NATIONAL SPORTS ICON

Sachin Tendulkar had been nominated into the Rajya Sabha some time back.  And there were mixed reactions throughout India to this.

I wouldn’t know the real motive behind Tendulkar’s joining nor what the Government had in mind while doing this. The public at large, I guess weren’t really happy with this idea of Tendulkar entering politics!

Well, that’s certainly his personal choice.

But I think this could probably the best thing that would have happened to the field of Sports in India. There is no doubt that Tendulkar is one of the best Sports Icons India has produced with global excellence. The second one that I can think of, perhaps Vishwanathan Anand. May be there are a few others like Dhyan Chand et al. But none of them have the “Godlike” status that Tendulkar has, the reason being Cricket is the most watched/followed sport in India and generating maximum funds. And so the TRP ratings are high!

This makes Tendulkar what he is today. I do not want to undermine the enormous talent that he has and to translate the talent to achievement is no mean joke. Now he is donning a new cap. I am sure he has thought about it quite well, the smart guy that he is.

Whether Tendulkar, gets his Bharat Ratna or not, I am sure he can play a great role in successfully representing all the different variety of sports in the Indian Government. I would be glad to see the vintage Tendulkar’s classy knocks in this new role as well.

I am already seeing a new PR friendly Tendulkar making the right apolitical statements in Social Media whether it is about appreciating Sania Mirza or applauding the Olympic medallists.

Good times ahead – Sports Fans of India!

Celebrity Endorsements

We have a plethora of Brands available in any category of products. And there are the brand ambassadors. Many of these ambassadors are very successful celebrities who have reached their pinnacle of success. And so they have a good bunch of loyal fan following.

Why do these celebrities endorse products? Or do they actually endorse products? Is it just another revenue stream for them? If that is so, we shouldn’t call it endorsement.

So, where does this start? An owner of a brand wants more publicity for a brand and he approaches a celebrity to promote the product. The idea being –there should be more visibility for the product. And increase sales of the product. For the Celebrity – Make hay while the Sun shines!

In which case, is there any accountability with the Celebrity on the performance or the quality of the product that he “endorses”?

My take on this is that – there should definitely be some bit of moral accountability if not a responsibility of the product or service. The goodwill resting with the audience would be more valuable than the Endorsement fee the Celebrity may be charging.

And most certainly it is also the responsibility of the Marketeer to understand and match with the importance of this moral accountability of the Celebrity Vis a Vis the Product.

Yes, there should be “responsible” Marketing, irrespective of whether you are marketeer or a Celebrity Endorser.

Right to Education

The Indian Parliament recently passed a landmark Bill, Right to Education! Yes, now every individual has the Right to Education.

What does this mean for the general public – especially those who are at the bottom of the pyramid? Is this good news for them? Will there be easy access to Education for them? I would like believe so, as long as the intention is to provide education to the masses.

But if this Law is to coerce, the fancier private schools to “accommodate” the masses on the basis of this law, I wonder will the objective ever be achieved? And it should not create more insecurities or bullies inside the classrooms.

I firmly believe that only Education can help us in getting to the Super Power that we yearn for. The basic education and more importantly Civic Sense should be imparted to one and all. It WILL NOT work if the private institutions are forced to include everybody in the same class. The idea is not create disparity here, but to bring in a sense of balance within the society yet raise the bar with Education.

I hope the Government will think of innovative means to reach out to the masses in order to engage them and provide Education. Or we can leave it to the good bunch of NGOs or even for that matter the CSR initiatives of the Capitalist friends to make the best of this wonderful Law.

My appeal - Please start with Civic Sense. No school today talks about basic civic sense, barring a few and some individual teacher initiatives. Especially in a place like India – Civic Sense, Hygiene, Environment care etc needs to be imparted to Children with care and compassion.

I am sure it will be a great place to live in. Looking forward!

The Ornaments of this House are the Friends who frequent it

You ask any teenager as to what is the most important thing in his life is – invariably the answer would be Friendship. The crucial age in one’s life is predominantly moulded and driven by the so called Friends. One would do anything for the Friend at that age.

I was conducting an interview of a fresher sometime back. During the interview process, the candidate politely asked me if I would like to consider the candidature of a friend of his as well. Such was the power and passion of friendship at that age. I wonder will he do the same thing, say after 5 years?

What changes? Is there a change in the Friendship or is it the feeling towards the friend that changes? Or is it the priority that changes? Or is the situation different? Or is it the Marriage?

Whatever be the situation, the Friend was the most important person in the life once upon a time? Why the change? Invariably this is a true phenomenon across different cultures and geographies. Yes, Things do change when a person approaches the thirties and it does take a different turn. But It is quite interesting to note as the person approaches his forties, while grappling with the midlife crises, he looks to connect with the old buddies. You would suddenly see some bursts of action and school reunions happening. It is a challenge to get people together. But it does happen to a reasonable amount of success. And you would find people with all types of emotions – nostalgia, indifference, Joy, Forward looking etc. Mixed reactions.

Once the guy is beyond the midlife crises, some friends do find a place again in their lives. That’s why probably they say Life begins at Forty!

That reminds me, as far as I could remember I was bought up at home with my dad proudly flaunting a nice little placard which said – “The Ornaments of this House are the Friends who frequent it”.

Indeed!

Perhaps – my dad was in his Forties then!

PERSONAL INSECURITIES

This has been a very sensitive topic very close to my chest.

I had been brought up in an environment to value the opinion of others in anything and everything I do. Yes, a noble thought and perhaps good from the point of view that it stemmed from a Joint Family System.

But little did I realise that this would have some kind of a deep impact in my personality and in many of my activities and eventually leading to the bizarre concept of Insecurity. Ok let me get this straight -  the idea is not to blame the ecosystem for anything. This is just a root cause analysis of the 3 decades plus psyche.

So what all did I want to do?

I wanted to be a good singer. But I have never sung a single song so far!

I wanted to be an orator. I had given my names to Elocution Competitions in Schools when I was a kid. When my chance came on stage, I would tremble with fright and not utter a word in front of the audience. Ok – blamed it on stage fear!

I wanted to act in Stage Plays. I love theatre. Do I need to mention, I ended up being a Crew member – Stage Manager as they would call it!

As I grew up, I felt I could write decently if not go for stage talks. So I felt like writing articles. But what prevented me from carrying it on?

Now, in this technologically connected world it is easy to make virtual friends – Thanks to Facebook, 

LinkedIn, Twitter et al. I am reasonably active in the Social Networking sites. Nobody can see you anyway. But when it comes to making a comment - Do I think twice? Is it for being politically correct? Is it because I shouldn’t hurt the feelings of others? Is it because of “what will they think” syndrome? Is it because I do not want to leave digital footprints?

Aren’t these something called Insecurities?

I am still learning to cope with it.

The fact that I have written this note is in itself a giant leap. Don’t you think so?

Yes, Certainly I am improving!

Technology is the way Forward

It is very easy to pick up a conversation with known people around in India. The common topic being corruption! I was having this casual chat with an uncle of mine who had some serious thoughts about what the Government or the Reserve Bank should be doing. Here it goes – first, the value of the rupee should be brought to One- Tenth. Which means that today if you hold a hundred rupee note, its value will be Rs.10. And so will be the price of any product/commodity/service. Or if you are earning Rs. One Lakh a month, it should be treated as Rs. Ten thousand a month.

In other words, what he meant was to reduce the number of currency notes and the actual value of a rupee goes up. So his idea was to change the denomination, print new notes with the new valuation. The old notes would be null and void. People who hold the old currency should go to the Bank and exchange them with the new ones. And there should some cap on the maximum amount of currency one can exchange in a particular month. So there will be good Regulations. This could help curb black money, people generally won’t get this false pride that they are getting paid too much (especially the younger generation and the rising salary levels and so leading to price increase in everything including real estate). Yep, great ideas for fiscal correction. Sounded interesting!

Another thought was – which is the main driver for Black Money – It is the income Tax. Why doesn’t the Government abolish Income Tax totally? Let the Government find other avenues to generate revenue.

Bold thoughts! All these are for the Government and the biggies to decide…

And then there could be other ways as well.

A few years back as a guy with a sweet tooth, I spotted an interesting kiosk at the corner of my office building. It was a chocolate wending machine. You need to send an SMS to a particular Telephone no. with a code and the chocolate gets dispensed automatically instantaneously. You don’t have to pay cash. The cost of the chocolate gets added to your telephone bill. Brilliant isn’t it? I didn’t have the change for buying the chocolate, but my craving got fulfilled.

Like how we have now nearly paperless offices, can we get in to a Currencyless world? Now quite a lot of bill payment processes have become easy Online. You don’t need to stand in queues to pay bills. You don’t need to stand in queues to get tickets in Black! We have come a long way indeed!

Mobile communication, Internet etc have brought gadgets together and made communication easy. You can have a good free chat with your Sister sitting in your drawing room watching her on your 46” screen.
People at the lower levels of the Social pyramid have seen the value and the power of the Mobile phone. It adds value to their business. Saves them time.

Can we take it a step further? Automate all the transactions electronically.

Let the Smart cards & Biometric gadgets do the job. You authorise transactions through a combination of technologies. And mind you, You need not remember multiple passwords – your finger prints and eye ball can take care of authentication.
Whether it is payment to your nearby grocer or the payment to your domestic help, the payment can be done electronically. You don’t need to carry Boarding passes or tickets – it can be taken care Biometrically! The UID/Aadhar is perhaps attempting some of these.

The masses have learnt to use the Mobile Phone. They will learn to use the computers as well if there is some value in it for them. I am sure our Software Wizards will make extra User Friendly applications to suit the different classes.
The nearby Kutchi grocer will soon engage a Computer operator to keep a check on the transactions.

And all transactions could be done online and electronically. Whether it is for routine purchases, payment to any Service Provider or towards Buying property or Registration, the transactions are to be done electronically only.
New opportunities could emerge for manufacturing different types of gadgets, card readers etc. New Apps would get created. More new employment opportunities in the Ecosystem instead of the traditional stuff! And the bar gets raised at every level in the Social Pyramid.

Wishful thinking!

Reduce the dependency on Currency notes in every transaction. Black money may fade away one day.

And hopefully Technology & Education will prevail.

The Life of a Sales Man

When I started my career as a Salesman 17-18 years ago, there were many views from my well wishers about the profession. Some people felt that it was a stupid job. The perception that Salesmen were generally seen wearing ties, carry a bag, roam around conning people. But some of them felt that it could be progressive for my career and they felt that I could fit in well there as they thought I was good at networking and communicating.

Quite frankly I didn’t have a serious vision then about making a big career out of Salesmanship as I probably didn’t know what it was all about. Since some people motivated me that I would be smart enough for that profession (Am I?!) and also there were not many going for such roles from my Alma Mater as most of them went abroad, I plunged into it. My first job was with one of the most aggressive sales driven organisations of India. Not that I was enjoying the role that I played. There was only one Motto – get orders! But I had my own rules of playing the game. It was quite a learning! Meeting customers, convince them on the products that we had, or we never had etc etc… and within the purview of my rules. It was a challenge! And slowly I started to believe that yes, it indeed is a fantastic role to play.
Life was quite different when I started with the profession. One had to meet the customers to educate them about the products, talk about the market, provide competitive analysis etc. The idea was to sell the product that you have. The sales trainers would say that you need to understand the customers and provide value to them, nevertheless you actually ended up “selling” what your company wanted you to sell.

But over the years, the selling phenomenon had gone through series of changes. The customers are well versed than yourself regarding the product, Thanks to Internet.

The Customers are far clearer as to what they want. And they are more aware of Competition and competitiveness of any product. You don’t need to offer value nor do you need to give them competitive quotations. The customers know it all. The way they negotiate is much different from how it used to be earlier. They have target pricing and you need to match the target pricing. Now the role of the Sales person is reversed. He no longer sells what the company makes, his role is to convince his company to make what the customer wants!

So what makes a successful salesman today – Is it the glib talk? Is it the personality? Is it knowledge? Is it the capability to “manage” things & people? Or is it…

I can list many things here. But my final take on the role of a Salesman today – He is the partner to the customer. It doesn’t matter what your designation is, whether you are a Sales Executive or a General Manager or Managing Director.

The Customer is still the King, and what matters is the trust worthiness. Everything else gets taken care!