MBA – SEM I Assignment

Student Name: Ashehad Faizy

Roll No: 540910773

Subject Code: MB0023

Subject Name: Business Communication

Q1. Describe three specific situations at the work place where positive non verbal communication could be used effectively to enhance verbal communication.

A. Situation 1: Making a presentation to a team:

There are 4 elements of non verbal communication that you must pay attention to as you practice or make your presentation. They are:

1) Eye contact: Look your audience in the eyes. The number one reason to use good eyecontact is it involves your audience in your presentation. If you look directly at a member of the audience, they are likely to return your gaze, and keep looking at you rather than looking at a paper on the table, staring out the window, or daydreaming.

2) Gestures: It is the movement of your body or limbs to illuminate and emphasize the meaning of your words. Simple hand movements such as holding up the number one with your fingers when you say "my first point is," are appropriate. Gesture can be used to demonstrate how something looks or acts, as well.

3) Posture: Posture is the bearing of your body, your stance. When speaking to an audience, stand straight with your shoulders back, your head centered above your body and your feet shoulder-width apart. Don't slump. Don't lean against the wall.

4) Movement in the speaking-space: When you are provided with a podium or lectern, the tendency is to remain directly behind the lectern for the entire presentation. This can be appropriate. However, do not be afraid to walk around a bit to get closer to the audience

Situation 2: Meeting People:

“The first ten seconds of a meeting determine the impression you make on other people."

When you meet a person for the first time, the first 10 seconds will give an impression, which to a large extent will determine whether you will like this person or not. In these first ten seconds, you will notice impressions like nervousness, seriousness, etc. Therefore the first impression is very important.

Eyes - An important factor in the first contact is the eyes. The eyes should look at the person. If you want to impress the person, you should open your eyes slightly more than usual, since raising the eye brows gives people the impression that they are welcome.

First Meeting - During the first meeting, it is good to look carefully at the other person. If he or she disapproves your behavior, you should adapt your behavior. Also, behavior should be appropriate for the situation. For example, a firm and long hand shaking is quite usual for meeting a friend you havenot seen for a long time, but quite inappropriate on a funeral.

Situation 3: Body language in office meetings:

Reading Body Language : When it is your turn to you are make a contribution, the best way of staying in control and keeping the other participants with you is to keep them interested in what you are saying. Meeting participants who are not actually speaking don't usually think of themselves as being observed.

Encouraging Interaction: In order to make your contribution clearly and concisely, it is often advisable to include a question and answer session at the end, and make this clear at the outset. This will enable you to deliver your message and then end strongly, before entering the relatively unpredictable area oftackling questions from the other participants.

Four Main Aspects: A brilliantly prepared presentation delivered in an interesting voice will often fail to be convincing if it is accompanied by negative, intrusive or hostile body language. There are four main aspects of body language that you should consider; what to do with your eyes, what your facial expressions indicate, the positioning and movement of your body and limbs, and your hand gestures.

Positive Eye Contact: Eye contact is an essential part of any communication. Without it people are unlikely to relate to the message in a meaningful way. Not many people realize how important eye contact is, or how sensitive people are to it. Eye contact should be a positive form of body languagecommunication, but if it is not used correctly it can easily become negative.

Body Language and Stance: If your meeting involves standing up to make your contribution, then youshould be aware that basic aspects of your stance can easily communicate subconscious messages -some of which you will want to avoid. The sort of messages that your stance may convey include:

- The forward sloping – this stance indicates a wish to dominate others. Often this stance is accompanied by an over-stressed point.

- The backward sloping – this stance indicates a speaker who is not happy with their situation. This defensive or submissive stance tends to indicate that they lack confidence in what they are saying and would rather not be there.

Q2. Lateral or horizontal communication is more important today than vertical communication. Do you agree or disagree? Justify your answer.

A. A formal communication network is one which is created by management and described with the help of an Organizational chart. An organizational chart specifies the hierarchy and the reporting system in the organization. Therefore, in a formal network, information is passed on only through official channels such as memos, bulletins and intranet (email within the organization). The organizational chart implies that information can flow in any of three directions – vertically, i.e., upward or downward, and horizontally.

a. Upward Communication - This may be defined as information that flows from subordinates to superiors. This type of communication has both benefits and disadvantages. Oneof the biggest benefits is problem-solving. The biggest problem associated with this type of communication is that it may lead to “handing down” of decisions by superiors.

b. Downward Communication – This may be defined as information that flows from superiors to subordinates. The most common reasons for downward communication are for giving job instructions, explaining company rules, policies and procedures and giving feedback regarding job performance. Downward communication that provides regular feedback will be beneficial if the feedback or review of performance is constructive. The problems with this type of communication are the danger of doingdestructive reviews, as mentioned, and that of “message overload.”

c. Horizontal Communication – This type of communication is also known as “lateral” communication. It may be defined as communication that takes place between co-workers in the same department, or in different departments, with different areas of responsibility. The biggest potential benefit of horizontal communication is the sense of teamwork that is created. The biggest potential problem is that conflicts such as ego clashes are bound to arise, when co-workers at the same level communicate on a regularbasis.

In spite of these problems, horizontal or lateral communication has become more important in today’s business scenario than upward or downward communication. This is because the “organizational pyramid” indicating the different hierarchies or levels in an organization has flattened.

Q3. Imagine that you have to make an oral presentation on the features of the EduNext portal to new students of the SMU MBA program. Prepare an outline of the presentation and specify the following – a) Purpose of the presentation b) Key idea c) Audience analysis d)Delivery style.

A. Statement of Purpose: The main aim of this presentation is to inform new students of SMU MBA program with Edunext web portal recently launched by Sikkim Manipal University. Introduce students about the flexibility of Edunext portal, by high lighting the salient features of this portal that it is an online class room for the students from which they can access to a wide variety of activities like ebooks, Quizzes etc, anytime anywhere by just simply logging in.

Key Idea: Sikkim Manipal University has launched first time in the History of Distance Education in India, the virtual classroom through Edunext. Within the Edunext portal, after logging in, a student can access study materials in the form of an e-workbook with value-added components, attempt quizzes related to his study curriculum interactively, ask questions in the Discussion groups related to his subject of study and will get the reply also either from the LC faculties or the SMU core faculties just sitting in the comfort of his own drawing room. The portal is for bridging the gap between the students and the SMU Head-quarter faculties, for transferring the knowledge of the core-faculties directly to all students, for increasing the interaction between the LC faculties as well as core-faculties and above all for imparting quality education in a more productive way.

Audience Analysis: Making a good presentation alone is not enough. It also has to be tailored to your listeners, in such a way that they understand and appreciate it. The group size of the students is 45 and nearly 50% of the students are new to internet. So the presentation should be more focused towards

those persons in educating them about the advantages of Edunext and how to use it without any difficulty. Explain the user friendliness of the web portal. As the group size is large more time can be devoted for question and answers for making it more interactive. Also nearly 10 participants are not very good at English, hence the presentation could be had at a slower speed so that they can understand the point of discussion. There are around 5 participants who have used the Edunext portal for the first time. We could take an opportunity to request them to share their opinion on this portal.

Delivery Style: The delivery style of the presentation could be Speaking from Notes – because this is generally the most effective style of delivery. I write down the main ideas in point form on index cards and then referring to these cards merely as a trigger while speaking, I can deliver the presentation. Ifthe main ideas are put down briefly on the cards, I can elaborate on these ideas in my own words and speak for any length of time. The presentation is likely to be more effective, since it comes across asnatural and permits eye contact with the audience.

Q4. Write a letter to your distributor, conveying the bad news of one of your product lines being phased out or discontinued, offering some form of compensation in return.

A.Feb20, 2010Mr. Abdulaziz Al Issa, Director,M/s. Issa Distributors,Riyadh,KSA.

Dear Mr. Abdulaziz,

Wish to congratulate you and your team on exceeding the target sales of product A in the previous month. You are one amongst the top 3 distributors in central region. The sale of another product B which we had launched recently is picking up and as per the conversation we had with you; the customers are enquiring about the product B also. You had also mentioned that the lot of 5000 units of product B, which we have supplied earlier to monitor sales; have completely sold out and you have requested another 5000 units of product B.

One of our product lines which manufacture product B was discontinued because of some major technical problems. We regret to inform you that we will not be able to supply the requested number of units’ of product B for 15 more days. We regret the inconvenience caused. However, we could provide you with an additional of 500 units after 15 days free of cost. This would help you in covering thelosses incurred to some extent.

As an experienced distributor with us, would request you to bear with us in this critical time and provide your continual support.

Sincerely,Distributor Relations RepresentativeAshehad Faizy.

Q5. As a Sales Manager, prepare a one page report in memo format addressed to the VP Marketing,providing sales updates for a newly launched FMCG product.

A.

MEMOTo : The VP MarketingFrom : Sales ManagerDate : Feb 20, 2010

Subject : Sales update for a newly launched Soap “ NUNU”.

We had launched the “NUNU” Soap, a new FMCG product last month. I was given the Riyadh territory for promoting and monitoring sales of the product. Wish to update you that our sales of this product are almost equal to the sale of our earlier soap “FOAMY”, i.e., 30000 units.

I have done an in depth analysis of the current market situation in my territory. Although several new entrants and our existing competitors have done well, we continued to enjoy a good reputation in the market. Although the current rate of sales is encouraging, the future market potential is enormous, pointing towards a positive growth. I would suggest increasing the supply of the product so that there won’t be any short supply of the product; when the sales are at its full swing. I would also recommend to increase our distribution network to suburban parts of Riyadh.

Signed,

Q6. Case Study - Problems with Email communication. Problems with Email communication

Strat Assemble, leading developer of web-based project and detail management services that improve communication and increase productivity, has released a white paper chronicling the growing problems associated with email--"Can Your Business Survive Email?"

The paper recounts the history of email, its changing role in business, and the emergence of new Web 2.0 collaboration tools, such as Strat Assemble's PlanDone, that offer new and better ways for companies to manage their workflow.

Email usage drains workplace resources and hinders the timely completion of projects of all types. Given today's fast pace of business, communication in real-time and keeping staff on the same page are crucial to staying ahead. Yet delays caused by using email to coordinate business-critical data between individuals, departments, and remote locations actually slow productivity.

Top 10 critical email problems:

1. Lack of security

2. Attachment problems

3. Reliability problems

4. Spam clutter

5. Document version confusion

6. Scattered data

7. Unclear project direction

8. Project status confusion

9. Next step priority uncertainty

10. Lack of accountability

"Email has become a barrier to effective communication and productivity. Strat Assemble's PlanDone encourages participation from everyone involved with a project's outcome and is available anytime and anywhere," said Strat Assemble founder AJ Wacaser. "As email problems escalate, the PlanDone solution will become the method of choice for managing day-to-day operations of companies everywhere."

Transferring project and task functions from email to PlanDone's interactive platform helps teams build on each other's work. Ideas and opinions are shared, documented, and refined in constructive ways. Two powerful tools--priority ranking and deadline analysis--help staff focus precisely on first things first each day, ensuring last-minute changes and course corrections don't turn into unmanageable business fires. Unlike most other software, PlanDone supports both individual styles and team methods rather than forcing everyone to conform to one rigid system.

Strat Assemble's motto is "Work smarter. Live happier!" We believe in team creativity and sharing ideas, and are passionate about the collaborative process. Our purpose is to enable and inspire our customers to better manage their knowledgebase and workforces by providing a simple, open platform where every staff member can assemble, participate and contribute--revolutionizing corporate communications and strategic planning.

Questions

1.Evaluate email communication as a tool for internal communication, based on the facts mentioned in the case.

2.How will you adapt email communication to overcome some of the problems mentioned in this case?

A.

Firstly, the advantages are:

Email is effective in providing quick answers to yes and no, type questions. eg. Do you do international delivery? Email is effective in finding the right person in an organization or company to answer your

question. Email is good to make appointments for busy people. Email can distribute information quickly to many people for the time it takes to email one person.

The disadvantages are:

Email can become time consuming for answering complicated questions and misunderstandings can arise because cultural differences in the interpretation of certain words. The telephone, is much better for providing detailed answers or if you feel that the question is not absolutely clear. Email can compromise the security of an organization because sensitive information can be easily distributed accidently or deliberately. Email should be entrusted to well trained and trusted staff members. Email can become impersonal or misunderstood.

Email security : Do not open an attachment or click on a link in an email from someone you don't know. If the content of the email looks suspicious, but it is from someone you know - don't open until you clarify it with the sender first. Trust your intuition or you may end up infected with a computer virus.

Use of Mailing Lists: Email is a highly effective medium of communication but a wise company needs to treat the recipient like a person not a number on a mailing list. Email needs to be personal or else it is regarded as SPAM and sent off to the recycling bin or blocked by the customer.

SPAM: is unsolicited mail. Because it is easy and inexpensive to send email, it is also easy and inexpensive to send junk email. Just because a person joins your mailing list does not necessarily mean that he or she wants to be bombarded with useless information or made feel as you are using the mailing list purely for profit. Email can look really impressive by adopting a brochure format, but unless the pictures are there for a reason and the email engages the reader by providing useful information, then it is better to send a text based email. If you need to display products, then a link inside an email to the page on your web site where the product is displayed is in my opinion a better option. This leads the person back to your web site.

Email tips: Always, greet the customer using their name and end by using your name. To not use a recipient's name makes the customer feel as though you are too busy to care to address them properly. Make sure your contact details are clearly displayed on the end of every email. Your contact details should include your full name and company name, ABN or ACN number, your business phone number, fax number, web site address, mobile phone number, business address and postal address. Always ask the customer if they want to be included on a mailing list before adding them to the mailing list. Terms like 'regards' or 'kind regards' are formal but friendly. When sending out newsletters, make sure they are personal. Imagine that you are the recipient. Treat your customer like a person and not anumber. Do not use subject lines like 'newsletter number 42' or 'company A weekly newsletter'. Make sure that the email title entices the recipient to read the email. Increasingly, large volumes of information means that an email subject title needs to stand out.