Coffee, Conversations & Marketing - The Idea

Come gather 'round people
…..And admit that the waters
Around you have grown….
You better start swimming
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'

Bob Dylan's classic anthem of change bodes well with the sea change happening across the world of  marketing. Digital revolution is transforming businesses and importantly our lives forever.

In the good ol' days, marketing was all about drive, a coffee-like stimulant, pushed down the throat of the consumer with scientific precision.

Taking Over the Mantle - The Rise of the New Leadership Era

Hello Folks,
I wrote this article for my college Leadership series lectures. This year, the theme has been chosen as"Taking Over the Mantle". I have also incorporated some of my old writings n integrated it with some new writings. This article will be sent to Media. Hopefully should see this article in some leading magazines in India



A new generation is being baptized by fire in companies across India Inc.

My first Ad Campaign

Hello Folks,
As a part of my B-School grind, I have been making some advertisements for few campaigns. One such campaign has been an AIDS Awareness campaign for Army Personell. I conceptualized this cheeky video in my hostel.It was shot by Karan and Devashish helped me with sound effects. Do check it out below. The hand with surgical gloves is mine and the other hand belongs to my friend Soumya. I would love to hear your comments.

Coffee, Conversations & Marketing

Hello Folks,
Few dreams are very dear to us. We cherish them close to our heart with a smidgen of hope that one day the dream would turn real.. Looking at the whole game going on, the divine providence laughs and makes way to let things happen. You dont make it happen. You are led in the flow where things happen.

My dream for a Marketing Seminar in my B-School has been one such one. And finally, it is happening. Work has begun in a feverish pace to make it happen the best way. Here is a small teaser about the event which I made. Please watch this space for more!


Case Study Analysis - Kirin Breweries

Hello Folks,
As a part of my B-School Grind, I have been solving cases under the subject Strategic Marketing. I thought of uploading these cases at my blog. Although they might look awkward in my blog, I am sure it will help B-School Students who might be looking for case -study analysis of such popular cases in Google. I have posted these after sending these to my faculty. I shall update it later with my prof's comments and discussion in the class.
This case study is from HBR. The case study details are here.


Blogaton Meet @ Pune

When the climate looks enticing as Salma Hayek, you simply need an excuse to get out. My excuse was: Bloggers Meet at Dorabjee’s. Although I have been blogging for several years, I never felt the drive to shout across the world that I am a blogger. After all, millions of people in the world were blogging. I had lazily relegated my blog as a soul-less blog in the Information cornucopia that was overflowing in the Web.

Wish

This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 12; the twelfth edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.
I wish there were a switch that could turn off the gravitational force in this Earth whenever we wish.  Yes! You heard me right. No gravity! The switch is no universal switch. Its an entirely personal switch manufactured to suit each individual. Apple or Nokia guys could probably innovate and integrate this switch in cell phone so that one  simply has to press a button in the cell to experience the wonder of zero-gravity. Before you begin to imagine a world that would look like Steven Spielberg's science fantasies, let me make few caveats. I am no expert in Science. Although I understand Science, my understanding is as ordinary as any layman you would find in the street. I respect the laws of Science and above all Nature. I also respect Isaac Newton. My writing isn't a exercise in disrespect. I am simply wondering how our lives would be, if we had the power to shut down  the most important force which, more often, becomes a huge stumbling block and imprisons our lives. Let me explain how. 

When the apple fell on the head of Newton, he discovered the life-force which provides the sustenance for mankind in this planet Earth. Seriously, we would be dead if there were no gravity at all. There wouldn't have been any attractive force between atoms, which, in human terms, meant that there wouldn't have been any smidgen of LOVE in this Earth. Its even impossible to imagine a world without love. I say this, assuming you know, that love is not an emotion. It is the substratum of our existence. I know this line sounds difficult to digest. My previous line would look like Greek  , if in the worst case, god forbid, you are reading this after a breakup. Howsoever, the truth still remains. Just because our vision blurs with age, we don't say that our eyes don't work or exist!
With all due respect, I only have one gripe against Isaac Newton. While he conceptualized the gravitational force, he formulated the famous laws of motion, where, he made a grand assumption that this universe worked like a machine. It simply boggles my mind to conceive the shattering  implications this erroneous assumption had. The biggest implication being, human beings began to think like machines,in other words, mechanistically. What started with the Universe obviously had to come down to its inhabitants. This is where the problem began. Remember those good ol' days when we used to change the nob of the transistor until we heard some nice music?  Similarly, we began to exploit another to achieve until we got what we desired. This also means that the power to change the levers existed in the hands of the few. This created the fundamental schism(or in simple terms, division) in mankind that has now grown into a Frankenstein monster in various forms like terrorism, sectarianism, fundamentalism, communism and other isms. Can you imagine the grand scale of destruction these isms have caused in mankind? Although some might argue that this is a necessary part of evolution, I wonder, if we had to pay such a big price for it. This schism destructed not just the humans but our precious environment too. Not a day passes without a news about a species getting extinct! 

When we think mechanistically, what we create also imbibe the same features. Mankind began to create factories and other organisations which operated like machines. No wonder efficiency was the management paradigm of the twentieth century! When we begin to operate organisations like machines, people who worked in such organisations were treated as the cogs in the wheel of the life-less organisation!

In the sands of time, we have no choice but to evolve. The perspectives had  to change. Theory of Relativity, later culminating into Quantum Physics shook mankind to the core. The universe wasn't as mankind thought it to be.  We no longer live in a mechanistic world, which exists distinct from us.  We are indeed part of this Universe. How the universe could exist without us, the grand spectator, who is able to perceive the universe in its totality? This meant that this world was a living being, sentient being, full of dynamic, interconnected phenomena of networks, of which all living things are an essential part, although never apart from the whole. 

This radical view disrupted the roots of all institutions which were built in the twentieth century. Thanks to Rachel Carson, people began to realize that the future of mankind was inevitably linked with the fate of the planet Earth. Environmental consciousness began to dawn.

If such a paradigm shift is happening, why on Earth am I making a ambitious wish that humans had the power to turn off the gravity force for a while? While the world is changing, unfortunately, we have some remnants of this old mechanistic thinking within us. Some of the blame can be attributed to our parental influence. We were led to believe that life was one big rat race and we had to work our ass off to obtain maximum possible  benefit  from this complex machine called LIFE.  Our parents struggled throughout their lives and through their experience found the best set of levers that could be used to obtain maximum prosperity from this machine. Hard-work, discipline were few of those controls. They found that if these levers were used for a sufficient period of time, life could be made more prosperous and as a final result, more joyful. While they were too busy applying these levers, they forgot that they had to live in this planet Earth. 

How could they ever forget that? Now forget about them. Let us look into our lives. Are we leading programmed lives or are we really living in this beautiful world? Not sure, ask this question to yourself. Rewind your life right to the day you were born. If you were to make a movie out of your life you have lived today, will it be interesting to watch? Will it become a block-buster hit? If few scenes in that movie were so boring, then you must have led a mechanistic life for that period of time. Now imagine how the scene would have turned out, if you had this wonderful switch ? How interesting your life would have turned out to be? I know what you are thinking. You cant wish to have this switch permanently turned on. Your life would be total chaos then. There wouldn't be any purpose for living. You need this switch only when you think your life movie is turning out to be boring.

Look deep inside and realize that you have a choice in every second of your life to turn this switch off whenever you need! Now, you can fly anywhere without any restraints. Remember to turn off the switch when its purpose is served.

Happy living!!

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Hitch-hiking at Hinjewadi


It goes like this most of the times..
Step 1: Keep your hands in Aadhi Mudhra, or in lesser mortal terms, pose as if you are the next Akshay Kumar in the road, practising for the next big Thums-Up Commercial
Step 2:If the bike approaching on the road is driven by Adam,
then
Step 2A: If the bike approaching on the road is driven by Eve
Step 2B: Get over the Akshay Kumar image or else you might be frowned upon as a “dude” trying to get naughty


A long letter from "Senior"

I wrote this long letter to my juniors to pep them up and welcome them to my B-School. I felt like sharing it in the Web

Hello Folks,
Few might have met me in the class. Let me make my introductions, nevertheless, I am Venky, SIIB 09-11 Marketing student. I hate this word "Senior", as it makes the stupid assumption that I know more things than you. I happened to join SIIB a year earlier and had a ball of a time during my first year. I did few mistakes here and there and learnt few things on the way. Also, there were few things I wished somebody told me earlier while I finished my first year. ! While this might come unasked, I felt I needed to share few things with you, so that you could also have more fun during the most precious time of your career.

This time is very precious because 1) you are in the last leg of your student life, something which is never gonna come back 2) you are free from the pesterings of your parents/boy-friends/girl-friends. I dont want to talk bad of them. I love them. However most of the times, they often make decisions for our lives. Now, it is the best time to shape your career as per your dreams and desires, without their influences whatsoever. You might might want to take their opinions. However, you are free to chisel how you want your career is gonna be from here on.

I am sure, most of you might be lost in the break-neck speed of things happening around you, with incomprehensible Harvard Case studies and assignments and non stop lectures and what not. While the college folks have one mission to make you busy with a whole lotta things, often they really dont look beyond: What is that you are busy about?

Time runs faster than Usain Bolt, especially during first year. So, there are chances, that you might get lost in the thick of things and wonder at the end: What the hell did I do in my first year: Let me come to the point without much philosophizing:

Life in MBA is not about these lectures and endless supply of assignments. Its all about finding your voice and finding your pathway. Its more like the Lakshya movie, if I can draw some parallels. So How do you find out your "lakshya"? Simple: Explore the world: Get out of the campus: Go for competitions, meet other B-School Students, see whats happening around. Its a cruel joke played in the campus that our campus is set in scenic hills, distant from the grimy business reality. Business happens there. So go out and explore around..

Few Checklists you could check out
1) Get yourself a LinkedIn Profile and start building your profile and your networks. The whole world is in..Arent you in??
2) Start Blogging. FInd your voice. Express your opinions and thoughts. All books you are asked to read by faculty members are simply their thoughts on business: what are yours?
3) Build brand equity for college. It helps you in million ways
4) Start building rapport with faculty, seniors, alumni. Everyone is networked. You never know who could be of help at any point of time

Thanks for reading my patient mail. You can mail me your thoughts/comments/queries whatever you have on life here to my id, instead of floating it around the group