Continue reading »]]> In his column in the Mint yesterday, Niranjan Rajadhyaksha writes about the fall of Nokia in the context of the Schumpeter warning on competition – that it comes not from price, or other players, but from a company’s own inability to keep up with the times and change.

Change, Schumpeter pointed out, will come in the form of new technologies, new processes, and new organisation realities… which if a company, even in a monopolistic or market leader position like Nokia was in, fails to embrace, will eventually not just lead to loss of market-share, credibility and profits, but strike at the very foundation of their existence and hence future.

Basis this theory, and its interpretation of what’s been happening with Nokia over the past couple of years, the Finnish company should be scared, very scared. Unless it suddenly develops new flexibility of strategy, thinking, and reaction to the changing environment, and dramatically breaks free from its own history and past glory.

Really large and successful firms are more likely to be challenged thus, as the “not invented here” syndrome often makes them loath to change.

Of course, Nokia is not alone in this situation, just most prominent today and hence used as an example in the article. Microsoft too is in some ways in the same (Apple) flavored soup with open source side-orders.

Niranjan further points out that Schumpeter drew an important distinction between monopoly and big businesses saying they are not interchangeable.

“…big firms could rarely protect monopoly profits in the long term. Big companies survive because of innovation and organizational agility rather than monopoly status.”

In summary I would like to point out, as one who has bought many Nokia handsets in the past (but not in the past 5 years), and as one who has friends working in senior positions at Nokia worldwide, I would like to see the company wake up and reinvent itself now. Not just in terms of products, but also in its approach to markets and marketing, and of course. I would love to see it break free of the templates of success that brought it this far. And hopefully be another example for us to read about in the future. Albeit a very successful and shining example of change.

Read the full article online here

Related Articles

• The Real Cause of Nokia’s Crisis (blogs.hbr.org)
• Microsoft and Nokia’s partnership poses challenges, say agency chiefs (prweek.com)
• Why Nokia Fell From Grace (customerthink.com)

Continue reading »]]> Today, I’d like to pay a tribute to the people of Egypt – on both sides of the walls we saw coming up in the preceding weeks.

I pay tribute to the men and women who protested peacefully, without violence, yet stood firm behind their convictions. And I pay tribute to the Egyptian Army and other Egyptian law enforcement agencies that maintained their dignity and respected human rights while in the face of uncontrollable masses.

Not only have you all shown the world it is possible to have a revolution without the use of force, you gave a shot in the arm of democracy and the power of the common man to drive change.

The world wishes you all the best, and hope to see a newer, happier, more energised, and more economically successful Egypt in the years ahead!

Related Articles

• Egypt’s next step: a human rights revolution | Kate Allen (guardian.co.uk)
• Egypt: What’s Next? (newsy.com)
• Mubarak resignation prompts celebrations, some silence (cnn.com)

Continue reading »]]>  

“If you want to be brilliant, be curious”

Be curious about people, society, cultures, economics, politics, technology, trends…

Be curious about relationships, influencers, triggers, issues, dreams, aspirations…

Be curious about strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, tasks…

Be curious in the morning, in the afternoon, in the night, and all the time…

Be curious about everything relevant, and seemingly irrelevant, because in curiosity lies discovery, and a perpetual journey of discovery leads to brilliance.

Continue reading »]]> Here’s a post I first wrote exactly five years ago to this date, on 4th November, 2005! And yes, I’ve been blogging since before most people had internet in India!

I am republishing it today, because I think it is still very relevant here in 2010, as it was in 2005. Because while technology has evolved, people haven’t as much since then. And it is always good to get back to timeless basics every now and then!

Continue reading »]]>  

Yes, Sure! I can talk to you anytime!

It’s amazing how this basic courtesy has all but disappeared in the world of mobile phones today. The courtesy of checking whether the person they’ve called, has nothing else to do, but to talk whenever the callers wants to. And god forbid, if you don’t take the call because you are busy, they will call back again and again until you click the green phone icon on your handset. Their assumption is, that if you are carrying a hand phone, you are doing nothing but just waiting to respond and chat with whoever, whenever they call!

Or is it not about you waiting with bated breath to answer calls, but about the self centered, self important delusion many people today strut around with? People – acquaintances, parents of your kids classmates, clients – they all naturally exude the irritating quality perfected by pesky telemarketers, and jump right into what they have to say, the moment they confirm it is you on the line “Hi Nosh, this is Soandso Whatever… what I wanted to say is that blah blah blah…”

And this can happen in the middle of a working day, early morning, sometimes even late at night! I have clients who call persistently at a certain time every morning, just to check if I have received their email sent half an hour back. I have clients who call at eight thirty every evening, after they’re done with their day, and are driving home so decided to dump all their questions and stuff they forgot to input during the day..! I have moms who call me ten times in the middle of the day, to make plans for our sons to get together and play (No Arati, I don’t mean you… I love your polite SMS, and other moms who insist on speaking should learn from you)

Interestingly, this problem is acute with junior people, and restricted to senior people, who despite their fancy designations are just “pappoos” in their organisations. They are like horses that shoot out of the starting gate, charging ahead, with blinkers on not looking left or right, just obsessed with their goal – which in this case is saying their piece irrespective of what the other person is doing!

Thankfully, senior or really important people in life and their own business, and even in the relationship, have the courtesy to check if you have the time to “talk right now“. I guess only these people, who actually do some serious work and value their own time, recognise that others too would need the same courtesy and respect as they do. And I can say this without exception – my biggest clients check if I am free without exception, even during the most urgent times and biggest issues… while the little ones are the most annoying!

So here are my tips for those who don’t recognise the value of the other people’s time:

1. Hi, Can you talk right now? Should always be your first question, no matter how important you think you are, and no matter what time of day you are calling.

2. Rediscover SMS. If the person doesn’t answer the phone, send them an SMS, don’t go redial crazy! If you insist on speaking despite the person not answering to your 7 calls in 3 minutes, please take the effort to text what you want to say, and if it is really important, the other person will respond via text, or even call back!

3. Have phone will talk is not an adage. It is a delusion of empty minds. The mobile phone is for mutual convenience, not self importance. Also phones have SMS, many now even have email. You’ve paid a lot of money for the handset. Use these other features as well.

Finally, if you’re in my phone book, and are reading this and thinking I am accusing you particularly, you are right. I am. And if you have a problem with that, call me anytime. You will? See I told you!

Continue reading »]]> Yesterday, a kid who joined my company just 2 weeks ago, quit her job with us, because she got a job with one of “the most wanted” creative agencies in the country.

The bizarre thing is, she has no idea who she will report to, nor have any idea what clients she will work on! But it’s “______” she said, “and I have always wanted to work with them”

Well mine is a new digital agency, and I am used to hearing a lot of creative people from mainstream advertising not wanting to leave the space, even if all they do is get to write a 4 second voice over in a 30 second commercial, or claim a client written ad as their own!

Then came the bigger, bizarre twist in the story. She said she realised the above, but was joining them in their digital arm. Okay, now this is really ironic, I said, and explained that my digital agency, even though just a year old, is probably bigger than the place she’s joining. We have equally good, if not better brands. And the one’s we’re in the process of signing on, are bigger than anything they can lay their hands on, because of their global alignments.

“But none of this will make any sense to you” I said “if you don’t know what accounts they have and what you will work on… so why don’t you call them and find out? Take an informed decision” I told her, and “if you’re getting to work on something better than what we have here, I will happily let you go”.

She called them with her questions, and this is what she told me they said. The large agency’s HR woman abruptly told her on the phone “you will only know when you join us and come to the office” almost threatening that if she asked further questions, she may not get the job! “So are you still going?” I asked. “Yes” she said “it is ______”.

So what’s in a name? A lot it seems. Despite having no job description, no career plan for new recruits, and no basic human resource management courtesies, they still get people lining up their doors!

And that’s life in big name advertising agencies!

Continue reading »]]> I have always been fascinated by my own Google results. Call it narcissist, but I am concerned about what I am linked to, and who is linked to me (pun totally intended). My results (all 184 of them at this moment) vary from positive, vague, to totally misleading.

My postive results throw up my LinkedIn and Facebook public profiles; articles that appeared in Economic Times, Afaqs, and other publications on me; my own writings as a blogger and commenter in various places, and such.

The vague are vague to most of us, because the link text and original pages are in Chinese, Russian, and Korean ~ reviews (and award listings) of some of my creative work and marketing writings cross these parts.

And the totally misleading, but which I personally wish was true, talks of me sitting on a fat bounty of money – lol!

I must confess, I have worked to keep these results the way I want them to be – including ensuring the lastmentioned result stays around, though not in a high or obvious place

How? It is quite simple, yet complex. And I will leave Julia Angwin to enlighten us on the matter. I spotted this piece of hers this morning on my WSJ Blackberry reader (ahem, name dropping helps too, you see).

Julia Angwin writes candidly how she worked with Google to ensure she looks and stays positive and well linked. I hope she counts this link as a positive one

An excerpt, followed by the original piece by Julia:

“One of the paradoxes of the digital age is that the boundless freedoms of the Internet also constrain our identity. Before the ubiquity of search engines you could go on a date or a job interview and construct a narrative about your life that fit the situation. No one in your book group had to know that you were a punk-rocker in high school. But it’s much harder to package yourself in the Google era. Online, your digital identity often comes down to the top 10 links on your SERP, or search-engine results page.”

Read the whole article here.

Continue reading »]]> Excerpts from the Inaugural Speech of President Barack Obama… thinking and vision we could all use.

“Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America: They will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the fainthearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor — who have carried us up the long, rugged path toward prosperity and freedom…”

Read the full text here on CNN.

Continue reading »]]> In my search for an image for a monkey in my previous post, I discovered this story about monkeys and the stock market. Very relevant to what’s happening today. So thought I’d share it with you

“Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to catch them. The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish…”

Read the full story here->

Continue reading »]]> There was a time when, as an ad agency person, all the Marketing Managers I interacted with were experienced, scary people who knew their jobs inside and out, and could even teach me a thing or two about my own.

Likewise, Marketing Managers today are scary people too, but for different reasons. Most of them are professional novices with around 8-10 years experience. As I hear them speak I realise the only things they’re actually capable of doing, is remember a complex combination order of tea, coffee and coke at meetings with the Managing Director.

Their lacking the two basic foundations of marketing – knowledge and experience – puts them on a road guided by Ignorance and its first-cousin Arrogance. And the only reason I would call on them, is if I want to murder my brand.

Flashback to Good-Old Days:

The Norm: Meeting them was a challenge because you had to have done your homework, you had to have your thinking and perspectives clearly in place for whatever it was you were discussing, and you had to have dotted the ‘i’s and crossed your ‘t’s in whatever it is you were presenting.

The Exceptions: The exceptions in those days were the Marketing heads of what we called “lala companies”. Here the Marketing/Corporate Communications head was usually a clueless but trusted family retainer, who organised all the meetings with Lalaji and always prompted us with what Lalaji wanted and what Lalaji liked. In private a lot of them would confess to not having a clue about what to do, and would just go with their trust in “the agency”.

I learnt this as a junior (and arrogant, aggressive) creative person, and lived with it as one of the guys at the top years later.

Cut-to Today:

Today, things are different. While the average professional age of so-called Marketing Managers is between 8 and 10 years, their average mental age and behaviour is that of a 13 year old (real, not professional age).

Most of the new age Marketing Managers of today are hired because they look smart and talk smart, and not because they think smart. And they come in two types: The MBA and the PMBA.

The first type of MBA (or Masters in Business Assininity) comes from a class A management institutes like IIMs and throws his weight around because his mind is deluded by the money he’s suddenly being paid.

He’s usually one of the left-overs after the Investment Banks and other top dollar international companies are done with their hiring. He usually gets placed at middle level in a decently large MNC in India.

The second type PMBA (or Pretend Masters in Business Administration) comes from B Grade management institute which usually named with variations and combinations of the letters “I” and “M” often repeated and with additional letters like T or J something… Most of them gloss and mumble their institute names in the hope that you’ll mistake them for an IIM. But in reality, they’re just that – wannabes. As a result these graduates add more bluster to their demeanor in order to sound like a real MBA. He usually gets hired by wannabe MNCs and Lala companies who don’t know any better.

This type is typically found at SMEs who have suddenly grown and realise the need for a “marketing department”. And they’re also the kind you find in home-grown MNCs.

MIND YOUR OWN MONKEY BUSINESS! Image (c) GorillaTank.com

The “Shut up and do as I say!” Syndrome

Few of these designated Marketing Managers today are briefed about their roles and responsibilities. And most are not taught the rules-of-engagement. All they are told is to “get it done”.

So they drive around blindly – ignorant about the basics of marketing and communication, and insensitive to the spirit of teamwork and professional respect. Their favourite stated and unstated refrain is “I am the client, shut up and do as I say”

The main reasons for this are:
1. They think they know everything
2. They don’t know how to take advice or help
3. They will not escalate matters to their bosses when they start to go out of hand

I remember once recomending evaluation parameters for a project to one such pup at a home-grown company in the airline management business – and she wrote back a nasty email to me saying “You should do what you are asked quietly, and not to tell me what to do!!!”. The rest of the deranged soul’s email was even more absurd and vitriolic!

Reading her email, I felt very sorry for the poor thing. And I felt even more sorry for the company that hired her – because hers was a classic case of the blind leading the blind!

On the other hand, here I was bringing 20 years of professional experience gathered from some of the best MNCs in the world to their doorstep… and her 20-something ego was refusing to let it in!

The point is this – three simple thoughts I’d like to put into every marketing manager’s head, and something which should be put into their job descriptions:

- Perhaps the other person is right
- You don’t keep a dog, if you are going to do the barking yourself
- When you are full of yourself, there is no space left for improvement

Live by these simple rules and you’ll probably be a successful and well respected marketing professional. Ignore them, and it’s likely both you and your brand will die and unsung death – murdered by marketing.