Carbon is My Inspiration

This post for sure is not on Organic Chemistry! For the reason that I know everyone hates it. But how about Chemistry in relationships? Now everyone would invariably say a big YES!

Working on the differences is the thumb rule of any relationship. It is so similar to chemical bonding. There are elements, there are compounds and there are also inert gases. For those who slept in chemistry classes, let me explain some simple stuff. Elements are comprised of single kind of atoms, say people who are comfortable with people of their kind. Compounds are combination of elements, say people who are ready to mingle with all (but with certain other kinds at times) and inert gases are those which never react, unless there are certain forcible conditions.

I am sure you have come across all these kinds of people. Predominantly, the element category. They are more comfortable with you if you are existing in a form that they are comfortable to react with. They remain stubborn and try to make you react. These kinds of people are the manipulators :p. The compounds are the happy ones who mingle with everyone else. The compound group is one which has all kinds of people. The inert gases are the ones who come rapidly to you if and only if there is an emergency.

Out of all the elements, my inspiration is carbon. It is abundant, found everywhere and moreover in every form. Diamonds for the expensive people, coal for the people who make a living out of it and “Ponds face wash with the power of activated carbon” for the pretty girls.. J

And do not forget, they can form bonds of varying strengths. From a bond with Oxygen and float freely in the atmosphere to a strong bond with other Carbon atoms over a period of time to form the strongest allotrope, or even as the graphite in pencils that motivate Ranchos of the world to come up with ultimate questions about usage in space.

In my opinion, it is more important for every individual to align with Carbon’s characteristics. Remain tough with certain people, bond strongly with some, and also act as Carbon Monoxide or even Cyanide to a few people who deserve that.

Let us face the reality that everyone looks for benefits in others. True relationships without any expectation can exist only in fairy tales. To remain active in all situations and still enjoy life, the thumb rule is “Take people the way they are”. Certain inert gases are too dangerous. It is all about understanding the characteristics and choosing if to react or not and choosing the form of existence.

And do not regret for being used by people or for being taken for granted. People use you for the simple reason that you are useful. Like the carbon being used by everyone. You just have to bear the ones who take you for granted, but only till they realize that you are a diamond!!!

Bingo

Ganapati Papa Glorious!!!

His name starts with “G”, yet around a billion people believe in the fact that everything starts with him. You may see Indian streets even without roads laid, but not without a Ganesh temple. Almost all kinds of organizations invariably have a Ganesh temple in their premises. The reason being so simple, Ganesh is ready to sit even under a tree unlike Lord Vishnu who needs space to lie down or Lord Lakshmi who needs a lot of ornaments.

The first super hero of any Indian child, for a simple fact that he was smart enough to cheat his sibling and grab a mango. Mischief his inherent quality and eating his predominant hobby makes him get closer to a common man compared to other focussed and fit Gods.

It is interesting to analyse how “Ganesh” has evolved as a super brand that everyone loves, not taking into consideration the zillions of sub categories in Hinduism. It is quite evident that the twist specifying Ganesh written on the top of all answer sheets help over a millions pass exams every year!!!

I was going through an article called “Most Important brand characteristics of Gen Y”. And here comes my rationale behind me calling “Ganesh” a super brand.

      1.     Has his own style:

Of course, a huge tummy, smartness in getting things done, the most intellectual of all Gods and a lot more adding to the fact that he is stylish that Rajnikanth.

      2.     Makes me feel happy:

The first thing anyone could recollect about Ganesh temples is the variety  of prashad or offerings. The rich ghee and cashew filled limited tasty food would make anyone happy.

      3.     Is up-to-date:

Ganesh with cricket bats, kicking football during the respective world cups, even missiles during war times is a normal scene in the sub-continent. He is so flexible to endorse any product, that too free of cost and hence is always up-to-date.

 

4.     Has a clean reputation:

No black marks in the whole of his mythological career, at least Ram was suspicious about Sita, Krishna made all tricky strategies wheras Ganesh remaining clean and is more promising of delivering results to his devotees.

      5.      Is real/authentic:

Belief and blind belief is extensive in Ganesh’s case and is way ahead of others. I have rarely heard stories of his dad or brother’s idols drinking milk, but every six months some or the other Ganesh idol drinks milk and created hype. People blindly believe that he is real.

      6.      Is something I can identify with:

Here, all credits to the one who had designed such a brand. Really hats off to our mythology, the way of relating things in a flawless way. As we all know an elephant has great strength, has a superb memory and is a peace loving creature unless anyone troubles it, Ganesh does all these too. The moment he knows the world has trouble, he loses temper.

      7.      Is clear and simple:

No complex ideas like the Gita, does not need highly complex rituals of hymns. Simplest of all Gods, an idol made of sand, bananas being a reasonable offering, moreover a four liner hymn and four sit-ups ensure miracle.

These characteristics have ensured that he stays in the hearts and homes of around a billion people. Established as the biggest organization, with even more branches than government offices or even CCDs for that matter. All he needs it a tree with some branches for shade and people with belief.

Not sure if Nano proves to be a people’s car, but any brand trying to become a people’s brand must learn from the success story of Lord Ganesh!!!

Happy Ganesh Chaturthi!!!

A Marketer's Attitude!!!

Committed? How does it bother me??? I am Alexander the conqueror and not Columbus the explorer!!!

Just a statement to pull you into the post, but still coincidentally suits the context. This attitude in a marketer has always resulted in fruitful results. Facebook was not a new concept, iPod was not a new product, IPL was not a new format, and even Titanic was something which originally sunk in the Atlantic. It is all about ensuring that the packaging is done in a way that the target audience woo it.

Sincerely, forgetting the 4Ps and 7Ps is a sin and would end up in a disaster. The most relevant case in the recent times is the failure and success of a same story in Bollywood. Ek Tha Tiger is creating history while Agent Vinod’s failure is not at all a mystery. It is all about using the best of the Ps in the most creative manner.

To put it across in simple terms, no need to propose a girl who has never been proposed, it’s all about showcasing how you are better that her boy friend. To be honest, customers are like the most common girl who can never be happy about anything or anyone for a longer period time.

Creativity finds its prominence in the way of approach. It is all about finding what tune the customer would love to dance for and blowing your trumpet in similar notes. Again putting in simple words, be a funny guy to impress the girl who loves jokes, be a boring guy to an emotional girl and do not hesitate to even play tennis if the girl is of the FWB kind!!! And trust me; this process is simple only with a committed girl and the magic works when you woo her better than your competitor.

Being a martial arts fan, I could not resist myself from quoting the “Karate Kid” as a similar phenomenon. A same story, told in a slightly different way, sold at different times and still proving successful. The old curvy chubby Beetle sold at a premium price, Priyanka Chopra dressed in the 70s style and dancing in promo videos and lot more prove good examples to support my point.

So, the bottom line is never fear, just think of projecting things in a different and better way. Be a conqueror as enough explorations have been made to exploit every resource.  The password to access success may be tough to crack, but is always easy to hack!!!

Courage??? That sounds funny to me!!!

Chris Gayle hits the ball and it disappears into the crowd…. How courageous???

Neil Amstrong stepped on an unknown place, Courage matters!!!

Vidya Balan is the most courageous Indian lady….

Just examples.. Lot more on the list… Napolean Bonaparte, Alexander,  Muhammed Ali, Pamela Anderson (lol...) and the list never ends.

Even when I failed to do my homework in school, my teachers asked me, “Who gave you courage to come to class???”. My confusion is so simple. Does the word ‘Courage’ really deserve the importance which is being given to it? Or is it an exaggeration of qualities of people by the ones who feel shame about their inabilities?

From my point of view, courage is just the “victory of one fear over another”.

A boy who fears about his crush falling for another guy, proposes her. Victory of fear of losing her over the fear of what she may think. A girl who fears her guy not giving her the importance, cries in front of everyone (With courage.. :p).

A student, who thinks he/she might not pass, gets the courage to cheat in exam. Fear of failing wins over the fear of getting caught.

The most courageous act of taking a walk to the graveyard at an odd night even is an outcome of fear. Fear of losing dignity among the cowards who fear to do that.

Achieving a feat that others are afraid of is a great trait, but still the objective is an issue. Are we wasting our time thinking and strategizing ways to improve the way world looks at us? If that is the case, those humble people who have the courage to tell that they are cowards are obviously leading a better life. They do what they love to do, not taking into consideration how do they look like from others’ perception.

Courage therefore from my point of view is a funny word, and that’s why I am courageous enough to criticize it and those who use it in a funny way… J

Are you a good relationship manager?

“Mana” “Dama”ging relationships – Ask Srini

When everyone speaks philosophy about relationships and stuff that has no meaning and value addition, I laugh at them. For a simple reason that it is the benefits that people get from relationships and not the relationship itself that matters.

You got to be a good trader
I had been advocating the fact that even friendship is a form of trade, which some people don’t accept and some people even go the extent of calling me a crazy person who does not know the meaning of emotions. I still ask them only one question. If time spent together is a measure of a good relationship, it is a trade. If the degree to which other person listens and cares for you is a measure, relationship is a trade. If being there for you under any circumstance is a measure, relationship is a trade.

Finally economics comes in handy
It is all about giving a little and taking a lot. This is a really confusing equation as the giver feels the worth of things that are given, more than the taker. To be more precise, sacrificing a match is a great sacrifice for the reason that I love football. But value is always based on the perception from the receiving end. And believe me, this equation can never be solved unless there are numerous variables which balance from either sides, and finding them out is a Himalayan task.


In an unlimited buffet choose the right menu
But still the person, who clearly defines his /her equation and customizes it quickly for different recipients, becomes the most loved person. It is simply serving the preferred dished on right plates. You may very well come across stale food on your plates, but who knows recession may hit and the stale food becomes the main course. So, my sincere request is you may have stale food, but don’t reveal the status to them. Keep tasting and appreciating every dish.
Things do not ever happen the way we want. There may be spills from the plate which becomes inevitable. But ensuring that they do not spill on us and create a stain is the most important factor. Understand the logic behind human relationships is so important – nothing and no one is as exciting as the first meet and charm reduces over a period of time. Jokes become nonsense, care becomes disturbance, and love becomes stupidity.

Controlled "Damage" is the new mantra
So, the best thing about managing relationships is damaging them at the “right time”. Sounds stupid, but trust me, this is the best way of fool proofing from being called a stupid. Either you become stupid or make others look so. The option is open and perfectly within one’s control. Damaging is a little tough to do. It is highly dependent on others too. They may be stubborn against the damage as the benefits are not yet perfectly extracted. Be careful, you lose the chance; others get the upper hand and throw you later. At the end of the day, it is all about who looks brilliant!!!

It’s all about Damaging and not Managing, which will fetch you pride and importance in any relationship.
Stay tuned for more.. :)

A theist

Sun, stars, moon, earth, wind, rock, plaster of paris… Wondering what is this all about? I would say it’s the evolution of visualization of a brilliant concept called God over centuries and millennia!!!

I would love to quote this as a best example for “version control” for any product that mankind had come across. Of course, the one tricky concept that even the best organizations are finding tough to manage. Also, don’t ignore the concept of product differentiation. Different people - different thoughts and different Gods. A brown man or woman is the visualization of God in the sub-continent and of course a white in the white peoples’ land. That is one of the reasons why this concept was sold easily all around the world in different packages, but under a same brand.

Everything was going right for people, but the ambition of the marketers to sell their products to different markets at different geographies created a chaos in the long run. As any product, the new Gods also had a great demand in the places they were introduced and started giving tough competition to the local players. Also the benefits provided to the rightly segmented and targeted audience by the sales men namely the “prophets”, “missionaries” and lot more, worked out successfully and created dissatisfaction in people about their current state. All this ended in loss of brand loyalty and the poor Gods were misused by their ambitious followers.

I don’t find any problem with the almighty, but for the fact that he was not keen on educating people about his incarnations all around the world. He somehow felt that people would understand by themselves that he not only appeared at ten instances to save the world, but also had to appear in some far off places and save the good ones from the bad ones during the climax.

I strictly believe in God. Of course, there are various things that science cannot explain and the only answer is the unseen power that rules and controls everything. God from my point of view is a mixture of fear element with hope that controls as well as motivates people to fulfill their roles and help in things moving forward.

Perceptions apart, the point I am trying to make is so simple. I trust in god and that’s why I do not trouble him with prayers. And the world calls me an “atheist”. Common sense says, the ones who do not trust in God, have an element of doubt, “what if God forgets me?” and keep praying to remind him of their grievances. Wake up. It’s all about trust. And stop calling me an “atheist” for the simple reason that I clearly understand the concept called God, and its purpose of existence. I am “a theist”.

The "Gurus" of Marketing!!!

As a continuation of my "Curiosity Selling" Concept, I would like to talk about the "Genius Marketeers" world has ever seen. Do you people admire these set of personalities am going to talk about? I don't think everyone would. But I strictly do admire them. Not for their concepts and ideas to make people enlightened, but for their brilliance in selling nothing but desire and curiosity of achieving happiness and their success in making happiness a scarce resource.

The "God man" strategy: 

I would like to term this strategy as the “God Man” strategy. These “God Men” are believed to be either the representative of God or even the God himself/ herself. People follow, praise and worship them to find out answer for the most curious question, “how to be happy?” which of course does not have an answer. But ultimately the gurus end up making themselves happy with villas, charter jets and of course, the power of God!

This case is also a best example of playing with the curiosity of people and promising of enlightening them with ways of being happy. Unlike the TV shows which I would talk about in my next post, this concept has a wider scope and can cross borders easily as they claim to have invented the unique technique applicable for all religions and cultures. In this context, people are all same and equal and God is one who is obviously the founder of that particular ‘ism’.

Living can be so artistic: 

Art of Living Foundation (AOLF) has its international headquarters in Bangalore, India at Veda Vignan Mahavidyapeeth or VVM campus (usually referred to as the Bangalore Ashram)and has regional centers in more than 140 countries. In Europe, the organization is known as "The Association for Inner Growth". The foundation was founded by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Along with its function as the vehicle for spreading his teachings and Vedic knowledge, the organization is involved in community service through its centers. The Foundation operates as a social business and its main activity is to organize Art of Living courses; yoga, breathing, and meditation workshops, and education and trauma relief in regions of trauma and disaster. 

An International Brand:

The Art of Living has established itself as an international brand reaching out to over 300 million people in over 140 countries with its various programs. The best part is that this has been achieved in a very short interval of just 30 years.

AOLF is a member to the following international associations

· CONGO (Conference of NGO's in consultative status with ECOSOC of the United Nations), Geneva and New York

· United Nations NGO Committees: Health, Mental Health, Committee on Aging, New York

· United Nations NGO Values Caucus, New York and Geneva

· International Union for Health Promotion and Education, Paris

· NGO Forum for Health, Geneva

· National Association of Women's Organizations, Uganda

Sold a lot and still selling:

The revenue generated every year by the Art of Living organization is absolutely miraculous. Keep in mind that they have sold nothing other than curiosity in people about living happy and free of diseases.

According to the tax return filed by the American chapter, AOL Foundation had total revenues of $5.5M (mainly 3.5M from course fees and 1.7M from public support ) and expenditure of $3.6M from July 2006 to June 2007. Net assets at the beginning of July 2007 amounted to $7.7M. Although AOLF is said to work in partnership with its sister organization the International Association for Human Values which implements humanitarian programs, no direct reference in this tax return is made to humanitarian relief and training programs conducted directly or through IAHV. However, cash allocations including foreign grants of 0.95M are included in the above reported expenses.

If revenue generated from one of its chapters counts to a mammoth sum, it becomes tough to even imagine the size of Business Empire that they have created over the period of time.

Other Famous Foundations:

Not only the Art of Living, there are various such spiritual organizations which have found customers all over the world. They include Amrita foundation, Sai foundation trust etc. Charity is the best part of these organizations as they utilize the generated revenue for welfare and development of the society. These empires stand tall unless and otherwise they fall in for some scam which sends vibes all through their channels and serves to be a prey to the media. In recent times we have seen such cases so the risk involved is so high.

My bottom line: 

My bottom line is yet the same and simple. In the present world, no one needs to create anything, but just understand the target audience. What do they need? the ultimate answer turned to be "happiness". As the U.S declaration of independence states, it is "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" the ultimate aim for anyone on earth. And our gurus had segmented the market rightly for people who had a life, targeted the ones with liberty to waste money and positioned in their minds their pursuit of happiness.

Hope you liked this post. Stay tuned for my article on our dear TV reality shows and what they do to ensure that we are glued to our seats.


SrinivaS


Curiosity and Craziness are never ending phenomena!!!

Business is something where "money" plays!!!

This post is a part of my paper on a marketing concept "Curiosity Selling". 

there are three aspects in which I made the study on and sports being one of them.

Sports Power

“Sports” has now become more commercialized in terms of ownerships of the best sporting clubs on earth. Some of the well known and less explored avenues are discussed below. 

Formula1 Racing

If ever there was a man who could make a silk purse out of a sow's ear it is F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone. A recent report reveals the 2009 financial results for UK-based Delta 3, the company which receives all the revenue from fees TV stations pay to screen F1 as well as the fees paid by circuits and sponsors of the sport. Remarkably, despite facing the worst recession in living memory last year, Delta 3's revenue still rose 6.4% to a record £680m with its operating profit after costs more than doubling to £119.4m. Around £278m of Delta 3's revenue comes from fees paid by broadcasters with another £278m from fees paid by Grand Prix promoters. The remainder comes from series sponsors including DLF and Allianz.

English Premier League

The Premier League has the highest revenue of any football league in the world, with total club revenues of €2.326 billion in 2008–09, and is the second most profitable after the German Bundesliga. In 2010 the Premier League was awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise in the International Trade category by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The Premier League was recognized for its outstanding contribution to international trade and the value it brings to English football and the United Kingdom's broadcasting industry. At present Sky and ESPN have exclusive rights to broadcast the Premier League - the current domestic contract is worth pounds sterling 1.78bn over three years.

Indian Premier League

In 2010, IPL became the first sporting event ever to be broadcast live on YouTube. Its brand value was estimated to be around $4.13 billion the same year. According to global sports salaries review, IPL is the second highest-paid league, based on first-team salaries on a pro rata basis, second only to the NBA. It is estimated that the average salary of an IPL player over a year would be $3.84 million. The brand value of Chennai Super Kings (winner IPL 2010, finalist IPL 2008 and semi-finalist IPL 2009) is estimated at USD 48.4 Million.

On 15 January 2008 it was announced that a consortium consisting of India's Sony Entertainment Television network and Singapore-based World Sport Group secured the global broadcasting rights of the Indian Premier League. The record deal has duration of ten years at a cost of US $1.026 billion. As part of the deal, the consortium will pay the BCCI US $918 million for the television broadcast rights and US $108 million for the promotion of the tournament. This deal was challenged in the Bombay High Court by IPL, and got the ruling on its side. After losing the battle in court, Sony Entertainment Television signed a new contract with BCCI with Sony Entertainment Television paying Rs.8,700 crore (US$1.93 billion) for 10 years.

Broadcast rights as a measure of customer curiosity

All these above mentioned entities have made revenues based on the broadcast rights and the tickets sold. This is based on the fact that any sport can be successful on the basis of the interest of the spectators. As TV channels are ready to grab the deals with such huge sum of money, it gives a clear signal that curiosity among people is high which again accounts to their TRP. Another fact is that Set Max had charged 1 million rupees for every ad of 10 seconds during the semi-finals and final matches of IPL 2010. This clearly is a measure of the curiosity and interest of the viewers, who eventually are the spectators of the game.

Spectator Interest Model

Enough boring you with facts that are freely available on the internet. Now, let me come to my point of view.

From the above observations, it is so clear that the revenue generated by any sport is directly related to the interest that the spectators exhibit. Taking this into account, a model can be proposed namely the “Spectator Interest Model”.

The main parameters taken into account are the curiosity of spectators and commercialization of the sport.  

The model can be given as,

The model is based on the idea that “sports” has changed its dimension in recent times with the advent of club culture and de-nationalization of teams. The broadcast rights and tickets for these club games have considerably seen a hike and almost crossed the values of those related to international games.

This trend is clearly a result of the organizing committee and the promoters of the clubs playing with the curiosity of the spectators right from the regional impact by splitting of teams in accordance to zones or states, selection of international players, inclusion of local players, venues and various other factors. All these factors account to dragging of the spectators with a feeling of belonging which blends and comes out as curiosity and support to their sides.

Look forward for my next post on the true management "Gurus" and new promising ways of making money.

Srini's Theory of Rapport Building

In my recent set of observations of people who hang around places in Bangalore, I was able to observe a pattern of what people talk about and that gave rise to this idea of formulating the rapport building process.
My theory can be represented using a simple formula,

r = mc³

                                                 (I still wonder how Einstein came up with a similar formula as mine!!!)

            

The bottom line is so simple. You have to be equipped to talk on three things in general to start a conversation with any typical Indian citizen.

Cricket:

Dhoni’s bald style after winning the world cup was a great sensation and youngsters queued in salons to get their heads shaved(As discussed in my last post). We are such a cricket crazy nation and everyone can make a clean and flawless comparative analysis about teams and players of the game. So, to start a conversation with someone, the best weapon could be the “national game” of people who ruled us and forgot to take back.

Cinema:

Genelia ties knot with Ritesh. How did this happen? Will she continue acting? All these doubts arise in the minds of any typical Indian citizen. People are least bothered about their family and children, but cannot sleep without watching Zoom channel and clarifying their doubts with respect to the latest gossips. The number of movie woods is no scarce in the sub-continent. From bolly to kolly to tolly to molly to sandal to whatever you name, there has always been some or the other news day in and out. People don’t know what is the defence budget allocated, but are totally aware of the budget of Ra-One and Robot. Join the “club of critics” and of course every citizen of the nation is one.

Current affairs:

This is a way of tackling the so called “Boring” people who have no other work, but read news papers, watch news channels and discuss politics as if things would change on their advice. Of course, they read gossips but don’t discuss for the reason that they are serious people. The only way to handle them is to start throwing news about Mitt Romney’s run or Pakistan’s political fun. I know this is a little tough thing to do, but watching news for just half an hour will sure serve this purpose.

Am sure you wonder what is that "m" doing on the equation. It is of course our mouth. We have to use it to the best level(other than for just eating). Dont care what people call you. May it be chatter box, non sense or whatever. The objective is simple, to get people to talk with us. And in my theory, "m" is never a constant(unlike Uncle Einstein's).

But this theory would help in just starting a conversation. It is quite obvious that Chikni Chameli is hot not more than five minutes on a discussion. So, it would be wise to understand the interest of the other person in a quick interval and ensure exchange of contact numbers, mail ids and most importantly social media connections in the first meet so that it becomes easy to build on the relationship.

Stay tuned for my next article on “Different People Different Thoughts!”. Stay curious, it may be about you.