If you have ever played strategy games like Caesar or Sim City, you would notice the people inside the game get bored and the game tells you need to give them some sort of entertainment. You are expected to build gardens, parks, arenas or theaters and allow citizens to chill out. In the game, it helps enhance your popularity among the people.

Well, that is what came to my mind as I read Azim Premji’s article in the Times of India about the expenses that is being incurred for the upcoming Commonwealth Games at Delhi. Rs. 28,000 crores i.e. US$ 5.97 billion is the estimated total spend for the games. This includes the cost of upgrading stadiums, infrastructure like the new airport terminal, wider roads, new flyovers and even the Metro rail extensions. This definitely does not include the cost of getting the poor off the streets or the below-average working conditions they had when building all this infrastructure nor the poor standards they were paid by. Cheap labor is a resource in India.

Azim Premji quotes a University of Oxford research in his article that states, “There are more poor people in eight Indian states than in the 26 poorest African countries combined.” 55 percent of India’s population of 1.1 billion, or 645 million people, are living in poverty.

When we can spend so much money on something like the games, why can’t we spend money on building schools and health-care facilities? I like the way Mr. Premji puts it, “the country has very little sports infrastructure on the ground. To encourage sports, our first step has to be to ensure children get access to playgrounds, good equipment and quality coaching. To not have this, and to instead spend on a grand sporting spectacle sounds like we have got our priorities wrong”

It reminds me of Russell Peters’ joke about India not playing the Fifa World Cup. He said in one of his stand up acts, “We are the second largest population in the world. There is 1.2 billion people there and we can’t come up with eleven dudes to make up a team!”

We cannot come up with eleven dudes for a soccer team or one person for a tennis court because our children are not encouraged in school to excel in extra-curricular activities like sports or music. Even if they were encouraged, there are no facilities in our schools to promote such skills.

If we scour through our streets in different cities and villages across India, I am quite sure we can find talent that will dazzle the world in different areas – sports, music, why even the popular mainstream areas of study. The only way to achieve this is by setting up schools across India, training teachers to look for talent and empowering them to encourage these students. Give the Indian youth an opportunity to see what is out there. Help them understand what they are capable of. They will not be able to do this when they are burdened with the load of winning bread for the family.

I am not against us hosting the Commonwealth games. It gives us a great opportunity, as a country, to showcase our qualities – variety, tradition, culture and beauty. It brings other nations’ attention to us. The marketing leverage a country gets out of doing something like this is tremendous. But as Mr. Premji put it, maybe it’s time to re-evaluate our priorities. We fought the British for independence because we wanted the right to build this country ourselves, to make sure all of us got equal rights to every opportunity. Not just to dream our dream but to live it.

One of my favorite places to visit when I am in the US are book stores. Walking down the street, subway or inside a mall, if I see a book store, I have to go inside. And most of time, I end up purchasing something, even though I may not have finished reading my previous purchases. Among all the physical stores I have visited, I have always liked the Barnes & Noble store. I stress “physical” because my favorite store is Amazon.com, simply because I get a better deal on books and CDs apart from the expansive range of stuff I have access to and access to different opinions about what I am about to buy.

The main difference between these two stores is that – Amazon helps me make the right decision whereas Barnes & Noble makes me feel good about my opinion. That is because they sell me the experience of buying a book. I can feel it before I buy it.

In terms of recommendations and reviews, B&N gives me shelves or tables filled with best-sellers, new books or bargain-finds. But I don’t have access to instant reviews about a book or whether I have different choices I can look at. I could always sit down and read a few pages myself and do it over a cup of Joe.

And now, click-and-mortar is winning over brick-and-mortar. It was bound to happen. On Aug 3, 2010, Barnes & Noble announced that their board was considering a sale of the company. There is now a tussle over who gets control of the company. On one side, you have Leonard Riggio, Barnes & Noble’s founder and chairman (29.9% of the company’s shares). The other side has investor Ron Burkle, who is already a large stockholder in the company (19.2% of shares). We will know what comes of this fight by September 28 at the company’s annual meeting.

Barnes & Noble has 777 locations

What intrigues me about Barnes & Noble is the fact that they have 777 stores across the US. Compare that with 19 fulfillment centers (in US alone) of Amazon.com. Why do you need so many stores? It is obvious that running and maintaining these stores can be expensive by themselves. It definitely is not going to help keep the costs down.

Look at the numbers:

	Revenue (US$)	Operating Income (US$)	Net Income (US$)
Barnes & Noble	5.12 billion	143 million	75.9 million
Amazon.com	24.5 billion	1.129 billion	902 million

Source: Wikipedia.com

B&N introduced the Nook Reader to compete with Amazon’s Kindle. They even did well by producing Nook apps for the iPhone and iPad. But it was late and not well accepted in the market, especially with its touch screen and software problems.

I am no supply-chain expert neither am I a financial wizard. But it would be very depressing to see a neighborhood B&N store close down (even though sometimes that makes sense).

One of the few things that Barnes & Noble needs to get right first is – take the fight online. And use the network of stores to your advantage. Amazon plays on a much wider scale than B&N (electronics, instruments, appliances etc.) and it will not make sense for B&N to get into all that now.

• Engage the reader/buyer online. Invest in technology that will make bn.com more like Amazon.com. Given the choice between bn.com and amazon.com, it is very easy to choose Amazon’s website because of the wealth of information available to you about what you want to buy. BN.com has some great features like their professional reviews, local store events, etc. Club that with some community participation, they should see people spending more time on their websites.
• Fix the Nook Reader. People are not going to buy a device that is slow. (You could slash the price heavily but it won’t help you in the long term.)
• Do something with all that space. Each B&N shop has so much space and so little happening. There must be something else you can do than just book readings and author meets.

I just hope that whoever gets control of the bookstore makes it right this time.

What do you think? Do you think B&N has a chance? What should they do to improve business?

Much has been said about the new Old Spice “the man your man should smell like” commercials and Isaiah Mustafa, the ridiculously handsome guy whose random rambles got viral on the Internet. The result: you see an old brand reinvent itself and put themselves in people’s thoughts.

The commercials were originally launched in the US around the Super Bowl last February. But the best part of this campaign is that they did not stop with the commercials. Some weeks ago, Old Spice responded to “the Internet” – questions or comments people left on any social media – YouTube, Twitter, blogs. They were the common everyday people and the commercially successful or maybe we should call them “socially popular” people/brands like Starbucks, Kevin Rose, Alyssa Milano. He even responded to his own daughter on one of his videos.

I didn’t hear anybody in India refer to the commercial much. In fact, most of time I mentioned the commercials to my friends and family, they were like “really?, what’s that all about? Old Spice?!” But since this was done on the Internet, it became close to a worldwide phenomenon. It generated a lot of activity online with networks and blogs covering them. Bloggers and marketers were all ga-ga about how Old Spice reinvented themselves.

The first question I had in my mind was, “What are these guys up to?” I mean, this is Old Spice we are talking about. The last time I used an Old Spice product was over 15 years. But here they are – new, refreshing and funny too.

Mashable brought out some stats:

• Number of videos made: 180+
• Number of video views: 5.9 million
• Number of comments: 22,500

(Mashable.com, July 15, 2010)

If you think about it, Old Spice just made some advertisements. But the real difference they made were the personal video responses. Social media is all about making conversation and they did exactly that.

Here are some good reads on the topic:
How the Old Spice videos were made
Lessons for small businesses from Old Spice

I am not going to talk about what marketing lessons we can learn from this campaign or how the right mix of creativity, humor and timing can help in your social media strategy. I just wanted to share this with you, in case you are one of the remaining 6+ billion people in this world who haven’t seen this yet.

Did this interest you? What did you think of the campaign?

Someone said, “You can’t change the past, but you can ruin the present by worrying about the future”

Inundated. I have my work at full steam – and sometimes they get the better of me. Organizing and coordinating the different parts of a media & communications job can be fun. And challenging. I am learning to adjust to the lead times involved in this work and the different time zones!

But why did my blog suffer? I had time to brush my teeth. Take bath. Daily. Eat food. Why did my blog suffer? It was not fair. But I give credit to all of you who have been patient and very encouraging. I am thankful.

Time management has not always been my forte. My idea of time management is to not sleep. But my body does not agree with my theory. How much ever I try, it always gets the better of me. It just would not let me have my way. I don’t know how it does it but it always keeps me in bed for five hours every day. And if I push it too far, bam! In bed you go for a week! If someone knows how to beat that, let me know.

What did I learn about time management?

• Use a calendar. Paper or online.
• List your tasks/appointments.
• Prioritize them. You could either number them or mark them in some way so you can clearly see the important tasks. Those are the ones you want to get done first.
• Cancel tasks. There is always a “not-to-do-list” where there is a to-do list.
• Start. Sometimes, this can be the toughest part. There may be planning that is required or information that needs to be gathered. It is important to start somewhere. It sets you in motion. You can build momentum as you move on.
• Strike them off, once it is done. Move on to the next task.

Side notes:
– It is important to know when to stop. You could go on forever doing a homepage or cleaning the bathroom. It is easier when you realize that you will have to update the homepage tomorrow or the bathroom needs to be clean and sanitized, not polished and slippery! You could always spend more time on tasks once you have finished the other things on your list.

- Don’t beat yourself because you were not able to finish the task list. Learn to carry forward and finish it the next day.

- Some tasks are not meant to be finished in a single day. Break them into parts and split them over days.

How do you manage your time? Would love to know.

One of my favorite marketing authors, Seth Godin is releasing his new book in New York on January 15. But he teamed up with some 70 others popular in what they do and released a new (free) e-book. The e-book is titled “What Matters Now” and is available for download here.

Lot of great authors and ideas in there. You will find people like Michael Hyatt of Nelson Publishers, Chris Anderson, Tom Peters, Guy Kawasaki, Mark Hurst etc.

(If you are not much of a reader, you will like the format of the book. Each author has only page to him or herself. They convey the message in less than 200 words. S0 every page you turn, you finish a chapter. The sense of accomplishment comes faster! :p )

Creating value is a difficult thing. If you market products or services, you need to provide value in terms of quality, functionality and pricing. If you are marketing yourself, you create value by doing things differently and making it work by doing it differently.

But what do you do when you have competition? Creating value is easy when you are the single player. But when there is someone else offering something similar, what kind of value would you create? A better one. And value is always created for the customer.

If you and your competition have the same product or offer the same services, the difference you offer is consistency. Consistency, really is a rarity in today’s world. Offering the same high value over and over again drills down one concept in your customer’s mind – trust. If your customer can trust you, it does not matter who your competition is – they will keep coming back to you.

Creating consistent value can be tough. But if you keep at it, they will notice you and stick with you.

Image courtesy: singing

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Proof that winter has started in South India. I haven’t seen a foggy morning in Kochi for a long time. Pretty cool here but it would get warmer during the day.

When I started writing this, I thought English was the largest spoken language. But Chinese Mandarin is. English is ranked third. English is the official language in 53 countries. And I kinda get the feeling that it is one of the most abused languages in the world too. (Abused may be too harsh a term but you get the idea!) :)

If you find it difficult to write something, what do you do? Do you stop? Do you give up? Do you tell yourself, “This is not my cup of tea!”. I have friends who have thoughts I have never heard before, ideas that are unique, stories that would make people laugh. But those stories get limited to our circle of friends. They wouldn’t start a blog or write a web page because they fear their language. They think it is not good enough. (And I keep telling them, who cares! They should just write.)

Here are some tips that have helped me in my writing. They may not be the life-changing stuff you expect. But I believe if you apply these in your writing, you should be able to see some improvement.

1. Keep it simple. If you use complex words, it does not make you hip. Using hard-to-pronounce words or words-that-make-me-look-up-a-dictionary-too-often is not really stylish. It puts me off sometimes. It does not mean that you don’t have to learn new words and use them at the appropriate time either. E.g. I came across the word ectoplasm used in a movie review – “When I was small, this movie would have scared the living ectoplasm out of me”. That was a new word for me. I would have just said, “it would have scared the living daylights out of me”. :)
2. Spell it correct. Always use the right spelling. Use the spell-check feature on any text editor you use (unless of course you use Notepad!). Even browsers and online text editors come with this facility. Why is spelling so important? To give your writing a professional outlook. Your writing style may be casual, even targeted at people who couldn’t give two hoots for spellings but it definitely makes you look good. Typos, as they are popularly known nowadays, can be avoided using technology. So why not?
3. SMS is for mobile phones. But not for online writing and that includes blogs, facebook, twitter etc. Avoid SMS jargons. E.g. “I luv wrtn tis way ten so i dun hv 2 wry abt splngs.” Unless you want to give your reader a headache, you don’t want to write like that. (I don’t agree to use them even in mobile texting.) Twitter sometimes forces you to use them because of the 140 character limit. But even then, please keep such usage to the bare minimum. Maybe one word. Definitely not more than two words.
4. Don’t repeat words. Not too often at least. E.g. “I could say what I want to say when I want to say it.” There is nothing wrong with that statement. But you could just say, “I can say what I want, when I want to”. This is important because if you keep repeating your words, the text would drag and become boring. To keep your readers tuned in, be crisp and to the point.
5. Try get the grammar right. This is the tough part. I really don’t know how to make this easy. Reading helps. Read anything you get – newspapers, magazines, online articles, bumper stickers. Listen lots. I used to love listening to the radio when I was younger. That helped me develop my language. Television can help you there too (assuming you watch English programming). Speaking helps. The more you speak, the more comfortable you become with the language. Ask a close friend who is good at the language to correct you when you make a mistake. And when they correct you, be willing to swallow your pride and accept that correction.  You may also want to check out the Grammar Girl’s podcasts too.
6. Write first. Edit later. You don’t have to get it right the first time. Neither the second or third time. Just keep writing. You can polish your work later. I always start with a framework – a list of things I want to cover in the article and then add the bacon and cheese. I think only Mozart was able to write masterpieces the first time he wrote it. So if you get an idea, just start writing. You can edit it later.
7. Definitely Edit. Having said my previous point, it would be sin not to review your work before you publish it. Someone once told me he reads what he has written at least three times before he publishes it. He catches most of what he can change in those three reads. You owe it to yourself and your reader to give it your best. If it is important work, ask your wife, friend, colleague to review it for you. They have the advantage of giving your work a fresh eye that could catch mistakes you overlooked.
8. Write. And write. I am happy that the greatest writers in the world are not literary geniuses nor do they hold doctorates in literature. They are people like me and that tells me I have a chance. I believe that you only need a desire to communicate your passion to the world and do it.

If you haven’t started writing yet, will you pick up that pen (or open your word processor)?

Did you find these tips useful? Do you have any tips you would like to share. Share them in the comments below.

Pictures courtesy:
Black book & pen: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1176000 (typofi)
Bottle & Cork: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/632972 (sritenou)
Coffee cups: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1214847 (Pintaric)
Reading glasses: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1232904 (mihow)
Typewriter: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/966154 (abcdz2000)
Pencil Eraser: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1123441 (nkzs)
Paper with writing: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/441337 (hopee)

Would you unfollow Barack Obama’s (so-called) Twitter account, now that you realize it has always been somebody else updating the account for him?

Would you decide not to get yourself a Mac because Apple so insists on you getting their own hardware and software in the name of total user experience?

Would you continue your credit card because they charged you annual fees and reverted it back only because you called them?

Would you spend three days on a train to travel across the country? Would you still do it if airline prices were not so prohibitive?

Would you trust a business without a website?

Would you stop your doorstep newspaper delivery because you get all your news online?

Would you choose a product/service because they have a bigger/active presence among today’s social media platforms?

Would you switch from Microsoft Office to Online Office platforms because they say they will be ready? Would you switch if you think they were ready?

Would our choices remain the same tomorrow?

Here are some videos I watched and loved this week:

1. The Soda Pop Store

This was one of my favorites. The Soda Pop Store (Galcos) in LA is unique. It sells sodas. And it does not sell Pepsi or Coke. It sells 500 different varities of soda pop from around the world. To be able to do something you love and have the freedom to do it and make money off it too! And mind you, he has built and is sustaining his own eco-system. Both different, small-scale soda pop suppliers from around the world, end customers and restaurants. A definite inspiration.

2. Procrastination

You should see this video if you think you are so busy that you keep stalling from doing the important stuff. What does it mean to procrastinate? I will tell you that another day. ;)

3. Taylor Mason – The World’s Worst Blues Song

Taylor Mason is a comedian, ventriloquist and musician. He has amazing talent with puppets. In fact, he is the only guy I have seen who can talk interchangeably for six puppets (including himself :)). But one of my favorites with him is his music. He plays the blues. This one’s called the ‘happy blues’!

Do you have favorite videos? Share them in the comments section below.