Freemium

The Thought

You must have heard of the word Premium products. Its those products which are desired for.

And then there exist "Free" products. Those which are offered as an Add on when you buy something more bigger and better than this free Product. This post is about combining the two.

Premium Perfume, brands, it all exist in the world. Most of the time, we don't take a product because we want it, but we want a product which makes us socially upbeat or acceptable.
So when you buy an Apple Macbook, you send across a message that you are different from the rest.
But the new term is "Freemium".
What is that "Freemium" which you can provide to your customer, which ensures them coming back.
Is that a Free premium product, like Rebook Sun glasses worth 5000/- if you buy a product Shoe from Rebook of 3000/- Buks.

Imagine, if this Freemium goes with the Services.
Can you create a Positioning based just on this Freemium.

3 steps to find the Freemium for your business

1. Define your product and the price along with associated price ( salary etc)

For example if you are into "Friendship Band" making, and if you can offer a Free 20% Discount Coupon on any teddy Bear the Person who Buys the band gets, imagine the kind of opportunity you are standing on.
Once you have clearly found the associated price, selling all the extra bigger things will give you profit.

2. Decide what you want to choose from,
a. Scale Up: Lower profit per product, but more product to sell.
b. Scale down: High profit per product, but less product to sell.

3. Create a Buzz.

Can you do something for people to tell others. Refer a friend, so that they ensure better footfalls.

This is your time. Create as Much "Freemium" you can and see your revenues going up.

The Power of Rest

The Thought

Technology has enabled one to remain in touch, whatever happens, whereever the person is, and whatever the time is. But the Downside of it, is harsh. Is the price paid for such technology upgradation is worthy enough.

The blackberry beeps, Google chat Pings, Facebook Updates, Twitter tweets. Yeah, I am a social media Guy, and I choose to remain a Hunter.
But check the Girls version of it.
Aisha Tune, sharing what they are doing, or planning to do, the Cute Guy they found.........
Well the world has really changed and with so many options in hand, the most needed and aspired thing is "REST".
My last post talked about "Attention", this basically is the extension of it.
Only after a powerful Rest can you give complete attention.

The recent News headlines where Sachin tendulkar wrote after hitting the Double ton in Srilanka,

" Plenty of rest is required to perform".

Ask yourself, when was the last time you took that "Plenty of Rest".
No, not plans of it, but the real "Complete Rest".

If you haven;t go for it ASAP, before Life ensures you take a Bit Painful
"Complete Rest".

Power lies in Balance, and anything which is more is bad.

Enjoy and soak into the power of Rest.

The Undiluted Attention

The Thought

What is that which everyone is yearning for. Is it money, or time or silence or peace.

Well, in this fast pacy world, everyone is rushing for time, and whats the most scarce thing

Its Attention.

If you can give me one thing for sure Give me 
"Your Absolute Attention"

Gandhi the CEO- PART V

Mahatma Gandhi gave emphasis on learning through experience than learning through formal education. Gandhi learned that education can be both liberating and confining. For him, managing beneficial change depended upon knowing what knowledge to use and what knowledge to look beyond, modify or reject entirely. This chapter teaches how leaders can use knowledge.

My book shelf 5

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The Internet Media

The Thought

The world has changed so much in last few years, and with such ferocity that we all tend to agree that with a blink of an eye the whole new world could start existing. The credit to this goes lot to the internet, which has changed the way we have been working. Business has a completely new media to work upon and create the difference. But what must businesses need to remember.

The word "Globalization" has been buzzed so much that the common man comes across this word, atleast 20 times per day. He witnesses the power of globalization everyday and everysecond he moves across the lane. May it be the way polythene bags are branded, to the big bunglow in the vicinity.
But other than this world, a different world exist, which has no boundaries.
Its the Internet.
And Internet Media is the latest power vehicle which can change the way you do business.

There are basically two kinds of internet media.

1. Expressive Media: which includes websites like facebook, orkut, hi5 etc which are based on how and what the people express.
2. Collaborative: Its got to do with websites like wikipedia, who collaborate and create the changes by the power of group.

If we realize this two Internet media types, Businesses can create wonders for their business utilizing these spaces.

For Example P& G's Olay regenerate is a product from the expressive power of media.

Gandhi the CEO- PART IV

Mahatma Gandhi realized that Indian caste system was divided into four layers, Brahmin, Vaishya, Kshtriya and Shudra. The Shudras were the most neglected, but were high in numbers.

He understood that giving importance to this specific layer, will change the dynamics and thus coined the principle of “Give everyone a stake”.

Business do no Business with other business, people do business with people. Treating everyone with respect changes the dynamics of the game, as they return it duly when the time comes.

The 12 Lessons in this chapter will enable the CEO to understand how to use this power.

Gandhi the CEO- PART IV

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The Pleasure of Sunday

The thought

The sundays are meant to be a stoppage from the long run. But what is your sunday brings with it, and what you can do with it.

Everyone has their own idea of fun and no one thought can be limited to possiblity of enjoyment. One can get satisfaction from reading a book, other can get it by going for a walk or spending time with a family. But everything, and msot thing we do on sundays, exhaust us, which we take in as refreshment.
A recent statistics revealed that highest heart attacks happens on Monday Morning.
Why? Yes you guessed it right. The late night heavy dinner, that extra piece of walnut cookie.
Here is a simple 5 step plan to extract pleasure from Sunday

1. Make more time for yourself early in the morning. Get up a bit soon, its your free day and you don't want to let most moment go in sleep.
remember, " You will have enough time to sleep when you die".

2. Make the Power ful breakfast, read an amazing Book, watch a beautiful movie ( depends upon the state of life you are like newly wed can watch If Only, while a bachelor can go for something life Shawshank redemption)

3. Have Lunch with friends, spend the whole afternoon pulling yourself rather than pushing for something. Friends are the best medicines.

4. Relax late evening, hear the song you locked inside, play the guitar which is craving for your attention.


5. Take EARLY sleep, with a warm bath in a shower. Yes, it relaxes your muscles and changes your way of Life. and Dont forget to change the bed sheet.


Enjoy the upcoming Sundays of your Life.

If you are gonna Live for next 50 Years,
you or going to get only 250 Sundays.

Make the Most out of them.

Gandhi the CEO- PART III

For the Business leader of today, Non-cooperation is a stark reminder of the need to do far more than order their employees about. A complex Business enterprise cannot be run on forced obedience. Voluntary cooperation- self direction toward common goals is required, and it is the task of CEOs and the Managers to secure it day by day. The Six lessons in this chapter discusses how to use Non- Cooperation in todays context.

Gandhi the CEO- PART III

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Gandhi the CEO- PART II

Gandhi the CEO- Part II discusses about the seven lessons devoted to art of motivating without middle ground. They present principles for prompting maximum effort in situations that offer the highest stakes, the greatest risk, and the greatest opportunities.

Gandhi the CEO- Part II

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Gandhi the CEO- by Alan Axelrod

The Thought:

Presenting the first part of the book, Gandhi the CEO. Hope you like it.

Gandhi the CEO

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The Power of Silence

Try being silent for a day. Very Few words, less clutter, less noise, less talks - both self and others.

Avoid everything which creates sound, give break to your ipod, and above all your ears.

Above all, enjoy the silence Power of Silence.

Just Chill.

How to bridge the difference between a Starter and an Expert

The Thought

Whats the difference between being a Starter and the Expert? The difference between novice and the Pro?

What makes you transform through each level?

Have you tried learning a skill and left it at some point? Did you tried to loose weight, build that dream body, write the novel you always wanted to, started a business and quit before it went for Money?
If Yes, then this post will tell you why this happened and how you can avoid it for the next attempt of yours.
Most of us start the day with the thought of doing so many things. We write diaries but rarely all gets completed. The Big reason.
We always quit before we are very near.
Kindly look at the graph.

 The Starter to Expertise Vs Time graph is shown. Points to understand is

1. The beginners Luck, is the phase when the first growth happenes. Everyone talks and feels good about the new initiative.
2. After this a slack comes in, which diminishes, and at the point (X) as shown, most people quit or change their needs.
3. Only if you are able to sustain long enough, you start having a significant growth.

The Idea:

Consistent Knowledge and growth is the key to being Expert.
Its when you reach a Point where you believe that you msut quit, at this point alone, "Continue".

Rupee Symbol: How to Download and Use it

Rupee has finally got its symbol. The much awaited and needed symbol of rupee will now place us among the top nations. The big question which now face people is how to use this in computer as no particular key is designated with this sign. Well here's how you can.

Foradian Technologies has made it possible to use it.

Step 1: Click here to go to the "download the Rupee font page".
Step 2: Download the ttf file and copy paste it in your Font folder.
Step 3: Now is the trick. Open Microsoft word, and select font "RUPEE". To type the symbol just press
            the "~" key found above the "TAB" key .

You are done.

Enjoy.

The Power of Facebook

The Thought

What does a Youth actually want, subliminally, and what is that which facebook alone is able to provide.

A recent article which catched the attention told that the biggest threat to google is now facebook, because Time spent per user in facebook is 6 Hrs while that in google stands at 2 Hrs.
I do understand that there might be some biaseness to this but, then its for sure that facebook has taken google into a stiff position. What exactly has they done which google could not do?


Google, is primarily a search engine. With Enourmous websites, and n number of data in it, searching what you need is a huge trouble. Google helps you search it, quickly, easily and better than any other options available. But what does Facebook do?

Facebook, lets you meet friends, thats what is a simple evident which you all might agree, but
lets see it this way.

Human being started as an Hunter, for Food, shelter, he has hunted his way up, till farming came into existence.
Farming gave the Humankind, ability to stay at a place, and develop.
While most beleive that hunting has became a kind of "bygone" era, kindly Stop!.
Hunting has just changed its forms.

We are still hunters, but the Forest and animals have changed to " Other materialistic" things.
Facebook lets you be a Hunter again, and what best,
if you have the most powerful tool in the world (I believe its) Language and words, you are sure to hunt some really nice people around.
If you note, you might have an average 400+ friends in your facebook, but always, around 30 people will remain Online and if you post something, around 20 comments will drop in ( only when U write something exceptionally brilliant and breathtaking ), Wondered WHY?

Because as A hunter, you can have only a particular number of "Things" in your zone of attention.
Second Point is
The Facebook lets you become a Farmer too. Recent data reveals,
FarmVille has become the most popular game application on Facebook, with over 82.4 million active users and over 23.9 million Facebook application fans in May 2010.

Imagine why, because, we are still Humans, and the crux is

before we wanted everything and now we want to be everything.

Power of Discontent

The Thought:

What makes a person go, reach for something larger, something bigger, something which takes his sleep away?

It all depends upon your power of discontent.

Discontent: as the dictionary defines, is opposite of Contentment, also, it means A relentless longing for better circumstances.
The great George Bernard Shaaw said, " The Reasonable man adapts himself to the world, unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself, therefore, all progress depends on the Unreasonable man.".

Now I am not pushing you to become impractical and go take foolish risk. But What I am trying to sell you is
go ahead and think out of the Box. Be discontended with things, don't crib, instead do your best effort to improve on the current state.
Only a truely discontended person, will have sleepless nights, becasue he had a dream, a dream which he cannot renounce.

In case your are discontended with your current state, and crib, Stop doing it from Now on.
And change your words from today itself. Don't think what has happened, now think what you need to and can do to improve your current state.
Remember

" Its the Discontent in you that will help you grow".

Difference in Emphasis

The thought

We all agree that change is one constant thing, but none of us can commit towards a change falling on your side and giving positive result. But with specific tactics, one can ensure that change is tilted in your favour.

How much a changed emphasis can change the way people react to you? The post dwells deeper in the domain.

Long ago, when man used to be hunter, all he used to do was search and then use all his activities and energy to achieve a specific outcome. Difference in the emphasis you lay decides what you do and eventually the outcome.
If you are a hunter, and you lay emphasis on creating a great trap, your outcome will be a Living being, but on the other hand if you emphasize on getting great Guns and arms, your outcome is a hurt living being ( if not dead).

Now consider the same aspect, and imagine you wish to get that next door girl talk to you.
Or you wish your consumer to come to you. What will you do? Where should you lay emphasis?

Till now every marketer has concentrated on "creating an environment which eases close of sales deal".
Now the emphasis must shift. Now the emphasis must be to ensure that the environment you create must call for action, by which I mean
" The environment must empower the consumer with products services or specific words which they will share with friends and connects".

This changed emphasis will result in far more customer for your Business and yield result to you.

Happy Emphasizing.

Process or Result

The Thought

With the world of Business and personal life obsessed with results, what values does processes hold.

Should one concentrate on the processes or the Results alone.

"I want results, where are the results, this is your result?" are some questions which we face everyday in our work space.With so much emphasis on the results, rarely do we realize the importance of process.
And this is not only the case in Offices but it begins right from school. The Result day is more important than every day, but parents most often forget that if they take care of days, Results will take care of themselves.

Processes are those tiny little details that one carry forwards each day.
A month back, a concerned mother was discussing with me about her child in 7th class. The worry started when the result was handed. He scored only 2 Zeros, ( that was the childs point of view) and mother's view was,
TWO ZEROS.
But the point which struck me was the way child took it.
He was not putting his head down,neither was he leaning across shying to show his face.
He was standing proud. This amazed me, hence I decided to take care of a one month long project of Qualitative as well as Quantitative research.
I asked the mother to just write down the daily routine of the kid and then asked took some indepth interviews of both Kid, the Mom and the Father ( 3 people in the Home).The result were astonishing.

1. His father always pushed him to fear nothing, his father an MBA grad, now doing great in his own business.
2. Mom is too careful about him, treated as the most lovable kid. Gets whatever he wants.
3. During Indepth Interview, the kid revealed
My Mom cannot do anything, she cant beat me, cant punish me, and dad is rarely at home.
I love games and hate studies.

What has actually happened is, the child has never been taught the importance of process.
He has been consistent in sports alone, and when it comes to studies, all he cares for is just appreaing at school.

We all need to train our children/subordinates/people around to give great emphasis on the Process, rather than being obsessed with results.
A recent example, one of my junior in college asked me " How did I managed to get the Gold Medal?"
I replied, " By never thinking about it".
She never felt satisfied, but I still say the same, Try improving yourself, improving your processes, and results will automatically take care of themselves.

Reject Success Adopt Strive

The Thought:

We tend to push ourselves to be successful. Ask any one at the top, and they will tell you that it all boils down to success. But with changing time, the demands has also changed. A professional must reject Success and Adopt to strive more in the dynamic environment.

Success is a relative term, and so is failure. For a professional Marketer getting a 2% response from its advertising campaign can be a great success, but for a Permission marketer, 20% response rate can be termed a failure.
So, the idea is to remove such a relative parameter to define your campaign true worth.
The real parameter must be how hard you strive, how much effort you put in.
Even if you fail, you will learn more than following the already laid strategies and ideas.
If you can adopt yourself to strive and create and establish yourself as a brand which stands for " Strive",
even if you fail, your organization and the world will consider you a successful individual.

In order to adopt strive you can follow these simple steps.

1. Understand what exactly you want out from your action.
As the great say, if you can't define the outcome, dont put the effort.

2. Give stake to everyone in your group.
A true leader makes the world around himself, and creates room for breeding more leaders.
By giving stake, you can ensure that people bring their best at work.

3. Measure and track the efforts.
Everything boils down to how you measure it. Time your performance, know where you must head to create a niche for yourself.

Following these 3 simple steps will surely give you an unparallel edge.

100th Post- 5 Key lessons to take home- Reorganize yourself

The Thought

This happens to be my 100th post. An important day, as from last 100 days, I have ensured to do one thing except breathing consistently is blog my ideas. Thanks to so many people, specially Google, for providing a platform which is so unique and dynamic. There are 10 things I wish to highlight for you to reorganize your life.

1. The Brand Promise: The first post of my blog, Brands make a promise, and you are a Brand too. Way back I wrote on " The brand you", lets extract from these two post.
You and your appearance makes a promise, define it today. Pen down ten things you want to be known for.
Honest, professional, problem solver, creative, ideator, slow, what is that which you want to be known for.
Once you define it, you know what to avoid.

2. Search your customer and Woo him: Stop hunting, be a farmer.
 The idea you must move ahead with is, dont be a hunter, the age is long gone. The target is moving, and so are you, its hard to hit, and the waste is pretty high. Instead start focusing on the art of Farming. Pull your customer rather than push them. And did you note, the same applies to your relationships. Are you still pushing and hunting ( Guys! Note).


3. Experience is a great teacher, and Learnings are everywhere, just open your eyes and be aware.
Management lessons from Mom in kitchen. 

4. The world is changing, faster than you think,Being Updated is the need of the hour.
The changing world brings lots of fear, but also breeds lots of opportunities beneath it. Be ready to dig a bit deeper and your pot of gold is waiting for you.

5. Small Conversations, all that you missed is what counts.
At the end you will think about all the things you could have done, rather than things you have done.
Remember, its the small acts of kindness which matters more.

A bonus Take away: Consistency is really the Key, and guess what's the secret,

When you find this answer, they won't change the lock ( answer to the famous quote: "Whenever I find the key, they change the lock").
Consistent people remain persistent.

Cheers.

Jujutsu and your Business

The Thought

Jujutsu- is the collective name for japanese martial art style including armed and un armed techniques.

 The basic idea revolves around fighting the opponent without weapons.

The Jujutsu techniques were developed around the principle of using an attacker's energy against him, rather than directly opposing it.

How can today's business use these tactics and create a niche?

Jujutsu has its routes from Samurai. It comes from a word which means " Art of softness".
Today's business can use these techniques to win over their competitors.

Let me itterate it through an example.

Consider my domain " The TV  News industry".

A recent attacks of naxalites over the Chhattisgarh district, created huge waves because of which, the whole of the country's media channels concentrated on the state.

With " Zee 24 Ghante Chhattisgarh", as the primier news channel of the state, with over 70% market Share
(Source TAM), every news channel started following us.
This went upto the mark that our OB Van ( a vehicle which relays direct LIVE videos/footage was followed religiously by all channels OB where ever we went).
To use the competitors Energy against him, we directed our OB van driver to shout to his subordinate to move towards the " Dantewada", one Naxal affected area, and told our OB van driver to route back to Raipur.

By doing this, all other channels directed their force and attention expecting next attack at "Dantewada", which was not about to happen as per sources.
This deliniation caused the other news channel a loss in reporting other news, and the result is,
this week, we have become No. 1 in National Share.
Aaj Tak, Star news and India TV has taken number 2,3 and 4 respectively and we stand with 18% market share in National level.

Same tactics can be used with the subordinates and people whom are tough to be handled.

Lets take an example,

One subordinate, wants to do all the work by himself and never lets the other subordinates to him, shine and emerge as leader. Since, he is a talented worker, letting him go is not possible for the organization.

So what must be done?
To solve this trouble, Jujutsu can be used.
The opponent's ( here the Subordinate) energy is
- ability to do lots of work alone.
Our Objective: To ensure that he starts giving work and delegate responsibilities.


Solution: Promote him and give him more work and responsiblity.
              So much work that in no way can he do the work alone.
The only option which will be left with him will be to delegate.

Simple, remember Jujutsu when faced with a tough opponent.

Cheers

Business without technology

The Thought

You will come across articles which will speak in length about " How technology has made life simpler".

Also often you can come across articles on ( targeted to a specific generation written by the same generation guy) how technology has complicated life. But where is the life moving with this,and why the Why's?

Proponents of techonlogy making life simpler are usually youth, along with people who are still young at heart, ensures that they continue to talk about how faster they have become and how quicker they utilize the technology.
On the other hand are the great old school of thoughts, who say that the technology has taken away the human side of things. Usually by and large, these people are uncomfortable at adopting technology.
The point which we ponder today is, has technology really helped the business.

Let me itterate an example.
Business gurus beleive that the two major work of any business is Innvoation and Marketing. Rest all departments are to aid to this.
Try going to any subordinate of yours, and ask him/her to come up with a innvative idea quickly.
Guess what their first act is.

The first thing they do will open up a blank presentation in powerpoint.
In fact, I always get hurt badly to see all the new MBA grads, ( even I am one), to do this as the first step.
The proponents of Out of the Box thinking also start it with this Powerpoint.
and then starts Bullets and animations.

Ask your subordinate to write a letter of thanks, first thing he/she will do is open up a Word doc.
Next step, "google it".

I beleive one advantage of Business without technology was " people " really thought long and hard before communicating any thing to anyone. These days, our civilization is robbed off by this real advantage of thinking. All we do is react.

May be thats one reason why, " Vipashna Kriya", the 10 days cleansing session, without the touch from outer world has come up such big among CEO's and honchos.

So next time, before writing, or presenting, think, Strategise and then.

Open your Technological tools.

remember, I always stress on it,

" Google can give you answers, and answers alone".
You have to find questions.

Exceptional work

The Thought

With increasing competition, everyone is looking forward to be exceptional at work.

A continious race between being exceptional and showing up great at work is the need of the hour.

But, can we really, everytime be exceptional? How can we shine exceptionaly at work, and what are the requirements for it.

"Exceptional at work", a phrase often repeated but rarely understood.
For most, being exceptional at work means, showing up on time, working till late, and doing things as directed.
This has been the need or ask, but suddenly with the kind of environment change and market response,
things seem to change.
Now Being exceptional at work means

1. Doing things which matters
2. Understanding and ability to choose priority
3. Executing that great idea which is lingering on.
4. Doing small things which are larger than bigger things.
5. Punching the clock, instead of Pushing.
6. Running fast, but knowing the Direction.( No directionaless Running)
7. Avoiding and forgiving the Egostic people at work. ( The tough task, but it matters)
8. Making Mistakes- Success is about exhausting all possiblities of failure at time.
9. Under Promise and Over deliever- This still is the Manifesto
10. Risk is the Most interesting thing. Take it with you.


Follow these 10 Steps to do "Exceptional Work".


Cheers

Seth godin @ ISB India: DOWNLOAD

The Thought:

Best Ideas and Knowledge must be shared. Keeping this in Mind, please find embedded the presentation I made after attending session By Seth Godin. 

Please note this is My understanding of what Sir Seth Godin told, and might contain aspects which might be different from what Seth Godin wanted to convey.

Download and Share.

Seth godin @ ISB India  by Abhinna Suresh Khare

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Seth Godin @ ISB India on 7th July 2010

Good Morning.


Lady luck smiled, as I entered right into the Khemka stadium of ISB, and what I saw in front of me was an ever smiling face, Seth Godin, the Man himself, sipping water, in his usual dress, a cream coat, white shirt, and Blue jeans, standing carelessly talking to people.
The arrangement for Seth Godin's session at ISB was acute, and showed why ISB is the most sought after B-school in India. Everyone appeared professional, and a sense of urgency filled the atmosphere, as it always happens when its Seth Godin involved in anything. Seth Godin appeared just as common as everyone, except the fact that he radiated an aura which was soon to blow most of the minds at ISB.
This post covers the learning's and understandings from Seth Godin's session at ISB on 7th July 2010, from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM.

1. Seth Godin, began his presentation with one great insight, " We all Live a Life of Chaos" and this Chaos has been there with us for a while.
Before, some 50 Years back, how Marketing was done.
Plan 1: was to Have a Mascot, the mascot must be cute, peppy, and brands must use these mascots everywhere and anywhere they can. The More the OTS, the more will be the brand Noise.

Then some 25 Years back came

Plan 2: Spam people, spam their emails, spam their office, just interrupt. The more a brand can interrupt the better its chances of doing the sale. Thus, came the ever enchanting, "TV industrial Complex".

Now  in 2010,both these plans don't seem to work any more. Customers have become smarter, and no longer are ready to be bugged any time. Hence, they must be taken permission to be told your message.

2. The Only way to succeed today is by having a Tribe, and Seth Godin went into define a tribe as
a group of people who
                                    a. Share a common language.
                                    b. have a desire.
                                    c. Bound by a culture.

once a brand gets this binding together, they are sure to go for the Marketing success.

3. The next slide talked about the ever increasing choice a common consumer faces. Seth Godin, gave the example of the grocery store in his city, which has around 30,000 variety of choice with 17,000 updates every week. It's highly improbable that someone is going to remember all those interruption message.
No customer buys something saying, " I really saw a cool ad that's why I am buying your product".

4. Hence the emphasis was back on " Invent a Tribe". Marketing, Seth told, is about Tribe management, and the CMO which we know as Chief Marketing officer must now become,
Chief Movement Officer.

5. Seth Godin, then changed the subject to explain why we are as we are.
He cited the case of Henry Ford, who invented assembly line system, and it was he who understood the word "Labor".
Labor must always be Cheap, thats the idea a Factory business model works on.
and to ensure that the factory model continue to get this Cheap labor, they made our school system the way it is now.
The idea was to make interchangable parts, because when every part was made out alone individually, it was easier to replace them with the other.
But what these interchangeable parts gave us, is the interchangeable people.
We all have become interchangeable, because once you start to fit in, they can ignore you.

6. He cited an example of the fine dining restaurant. The fine dining restaurant doesnt charge money for the food, food is all the same, you can get more calories from outside stalls, than the restaurant. The restaurant charges for the experience, the fine dishes, the way it is served.

7. Way back, if you wanted to work in a coal mine, you never said, I will save enough to purchase a coal mine, instead, you worked your way up to work in a coal mine. But what the new technology has done is, it has changed the fundamental aspect of manufacturing. You can do everything you want in this small piece of technology called laptop. Because with this you are connected with the world and you can go to places you have never dreamt of.

8. No longer " I am more obedient" is going to pay you for the lifetime. But then, What to do?
Well, as Seth Godin said, its what one has to figure out, because there is No MAP.
its tough and adventurous because no one has ever done it, and thats make it wonderful.

9. Seth Godin went to narrate a story, once he was talking to 5 top straight "A" students from school, and he showed them a small piece of a toy which they havent seen before. After a seconds of thought, all the students took out pen and paper, and said to Seth, " Sir, please tell us how it works, we will note it down".
Seth busted into tears at this sight.
He insisted that schools must push students to solve Problems which have never been solved.
and he went on to say, that, 70% of the ISB students even have no idea what it is to solve a real problem.
and thats much higher for any other B school in country, because we all tend to read Kotler, and how it emphasises on the Manufacturing world.

10. Seth explained that it requires for an artist to give gifts, not presents to the people.
There is no reason that Warren Buffet shares his wisdom with thousands of people. He does it because, he understands that the more empty he becomes, the more knowledge and wisdom can have space to creep in.
Gifts not favors are needed.

11. He finally went in to say that we all needs to "Do work that matters".

The last few words,

" It was my pleasure to be in such a session, and soak in the wisdom from the Man himself.

in case you need a more detailed presentation, and explaination,

I have made a presentation of his talks and how I have come to understand it,

into a small 14 Slides presentation.

Click here to go to my presentation.

Happy reading.

Uninor

If you are a common Indian consumer you must have been hit by the Uninor.
A new idea of ever changing dynamic call rates, seems to not hit the indian consumer.
Uninor, which has come up with a big time advertising budget, both on line and On ground, will still have to catch much ground.
After having a qualitative research over 30 users of Uninor, along with same number of people choosing other services like airtel, vodafone etc, the results are astonighing.
The very advantage, which the Uninor wants to position itself in the market, seems to be their weakness.
A consumer told,
"We have other things to do, not only check the last call rates.
With such dynamic changing, I feel that the money spent on calling will be more than the normal budget of mine."

A young girl said, " You do sms, and have multiple calls to take and make, and its all based on the need aspect.
I can't wait to call my boy friend waiting for the best rates."

What the Uninor people have missed is, " The product category is not High involvement one, when it comes to getting the recharge".

For Uninor, they must really think of a better positioning strategy rather than keeping themselves with the current set of fuzz.

THE MILLION DOLLAR IDEA:

Oki, so as usual, have to come up with idea for these business.
Imagine this condition,

" you make a call to your friend, from your "Uninor" MOBILE CONNECTION.
whats the benefit,
" You get to know, how many Kms approx, your friend is from you".
( they just have to put a software which will calculate the tower distance).
This VAS- Value added service, will be available on Specific recharge of 30 per month, and will be displayed right exactly after you finish your call.

What more, take another one,

Can you make call rates based on the distance of the person being called to. If a person is 5 kms, the charge is 5 paise,
if 20 Kms, its 20 paise, and for more than 100 Kms, you can keep it fixed.

Why not come with a real remarkable product by investing in it than spending Millions on rupees on advertising, and logo designing and activation.

Hope one of the Uninor guys have set their computer systems to hear, what the consumer has to say.

Cheers.

Note: Even airtel can come up with this strategy and can do magic.

Punch the Clock

The Thought

With the world changing pretty fast and quickly, we are always moving from projects to projects,

from events to events, from personal to professional life and so on. What has happened is that we all have become yet again, the follower of Clock. The market has ensured that we go on trying to increase our speed, do it more quickly, and yet give phenomenol results. How can you stop Pushing the clock and start punching it.

Imgagine your morning, it starts with your conscious vs subconscious minds fight.
(click here to read about two minds in you).
Your conscious mind says, get up, you promised to go for the jog, while the subconscious says, let me sleep for one more minute, and you hit the snooze button.
You just Pushed the clock again and avoided to punch the clock.

You take your breakfast and you rush for work, took same route that you take from last one year,
that same dress, and think about saving money for that ultimate makeover.
Again pushed the click rather than Punch it.

and this goes on uptill night, when you take that sweet or eat that extra rice and saying yourself,
from tomorrow, I will burn these calories.
All this because, we try to push, pushing is one aspect which has been settlled so nicely in our mind, that now
pushing and stretching seems to give a kind of happiness, a mental satisfaction.

Its nothing worth while in fact,

to Push for
1. Two more hours at work, it also means you cant time yourself well
2. Running an Extra fast in tredmill, fat burning zone ends after you cross heart beat of (220-your age)
3. Covering more distance than what you cover in 60 minutes( you reach depreciation point)
4. Sending "add as friend" request, to that beautiful image, you fascinate as sexy girl in facebook,
its a fake id, take that from me for sure.


In the midst of all this pushing, Instead, why not try to punch the clock.
Punch the clock, when it ask for extra effort, tell you are not going to let the game of Push overtake you.

Be the master, starts punching the clock.


Cheera

Trying

The Thought

How hard it is to try? Trying to wake up early morning for a Run, trying to compelte the project on deadlines,

living the thought more than living the life. Why?

Another day gone by, trying so many things.
Trying to please the boss, saying yes to things which doesn't matter, denying things which are important,
trying to compelte things quickly, trying to convert just one more customer,
looking at the analytics and trying to improve the website by chaning one meta description.
"Trying" is a fantastic word.
It removes the effort, and quantified aspect from it.
Trying is not enough,
whats included is " Trying" to "Achieve a particular outcome.

You may be best at trying, but the world is looking for people, who have tried hard enough.

Next time., Dont just try,
Try Hard enough.

Brand Building by acknowledging Mind

The thought

Mind is a fantastic instrument, and the best thing is it needs constant push to do what the body wants. Incidentally, we are led into belief that there are two parts of brain in psychology, the Conscious and the Unconscious or some call it Sub conscious mind.

How does these two sections behaves, and how can you use them to build brands.

Conscious Mind and Sub Conscious minds are two varying personalities within humans.
All our actions and behaviors are governed by these two conflicting individuals. If you look at this image, you will note how two varying ways our brain works.

knowing and acknowledging this fact can help us do wonders.
Like our conscious mind wants to be accurate at things around life, the Sub Conscious mind wants to just feel good. Our conscious Mind is comfortable to try a new doctor, think about why it is necessary to loose weight, thinks about and plans, on the other hand, Subconscious brain is happy following the same path.
When your brain, says "Walk", have you noticed, you follow the same path, always, "WHY?".
Because your Sub Conscious mind works that way. It pushes you, to follow a pattern, and be in a comfortable zone.

So, now how to use this?

1. Its easier to ask someone, momentarily to stop eating Frech fries or those junk foods, but remember
monetarily, its a pattern which you can't break forever,
its like a highway system in brain, and its always easier to follow the same road.
Note: For making new Highway systems, you need to do a thing repeatedly, for 5 days ( not 21, research have proven it takes 5 days in this fast pacy world).
Next time you want someone to stop eating "French fries" just be with them, when they are about to buy it.
or send Sms, timing is important.

2. To build a Brand, you need to hit both Conscious as well as Sub Conscious mind, but the decision is to which one to be given emphasis.

My very good friend launched http://www.ezshabd.com/, a website which offers Ezee dictionary for GMAT, SAT, GRE etc.
This is the logical side of life, the Conscious Brain works, because this is what a aspirant is going to use in Future, is related to positive aspects of life ( going to foreign).
The Ezshabd needs to put his 70 percent emphasis on communications based to hit the Conscious mind.
Instead of keeping the first page as only about the product, he must use a line or two, of testimonials from people who have benefited from this service. Showcasing how many people are following them in facebook, makes sense, as the customer who drops in this website is at a stage of "After the fact checker".


The website currently is based on Pattern detection, which is hitting the "Subconscious" domain of brain.
The website is high towards the subconscious aspects of Human brain, but has a product which has more to do with the conscious aspects.


There are n number of applications of this knowledge, and you will find many post which I will publish in times to come about many other websites.


Cheers to Multidimensional brain.

Expose yourself

The Thought

Every day, we tend to expose our self to multiple communication and creative chaos prevalent in the environment. We tend to make decisions based on the ideas and thoughts we are exposed to.

As a matter of fact, we are expose to similar communication ( almost 70% same) every day still we never remember any. How can one choose to expose themselves to ideas and communication which matters.

Imagine crossing a road in New Delhi market. We tend to remain unaffected with the plethora of information and messages that exist around us, because we as humans, have this incredible ability to focus and wove ourselves  around couple of ideas.
What are these couple of ideas which one must cater to.
I believe, you must concentrate on exposing yourself to two aspects,

1. Refining the Present

Yes, there are loads of work to do, new clients, a project pending, but make a list of all the things, and choose the most prior for your life. Once you have done it, concentrate on refining it.
as said, its worth doing well if its worth doing. Refining the work will help you understand your own skills as well as push you to stretch.

2. Defining the Future

The toughest part of our civilization, is trying less and less for imagining what the future will look like.
Bosses become bosses because they are able to predict or if not predict then,
reduce the risk of the project with their experience.
Once you have mastered the art of defining your future, you will have an edge in whatever you wish to do or achieve.

Exposing yourself to this process of defining will provide you with answers you haven't thought about.

and Finally this two process of exposing yourself will work only and only if,
you have settled your past. If you have abandoned your past, its sure to creep in from somewhere,
so first settle your past, accept it and then
Expose yourself to these two process.

Enjoy......

Exceptional YOU

The Thought

We all seems to search for that one exceptional talent which we are born with. With enough bombarding of the belief that " We all have one exceptional talent we are born with and is unique, the only process is to discover it", we all now have long forgotten the trick devil played. Even when we find the greatness in our status updates, or our work, still we continue to search and yearn for that midas touch. How can one be an "Exceptional You", The reasons..................

Imagine yourself, having the talent to run faster than Bolt, playing tennis better than Nadal, hitting centuries like Sir Sachin Tendulkar ( I believe he deserve this title), making music sound as better as A.R Rehman or writing lyrics as beautiful like Gulzar Ji.

Obviously , its only an imagination.
The reason we are led into this belief that you are good at just one thing is our perception of the society. We see this giants doing one thing exceptionally well, and come to the agreement with the stated fact that, we are born for just one thing.
But in the midst of all this, we forget the amazing premise, that
these all giants have endlessly worked on multiple things before they discovered their "Area of Expertise".
So many of us shy away from making mistake, leave aside accepting them.


A human is not meant to be exceptional everytime, its impossible.
When Shahrukh Khan was asked his secret of success in a recent interview he said
" I have talent like many others, the only thing which makes me so much more successful is that I am blessed to be at the right place, at the right time, with right people"

Your goal must be to realize which is the appropriate time for you, and in fact everyone gets that great time in life.
Exceptional people, shine brilliantly, but for a brief period of time.
You need to know when you must be "exceptional You" and when being good will help you gather mass for being exceptional.

What I am trying to push you is to stretch yourself to be "Exceptional You" at work, atleast once a Week in the beginning.
Go ahead, do something people never expect out from you. Bring your boss, something which he has never dreamt and expect from you.
If you are at college, put extra effort for that small presentation ( have I told you small things matter more than Big ones)
and remember
"Being exceptional is about exhausting all the failures".

Waiting to meet an "Exceptional You"

Schedule

The thought

There are times in life when schedule keep you tight. Its time when, world has lots to ask, because you have that in you, but it also means that in the process of giving everything you have for the world, you have nothing for yourself. 

Humans and Business are always trying to earn maximum value. In one hand, Humans who can and must stop to ponder, Businesses rarely stop the clock until siren and explicit alarm of loss pops up.
We humans like business, require pop up eamils, and alarms, but the irony of life is,
rarely in the midst of all our schedule and to do's,
we take a time off and sit with our own selves to think where we are heading.
A classic discussion I recently got into with one of my Old bosses, and Business associate,

" A person has 100 Rs in his pocket".
How hard you try, keep the best of the sales person, make your people work day in and day out,
still you can't take out 1000 Rs from his pocket".
Never ever, until,

You start ensuring that he has 1000 Rs in his pocket.
Same happens with the schedules,
you take more task then you do, and then, the quality of your work starts reducing.
The profit is such an enticing aspect that sooner than later one gets into the circle of tragedy.

The Only way to ensure a great out come is to take care of your schedule.
As great batsman said,

"You take care of Runs, and Runs will take care of Money".

Make a great schedule for tomorrow.