Scenario, Afterthoughts & Prompts

Everybody will agree with me that traveling in Indian Rail is not only an experience in itself, but it presents the true picture of India as well. People from all walk of life, different cast, creed, belief; all join in the party, enjoy it despite so many difficulties and tough experiences, laugh at each other’s jokes, share foods and finally reach their respective destination. Train journey in India is educating as well. Five management lesson I learned from Indian rail journey: 1)You should have the intent to finish the task : No task is the easy one and so is traveling in Indian rail, especially if you are traveling up to AC III tier. So, you must have the intent to finish the task or complete the journey, otherwise you will get down before coming aboard after seeing the mad rush. 2) You should be ready to understand the other’s perspective: When you start your journey, you will find lots of people with lots of baggage, trying to board the train. So is the case wi...

I got the opportunity to be audience of one of pre-budget talk show to be aired on national business news channel on some serious financial implication on one of the sector. I had expected to hear the experts and learn from their wise words, but my expectation was completely dashed. Though I have no doubt about the credentials of panel experts, but the point they presented in favour of their argument and in the manner they presented, it was a big let down. My experience of today prompted me to write a request any expert, who participates in panel discussion, he/she should take following considerations into mind to not to let down the audience: 1)       Don’t take your audience for granted :   Your studio audience can be manipulated, but please understand that you are airing your opinion to millions of viewers sitting in their drawing room. They won’t buy your opinion just like that. 2)       Don’t oppose something just for...

I am big fan of Management Guru and writers Late C.K.Prahlad, Don Tapscott, Anthony D. Williams, Thomas L. Friedman, Jeff Jarvis and businessmen like Sergei Binn and Larry Page, who are founders of concept of openness in business, inclusion of ‘Crowd’ in decision making process and making the world understand power of ‘crowd’. What is crowd; a huge group of people with varied interest, culture, lifestyle, thinking etc. So, how can they be included in the decision making process, how can anybody even think of taking it along in their business journey other than considering them as a complicated market. Google has made it possible, Facebook is following the footstep; both are offering their users the services they want and no doubt, both the companies are a world in itself. Apple is biggest technology company as of now, which worked on the premise of its founder that customers don’t know they want until they are being told about it, but it has now been forced to heed the customer d...

We often crib that whatever has turned out is not exactly what we had planned. We blame others, we blame circumstances, we blame timing; in short, we blame everybody and everything else other than ourselves. Is it really so; are we not responsible for whatever has happened to us? Definitely we are the main reason behind our failure. So, what we should do get the best result for our efforts? I have listed out following seven reasons, which may help in getting best outcome: 1)       Your Target Should Be Clear To You : There is a story in Mahabharata, biggest epic of ancient times of India; Sage Dronacharya was entrusted with the task of educating ‘Kauravas’ and ‘Pandavas’. Since, they all were princes, combat and fighting skills were also part of their curriculum. One day, Sage Dronacharya put a bird made of wood on one branch of tree, fully laden with leafs, and asked all them to take the target of bird’s eye. He called everybody one by one and asked the...

Though Valentine Day happens to be quite lovey-dovey and mushy for couples but it was interesting and educating for the single like me since morning. Why interesting, because I got to see some interesting incidents, which was educating also for me because these interesting incidents were very niche earlier and went on to become phenomenon in the country. First incident was with my kid cousin brother. He is twelve year old. I was about to leave for a meeting when I saw this rubbing ‘Fair & Lovely’ on his face. I jokingly taunted him and he felt embarrassed. Fairness and ‘Fair & Lovely’ is still widely feminine thing in India, which is obsessed with fair skinned girls. It’s the different thing that brand owner Hindustan Uniliver Limited has launched fairness cream for men also, under the same brand name. As I have written, fairness is still considered feminine thing in India, but men are also using lot of cosmetics and grooming products. According to Nielsen reports (2010...