A tiny emotional and philosophical note this time. A note to myself.

“We make friends and then often forget them. By the time we realise the true value of that friendship and love, it might be too late. Don’t let this happen. If you wanna say ‘Hello’ to your first best friend, please do so. You might not see tomorrow. Your friend might not see tomorrow. The life is too short to stay away forever.”

With lots of love.

Tushar

The biggest hurdle one faces in today’s environment is to know ‘how to think.’ We are forced to think every moment of our life. You are always thinking – about something or the other. Work, home, person, exams, studies, money, dreams – you put anything here and it will remain true. We think for us and we think for others as well!

Now, being in the business of communication, we are also forced to think about what others may be thinking! How do you do that? Well, let’s try and find some answers. Some people will say let’s do research to find out what people are thinking about a particular product/brand or a service or even an individual. Some people think that they know everything about everything and think that there’s no need to think for others – they will buy whatever we create or sell. Well, it’s becoming either too funny or too complicated.

Let’s look at what’s happening around us. Social media experts believe that the emergence of social media has opened pandora’s box for every researcher on the planet earth. They can spot the society trends just by closely watching what’s happening on ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter.’ They may be true – some section of people behave in a certain way and if they are connected with common interests (groups/gangs/fans whatever you may call them…) they may think in a similar way about a situation. But, is it always true? Society doesn’t change overnight the way ‘social media’ changes. Few years ago, it was ‘MySpace’, then came ‘Orkut’; now it’s time for ‘Facebook’ and ‘Twitter’ – tomorrow you never know what will happen. But, do you think that the society changes this fast? I don’t think so. Some people might argue that these media are reflection of the very society I am talking about. But, to my mind these are macro changes and not the micro changes, which we fail to notice in a day to day grind.

So, what do you think and how do you think? “Google can be the best answer,” said somebody from behind. I beg to defer. Google just gives you information and fodder for thinking. It doesn’t think for you. The analysis of what google has thrown upon you is still need to be done by us and we need to make some sense of what is being displayed on your LED screen. We need to find newer meanings of the same words and use them, we need to implement them for life and see how they react in a real life environment – it’s not about creating one more jargon, but it’s about ‘thinking’ and moving forward.

Someone said, TV News, Newspapers, Reality Shows  - those reflects the true nature of the society. Do you think so? I don’t think so. What do you see on TV or read in the newspapers is more gossip that the reality. There are thousand and one examples galore all around you! They can’t move beyond Nityanand or Icchadhari Babas and cricket, politics and bollywood or the mahasangam of all three – IPL! If you want to think about your consumers or your brand or your clients, you need to find new source of information. May be the person on the street, the person who is going to open her purse to buy your product or service.

Another way to develop thinking is to look around you. You can be your best teacher. Learn from what you see, what you observe and think about it. There is some Chinese proverb that says that you learn more by walking a mile than reading a book – or something like that. If you are in unknown city, explore it by walking and I am sure your braincells will think more than you could have ever imagined. You need to observe everyday, mundane and boring things to develop new thinking. You need to spend time with people you don’t like to get the new point of view – to develop new thinking.

I think, this is enough for today. The crux is thinking never stops but how do you think is more important. What do you think that will make your future a brighter one, is more important. As I have always said, to know the future – you need to know the history and remember it well in order to forecast the future. So, however futuristic you think, it is important that you know what you are doing and what you need to do to make things happen beyond your thinking – for you, for your life and for your clients. Thinking has to result in a strategy and strategy has to result in impact. Start thinking…

Take care.

I am sure you are aware that we were the knowledge partners to the CII Brand Summit 2010 and it was a great success. With views from thought leaders around the globe made word – “Disruption” a favorite amongst the participants. Here’s a brief summary of those two days in my own words. It could be useful resource for the people who attended and forgot to take notes or for those, who need a gentle push on their forehead to energize their braincells.

While the summit chairman Mr. Srinivasan K Swamy set a stage for the days to come, he demonstrated how the disruption is affecting our lives using some humorous cartoons and hard hitting facts from Indian and global perspective. Mr. Adi Godrej, Chairman of the Godrej Group in his key note stressed on the need for marketers to look beyond the traditional media mindset and spoke about how his company is trying to connect with a consumer in new world order. Dave Evans, founder of digital voodoo has some interesting facts about how people are using newer technology and newer media to bring in the change. He shared his rich experience and enthralled the participation with come cool antics from his slides.

The discussion on ‘Disruption by the rise of new media’ saw two interesting panelists debating about whether the new media has really impacted the consumers as much as we are thinking or it’s just a myth. Talking about the subject, session chairman and Executive Director & CEO of TV Today Network, Mr. G. Krishanan said that, “Disruption is a pluralistic approach and everyone has a different views about it, but the end objective is to understand and deal with the new age customers.” He stressed the need of a quality of a service or a product and development on emotional connect with consumers to become winner in the disrupted economy. He stressed that with a technology at hand, every consumer today is not only a media consumer but a media creator as well.

Another panelist, Rahul Welde, VP, Media Services, Asia AMET Unilever, Singapore clearly stated that no media is dead and going to be dead. He believed that the media evolves with a time and no form of media will ever die. Customers will always look for creativity and quality content and whoever will provide them both of these, they will go for that media channel – traditional or social. His one line mantra was ‘Media is important, the type is irrelevant’ and marketers should go to places where they can find consumers and not the other way round.

The next session looked at a topic, “Disruption by Technological Advances” and the panelists shared their views on how the technology is becoming a center stage of every process or every discussion we have. Mr. Deepak Srinivasan, VP of Corporate & Business Development, Ankeena Networks Inc. USA emphasised the role of technology in distributing the content and need for improving the infrastructure to sustain the ongoing growth. He believed that better technology can help is increasing scale and reach of any media and gather required intelligence for the marketer to customise the offering.

Mr. Ivon Pollard, Partner of Naked Communications Limited, UK emphasised on the role of technology in building today’s brands. He gave some rules of thumbs to marketers to follow for using the technology for marketing – a) Add to experience b) Work together c) Play to learn and d) Be useful.

While the consumers are evolving much faster with technology, he mentioned that the brands must follow the consumers with insights and integration in the new technology driven superior world.

The interesting debate on ‘End of Television & Advertising as we know them’ seen Dr. Saul J Berman, Partner, Global & Americas Business Strategy Leader, IBM Business Consulting Services, USA giving insights about his studies he conducted on consumers across the globe and shared some interesting facts through videos and words. He believed that consumers have now evolved and looking for digital videos with a full control on where to watch them and when to watch them. He believed that the game has just begun and soon there will be either integration of TV in the Internet or the other way round. Only Innovation will survive and rest everything will end.

Day II of the CII Brand Summit 2010 saw an exciting start with some very interesting people on dais sharing their experience about ‘Co-creation of Products, Commercial Content and Enhanced Consumer Experience”

Ms. Punita Lal, Executive Director, Marketing, Pepsico India demonstrated a case where how the young generation can be involved with the brand without using TV as a prime medium and involving them in becoming partner or a co-creator of the product. If you give them right environment and right opportunity they will not only engage with your brand but also help you grow at a much reasonable cost. She emphasized that the brand is not about logo any more –but it’s about consumer and what she thinks of your brand. The role of a marketer has changed from a brand manager to the consumer manager.

Another insightful presentation by Rohit Bhargava, SVP, Strategy & Marketing, Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence, USA demonstrated seven principles of enhancing consumer experience through his crisp presentation – 1) Have a brand personality 2) offer the context 3) Find your accidental spokespeople (consumers, fans) 4) Always answer the unanswered questions 5) Support co-creation, 6) Share controls, but don’t give it up and last but not the least 7) Create more utility for the consumers.

He also demonstrated couple of examples of how it can be done based on his experience working with clients in the USA and other markets.

An interesting televised session of “Engaging with Customers through Celebrities” saw highly interactive session with lot of participation not only from panelists but from the audience as well. The main attraction of the panel was Viviek Oberoi, a noted bollywood actor, who gave some witty answers to panelists who were not in favor of having celebrities as brand endorsers. However, the panel unanimously agreed that while celebrities play some role in engaging with customers if he or she matches with the brand values with the brand he or she is associated with, it is important that creativity has to come first, even before celebrity. Celebrities are also having brand values and they have to select the brand carefully in order to maintain their profile amongst their own audiences.  If a brand can have a complete immersing and interactive experience with customers using celebrities, they should focus on those aspects of branding too, rather than just TV commercials.  The panel debated, discussed and finally reached some kind of conclusion that use of celebrity depends upon the product, the values brand and celebrities both share and not at the cost of creativity. Creativity comes first – celebrities come second.

Mobile has become part of our life and in India almost every Indian has access to mobile telephone today. How can today’s marketers engage with customers using mobile services was very interesting topic and full justice was done by Rahul Saighal, Chief Marketing Officer of Aircel. He spoke about how Internet on mobile has changed the marketing game and how companies are using it very effectively. It’s always on and on demand model suits customers as well as marketers alike. He also emphasized that with mobile telephones the cost of reaching out to customers reduces and time taken is reduced dramatically.

Many a times, we marketers forget that we just don’t have to market out products or services but we also have to enhance the overall value of our company so the shareholders also remain happy. Swaminathan, Managing Director of Customer Equity Solutions Pvt. Ltd. mentioned that brands are becoming a very important business assets these days and customers’ first interaction with your organization is your brand and brand helps you enable those interaction with customers, which results in improving companies bottom lines and making shareholders happy. He demonstrated the power of information by way of having and using the right kind of database to reach out to customers, in order to know him better and serve him better using technology and various consumer metrics simultaneously.

Concluding the summit, Mr. Srinivasan K. Swamy, Chairman, CII Brand Summit 2010 and & CMD of  R K SWAMY BBDO Pvt. Ltd. aptly mentioned that the summit was an attempt to get under the skin of challenges faced by marketers in this era of continuous change and provided some direction to the gathering on how to be relevant and continue building brands.

The theme was potent and aptly timed at CII Brand Summit 2010 and it was a successful attempt to provide many unanswered questions about marketing in the rapidly changing world. Everyday, there is a new challenge and everyday there is a new medium to deal with – where does the marketer go? In which direction she looks? CII Brand Summit 2010, was a step on that direction and I must say that it was one giant successful leap.

This article is written for the special supplement, The Times of India, Bangalore is bringing out on the occasion of CII Brand Summit 2010 on 19th and 20th February, 2010. 

How many times we have read such a headline? I have personally lost count. Every time someone launches a book on marketing or on branding, we hear such praises and phrases. Today, I am going to talk about what is happening around us and how it is impacting us without using heavy jargons. We are calling it the ‘Disruption.’ Change, if I may be allowed to make it simpler.  But, let me stick to ‘Disruption’ for the time being.

Whenever we hear a word ‘Disruption’ – somehow it leads to a negative feeling. After all, as humans we are averse to change and disruption by nature disturbs the normal rhythm of life and forces you the change the course. Now, let’s look at this word from a marketer’s perspective and it becomes even more dreaded! Who wants some tiny David to come and disturb Goliath’s party?

But, let’s understand it very closely. Our elders have said that the only thing constant is a change and one must adapt to whatever comes our way. Look at the world around us, you will find disruptions everywhere. Many a times, we marketers do not understand the real meaning of word ‘Disruption’ and hit the panic button unnecessarily. Disruption in marketing is created, and to the best of my knowledge it is created in a controlled environment and for the benefit of the marketer. The companies create these disruptions to gain market share and increase their bottom lines. Let’s look at recent disruptions created by some of the Indian companies and how it forced other marketers to follow the suit or change their existing strategy.  In my personal opinion, nowadays the most disruptive marketers are coming from the house of Tatas. Look at the disruptions caused by Tata Nano, Tata DoCoMo, Tata Sky and Tata Swach and you will have no option but to agree with me.

I am writing this article on occasion of CII Brand Summit 2010, which is focused on Marketing Disruption and how to create brands in the era of discontinuity. While, reading this you may be wondering who is this person and where does he come from? This is another kind of a disruption, where in you are reading an article by some unknown marketer and not by many other well known marketers, who can write much better than me. May be we are trying to prove a point here by creating a small disruption in your expectation! Okay, let me go back to the main topic of discussion and explain why we have selected such a topic for the summit. I am sure you will agree with me that the ‘Brand’ is the most abused word today in a corporate lexicon. Everybody wants and claims to be a brand expert. The real understanding of brand is lost somewhere in so many experts. We talk about consumers, but seldom have any of us really wanted to be consumer managers? How many of us really want to understand what consumer really wants and offer her the same. I have seen many of us create products first and then find consumers later! No wonder, we see so many products on the shelves today and disappear the next.

Marketers who think from the consumers’ viewpoint create the disruption in the marketplace and taste the success. Consumer today is spoiled for choices. She has access to the information like never before. Gone are the days, when brands enjoyed unparalleled loyalties and charged premium from the consumers. Disruptive technologies are allowing even smaller and newer companies to create many superior products at much cheaper costs and at much faster pace and offer it to the consumers. Similar disruptive technologies are making it possible for consumer to have access to information about such product and even to buy them. You can order anything you want from anywhere across the globe and it will be delivered to you in real time. Innovation is what it takes to create a disruption today. Mind you, innovation is different from invention but sometimes it is difficult to innovate than to invent!

I was looking at the recent advertisement created by Google for the super bowl and was speechless for few moments. Such a simple but attention grabbing creation. I think it can only happen with a company like Google, which exists to make life simpler for its consumers. I am yet to see such creativity from an Indian company or an agency. At CII Brand Summit, we have called upon some very exiting people to share their global experience with us about the disruptions they have created or witnessed and I am sure you will find those stories much more interesting than this one. I hope to see you there and we will surely discuss more about disruption and its impact on our lives as marketers.

Don’t have to write much. Just so simple and the way it should be. The google way…

I spent few hours with the students of ISBM, Pune this Sunday. I was there to talk about online PR. I found few sparks within them, but unfortunately I could clearly see that, they have not been exposed to proper teaching methodologies, content and even proper teachers! The basics were missing and I am sure with a change in school’s management, we might see some change in the future. For now, I didn’t enjoy much and I am sure they must have not enjoyed the discussion either. I don’t prefer to use power points for teaching. I like it to be more interactive and collective learning process.

Anyways, the point we discussed there and I think it is relevant for most of you reading my posts regularly – Is PR a subset or Marketing? or they are two different things. In my personal opinion (which I have voiced many a times in the past as well), Marketing is and should be a subset of PR and not the other way round and I have my logical explanation ready for the same. Anybody, wants to take a challenge? The gauntlet is waiting…

I believe that doing marketing is much easier than doing PR. In marketing you have definitions and easier framework to play with. While, in PR there are no definitions and much complex framework to deal with. Let’s see…

Marketing:

• You can define your market
• You can control the market
• You can ignore the market
• Market is homogeneous
• You can enter and exit the market at your will

Public Relations

• You can not define public – public defines you
• You can not control public – you can try to influence them
• You can never ignore public
• Public is heterogeneous
• Public will never allow you to enter or exit at your own will – you are answerable to them

Now, here the public is ‘PUBLIC’ in ‘Public Relations’, which is not the aam Janta. ‘PUBLIC’ in ‘Public Relations’ is a term used for the target group – your stakeholders. Each and every person, who is impacted by your business or your existence is a ‘PUBLIC’ in ‘Public Relations.’

Look at the lists we have prepared above and any smarty pants would say, which one is difficult to handle and which one is easier. I don’t need to teach you that. So, if you are a marketer and talking to a PR pro, please give her the due respect as her job is much more difficult than what you have been doing. Will you please allow her to complete her sentences in the next meeting? Will you, Mr. Marketer?

Will write more soon, till then take care and enjoy.

Love.

I don’t know whether there is a planned game or just a series of coincidences, that whoever I met, wherever I went, whatever I read – everybody, everything is throwing this word at me – “Change.” I really don’t know why so many people are using it these days. ‘Change is the only thing constant’ the most used quote of from the time immemorial. ‘Change is inevitable’, ‘change is important to survive’ and so many such phrases crossed my ears dozens of times! What does this mean? Is everybody I met changing? Is every place I visited changed? Is every book I pick up need to have a pattern talking about change? I smell a conspiracy here…Or should I say, I smell a change here!

I have written about the change earlier in my blog. People do change. Circumstances do change. Some people change for the better and some people change for the worse. As I mentioned earlier somewhere in the same post that brands are also living things and they change too! Some people are averse to change, because they are too comfortable in their scenario – the routine of the life is set. House has been built, kids have been enrolled in a good private school, nice car is parked in your parking lot, the weather is nice and cool, extended families are happy for you. Everything is so perfect! Why disturb? Let’s apply the same phrases to brand or your organization. Office has been built. Loyal and hardworking employees have been enrolled in their cubicles, a special parking space have been reserved for the boss in the compound, clients seem to be happy. Everything is perfect! Why disturb?

So, what happens to the only thing constant ‘change?’ Where does it disappear. You just brushed it under the carpet pretending that it doesn’t exist and you are not going to think about it, forever. You made a promise to self! Okay, okay, may be by not your wish but forced by some command systems prevailed upon you – society, your bosses, promoters, higher ups, investors and so on… See, how commoditized our lives have become. You want to change, but the forces are stopping you. What happened to Darwin’s theory of natural selection and evolution? He also spoke about the change in easy to understandable language, didn’t he? Why are we so afraid of change?

I love this statement by G B Shaw – “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends upon the unreasonable man.” Let’s be little unreasonable in our demands, in our wishes and in our lives. Let’s try to accept natural evolution and move on with the change. What stops you from taking that one bold step? It’s your worldview – it’s your peer group, it’s your society, it’s your fear of losing but have you ever realized the probable gains you might have by changing or taking that one bold step. Just because you are not sure of yourself, you are not changing your life or your company for the better.

The world is changing much faster than you think. The technologies, the people, the values everything is changing at a rapid speed. Today a king can become a pauper overnight and a pauper can have all the kingdoms in the world. One shift in the right direction and your life will be changed forever.

What do you need to change? You decide.

Why do you need the change? You decide.

When do you need to change? You decide.

How do you need to change? You decide.

Be unreasonable and I am sure one day you will change the world. The time is here and now! Give yourself a chance to change. Brands, companies – give your team a chance to change and I am sure you will be surprised to see the bright shining sun at the shore, where you observed few dark clouds few moments ago!

As they say, the world is not enough!

Take care.

love.

Warning: This is a socio-political post and if you don’t like it, please stop reading it here. This is also not for pseudo-seclarists, who generally believe in shying away from their own views and live in a heard mentality to gain some milage from the people in power. This is for the people, who understands the ground realities and are willing to accept that there is a need to launch a sustained and powerful campaign to on promoting Hinduism as a way of life.

I spent few minutes with a gentleman who was amongst the most respected speakers at a recent ‘Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha’ – a religious body formed to protect the Hindu rights. More than 100 leaders of all sects of Hindu religion are part of this movement and they meet regularly to discuss the issues concerning Hinduism. Hinduism in my personal opinion is the most misinterpreted religion in the world – and there is no one to blame but our own people and politicians, who played castes and religious cards for their vote bank politics and ignored the national interests.

Okay, let me come back to topic of my meeting. He mentioned various things, which actually opened up my eyes to things, we don’t even realise. His mantra was very simple, he suggested that gone are the days when crying babies would get whatever they wanted. Now, it’s time to throw some tantrums (people who stay in Mumbai are familiar with Mr. Raj Thackrey and his way of getting things done! – his brand is much stronger today than any other politician in Maharashtra!) to get attention. And, he’s right. Most of the Hindu temples are controlled by governments and politicians, the money collected by those temples are never invested back in temples or to promote good work done by those Hindu institutes, the money goes to government coffers and used for various purposes including funding some terror schools ran under the disguise of Madressas (I don’t want to be direct here, or who cares, I can.) I am not saying every minority institute is a terror school, but many of them are. We are aware of all these, but we keep quite. Our votes are at stake, Mr. Citizen!

He suggested that we should stop donating money to temples. He suggested that the management should be returned to the religious bodies of Hindus so they can continue the good work done by them. There are 1000s of schools, colleges, hospitals are being run by Hindu institutions, but there they have to have reservations for minorities and so on… why there is no reservation is minority managed schools, colleges, universities etc. Let’s talk about equality here! You are more equal than I am, my brother! His suggestion was, all such institutes should demand the same right as the minority institutes – same treatment! Will we ever get it? I don’t know.

He also strongly suggested Acharyas not to participate in any religious function organised by temples, where a politician is a chief guest. Send out the message, loud and clear. I think the point here is, that if we continue the way we are, one day we would have to become minority in our country. Hindustan, Bharat was is the real name of this country and not India. I am not against any religion or I am no less secular than any of the Hindus out there, but I am not a politician and not a pseudo like many of the journalists and so called intellectuals, who visits from one TV Studio to another to display their intellect masturbation power!

I am going to advice the HDSA on this campaign, Volunteers anyone? Come forward, I need you.

Take care.

Whenever I go to teach at media schools, I find students wanting to know about how we practice in real world. Most often, I take them on a virtual tour of a day in the life of a communicator. Some of them find it fascinating and most of them starts to think whether they made a right career choice or not. As students of so called reputed institutes, they think that life is as rosy as it is being painted by their professors inside the campuses and they start dreaming about plush offices, cushy chairs and fat pay checks from the day one! “Well my institute is the IIM of communication,” I heard someone saying recently before passing out. He’s still looking for a suitable job!

Now, what are these five things you don’t want to know about…

1. There are no shortcuts to success: You know it but you don’t want to know it. There are shortcuts everywhere, so how can this field be different. If you have plenty of money and your father is a big industrialist, I am sure you would find that shortcut to become the CEO at the age of 22. You may become successful as well. After all, success matters, isn’t it?
2. Everyone starts with a desk job: You know it but you don’t want to know it. Desk job, going through the newspapers, reading client reports, preparing basic drafts of artworks, carrying artwork arounds, fetching that bottle of beer for a ‘ponytail’ wagging senior, collecting copies of adult magazines for Ms. Bose and so on… I did all these and more. It’s part of a learning process as they say it. What’s the plus point – if they like you, they may take you for few client meetings and that’s where the learning starts. If they like you, they may allow you to sit and take minutes of the meeting during creative, planning and briefing meetings – that’s when the learning starts
3. Whatever you have learnt on campus remain on campus: Well, it’s a loaded statement, but most often it is true. I have some funny degrees, which have nothing to do with what I am doing. Well, it gives you some insight into what you are going to do but nothing much. Consider your first job as a beginning of a learning process. Many of the teachers, professors, I believe are little outdated in their approach towards studies. As they call it, people who know it do it and who don’t become teachers. So, consider your first day at a new office as a first day of college
4. Real world has real heros, which are different that the ones you see on campus: The real heros are people like you and me. No big names. They are the one who produces great work for agencies and when it comes to awards or a movie deal, they genuinely pass on the credit to their seniors. Yes. the big names act as magnets and they attract good talent and since they know that freedom can bring them awards – they allow them to create and create and create some super work without being watchdogs. I have a copy of a ‘freedom song’, which is available free of cost to students. I will show it in next class. Meanwhile, if you need it, please write to me and I shall courier it to you
5. Life is not fair to everyone: Let me be little philosophical here. You put in hard work, you put in real smart work too. But, things don’t move the way it should. Accept it and find a solution. Well, it’s easier to preach and that’s what I am doing. Some people are like me, who are stuck with one idea and remain idiots throughout their lives, some people are smart, they move on and make a big splash. The choice is yours. What do you want to become – a human with a heart or a machine with a mind – it makes a difference and that too a big one

Let today’s post remain small and for the students. May be soon, I will have an opportunity to have some guest blogger sharing his or her knowledge on various things. I am working on it and you will soon find someone writing on my blog.

Take care.

“Winners never quit, and quitters never win,” we have heard this so many time and seen so many movies where finally the one man conquers the evil empire and set the world free. Avatar is one such recent movie we saw. Well, I see a man becoming a hero and doing some humanely impossible tasks in order to win that last battle is all about finding the purpose. The purpose is what we call the motivational factor. What’s the purpose of living is the answer one needs to answer every moment of his or her life or career. If you found your purpose, you are the Hero! Now, only thing left is to achieve that purpose and find the next big purpose and so on…

There are various theories around and people would have various options for you. Some would say – fight till you die. Some would say – let’s have a strategy, lose some battles to win the war. The Dip would advice you when to leave and the bounce would advice you how to bounce back from the dip! I know this is getting little personal and out of context here, but let me put the context back. The purpose of this blog is not just about sharing knowledge on what I think about my professional life, but it is also about what I think in my personal life. Somewhere, it is interconnected. I live my brand and I experience all the emotions associated with a life of a brand – the dip, the bounce and the life and the death. Everything!

For me brand is a living thing. It has values, it has human behaviors and it has human weaknesses too. My life is too short to complain about what have I achieved or what I am going to achieve and I am in no mood to play that accountability game today. The reality is that when you feel down and out, you feel down and out and if you can’t find your bounce, you can’t.

There are many factors shaping our approach towards life or a brand – external or internal. How do you define each one of them? How do you try to solve them one by one? How do you get necessary energy to keep it going? How do you get support from the people who matter? Sometimes those very people are there within you, next to you to destroy you – how do you fight with them? They are your friends and part of your lives – how do you stop them for doing the unintentional harm they are creating to you and your brand? They may not be aware and even if you tell them, they would say, they have done it in the best interest of the organization. How do you justify all these and more?

Do you have a strategy? Do you have a leadership quality to come out of this? Do you have necessary resources to deploy?

This is the beauty of having a blog. You can write whatever s**t you want to and get away with it. Some people do it very effectively. I have done it today and no guarantee that would not do it in future. But, if you are my first best friend, you would know what I mean here.

Be nice and keep smiling. May be next time, I will write something useful to the masses…

Until then, take care and be good!

love.