I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.

                                                                 — The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Like the celebrated science fiction writer Douglas Adams I too love the whooshing sound made by a deadline when it passes by. But my clients do not share this view, and I am sure, neither does yours. And thus we are forced to work around time. But despite all our good intentions, we fail to meet deadlines, at time.

This particular problem chases many freelance writers, and quite many of them fail to out-speed it, which leaves them panting and gasping for more air. And at this point they wonder — is it possible humanly possible to meet the deadline?

Because of dejection, they get no as an answer despite the fact that deep in their hearts they know it is possible. This article is for those people. It will help them manage their deadlines, and if you are one of them then for sure, you will stop fearing deadlines after reading this.

Do not chew more than you can swallow

I know this is oft quoted maxim, but still it is not oft used. People, more often than we think is possible, end up taking more than mouthful. And this cannot be truer for anyone than for a freelance writer. Partly because of greed, and partly due to morbid fear of losing a client, a freelance writer ends up taking more projects than he can finish in a day.

Allocate adequate time

This is another problem. In a rush to convince oneself of having free time available for one more client, a freelance writer often end up allocating adequate time to a project, in the planning phase, which come to haunt him when he starts working on it.

Cannot say no

This is another reason behind a freelance writer’s failure to meet the deadline. It is the fear of losing a client, a freelance writer end up accepting unrealistic deadline, which they can never meet.

These are the three main reasons why you are constantly behind your deadlines. Remove them from your daily routine, and you will always be on time.

A group discussion typically works in three phases –

• Introduction
• Body of the GD
• Conclusion

Introduction and conclusion of the GD are the most important phases, as these phases help impressing the examiner.

Introduction stage of GD is your opportunity to write your destiny. This is your first chance to impress the examiner. While you initiate the discussion you not only grab the opportunity to speak first, but you equally draw attention of the examiner and other candidates. First impression lasts for long. If you can kick-off with a good start (on basis of content, logic and your communication skill), the ball is already in your court. Don’t get numb or stuck soon after the introduction, it shows you started with a bang just for the sake of drawing attention. Maintain your participation throughout and make sure you are heard. On the other hand don’t jump into the well and start before others; if you are not confident about the topic. A hollow start brings negative marks. You are supposed to put things in the right perspective of framework. Some handy points which can help you to try a good start are –

• Definition of the topic in hand
• Related quotes
• Questions
• Shock statement
• Facts and figures (along with credible source)
• Short story
• General statement

Conclusion stage of GD is equally important. Every GD is summarized. Summarize what the group has discussed during GD, in a nutshell. It could be a conclusion either in favour or against the given topic. While concluding don’t raise new points again, avoid putting personal opinion or perceptions, avoid rigidity towards one aspect, keep your views short and crisp, don’t add anything new apart from the already discussed points.

Examiner not only pays attention towards your spoken words; but also sees through your personality traits and non-verbal communication aspects like –

• Ability to work in team
• Reasoning ability
• Communication skill
• Leadership skill
• Persuasion skill
• Assertiveness yet humbleness
• Pro-active attitude
• Flexibility
• Creativity
• Independent thinking process
• Time management
• Body language
• Patience and tolerance

When these things are taken care of, a big win is not far from you.

Or is it so?

I don’t care what you are told, but as far as I am concerned, this is not going to happen. It is always the small business that has an upper hand while dealing with customers or fulfilling their need, or even when fighting with big giants.

Why?

Because…

• It is the David who always wins the battle.
• It is the David who clicks with the masses.
• It is the David who knows to connect.
• It is the David who does not underestimate the competitor, and prepare the strategy accordingly.
• It is the David who does not become myopic.
• It is the David who tries harder.
• It is the David whose life is at stake.

Goliaths (big corporations) are managed by managers, they are not owned by them. And the distance f ownership from those who runs it plays a big role in deciding how much power one exerts.

The small business owners understand that if he loses his livelihood will go for a toss, so he fights. Contrary to this, a manager thinks: how does it matter if his corporation wins or loses now or in the long term. Neither losing nor winning is going to affect the paycheck he is drawing every month. The manager feels satisfied as long as the target set for him by his superior is met.

It is about the target, not about the customers or their satisfaction.

This is not so with small business owners. Go to a neighborhood shop, and he will cordially greet you and will ask for your well-being. You will not receive the same warmth from big giants. Indeed, they will greet you, but you also know how superficial and greed-dipped it is.

Small business do have a chance to stand against big business, but for them they have to stop pretending that they are big, and start behaving what they are. They will have to connect with the audience, and give personal touch to all the interaction with every customer.

Follow this and you will defeat the goliath (giant company) sooner than you ever expected.

Definition of Marketing

“Meeting needs profitably” is the core on which the gigantic frame of marketing is standing. And when I say, marketing meets everyone’s needs profitably then I mean it for every stake holder. For consumer it is to buy solution at the best possible price, for organization it is to grow at rapid pace, for investor it means to maximize the return on Investment, and for marketer it means meeting their goals.

How can we achieve this goal

All these needs are not mutually exclusive; they can be met all at once. But for this one need to broaden one’s horizon to include other’s point of view as well. To achieve this we need to consider the following:

• Marketers need to be honest when assessing consumer’s need and/or when selling their products to meet their monthly, quarterly, or yearly target.
• Investor needs to empathize with the consumer, and marketer who are interacting in the market. They should not just focus on more and more and even more return. Being too greedy is not the answer to their problem.
• A business should understand that the number of consumers will always be limited, so they should avoid getting trapped in “perennial growth” cycle. Growth in market share, sales volume, profit, etc., should be chased but not as fiercely as companies are doing. Too much greed is not good.
• Consumers should learn to trust the marketers, and should tell them about their needs, desires, ambitions, values, etc.
• Consumers need to understand that they need marketing and marketer to search for the solutions to their problems. Marketers are not some crooked wizard.
• Consumers need to understand that for them marketer is a time-saving device, a need analyzer, and a search engine that help them find what they need.
• Regulator should see if everything is going all right. Regulator should be honest in analyzing the market condition, and if everyone is doing what he or she is required to do.
• Businesses, marketers, and investor need to be more socially responsible. They need to care for the well-being of consumers. They should think of how they can make a world a better place.

Do not think that I am someone else. I, myself is a marketer, but like most of my fellow, I do not take people for a ride.

A similar need has risen in the wake of the current corporate fiasco. This time the reason for the failure is the greed and shortsightedness of the corporate executives, of the managers who run the company and the world economy under the disguise of inspirational leaders. Their greed and focus for short term profit led the whole world to the economic crevasse, a crevasse so deep that coming out from here is very tough and will require the strength of character that is lacking in today’s’ business executives, and even if we come out of this crevasse and the economy revives, the world will never be the same again. The base has already shifted, and now an altogether different type of management style is needed to run business; now we need some truly inspirational business leaders who can pull us single handedly out of this fissure.

If the time is good, movement is easy, and when we do not need to exert ourselves to move ahead then we need someone just to look after the entire process, and to point out if something goes wrong, which rarely does. In such times we need a manager, who does not need to be inspirational or charismatic, he should only be diligent.

But, if the time is not favourable, and things started falling apart, these managers render themselves useless. In situation like these we need true leaders. The leader who can pull even the last one of us out from the deep crevasse we are stuck into by the sheer strength of his character. In such situations, we need someone to inspire us, someone to motivate us and instill the lost self belief in us. This is not the time, when dictating task and measuring the performance records will fetch any result. These tools were made for the time when things were normal, not for the time when everything has fallen apart. They will not be of any more use, but unaware of these facts today’s business managers are continuously using the same set of tools, which led them to this disaster, and the more they use it the deeper we fall in the trench.

This is the time when a fresh thinking is needed to assess and deliver the solution that was never heard of before. We need to understand that we cannot solve the problem with the mindset in which the problem was created. We need to shift the paradigm, we need to do away with the managers and their old way of thinking, and replace them with visionary leaders and their innovative ideas. We need to look for the leader who has a deep understanding of the situation and who is not scared of trying new things. We do not need those pretentious “been there done that” managers, rather we need an honest leader who accepts that he has not been through everything, and one who has the courage to accept that he doesn’t know the solutions to all the problems, but still he believes that if we work together we can get out of this economy crevasse. This is the style of leadership, which is needed. We need Leadership 2.0 to solve our problems. Like Web 2.0, Leadership 2.0 should also stand for every change that is forthcoming.