Competing with Google

Over the last couple of months, I had the opportunity to conduct a series of sales training workshops. These workshops were across different geographies and across different product categories. One of the persistent themes that I noticed in all these workshops was about how much the frontline sales folk overwhelmingly feel that the product / service they sell is pretty much commoditized.

What then is the role of a salesman in facilitating such a sale? In other words, how does a salesman actually show “value” to a customer, so as to squeeze out a premium for his offering?

For anyone curious enough to delve deeper, yes – there are answers. But that is a discussion for another day. In this post, I only want to touch the surface of this intriguing inquiry into the role of a salesman in todays world. What exactly does a salesman currently do in a sales call, to communicate “value” to the customer?

In Economics 101, Value is defined as below:
Value = Benefit – Cost

Lets not look at the value of a product or service here. Lets look at the value created in a sales call. The “cost” that a customer expends in meeting a sales person is his Time & Energy. In an increasingly fast paced corporate world, our customer has limited resources of both, which he spends with due care. Hence, in his eyes it is a very valuable commodity.

Now, what is the “benefit” that a sales person can possibly give this same customer of ours in a sales call? The answers I generally hear are in terms of, “A good value proposition”, “A cost effective solution” and other such terms. Invariably though, I feel there is too much stress paid on the “cost” angle. This is despite the fact that we know that as consumers ourselves, we do not always buy “the cheapest” item on the block. Anyways, without debating that further, to stay with the sales call, I ask, “ok, so what does that translate to in terms of what you actually speak in the call?”, “Tell me the actual words”. Far too often, what I then hear is about a whole list of features and their related benefits.

Lets take a pause here and think for a minute. Rewind to a few years back, when you had to buy a car. How did you go about that purchase? You perhaps had a few cars in mind from the advertisements you saw on TV. You then went to a few showrooms, heard out a few sales guys and chances are that, one particular sales guy got you hooked with a few interesting features in his car. You negotiated ofcourse, but since the few features really caught your fancy you did not mind paying a little more than you had budgeted for.

Circa 2011. Same scenario again. How will you go about buying your car? Chances are, you will first log in to the internet. You will check out all the options of all the brands, available at the click of a mouse. You also browse through all the feature and product comparisons. You also have a good idea of the price ranges. Now, fully armed, you still visit the showroom. But this time, the difference is that you perhaps know more about the cars and how they compare against competitors than most of the sales people there. What is the only benefit, you think, a sales person can now give you? – a better price! From being one of the factors at the point of purchase, “Price” has truly been crowned the undisputed king in your purchase criteria.

Let us now return to our sales person who has to take his sales call. If all he can talk about in his sales call is about product features, their benefits and at best, comparisons with his competitors, is there someone else who can do a better job of that? Ofcourse there is – and the answer is GOOGLE!

In less than 0.5 seconds, Google can throw up all that data for me and more. Can ANY sales person in the world compete with that? I think not.

So, does that mean that Google has effectively killed the sales profession? The answer is an emphatic NO. What Google has done though is to elevate the requirement of an effective sales person from being someone who “communicates” value, to someone who “creates” value. People still pay a premium while buying certain products and services. But this happens only when the sales person, due to his knowledge of the industry and his offerings, brings in his “expertise” into play, to deliver “insights” to the customer that he cannot find from a Google search. An example of this is perhaps in the selling of Client Virtualization solutions in the IT Hardware space. The same customer who often cannot be sold a PC at any kind of premium, readily shells out a hefty premium to buy these solutions. Why? Because Google may tell him the specifications of the components involved, but it cannot give him or help him with the insight of how to go about it and how it can help improve his business metrics. That is the benefit that the salesperson can bring in.

The first step towards redemption of the sales profession, I think, is for sales people to understand and acknowledge that their job is not to compete with Google. The benefit that a sales person can deliver in a sales call, has to be the “insights” that come from their unique knowledge of the industry & the customer situation. That is something that Google cannot compete against.

I challenge you to think about your next sales call – will you be communicating something that Google cannot?

Horse Sense?

On the way back from the airport today, Rakesh & I came across an interesting sight. At one particularly stubborn traffic jam that refused to get dissolved, we suddenly saw a man riding a horse weaving his way around the traffic that was stuck and actually making good progress!

And just like that, while all of us remained boxed in the confines of our cars, the happy man-on-the-horse, found a way and breezed away from the scene.

Got us thinking & talking – is there a case for all of us to go back to horses again in place of our automobiles? We think YES – and here are 10 reasons why! 1) This is what got it all started. Caught in a traffic jam? – Just turn around and weave your way outta there! Just remember to watch the faces of those poor souls stuck in their little cars.

2) You just can’t get any GREENER than this – no nasty fumes, no air pollution! Horses are good for the environment.

3) One of the strongest reasons from my personal perspective – no more stupid honking. A quieter, more peaceful world! The neighing?... I think we can live with that.

4) Am putting my money on this one…. that road accident rates are going to plummet big time south. Horses do have more road sense – afterall, I have never heard of any two of them having a head-on accident EVER.

5) This one is for the romantics. Oh yes, a man riding a horse does look so much more kewl. Take your pick: The man-in-the-white-horse versus The man-in-the-white-car. Which would you prefer?

6) Last heard, a heap of grass came way way cheaper than a tank full of petrol or even diesel. And yes, there could be sales schemes for trading in horse-pooh for the horse grub, just coming up round the corner!

7) Horses occupy lesser space – ideal for narrow Indian road conditions. Bumpy roads, dug up roads, no roads… no problems whatsoever for our horses – that’s after all their native terrain!

8) Lesser parking space even! Four can fit in the space occupied by my one Optra now. If you are living in a metro like Gurgaon you would know what that translates to in terms of money saved.

9) Horses have character & individuality. If you get lucky to get a good one – maybe, just maybe it can also earn you some money on the side participating in the local horse show or maybe even a derby. A car is a car is a car. An expense. Full stop.

10) And finally – keep the right kinds of horses together and you can have another new baby horse soon. Never happens with these all too straight cars.

Can you think of any more reasons why we should go back to horses? Do share it here!

The Gift of Choice

I have often been bothered by a question - that would spring up to mind at the oddest of times: "What is the meaning of life?". Sometimes in alcohol induced wisdom with friends - we would go on and on, till one of us had a headache and we had to stop. Sometimes, while driving alone in a long stretch of road, the question would pop again. And then there were times when I happened to park my car in the same slot at office for 5 days in a row - when again the alarm bills went off and the question presented itself : "Is there a meaning to all this? This relentless running on the treadmill - this blur of action that never stops - this living from weekend to weekend - this chasing of some sales numbers that will never be remembered in a few months from now......."

A few days back, I was reading a particularly moving book by Victor Frankl : Mans Search for Meaning. It is an account of his experiences in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. In all of human history, perhaps no other generation had to go through such a brutally inhuman existence. But as Victor Frankl narrates: Even in those darkest of circumstances and times, there were people who lived by the highest tenets of humanity - while the large majority descended into an existence of animals. He goes on to elucidate what became starkly clear in that crucible of existence: It was that the meaning of life is not something that opens itself and presents itself like a book to be read. Rather, the meaning of life - is a choice - that presents itself in every moment of existence to an individual. Its an answer that every person needs to give for himself or herself. At this very moment of your life - what do you choose to be? Happy or Sad? Cribbing or Inspiring? Safe or Adventurous? Generous or Miserly? Cruel or Compassionate?

As Nichrens teachings of Buddhism tell us - there are many states of existence in every second of our lives, ranging from Buddhahood & heaven on one end to the state of Animality and Hell at the other end. The gift given to humans is that of choice. Do we wish to manifest our best sides or do we live by the whim of the moment?

The greatest souls who have walked this Earth - have time and again manifested this truth - that we need to own up every second of our lives & make our choices in line with the best that is in us. Thats perhaps what they really meant when they said: "I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul."

The below poem - that I came across in the movie Invictus was apparently a constant source of inspiration and encouragement to Nelson Mandela in all his 27 years in prison. Written by William Ernest Henley, I do hope it inspires you too!

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how straight the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Cooking up a Team

Someone once told me: "The way you Play is the way you Work". In my work with the several teams I have had the good fortune to watch closely, I have often been witness to this truth rising to the fore unfailingly.

And so it was, during the Friday of last week, when we were conducting a team building workshop for the senior leadership team of a corporate behemoth.

The challenge laid out to them was starkly simple: to cook a meal. The nine individuals were split into 3 groups, which were handed Rs.200 each. The only other things offered were a cooking vessel, a ladle, a cutting board and a knife. No ingredients, no cooking stove, nothing else. And ofcourse, before they started, their pockets were emptied out of any other resources that could possibly come in handy. The instructions were specific: to cook a full course meal – with a starter, a main course and a dessert.

A senior leadership team – dabbling every day in millions, being asked to cook a simple meal. Whats in it you wonder?

This is where the story unfolds layer by layer. If there is one thing that is a constant in todays’ corporate world, it is the certainty of change & the spectre of ambiguity always casting a long shadow. So, back to the cooking, when the teams are thrown the challenge, how they confront the situation is a telling commentary on their approach to ambiguity.

“How can we do all that in just Rs.200?”, “Where do we get all the stuff we need to cook?”, “Where do we cook?”, “All this in just 3 hours?”, “But none of us is good at cooking!” – the objections, the resistance often flies thick and fast, at first. All of which is met with a friendly smile, a shrug of the shoulders – and a helpful line in encouragement from us as Facilitators: “All the very best!”

This is where reality begins to sink in…… “What we cook is what we have as lunch”, “We need to find a way to do this!”. There is a legendary story of Hernando Cortez the Spanish Conquistador who ordered his men to burn their ships soon upon landing in Mexico. The message was clear: there was no option of turning back. Needless to say, they won. Adversity sometimes can be the greatest motivator. And so it was with our corporate cooks – that after the initial rumblings were settled – and no way through was seen, the actual work of how to go about began to be discussed.

What generally happens next is perhaps the clearest reflection of team dynamics playing out. The natural tendencies of individuals quickly emerge. There are some who go into a “quiet-think” mode, silently figuring out what next to do, putting their thoughts together and then emerging back again to share with their groups. There are some who immediately get into “take-charge” mode – talking as they think, gathering everyone around and trying to bounce different ideas. There are some who would watch from the sidelines, waiting for a plan to emerge before jumping in to do their bit. And yes, there would also be some who wear an all-knowing smirk, twiddling their thumbs metaphorically & wait with an attitude that says, “Lets see where all this finally leads”. There would be some who would say, “Lets make a list of everything we need”, someone else who would say, “Lets go to the market and figure”. One task, different approaches – to an MBTI practitioner, it would be just the different preferences playing out so clearly as it would in any group.

Very soon however, a consensus and consequent plans, do emerge. These after all are people who make things happen in large organizations. The stage is now set for the next phase – moving from planning to actual execution. And even here, the same story – of one task, different approaches - plays out in delightful ways.

One group went by the straight rule book. Someone went searching for the nearest market, hitching rides along the way. Another group member went around in the search of a spot to cook. Yet another group member got busy in figuring out how to get a fire started.

In another group – one member approached the nearest house outside the hotel, offering to buy the vegetables in the refrigerator of the bewildered resident. “You can buy it at the market, no?” he was asked. But he pulled it off yet. A third group took a similar approach, but with the hotel pantry. Call it innovation or call it the Indian spirit of jugaad, the challenge of resourcing was well and truly taken up!

The clock ticked on and soon the 3 groups had 3 fires going on in close vicinity to each other. Ever wondered why industries tend to congregate into a certain region? Well, that’s a discussion for another day. But as the fires crackled under the makeshift stone stoves, the ticking timelines got the tempers outside occasionally flaring too.

“You were supposed to get the fire ready by the time we came back”, “Now that we have the fire ready, maybe you can also help in kindling it”, “But its not my job”, “Could you not cut the vegetables closer to the fire?”, “Don’t just stand there – lend a hand”.

Water always finds its level – and so it is said about teams. Eventually everyone found a role to do – some assigned, some assumed. And so as the vegetables simmered in the pots, the smiles, laughter and friendly banter, slowly returned again.

Soon it was time to lay out the food and present it to the entire team. The sense of achievement and pride in the team was palpable. There is nothing that bonds a team as well as shared success. We are often witness to teams going up in team cheers spontaneously at this stage! We then had the Chef-de-Presentatione of each team come up and conjure a wildly creative outpouring of what they had cooked up, that left everyone in splits!

In our work with teams, our constant search is for the elusive “team elixir”. What makes a group of people come together as a cohesive team we constantly wonder and explore. We don’t have the definitive answers as yet, but there are certain common themes that time and again appear:
• A shared sense of purpose
(Its OUR meal !)

• A shared sense of destiny
(If we don’t cook – ALL of us go hungry !)

• A shared sense of responsibility
(I do THIS best – you do THAT best – but only together we can cook a meal !)

• A shared sense of fun, play & camaraderie
(Lets try it! … So what if we go wrong!.... hahahaha!)

For sure there would be many more ingredients that go into building a good team – similarly as there would be many more ingredients that could go to make the cooking tastier. But if there is one over-arching lesson that the Cooking Challenge teaches, it is this: One cook can perhaps lay out a good dish, but if it’s a banquet you are after, you need a team.

Friends of the Heart

I have always been blessed with great friends - at all points in my life. Many of these friends have moved on as we have taken different routes in life. But the beauty of many of these friendships for me has been in the numerous ways that these friends have touched and continue to touch my life. Its sometimes just a phone call, sometimes just a mail, sometimes a recommendation for my work without my asking for it .... and mostly done in a discreet, no-fuss, no-big-deal manner.

I remember reading a long time ago, that in life we come across two kinds of friends. One: "The Friends of the Road" - the people you meet everyday, work with every day, and when the time comes - with each taking their own way. The second type being, "The Friends of the Heart" - the people you meet everyday, work with every day, and when the time comes - each taking their own way too - but the difference being that they continue to stay in our hearts and lives in a way that always brings a smile to us. In a way that the heart knows that even though we are not in regular touch, we still matter to each other in some deep way.

So when i cam across this article about "Friends vs Acquaintances", its something I thought I should share with all my friends in this blog. May all of us know and be these kinds of friends.... The Friends of the Heart.

There is a difference between being an acquiantance and being a friend.

First, an acquaintance is someone whose name you know,
whom you see every now and then,
with whom you probably have something in common,
and around whom you feel comfortable.

It's a person that you can invite to your home
and share things with.
But they are people with whom you wouldn't
share your life, whose actions sometimes
you don't understand because you don't know enough about them...

On the other hand, a friend is someone you love.
Not that you are "in love" with him or her,
but you care about the person, and you
think about him or her when they are not there.

Friends are the people of whom you are reminded
when you see something they might like,
and you know this because you know them so well.
They are the people whose pictures you have
and whose faces are in your head regardless.

They are the people you see in your mind when
you hear a song on the radio because they
made you go up to the person they like and ask
them to dance with them; or maybe YOU danced
with them, maybe they stepped on your toes,
or just put their head on your shoulder.

They are the people around whom you feel safe
because you know they care about you.
They call just to see how you are doing,
because friends don't need an excuse.

They tell you the truth--the first time--
and you do the same.
You know that if you have a problem, they are
there to listen.

They are the people who won't laugh at you
or hurt you, and if they do hurt you,
they try hard to make it up to you.
They are the people you love, regardless
of whether you realize it.

They are the people with whom you cried
when you got rejected from colleges
and during the last song at prom and
at graduation.

They are the people that when you hug them,
you don't think about how long to hug
and who's going to be the first one
to let go.

Maybe they are the people that hold the rings
at your wedding, or maybe they are
the people that give you away at your
wedding, or maybe they are the people you marry.

They are certainly the people that cry at
your wedding because they are happy,
or because they are proud, or because
they are so in love.

They are the people who stop you from
making mistakes and help you when you do.
They are the people whose hand you can hold,
or you can hug or give them a kiss
and not have it be awkward,
because they understand the things you
do and they love you for them.

They stick with you and stand by you.
They hold your hand.
They watch you live, and you watch them live,
and you learn from them.

Your life is not the same without them.
These are your friends.

How many do you have?

The River Just Knows

Let me be a river,
....Constantly moving.
Charting a course,
....As I am going.

Gurgling along,
....Swirling Playing.
Not a moment,
....For dark stagnating.

Rushing & roaring,
....Swiftly streaming.
Taking along,
....Quietly dispersing.

Never stopping,
....Ever finding.
Paths meandering,
....Through whats obstructing.

Nourishing enriching,
....Lively refreshing.
Creating Inspiring,
....Deeply touching.

Sometimes ebbing.
....Sometimes flowing.
But in the journey,
....Always trusting.

Let me be a river,
....Constantly moving.
Charting a course,
....In the path I am taking.

I hope you like samosa !

A late night flight from Pune to Delhi. The Airline : Spicejet.
The aircraft: groaning - it’s a full flight.
The atmosphere: quiet, sleepy, mostly dark.
Our seats : One row before the last – window and middle.
Our neighbor in the front seat: A foreigner – jovial - with two kids.
The airhostess: Tired, maybe frustrated, maybe angry?
The food trolley: Starting from the front – crawling to the back.
The contents of the food trolley: Limited - slowly disappearing.
Will it have anything left as it finally reaches us – we wonder!
The food trolley – finally now – just a row ahead.
And just then, a friendly foreign head pops behind.
“I hope you like Samosa!” he grins.
Wise words – Funny words.
Words with a tangy lesson for us:
That when you don’t get what you want,
You better like what you get !!

The Power of a Huddle

There is something about sitting around in a close huddle and swapping stories that makes people bond together like nothing else does.

Long ago, when I used to literally shiver at the thought of going up to a stage and speaking in front of an audience, someone wise had given me a golden piece of advice: “Pretend & act that you are confident – and soon you will start feeling that way”. “Wasn’t it supposed to be the other way round?” I wondered. “You feel confident first – because of which you are able to act that way”. But the all-consuming panic and stage fright quickly ensured that I followed the one path to survival shown to me. And wonder of wonders – it worked!! That was one trick I have used over and over and over again all through my growing years and in my professional life too!

The same thought came rushing to me again: “Pretend / Act a certain way – and soon you start feeling the same way too!”. Only this time, the scenario was different. In front of me was a group of senior managers of an MNC bank. We had just finished doing many exercises using the Myer-Brigg Type Indicator (MBTI). The idea was to highlight how – below our apparent similarities, each one of us is so uniquely different as a human being, in the way we perceive the world and make our decisions around it. The day had proceeded better than expected – and the fact that the group had reached the realization of the differences was palpable. The key question now for me as a Facilitator was to now move them back in the opposite direction: “How do I get them to come together again, with the new appreciation of how unique they were individually – and yet how similar they were in many ways that wove them together as a team. How could I make them see that together they created a unique mosaic, which is so uniquely “them” as a team?”.

This is when the learning of many years came rushing to me: “To get a group of people feel like a close team, get them to pretend / act they are already a close knit team, sitting in a huddle, swapping stories about each other”.

But sometimes with people, it is not as easy to get them to drop their defenses. Years of competitive corporate life, sometimes makes one believe that showing your real self somehow exposes you and makes you more vulnerable to the office politics. “How do we get around this deep seated psyche?”. There is a popular concept in football called a “head-fake”. The footballer moves his head in one direction, when he actually intends going in the other direction. We needed a head-fake.

The head-fake for us came in the form of PLAY. The one thing that makes people let their guards down, other than small children is the act of playing. “Nothing serious, we are just playing”!.... Oh yes, that really works!

We soon had all 10 senior managers take up colors and markers and unleash their creativity in drawing a tree – complete with roots, leaves, buds, thorns, trunk, birds around…. Well, the only restriction they had was their own imagination. And then, we made a creative leap…. “Just imagine that the tree you have drawn is your personality tree and each component there represents something in your personality – for ex. The trunk being your core values, the flowers being your achievement, the thorns being your challenges & struggles, the leaves being your skills, the buds being your opportunities and so on…”, “Can you think for 10 minutes and share the story of your tree?”

This was when we got all of them sitting knee to knee in a close circle. I was privileged to be a part of that circle. The next one hour was one of the most fascinating hours that I have spent – just listening to the stories of these 10 corporate people, entrenched and enmeshed by their daily lives and day-to-day challenges, and yet when each of them spoke, the similarities, the hopes, the challenges and their unique achievements came together so beautifully to form a unique collage.

There was one person who had conquered Mt.Kilimanjaro. He did not look the mountaineering-types. There was another quiet person who donated 25% of his salary every month to charity. His aim in life was to be able to donate 50% at some point. There was another person who had taken breaks from work to be able to sneak across international borders to rescue girl children. There were many jaws that dropped at that moment. Yet another person was an avid off-roader. Atleast two of them cherished dreams of becoming entrepreneurs. One said that the achievement of his life was bringing up two very well behaved children. Many of them had started their careers from very humble beginnings – and were proud of where they had reached. Many spoke about how they want to give back to society, so that many like them would get their chances. A lady spoke about how she just could not lie come what may – another really big man spoke about how he could never ever hurt anyone and how even the thought of having hurt someone unintentionally, makes him lose his sleep. Speaking about their individual journeys, tapping deep into untouched memories, a few of them occasionally choked a bit. When one person wiped his tears, I could see 9 more that were being held back.

We let the conversation go on till there was a natural silence. Yet, it was a very comfortable silence. Somehow in that one hour, the individuals in the group had coalesced into a team. For sure, there would still be a long way to go before they would be a “great” team, but a big chasm had been conquered that day. Figuratively, the members were atleast all holding hands together. There was an invisible bond that now ran through all of them, it was a bond formed by exposing their deepest sides to each other.

The holiest of the Indian scriptures, are the Upanishads. When you break down the etymology of the word, the Sanskrit term upaniṣad derives from upa- (nearby), ni- (at the proper place, down) and sad ("sitting down near").

Truly, there is something holy about sitting around in a close huddle and swapping stories that makes people bond together like nothing else does. You don’t have to take my word for it – try this with your team today, and do let me know how it goes!

IT through the FMCG lens

A few days back, we got to do a workshop for one of the leading FMCG brands in India. It was a workshop to do a Vision 2015 for one of their popular brands. The workshop was attended by senior people from across the world representing different important geographies, like South Africa, South East Asia, Brazil and India ofcourse.

It was an extremely engaging and intellectually stimulating two days that I have had the fortune to be a part of. Coming from a completely different IT hardware industry, I could not help but think of so many learnings that could be cross-pollinated between the two industries.

Made we wonder - what would happen, if a set of senior FMCG managers are taken out and brought into the IT hardware industry. Let me speculate :

1) For both industries i.e the IT hardware and FMCG - there is a huge dividend to be exploited from geographical expansion. FMCG by its very nature has an appeal to a broader base - whereas IT hardware, from a current penetration point of view at 4% of the market is still virgin territory in India. Add to this, the huge broadband expansion agenda that the government has articulated - and the FMCG manager would perhaps be licking his fingers at this familiar opportunity staring him in the face. Ofcourse, easier said than done - but fighting over the paltry 4% was never easy anyways, was it ?

2) While IT hardware sales in India is very "selling" focussed, FMCG by its very nature is more "marketing" focussed. It is about occupying a certain mindspace in the customers head. I suspect a FMCG marketer would see this as a gap and perhaps relook at the market with this new set of eyes. For example - what does brand "Lenovo" or "Acer" or "HCL" stand for in a customers head? Yes, HCL would have a low cost positioning. Acer would have a "Low cost - MNC brand" positioning. But I believe there is a huge space available for other non-cost positions up for the taking in the market. The only brand currently crystal clear on a long term positioning plank is Apple with its "Kool" positioning. Pick up the paper and go through any PC advertisement. 9 out of 10 are around tactical messagings.... around a "Core2 Duo" processor, a "Windows 7" or at best a "Entertainment PC". Seriously, in a world overloaded with brands shouting for attention, isn't it too much to expect a consumer to remember the messaging of a certain product defined by cryptic numbers, of a larger brand? Yes, I know what a Merc stands for - but do I know what a C class, E class or a S class individually stand for? Who cares?... except perhaps the brand / category manager of that product line!

But a positioning or messaging takes years to percolate down to the masses. Nike I believe took close to 6 years, before their iconic communication around "Just do it" really began to stick with people. If there is one big input a FMCG marketeer can get in - it is this tendency in the hardware industry to think with a horizon of 3 months. Michael Dells glorified statement around a "nano-second to stop and breathe before running again" - has perhaps got overhyped and has cemented a wrong kind of thinking that urgently needs a relook. The success of Apple in overtaking mighty Microsoft in market capitalisation is perhaps a lesson that hardware managers should pause to think about instead.

3) In both industries, there is again a huge potential to get people to move up the ladder from using "unbranded" or "assembled" products. The unbranded hardware market at 55% of the current market has for long been a "promised land" that hardware marketeers have eyed with much anticipation. The thinking really was: If a branded product is today made available at a slight premium over the unbranded product, the flood gates will open. Numerous really interesting projects and brilliant people have had their go at this logic. But the fortress still stands strong. Why?

I propose - maybe its a mindset issue with the industry. Many of the people who are today at the helm of the IT hardware industry are mostly folks who got into the industry during the boom days of the 90's. This was the time when a 386 PC would sell for more than a lakh and margins were generous. In boom times, the whole focus is on getting in as many orders as possible and executing them at speed. The fifth P in the marketing mix became "PACE". Therein lay the seeds of "order taking" as against "selling" value. "Price" in such a scenario got a glorified importance. What followed next was a familiar human tendency... If all you have is a hammer - everything you see is a nail! So, when the challenge of cracking the "assembled" market came forth, when the boom times subsided - it was but natural to think in terms of price proposition.

A FMCG marketeer, may perhaps have a different take. Today people buy a FMCG product not particularly due to product features, but largely due to emotions associated with the brand communication. Surf for example which says "Dirt is good" - achieves a certain association in the consumers mind, which makes him overlook the fact that it is 20% costlier than Wheel. It also makes the fact that it contains certain kind of "chemicals or molecules" a secondary fact to his buying decision. This is not to say that features or price dont matter in an IT sale - on the contrary, it does. But the balance in weightage given to "Features and price" can definitely be reduced in comparison to the weightage given to "building a consistent brand positioning and messaging".

4) FMCG marketeers have tasted huge success in India in serving out their offerings in small plastic sachets. That one innovation brought in a huge number of consumers into their fold, who used the products on 'occassions". So a shampoo sachet is often used in many households only when there is a function for which the family goes out. "Pay as you go" has been a concept that has often been dabbled with in the hardware industry in the past. But with cloud computing, SaaS (software as a service), Web 2.0, unparalleled connectivity and converged products - all coming together now, the time is perhaps right for a fresh assault on this front, that has the potential to unleash the same kind of demographic dividends in IT as it has already done in FMCG.

5) By the very nature of their DNA, FMCG marketeers are always looking to tap into societal trends. They scout popular culture, literature and the "buzz" to tap into deep insights that then reflect in their product marketing campaigns. So, when Pepsi said there was "Nothing official about it" - more than the fact that it was tongue in cheek, what really catapulted the campaign was that it tapped into a generation of people who had grown tired of Indian "officialdom". The tools of the trade of an FMCG marketeer are perhaps getting relevant today in the IT hardware industry, where consumer demographics is changing rapidly. The IT decision makers in urban homes is more often the younger generation of people. The salience of getting the "communication" just right is getting amplified more than ever. Tactical ads of the past which showcased specifications and pricing are passe. The key question increasingly will be : "What is the one "tension" in society that your messaging is giving a release to?" Apple is the only one who has it right at the moment, by its positioning of being cool, that releases the tension of the Apple user by saying "This is who I am. I am a Apple user. I am cool".

The IT hardware industry in India, I believe is in the cross roads. On on one hand, it stands at a moment in time where the earlier wave has subsided. New generic competiton from mobile players like Nokia and Telecom players like Airtel (who provides online computing) are changing the playing field. And legacy mindsets of "order-taking" as against "selling" has steadily weakened the profitability in the industry. On the other hand, it also stands at the cusp of a great new wave that will be propelled by converged products, huge investments in broadband reach, new wireless technologies and the startling figure of an abysmal 4% IT penetration to-date. My bet is that when this next lot of consumers come of age, the fight in IT hardware will be between the marketeers and not between the sales folks. The company that will win, will be the company with the sharpest marketing focus and the deepest consumer insights.

Luggage Belt : The Great Leveller

"How you do something - is how you do everything" - some wise man had once told me. Though I kept my opinions open about that one, somehow that same line came rushing back to me the other day when the plane I was in, was taxiing in the runway, slowly coming to a halt. And the reason for that was the mad scramble that ensued among some of my fellow travellers to get out of their seats, grab their bags from the overhead bins and try to rush to the exit.

The poor airhostess kept repeating, "Sir, please take your seats and wait for the aircraft to come to a complete stop". While some acquiesced, many others just brushed her aside, avoided looking in her direction and went about their purposeful task.

"Why are we so impatient as a country?", I wondered. Perhaps its the competitive streak that gets ingrained in all of us right from the time we get our first admissions into kindergarten, where we have to "beat the line" to get those coveted seats ? Perhaps its the culture where a 85% marks by a student is no longer considered "good enough" in a market where 97% atmost is the cut-off for most "prestigious' colleges ? Life seen in that perspective is really one mad scramble to the finish line !!.... but does the winner really take it all ?

For each his own - and I really dont want to think about what makes someone else tick. What really occured to me though was that regardless of how much you scramble in a plane to get off it first - at the end of it all, the "Luggage Belt" will still get you !!! Its often amusing and I actually get a sadistic kick now-a-days when I see someone not heeding the airhostess, scrambling for his bag, pushing and shoving ahead - only to reach the luggage belt and keep waiting eternally for his luggage to arrive. I almost feel like going up to him and sharing some undying wisdom from Murphy : "The last bag on the luggage belt will always be yours" !

Just made me think - wouldn't it be much much better, if the announcements they make in airlines was a bit more amusing - perhaps poking fun at ourselves as a people ? Let me share a few I would love to hear and appreciate :

1) Ladies & Gentlemen, thankyou for travelling with Jet Airways. Please note that the duration of waiting for your baggage at the belt is inversely proportional to the speed at which you exit the plane. So, please time yourself to your convenience. Thankyou.

2) This is one I heard from someone : During the safety instructions.... "...... below your seat you will find the floatation device. Should the plane land on water, please take them with our compliments"

3) Here are a few other good ones I found that could be used :
- After the landing : Thankyou for flying Spicejet. We hope you enjoyed giving us the business as much as we enjoyed taking you for a ride.
- As you exit the plane, make sure you take all your belongings. Anything left behind will be distributed evenly among the flight attendants. Please do not leave children or spouses.
- After a particularly hard landing : We ask you to please remain seated as Captain Kangaroo bounces us to the terminal
- Safety instructions again : In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, masks will descend from the ceiling. Stop screaming, grab the mask and pull it over your face.

Come to think of it - a lot of the airline safety instructions are really redundant and could do with a complete re-think and make-over, couldn't they ? Do we really need someone to say how to put on the safety belt ? Not a lot of rocket science in there is it ? Not in an age where my 5 year old niece knows how to use a mobile phone !!

In an airline market that is already overcrowded - I am really waiting eagerly to see the first airline that develops a sense of humour. I believe its a huge opportunity for one of them to stand outside the clutter - and in the process, make all our lives a little less serious & a bit more cheerful !

While on the topic - heres a hilarious video about airline safety : Maybe the day is not far when we see this happening in low cost airlines !!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFjVbiPzwpI&feature=player_embedded

Of Innuendoes & Blindfolds

Some things in life look simpler to achieve than they actually are.

You don't agree ? Ok - heres a task for you. Try and buy a 100 blindfolds from anywhere. Yes, those simple harmless pieces of clothing that you may have not even given a second thought to when you got it from one of the airlines perhaps, during a long flight. Just so that we are on the same page, heres what you need to be looking for.For those of you who think this is an easy task, please STOP reading here - and go around trying to buy this first. For the rest of you, let me narrate our harrowing experience !

Rakesh is my colleague. The two of us set about looking for this innocuous piece of clothing around 10 days back. Before any of your imaginations jump ahead - let me clarify why. Among the different activities that we conduct as a part of team building activities, we have something that we call the "Blindfold Square". As the name suggests - the activity requires that all participants be blindfolded before we start it

Totally unaware of what lay ahead, we first went to a childrens toy store. Incidentally we spend a lot of time now-a-days in such stores figuring out activities that we can use for adults in team building - anything that is specified as for 3+ years qualifies in our radar. Since we had seen blindfolds being used in some kids birthday, we figured it must be a off-the-shelf item. "Do you have blindfolds ?" I asked. The shopkeeper gave us a grin.... "yeh aapke liye hai - ya bacchon ke liye ?" he asked. "Irrelevant question", I thought and told him in a very matter of fact way : "Ye badon ke liye hai...".... before i finished the sentence I suspected I saw his grin getting a bit wider. "Nahin sir, woh sab nahin rakthe" he said with a wide toothy grin.

"Funny guy", I told myself. And we went on undeterred to the next shop. Same question - same response. The looks were only getting funnier. By then the sexual innuendoes that we were getting had dawned on us both. At a few places we both got looked over slowly - as the wide grin was flashed once again.... almost unconsciously, we began standing imperceptibly a little further apart from each other.

5 shops and the same reaction everywhere. The hunt was quickly moving from a casual to a desperate stage. Perhaps an indication of the desperation was when I saw Rakesh slip into an Osim store. They were selling those new vibrating / massaging chairs there. Then I realised why he went there - he had spied a new product they were selling "uSleep".... if there is sleep, a "sleep mask" wouldn't be far behind - he had figured. (Notice also how the "blindfold" had quickly metamorphised into a "sleep mask"). I didn't ask him what happened there - but I guess he left behind a very disappointed salesman happy to see a customer walk in for a product, only to be asked for a "sleep mask" !

A few more shops - a few more snide looks and grins - and we arrived at the conclusion that it was time to pull out all stops. We went looking for other avenues. First stop : GOD GOOGLE. He quickly pointed us out to Amazon.com. "Good lord ! Amazon sells even this ?" I caught myself thinking. A few quick steps and we suddenly had in front of us a choice of hundreds of different types of blindfolds - ranging from 2$ to 50$ - without shipment charges. We were in no mood to go to another shop and bear those looks - so, "this is it" - we told ourselves. "Hail the anonymity of the internet", "Lets order for 100". We chose the 2$ blindfold and with a few clicks of the mouse & keyboard reached the checkout stage. And then it happened - lo and behold - "Amazon.com does not ship this product to India" said the website. "But why ?" we almost screamed !..... "perhaps some internet error", the optimist in us told us. And so we tried again - and again - and again. Finally we got the message : It was true. Considering the burgeoning population of India, amazon.com had decided that Indians could do without any such artificial aid !

GOD GOOGLE had led us to a dead end. We remembered Amitabh Bachhan : "Phone a friend" we told oursleves. I called up a friend. As soon as I mentioned "blindfolds", his broke out laughing. "Hey - interesting work you guys are doing - dont tell me you guys get people to do kinky stuff too" he bellowed. "Et tu Brutus ?" - I felt like telling him, but got away telling him something milder. "Let me see if I have any lying around at home" he said, and then quickly clarified, "picked up from some airline flight". "ok" we said.

By now we realised that buying a blindfold was a lost cause. The only honourable way of getting it was taking an existing piece to a tailor and asking him to stitch 100 more like that. And dare the tailor even bare a glimmer of a grin, we take our business elsewhere.

So, how do we lay our hands on that one elusive piece of blindfold.... we were racking our brains now. It was almost like the search for Yeti.... almost everyone had heard of it, but nobody knew where it came from !

I believe we were one step away from prayers.... when suddenly light shone. My wife who was in Bangalore for some work and who was a party to all our travails called me. Her brother was shifting houses and in the process doing a lot of "de-cluttering" - meaning throwing away lot of unwanted stuff that houses have a habit of swallowing.... and.... not one, not two - but three different types of blindfolds had been spotted. "Do you still need it ?" she asked. For just a moment, I realised how Columbus must have felt after months and months of travelling and seeing only blue seas - to see the first signs of land emerging. "Yes" I almost shouted, "Yes, please get me all the blindfolds you get your hands onto !"

Today I am the proud owner of 3 blindfolds that have come all the way from Bangalore. While they await to be taken to a tailor for further re-production, an evil thought creeps into my mind : The next time we interview someone for a job, one of the tests we put him / her through would be : "How fast can you arrange 100 blindfolds ?"..."your time starts now !"

IF

Don't know why exactly, but as I was mulling over the next steps we need to take to get our business going, somehow remembered the eternally inspiring poem by Rudyard Kipling : "IF". Also got me thinking a bit about Faith. Sometimes we think of Faith as an absolute - in the sense of saying : "Do you have faith ?" or "Do you not have faith".... but come to think of it, its actually more like petrol in a car. We tank up - drive a while, but there comes a time when we need to tank up again. Poems for me have always been one such tank-up source - and perhaps it was time for me to tank up again today......

Another dear friend called in yesterday night, out of the blue, to just say : "When you think you have come to the end of the road - just hang in for another 6 months from there for my sake. I am sure this will work - I believe you will make it". Again, I dont know why he felt the need to suddenly call up and say that - but being a fan of Paulho Coelho, I do believe that these are sometimes messages from the Universe, to tank us up with Faith, just when it senses theres a need for some !

On that note, heres the wonderful poem - do read it and get inspired again :

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

The City Of Angels

I have just had the most eye-opening incident happen to me - and I can barely wait to share it here in my blog. Have you ever had an experience like the one in the image above ?..... well, thats not my car - but I had a very similar experience yesterday.

Returning late at night, my wife and me took the left turn just after DT Mall on MG Road in Gurgaon, when suddenly the left tyre of my Optra sank deep into the mud there and the diagnolly opposite tyre actually went up a bit in the air !. Nothing I tried worked out - reversing it, turning the tyres and accelerating it ahead - absolutely nothing worked. Infact as I accelerated, the wheels started spinning throwing up a lot of muck and soil onto the top of the car completely covering the windshield on the left hand side of the car.

I got out of the car and had a look... and it did look to be a pretty bad situation. That stretch of road is also not much populated at that time of the night (around 9:45pm) - and so the only thing I could do was to ask my wife to get out of the car - and try to lift it out of the dirt myself. I soon realised it perhaps needed a Arnold Schwarznegger to achieve that feat - which I definitely was not. My wife in the meanwhile had that "how-could-you-do-this" look - and from the corner of my eye I could sight an impending storm on the home front.

Just as I was considering the situation - a most amazing thing happened. Out of nowhere, nearly 6-8 people passing by got together and approached the 'situation". Hardly anyone even asked me the customory questions expected..."How did this happen ?"...."You should have been careful".... "blah blah blah blah" ....... nobody even asked me whether I needed some help. The group of them - 2 students, 2 workers passing by, a gaurd standing nearby, a passerby in a car, a sardarji on a scooter and a motorcyclist with his helmet on - all came together and soon ideas where flying thick and fast. It was decided that putting a stone below the wheel was the best way to extricate the car - and so, the group of them organised the stones in a jiffy - and before I knew it, everyone had their hands in the muck and dirt trying to lift up the car as someone else quickly put the stones in. The dirt for the record was pretty significant - and all of us soon had a splattering of mud all over our clothes - including the guy in the car who came wearing a business suite !! Anyways with the stone now in place - I tried again - and this time the car made its way thankfully, out of the hole. I let out a sigh of relief !

I parked my car ahead and got out of my car to thank these selfless samaritans - but most of them had already dispersed into the night.

I have never experienced something like this before. And for all those who talk about cities that have made people cold and selfish - here is a testimony that makes me feel so proud to be a Gurgaonite, so proud to be an Indian.

All those ideals that turns humans into Angels - Love, Goodness, Faith, Helpfulness, Selflessness - everything that is considered good, is infact all around us. At times people forget, at times people stray away from these ideals - but they are people like you and me afterall. All of us have our dark sides and dark moments - but what this senseless act of charity yesterday taught me was that, we should never forget that innately, every one around us has an inner core of goodness. So the next time someone makes a mistake - or someone does things that hurt me, I will be generous enough to remember that its just a "mistake" afterall.

And yes, all it takes to convert a cold, selfish city into a "City of Angels" are these small selfless acts that we do just like that. A phrase I read once in the Readers Digest talked about this : "Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty". Perhaps a few of us doing this could spark a small wave that ushers the Angels in.

Today - I raise up my hand to be a part of this movement.

Entering Circa 2010

Six months without a proper "job" has been challenging, yet strangely liberating.

Its like gambling everything that you have on one roll of the dice. Its living with a nagging fear that says : "What if you fail ?". Its at the same time like enjoying the cool breeze rushing on your face when you skim on a jetski and enjoying just THAT ONE moment in time. Its risking looking like a fool, but at the same time - its like an adventure where you are tingling with anticipation on how things will turn out.

Like the guy who fell 14 floors - and said to each of his friends on the floors below.... "Well, I am all right, so far !!". Its the same with me so far. Things are beginning to fall in place - just getting the first few people in place - finalised on an office space - working on the website which should be up in next 3 weeks time. And then, we set sail....

As I start the new year, I realise that this is a defining year in many many ways. Found an inspirational poem that I want to share with everyone who visits this blog. Wish you a very happy and fulfilling new year ahead !!

The Invitation
Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Indian Elder

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for,
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love,
for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow,
if you have been opened by life's betrayals
or have become shriveled and closed from fear of future pain!

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,
without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with JOY, mine or you own:
if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to
the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful,
be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself;
if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.

I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore be trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty every day,
and if you can source your life from ITS presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine,
and still stand on the edge of a lake and shout
to the silver of the full moon, YES!

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money
you have. I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone,
and do what needs to be done for the children.

It doesn't interest me who you are, how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself,
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

A little way up..... the Road Less Travelled

Come to think of it.... the Road Less Travelled must be less travelled for a reason, right ? Perhaps its got the wrong sort of folks hanging out just round the corner. Perhaps its haunted. Perhaps its where the last aliens were sighted. Perhaps this was the road the PWD department gave up half way through construction, since they ran out of funds. Or just perhaps, nobody ever remembers anyone going down the road - and coming back again with a tale !! And so, its left to the imagination of anyone who stops to think, every once in a while.... "Wonder what DID actually happen down the road to the guy who took that Road Less Travelled (RLT here on)"

Well folks, for some of you buddies who have requested me to post a write-up updating about the journey..... here goes the story till now :

The first thing that you need to be aware of as you step on to the RLT is that it is not just one long undulating road. Its actually different streets that come together to become the RLT. As you step onto the first stretch down the RLT, you actually step onto the Street of Elation. No more the hectic lifestyle and no more the compulsive intimate love affair with your cell phone. If you are the Bollywood types, you begin to understand how Manisha Koirala felt when she got free of the obsessive Nana Patekar in Agnisakshi. After years and years of corporate bondage, a free weekday at home, often feels the closest experience to childhood freedom. "Wow !!" you tell yourself - "Why didn't I do this earlier ?"

Tick-Tock Tick-Tock Tick-Tock Tick-Tock..... 30 days pass by..... this is just about the time you begin to find your feet again. Yes, years of whirring-by in the corporate merry-go-round calls for atleast 30 days of recovery, for the dizzy spell to wear off !

Back to the journey down the RLT.... since there is no trace of any beaten track by now, you have to make your way through thick vegetation. Something nice happens here.... alone with yourself, your mind wanders back to the interests and thoughts of times past. You even find time to get back in touch with all those friends you kept promising to catch up with "someday". And so as you walk on lost in your thoughts - you don't realise it - but from Elation Street, you have gradually crossed over to Street Interesting.

Now, this is where the journey begins to get tricky. "Why ?", you wonder - but the reason is as simple as it is profound. As Khalil Gibran said : "Joy and sorrow are but inseparable. Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed" - much the same way it is, that Interest and Fear are two sides of the same coin. After years of corporate grind, you reach a level of competence in your chosen task. But out there in the RLT all those skills don't count for much really (not atleast for now). So as you walk down the road now you are a novice again. Its "Interesting" if you approach it with a playful spirit that says : "I am here to learn", but frankly - that's easier said than done. The first thing that comes to your mind almost as a reflex action from years of conditioning is the entrapment of what old man Freud would say is your "ego". "YOU" - a virtuoso, a star in the previous journey - can you let go of that entrapment and be a wilful novice again ? "What are you doing ?" a voice within asks you - implying basically that you are NUTS to be doing this..... afterall you are not THE BUDDHA who renounced everything for a new life of enlightenment. Thats when "Interesting" turns around and shows you its "Fearful" face. The shaded stretches down the RLT now suddenly seem dark and foreboding. "Who knows whats beyond" the voice pips again - and theres a chill down your spine as you ponder whether this whole journey was one big impulsive mistake !

But somehow from deep within, you find the resolve to walk on, albeit in tentative steps. Somewhere within, you find a new fount of humility too. You accept your new found status as a novice, but also light up a flicker of ambition to not stop the journey till you become a star, a virtuoso here too. You speak a lot to yourself to drown out the voices from within that still scare you every once in a while. Every step ahead adds to your confidence that there are no lurking demons afterall - and there is hope still that there is a light at the end of the stretch of road you now are in.

Its 90 days now down the RLT.... and Street Interesting now takes a sharp turn towards the Street of Illusions. You have made the big leap - in your mindset - of getting beyond your ego and arrogance - to embrace being a novice, keen to learn again. And as you learn, and learn more - you begin to make your plans again.... and this is when - in the Street of illusions, you hit a complete dark dead-end. "Oops !!" you think..... "so this is why this is the RLT !!" you gasp. "So what happens now ? Is it a U-turn and back again ? How can this be ?". Surprise gives way to frustration. "What the xxx", you tell yourself.... "If only I knew about this 3 months back!". Slowly there is a well spring of anger building up ....... but inbetween all that steam the bottomline remains.... What do you do now ?

While you catch your breath amidst all this and slowly come to terms with the new reality, something still tells you : "Theres got to be some other way ahead. I just can't be stopping here"... and so you pull yourself up again and walk up to the edge of the darkness.... and voila !! ... you discover - the dark dead-end is but an elaborate ruse - an optical illusion setup to test your resolve. How desperate and keen are you to walk the RLT ?..... do you look to make a way.... or do you give up at an apparent dead-end ? Can you face your own fears to walk in pitch darkness for a while, till you find a new stretch of road again ?

Sometimes we astonish ourselves... and coming through the Street of Illusions is like a small personal victory. You feel like jumping with joy and clicking your heels - not for anyone else to see and applaud, but because you quietly feel so good again.

The Street of Illusions opens up to what looks like the village roads of India ..... unmetalled, hard, bumpy, dusty.... the Creation Street. This is where all the new ideas, new learnings, new experiences begin to come together in your mind in an act of conception. This is an exciting phase - as all conception is - Everything is created twice they say, first in your mind and then in reality...... it is then that suddenly, almost like an epiphany, the truth occurs to you : For every person taking the RLT - there is no fixed destination ! The destination is as imagined and as conceived by that individual person making his own unique journey !!

And so folks, this is where I am in the journey right now.... walking down the RLT !! One learning from the journey till now has been that the RLT is less travelled because at most times its a lonely journey to undertake. It challenges your faith in yourself - and it challenges you to find yourself anew. In many ways it reminds me of a banana boat ride..... can you hang on through the twists and turns - and still enjoy the ride ?

Jack & Jill on NDTV

Blame it on the extreme proliferation of news channels - or on the insatiable appetite that the general public seems to be having for "reality" shows, the biggest reality show on television now-a-days, 24x7 is from the different news channels. Flash back to the Arushi murder case that became one such reality show - the TV channels milked the event to the utmost possible. So what if it put the actors through the nightmare of their lives - or so what if they were being extremely insensitive about the kind of questions they were asking ?... As long as the TRPs were ringing - its a great show - and as far as the channels were concerned, the show must go on.

Am sure many of you felt the same disgust and exasperation (at times) of this kind of news reporting. My way of handling this is to tune out of such "reality shows" and watch much more interesting channels like Pogo, Cartoon Network, National Geographic and Discovery instead. A friend of mine recently sent me this forward, which is a spoof on news reporting - the "event" being - the fall of Jack and Jill from up the hill. Read on and have a good laugh :

Here is how NDTV 24x7 would report the Jack and Jill nursery rhyme. All names (except those of Jack and Jill), are fictitious.

Prashant - TV Anchor
Two persons have been injured in a freak climbing accident. Jack and his companion Jill had gone up a hill to fetch a pail of water when Jack fell down and broke his crown. Jill came tumbling after. Live from the hill, our reporter, Amrita Shah, takes up the story.

Amrita Shah
Thank you Prashant. Well, as you say, two persons - Jack and Jill - had gone up a hill to fetch a pail of water. Suddenly, Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after. Prashant.

Prashant
Thank you Amrita. What do we know about the hill ?

Amrita
Not too much. Jack was going up the hill to fetch a pail of water when he fell down and broke his crown. Jill came tumbling after
[Headline appears at the foot of the TV screen: "hill breaks crown of pail-boy Jack"]

Prashant
What news of Jack and Jill?

Amrita
Prashant, it seems that Jack had gone up the hill to fetch a pail of water. We know nothing about the pail, or how heavy it was but it seems that Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after. I have here with me, an eyewitness to the accident, Mr Shahid Trivedi. Mr Shahid, tell us what you saw.

Shahid Trivedi
Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after.
[Headline appears at the foot of the TV screen: "Boy and girl tumble down hill. Water spilled"]

Amrita
Jack and Jill. What do we know about them? Are they brother and sister? Are they married? Just what were they doing on the hill together?

Shahid Trivedi
Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail a water.

Amrita
And what happened next?

Shahid Trivedi
Jack fell down and broke his crown

Amrita
Go on.

Shahid Trivedi
And Jill came tumbling after.

Amrita
Prashant, there you have it. Two people innocently going about their business to fetch a pail of water when one of them falls down, breaks his crown, and the other comes tumbling after. Back to you in the studio Prashant.
[Headline appears at the foot of the TV screen: "Water errand ends in tragedy"]

Prashant
I have with me in the studio now, Professor Chandrashekar Belagare from the Indian Institute of Applied Hill Sciences. Professor: a hill; Jack; Jill; a pail of water. A tragedy waiting to happen?

Professor
Well that depends on the hill, the two persons, the object they were carrying and the conditions underfoot. Let us look at the evidence so far.
Jack and Jill
Went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.
Jack fell down
And broke his crown
And Jill came tumbling after.
Clearly, one would suspect that if Jacks fall was severe enough to break his crown then the surface of the hill must have been slippery or unstable. But I think were overlooking something quite fundamental here. Who was carrying the pail? Jack fell down and broke his crown and this is the key Jill came tumbling after. If Jack and Jill had been carrying the pail together, would they not have fallen at the same time? The fact that Jill came tumbling after suggests that Jack lost his footing first and perhaps knocked Jill over as he slipped.

Prashant
Professor thank you very much. So there we have it, two persons Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after. Later in the programme, Osama bin Laden captured in Afghanistan, and Pakistan launches nuclear warheads against key Indian cities. But next up, join us after the break for a studio discussion about hills, boys and girls and whether water-fetching trips should be supervised. Well be right back...

Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

We live today in a cynical world. Are you doing something the majority frowns upon ? Do you have a thought that does not match with the current norm ?.... Hold onto it - don't let it go. The greatest of inventions afterall where all instances when someone chose to NOT follow the norm. The examples and instances are numerous - but the one which in my mind is most graphical of this truth is the one about the Fosbury Flop.

Mexico Olympics, 1968 : The customery way for a high jumper was to cross the bar with his body parallel to it - the Western Roll technique. Along came Dick Fosbury and did the unthinkable : he did it the other way round - he took off from the ground with his back towards the bar !!... the result - the famous Fosbury Flop. He beat the competition by more than a feet !!!

I have always been a non-conformist in many ways : I left my first job in HCL without any "backups" - because I wanted to do an MBA. Three months later, I was doing my MBA. In college there was this major academic craze to do as may papers as possible - perhaps to get an edge during campus placements. I firmly believed in doing only the minimum number required. And against the "norm" of doing two specialisations, I did only one : Marketing. The rest of the papers being divided between many eclectic choices. Did it make a difference eitherways - nothing really except that I perhaps had more time for fun. Another instance I remember was when a professor offered "Business Process Re-engineering" as a new elective. There was a mad rush for that. I did not even apply for that - my logic being that like all fads this would pass too - and anyways BPR work is initiated always top-down from the CEOs office - and by the time I become CEO, the concept of BPR would have disappeared. I am proud I got that bang on !!... something i keep chiding my wife about :-) The latest in my non-conformist streak ofcourse has been the decision to leave a cushy job and do something "different" professionally. No great success to report here as yet - but heck, am I learning or what !!! We tend to take things too seriously at times and believe that there is only one way up the corporate ladder - going upwards. But while doing so, we often tend to forget that the journey is as important as the climb too.

In an insecure world, conformity is appreciated and what the majority does is often seen as the right thing to do. From an Indian perspective, I really feel that the concept of "job security" is very highly over-rated. And somewhere I feel, its due to the cynicism we have developed as a society about most things which are fun. The thinking seems to be - if its fun, it must be frivolous - and if its frivolous, its not for serious adults.

In this context of all encompassing cynicism, I just happened to come across a piece of writing from the "Sun" - that a newspaperman (Francis Pharcellus Church) had once written to a little girl who had been told by her sceptic friends that : "theres nobody called Santa Claus". Its a beautiful piece of writing on the importance of believeing in such things. I am reproducing it verbatim :

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
"VIRGINIA O'HANLON."
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.

"VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Peering Thru The Mist

A thick haze of mist hangs about,

The path I seek to take.

And as I make my way ahead,

Vague forms begin to take shape.

I hear some far away strains,

Of what song or tune, I can't say.

Some smells come wafting by too,

Some unknown - some oh so familiar.

Different clues of a jigsaw puzzle,

Coming into focus and gone again.

Just about there - but still not clear.

I keep walking up the trail,

One step at a time - and the next one again.

Taking in everything coming my way,

The smells, the sights, the sounds, the thoughts,

And occassionally some creeping doubts, the fears.

Pieces of some future tapestry,

A puzzle awaiting deciphering.

What the mind can see, the man can do they say,

And so the mind endeavours.

To peep through the hazy curtain of mist,

To see the teasing mystery unfold.

The Hidden Power of Shared Values

Am reading an interesting book by Kouzes & Posner called “The Leadership Challenge”. There is an intriguing passage there that resonated with me. Sharing it here, since I think its quite profound :

“The very first step on the journey to credible leadership is clarifying your values – discovering those fundamental beliefs that will guide your decisions and actions along the path to success and significance. That journey involves an exploration of the inner territory where your true voice resides. Its essential that you take yourself on this voyage because its the only route to authenticity and because your personal values drive your commitment to the organization and to the cause. You can't do what you say if you dont know what you believe. And, you can't do what you say if you don't believe in what you are saying.”

To facilitate this, they have an interesting set of questions that you can answer for yourself :

1. What do you stand for ? Why ?
2. What do you believe in ? Why ?
3. What are you discontented about ? Why ?
4. What brings you suffering ? Why ?
5. What makes you weep and wail ? Why ?
6. What makes you jump for joy ? Why ?
7. What are you passionate about ? Why ?
8. What keeps you awake at night ? Why ?
9. Whats grabbed hold and wont let go ? Why ?
10. What do you want for your life ? Why ?
11. Just what is it that you really care about ? Why ?

Just try it – at the least, you will know yourself better. :-)

Just got me thinking that we have such an action oriented culture in most companies, that spending time doing an activity like this would generally be considered a complete waste of time. And then we wonder why we don't see more leadership in our people in organizations. Peter Senge, in his book “The Fifth Discipline” refers to this as one of the learning disabilities of organizations : the illusion of taking charge – alluding to the propensity that most of us folks have of jumping headlong into action as the panacea for all ills. But perhaps, slow at times is fast.

As per Kouzes & Posner again, research confirms that organizations with a strong corporate culture based on a foundation of shared values outperformed other firms by a huge margin :

• Their revenue grew more than four times faster
• Their rate of job creation was seven times higher
• Their stock price grew twelve times faster
• Their profit performance was 750 percent higher

If the data is so overwhelming – why then are exercises in unraveling personal values and hence finding shared values, not an extremely prevalent practice in today's corporate world ? Afterall, what are values – but our deepest beliefs and convictions. Do people not know or is it just intellectual laziness or is it the attitude of saying : “Oh yes, we know that” (As in – yes we have read all about moto-biking, we know it now !!).

I suspect the answer lies deeper. Most visioning and value exercises are done by a group of senior management folks in an out-of-office break out session. The output is then canned and delivered to everyone in the organization for absorption. But can values really be forced ? And so the inevitable happens – and after some lip service, the whole exercise dies a quiet death. And the next time someone refers to it again, there are knowing smiles and someone says : “Oh yes, we know that” !! Things like company vision & values are often brushed aside only because more often than not – they remain as just slogans decorating walls.

For shared values to emerge, the only way then, is for it to be painstakingly forged, which means the exercise of arriving at it needs to be more widespread with a much larger representation. If people across the organization are involved in arriving at it, if they feel heard and involved – I believe visions and values can be a very effective tool in forging alignment. For shared vision and values to thrive though – there has to be a culture wherein the apex leadership has an ongoing dialogue with employees on living the values & rewarding it.

Its not for nothing that the devil resides in the execution !! ….. till then, the attractive statistic remains just that – a promised land, but too difficult to get to for the vast majority. For old times sake, pulled out and had a look at hp's iconic Rules of the Garage – values put down by Bill Hewlett & Dave Packard.

In retrospect, I wonder : would it not do hp a world of good to go back to its roots ?

First week at la la land

Whew !!.... what a first week at work, here in Singapore !!

Before I get into details - here are some brass-tacks. My office is located inside Sentosa Park (yes there are offices inside !!). I am currently staying in a quaint, "studio apartment" - in a large expansive site we have at Sembawang, which once used to be the school for British children, during WW II days. Feels tickled to have so much history around me. The Sembawang park near-abouts here was the site of some intense fighting they say, and to this day - there are tales of ghosts that frequent these parts. Having said that, Sembawang is one of the most beautiful parts of this lovely city of Singapore - with old colonial houses dotting the landscape, very broad roads flanked on either sides by lush greenery and a quiet that is seldom seen in any bustling city.

Day 1 started with a program that we were doing for NUS (National university of singapore) - a group of 22 students that had 19 nationalities between them. It was a team building activity. The extreme diversity meant it was great fun - lot of laughter and bonhomie by the time we got through with it. This was followed by a steady stream of varied programs for an assortment of companies like DBS, Maersk, Singtel. The added bonus for me, other than the learnings in the program itself, is that I get to sit in presentations of such varied companies and get a glimpse of how different companies in different industries think, plan and strategise.

There were two programs in particular that really stood out for me. The first one was a "Cookery Challenge" that we did for 120 employees of the Ministry of education. I never realised that cooking of all things could be made such fun !!.... everyone was given a fixed budget, the raw material was auctioned and then.... lo and behold in 60 mins flat.... we had 10 teams all preparing a starter, a main course and a dessert. And ofcourse the final products were garnished and decorated by the "chef de presentatione", such that the offering was not just tasty, but really beckoning to the eye too. Was genuinely tough coming out with a winner on that one.... but what the heck - with so much fun, everyone was a winner !!

The other program was one we did for a group of kids from Hongkong (averaging say 11 years) ... the facilitator was going through his normal routine and so asked the kids... "Kids, so what do you want from this program ?"..... just imagine his shock when the kids started rattling out one after the other...."XBox 360"....."PS2".....one even said "a 100 dollars" !!!!..... he somehow side-stepped that one. Then the next question..."ok tell me, what happens when you put two dogs and a cat together ?".... this was a pre-cursor to a funny slide where two dogs and a cat are co-operating to get some beer out of the refrigerator. So the expected answer was "they will fight"..."kill each other" or something like that. But again - kids are kids, most unpredictable : for the next 10 minutes the room was full of cats meowing and dogs barking. The poor facilitator could only hold his hips and laugh !!!

Towards the end of the week - caught a ferry and went down to Bintan, an island in Indonesia (visa on arrival - so no problem la). Bintan is a island that the Indonesian government is almost completely developing for tourism. Its got some really fabulous resorts and some of the most pristine seashores, extending for miles. Its also got large tracts of forest areas that make for good trekking. First day here, i.e Friday was a program we did for the Bintan Lagoon Resorts management team - with an interesting activity called "geo-caching", where teams are actually given a GPS receiver each and asked to track out pre-determined locations. Good fun in all. Second half was spent with a different division of our company - "Camp Challenge", which is focussed on youth development activities. Among other things, I got to climb a 25m high tower using ropes and steel clamps, played a session of paint-ball (an activity where everyone is given a gun with paint-ball bullets... imagine the rest) and at night, we had a night-walk in the forests nearby. Quite an eerie experience, considering that its designed such that - for most parts you end up walking alone, with only the sounds of the forest accompanying you.

Second day at Bintaan, early in the morning - we headed for Gunung Bintaan - for an ardous trek through the forests to reach atop the highest peak in Bintan. Somewhere 80% of the way up, I had the realisation dawn on me, that I am really getting older afterall. Totally out of breath and de-hydrated, somehow managed to reach the peak. Rest of the day, after we decended was dedicated mostly to sea sports. First there was the Jet ski safari.... followed by banana boat and then the most scary one of all - the "flying fish". Will not explain it in detail here, else i will cut out the fun for those of you planning to be here sometime. My advise : just dont miss it. We followed this with a circuit in the ATVs (All terrain vehicles).... and finally capped the evening with a session of beach volley ball. By that time, I was tanned - two shades darker now - and it got time back for our return ferry to Singapore.

Spent Sunday at home.... watching National day on T.V. Monday was a compensatory off here in Singapore. And that bought an end to a very exciting, eventful first few days at Singapore !!