • Do not be limited in the use of communication media, engage in multi-channel interactions and encourage your clients to do so as well
  • Always look out for ways in which you can increase your channels of interaction, look for every platform your customers are comfortable with
  • Twitter is a very powerful medium because it allows you to aggregate information using the simple hashtag
  • Customer service is the best form of marketing
  • Make use of free advertisements, endorsements and opportunities for building business connection.
  • Personalise each and every customer interaction
  • The more a brand is seen, the more a brand is bought

 
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Mergers: Dating Before Marriage

Posted on by admin in Capital, corporate finance, Corporate Governance, International Investment, mergers and acquisitions, transaction advisory

Before a merger of companies actually takes place, while negotiations are ongoing, the companies need to review their operational systems and corporate culture. This is because each corporate body has their peculiar system of operations, values, trade culture and work ethics. The concept of dating before marriage consists of further steps taken after due diligence investigation in order to determine cultural compatibility. It is the stage where the companies enter into a compromise using the information gathered during the due diligence investigation in order to facilitate a successful merger.

Numerous studies have explored the key drivers for merger successes and failures. The overwhelming evidence is that over 70% of the time, mergers do not create synergies and shareholders of both companies involved do not see gains in shareholder value due to cultural incompatibility. The difficulty in blending two organisations lies in the fact that each group tends to see the world through its own biased cultural filters, popularly referred to as “familiarity blindness” or “cultural trance”. Several authors emphasize the value of “soft” due diligence audits, which focus on human resources and identification of cultural difference and its impact on the success of the merger. Some authors have also suggested that certain individuals are critical to the success of the merger and as such, should be identified and included in the merger process.
To avoid merger failures a diagnostic process has to be developed that allows a company to test the impact of a proposed business initiative or venture on those people most affected by it, to identify why it may fail and to establish precisely what has got to be done to make it a success. This tool can be applied to a proposed merger as part of the HR due diligence process, to identify and assess the cultural issues that will be encountered. The tool should be sufficiently flexible and scalable to be adapted, modified or enhanced to meet specific requirements.