tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91138474638934560472025-02-19T12:20:38.958+05:30Let's explore management by persuasion!MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.comBlogger77125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-39599498052146215782012-11-26T08:10:00.000+05:302012-11-26T08:10:05.203+05:30

Both are brainy. Both are brilliant strategists. Both were stars, one in the corporate firmament and the other in the military firmament. Both rose and rose to the stratosphere from plebeian childhoods. Both were role models that inspired people all over the world. Around sixty years of age, both appeared to be destined for even greater heights.   Neither Gupta nor Petraeus took a

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-54938585560223841232012-10-21T22:15:00.002+05:302012-10-21T22:15:47.962+05:30

I am not a nutritionist. So I will not make any claims. But, as a member of the “mango people,” I would like to raise a few questions. I wonder if we have been persuaded too easily by manufacturers of health drinks for small children. We all know that deficiencies in certain nutrients and vitamins can cause havoc. As children we learned how scurvy, caused by deficiency in vitamin C, killed

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-20607720946938611372012-10-01T07:50:00.000+05:302012-10-01T07:50:24.690+05:30

I love walking. I don't mind forgoing my morning cup of coffee, but not the half-hour of brisk walking. So when the student organiser of INSIGHT 2012 (IIMA’s marketing research fair that attracts several thousand Ahmedabadis) asked me if I could join a walkathon he was organising as part of the fair, I readily said yes. Because this year’s INSIGHT was on the last Sunday of September, it

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-34240438600913353412012-08-16T12:31:00.000+05:302012-08-16T12:32:31.417+05:30

Sajjad Mughal’s overwhelming ambition: make love to Pallavi Purkayastha. He is a young (22), under-educated Kashmiri working as a watchman at Himalayan Heights, an upscale block of flats in Wadala, Mumbai. A graduate of the National Law School Pune, she (25) is a legal adviser. She has been staying with her partner Avik Sengupta in a flat on the sixteenth floor for a little under a year.

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-36511807991138484472012-08-05T12:53:00.000+05:302012-08-05T12:53:43.517+05:30

Maruti Suzuki’s honchos have, after two years of repeated misdiagnoses, finally figured out what was wrong with their Manesar plant. It’s negative energy trapped inside. Well, that there was a lot of negative energy at that plant was well-known. So what’s new? The correct identification of the cause of the evil energy. The negative energy came from the evil spirits that were angered by the

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-5625654099513054362012-07-29T15:29:00.001+05:302012-07-30T16:04:02.954+05:30

What is the secret of Rajesh Khanna’s miraculous rise to unparalleled superstardom in the 1970s? No one knows. According to a July 24 Mumbai Mirror report, “Aashirwad was haunted,” however, the actor knew. It was because of the bungalow he had bought from fellow actor Rajendra Kumar. The sea-facing bungalow on Carter Road had had a terrible reputation. Everyone in the neighbourhood knew it

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-73779005832535211172012-07-08T16:50:00.000+05:302012-07-09T09:12:21.725+05:30

When you pick up a packet of pasta for a carton of milk from the ‘organic’ section of the supermarket or from a health food shop, do you try to find out how many non-organic substances it may contain? Very unlikely. You trust the label, ‘Certified Organic.’ There must be a government-approved process that makes sure that only organic things get that coveted certificate and license to charge a

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-89602891961688616692012-06-25T12:42:00.000+05:302012-06-25T12:43:49.928+05:30

Recently I was sitting in a restaurant. I wanted to order the day’s special soup. One reason was laziness. I didn't want to evaluate the four or five soups listed on the menu card and choose one. In spite of investing all my investigative energies in the selection process, I might end up with a concoction that I didn't like. The second reason was the promise in the magic word, ‘special.’ I felt

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-48119232624062336412012-06-18T07:20:00.002+05:302012-06-18T07:24:49.048+05:30

DTDC, “India’s Largest Domestic Delivery Network Company” that apparently serves more than 10,000 PIN code areas in India, has persuaded me to run away from it and embrace India Post. Let me tell you the story. On May 23, 2012 I handed them a document to be delivered to a friend in Kannur town, Kerala. Frankly, I didn’t have great expectations. I thought they might deliver it only on May 26

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-20138768292720882592012-05-21T07:32:00.000+05:302012-05-21T07:32:03.877+05:30

Can the universally admired and respected Shakespeare be wrong? The Bard of Stratford-upon-Avon was a shrewd observer of human strengths and weaknesses.  Through his myriad characters, he has given the world more pearls of wisdom than any philosopher.  Where then has he gone wrong? In his heart-wrenching tragedy of young, star-crossed lovers, Juliet asks Romeo, “What’s in a name?

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-54451742541248130502012-04-28T10:26:00.000+05:302012-05-04T09:11:01.113+05:30

We hate being lied to. Lies are supposed to make us mad. But we love them when they are along the lines we want to believe.  Then we fold our critical antennae. We close our eyes. We ask no questions. We accept them like a coin that we pick up from the street. Marketers know this very well and frame their offerings to take advantage of this. This is no new discovery. What is interesting

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-69034763407038040872012-04-19T21:52:00.001+05:302012-06-24T21:12:18.360+05:30

In the last post, “Cheap Viagra, summer internship,” I talked about the way many bright students fail miserably to persuade professors to hire them as summer interns. Let me follow it up with the text of an exchange I had with an IIT student. All names except mine have been masked. Apart from this, the text is reproduced without any editorial changes. (1) Original email from the student

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-68455321319424544982012-04-04T15:44:00.001+05:302012-04-04T15:44:41.737+05:30

This is the season of summer internship applications. In March-April, the inboxes of professors in top tier business schools in the country get flooded with e-mail from second year and third year students of engineering at IITs/NITs and other leading engineering institutes in the country. The arrangement is good for both the parties. Many professors work on their research projects during the

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-28386106774212593022012-03-25T08:12:00.000+05:302012-03-25T08:12:52.675+05:30

I’d heard a lot about Little Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, but never been to that place although it is just about 100 km from Ahmedabad. My wife and I drove there recently along with a friend of ours from Mumbai, who was spending a weekend with us.  We were interested in seeing the wild asses, which are apparently found only in Little Rann. We also wanted to see salt production. We reached

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-14916253328751232992012-03-16T15:06:00.002+05:302012-03-16T15:06:46.700+05:30

I am surprised by the worldwide brouhaha – at least among the B-school folks – over “Why I’m leaving Goldman Sachs,” Greg Smith’s op-ed piece in the New York Times of March 14. It is a well-written, highly readable piece. It is also unusual because it is rarely that someone who quits an organisation tells the world via a newspaper column why he did it. But is there any idea in it that should

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-3777233544178313692012-03-10T08:00:00.001+05:302012-03-14T16:10:01.651+05:30

Recently I was waiting in a well-known Ahmedabad bakery to buy a cake. The man ahead of me bought three cakes; the total bill came to Rs 670. He handed the sales assistant the exact amount. The assistant asked him whether he wanted a carry bag.  Being told that he wanted one, the sales assistant said, “that would be Rs 5,” put the cake boxes into a carry bag, and handed it to him. (To

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-13712283473270276932012-03-04T12:03:00.000+05:302012-03-04T12:03:09.599+05:30

This morning’s papers in Ahmedabad brought the sickening news of yet another rape. This time it was Atul Bhatt, a fifty-year old senior officer in Gujarat Government’s Social Welfare Department, who is alleged to have raped his thirty-year-old woman employee. Newspaper reports are notorious for inaccuracies and one-sidedness. We can’t jump to any conclusions based solely on newspaper

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-14070123384825104102012-02-24T10:33:00.000+05:302012-03-05T19:57:48.379+05:30

Rose Nisenbaum had an emergency fund of $400 in her bank account. She had built up that fortune over a lifetime of careful saving. She needed part of the funds urgently, but the bank wouldn’t let her withdraw any. It was during the worst stage of the Great Depression in the US and the banks had instructions to stop people from withdrawing money. When all her efforts and pleadings failed, she

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-74189969981889322462012-01-22T22:24:00.001+05:302012-01-22T22:24:31.435+05:30

This is a continuation of last week’s post, The frame is the message (1). Framing is so obvious in advertisements that it is difficult to miss it. When a mosquito repellent is advertised, for example, the focus is on the joy of sleep undisturbed by mosquitoes or freedom from dreaded diseases such as malaria and dengue. The advertiser doesn’t bring into the frame any concerns about allergy

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-91905461431493739562012-01-13T21:49:00.000+05:302012-01-13T21:49:54.849+05:30

A woman approaches you. She is suffering from tuberculosis. Her husband has syphilis. They have had four children.  The first is blind, the second died, the third is deaf and dumb, and the fourth has tuberculosis. Now the woman is pregnant with her fifth child. She and her husband are willing to have an abortion. There is no way you can examine the foetus and find out if it is all right.

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-14267427324699686942011-12-26T12:20:00.000+05:302011-12-26T12:20:02.367+05:30

I eagerly opened the envelope the postman brought home the other day. Out came a leaflet. It was the photocopy of what appeared to be an advertisement in a newspaper. The sender didn't identify himself or herself. The text, which was in Malayalam, fascinated me. Let me give you a rough translation. There was a miracle at Vailankanni. [This, as you may know, is a coastal town in Tamil Nadu.

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-55348246455767278482011-12-20T08:01:00.000+05:302011-12-20T08:01:30.212+05:30

The 116-year-old Mullaperiyar Dam in the Idukki district of Kerala is an extraordinary feat of engineering. It is also a symbol of human ingenuity, grit, and passion. It was built in the late nineteenth century after several attempts, dating from the late eighteenth century, were abandoned as unworkable. That nearly 500 workers died of malaria during the construction of the dam (1887-95) shows

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-90059404729368062182011-12-12T14:32:00.001+05:302011-12-12T14:55:58.837+05:30

Commenting on my recent post, 'I Took a Bribe,' (on the persuasive power of small gifts and unsolicited favours) Girish asks an interesting question about why big favours don’t lead to the same kind of results as small favours. He says that people don’t even care to acknowledge big favours. If a small unsolicited favour can pay rich dividends in persuasion, it is reasonable to assume that

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-30084760785578821562011-12-03T10:02:00.001+05:302011-12-03T10:13:23.692+05:30

It’s confession time. Let me share with you the bribe’s source and amount, and the favour I did in return for it. Let me also tell you why I did what I did. Last week a courier brought in a large envelope. When I opened it, a dollar bill popped out. A genuine American dollar. There was also a fat, eight-page questionnaire with a cover note from The Economist. The letter, addressed to me by

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9113847463893456047.post-26326693299272232262011-11-27T11:06:00.001+05:302011-11-27T11:28:20.994+05:30

Perhaps it is silly to ask if Steve Jobs was a super persuader. He came from nowhere and walked into the sunset not as a shrewd peddler of a bunch of overpriced i-products, not as the CEO of a highly successful technology company, but as a great human being who changed the world, as an extraordinary visionary who made the world a better place. People who worked for him found him a dictator

MMMhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00069725114036116898noreply@blogger.com1