The online and offline media headlines are screaming about the global ride-hailing platform Uber and its unethical practices over the years to emerge as a global leader.
On Sunday morning, the world woke up to shocking news of ‘The Uber Files’. Originally leaked to ‘The Guardian’ and ‘The Internal Consortium of Investigative Journalists’, it was a treasure trove of almost 124,000 documents. These documents showed just how the tech giant was able to expand with rapidity and the illegal and often violent techniques it resorted to achieve.
On Monday, the shockwaves continued as Mark MacGann, Uber’s former chief lobbyist for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, identified himself as the source of the leaked data. Seeking higher ground, he said – “It is my duty to speak up and help governments and parliamentarians right some fundamental wrongs. Morally I had no choice in the matter.”
Founded as Ubercabs in San Francisco in 2009, by Garret Camp and Travis Kalanick, it came to be known as Uber Technologies, Inc. It is an American mobility service provider, allowing users to book taxis for transport via the Uber App.
Over the years, it has added various services like food delivery, package delivery, couriers, freight transportation, electric bicycle and motorized scooter through partnerships with various local operators.
Since 2013, Uber saw unprecedented growth across countries and emerged as the most popular ride-hailing company. In the fourth quarter of 2021 Uber had 118 million monthly active users globally and generated approximately 19 million rides a day.
Uber has received criticism for its treatment of taxi drivers, disruption of the taxicab businesses and an increase in traffic congestion. It has also been questioned about the low rates and heavy discounts it offers on its ride-share app, thus undercutting taxi drivers and forcing its partners to take lesser pay.
Unsurprisingly, Uber has reported losses of millions of dollars since 2014. In 2018, it exited markets in Russia, China and Southeast Asia in exchange for stakes in rival businesses.
Global Net Revenue of Uber
Business Model of Uber
Uber acts as the intermediary between cabs and riders. It does not own any vehicles, but partners with taxi owners and receives a commission for each booking. The dynamic pricing model of Uber is based on the local supply and demand at the time of the booking. This fare is quoted to the customer in advance.
What Do the Uber Documents Leak Reveal?
Uber has courted controversy since 2009, when it was founded, from violent conflicts among drivers to the use of secret software to evade law enforcement.
‘The Uber Files’ span a period of 5 years, from 2013 to 2017, when it was run by its controversial co-founder Travis Kalanick. Kalanick was forced out of Uber in 2017 following constant controversies including allegations of data breach and sexual harassment scandals.
Travis Kalanick, co-founder of Uber
The period of his reign at Uber is controversial and shows how he utilised that chaos to speed expansion. He spearheaded Uber’s expansion globally, albeit with illegal practices and lobbying with government heads to push through favourable laws.
Launch of Uber in Paris
In 2014, Uber launched in Paris – its first European launch. Kalanick established contact with Emmanuel Macron (President, France), who was then, the economy minister. Macron interceded on Uber’s behalf, even brokering secret deals with opponents in the cabinet, to help Uber operate undisturbed in Paris.
Entry into German Market
In 2014, the then mayor of Hamburg, Olaf Scholz (currently the German Chancellor), pushed against Uber lobbyists to ease the way for Uber to enter the German market.
Taking the help of Joe Biden
Kalanick had a meeting scheduled with the then, US Vice-President, Joe Biden at the World Economic Forum. The after effect of the meeting was an amended statement to his prepared speech at Davos when he referred to a CEO whose company would give millions of workers freedom to work as many hours as they wished and manage their lives the way they want to.
Kill Switch
Uber took extensive steps to save itself from authorities. In addition to lobbying with politicians and government officials, Uber had also installed a ‘kill switch’ which they activated to stop the authorities from accessing the company’s computers. The ‘kill switch’ was used in Amsterdam, Canada, Belgium, India, Romania, Hungary and France.
Endangering Drivers
Kalanick’s theory of embracing chaos included endangering drivers. Almost every market that Uber entered, triggered organised protests from taxi driver unions, that would sometimes turn violent. He mutely agreed to Uber drivers going to such protests. His ideology? “Violence guarantees success”.
The documents indicate Uber’s adeptness at finding unofficial routes to power. It shows a company that had a deliberate strategy of breaking or ignoring laws, and that it was very much aware of it.
The documents go on to reveal the role that lobbying and relationships with powerful politicians played in its global success. They also reveal that company executives were aware of the illegality of their entire operation.
Uber’s original idea of citizens driving citizens in their private cars without any permits or licenses mostly fell into a grey area legally.
Post 2017 – What Did and Did Not Change at Uber?
The chaos that Kalanick capitalized on has grown Uber to a USD 43 billion dollar company. However, soon after Kalanick was replaced by Dara Khosrowshahi accusations about the workplace culture and sexism seem to have stopped.
Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber
The company seems to have toned down its aggressive approach and now works with licensed drivers using specific permits. Despite all this, it faces multiple lawsuits regarding its employment strategies and its profitability remains in question.
Secondly, although it seems to now work in compliance, it does so only as little as necessary to get away from the attention of the authorities. They are not openly breaking rules anymore, but even its new business model remains close to its previous one. It continues to push for its preferred laws and regulations through courts or by finding legal loopholes.
The details of the expose will continue to grow in the coming days as more details will be made public. What is learned from all this is that apps like Uber and many others promised innovation.
Instead, they brought out barely disguised models of corruption and exploitation. One can only hope that there are severe penalties for tech entrepreneurs who blatantly break and bend laws. Maybe it will act as a deterrent for future cons.
FAQs
What is the Uber leak?
Uber leak is a trove of 124,000 documents that show how the ride-hailing giant expanded its operations using illegal tactics.
Who leaked the Uber Files?
Mark MacGann, Uber’s former chief lobbyist for Europe, the Middle East and Africa came forward to take responsibility for the leaks.
One of India’s Edtech giants BYJU’s recently laid off its 500 employees. Similarly, other well-recognized Edtech companies like Unacademy, Vedantu, Whitehat jr., etc. have also handed pink slips to hundreds of their employees in the latest Edtech crisis.
So, is the Indian Edtech market actually coming to its end? When did it start to crash and what are the causes? Which of the brands will survive the situation?
In this blog, we will find the answer to all these questions.
The coaching centers have been a part of our education system for a long time. Beginning with the small tuition classes with 5-10 students to the big coaching institutes with hundreds of students, this business has travelled a long way.
Mostly, the inability of the school curriculum to prepare students for competitive examinations and the lack of well-trained teaching staff are considered to be the reason for the advent and proliferation of these coachings.
Well, whatever the reason be, the truth is that today coaching centers have become an indispensable part of the Indian education system.
These coaching centers charge high fees, sometimes even higher than the school fees for an entire year, to prepare the students for different exams. They offer classes, study material, question banks, test series, and even hostel facilities for the students.
Several cities have emerged as coaching hubs for different examinations, such as Kota for IIT-JEE coaching, or Delhi’s Rajendra Nagar for UPSC coaching.
In continuation of this, with the arrival of new technology, online coaching centers came into the picture. The major advantage of these Edtech companies over offline coaching centers was their cost-efficiency.
They offered the same course to the students as the offline coaching center but at a very low price, comparatively. It was owing to the lower expenditure needed to run these businesses.
Actually, to run an offline coaching center one has to spend a humongous amount of money on infrastructure, teaching staff, admin, support staff, housekeeping, electricity & water bill, etc.
Other than this these coaching centers also have to take care of marketing through billboards, seminars, etc. which further escalates their running cost. In the end, students are the ones who have to pay for these expenses in terms of the high fees charged by these institutes.
On the other hand, the online coaching centers do not have to spend money on infrastructure, extra staff, or other facilities. All they need are a few experienced teachers who would record the subject-wise lectures for them.
So, even for the teachers instead of regular monthly payments they only had to pay them once. These companies also hire the teachers on a profit basis to organize doubt-clearing sessions for the students.
This made their functioning expense go really low. Moreover, back when these companies actually started, the digital modes of marketing, such as YouTube or Instagram, were cheaper. Due to this, they were also saving on their advertisements and marketing costs.
However, owing to the soaring internet costs this market did not grow much until 2017 when “Jio” entered the Indian telecommunication industry. With its extremely low-cost internet connection, Jio revolutionized the way the coaching industry of India functioned.
Growth of the Edtech Industry in India
Owing to the availability of cost-effective internet connections, this led to the rise of digital coaching institutes in India. The market of these institutes was not restricted to a particular city or zone. They could actually approach any student across the country.
Moreover, with the pre-recorded lectures they could even sell customized courses or subject-specific courses to students. If a student only wanted to study Physics, he/she was not compelled to pay for other subjects as well. Therefore, initially, the Edtech market required ultra-low working capital and was a high-profit margin business with boundless potential to scale.
Due to all these advantages, a large number of investors with billion-dollar funds approached these companies even turning many of them into unicorns.
VC Investments in Indian Edtech Startups
But, here is the twist, as the entry barrier to starting an Edtech company was quite low the competition started to increase. The cost for course making was low and the selling was easy. This invited countless individuals to enter the field.
This sudden increase in competition led to a number of other changes in the digital market. Owing to the increased number of advertisements for similar products, the cost per conversion escalated multiple times.
This drastically increased the cost of investment in the Edtech business as the margin between investment and profit shrank to become thinner. This led to incurring losses in most of these companies.
Effect of the Pandemic on the Edtech Market
Although COVID-19 brought the entire world into turmoil, bringing several challenges for the entire human community, this pandemic was bliss for the Indian Edtech companies.
With the shutting down of schools and offline coaching centers, the Edtech industry saw its boom in 2020. The edtech companies utilized this as an opportunity to habituate customers to online learning.
Resultantly, while they offered more discounts, more free sessions, and other free services to the customers, they also hired more staff and gathered more funding for themselves.
This was the time these companies invested all their energy and resources to bring the Edtech market to its hype as almost all the students were using online classes.
The Edtech companies at this point exploded like no one could have imagined inviting more players to join the field.
The Post-pandemic Struggle of Edtech Companies
Later in 2021 or the beginning of 2022, the pandemic started to fade away leading to the re-opening of schools, coaching centers, and other institutions. As the students rejoined their respective institutes the resources gathered by the Edtech companies were no longer required.
The students got involved in their offline activities as earlier, preferring a physical classroom over the virtual one. This led to the major collapse of the Edtech industry in India.
Finally, the companies began to suffer heavy losses and had to fire the surplus staff including both the teachers as well as the sales team. But, is this Edtech crash occurring for real?
Unfortunately, the answer is yes. So, the next question appears, who will survive it? To get the answer we have to know who all are the participants in this struggle.
Who Will Survive the Edtech Race?
There are three types of players in the Edtech market. First are the super-brands like BYJU’s, Unacademy, etc. These companies have made a name and reputation in the market which is exceptional and considered quite reliable by the customers.
Second, are the companies with huge funding with which they are able to promote and advertise their products much more efficiently and effectively.
Third are the personal brands such as Study IQ, Physics Wallah, etc. These are the brands that have grown organically on the basis of their content instead of marketing. These are the most powerful and most profitable players in the field.
Amongst the three categories, the first ones to get out of the race are the high-funding companies. Even when these companies are able to attract customers with their advertisements, the lack of content and inability to produce results causes trust issues with customers. This causes an early detachment of customers ensuing huge losses for these companies.
The super brands have no doubt made an irreplaceable image in the market and have earned trust with their services. So, it is expected that they will remain a part of the industry maybe but will have to incur some losses. However, the top players in the game will always be the personal brands. They will always remain profitable and if they stay on the right path they could even become bigger than the super brands one day.
The reason for this is that they have a brand value like nobody else. It separates them from the commoditized Edtech market. As they have gained this place due to their quality content and customer trust there is the least possibility of collapse.
Moreover, they have incredible distribution channels with their customers being the source of their publicity. They are able to connect students without even running any ads so their acquisition costs are very low. Therefore, they have an edge over their competitors and run their businesses without even funding.
Conclusion
Presently, the Edtech market in India is under heavy loss. The industry is at its worst and facing a huge crisis. The reason for this is the re-opening of schools, universities, and offline coaching centers.
However, like any other market, the best players in the field who have gained the trust of the customers and built a reputation for themselves will always stand strong with a profitable business, surviving the highs and lows.
FAQs
What is the future of EdTech in India?
Edtech is growing rapidly in India and is estimated to reach around $30 billion in the next 10 years
How many EdTech companies are there in India?
There are nearly 9,043 EdTech startups in India.
How big is the EdTech market in India?
The market valuation of the Indian Edtech industry is $2.8 billion and is expected to reach $10.4 billion by 2025.
Have you ever wondered about the next level of revolution in technology? Well, a world-famous company had thought this through years ago. In fact, they were very near to making this revolutionary development in wearable technology. But, they failed! Must be wondering why? That company was Google, which took the initiative of bringing the most evolved technology measure.
Years ago, Google developed a smart wearable product named Google Glass. This was known to be Google “moonshot” technology. The image behind the invention was utterly brilliant but, the product didn’t come to stand on its expectations. The product was highly criticized around every aspect from price to safety.
Google focused on hyping and uplifting people’s expectations for its products but didn’t bring out the harsh reality or its lacking in the market. This led to the major failure of Google Glass. The product’s marketing campaign kept on promoting the product as the future’s precursor technology.
But with so much dedication and evolved technology, how and why did the Google Glass fail? This revolutionary high potential holder product was largely rejected by the consumers from the mass-market. Google Glass failed in many elements such as health and safety concerns, extensively high price, heat issues and many more.
In this article, we have discussed these issues briefly and brought out a case study on how Google Glass failed!
As soon as the announcement and description of Google Glass came out among the people, there were some major concerns regarding its safety measures and how it could adversely affect our health.
People were concerned whether it would be safe to use Google Glass every day. Because as per the description, the product was expected to radiate carcinogenic radiation very close to our minds and eyes. However, other brand’s products also emit many harmful radiations, but they don’t make direct contact with our skin.
Moreover, Google Glass could capture any image at any time so there were some concerns raised for the privacy and piracy of lives. It could capture anything randomly without the knowledge of other people.
No clear Functioning
Google Glass
When a new product is launched in the market, the first question that comes is what issues does this product resolve. The functioning of the product is set before its invention. You cannot build a product based on whether people would be interested or not. Because planning the functionality of any product establishes the ground goals you are achieving with that product. Marketing strategy, promotion, target marketing and everything should be pre-planned.
However, Google Glass didn’t stand on any of these scenarios. It had two functions: capturing pictures very quickly and searching anything on the Internet in seconds. There wasn’t any usual or practical usage of this product. Therefore, it doesn’t bring any major benefits to the customers.
Google Glass had a fixed battery limit of 4 hours, which means you need to keep on charging the glass after every four hours. The product could be discharged any time without your knowledge and then, it would be just useless until you charge it completely.
The energy consumption in this product was much more than usual. This would result in some major problems after purchasing. And, also there aren’t any standard charging specifications. No matter how many times you charge it, it will be down after a few hours.
Overprice
Even with these drawbacks, Google Glass cost around $1,500. Although people were highly disappointed with this product, Google didn’t minimise the pricing. It kept on with the price of $1,500.
The concerns related to Google Glass were not just random, these issues majorly affect the usage and functioning of this product. These issues couldn’t be resolved after 2-3 sales, in fact, these required some well-researched and evolved changes.
Language Issues
Google Glass only worked properly with a native English speaker from the US or UK. But when it comes to sending or commanding in any other language, Google Glass wouldn’t recognise it.
The major drawback is it cannot be corrected with the keyboard (as in smartphones) because there isn’t any. So it means you can only command in British or American English. That’s why it would become absolutely tough to handle.
There were some critical concerning issues regarding the heating of Google Glass. When you record a video of 10-15 minutes, it becomes excessively heated because of the intensive computation working. Then, you would need to cool it down immediately otherwise it could cause some high damage not definitively wrong for health.
Marketing Lessons to learn from Google Glass Failure
Before launching any revolutionary and high-tech product, you must take a look at the lessons to be learnt from the failure of Google Glass. These lessons are widely described in the following points.
Underline the everyday benefits of your product boldly, with the help of paid media who strengthen your product’s PR.
Release the product with a short and quick scheduled time to embrace the momentum of purchasing.
Do not repeat the mistakes done by Google in the case of Google Glass.
Launch your product with utter clearance on what goals you expected to achieve through your product.
Google had put a great fraction of creativity and technology with Google Glass. It did try to monetize wearable technology. But, it lacked some major elements which resulted in a complete backup for this product. Google may have some very great and interesting plans and ideas for technology but, it does lose in the basic points of checklist.
Technology is evolving but, with this evolving technology, you must keep in mind that the requirements of consumers are fulfilled. The evolution of technology is in the hands of companies like Google but, the question is, whether the future is products like Google Glass or others?
FAQs
What does Google Glass do?
Google Glass was a wearable computer that could function as a hands-free smartphone, letting users access the mobile internet browser, camera, maps, calendar, and other apps by voice commands.
When was Google Glass launched?
Google Glass was launched for public retail on 15 May 2014. The early prototype version “Glass Explorers” was launched in the US in 2013.
How much money did Google Glass lose?
Google lost around $895 million on moonshot projects – Google Glass.
Why did Google Glass fail?
One of the biggest reason Why Google Glass failed is because it lacked the clarity on why the product exists. The designers did not clearly define or validate, what solutions Google Glass would give for its users, or how customers would use the glasses.
What were the main reasons for Google Glass failure?
The main reasons for Google Glass failure were the issues in the wearable device:
Ecommerce automation is creating a lot of buzzes. But, does your company actually need it? Let’s find out.
The main purpose of any eCommerce marketing campaign is to boost sales. This might include sending marketing emails, managing orders, dealing with customer service, and a lot more.
These tasks may not look like a big deal when seen individually but can give you a headache when they start to pile up, wasting ample time out of your busy day. Also, apart from these, there are a lot of insignificant tasks that require your time and energy.
As per Deloitte, such tasks are a waste of time, and shifting your attention can cause fundamental improvement in your operations. This is where automation comes into the picture.
“The eCommerce industry is a force that no investor can afford to ignore” – Cushla Sherlock
As per the report published by NASA, 60% to 80% of businesses fail due to human errors. These errors can be easily avoided by using automation.
Like the automation of any other industry, the purpose of eCommerce automation is to simplify your work and streamline the workflow. If you are running a growing company, you understand how often the work gets overwhelming when you feel like you need more workforce or more leaders or managers in your company.
Automation can actually help you to overcome these issues by saving a lot of your time and energy. Moreover, with a machine taking care of your tasks, the chances of error are reduced to a minimum and your employees can focus on their actual work instead of worrying about something insignificant.
Benefits of Ecommerce Automation
As per Statista, the global retail automation market size which was around 11.3 billion U.S. dollars is expected to grow up to 33 billion dollars in 2030.
This data clearly indicates that automation is helping businesses to grow which is why more and more businesses are relying on it.
Let us explain in detail how eCommerce automation can actually help your growing business.
Time Efficiency
Getting rid of the repetitive tasks that have to be done every day can save a lot of your time. This increases the focus as well as productivity. Moreover, it gives you extra time to review your plans or start off the pending projects.
Also, automation gives you the advantage of scheduling your tasks. For example, announcing the release of your new product, applying discounts, providing rewards, adjusting prices, etc.
These trivial tasks have become a part of the routine workflow of your employees. Most employees complain that miscellaneous works disturb their actual work due to which they are unable to perform up to their potential.
Using automation allows your employees to focus on more business-oriented work resulting in higher productivity and enhanced employee satisfaction.
Boost Customer Satisfaction
As a growing business, the number of your customers also keeps increasing making it difficult to keep them all satisfied. As most of the customers judge your services by the response time you can certainly improve customer satisfaction through automation.
The eCommerce automation tools facilitate online shopping engagement giving your customers a great shopping experience. These happy customers mostly turn into repeat customers.
Cost Reduction
With automation, the cost of working also reduces considerably. The main reason for this is that the mundane tasks are taken care of by the tool so your employees can focus on their work without disturbance.
This reduces the need for overtime work or increased manpower, ultimately reducing the expenditure.
Better Communication With Suppliers
The automation software gives before-time notification whether a product is about to go out of stock or inventory is below a certain level. These can also send triggers to the suppliers asking them to send in the required products.
Moreover, with timely information, you also get time to look into the supplies rates or other better contracts that may be available from different suppliers. Thus, it helps you grab better deals.
Tasks to Automate in Your Ecommerce Business
Up till now, we have given you enough statistics and reasons to know that automating your eCommerce business is in your favor and can help you run faster towards your success.
Now, let us take a look at the tasks that you can automate now to make your business grow faster.
Customer Service
Your employees may not be working after 5 but your customers might visit your website to buy a product even after the working hours are over, and they need assistance. So, how can you manage that?
The answer is simple, automation. The ability of these tools to provide real-time feedback as well as their ability to instantly answer the queries leads to satisfied customers. Owing to the pleasant experience there is a high probability of these customers coming back to you.
There are a lot of AI-based tools designed for this purpose. These work as chatbots or virtual assistants and respond to your customers based on the previously formulated rules and fed commands.
Chatbot Example
Business Management Automation
Whether you are about to add a new collection of products or have a weekly sale to offer, automation can help you with all your tedious jobs.
The tool helps you to schedule your sales with regular posts on social media to attract the attention of customers or set a countdown to keep the hype alive in the customers, and much more.
A number of heatmap tools are available that help you figure out where to post your ads while launching a new product. They also further help you identify the channels that are working well so you can pay more attention to them.
Heatmap Example
Order & Inventory Management
Managing the inventory is one of the most important yet boring tasks. You obviously need to keep track of your stock to inform the suppliers and order fresh products but doing this manually can be really tedious.
You can use certain inventory management tools for these purposes that are easy to use and work like wonder. These tools can actually save you from losing revenue owing to poorly managed inventory.
Automation tools are designed to prepare and send a purchase order to the relevant supplier whenever an item goes out of stock. You can also enable out-of-stock or low-stock notifications in these tools to keep you updated.
Email Marketing
Writing and sending emails to your customers manually can be really tedious and boring. Moreover, it is practically impossible to track the activity of each and every customer and send the emails accordingly.
This is why automation tools are available for help. Whether you have to send the welcome emails, cart abandonment emails, order confirmation emails, or post-purchase engagement emails, these tools keep track of every customer without missing the details.
Fraud Prevention
As per a survey, fraudsters take away around $12 billion each year from the eCommerce industry. They use new and sophisticated techniques every time to deceive the customers and business owners.
There are automation tools that can help you save a large amount of money going into the wrong hands. These tools help you verify each order by checking the IP address or carrying out other verification processes, thus saving you from fraud.
Accounting
From funds to invoices, or to keeping track of the payments made to suppliers, accounting can be difficult. Also, if you are new to the business keeping an accountant can be expensive.
Automating your accounts can save your day. You can use tools that will help you through all your accounting needs without taking a toll on your budget.
Website Building
If you are just starting your website to set up your online business without a big budget, the automation tools can be a big help, especially if you are not a technical person.
These tools can help you with most of your small problems like choosing a template for your website, changing themes, or adding pop-up banners. So you actually spend your money only when you are in real need.
Choosing the best automation tool for your website can be complicated. Below, we have listed 6 top automation tools to help you with your eCommerce business. They are:
MailChimp
This tool is best known for creating intuitive email campaigns depending on the type of business.
HubSpot
This is a very popular tool that mainly focuses on inbound marketing. It pays attention to the sales marketing activities and offers services for support, sales, and marketing.
Zendesk
This is an application available as a cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS). It is popularly used for customer service.
Verloop.io
This tool is used for customer care to automate conversational support. The insightful data help you keep the customers engaged.
Sendgrid
This tool focuses on 1:1 email communication. Moreover, it directly sends customer-centric SMS-based notifications in real-time.
Jumplead
This tool helps you generate leads for your eCommerce store. You can also respond to customers, manage leads, and handle customer accounts through this.
Case Studies of Ecommerce Automation
For your reference, we are adding a few case studies to help you understand how eCommerce automation has helped several companies grow their online business.
Truwood
This Company manufactures bamboo and wood-made watches. They utilized cart abandonment emails and messages. They target the audience based on the value of the cart, giving preference to high-value carts.
They send messages and emails to the cart owners with the picture of their selected product offering some discounts and creating a sense of urgency through a limited-time offer.
This strategy has worked really well for the company increasing their return on investment by around 35 times.
Draper James
The brand organizes a weekly sale, every year, in mid-march, for celebrating the birthday of its founder, Reese Witherspoon. They utilize the science of retention for their marketing strategy.
So, instead of the bulk emails, they only send customized emails to the users who have purchased or visited the site in the last 90 days. They nurture their leads by only sending relevant content to the target audience.
This strategy has led to a 15.4% increase in their year-over-year revenue, even when they have been sending 48.7% lesser emails.
Premier
This eCommerce store sells accessories and apparel. They focused on improving the customer experience by sending them price drop emails for the product they have shown interest in their previous budget.
The automation tools for sending customized emails have worked really well for the brand and resulted in a huge increase in open and click rates.
Blush and Bar
This brand sells sustainable and affordable jewellery. As they noticed that the maximum traffic for their site came through social media ads, they utilized these leads to reach their target audience.
They generated pop-up ads for mobile devices that do not require much information to be filled in but allowed the user to subscribe in a few taps.
This simple but effective marketing strategy has led to an increase of $39,000 in their sales within the first month of implementation.
Embla
This brand sells home goods online. They used a holistic SMS marketing strategy for improved customer experience and trust-building.
Instead of asking every visitor to subscribe to their website they only triggered this to the customers who were in the final stages of buying their product. Through this, they began a friendly re-engagement campaign for their customers.
This strategy has really helped them to win back inactive customers and resulted in a 60% increase in their conversion rates.
Ecommerce automation in all its capacity is helping businesses to grow online. The different services are offered as per the business requirements. They help in better utilization of time, money, and resources as well as help in improving customer satisfaction.
These tools are designed to streamline the workflow and increase work engagement. Overall, the Ecommerce automation tools are worth your money, time, and efforts.
FAQs
Why do companies use eCommerce automation?
Many companies use eCommerce automation to streamline workflow, save time, boost efficiency, and also help boost customer satisfaction.
What is workflow automation in eCommerce?
Workflow automation is when repetitive tasks are done with the help of automation tools instead of humans.
Day by day, something or other happens in cases related to fraudster or swindling. In India, such issues go viral and are often linked to businessmen duping money and getting away easily.
While there can be numerous reasons as to why someone can cheat or will cheat puts us to question our thoughts on the system. Things like these can be distressing to see when we don’t have the answers for ourselves.
As we are all aware that the breaking news of Ajay Singh getting arrested by the police has left many viewers anxious. The curiosity is only rising as to why and what happened that led to his incarceration.
Recently, Ajay Singh, an Indian entrepreneur and the Managing Director of SpiceJet airline, has been booked for defrauding a businessman of Rs 10 lakh worth of shares.
Born on the 29th of December 1965, Ajay Singh was brought up in Delhi’s Maharani Bagh area. His father belonged to Alwar, and his mother was from Meerut.
He did his graduation in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and holds an MBA degree from Cornell University in the United States. Besides this, he is also a law student and holds a degree from the University of Delhi.
Ajay Singh is married to Shiwani Singh. The couple has a daughter named Avani Singh, who is an alumnus of Standford University.
Career and Foundation of Spicejet
Ajay Singh co-founded India’s second-largest airline SpiceJet in 2005. He started the airline with the object to make airlines affordable for every Indian. After about five years since the inception of SpiceJet, Ajay Singh exited the company.
When the company was on the brink of shutting down, Ajay Singh decided to take over SpiceJet again. Soon after his leadership, the airline started to grow making it one of the best-time performers among several other airline service providers.
Ajay Singh is known for his all-rounder personality, such as being a businessman, sports administrator, bureaucrat, and investor. He is currently the Chairman and Managing Director of SpiceJet.
Ajay Singh is fond of sports and games. Keeping in view his liking for sports, he is the President of the Boxing Federation of India, and Associate Vice President of the Indian Olympic Association. On 25 September 2016, Ajay was elected as the President of the British Film Institute (BFI).
He is also the first-ever Indian to Chair the Aviation, Travel and Tourism Governor’s meeting at the World Economic Forum, Davos in 2019.
Due to his sharp leadership skills, SpiceJet was responsible for the Boeing order of making 50 Bombardier Q400 planes. The order was approved by then US President Donald Trump.
Political Alliances of Ajay Singh
Many believe Ajay Singh to be the BJP’s right-hand man. He is the go-to person for every member of the party for any kind of political advertisement.
Ajay Singh is associated with politics as he managed the campaigning for the BJP during the 2004 and 2014 general elections. He is the man behind the famous slogan, “Abki Baar Modi Sarkar”, which translates to Now is the time for Modi Government.
Most of the opposition parties refer to him as “Chhota Ambani or Chhota Adani of Narendra Modi for being privileged under Modi’s political clout.”
Why Was Ajay Singh Arrested?
Amit Arora, a Gurugram businessman has filed a complaint against the Managing Director of SpiceJet, Ajay Singh for delivering a fake Depository Receipt (DIS) worth Rs 10,00,000 shares.
In his complaint, Amit Arora revealed that Ajay Singh had promised him shares worth Rs 10 lakhs of SpiceJet for the services Amit had provided him during the time when Ajay brought over the airline from the promoters.
He claims that when he approached Ajay, he handed him a depository slip, which was later found out to be invalid. Upon reaching him several times, Ajay Singh denied paying him the shares.
Since there was no option of getting the shares from Ajay, he pressed the charges against him. Additionally, he has claimed that Ajay has been cheating many others in the same manner. He got to know from a source that a person named Chetan Nanda and Priti Nanda had charged a criminal complaint against Ajay Singh and that they were duped of their shares in the same manner.
On 11 July 2022, Ajay Singh has been arrested by the Gurugram police under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant or banker, or agent), 415 (deception), 417 (cheating), 420 (cheating and dishonesty) of the Indian Penal Code.
To clarify the allegations against Ajay Singh, an official from SpiceJet has stated that these allegations are done to defame Ajay Singh and are inauthentic. The company is soon going to file a defamation suit against Amit Arora, who is the complainant.
The administrator from SpiceJet said,
“A frivolous, mischievous and completely bogus complaint has been filed by a liquor dealer Amit Arora with Gurugram police with an intention to hurt SpiceJet and Ajay Singh’s image.”
Conclusion
The case is under investigation. Some reports suggest that the high court has issued the case as a non-bailable warrant against Ajay Singh as he was unable to appear before the court due to covid isolation. Only time can tell what will happen next.
FAQs
Why was Ajay Singh arrested?
Ajay Singh, the chairman of SpiceJet was arrested for defrauding a Gurugram businessman for Rs 10 lakh worth of shares.
Who is the owner of SpiceJet?
Ajay Singh is the owner, chairman and managing Director of SpiceJet.
CEO or the Chief Executive Officer holds the highest ranking in any kind of company. To be able to hold this position is a very big thing, one has to be extremely responsible and hardworking because the entire company depends on them.
A CEO’s main responsibility includes expanding the business, doing finance-related work, and making all other important decision that is necessary for a company to flourish. All the major decision needs approval from the CEO, and then only they can be established. A CEO also needs to coordinate with their employees with patience; this will result in a proper workflow.
People might think being a CEO of a company means earning a lot of money in terms of their salary but there is a trend that is emerging in the new world and some CEOs are following it ardently. It may sound unbelievable but there are some CEOs who take $1 for their salary. Yes, you read it right, just $1.
Some well-known CEOs are already a member of this trend. In this article, we will discuss, why some CEOs take just $1 as their salary and what are its benefits. So, let’s get started.
“Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” -Jack Welch
One dollar salary is all about when some of the world’s top chief executives take just $1 in the name of salary from their company. Here, they decide to work without taking direct compensation but there is a rule where they have to take a minimal amount for the sake of some legal reasons, so to follow that, they just take $1. This way the CEOs are considered volunteers by taking the minimal amount as their salary.
History of $1 Salary
Lee Lacocca – the CEO of Chrysler Corporation
This thing started in the early 1900s when the entire world was in a war-torn zone. During World War II, some of the top business leaders willing decided to offer their services for free to the Government. As there was a law, that doesn’t allow the President to accept free service from the businessmen, the concept of a One-dollar salary was born.
The year 1978 also saw Lee Iacocca, the CEO of Chrysler Corporation adopting this procedure to improve the state of his company after the oil crisis. He asked the Government for their help.
In the 21st century, there are many wealthy CEOs who are following this ardently, but now the reason is not that they want to offer free services but because it is all about earning huge amounts of money smartly.
Perks of Taking 1 Dollar Salary
The fact of taking just $1 may seem very simple but in reality, it is far more compatible and this mode provides a lot of benefits to the CEOs than a regular salary. Some of the benefits are:
This improves the image of the CEO in front of the public and people start considering that person highly as it seems they are serving their country for almost free.
It gives the investors confidence that the CEO will perform better to receive their compensation, thus leaving them no choice but to invest in the company. In the end, this results in getting investments.
How CEOs Live With Just $1 Salary?
It is not like the CEO only gets to have one dollar as their salary, apart from that they take compensation from the company in the form of stock or equity, as they are taxed at a much lower rate than regular income.
When the company performs well, the worth of the shares increase and the CEO’s different forms of income also increases. All of these stocks, bonus packages that are offered to them apart from the one-dollar make up for their ‘sacrifice’ quite well and in fact sometimes even exceed their income.
Members of $1 Salary Club
Some of the most renowned CEOs who are the member of this club and ardently follow the trend are:
Being a CEO of a company comes with lots of perks but with also a lot of responsibilities. A CEO needs to take some of the most important decision of the business, there are some CEOs who take hefty sums and there are some who takes just $1 dollar but that doesn’t mean that they are providing their service for free, they are actually earning a lot by their smartness.
FAQs
Why do CEOs make $1?
The CEOs can afford to earn $1 as they make money through other ways like stocks and equity. This also helps them in avoiding taxes.
What is the minimum salary of a CEO?
An early career Chief Executive Officer (CEO) with 1-4 years of experience earns an average of ₹983,641.
Who are the CEOs in the $1 salary club?
Some of the CEOs who take a $1 dollar salary are:
Elon Musk
Mark Zuckerberg
Meg Whitman
Larry Page
Sergey Brin
What is the benefit of taking 1 dollar salary?
Many CEOs like Elon Musk & Mark Zuckerberg take 1 dollar salaries to maximize the profits of the company and avoid paying huge taxes to the government.
Who is the first CEO to start taking 1 dollar salary?
Lee Iacocca, the CEO of Chrysler Corporation reduced his salary to $1 to save the company from bankruptcy.
Myspace, launched in 2004, was one of the biggest social media giants of the early 2000s. However, it failed miserably. What happened? Was it running in loss, was it facing stiff competition from Facebook, was it about the acquisition from News Corp, was it the legal battles, etc. We are here to decode the probable reasons for the failure of Myspace and why it couldn’t compete with Facebook. Let us first see the introduction of this social networking site called Myspace.
In the early 2000s, social networking sites were a new thing. MySpace dominated the social networking space online, averaging over 75 million visitors per month at its peak.
MySpace was extremely unfortunate or rather went weak because Facebook, with its cutting-edge features like the uber-cool and updated news feed, quickly outperformed it and never looked back. However, this does not mean that Facebook’s emergence was the sole cause of Myspace’s downfall.
The meaning of social media has evolved a lot in the current times. We’ve evolved to be real and fearless on social media because it is one of the other worlds we live in. However back then it wasn’t like this, people were not easily open on social media platforms. They feared being online.
To engage with other users, Myspace users would construct web pages for their profiles that showcased their interests. Instead of using their real identities on Myspace (as opposed to Facebook), users frequently used a made-up nickname.
Myspace Profile
Users could post blogs, participate in forums, follow official accounts, and connect with friends in addition to interacting with friends. The primary goal of Myspace was to promote other musicians.
Users could even listen to music and discuss them with others in a special section of the website. Later on, it added a classifieds and video area, which ended up being a smash hit, to compete with sites like Craigslist and YouTube.
Myspace took huge steps in the advertisement and marketing industry and signed big deals with Google and hit record stats as well. Myspace was having a gala time in the next months of its launch.
What Was the Reason Behind Mindspace’s Failure?
Even though, we see that Myspace was launched back in the early 2000s when there were no or negligible competitors in this market. And of course, the site attained heights of success too.
MySpace’s popularity can be credited to easy accessibility and synchronicity. The website was one of the earliest social media platforms when it was introduced in 2003. It was preceded by Friendster, which was also well-liked at the time. However, as a consequence of technological issues and an overabundance of targeted advertisements, Friendster’s popularity decreased.
MySpace made it more convenient and was open to all users, allowed them to personalize their pages, and periodically added new features in response to user demands.
Additionally, it served as a kind of forerunner to contemporary influencers by attracting a lot of creative individuals and enabling brand and user interaction. But as Facebook was launched, people got a wider platform with better facilities. People had the facility of making accounts with their real names and could use their real details, and photos which made them feel more connected with the outer world.
On the contrary, it was the opposite on Myspace where people used fictitious names and photos which was not only harmful but the sense of connection was absent. Hence, Facebook was a whole new evolution. As a result, the majority of the users shifted to Facebook or rather made accounts there as well and with time forgot about Myspace being an online space.
The media behemoth News Corporation was interested in MySpace because of its popularity and purchased it for $580 million in 2005. MySpace was initially convinced by New Corp that nothing will ever radically change and that this would play a passive role in the growth of the company.
MySpace was acquired with a new objective in mind. The need to increase sales was now more critical. MySpace was consequently deluged with aggressive advertisements, many of which directed users to suspicious pages requesting that they join up for credit card payments and other services.
As portions were built to try and produce income that would fulfill News Corp’s impossible targets, money was drained from developer resources. In the end, users left the site for others because the community’s needs and the usability of the platform weren’t prioritised.
Not only this but online harassment and bullying became a common thing after Myspace started focussing on News Corporations’ objectives more. There were severe cases of sex offenders trying to harass small children online. This not only raised questions on social media regulation but also harmed the reputation of Myspace as a safe space.
The anger raged when there were suicide cases due to online harassment and money-draining people. There were many cases and lawsuits against Myspace and it couldn’t handle them well. Raged people complained that they did not want their children to be a part of such a platform which could induce negativity and leads to suicidal activities.
Does Myspace Still Exist?
Today when various social networking platforms exist, where is Myspace? Myspace has been attempting to increase its efforts in the music industry ever since. It occasionally adds new music features, collaborations, and so on. It still exists as a social media site but it is primarily dedicated to music.
Myspace Website in 2022
Despite multiple rebranding attempts, MySpace hasn’t ever come close to winning back what it used to have, and News Corp sold MySpace to Time Inc in 2011 for an undisclosed sum, originally supposed to be $35 million.
The site still exists as a music-focused social media platform, but it is typically much smaller and nowhere near the powerhouse it once was. In 2019, it had to make a public apology for losing 12 years of online content matter during a server migration.
Myspace accidentally lost all the music uploaded from its first 12 years in a server migration, losing over 50 million songs from 14 million artists. https://t.co/OyKB5Dxtw9
All this accounts for Myspaces’ fateful failure and the position it is in today. The platform could have performed better had it focussed on its sole purpose of connecting people instead of generating revenue from ads etc.
FAQs
How did myspace fail to adapt?
Mindspace had aggressive ads, it had a clumsy website design and the social media didn’t add new features.
Why did myspace fail and Facebook succeed?
Myspace was a platform that allowed users to use a nickname instead of their real name as Facebook allowed users to use their real name which was one of the reasons why Myspace failed.
What ended Myspace?
There were many legal battles against myspace as people misused the platform to harass or bully others.
“Be Positive”, “everything happens for a reason”, “It will be alright, be positive, take a chill pill”. We all have heard this, we all have been there, heard that. People say these lines all the time.
Do you ever get bored of these repetitive lines, phrases, Hopeless motivations, and everything like these, then my friend you are feeling right. Not in a sense that someone has to tell you how you should feel but if you can be sure about how you are feeling then Kudos mate, you’re good to go ahead. So yeah, back to the question, how much positivity is too much positivity?
Well, this makes a good question. If you think that positivity can not be bad then you are probably wrong. If you start in this direction of thinking, then you will encounter and find something called “Toxic positivity”. This term has become very famous in the past years.
Because social media is the new world that we live in, positivity has risen to its very excess. Excess positivity is toxic positivity. This is an article that talks about toxic positivity, how it has been affecting us, and how it has been monetized by people in the business world. We will discuss how being positive has become a huge industry. Read on to the article to debunk myths about positivity and everything about motivation.
Toxic positivity is a term used to denote the super positive persona that people try to wear on themselves, to appear cool and good. It is “So much positivity” that it is toxic. It has everything to do with your mental space, it hurts your mental space so well and devastates it to the very core. There can be many reasons why it can be a thief of your mental peace.
First and foremost of all the reasons, it is unrealistic. Excess positivity does not enable you to watch the full picture and thus, you get a lopsided view of the society and situations around you. The rise of influencers has also boosted this trend. They don’t mean it but the idea is communicated indirectly to their followers of them.
“Toxic positivity is the assumption, either by one’s self or others, that despite a person’s emotional pain or difficult situation, they should only have a positive mindset or — my pet peeve term — ‘positive vibes,’” explains Dr. Jaime Zuckerman, a clinical psychologist in Pennsylvania who specializes in, among other things, anxiety disorders and self-esteem.
Quite literally anything can become and take shape of toxic positivity. It can be your cute cousin, who speaks highly of you and motivates you to look on the brighter side.
It can be your friend that repeatedly posts about the productive geek that they have become during the pandemic. It can be a meme that tells you to focus on the brighter side, be positive and change your outlet etcetera. Or it can be you and your feelings that you should not pay attention to sadness, loneliness, and anxiety.
A person that is suffering from toxic positivity feels that all his/her emotions are not worth feeling. Every negative emotion is seen as inherently bad. Instead of validating these necessary negative feelings, the person is forced to have a good outlook, and happiness is compulsively pushed.
This affects the authentic human emotional experiences, they become minimized and even denied. This leads to constipation (Not of the digestive sort but) of the emotional sort.
“The pressure to appear ‘OK’ invalidates the range of emotions we all experience,” says Carolyn Karoll, a psychotherapist in Baltimore, Maryland. “It can give the impression that you are defective when you feel distressed, which can be internalized in a core belief that you are inadequate or weak.”
Karoll continues: “Judging yourself for feeling pain, sadness, jealousy — which are part of the human experience and are transient emotions — leads to what is referred to as secondary emotions, such as shame, that are much more intense and maladaptive. “They distract us from the problem at hand, and [they] don’t give space for self-compassion, which is so vital to our mental health.”
A psychotherapist named Zuckerman also suggested that “toxic positivity, at its core, is an avoidance strategy used to push away and invalidate any internal discomfort.” But when you avoid your emotions, you cause more harm.
The world has seen enormous shifts in the technology sector. We have invented social media from which we can stay connected to a person even when he/she is far away from us. This factor of social media is really helpful and useful but it also has its shortcomings. If anything good can be surfaced online within a few seconds, anything bad can be surfaced too within a short period.
In this article, we will talk about the phenomenon of excess positivity, otherwise known and addressed as toxic positivity. Let us see first what makes the term “Excess positivity” or “Toxic positivity” really toxic. We will also have to look at its downfalls and its disadvantages for that matter. The next paragraph talks about the same.
There can be many reasons that we may ignore but they can turn anything positive, more toxic. If you want to avoid any sort of toxicity in your life, then you must know about the disadvantages of that. Just like we discuss the disease and read about its symptoms. Toxic positivity is also some sort of mental disease, which has the following downfalls –
It is Super Unrealistic
If a person always looks on the positive side of every situation, then he/she chooses to avoid reality because reality is of all sorts. The term “Positivity” refers to a situation when a person thinks and sees only the positives, which in turn hides the true nature of real life.
Most of the time, the reality is amusing and has negatives and some downsides too, if you choose to always look at the positives then you won’t see the big picture. A toxic positive person will always get a lopsided view of the world. It is often used as a quick fix mantra that will whitewash the reality, giving you only the sugar-coated reality. Thus, toxic positivity hides from you the true nature of reality and if you cannot face reality in its true colors then you will miss out on a lot of new emotions and actions.
Positivity was Rare and Now it is Toxic
As we mentioned in a brief earlier that with advancements in our technology and social media, we have led to a point in time when information travels faster than light. Just open any social media, be it Instagram, Twitter, or any other, and you will notice at least ten posts of self-belief and positivity and motivation on your timeline as well.
If we talk about the past, we can notice that the rates at which information(and positivity and motivation) traveled were about a zillion times less than what it is today.
Positivity was a rare phenomenon in the past but it has now risen above and has been taken in excess amounts. Taking in excess amounts of positivity can lead to unrealism, where a person refuses to believe how bad a situation is. It is not always about hope, it is mostly about positive action.
Denied Basic Human Emotions
What we see increasingly in this new tech world is the fact that our fellows are denying basic human emotions. We are too much online that now we just tend to follow whatever we see online.
If everyone is positive online, we will also try to be mostly positive irrespective of our situations in real life. This is the only difference between real and reel life. The online personal management system of people is now forcing people to be more positive and dismiss negative emotions as nothing at all.
As per the study done by the ScienceofPeople team, 75% of people tend to ignore their feeling to remain happy.
Counterintuitively, one more thing that we are witnessing these days is the value of online posting has decreased a bit and now people are trying to be their real selves on social media floors. Social media has become more and more casual now.
Expecting the Best, Feeling worse
Some studies have concluded that when human beings make their happiness of high value and expensive to attain, it leads to less and less happiness and in some cases even degraded happiness or sadness. This phenomenon happens best when people try to expect happiness from someone or some event or something.
This tendency to expect happiness and then feel degraded in that sphere and then blame yourself for feeling bad is a depressing spiral. It can lead down and more down to one’s depression. These symptoms, if not thought of earlier, would lead to more personal conflicts and deficits.
Valuing Happiness and Prioritizing Positivity
Another difference between more and more toxic positivity and happiness is that the former is not often valued and the latter is always prioritized. You have to learn the difference between wanting happiness and prioritizing positivity.
What you want is happiness and that is something that you should prioritize. Positivity on the other hand comes when you face real life as it is, without a single bias and cognitive prejudice.
A Whole Industry That Operates and Thrives on Positivity (And Motivation)
Then comes the capitalists. Capitalists can make money out of anything and everything. As we see the recent rise in positivity rates, we can also see brand marketing changing and adapting to the societal change that we are witnessing.
Kunal Shah’s Tweet
The Indian Entrepreneur Kunal Shah recently tweeted that the highest-selling book in any year is about the maximum units of 1.5 lakhs and the most popular books that are also the highest-selling books are in the genre of “Motivation”. It is something that we all have seen, you go to Amazon or Flipkart, or any other E-commerce website. The most popular book will be motivational.
He further added that buying motivational books is like buying sports shoes, both of them feel good. The joy of buying each of them is as if you have solved all your problems. Most people don’t use all except for status-seeking.
So, What is the one characteristic that motivates things to have that makes them bestsellers?
It is the fact that they make you feel good. All the motivational content on YouTube, every book that has anything motivational written on them, every Nike sports shoe that reminds you of some pro-level athlete, all of these things are made to give you some dopamine hit that eventually makes you feel good.
Once you see that YouTube video, buy that bestselling book, or that sports shoes, you are again back to zero, with nothing substantial in your hands. Motivation has got a lot to do with business than it has got to do with achieving goals or smashing workouts.
Most businesses have shifted to Storytelling as a method of marketing. The reason behind such a big move is the fact that humans are social and emotional beings, we react to a story or some emotional appeal the best. Thus, most brands you will see can be seen advertising with a theme of a story, motivation, or of creating or of pushing the limits, or anything positively emotional and contagious.
You can see Nike glorifying athletes and making people want to play some sport and work hard and become better at it.
We can see Apple trend the hashtag “Behind the Mac”, which says people are building great things behind the Macintosh, that advertisement is synonymous with professionals that work on creating something from scratch.
All these things are not bad but extremely fascinating to see and witness. These big brands aren’t just trying to market their products but they make the consumers a part of the storytelling and motivation campaign and thus increase customer loyalty.
We don’t see that trend in brands only but we can see it within people too. Some humans try to spread positivity so much that it just seems unreal. We can assume that they are doing it for the likes and engagement that they get after they say something positive in the public or on social media.
If you search for a hashtag of ‘positive’ or ‘positivity’ you will find thousands or even millions of posts. When some social media pages try to wear the positive hat, it is for the fact that it reaches maximum engagement and there are only a few times when they want people happy and positive. Most of the time, it is about vanity metrics.
Positivity Hashtag Instagram
Knowing the Limits of Positivity and Motivational Dopamine
I named the paragraph positivity and motivational dopamine because it is just hormonal imbalances in your body, nothing more. A positive outlook toward life and well-being will help but you need to know the limits of your involvement. You should know when this self helps cliched sort of topic is turning into mere entertainment for you.
Omnipresence around you
If you see positivity and motivation stickers or posts or products always around you. It can be on your social media timeline, and elsewhere. If you are covered in these ‘safe looking’ drugs then it’s time to cut short the relationship.
Always being exposed to these can affect your mental peace and happiness. It’s important to take regular breaks and know your boundaries.
Reports proved that suppressing feelings can cause more internal, psychological stress. Thus, avoidance or suppression of emotional discomfort leads to increased anxiety, depression, and overall worsening of mental health.
Know the Boundaries
Well, we all know when we are wasting time on our smartphone, on a product that we don’t want. We should be very much aware of the boundaries of positivity. Anything that is pro positivity we should be skeptical about it.
You should know when you are hiding behind excuses of not facing the reality as it is. The reason is that when you use these self-help and quick-fix mantras without knowing the actual substance behind them, that is when they fall short of benefits. That is when these quick fixes turn into more of a long-term disaster.
Initially, it might seem to make your life better and fill you with newfound confidence and new optimism but that newfound hope is limited to some shorter extent. Thus, know your boundaries of inactiveness and your boundaries of excuses for not facing reality.
Practice Mindfulness
Living in the moment and feeling and owning whatever you are at this moment is a great way to kick-start thinking in this direction. You can practice mindfulness which will help you get over these quick fixes like ‘positive thinking.
It won’t happen quickly, rather it is a very painful slow process. But you have to endure the pain of learning to manage your emotions well. That is essentially the first step you take in conquering the world.
If you notice any negativity of any sort, don’t judge yourself on that basis only, you are much more than that. Instead of quick judgment, you can make a mental note of it and then simply move on. It’s important to be mindful of them and validate your negative feelings and acknowledge the information they are giving us without losing ourselves in them.
Be Realistic
Weirdly, people have to be forced to learn this simple thing. But it is usual in an unusual sort of time that we live in. The hack here is to be realistic, to make reality the topmost priority. It means to face the reality as it is and not as one would want it to be. It is important to be courageous and not be scared of facing anything new. That is the motto for braves: Be realistic!
As per the report of the ScienceofPeople team, 67.8% of people have experienced toxic positivity during the last week.
Avoid Ignoring or Stuffing your Emotions
This point is the consequence and crux of all the discussions above. It is very important to validate your emotions. Those emotions can be of any sort, positive or negative, any shape or size, know that you are feeling those.
If you try to deny these emotions, one thing is sure these natural hormonal feelings will not vanish, they will come up in uglier ways. Hiding or denying your negative emotions and wearing a fake happy broad face will constipate you (Not digestively but emotionally). Thus positivity is good but validating every feeling that you feel inside is the BEST. Simply, Go for it. Own what you are feeling.
In this newfound world of social media and hi-technology, it seems that everything is fine and happy (At least on social media). But in the real world, it is more twisted and full of turns. The world is not all sort of fairytale and positivity is quite rare in nature.
When we hop on the trend of seeing positivity everywhere, we are essentially trying to forcefully shape reality to fit our own lens. It might feel good for the short term as it really fills you with a newly found hope and more energy to do more but essentially it is short term and it has its end sometime soon.
In the end, we just want to remind you of the fact that we should be mindful and aware of which trend you hop on. If you still want to go with positivity hype, know the boundaries. It’s OK not to be OK right now — in fact, it’s normal.
FAQs
What is considered toxic positivity?
In simple terms, toxic positivity is the obsession to believe and take everything as positively. It also means to put up a facade or believe everything is positive even at times when it is not at all a good picture.
Why toxic positivity is harmful?
Toxic positivity denies the person their share of sympathy by making them put up the face of being positive. This also breaks a person emotionally by distancing them from sharing their real emotions and feelings.
What are the signs of toxic positivity?
There is a number of signs associated with the presence of toxic positivity. The actual signs can also differ for each individual. Some of the common signs are ignoring the true feeling and still pretending to let it go, hiding the real feeling because of some unknown fear, dismissing the problems rather than facing them, etc.
What is toxic empathy?
Toxic empathy stands for a feeling when one gets disturbed and takes the burden of someone else emotions. It can also be referred to as when someone over-do their line and takes someone else’s feeling as their own.
Startup culture is a key element of most corporate organizations. Startup culture has received a lot of attention in recent times, which is because it plays a vital role in improving the overall experience at work and some are seamlessly integrating work into their life.
By fixing a startup culture, a company by itself can set an example for the employees which will create a base for supporting the work and improving the internal operations of the work. Applying this, makes the contribution more valuable and results in better personal satisfaction.
Since startups are often run by a small team working closely together, their “startup culture” is typically a reflection of the founding of the team’s passions and personalities. In most situations, every individual working in the startup usually contributes to the overall culture.
While culture can take several years to evolve passively some corporations have been able to change their culture reasonably quickly by specifying a new set of behaviors that are expected from their employees.
The common factor between corporates and startups is that their culture is the driving force of the organization. It includes how the employees of a certain company form and communicate ideas, how they behave, respond to customers, and bring themselves to work.
It is the reflection of what the company stands for and the working styles of the founders and employees, which is why startup culture is important in what makes a company successful and brings it to the list of best startups.
When someone talks about Startup Culture, it usually includes happy hours, unlimited PTOs, pet-friendly offices, ping pong tables, zen rooms, etc., which are beneficial for the startup employees, increases comfort, and spark creativity.
However adding benefits and perks isn’t enough to make a successful startup culture, many first-time startup founders struggle to define their culture from the beginning, only to realize its impact on the operational side of the business.
To thrive in the new decade entrepreneurs and founders have to know how to define and cultivate a startup culture according to their companies. Sometimes the right technology helps in making the vibrant culture easier to implement across geographical boundaries.
With the unprecedented times of the Covid-19, a variety of applications help employees to collaborate in a real-time, video conference, message, and work on the same version of documents from different parts of the world.
What a healthy work culture must contain
With people working across time zones and locations, it’s never been easier to reward and recognize great staff and projects. We think we have the right cultural guidelines in place but, like any startup, we know just how important it is to continue demonstrating the behaviors we want to instill throughout the business if we are to be successful.
Successful startup culture in the following ways:
Lead by example and actively demonstrate the behaviors that are expected from the team.
Call out positive behaviors publicly, recognize and appreciate when someone does a good job.
Document our culture statement and workshop with our team to promote a shared goal.
Share the success metrics with the employees so they know the goal but also how we’re tracking towards those collective efforts.
Treat everything as an experiment, take the time to discuss and learn from failures while doubling down on the successes. Ultimately, we know that execution and delivery will determine our success but behind the scenes, our culture will be the driving force.
Importance of a Startup Culture in an Organization
In 2022, workplace culture will continue to be as important as or more important than products and services. More than ever, founders will need to prioritize defining company culture from the beginning before it’s too late. The investments of focus, time, and resources will pay off higher talent, better communication, increased productivity, and customer loyalty.
For startups, the impact of every team member’s attitude and productivity is exponential. Even simple cultural components, like a set of common values, can align workers under a single, identifiable banner.
According to Glassdoors 2019 mission and culture survey before applying for a job, nearly four in five employees and job seekers consider a company’s mission and culture. This is important because 65% of 18 to 35-year-olds are likely to culture over salary, that higher than any age demographic surveyed.
Employee’s preference for the work culture over the compensation in percentage
Workplace culture also affects the bottom line, even if a company manages to attract the best turnover, decreased motivation, and overall decreased productivity.
The importance of company culture is getting a lot of attention these days, especially in the startup world. Tech giants like Google have made a name for themselves by offering unique, sometimes luxurious benefits to their employees, while small offices are changing the rules of office culture with perks like unlimited vacation time and flexible hours.
In the 2019 Employee Engagement Report of TINYpulse, about 43% of the 25,000 employee respondents across 20 industries said that they would leave their companies even for a marginal hike because of weak company culture.
The importance of work culture
5 Ways to Improve Work Culture of an Organization
The startup culture of a workplace can be improved for better reasons. However, it can also get degraded if proper care is not taken of the work culture from time to time. Shared below is the 5 basic tips that can help in improving the work culture of a startup.
Giving importance to the mission of the company
The first step of making a company culture is to establish a clear set of priorities that align with the company’s overall goals. For example, Google’s mission statement is “Don’t be evil”. This applies at the corporate level, as the company strives to do as much good as possible, but also at an employee level.
Employees who keep their core mission at heart will be more likely to stick with it, helping the company stay on track with its identity and purpose. A company with a strong purpose may be able to encourage more individuals to buy into that purpose and complete the feedback loop.
Attract new talented employees
Every organization needs talented employees in order to succeed, but getting talented people to join the company can be challenging. The companies spend a lot posting job ads, hiring professional recruits, or head hunting at professional networking events, but sometimes this approach is easier for well-established companies as they already have a well-known name and brand.
Talented candidates are always picky about where they want to work and also expect more than higher salaries which is usually an office culture that matches their personalities.
Retaining employees
attracting and retaining employees
Finding new employees is good but training them and integrating them into your company takes time, costs money, and may lower overall morale. With a strong company culture that encourages people to come to work every day your retention numbers should go up because employee retention and company culture have a self-sustaining relationship.
The stronger your work culture is, the more likely it is for employees to stay loyal to the company, and while the more employees stick around the work culture will get stronger. The key is to find a core team of people who fit your culture perfectly, and keep them happy and consistent as your company grows.
Encouraging passion
Every company must have passionate employees as they are more productive, creative, and come up with innovative startup ideas. This can be achieved by giving people an ideal cultural environment in which to work is about more than just preventing them from quitting.
As per the study done on Glassdoor, 53% of employees stated that they will stay longer at their firm if they are appreciated
A good work culture can lead to employee satisfaction which makes them passionate about doing their job while also being invested and loyal to their works place. In a way, a company culture is a tool that keeps employees happy enough to produce their best work and that means the company can push new boundaries and tread new ground.
A Unique Brand Identity
Great internal startup culture can develop a distinguishing reputation for your brand, in an external context. Unique brands always have an edge over brands that blend in with the competition, so the stronger your culture is, the stronger your brand can perform.
Company culture is more than a brand, too, and it’s more than just a great series of benefits that are provided to the employees. It’s the combination of environmental, atmospheric, and practical conditions that keeps your company and more than just a bunch of individuals who happen to work in the same physical space.
Conclusion
Work culture or the startup culture is not a new topic to learn about. However, in the past few years, the discussion on the work culture and its effect on startup success have seen taking place. This is because for almost many startups, having a better work culture was never pondered over.
Irrespective of the earlier negligence, it is the right time now to learn more about work culture and the ways it can be improved for better productivity of employees indirectly resulting in a success of a startup.
FAQs
What is meant by work culture?
Work culture stands for the ethics and morals of the workplace individuals. It also indirectly defines the organization’s value.
Why is work culture so important?
Work culture directly or indirectly affects the working pattern of each employee. Having a satisfactory work culture can provide better yield from employees which will eventually contribute to the success ladder of the organization. Failing to provide better work culture will also have an adverse effect on the organization’s value. Hence, work culture is an important aspect to give attention to.
Why is culture important in a team?
The team is required to work with each other cordially. Having a team member with unfit work culture will eventually create a distance among team members. Once the team members drift apart from each other no better work response can be expected from the team due to un-cooperative people. Hence, having a culture is also essential in the team.
What is the Difference Between Startup Culture and Corporate Culture?
A startup environment is typically a fast-paced culture in which creativity and communication are valued. Startup culture is often perceived as being less formal than that of a corporate environment and usually puts less emphasis on hierarchy within teams.
Infosys is one of the global leaders with its presence in over 50 countries and around 130 development centers in the world. There are over 3,14,000 employees in the organization with over 200 offices spread across the globe. It is also a globally certified, top employer. Headquartered in Bengaluru, the IT Services and consulting company has become the 2nd most valuable Indian brand. The company manages thousands of projects with excellence. Let us get insights into how Infosys sources its skill power to several locations around the globe and manages its project to create value for its clients.
The founder of Infosys is N.R. Narayana Murthy. He started the company in 1981 with only 10,000 rupees in his hand, borrowed from his family and six of his co-workers from his previous workplace.
The company managed without having a computer booth for two years.
It took them the same two years to get the computer that Mr. Murthy wanted.
The company could not afford to import data initially.
One might assume that being one of the company’s founders, the first employee at Infosys was Mr. Narayan Murthy. However, it was not Mr. Murthy but N. S. Raghavan who was the first employee.
The company was on the brink of collapsing after eight years. When one of their founders, Mr. Ashok Arora, left the company in 1989 and handed over the responsibilities to Mr. Murthy.
Milestones Achieved by Infosys
Infosys has achieved many heights till now, some of which are:
Infosys became the first Indian I.T. company to get listed on NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations)
While the world was still trying to overcome the biggest financial scam of 1992, Infosys finally became public in 1993. Its IPO was 13% subscribed.
It has received the 2021 Frost and Sullivan Strategy Leadership Award.
It was made public in the year 1993, opening the first Iraq-based sales, and won contracts for developing mission-critical software for very high-profile companies like Nordstrom and Nortel; from 1990 to 2001, revenue grew at over 80% per year.
In 1999, Infosys hired its 300th employee and became the first Indian-registered company listed on the Nasdaq. Its revenue that year reached 100 million US dollars.
The company now has its presence in over 50 countries, with over four decades of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises.
Infosys has an arsenal of 260k+ employees and 1,659 trusted clients.
Infosys Business Model
A business model is a company’s core strategy for profitably doing business. It includes information like products or services the business plans to sell, its target markets, and any expected expenses. Since its inception, Infosys has been the face of the Indian IT sector. Its business model caters to two categories: IT Consulting and IT Services.
In its initial years, Infosys focused primarily on international markets, such as the US and UK. The Global Delivery Model (GDM) was its primary business model. During the 1990s, Infosys concentrated on a few sectors, such as banking and finance, and manufacturing. Infosys’ exponential growth is because they charge a lower premium than companies like Accenture and IBM.
Consistent growth is very necessary for any business to maintain its existence. By increasing its per capita revenue, visibility in the business, client portfolio, and changing its investment strategies, Infosys has maintained a consistent growth record.
Infosys Partnership Strategy
Infosys created a unique system that transforms its clients into partners. Their long-term success has been greatly enhanced by this partnership strategy. The investments made by these partners have allowed them to make significant profits.
Infosys Global Presence
The company has built a network of branches across the globe, which allows its services to be provided in many countries. They have branches in the United States, India, Europe, China, Australia, Japan, and the Middle East. The company has 116 development centers, 84 sales and marketing offices, and 18 international offices.
Infosys’ revenue generation model is considered one of the top development systems in the IT industry. Among its revenue-generating activities are:
Enhancing Process – The incorporation of cutting-edge technologies and gathering data from external sources helps them save time and improve their efficiency against their competitors.
Increasing Profit Margin – Outsourcing their work to offshore branches allows them to increase their profit margins.
Increasing Reuse – With years of experience, expertise in management systems, and their Knowledge Currency Units, Infosys has an advantage over its competitors.
Small Steps to Giant Leaps – A Center of Excellence in every business unit has enabled them to fund projects on broader scales.
Global Delivery Model – Infosys generates approximately two-thirds of its revenues from the North American market thanks to its strategic IT services and professional consulting.
Conclusion
Infosys has become one of the top companies in the I.T. industry. The key takeaways from the company’s success story are:
As a result of the inspiration of the founders, it is one of the most respected companies in the world.
Setbacks happen, but that does not mean you do not take risks and embrace change.
Keep yourself updated with cutting-edge technology to get an advantage over your competitors.
Having a global presence can help you reach more clients.
Have a strategy that works the best for you.
The strategy to expand its services in different corners of the world, the acquisition opportunities, creating trust and value for its clients, and a proper profitable business model made the Company grow so huge. Infosys has amplified the potential and opportunities for people and businesses. It is among the most valued Indian companies leading the IT Service industry globally for years.
FAQs
When was Infosys founded?
Infosys was founded in 1981 in Pune.
Who is the founder of Infosys?
N.R. Narayana Murthy is the founder of Infosys.
Who is the CEO of Infosys?
Salil Parekh is the CEO of Infosys since 2018.
What is the revenue of Infosys?
The global revenue of Infosys Limited amounted to about $13.56 billion in FY2021.
Shubham Kumar
