Now I know almost each one of you seeing this post must have seen either on hoardings or on YouTube or on television the strange advertisement wherein a Bikini clad babe (nothing hot about her) emerges out of the water and suddenly what pops is a message about JK Cement.
For those who haven’t yet seen this one and haven’t had another ounce of blood added to their system by laughing out loud, here’s the ad:
The first question which comes to my mind upon seeing this advert is : why the hell did they do this and who approved of this. Call the agency head, they need to learn a lesson or two. Anyway, all said and done, who handles the marketing for JK Cements, who actually approved of this ad. Did he/ she (I doubt if it was a She) think that a bikini clad woman will sell their cement.
I mean let me talk from personal experience. The place where I stay, about a year and a half back we got a new construction done from scratch. And obviously it was not all in the hands of the builder, I did my strong research. Went ahead knowing about many different Cements and which ones give what and finally in my list of the top 2, JK cements was not event there, infact in my list of top 4 there was nothing. A Cement is not just about strength, its about many other things. The composition matters.
So coming back to the point, this advert with freaking bill boards all over Delhi and to top it all, on the Delhi- Jaipur highway, with this woman a little darkened (did her skin tanned while being in the sun on the billboard?) makes no sense to me.
Advertising surely can be dumb, look at TATA Docomo’s advert’s with Ranbir Kapoor, if it sounds intelligent to you, well, then there’s a sense of dumbness in you!
Well, to end this one on a very confused note, well, I did not like either the babe, the Bikini was cheap and to talk about the cement, well, please read the post again!
Of all the things in the world, money makes everything go round and round. And well, in today’s times, when everything around you is growing, so is the inflation, when the top chart-buster song of the year is: mehngaai dayan khaaye jaat hai, you obviously need to ensure that you manage your money well.
Managing Money
Now, in my life, I have my parents, my wife, my grandma, everyone has their own view of how to manage money. And interestingly when I hear of their views, I feel like wow, how have we as humans evolved overtime to reach to where we are and how was our parent’s time and their tryst with earning money and building things from bottoms up and what times do we live in, when we have increasing buying power in our hands and we are growing!
The Challenge With Managing Money:
The biggest challenge which I see and have encountered with managing money is to keep a constant track of it while I am constantly on the move. Let me confess, life has become so upwardly mobile that today I check about my health as well, on my mobile devices. As we are growing to the next level of growth, we are getting dependent on technology to simplify our lives.
Thank God, My bank is in My Pocket!
YES! I am not kidding and neither have I lost it and sure I haven’t yet gotten a free debit card with unlimited cash to spend. What I do have is, I am a customer with the Standard Chartered bank, since the past couple of years. While I have been banking with them, overtime, I realized that in my tenure with them, I have rarely gone to the branch. The online banking is so fast and quick, that it serves me everything and in no time.
Sure, I had my own doubts in terms of being a “private bank” and how will it survive the Indian shores, but as their campaign says, here for good, I believe it now.
A Fresh Breeze of Mobility
Recently I got to know that SCB has launched a mobile banking platform across all possible devices and platforms which we know of today called: Breeze! I mean from iPhone to Nokia to whatever you can imagine, its there! So effectively speaking, now I have the bank in my pocket wherever I go, whatever I be doing. Its simple.
Why am I so happy about it that it occupies a space on my blog, well, because I realize how easy will it now be for me to access my bank without any hassles.
How does it look like?
As I always do, a sneak peek into the whole new world of easy, fast and on the move banking in your pocket!
And obviously I expect my bank to give this to me at no extra cost, so have they. The app is free for download on any mobile device you use.
Happy breezing, I am personally satisfied that SCB understands, as we grow ahead and move faster, technology has to make our lives simpler and not complex. Good to be your customer guys, keep up the great work!
A note for all those reading my blog, NO, I am not obsessed with deals and discounts but YES, I am onto my quest for really learning as to how are these companies making it so big. What are their business models and what’s really happening at the back-end?
My latest post on how I got through the Amity Synergy Card which offered these fantastic discounts was liked by many people and I also got some requests to probe in further. I hence made up my mind to go ahead and meet the team behind the idea and how they are executing it.
My Experience: Count by Count
While I met the super energized team behind the Amity Synergy Card, my first impression was a fantastic mix of Youth, Experience and a free minded and open to innovation investor. So as I went ahead understanding their strategic thought and how it all happened, I found it very interesting to know the story behind how it all started.
Good to know that this is not a card which initiated as an influence from many others in this domain
They started in-house and did a proof of concept at Amity University, which obviously is a behemoth. Its in one word huge. The proof of concept was to look at how Amity students use the card and to understand the audience. And wallah, the results were astounding. Students loved the concept.
What’s the proof? Well, the 82,200 fans on facebook page is enough proof, aint it?
Hmmm, so I asked the team about how did they think about taking it further?
In one tone, everyone answered, we were sure its going to work out and we rolled the Amity Synergy Discounts card as a B2B offering. Though we are also stepping to the B2C domain. Interesting to note this.
B2B, B2C and Now its B2E!!
There are many things which companies today do to ensure that their employees are motivated and that they perform their level best at all times. Various companies have different sets of incentivized structures which keep the employees engaged and motivated to perform. The Synergy Discount card makes a lot of sense here. If you reward an employee telling him, that almost whatever he purchases from now on, will be discounted, obviously he will be happy. You are a smart organisation if you are helping your employees save money when everything around seems to be only rising up in price.
Interestingly Synergy Discounts card has some very interesting examples of how its Co-branded with various medium sized companies and how it has worked out very well for them, the companies and the employees.
For Start-ups and SMEs its Makes Most Sense
The Card according to me makes much sense for start-ups and SMEs. Whether you are a services or a products business. Interesting discounts on everyday products that you buy obviously makes for a great return on human capital happiness investment.
How Can You Order This Card for Your Company?
You can actually send an Email directly to Abhishek Pandey at: apandey2@amity.edu and the rest gets taken care of.
Drop in your experiences and comments about the Synergy card and any other interesting ideas you might have of usage for the Synergy Cards team. I’d be happy to forward it to them!
Though I personally don’t freak out in shopping malls daily, but obviously things change after marriage you know (kidding). In the recent times I have been going through this strange phenomena which is written large on many faces, which is, do you have a deal? Almost every market that you visit in Delhi, you can find every other person negotiating with the shopkeeper and asking for a discount. Now that’s obvious human nature.
Hmmm, great so we are talking discounts here!
Yes we are. But I have a thought to share, while I am sure you all must be seeing these deal sites pop-up from every nook and corner of the globe citing great exciting deals from your city, there is not much value. Tell me how many people would really be looking at a great value from getting a tattoo on some part of their precious body at a discount. Interestingly I know the statistic, there are many. The super excited youth of India.
But can’t we put in some real value driven sense in discounts?
When I say value driven, let me put my case forward. I represent the emerging youth of India who have a newly found buying power with them. I am someone who works hard and harder to achieve an aspirational level for me and my family. Obviously the aspirations keep touching new levels with time. Now for me, I really am not wanting a deal for a tattoo OR a 5% discount on a coffee mug. Neither am I looking at a dine out extra happy hours or a beer free!
What I want is to make my life happy and easy!
I am married and hence have a family to take care of and I am a consumer who is a target audience for many brands out there. So why don’t these deal sites understand that I need to see value in their deals and that just by 2 SMS’s each day on my cell phone, I won’t make a buy decision?!
The Game Changer is here: What I’v experienced in the last week!
The Game Changer is here. Last week I went for a fun night of bowling at The Great India Place Mall at Noida with couple of pals. Interestingly what I saw was a register where people were writing something down with a Golden color card in their hands and they straight away got very interesting discount on their games.
The Magic of Discount: the Revelation!
What was revealed about the card was that it came from the stable of one of India’s largest business clans. Its the Amity Synergy Card. Dwelling further, I was amazed to see what was present online! The Synergy card (which I was not really much aware about initially) has more than 61 cities Pan India covered. Go to their website and you will see what I mean and why I just got eexcited enough to mention the brand on this blog!
Did I Order a Card for Myself?
Yes I did. And yes I did not take it just like that. I went ahead and used the card and wallah. In the past 7 purchases that I have done, I have already gotten my value of the card for which I bought it for back. Hence my ROI in terms of getting back the investment I made has been received.
Has the Team Been Good at After Sales?
Obviously before writing this blog, I did my diligence and tried contacting the Synergy Discounts and Coupons team through their site and wallah they did respond back in time.
What’s So Unique, Why Did I Not Write About GroupOn India’s Office?
Why I did not write about GroupOn or any other discount scheme is because the discounts which Synergy offers me is logical. I know the places I generally go to in India and they are all there. The biggest USP being, that Synergy is the only card which has discounts on rooms in almost every major hospital in India. Not happy about it, but lately I have had to roam around Delhi hospitals for a close relative, and I know how quickly cash gets burnt when you step into an Apollo Hospital. A 10- 15% discount on rooms spells a saving of close to about INR 2500 for 2 days!!
How do I Get this Card?
Since I like sharing on this blog, only what I really feel excited about what I experience in my life, I think the Synergy card makes much sense with the value driven deals. I got it online simply through this link: http://synergydiscounts.com/GetSynergyCard.aspx
Have fun getting deals and saving more and for all those married men, guys here’s your thing, to keep your woman happy!!
Last night I went to South Ex, a upscale shopping destination in South Delhi. Though I am not a shopping enthusiast by even the farthest of the accounts, but being married changes the game as they say
For all those who have ever been to this market, there are two ways to cross that busy road, either risk your life (like many people do) and dodge the traffic as if you are NEO from The Matrix OR be a little sound in your brains and use the underpass. I respect life a little more than being a daredevil and hence took the underpass.
A blind man hit me from the back
Not that it was his purpose, but a young man might be in his late twenties hit me from the back and the moment I turned around I noticed his white stick. What struck me at that time was life in the purest of its essence. Not that I have not seen blind people before, I have had close encounters in life with such amazingly gifted people (I will soon share how they are amazingly gifted).
He was talking on the mobile phone when I held him and merely told him that he has stairs in front of him and the other obstructions and this chap showed me a skill which was something that I expected but was not prepared for. He walked around as fast as I did (along with me) and when it came to climbing the steps, he used hit white stick in a manner which struck me. He let it loose in his right hand and started bumping it against the steps, which made a sound and let him know what’s next!
We came out of the subway and I asked him where he wanted to go and I guided him to that street along the road side.
Story ends: and a new begins
While we were going from one shop to another to see clothes and what not, the one thought which was constantly playing on my mind was, how swift was the man who was using nothing but sound to reach to where he wanted to. But let me give one more perspective to it which I felt strongly for later, its not just about the sound, its also about faith which he was keeping in that moment on me and my judgement. Not for a moment did he show any signs of nervousness, neither did his confidence shook for a second. Infact when I asked bhaiyya kahan jaana hai aapko (brother, where do you want to go), he answered, mujhe agle waale cut se mudna hai aur bahur aage tak chalna hai (I need to turn on the next cut and there’s a long way to go).
The game changer
In life there are so many moments when we feel so dejected, so disheartened, when life feels as if there is nothing more to it. When for the smallest of the issues which can be solved quickly we act our own way, thinking that we are RIGHT and create deadlocks.
These are the times I feel, the ‘we’ who are so blessed in life, take many things for granted. We are not grateful for life, for many things in life. And all of this results into something which eventually makes us go down the drain. We lose our ownership.
We lose our ownership
While we go through life, we lose our ownership. In the jobs we do, do we really own our work (exceptions are always around the corner), do we really thank the employer for everything they are giving to us. And not just that, slowly in our process of keeping ourselves and what we think of, always right, we start making it: my way or the highway, which sounds good in a song, but when it comes to life, there are many more songs which get affected with your tune.
Eg: the organization you work in, if you don’t perform well, though you might be at a very small position, some way or the other, the organization is affected. There are negative ripple effects. And hence your under/Non-performance affects those around you. This way you are not respecting other’s lives, while taking your’s for granted anyway.
Learn from the blind
I learnt many lessons of life last night in just those 5 minutes of my time with the blind man. And hence I share with you, there are people who cannot see the beauty of what this world beholds. If you are someone who respects this, rise up and create new opportunities for many others and you will by default be raised to a whole new level in life, far ahead and faster of many of your pack.
I need to hear to be alive
That’s the blind man. Coz if he does not trains himself to hear the sound of the click of his white stick, while hearing all the other sounds of the world, he will not be able to live through life. When he can train his brain to do this, can we not train ours to achieve much more? I honestly believe, each one of us is an amazing potential powerhouse, just that a few realize it and work towards it.
While I am writing these lines, I have a hard feeling in my own heart, but a strong promise as well, which I have been keeping with myself since I did my start-up, that I will rise up to create many opportunities for folks around, they might be family, friends, No-one at all or everyone.
The TECHSPARKS is back and so with a bang. the Delhi round-table is round the corner on 7th of May 2011. Though it needs no introduction, if you want to know more about #tsparks click here.
Delhi sure is going to witness a flurry of entrepreneurial activity on he 7th of May 2011. And why would it not happen, when, you have some real exciting names in the industry spanning the mobile to the venture capitalists joining the discussion.
I would have loved to present a sneak-peek into the action, alas it all got announced a while back by YourStory. But still to give you a little knock on your door for the action which you can expect at the event, the exciting speakers on board the Delhi edition are:
Well, if you are still wanting some more, here you go with a fantastic video introduction to the TechSparks 2011:
Note: after writing this post, somehow there was an error in my WordPress installation due to which I had to revert my blog to a past date, which compromised on the latest blogs I had written. I am happy to be back though
This might be one of the important most posts I have ever done. I have always written from experience, things that I keep learning from life, from people. Life is everything and nothing at the same time. I have heard many philosophers saying this, but there are many moments when you experience it.
The deadlocks in life
I have seen many people, fight over and over again on trivial issues and most of the times the one thing common in both parties is that each tries his/ her level best to keep his. her ego upright. How could I be wrong? OR How could you wrong me? Let me tell you who I am!
Well, let me tell you this. I personally in my life, feel such people are utter foolish who live their life, trying to save themselves from being wronged and who keep fighting hard trying to save their ego from taking a hit.
The meanings we give
In most of my workshops and lectures that I take, I ensure that I share with my audience, the meaning of everything in life. Its really simple. A dark room, a pitch dark room, if you are made to stand in such a room and someone shuts the door from outside, in all general sense the first reaction in your heart would probably be that of fear, you might even want to scream and might try everything in the book to get out of there!
But lets rewind a bit, all that I said was: that you were in a dark room. A dark room is a dark room or a room without any light. Where does fear/ screams come from? That happens when you give a meaning inside your mind to the dark room with something weird and fearful. You have made your mind to believe that since its dark, now you gottu be cautious.
Relationships in life: the biggest deadlocks!
I have seen so many people and many a times have experienced it myself, how the best of relationships go kaput, while we all are in the space of standing upright for what we believe is right. The reality being everyone involved in that situation is doing the same thing. Everyone is thinking the same. Everyone is making the same move.
This simply is a deadlock. And it happens to the closest of the relationships. That with parents, with your life partners, with your Co-founders (in your business venture) and so on.
Someone at such times has to just simply understand that there is no meaning to anything in life and move on himself, while ensuring that everyone moves on and moves along. Now this is what I call a real winner. The one who just knows its all about moving on and never let situations which are meaningless, become meaningful in many weird ways for many different people.
But it hurts!
And yes, before you say it, I know it hurts. Iv been hurt many a times in life like this, but Iv learnt the art of keeping my relationships, because they are my life, they are why I live, I smile and I love life.
Love: that’s what I know and I do
Let me now give you something, which will never again let any deadlock ever appear in anything in life. The strongest human emotion without a doubt is Love. To be honest, I still say that Love again has no meaning to it. Its just another expression. And it is. Love but is something which you DO. Whatever it is, you still DO. And in life to move on all you need to do is DO.
Love makes you DO things by default. Many a times it hurts, but that’s something which comes along the package.
And Love has no reasons, no point, no start, no end. I am sure you must have heard of all this before in books, pages, videos, movies, but that’s the difference.
I have experienced it
Iv been lucky enough in my life that I have actually experienced Love. Something that I cannot share in words, but somehow the following words from a Punjabi Song, I heard sometime back:
Eh satinder jo gonda e gon de, e tan ho gaya shudai rolla paun de
bus pyar waali chhattri tu taan de, baaki rabb jo karenda kari jaan de
Translated in English: Satinder is the name of the singer who says, let Satinder sing whatever he has to, he has gone insane, let him scream n shout. Just put over him the cover of love and let God then do whatever he has to
The emotion has been captured perfectly in this song, which simply says when you fall in love in life, its about you falling in love and nothing else. It has no meanings to it. Move on, coz you fell in love, make the other do it
All said and done, was this a lesson on Love?
Hah! If that’s what you got out of it, then it was! It simply was about the fact that once you love something in life, whether your partner, your parents, your car, your venture, whatever, well, its your love, its your expression. Yes the other person/ thing might have become a part of your Loving happiness, but its always been your love!
So why fight and create deadlocks, when its always been your story! Be strong and come up to being 100% of what you fell in love with and don’t expect the other thing to give even a per cent of it. Be that love and you will never face deadlocks in life.
*the post is dedicated to my mom and wife, who have made me be in love and be powerful forever
Though its been quite sometime that Iv seen a bollywood flick on the silver screen, but this weekend, I found the time just right and to take a flight into a world away from the usual life, Iv chosen to watch the third show of Tanu weds Manu tomorrow as it releases.
While I was getting the tickets booked online, there sure came an interesting thought. Its the Cricket World Cup time and this time around especially when the action in in the sub-continent, releasing a bollywood flick sure is a cracker, which may burst and make a ot of sound or it might just fizz out.
Thinking about the same I looked around to find out the logic behind the thought of releasing a movie during the CWC, when most producers and distributors fear that their movies may not get the kind of viewership, as expected.
Even before I did, I looked around online, as to what exactly is the response to the movie, pre-release on Social Networks and well, here are the statistics:
YouTube: one of the most popular videos (trailers) of the movie has: 233,276 views
Official facebook page: 64,273 fans
There is enough buzz online if you do a basic Google search!!
But does this buzz indicate a successful Box office hit? Well, not really! In the past there have been couple of not so successful attempts on releasing bollywood flicks during either crucial game time OR during national festivals and religious days, but the success rate has been pretty dicey.
A little birdie (source: aka: a friend, in the business of movie making) who is also close to analysts revealed that many initially believed that releasing TWM would be a step wrongly taken at this time of the year, but the producers were confident about the content, its quality and the fresh pairing which has worked wonders. The movie in its trailers shows every part of India which the viewer would see and say, Ohh Iv been there!
Nothing fancy about the movie, love and marriages have been subjects of bollywood movies before, but the way its been presented during the peak marriage season (taara chadha hua hai) as they say, I think is sure going to work positively for TWM.
Content wins the game
The key which I wanted to share with this blog post is the quality of content and the way its been positioned and propagated. The key here is content. The movie has a “real life” subject. Characters which you can almost relate with like your cousins in real life. Packaging the movie as a fun ride full of comedy, romance and laughter, for a couple of hours is sure going to give the much needed breath of a fresh ‘pair’ to the Indian cine goers.
And since there has not really been a movie which has touched cine goers with this fun lately and many disappointing releases have donned the Box Office, TWM has its stars bright.
I’ll post the review of the movie tomorrow after seeing it, as a comment to this post with my ratings out of 5, till then here’s the official un-censored trailer:
This post is by far one of the difficult most that Iv written. Never really that I have had a heavy heart before conjuring up my thoughts on what really to write and how to put it across.
And why am I giving it such a lot of thought?
Because this post is not about any thought leadership or any thoughts that I am sharing. This is certainly not about any gyaan and definitely not about what to do and how to do it?
I am sure by so many ‘Not’s’ you must have understood that the author must have gone through an experience in life, where he has surely learnt ‘what not to do’.
Bang on! That’s the learning. Today as I sit with myself remembering of the days when I was sitting with a friend in a small lone room in Delhi’s cold winters, with the window of the room still half broken, on a small desk. We were discussing start-ups and ventures. She was running a start-up while I was thinking about doing mine and we were discussing all of this over a cuppa tea!
That was the day when I told her what I want to do, what my strengths are and we sat about thinking of names, so many of them came by. It was like naming your own child. There was so much love, passion, thought around the name.
Finally the name came!
Until ROI!! Yes! That’s the company, I said. I had nothing in hand, nothing at all and armed with only a name and zillions of dreams which powered my guts at that time, I said this is a company I launch today and that company will be called: Until ROI. And that was the starting of a venture.
The first thing many of my seniors told me was dude, 98% of the start-ups don’t make it over 6 months in India and making it over 1 year for you will be almost impossible, as you don’t even have a penny to start with. You are cash-less in every sense of the word. And yes they were not wrong. I was cash-less in every sense of the word.
I anyway said, if this be it, let it be, I will anyway start. And I borrowed a laptop from one of my friends for a few days, sat in another friends’ office who was also running a start-up and I said, let me announce to the world that Until ROI has arrived!
And I created a website
To build a website you need cash! But well, I said, I can build a website with my dreams and so I did. Even till date, the official Until ROI website remains the same of what I did. Using the free wordpress platform, I learnt a bit of php myself and coded the site, thanks to WP
Thanks to Google, the official Email was set-up in a jiffy and did not cost anything at all. Well, this is what kicked in life into the dream called Until ROI.
But now we needed to do the real thing, business!
And it was time to contact customers and sales calls began
Well, yes it was now time to do business. Just having a website won’t suffice you as an entrepreneur. Leaving your job is one part of it, running a successful enterprise is another. I must thank, Rahul, Pooja, Aashita who lent me their support during the initial stages, coupled with my own brand that I had created in my previous role as a Social Media Evangelist in the market, Until ROI got its first break and we were in business. The first cheque we ever got was for INR 40,000.
And I was on top of the world! 40k was like wow!! It was a feeling which I celebrated by paying off for the laptop I had bought on an EMI for myself.
Scaling up: well, we invested into an Airtel Boardband connection for ourselves
The company had its second asset in the form of a broadband connection. Armed with a laptop, broadband, a chair and a table inside a store room, Until ROI started operations formally.
I never had the time to go ahead and register the company. Hence I went ahead with business while keeping it as a proprietary business. Yes it was difficult to make our first set of clients understand, why we are proprietary, but the clients kept faith in this one man and they said okay we will go ahead with you.
Did they test me, well yes they did. Why?
Social Media is something which is very new for the world even today, so thinking about doing it with a proprietary company 1.5 years back was sure a big thing.
And more clients started coming
We started getting more clients through referrals and I must thank many people here. Digbijoy, Avinash, Chandan, Rahul, Pooja, Aashita and others.
Strategically we also found some very amazing partners in Virtue Insight, some of the best people in business I know. Both Fen and Sarika have been great help!!
And we started growing
Slowly and steadily we started growing. And as we did, we shifted to a new office (3rd floor of my house) a fantastic looking room large enough to have 5 people sitting with ease, with a 5.1 music surround system, and a whole stack of books (library) we started operations from there. I remember how I used to see the open sky through the huge glass (which also acted as the glass board for planning and strategizing) and be inspired!
This inspiration took us to the next stage where we got the 1st actual on rolls employee on board. I remember the feeling even today when I told my parents, Im paying a guy 18k in my “2″ member company and everyone still used to say, its just another few months, josh thanda ho jayega!
I am thankful to Piyush and Vikas at this stage, along with Aseem, thanks guys, you all rocked!
Business Development was the next challenge: but how?
Before I come to the next level, I woke up one of the days to find a sweet LinkedIn message sent to me by someone at the world’s largest social network facebook, asking me to join fb India. We did have a telephonic conversation, but then I dropped my plans, as the entrepreneurial bug was biting hard.
Anyway, BD was our next challenge and I said, obviously being a 2 member team with 3 clients, probably we would not be able to scale up, so lets partner with events and so we did. We started LIVE blogging some of the largest corporate events in India and I must thank Avinash, Fen and Sarika for all their support in this case!
We were rolling and then something happened
At one of the largest events in the history of corporate India in Mumbai, I met the VP of Corporate Strategy of an emerging Indian IT company and we hit it off! He invited me to his office in Delhi and we had this company as a client! And I was on top of the world. What followed it was a strong relationship which brought in capital into Until ROI in the form of HNI investment into the venture and I said, nothing better could happen, money coming in, more experienced brains on board, this venture is a sure fire hit now!
Before accepting the offer I did speak to many people, took advice but my gut said its okay to go ahead with it and you are going to make it a success and we went ahead!
And a team of 2, we raised some amount!
Things started rolling for us. I was so happy seeing my ’2′ other team members (I hate using the word employee) sitting in a plush office ‘Until ROI’s’ office. We had RFID badges given to us and I always used to chuckle to my friends, come visit my office and remember to take your badge from the guard (all in fun)!
The dreams started getting bigger and well, we sure felt lucky to have some real experienced brains from the industry backing us.
With the backing of an investor we started seeing desi and videsi dreams.
And our learning began
My first brush with writing excel sheets, numbers, create Bplans and many other things happened. We rose from being a ’2′ member to a ’3′ member team. Clients started trickling in. The guards in my building never got to know my name, but they got to know me as, ‘woh sir jo raat ko 12 baje se pehle office se nikalte nahi’, jinke karan hamie bhi jaagna padta hai’
I used to love it all, all the action, passion, there was no sense of time, food, weather, security, it was all work and that’s what I loved doing.
And we made a Pvt. Ltd. company
Thanks to Vishwa and Ashwani, the moment I saw a legal paper saying Until ROI Consulting Pvt. Ltd. I was overjoyed. There were joys all around. Infact pretty much during this time, I worked with one of my close designer friends, to re-brand Until ROI and we designed the new logo, which was well appreciated!
We had our own share of success and failures
But this time around there were the investors to both support us and be reported to. I quickly realized that this is someone else’s money I am working on and I need to be very very careful with it. This is where I really thank my parents and they have always taught the lesson of being intelligent with money. Coming from an absolute non-business background, I was always jittery about working on someone else’s money.
We added Karun, Nidhi and Abhimanyu to the team quickly. These sure are cool people to work with. They took on Until ROI.
And this is where I learnt the biggest lesson of my life!
Choose your team members, not because they have a title well worth, but because they love doing what you do and with probably the same passion. because they are in the skin because they want to be. This has been one of my top learning’s till date. Today I just know why not to recruit someone and when to just draw the line.
I must thank Nidhi, who sure did help me learn a couple of tricks here.
Somehow it all started up great, everything was well formed, but somewhere down the line, there sure was that little feeling in the heart that we need to be stronger, need to be closer, need to be in each other’s hearts. Need to feel each other’s pain and be there for each other at all times.
And finally here I am
And finally here I am, no more with Until ROI Consulting Pvt. Ltd., today remembering all those times, some of the most exciting times of my life, which have taught me immensely. There have been some really amazing relationships that I have created with many people.
The company moves forward and I always wish the entire team all the luck and the best ever in life!!
And going forward
Before I step ahead, I must thank some very crucial people in my life who have given me everything. Mom, Aditi, Sarika, Dimpy, Anurag bhai, Digbijoy, Avinash and I must mention people who I have always looked upto and have met at least once in life: Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Deep Kalra, Vijay Shekhar Sharma. They are all some of the best people Iv always looked upto and will always keep doing it!
Going forward I will be working as an enabler to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India while consulting brands into their Digital Media strategy.
There has been much talk about Social Media. Though at nascent stages and just like many other posts, this one may also be looked upon as another future teller, trying to make a guess work and predict something, like the magician gets the rabbit out of the hat put on fire!!
The Context
I recently attended a high profile conference of some of the best known brains in the Media and Entertainment industry led by Shri. Kapil Sibal, Hon’ble Minister of Human Resource Development, Communications & Information Technology. The conference really was focused towards creating a solid framework for talent development for the Media and Entertainment industry in India, aptly titled: “National Vocational Educational Qualification Framework for Media and Entertainment Industry”.
Coming from the thought, interacting with many established media people across the table and taking their insights, I realized the following:
Businesses are increasingly looking at a new breed of managers who are evolved and informed to lead Social Media in-house
Only a few specialized top performing agencies with clear vision and a strong case studies will finally be ruling the roost in the Digital Media space
There will be a major need for trained and skilled manpower in the Digital Media space, this will become a basic expectation from the future marketing managers
Businesses are Increasingly looking at a Smart Future: Digital Ready managers
My interaction with various industry experts revealed that large businesses are actually looking at creating a strong and smart marketing team. While the entire Digital Media space is evolving as I am writing this post, we are talking of businesses leveraging the medium as they are growing and getting a hang of the same. Marketers today are expected to come equipped with the knowledge of Digital Media at least at a basic level, which enables them to be powerful contributors in the process of creating a solid Digital Media strategy for their organizations.
Lack of skilled professionals: the current situation
As discussed with key people from the industry who have seen the Digital Media space grow right in front of their eyes in India and have experience of how things are moving internationally as well, the sense is, there is a lack of skilled manpower currently and various businesses are doing their bit, though in an un-organized fashion to train employees and so are the educational institutions, by collaborating with leading entrepreneurs/ digital media companies to produce future ready managers.
What does it mean?
In my view, in a couple of years time (3-5) Digital Media will essentially become an integral part of the marketing function within organizations and agencies will essentially play a supporting role, while working very closely with these organizations. Also, only a handful of “specialized” agencies will be leading from the front.
This will further create a major demand for trained and skilled manpower, future ready managers, who are well versed with the Digital Media.
This emerging business need will surely fuel many entrepreneurial fires. This is sure a golden opportunity to step into the education part of the Digital Media business and especially makes all the more sense for established digital agencies, as it helps them churn and place more professionals in the market, at the client’s end, who then become prospective business generators!
"We thought we understood social media marketing and seo optimization fairly ok but after our one on one session realized many of the fundamental mistakes we were making plus learnt many new tools. Overall an investment I would recommend every entreprenuer to make"
- Nidhi, Founder CEO, Pinnacle Works
