Rajeev Karwal expresses Gratitude to his 'Teachers'

Such is Sachin

2010-02-25T07:50:00.000+05:30

Belief makes you last long. To last long you need to be at it continuously and not give up at minor obstacles or compromise on the values. Hats off to you Sachin! You inspire because to achieve your desire, you continuously perspire.

Dedicated to Sachin on becoming the fist man ever to score a double ton in one day internationals.

Don't Lie, Talk to God by Looking in his Eye!

2010-02-24T01:37:00.000+05:30

Keep doing, keep positive, keep changing the lines of your palm. Keep a life where you don't have to lie and can discuss anything with God by looking into his eye! Rajeev Karwal, 24th Feb

Egos bloody Egos!

2010-02-24T01:27:00.000+05:30

Egos! Egos!! Egos!!! Failure to manage Egos is the biggest reason behind Business/Life partnerships or opportunities which go bust ! Have seen people go on an Ego trip and then numbly watch themselves ride down to destruction. I myself have indulged in mindless ego sometimes. Need to be careful. RK

What tires you more?

2010-02-24T01:25:00.002+05:30

What tires you more? A completed task after 24 hours of non stop, focused work finished well before the time line or an unfinished job with a relaxed approach which you know you will complete 10 minutes before the deadline, easily? RK

Talk the Walk?

2010-02-24T01:24:00.002+05:30

I have met many people who have attained real success by taking the right path but do not believe in 'Talking the Walk'. I have also found a lot of people who according to me do not deserve to be sustainable successes, though they lucidly say that they 'Walk the Talk' ! Rajeev Karwal

People who make the real difference to the World!

2010-02-19T01:24:00.000+05:30

I did a survey of people who think that they think good.....96.5% of the people believe that just by thinking good they are contributing a lot to their surroundings. The balance 3.5% people not only think good but also empower themselves to act on it. These people make all the real difference to the world ! Which category are you in? Rajeev Karwal 15th Feb 2010

Failure to manage Egos is the biggest reason behind Business Breakups

2010-02-19T01:23:00.000+05:30

Egos! Egos!! Egos!!! Failure to manage Egos is the biggest reason behind Business/Life partnerships or opportunities which go bust ! Have seen people go on an Ego trip and then numbly watch themselves ride down to destruction. I myself have indulged in mindless ego sometimes. Need to be careful. Rajeev Karwal 19th Feb

To Young Professionals who want a Bright Future

2010-02-04T01:11:00.000+05:30

To all young professionals who have a bright future : Midnight oil you must burn, scores of pages you must turn. With time you will learn that its your right to yearn once you demonstrate the ability to earn. RK

Do Business if You are Happily Independent !

2010-02-01T23:02:00.000+05:30

You do business because you want to be 'happily independent' . If you become 'unhappily dependent' in your own business then its time to question your strategy and motives. Rajeev Karwal

Two of our most precious possessions

2010-02-01T22:57:00.000+05:30

Emotions and Time are two of our most precious possessions. When we are with people we bond with, we actually give and receive a part of both. What we receive we must protect, both in personal and professional life. We must understand the value of what others give us and thank them. Rajeev Karwal

Milagrow World Small Business Conference Videos - Enjoy

2010-01-22T00:19:00.003+05:30

Values, Emotions and Strength

2010-01-21T00:11:00.000+05:30

Values in most humans only change for the better with time. Expression of emotions also improves in most persons as they age. With improvement in values and emotional objectivity a person actually becomes stronger. Rajeev Karwal

Performers you must note and merit you must dote.....

2010-01-19T18:02:00.001+05:30

Bloated coats or grazing goats....Floaters will continue to float, Get them out of your boat, Merit you must dote and performers you must note, It is only the skilled who make a tote for which consumers vote! Rajeev Karwal

Honest Life, Sustainable Business

2010-01-15T08:20:00.000+05:30

Tongue is the lightest muscle in the body but still the most difficult to HOLD...... I write this limerick in the winter COLD...If intentions are right......go ahead and be BOLD. By hiding vital facts you may have have SOLD, fake GOLD...Real experience however, has taught me that emotions we can FOLD...utterances we can MOULD.......but ultimately time will have the truth TOLD....RK, 14th Jan 2010

W is the trajectory of life

2010-01-10T14:14:00.002+05:30

W is the trajectory of life. W empowers us, W helps us realize the difference between success or failure....it gives us new perspectives. Don't ever Kill your WILL. Take the W out and it becomes ILL! Rajeev Karwal 10th Jan 2010

Stick and a Mule!

2010-01-07T22:55:00.000+05:30

When a 'stick' gets the 'sick' to 'tick' then you should be quick to understand the fiction in the 'flick'. RK 7th Jan 2010

A horse is not a mule , a cow is not a sheep.....days are to keep your eyes open and not to sleep! RK 7th Jan 2010

No application..no replication!

2010-01-05T23:41:00.002+05:30

A professional with ability but no application is like a potent fool desirous of no replication. RK 5th Jan 2010

Why Hide?

2010-01-04T23:22:00.000+05:30

Weaknesses are what we must not hide.....simply to protect our pride.
It will only make our 'performance gap' wide....
Even those who are on our side will feel that they have been taken for a ride.
Let's keep improving and protect the positive tide!

Rajeev Karwal 4th Jan 2010

Mantra for 2010 = Let's do something to help the good sustain!

2009-12-31T18:56:00.000+05:30

I write a poem every new year eve. The one for 2010 exhorts us to focus on ourselves and focus on good. Let us not keep complaining about others and the world in general.

Here it goes....

What use is it to complain?
Forget the negatives....
Let's do something to help the good sustain!

Happiness, success and a better future is ours
If each one of us keeps improving 'I'
Let's not keep saying 'This is WHY......!

Focus is the mantra for 2010,
Put effort on the right ten.
Smart effort will get you a return of twenty..
Why waste energy on issues aplenty.

Magnifying weaknesses in others is the nature of the weak,
Strengths and goodness in others is what we must seek.

None will fail and forever we will sail...

Success however must bring humility,
Else, the joys will be short lived,
All the effort we put in will prove to be an exercise in futility.

What use is it to complain?
Forget the negatives....
Let's do something to help the good sustain!

Rajeev Karwal, 31st December 2009

Also read my previous attempts at poetry
2009- Nine will be Fine
2008- The Future Beckons
2007- It all begins with Us
2006- A Full Life

Companies get the people they deserve!

2009-12-13T00:55:00.002+05:30

Customers get the suppliers they deserve and vice versa. Companies get the people they deserve and vice versa. Rocket Singh rocks!

Let 2010 be the year of 'The Ethical Indian' !

When does winning become a habit?

2009-12-13T00:42:00.003+05:30

When you don't want to lose, winning becomes a habit! Rajeev Karwal 13th December 2009

SAINT PHILIPS - From the Book Living on the ADGE in Jhande Walan Thompson by my friend Sunil Gupta

2009-12-12T09:44:00.000+05:30

Page 442.....

"Fear not, all is not doom and gloom, only about 90 Percent. There Was one light in the business wilderness and appropriately this was Philips. Not the lighting division, thought even that would have been welcome by then, but their consumer electronics division, the head of which was the redoubtable Rajeev Karwal, Fresh from his stint at LG where he had overturned conventional wisdom and two false starts to make them the brand leaders in India.

Sometime in February 2001, when I was playing my version of ‘Doctor Doctor!’ on the domestic front we got a feeler from them. Apparently they were shifting their business to DDB internationally, but were somewhat stymied in India as Mudra, the DDB agency here, already handled Samsung. (For once, this conflict issue was going the other way for us!)

We therefore went and met them and made the usual credentials presentation. It seemed to go well, but as is usual, everything went silent for a couple of weeks. This was fine by us actually, in the sense that we were still negotiating with Con-job, and so could afford to wait. Con-job however misfired, so it was back to gnawing one’s nails, or what was left of them between the hospital and email, and prayed.

I finally received a call from Mili that Rajeev had called and wanted to meet me in late March. I was incarcerated at home because things on the domestic front were dismal. (The household help had been given the boot because they tried a spot of financial blackmail after we got home with the baby, thinking we’d be desperate and give in to all their whims). Suffice it to say that I knew this was one meeting I could not miss and also that there was no one else who I thought could or should take the meeting. Significantly, it did not even cross my mind that I might ask Mahinder to take it on my behalf. More on this aspect later, but somehow I had to find a way to go to that meeting. Then, of course, God stepped in (we were able to get hold of a nanny all the way from Goa through a series of unbelievable coincidences) and I made it to the Philips office in Andheri. This was one of the most significant meetings in my life, not only because we got the business without a pitch, I might ad but also because of the great professional relationship I forged with Rajeev. Today it is also a personal friendship, but at all times I have been privileged (and I don’t say this often) to have met, interacted, and learnt from a person who is the consummate professional and a fine human being. Actually, I often joke that I cannot imagine him ever stooping to abusing someone in any language whatsoever, and his stature is evidenced by the fine organization he is building called Milagrow.

There are very few ‘good’ people in this world, and Rajeev is unquestionably one. In many ways, I think he is the Young Gandhi of modern business, that is why the first meeting in February 2001 is a highlight of my life.

Philips became a star client for us, but it took till July 2001 for it to come officially into the fold. However, it made the expected waves in the industry. HTA was not really known for being an agency that was qualified to handle clients in the electronics space, being thought of as a sort of mommas-home-made-pie agency, and further, HTA Bombay was way behind, as you know, in the sexy category marketplace. It was therefore a big win for us, and I know that the relationship grew and prospered till many years later they moved to Mudra-DDB due to international alignment compulsions."

Thank you Sunil. Your kind words will make my resolve stronger and make me strive harder. Wishing that our friendship stays like this for ever.

Calling people with moral authority to join the effort in building a corruption free India..

2009-09-17T23:24:00.001+05:30

Will soon start an association for a corruption free India. A forum for like minded organizations to come together and present a united front. Pls write in with your interest.

Mohandas - The Indian who lives within us all !

2009-09-07T10:19:00.000+05:30

Yesterday, I saw this movie called Mohandas. Its the story of a brilliant and honest village student who gets a job with great difficulty only to find that his identity is stolen by someone else, with the collusion between various vested interests. He struggles alone, finds a few partners in his fight but loses in the end.

Its a sad commentary on the Indian society where greed seems to be consuming most of the morals and ethics in our society.

Before the movie Shobha and me went to a coffee shop. The space was crowded and the moment we saw a man get up, we went towards that table only to find that he had blocked the seat by placing his bag, and has gone to buy something from this self-service outlet. We waited for another place to become vacant and took it. In the meanwhile we saw two young people come to the same vacant table left by the other man, pick up the bag, place it down and take the sofas. They were hardly bothered about courtesies. The other man came back and with a sense of hurt, waited for another table....coffee in hand.

Every day when I go onto the road, I watch with anguish and anger the way various people behave. They are hardly bothered about rules, queues or 'right of way'. They will scream, shout and abuse. The traffic police either behaves helpless or only interferes when they have to stop a two wheeler driver to snatch a few rupees from them, for violation.

The Gurgaon-Delhi toll gate is another symbol of our country's greed, corruption, inefficiency and lethargy. The expressway itself symbolizes the vision banktrupcy of the planners - both private and public sector.

In this situation whats is one supposed to do? I can only request the youth of this country to fight for what is right but 'fight right'. By becoming corrupt ourselves we will do a great injustice to our future generations. We must reflect the India what we want it to be!

Play to Win

2009-09-06T01:00:00.001+05:30

Play to Win. Playing not to lose is actually a Sin. Rajeev Karwal 06-09-09