Morristown, TN, August 6, 2018 ― Change happens, every day. Sometimes it’s positive. Sometimes it’s negative. How you react to it affects your personal and professional growth on more levels than you might realize.

From marketing expert, business consultant and public relations strategist Ralph Masengill comes an easy-to-read guide that acknowledges the emotions triggered by change and underscores the importance of managing change to bring about positive growth.

From the get-go, Masengill shares his simple secret for success. It’s a three-pronged approach that urges readers to:

1.    Take calculated risks and endorse change on a regular basis.
2.    Learn how change affects your emotions and the emotions of those around you.
3.    And learn how to react to those emotions brought on by change.

Written primarily for business leaders, Conquer Change and Win is sprinkled with humorous anecdotes and easy-to-understand charts and graphs to illustrate his points. The book includes chapters on dealing with difficult people, building a winning change team, decision making during change, the anatomy of a great change agent and creating the best change-management plan possible.

Every one of us is constantly affected by change, so why not have a good understanding of change and make it work to our advantage?

Ralph Masengill has been a consultant, coach, advisor and public relations strategist for more than 40 years. His agency, Masengill Marketing Associates, has won more than 850 national and regional advertising and marketing awards.

Conquer Change and Win is also currently being used for the Master’s Program at a regional university. It is required reading and students are asked to take two tests on the book; one test is a written exam, and the second consists of 100 multiple choice questions. The graduate students are required to pass both before receiving a grade in the class.

One of the original change agents in the United States, Masengill and his team have been observing change and showing business leaders that embracing and understanding positive change is the surest route to effective quality improvement and substantial profit enhancement. This extensive experience formed the basis for Conquer Change and Win.

Masengill and his wife Dianne live near the Great Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee. They have four grown children, two dogs and a cat. Masengill enjoys woodworking, oil painting, sailing and helping with his favorite charities in his spare time.

For more information, please visit www.masengill.com.

Conquer Change and Win
Createspace
ISBN-10: 1515191877
ISBN-13: 978-1515191872
Available from Amazon.com

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– Easy sign up for small businesses to get QR code for instant payment acceptance

– One App for tracking all transactions and day-end reconciliation seamlessly

– Available in 10 regional languages

Paytm, India’s largest mobile-first financial services platform, announced that it has launched the ‘Paytm for Business’ app on Android Play Store. The app enables new merchants to sign up quickly and get a Paytm QR code to start accepting digital payments. Merchants can also manage their day to day payments and day-end reconciliations.

The app offers a complete suite of services allowing Paytm’s existing 6 million offline merchants along with new, to track payments, navigate through the past collections & trace settlements made to their preferred bank accounts. They can also generate a Paytm QR instantly through the app, print it, and start using it at their shops to accept unlimited payments directly into their bank accounts at 0% charge. Additionally, they can also share the Paytm QR with their customers through messaging platforms to receive payments. The app supposts downloading of daily, weekly and monthly transaction statements and gives access to critical information like estimated time of bank settlement, UTR numbers (Unique Taxpayer Reference) among others.

Available in 10 regional languages, the Paytm for Business App allows merchants to view their transaction details without the need to wait for a confirmation SMS or Email. The company aims to solve the everyday payments collection and reconciliation problems for merchants giving way to even higher accpetance of digital payments in the country.

Kiran Vasireddy, COO – Paytm said, “We are committed to building the best payments infrastructure for our Merchant partners. Our ‘Paytm for Business’ app is another step towards simplifying payments for the country’s vast & diverse business partner community. It will make managing day-to-day business operations simpler for our partner merchants & offer them the peace of mind that comes with having a dependable one-stop solution. All needs ranging from seamless acceptance of various payment modes to day-wise settlement summary have been taken care of. We are confident that new app will help millions of our existing & also new Merchant partners. We will continue to invest in our payments network to give every small & large merchant the power of digital payments with Paytm.”

Paytm pioneered QR-based payments in the country, allowing millions of small merchants to accept payments using their smartphones. Paytm QR now enables its merchant partners to accept Paytm, UPI & Card Payments directly into their bank accounts at no charges, as it aims at extending its support to all major payments instruments and help them grow their business. With ‘Paytm for Business’, the company now aims to offer merchants a go-to destination for all their payment-related information.

About Paytm
Paytm is India’s largest mobile first financial services platform offering payments, banking, lending and insurance. Paytm pioneered and is the leader of QR based mobile payments in India. With the launch of Paytm Payments Bank, the company aims to bring banking and financial services to 500 million un-served and under-served Indians. Paytm is founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma and is headquartered in the National Capital Region, India. The company’s investors include Softbank, SAIF Partners, Alibaba Group and Ant Financial.

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The TOEFL is a widely accepted English test to open doors to student’s dream education destination across the world. It is an English-language assessment that measures one’s ability to use and understand English as it is read, written, heard and spoken in the university classroom. The TOEFL test is recognized by more than 9,000 colleges, universities and agencies in more than 130 countries, including Australia, Canada, the U.K. and the United States.

Interestingly, Australia is one of the three most popular study-abroad destination behind the United States and United Kingdom for Indian students.

And to make the study abroad dream far more achievable, All Australian universities accept TOEFL.

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• It allows buyers to pay sellers through UPI, any credit / debit card, internet banking, and ‘Pockets’, digital wallet of ICICI Bank

Mumbai: ICICI Bank, India’s largest private sector bank by consolidated assets, today announced the launch of ‘Eazypay’, a mobile application to enable merchants, retailers and professionals to accept instant cashless payments on mobile phones from their customers through multiple digital modes. A first-of-its kind application, ‘Eazypay’ offers customers the improved convenience of paying by using their mobile phone through Unified Payment Interface (UPI), any credit / debit card & internet banking, and ‘Pockets’, digital wallet of ICICI Bank.

Any current account holder of ICICI Bank can instantly download ‘Eazypay’ app and start using it. A non-customer of ICICI Bank can also use the app after opening a current account with the bank. The app is available on smartphones with Android operating systems. It will be shortly available for smartphones using the iOS operating system.

Ms. Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank said, “Since the announcement of the demonetisation, we have proactively undertaken various measures to accelerate the shift to a digital economy. ‘Eazypay’ is yet another initiative to fulfill the vision of Digital India. I believe that the Eazypay mobile application is a path-breaking concept as it facilitates millions of merchants, retailers and professionals across the country to accept digital payments from various modes on a single mobile application. I believe this application will have broad base usage as it allows merchants to collect any amount digitally without any hassles of a daily or monthly limit on collection. Additionally, it can be used by upto 30 employees of a merchant simultaneously to collect payment on their mobile phones at multiple counters ‘in-the-store’ as well as ‘on-the-go’ like home deliveries. The money collected through this app directly goes to the current account of the merchants and professionals. Our existing customers do not need to visit a branch or submit any document for using the app.”

An illustration of the two easy steps to register for the mobile payment collection solution:

1. Download ‘Eazypay’ application on the smartphone having the mobile number that is registered with ICICI Bank. The application automatically fetches information of ICICI Bank Current Accounts linked to the mobile number. The user can select the default Current Account for receiving payments. There is no requirement to submit any documents or visit the bank branch.

2. Create an MPIN to login into Eazypay. Also user has to create their UPI ID for accepting payments through UPI. The UPI ID acts as a financial address for receiving money, without having to reveal your 16 digit bank account number and the 11 digit IFSC code.

Once downloaded, merchants can immediately begin to accept payments on the app over the counter. It is also possible to collect money in situations like home delivery of goods/services,telesales and payment-on-delivery options by e-commerce companies where the buyer and the seller are not physically present in the same location. The seller can raise an invoice in the app by simply entering the amount, selecting the preferred mode of payment by the buyer along with the buyer’s mobile number or VPA for UPI based payments. Thereafter, upon getting a notification on SMS, the buyer can simply enter his/her details to pay through credit / debit card / net banking or Pockets. For payment using UPI, the buyer can pay either by scanning a QR code displayed on the seller’s phone or directly through their VPA.

Eazypay comes with best-in-class security features. It allows only one registration for a unique mobile number and requires mandatory authentication with MPIN for every login, among others.

The other unique features of ‘Eazypay’ are:

• For both over the counter payments and home deliveries: Eazypay is suitable for retail stores where the buyer pays at the counter. It can also be used to collect payment from the buyer during home deliveries, telesales and payment-on-delivery instances where the seller and buyer may not be physically present in the same location

• Set collection date options: For accepting payments through UPI, the seller can choose to collect payment immediately or set up a later date upto 45 days

• Easy reconciliation: Merchants get immediate payment confirmation in the ‘transaction history’ on the application as well as through SMS. The buyer also gets payment confirmation through SMS immediately for all the bills. The merchants get immediate credit to their current account for payments made using UPI and Pockets

• Enables multiple employees to collect payment: The unique ‘sub merchant creation’ feature allows upto 30 employees to collect payment on behalf of the merchant on their smartphone. It offers a convenient option for collecting digital payments at retail stores with multiple billing counters or during home deliveries

• No daily/monthly limits for accepting payments

To know more about ‘Eazypay’ mobile payment collection solution, please visit http://ow.ly/Oqvh307sPHy. To apply for an ICICI Bank current account, one can send an SMS to 5676766

The launch of ‘Eazypay’ comes close on the heels of a slew of technology-led innovative initiatives and services by ICICI Bank recently to accelerate digital transactions in the country. These include the announcement of the creation of ‘100 Digital Villages’ in as many days, increase of daily usage limits of debit cards for use at Point of Sale (POS) and online transactions till December 31, 2016, deployment of POS machines at merchant outlets, petrol pumps as well as office establishments for convenient withdrawal of cash. Additionally, we have deployed mobile branches in remote unbanked villages and also for door-step service at public utilities like hospitals.

The Bank services its large customer base through a multi-channel delivery network of 4468 branches, 14,295 ATMs, call center, internet banking (www.icicibank.com), mobile banking and social media banking (as at September 30, 2016).

About ICICI Bank: ICICI Bank Ltd (NYSE:IBN) is India’s largest private sector bank by consolidated assets. The Bank’s consolidated total assets stood at US$ 144.7 billion at September 30, 2016. ICICI Bank’s subsidiaries include India’s leading private sector insurance, asset management and securities brokerage companies, and among the country’s largest private equity firms. It is present across 17 countries, including India.

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What is at once the lightest and the heaviest thing in the world? Stock prices. For, even imaginary rumors can lift them and when they fall, even Hercules cannot hold them. The bulls, eternal optimists, are on a perpetual struggle to push prices up, while the mauling bears throw their weight behind efforts to hammer them. And, these epic struggles of opposing forces, help stocks find their equilibrium, the optimal price.

Needless to say, the dissemination of information, especially which is there in the public domain, is of critical importance for such a battle to reach its rightful conclusion. And warring sides have been known to use every trick in the book to make such information available and widely circulated in the domain so that the users can take decisions based on them, leading to the making or breaking of the price.

And it is not just broking houses that are the only sources of such information – financial institutions, high net-worth individuals, individual analysts, fund managers, corporate entities and even small investors add to the process. From stories planted in the media to hand crafted “research reports”, the weapons put on use to deliver the warhead with an intention to cause maximum impact too are sophisticated and myriad.

However, unknown to many, this cushy system is undergoing a tectonic shift, thanks to the proliferation of social media. Today, stock prices and indices are mostly accessed in the handheld devices. And the social media is increasingly becoming the chosen platform for holding conversation and accessing information.

Imagine, even a few years back, sending out a Research report, replete with impressive graphics, charts that nobody understood and equally dense ratio’s was enough to snare the hapless. The media was didactic, making observations and recommendations that they had no obligation to justify and could get away with their holier than thou attitude. Today no more. The investors are empowered to a very great extent and are not afraid to ask questions – even pointed and addressed to kill. Grievances are no more voices in the wilderness of stock market grievance cells and the online community is abuzz with complaints for all to see and take cautionary steps. Make a tall claim and chances are that your bluff will be called, often in real time.

What should Corporates and Broking Houses do then?

1. Accept that Social Media is the future and take steps to bolster your presence. And when you take the plunge, do the whole hog. Bunk that “my Fufha ji’s grandson knows how to do facebook, so why hire a professional” attitude. Codify your Social Media Policy and sincerely go about the business with the seriousness it deserves. It’s your brand that people are talking about out there and whatever you do, you are not doing it right by not being there, or by just being smug at the knowledge that you have a website that was last updated in 1996!
2. Be Honest. As opposed to you sending out information with blocked channels of feedback of yore, the social media space is a living, thriving community where innumerable entities are not only qualified to challenge your statements but are increasingly becoming activist. The case in point is a proposed merger of an entity – used to the old ways selling stakes to a group entity to merge it back with a view towards filling the promoter’s coffers for decades at an end with no one to challenge – is now facing the flack with the social media abuzz with “experts” pointing out the futility of such moves and hinting at a possible scheme to hoodwink the minority shareholders.
3. Engage. People talking about you are interested parties. Engage them in conversations. You will never find a more fulfilling and direct way of winning friends and influencing people.
4. Accept the fact that social media engagement is an extension of your corporate communication and brand building exercise. Do not leave your citadels empty at any time. Do not run away in the face of criticism or when the disgruntled bring in the vitriol. On the contrary, face the complaints, explain how it is human to be wrong and take rectifying steps. Learn to apologize in public, own up and make up. Use the negative vibes to show your face of concern and convert users to loyalists.
5. Innovate. Social media is evolving faster than a blink and your response should also be real time for you to ride this wave into tomorrow. Remember, it is across platforms and necessarily multi media. One therefore has to take a holistic view that does away with the Press Release pushing attitude. It’s Rome and you better do things the way Romans do.
6. Social Media Integration is not cheap. Like every good thing in life, social media is not cheap. The “computer” guy who sells broadband connection is not the one who can give you a killer social media profile. Bunk that route and seek out the masters. And there is reason why.
7. SEO is dead. Meta tagging and keyword stuffing and for that matter back linking to popular dating and adult sites is what most entry level providers of SEO services do. Problem is, these methods are about a hundred year old in terms of social media time. The Search Engines that are crawling the world wide web with their ultra tomorrow algorithms, even as you read this, are state of the art and there is no reason to believe that what Google or Bing spends millions of Dollars to build and maintain can be waylaid by the cheapest vendor offering you the service from his shack off the footpath of nowhere.
8.  Content is king. At the end of the day, it is what you say and how you say it that matters. Make sure that your content is good enough for people to talk about and your recommendations are solid enough for others to recommend. If you are Lord Krishna and are saying stuff that becomes content of timeless pieces like the Bhagwad Gita, you don’t need to worry much. Anything short of that and the advice is, clean up your act and stress on the content.

However, even doing a Lord Krishna is not enough. You will also need a disciple of Arjuna’s stature to pick up the bow and wage the war of your creation – a war that will lead to the complete annihilation of the enemy in front. But that is another story. If you want that story enacted for you, you better show us the money, honey. Be my honey, bunny!

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