Ciera Advisors

17/03/2021

"The business you know, the journey you don’t".The aim of the series "Incredible Business, Exceptional Leader" is to present the entire journey of these busi...

03/03/2021

How do you finalize a strategy that suits your business just right?
Taco Bell is a youth lifestyle brand now.

But there was a time when its only identity was serving cheap Mexican food.

It was an international name back then also.

But the crippling sales and rising competition made them realize that it had to change something in order to survive in the long run.
In order to transform itself, Taco Bell adopted the following strategies:

1. Opening Cantina locations with a more urban touch & upgrading the menu.
2. Revamping interiors with an open kitchen.
3. Launching a clothing line in collaboration with Forever 21.
The transformation helped Taco in positioning the brand among youth.

But how did Taco Bell realize that the shift needs to happen? In what direction? How did they finalize a strategy that was just needed?

For this to be understood well, I am sharing this video with strategy planning framework as 3 step process -

1. Find your strategic priority: Understand what is right for your business: renew, reformulate or regenerate.

2. Select a strategic direction: 7 different directions based on your strategic priority.

3. Identify your basic Business Strategy: Evaluating 27 different strategies suitable for your business.

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Enjoy watching.

Happy Entrepreneurship !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-am57cr2BIY

Welcome to “ #7 - Learn the Art of Business Strategy - Strategy Formulation Process - Introduction to 27 Business Strategies” series. Till now I've spoken abo...

29/12/2020

Do you hear people around talking about high stress levels?That’s become such a common topic of discussion that people have assumed stress and anxiety as par...

16/12/2020

Goal Setting for businesses - How relevant and how easy it can be?

Welcome to " #6 - Learn the Art of Business Strategy - Do you need Goal Setting for Small Businesses".

If you don't know your finish point and start running a race, which direction will you run in?

To make your business decisions and grow your business in a structured way, you need goals, irrespective of size of your business.

In this video, I'm explaining two goal setting frameworks, SMART & OKR, and how to combine these frameworks.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ILJKb9Wxw1c

If you follow this entire series and implement the learning, you will have complete strategy plan for your business at the end.

Please give your comments and do not forget to

Like, Subscribe & Share

Enjoy watching.

Happy Entrepreneurship !

Welcome to “ #6 - Learn the Art of Business Strategy - Do you need Goal Setting for Small Business” series.If you don't know your finish point and running a r...

09/12/2020

#5 - Learn the Art of Business Strategy - How to write your business Vision, Mission and Values.

Welcome to “Learn the Art of Business Strategy” series.Imagine you board the plane but don't know where you want to go. While on the plane, you want to go to...

02/12/2020

Welcome to “Learn the Art of Business Strategy” series. Do you know the position of your business in current environment? If you know this, you can use this ...

24/11/2020

How well do you know your business?

Well, I know my business in and out. This is the biggest myth.

In continuation of my last video on strategy, where I discussed external analysis of a business, here is the next one about internal analysis.

Internal Analysis is about knowing your business well.

Here I’m introducing McKinsey’s 7S framework with an example.

If you follow this entire series and implement the learning, you will have complete strategy plan for your business at the end.

Please give your comments and do not forget to

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Enjoy watching. Happy Entrepreneurship !

Welcome to "Learn the Art of Business Strategy" series. How well do you know your business? "Well, I know my business in and out." This is the biggest myth. ...

11/11/2020

Ramayan has been recognized as the spiritual text. But today I’d like to look at Ramayan from the perspective of entrepreneurship.

I was wondering, are there any lessons which business owners can learn from Ramayan?

And I was surprised when I realised that there are so many lessons.

I’ve categorized learning from Ramayan into 3 categories –

a. Leadership lessons
b. Management lessons and
c. Strategy lessons

Enjoy watching.

https://bit.ly/2GRYv6A

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It’s Diwali... Happiness is in air and I wish you all a very Happy Diwali. Ramayan has been recognized as the spiritual text. But today I’d like to look at Ramayan from the perspective of entrepreneurship. I was wondering, are there any lesson

04/11/2020

Welcome to Learn the Art of Business Strategy series.

In continuation of my last video, when I mentioned that I’m going to simplify the entire process of strategy management for entrepreneurs, here is the first step of strategy management.

This is 2nd video in this series, where I explain how to do external analysis of business.

Business Analysis is when you understand potential of your business viz a viz competition.

Once you understand your business well, strategy planning becomes easy.

External analysis is about understanding the impact of environment and competition. I'm introducing two most effective tools here.

You can also download both the frameworks for environment and competition analysis.

If you follow this entire series and implement the learning, you will have complete strategy plan for your business at the end.

https://youtu.be/911bgK9DJRE

Please give your comments and do not forget to

Like, Subscribe & Share

Enjoy watching. Happy Entrepreneurship !

Welcome to "Learn the Art of Business Strategy" series. In continuation of my last video, when I mentioned that I’m going to simplify the entire process of s...

15/10/2020

Failure is something, we all are scared of.

We want to be successful always. We are told to avoid failure since childhood.

Even then we face failures in life.

I don’t see anybody around who has never failed.

But, we still don’t know how to deal with failure, how to analyse our failure, minimize and learn from them.

If we know how to deal with failure in life, can we convert this failure into an eventual success?

https://youtu.be/N1j1t771wxo

Always remember, Failure is not ETERNAL !

Failure is something, we are scared of. We want to be successful always. We are told to avoid failure since childhood. Even then we face failures in life. I ...

12/08/2019

Jeff Bezos has long maintained that one single attribute separates people of high intelligence from everyone else: the ability and courage to change their minds.

"People who are right a lot listen a lot, and they change their mind a lot. They wake up and reanalyze things and change their mind. If you don't change your mind frequently, you're going to be wrong a lot."

Of course, it's one thing to say that in the abstract. It's another entirely to act on it - especially when changing your mind could cost you money (sunk costs). But, almost as if on cue, Amazon has provided an amazing example of Bezos's observation in action. After investing four years in a restaurant delivery service Amazon said this week that in effect, the company has changed its collective mind. As the Journal went on to explain, food delivery is turning into a "cutthroat market" in which margins are as thin as can be imagine, Uber also lost $1 billion in the first quarter of this year.

So maybe Amazon tried and failed -- or it simply didn't execute effectively, but either way, they learnt a lesson and decided to practice what its founder preaches.

Make the smart decision. And be willing to change your mind.

05/08/2019

Last year, we had released a post on saying no. Here’s an update to that. Specifically on when to say no to funding and when to say no to money.



Investments are like romantic relationships. They can help you when things get tough or put you in an even tougher position. An investor who doesn’t share your vision and dream for your company will become an obstacle to your progress and a major source of frustration. Short term influx of cash is often tempting, however making sure that the investor’s temperament aligns with you is even more important for your business in the long run. At the same time, even If your vision aligns, what might occasionally happen is that you raise too much money. Over-promise and under-deliver. Understanding that every single cent that you take from your investor has to be accounted for and backed by results will keep you from getting greedy as too much of anything can also lead to disaster.



Another scenario is when you might have to say no to a customer. There is a 80/20 rule called the Pareto principle, which states that 80% of your output/results/sales comes from 20% of the sales and this is true even in your business. However, it is also important to understand the compounding and negative effects of this Pareto principle, which is that 4% of your customers (20% of 20%) consume 64% (80% of 80%) of your time and energy. It’s understandable that not everyone can afford to let go of customers, which is why it is important to diversify your customer base and have the power and freedom to choose your customers when you can afford it.