Thursday, January 15, 2009

Simple Sense, Seldom Simplified

How many times have you barked at the dog that barked at you for no God damn reason????
Never I Guess? Or do we have rare breeds as exception????

How many times do we end up in a mess arguing with so many people including our beloved ones???
So Often? And m sure we don’t have exceptions here!!!!

On umpteen occasions in our personal & professional life, we end up hurting our friends, colleagues, parents……..without even caring a damn for them.

Why don’t we bark back at the dog that barks at us???????
Why? Because we understand the difference. Because if you bark at the dog in public, people will start disowning u ;-)

Why do we always shout at our parents, oppose them, show our resent, create havoc?????????
Why? Don’t we know that no 2 minds are the same???? Don’t we know that there exists a huge cultural gap, generation gap and then we have TIME that bloody considers none.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not against someone being rebellious. I simply hate people who don’t bark at dogs but are eager to verbally assault their parents. Despite knowing these differences we seldom take efforts to simplify relationships that affects our life……….

Contrary to what I said, I guess, Never Ever in our lives should we waste our efforts in trying to make sense to people, policies, rules, organizations, bosses etc…that don’t make sense. Ofcourse, for that we need to know what makes sense and what does not and not before we make an attempt to rationalize their common sense.

Just stay calm no matter what, enjoy relationships without bickering with your beloved ones and don’t try to make sense to people / policies / rudiments that exist, simply for the heck of it.

Saturday, October 18, 2008

MBA's will love this detate!!!!! Is Market Research / Marketing Research critical to Success?????

MR is just a ****ing Marketing Fallacy popular amongst Top Companies / Executives / the so called MBA’s / Grey Haired nerds.

Have you ever heard of Dhirubhai Ambani getting into MR to figure out what should be his business or what products should he launch or what marketing strategy will be successful???????????

Never…..coz he didn’t have the money, neither was he educated or aware of such jargons, neither was he lucky to be influenced by educated people around him. He was however, fearless, street smart and good in understanding Human Psyche.

There are 2 ways of looking at MR:

A] To understand human wants and needs, to quantify the same in terms of meaningful data and use the same for Marketing Strategy

B] To introspect the reasons for failure of a particular Marketing Strategy

Both ways, you are doomed.

Data can be useful provided it’s on actuals and is a mere aggregation of numbers and is not an interpretation of subjective nature say human feelings, attitudes, needs etc….

It’s absurd that we try to quantify such things……….

I remember attending a seminar where some senior person from Eureka Forbes made a mention that before launching Aquaguard the co. had carried a research and the conclusion was that Indians will not pay thousands of rupees to purify water when conventional means like boiling, mixing of alum with water, use of candle filters, tap filters etc….are available at nominal cost.

Thank God, they ignored MR and successfully launched Aquaguard, which is today voted as a Superbrand.

Just imagine if you have a business idea and want to start up your company what do you require? Some cash, a good idea etc…..will you think of Market Research?????? Definitely not. If someone floats his company, it’s because he / she has a gut feel that the idea will work and mind you that’s the best way of learning also……coz if something has to be tested let it be your Gut FEEL and not someone else’s…….so will you ever conduct Market Research to confirm whether your idea will work or not??………definitely not.

The next example that I can cite is of Mr. Sanjeev Bhikchandani who never got into MR…..he just had a simple idea and sensed a huge business opportunity and today he is the CEO of one of the most successful dotcoms in India……….for those who can’t figure out, his company is better known as Naukri.com.

On the contrary we had Times of India the biggest and undoubtedly the largest media giant in India but could not sense the need to go online until their classified business in print was affected with the advent of Portals. They are one of the late entrants in the online industry in most of the domains i.e. Timesjobs.com (Online Recruitment Portal), Simplymarry.com (Online Matrimonial Portal), Magicbricks.com (Online Realestate Portal).

I can think of Market Research as one of the reasons why TOI could not be the first to venture online despite being a huge media conglomerate, despite having a highly qualified team, despite having a good brand value, huge financial capabaility etc….;-(

Probably, research would have said that online is not attractive ;-( and out of the heavens there are people like Mr. Sanjeev Bhikchandani and others who have forced them to go online ;-).

MR cannot gurantee success, it's only a holy way in the corporate world to cover your ass and pass the buck on MR just incase the strategy fails.

Well, to be successful you just need to possess a high degree of commonsense, a good idea, rely on your Gut Feel, understand human psche and stay away from Market / Marketing Research.

CHEERS!!!!!!!!!

Kunal.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

My Favourite Quotes / Adages / One liners

"To get what we 've never had, we must do what we 've never done"

"No thief is a thief unless caught"

"Time & Tide considers none"

"If something has to be TESTED, let it be your GUT feel and not someone else's"

"Seldom do we think that others make sense unless they agree with us"

"To be successful in life it's not only important to know what works, it's equally important to know what does not work"

"I never think I have any limitations, in this way I try each and everything that makes sense to me and most of the times I surprise myself by doing it, which otherwise I wouldn't have tried"

"Do what u ought to do and not what u want to do"

"Most of the times we copy things that successful people do rather than copying what made them successful in the first place"

"There's no learning curve, everything in life boils down to commonsense"

"You never know where you can be if u stay where u are"

"How many times have u barked at the dog that barked at u for no damn reasons?"

"How many times do u need to put ur finger across the flame to know that it hurts, do you need experience"

"If you don't take care of your customer, competition will"

"One who prays for his fellowmen when he himself has the same need is answered first"

"Groups can only discuss, decisions are taken by individuals"

"The more you talk, the less serious you are taken"

"If you buy things that you don't need, someday you will be selling things that you need"

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

If you are wondering what made me select www.lateralsense.blogspot.com, here it is.....

Reason 1. Of Course inspired by one of the Books i read "Lateral Thinking - Edward DeBono"

Reason 2. Let me simplify this with an example as below:

Suppose we have a business card and we need to contact some person, in some company, and the nos. are 56108313 / 56108314 / 56108315, we would dial the first no. that appears on the card and often to our dismay the no. is busy / engaged........Why?? isn't it so obvious for others also to dial the first no.?? If we dial say the last no. we might get through in the first attempt right???? Very much practical but seldom practiced. Now that is "Lateral Sense".

Monday, April 21, 2008

If you sell a solution, you will command a Price, I mean a Good Price; but if you sell a Product you will Discount!!!!

Direct from the Horse's mouth.........not Zig Ziglar though.........lol

Theoretically, selling is an art but for most of the salesguys discounting is the only way of selling and that way I guess everyone can sell or should I say a good product sells itself, we are actually redundant.

Selling Product instead of a Solution: The problem with salesguys is most often they sell the products & their features and fail to sell a solution or the benefits of the solution. And when that happens price becomes the sole criteria for purchase and for salespeople, discounting seems to be the only way of selling / closing the sale.

The Best Offer Dilemma: The most frequented mistake salespeople commit is giving the least possible price after adjusting all the possible discounts from the highest authority possible only to their dismay that the client makes a counter offer of 10 - 20% less than your final quote and the next statement the client makes is "You may raise the invoice / collect the cheque at this price". And boy.....the deal never happens, it just entered a loop, we need further approvals and ego comes into play - ours as well as the clients........

Always REMEMBER, whenever a client is negotiating NEVER expect the client to close the sale on your final offer.....whatever be your final offer the client will make a counter offer of 10 - 20% less than your final quote. So your final quote should always have a margin of 15 - 20%, just to ensure there is no back & forth and the sale happens with ease.

The best deals are those when there is minimal arm-twisting involved and when we close the deal at the client's offer price allowing him to take charge of the situation.

And isn't that true, when we buy something at a price that we feel is right (or the salesguy agrees to sell at our offered rate) we are just too happy to buy, probably too happy to pay and glad to use that product!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Negotiating on Price: When we negotiate, we always negotiate downwards......and the negotiation is always on price.........and not on the package..........remember the client can always pay 15 - 20 - 100% more than the actual budget communicated to us. Ideally Negotiation should be on the value of the solution that the client will get in return of the price and not just the price.........we can always propose different value propositions at different price points............but sadly, we prefer to discount.

We always try Logic: Most often we try to sell logic but we forget that we sell to humans and they are emotional and not always logical............so we can manage them and their queries differently.

I shall revisit some client FAQ's in some weeks.......till then Happy Selling & please sell at rates that wouldn't embarrass your conscience...............lol.........

Saturday, August 25, 2007

You never get what you want, but still you don't stop wanting more, do you????? m no exception :-)

And here are some of my free thoughts - funny, serious, insane....maybe

1. Someday i will set up a NGO

2. Someday i will produce / direct / act in a movie, of course with my chuddi buddi friends.

3. Someday i will float my own company.........probably managing a few .coms

4. Someday i wish to earn, earn and earn...........nah i am always malcontent.............forget it!!!!

5. Someday i wish to enter the ugly world of politics.............:-)

6. Someday i wish to write a book no gyaan but something which will make the reader go back down the memory lane and instrospect wht he's done and wht is up to ;-)

I guess, someday i will have to leave my job and struggle to make half of the above a reality ;-), and if can, i did be satisfied with myself.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Paragliding at Kamshet in Pune, India

Paragliding at Kamshet, Pune, India

After White Water Rafting at dandeli, Paragliding was my second attempt at an adventure sport, and swear, those were some of the few moments i ve thoroughly enjoyed.

It was Vivek's idea that all of us should get into some sort of rejuvenating activity especially after a hectic last quarter and year end, successful though, rather than just lazing around clumsily. We all agreed and on 28th April, 07 we started our jaunt, to take off......i mean for Paragliding.


We were all thrilled with the idea of being some 1000-1200 ft above the ground.

The team of "Wanna be Paragliders" consisted of 7 i.e. (L - R) Vivek, Avinash, Kunal (I), Girish, Anish, Toj, Kamlendra (Center).

We started at arnd 9 a.m. and reached at abt 12 - 12.215p.m., it was a smooth drive till we were on the expressway, but we had to exit the expressway at the khandala exit, from where kamshet is arnd 13kms, and a bumpy ride all throughout i must say.........

After reaching Nirvana (the Guest House), we just lazed arnd for a while, had lunch that was filling, light, delicious and very much homely with a choice of Veg and Non-Veg. At abt 3.30 we had to drive for another 30mins to the site / cliff where the paragliding is conducted. Again, it was a bumpy drive, though a small jaunt and back.

We had to park our cars, walk about 2 kms under the scorching heat, climb for another 20 mins and there we were on the launchpad,
phew!

All us of us were now eagerly waiting to put on the gears, and get airborne.

The take-off was not that smooth for all of us. You need to move alongside the direction of the wind and in sync with the guide (or the paraglider in true sense), so that the wind bubble lifts the glider and makes you airborne. Well, just before takeoff our very own Mr. Avinash Tiwary (urf Bullet) would take his seat instead of running in sync with the guide and thus had his backside dragged on the ground because of the strong wind, no scratches i guess.

Tiwari's 'TAKEOFF TRAUMA'
Same with me, I had to move around on the cliff for almost 5 mins before a wind bubble helped us to fly. I now wonder, do i need a Glider to fly, guess m light enough to fly on my own and if i fall from the launchpad it would defy Newton's Law of Gravity.

In a Nutshell, it's a breathtaking experience to be at such a height enjoying the breeze, fighting the wind, especially when your guide makes the glider swirl against the strong wind.........awesome and thrilling experience!!!
More Pics

Ready for the Takeoff

Perfect Bliss

The Climb

Grounded.....finally

For all those who wish to enjoy Paragliding..........Niravana Adventures at Kamshet, Pune is one of the best sites for Paragliding in Maharashtra. If you wish to fly solo they conduct Paragliding courses that would make you adept for Paragliding.

To know more about Paragliding sites in India, simply google for it.......enough content for Paragliding sites in India.

All the best and hope you 'll enjoy Paragliding as much as i did.

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Have you started Brijjing?????

Brijj.com - Brijjing People

Info Edge India Ltd. has finally delivered its baby on 8th Sept.'07, the baby is named Brijj.com and will be competing with other professional networking sites. The site is currently in its infancy, the face of the site is neat with decent color combination, navigation is simple and one can effortlessly maneuver through the site. Some people have started comparing it with Linkedin.com which is the oldest and by far the most popular professional networking portal.

I guess linkedin is the benchmark in its domain and its now upto Brijj to provide more value to the users over and above what linkedin has to offer. The best part for Brijj is not many in India would be aware of linkedin considering that’s it’s a california based co. and promotions are restricted to online media (m not sure though) whereas Brijj being Indianised and being a sibling to other successful portals like naukri.com, jeevansathi.com & 99acres.com, sooner we will have these portals heavily promoting Brijj and within no time it will be able to register itself in the minds of the users and that is what matters the most…..who is able to acquire a pie of the users memory, FIRST!!!!!

Pros: Indian origin, Brijj can easily leverage on the millions of visitors the siblings gets i.e. naukri, jeevansathi, 99acres

Cons: None i can think of, but the challenge would be to retain the same level of maneuverability in accessing the links once they have too many features buried under too many links ;-)

Keep Brijjing!!! http://www.brijj.com/

Cheers!!
Kunal

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Looking for a Job / Career Oppurtunity??? Job Portals like Naukri.com help you find a suitable opening in a matter of minutes!!!!!

It's become just too simple, you just need some access to the internet, some efforts, sensible searching on the net and you can apply at the click of a mouse!!!!

Job Portals are by far the best and fastest means to look for career opportunities, job openings, current vacancies. Unlike the traditional means of registering with a placement consultant and awaiting a revert or running your eyeballs through those classified ads that print carries or at best the Times Ascent.

You can simply log on to one of the best Job Sites in India i.e.
www.naukri.com, www.monster.co.in or www.timesjobs.com, upload your CV or search for job openings with some of your dream companies in India and Overseas.

Few things to remember while uploading your Resume on Job Portals:

1. While registering with portals, just ensure that you upload your recent or updated resume with valid email-id, your contact nos. - Landline and Mobile; before saving the details verfiy the contact information for any typo-errors coz potential recruiters or placement consultant may use the details to contact you.

2. Very Important: Keep on modifying your resume once every month because most of the recruiters would contact candidates whose CV is new / fresh / modified / updated recently. Hence it directly impacts the frequency with which might receive calls from companies or manpower consultants.

3. Select your relevant Functional Area / Role / Industry / Education etc....take some time to go through the entire list of drop downs and then select your relevant category.

Useful tips while conducting a Job Search on Job Portals:

1. Incase of Naukri.com, just long on to the homepage you can click on any one of the Companies listed their (there are around 400+ companies you can choose from, (categorised as per the industry) which takes them to their career microsite where all the Job Vacancies are listed. You can apply directly to that job, whether you are registered with them or not. This way you can apply in total confidentiality to the HR / Recruiter (no other portal allows you to apply for jobs unless you register with that portal)

2. You can also conduct a "Keyword Search", whereby you can put your relevant 'Key Skills' (like corporate sales, java, j2ee, .net, quality, media planning, customer care etc.), select your experience, functional area (i.e. sales, marketing, software, production, ) and preferred location.

Alternatively, you can just browse for relevant jobs through any of the functional categories listed on the job sites like Sales, Marketing, IT - Hardware, IT - Software, Advertising, Call Center / ITES / BPO / Oil & Gas etc..