morning boy's letters on serious matters and commentary on funny things aplenty
I am talking about the one prevalent in education.
MBA definitely buys you a job in a big bank. Collecting cash, clearing cheques, etc. God knows what B.Com. buys.
How much time are the thousands of youngsters spending completing their graduate studies and then an MBA? Just give a number to that time, monetize it at the most conservative rate and stack it against the earnings of our MBAs. Worth it?
Sorry for my disregard for it, but B.Com as a graduation has no meaning in my books. I feel its mere course in accounting, which was introduced in India by the British to have a steady supply of clerical staff during the Raj.
I know of most people who take up B.Com out of need for graduation, do a course from NIIT parallel and get an IT job. M Com can be done as a part time course (part time PG degree)
B Com is an easy way to live life as after your PG, your graduation degree hardly ever counts.
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This morning I saw this ad on a bus back for a tutorial brand saying,
Converting "Average" students into "Rank-holders" for 20 years!
Moral issues apart, think about the word "average". Think about the kind of people it hits. Think about the way it filters the audience and sucks them in…
And think about the money people are paying to accept themselves as "Average"!
A statement one of my professors in college made when he asked about the Coaching Classes people had taken for Std 12- “Agrawal Classes (supposedly best in Mumbai) accepts you if you score above 269/300 in Math and Science subjects in Std 10 and assure you above 90%… open challenge to them is to accept a 150 score and make it 270.”
Achievement can only be becnhmarked against self ability and not norms set by people
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This might sound odd.
Had been to R-City Mall at Ghatkopar. It's the 'season of sale' with all brands offering hefty discounts.
We entered Mochi. 50% discount! Flat! Wow! We saw footwear just piled on the table as if they have no value. Sorry, but the discount's just 50%. So we are still paying something.
Besides, as much as footwear is about comfort for the feet, it's also about the beauty of the feet. Seeing the haphazardly kept footwear doesn't make selection easy, forget imagining your feet in the them.
Sure, you want to get rid of things through a 'sale', but for consumers it's still shelling out money. The value of a discount is real and felt only when consumers feel that they are almost getting the same thing, may be just a little old. To put it simply, discount means less price, not necessarily less quality, not necessarily shabby service, not necessarily shabby display.
That's what I was telling a cousin, who is an interior design professional, some days back.
I was talking about standardize the process in such a manner that while the solutions are customized for each client, it also reduces the perceived cost of hiring professional services for interior design. There was a long discussion but somehow I wasn't cutting through I felt.
Today I find this. While there's room for improvement in the presentation but the services offered are in the right spirit. Affordable. Likely to be quick going the look of it. Most importantly, enticing enough for the people, who are usually so averse to believe the mysterious and esoteric-seeming process of interior designing, to try out such services without much risk.
Services like these offer a glimpse of the big opportunity. A promising step towards Architecture of Happiness.
Snips from Interview # 1:
Do you know William James?
The question that followed this: Can intuition be developed? How can you develop Intuition?
Snips from Interview # 2:
Can you analyze this dream? What does the symbol suggest?
Share one of your dreams with us and share your interpretation of it.
In both the interviews, the subject matter is broadly the same. But the kinds of questioning are different. In the first one, it's typically memory-driven and theoretical-sounding. In the other one, the questioning seems to unravel the conceptual understanding of the candidate. More applied sort of questioning.
What would you prefer?
Happened during my MBA admission interviews at two different reputed institutes. I failed the first interview. I relished and succeeded in the second interview.
I guess it is a well thought strategy for people to ask the most clichéd questions during interviews.
These questions, which made no sense at first and no one will even explain, are the one’s which decide our career in a big way. I was asked to comment on the effectiveness of in-film placement, which as a term at that point in time made no sense to me. If I did, why would I come to learn about it again?
Since you topic is about interview questions, I recently have been asked to list 5 responsibilities my job profile should have. Best part, I been given no JD prior to it.
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I met many people with many plans, many ideas. Largely, it involved talking or presenting concepts.
I saved some money and put it in designing and actually creating some earrings. Not a grand collection but whatever there is, is quite impressive.
In the last few days, and today as well, I met people. They seem more responsive than earlier. The only difference is I have something in actual (earrings) to show. May be this 'something' changed my walking and talking and so people responded. Or may be people respond differently to what they see in actual.
Commitment in the smallest of ways elicits responses. Tangible forms of commitment, more so.
My boss always gives an example which I thought was relevant here.
If an NGO asks a 100 people to donate money for a cause, chances are only 10-20 people might donate.
If, on the other hand the NGO starts off with asking a 100 people to wear a lapel pin on their shirt as a mark of support towards the cause, chances are that at least 60-70 of them will wear that ‘tangible handle’.
If you go and approach those 60-70 people after a week and ask them to contribute money towards the same cause, chances are that 30 of them will contribute because they’ve already given their word for it by wearing that pin.
A tangible handle always works better than just an idea.
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This store opened a few months back on the main street of Hiranandani, Powai. Almost everything that the store has done seems so inappropriate to me.
Just look at the name. P3. Explained in the tagline of sorts "Paper Print Pens". And below that a banner which reads "Stationery-Books-Laptops-Gifting-Mobiles-Printers". Well, we can have our views – good or bad – but here a few more details to explain the point.
The store is not more 600 sq.ft. in area and it stands right opposite Crossword which covers about 4 times the former's floor-space. Imagine a 2400 sq.ft. shop dedicated to books and stationery and here you open a way smaller shop selling not just books, but things like mobiles and laptops and gifts.
Not very far is Future Group's E-zone (which has plenty of mobiles and laptops) and about 6-8 times the size of P3. And you also have The Mobile Store nearby. And plenty of gifting-type shops (like custom shops of the yesteryears) which are stuffed to the brim.
When I got in, P3 didn't have an ink-pen in their merchandise.
Narrow. One. Focus.
P3 I believe is the retail brand of BILT and designed to counter Staples. The target for these stores is… well anything that can either comes under Office or Personal Stationary. They do claim, but I sincerely doubt if they have any kind of advantage for an office per say.
By Books, it usually is notebooks, sketch books, diaries, planners etc. As it is Office, they have printers and Laptops. Since they do not take too much space, speakers, spike guards, mp3 players, camera’s and mobiles- just about any electronics also finds its way.
The idea I feel they going with is enter for your business needs and take home all that you might need.
As for fountain pens, in a large format stores, low demand items are liabilities which can impede shelf space. That’s the difference between the Mom ‘n Pop (your topic sometime back), where 1000 things are crammed as isles are low priority.
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It catches attention. It distracts. It lures. It becomes the headline. 'New' is powerful. Nothing can replace 'New'. And that's exactly the reason why brands/marketers/news-makers need to use this word 'new' carefully.
Check this headline. Is this really 'new'? If you follow the buzz online about this latest 'new' motorcycle, you would understand the disappointment.
Not sure if marketers at Bajaj attributed 'new' to this upgrade of Avenger. It could be just that magazines and bloggers added it. But the not-so-exciting conversations online have had their impact.
And if marketers know that any upgrade will be received as 'new' in the marketplace, they should think twice, thrice or more about whether to blow money on the upgrade and make it public in the first place.
Hero Honda has launched innumerable 'new's in the market. It's got a lot of flak online but it seems to be doing great. Strong leadership position in the market and limited reach of the internet in the country perhaps has saved it. The same factors save Bajaj and many other brands as well. But not for long I guess. Until then, they can keep launching the 'new'.
as of now i am using free platform but many people said on forum that typepad was the best blogging platform to used because it is do follow. But i am thinking better and finding more option on the web it typepad really the best.
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Even with so many managers and management graduates and management-degree aspirants around, have we managed to solve the important/pressing (even the not-so-pressing) problems effectively? Yes, we've managed to stay afloat at best. But is that good enough?
'Manage' has become stale. We need 'problem solvers'.
How about a Master's in Problem Solving?
Or using Mahindra Logan to promote itself? You decide.
This is what I found on this page under the Auto section on economictimes.indiatimes.com. Check the encircled ad.
And clicking the headline of the ad 'Mahindra Logan Price in India' landed me on this. How desperate to hold on to the market share, Maruti!
happen but you try your best to survive. Most survive. And all throughout your lives, you recount the quake, the fears, the happenings and the stories surrounding the quake. Whether we like it or not, we can't deny that those memories, those stories keep life interesting.
How many times have you resisted change – in life, in relationships, in work, etc.? Those many times you've lost opportunities to keep your life interesting.
I got tired of flipping open my Blackberry Flip when I was using it. Same happened when I was using a flip model of Sony Ericsson.
A doctor Uncle of mine, stopped using BB Flip for the same reason – it flipped.
My colleague doesn't want to use this handset for the same reason – it flips.
By the looks of it, BB Flip might be one of the most stylish Smart Phones around but there's a significant number which dislikes it for the same reason that makes it stylish.
Style's got a flip-side :). Identify that – as little as that might seem – and there could be an opportunity.
I've switched to Nokia E52. My Uncle's using BB Pearl. My colleague uses Nokia E63.
Two types. One which restricts movements of your body. And the other which restricts movements of your mind.
The first one can be seen very easily and something that's got a severe social stigma attached. So you keep away from all that leads to that prison.
The other one isn't visible. It's no wonder we find it tough to keep away from things that put us in the second kind of prison.
The news is I received my first batch of earrings a couple of days back. Have already sold 6 pairs. It's such a delight to show stuff – that I only imagined – in real. Encouraging so far.
Good show dude! n the piece in the image looks FANTASTIC!
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Living with it, is.
Let's say I want to subscribe to a magazine. So what do I do? I pay the a certain amount and bingo! I've bought the subscription.
One feels that the transaction is over. Far from over! Guess it's just begun.
If I am one finicky person (guess everyone, who pays any money, is) then I would want the magazine to reach my place at regular intervals. So here's an important tast post 'buying'. 'Remembering' the subscription. If you don't remember, then also it's fine. Just that the middlemen or whoever is involved might just play with your magazines and you might not get what you've paid for.
Let's say, at one of the designated dates, you don't get the magazine. Since you 'remember' the subscription, you blood will boil. You want to contact the customer service. To do that you need the subscription details (the date of subscription, the subscription order number, etc.). To recall these details, you need to have the bill handy. Which means you need 'preserve' the bill. So another task.
'Preserving' the bill is one thing but again you need to remember where (the place, the drawer, the shelf, the file, the folder, etc.) you've kept the bill for preservation. 'Remembering the place of preservation' is yet another task and a bigger task than 'preserving'.
Let's say now, you want a change in the address where the magazine gets delivered. Again you might have to put in a request. Depending on the policies of the publication company, you might have to call or email or give a handwritten letter. So yet another task. Of course, these tasks are contingent and unforeseeable, but they come up nonetheless.
You would say, why bother for such things. If you don't, it simply means you pay the money but don't care about what you get in return for that money. Akin to fooling yourself, isn't it?
Living with something that you've bought is a bigger deal. Not buying it. Buying is just a one time (and most likely short) process. It is dealing with what you've bought day in and day out that demands (most often saps) energy and attention.
Take care before you buy. After you buy, there's very little choice.
Governments are nothing but big, big, big organizations. Perhaps the biggest a country has. What does it do? Render services most often.
What do big organizations typically do to satisfy consumers? Identify their needs. How do they identify their needs? Of course, ask the consumers what they need and maintain constant contact with the consumers to receive their feedback. In short, conduct research studies.
Which political party has done this? Scratch your head.
It's surprising that a tool so well understood and used so successfully by far smaller organizations hasn't been deployed by an organization which manages the entire country.
Political parties are nothing but marketing organizations seeking votes
(instead of money). To my mind BJP wins the next election if they do just this – study the voters' needs formally. Requires massive massive effort but isn't it worth it?
Research rarely translates into a great strategy.
Furthermore from my experience, any quantitative research data is only upto 40-50% reflection of market reality due to host of factors like:
1) Wrong questions asked
2) Questions asked in the wrong manner and wrong order
3) Biased responses
4) Self filling of questionnaires by the interviewers
5) Wrong recording or responses
6) Data entry error
7) Data edit error
I too believe that some data is better than no data but I firmly believe that research should not be greatly used to formulate strategy. The consumer most times does not know what he wants. I should be knowing what the consumer wants or better still I should create something that he will crave to want. Something that he never knew he wanted.
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Why in its entirety BJP would and should win the elections? Organizations which study the customers and deploy the best marketing strategies may succeed but this country has still got the successful organizations which has good morale. Deeply down by the recent blunders, and defeat in the central election it’s non-nationalist to think of BJP as a leader of the country.
Everyone knows about the needs of citizens, at least the basic needs don’t need the research. It’s about fulfilling it with balanced distribution of services and welfare.
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Even if I didn't know this logo belongs to/represents the brand Puma, I would buy that pair of shoes or t-shirt or shorts which carries this logo. Purely for the beauty of it. Wouldn't you?
When you see the graphic in its isolated form i.e without knowing which brand it is of, you are seeing it purely from an aesthetic point of view.
A logo definitely needs to be aesthetically pleasing but there is more to a logo than it being a pretty looking piece of design, isn’t it?
Having said that, I personally like this logo very much, because it not only is pleasing but it also does a very good job of reflecting what PUMA as a brand stands for.
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I went shoe-shopping today. And I've observed, on most occasions, I take quite a bit of time finding the right fit and look.
Today was no different. This shop didn't have many customers when I walked in. The lady sales exec kept making me try different pairs, different sizes one after another. I bought one pair finally. It was patient selling and patient buying. Satisfying.
It's interesting to see how people sell when there aren't too many customers in their shops. Sales execs often make assumptions about the prospects who walk in. One of the crucial assumption is: this person will buy (or this person won't buy). And that determines their attitude and performance while interacting with the prospects.
I've observed on so many occasions earlier that in spite of empty stores, sales guys just don't put in (or don't stay patient enough) to thrill the prospects. They have time, there's no rush and yet they undermine the interactions because of that assumption "he won't buy".
Prospecting and selling does depend on assumptions but the fact that a prospect has walked in means one can safely assume that he's interested. That assumption is bigger and more rewarding than 'he won't buy'.
If you post pics of its about-to-be-launched 125cc bike Slingshot. Yes, that's the grapevine. And therefore, all the blogs and forums have removed the pics and articles.
But hasn't that happened with quite a few products? Stealth pics and all. I can remember it happened with Karizma ZMR. Guess it also happened with Twister. But we didn't hear any 'suing' news there.
The thing is when these Slingshot pics were posted, almost all the bloggers and their readers gave a unanimous thumbs down to the bike. Guess this is what got the company worried. And since they got worried, they threaten to take legal action.
Some important points:
What Suzuki loses?
An opportunity. Yes, an opportunity to listen to the folks who have the power to influence opinions in a big way. An opportunity to involve the enthusiasts in the making of the bike. An opportunity which can turn Suzuki into an enthusiast's brand in a short span of time.
What we learn?
I am pretty sure that with hundreds of crores of money riding on such automobile products, there must be a lot of marketing research happening before, while and after developing the product. Looking at this product in particular, am pretty sure that Suzuki is getting it all wrong. Or may be their researchers are getting it all wrong. It results in nothing but sheer waste of resources and sheer disappointment among consumers waiting to lap up products in a growing market like India.
The answer to this question most likely depends on how big an organization do you work with.
In a big big organization. Your value oil is that of oil. Processes are the machine. Your job's to follow the processes to the T. Done! Following processes to the T means you are involved in sorting little niggles, little issues that hinder those processes.
The machinery so often shields you from the heat, the world outside, the competitors. Big issues are out of your radar.
In a smaller organization, you are the machine. Perhaps you are the oil too. You are directly facing the heat. Perspiring, fighting, thinking, acting, warding off threats. You are the decision-maker. You are the process-maker, you are the process-follower. You are the doer. Life, full of issues. If learning is what you measure your life by, it would be a rich life.
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