Sweeten My Deal Please: the Synergy Card Effect!

June 14th, 2011 § 4 comments § permalink

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!!

Oh My God My Ketchup is Heinz

May 29th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Aah sometimes a good evening with a few intelligent brains over some quality wheat beer from Belgium makes for a lot of “common sense”.

While with @1aditithakur recently at the famous Beer Cafe in Delhi, the conversation started with the shopping experience in the mall and it moved onto the limitless gyaan on branding. Finally we started discussing brand and brand names.

Your Name: how does that change the taste of the ketchup?

So we got served these potato chips with a ketchup which read Heinz. Lets say I don’t care a dime whether I am eating a Heinz OR a Kellog’s for my breakfast till the time I am liking what I am consuming. I mean just by naming my restaurant (if I open one) Mc Paritosh OR Mc Whatever will I become a super duper hit? I have this craving for a good coffee badly, Starbucks, does it tops the first thought on my mind, to be honest NO. Starbucks as a name is a no-name when it comes to coffee. Does it sound like one to you?

LG, Samsung, Honda, Maruti how do they sound like a car? Do you hear engines revving up in your ears the moment you hear these names?

I am certain about something, these names don’t drive me to buy them!

Source: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mO7qCYLnaTc/TZmsjWR-4iI/AAAAAAAACAA/B6KGupGPA98/s1600/halls%2Bapril%2Bfools.png

I believe spending those crucial multi million dollars on creating that ohh so amazing Brand Name is all a bogus concept. Well, yes! those ohh so cool, award winning at Cannes branding majors might disagree with me. But then they have to, isn’t it? The bread and butter comes from there!

What’s my take on this?

  • Its simple (not the way Ranbir Kapoor makes it dumb in his Docomo Ads). Its simple in the way that, people buy what gives them performance. So whether it is normal petrol OR some buster muster premium petrol, if my car gives me the best performance with normal, I am okay with calling normal as normal and buying it.
  • Brand Logo’s: I learnt this lesson from my 3 year old nephew. He bought this helicopter with a remote control but what appealed to him was not the branding which came with it and not the colors, but he got excited when he saw how fast and high the helicopter actually flew.

In my view what in reality leaves a strong recall with your consumer is your product/ service. If you are in the services industry you ought to understand the experience which your customers derive from your service. The experience is what drives him to ‘choose to buy you again’. If you are a product business then, making a Kareena bath in a bathtub with lots of soap on will not sell your soap. that’s DUMB. Your product must in all manner fulfill the promises you are making with your customers.

And the beer ended: the result

While we ended with the binging, we both (had to) agree with each other (he he) that brands must invest in places where it counts for the customer and in creating an experience. Yes, you can always be a Godrej basking in the glory of the brand re-organization drive which says that their brand is valued at a few billion dollars (I need to check the number again). But lets keep it at bay for now.

I Need to Hear to Be Alive

May 18th, 2011 § 2 comments § permalink

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 :P

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!

source: http://fightclublife.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/blind-cartoon.jpg

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 Youth Marketing Power Panel by TiE Delhi- NCR on 13th May, Not to be Missed

May 5th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

The Youth! Yes! that’s what this one is all about. The Youth Marketing Power Panel by TiE Delhi- NCR was recently announced and has already started garnering some good response from all quarters.

Another event on marketing: NO

This one comes with a difference (as they all say, but this one does). For records, there is a Taxi Driver from Varanasi as one of the awaited speakers and I am not kidding about it. I have confirmed news from many in-house sources :)

And not just that, though this is not a public news, some of the Power Panel speakers, I have gotten to know about are major names in the Industry and have proven their might with innovative products and service offerings which have powerfully engaged the Indian Youth.

The news of the event is all around on the TiE Delhi- NCR Official website, facebook, Linkedin and twitter and its buzzing with action on all accounts.

Where is the event and How do I register?

The event is to be held on 13th may 2011 at the PHD Chambers of Commerce, August Kranti Marg, Hauz Khas, New Delhi. Registration is simple, all you need is to click on this link: REGISTER HERE! Currently the only mode of registration for the event is through online payment.

Would I get to network?

Another one of those internally confirmed news that I keep getting, the event will host the one of its kinds, speed member mixer, wherein you will be allowed to meet the panelists one on one with a 30 second pitch of your business. Who knows you might just crack the lucky pot!

Can I see who all are coming to the event?

This is a public news, so I can surely say, yes you can. All you got to do is, become the part of India’s largest entrepreneurial network called: Entrepreneurs-Ship, where you have to RSVP for the event and once done, you will be able to see who all are coming to the event and hence pre-network with them!!

So, REGISTER NOW, as I know for sure, only a few seats are left!

Delhi Rountable of Techsparks by YourStory on 7th May

May 5th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

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:

See you there!!

Deadlocks in Life and How to Overcome Them

May 3rd, 2011 § 1 comment § permalink

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

Releasing the Bollywood Flick During Cricket World Cup: that’s Called a Content Driven Bold Move: a View on Tanu Weds Manu

February 25th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

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:

The Official website: http://tanuwedsmanu.com/ (due to flash content, the site may load slowly)

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:

Choose to Be and You Will Take Powerful Decisions in Life: The Day I Faced It

February 22nd, 2011 § 2 comments § permalink

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’ :P

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.

The Future of Social Media is In-house

February 21st, 2011 § 1 comment § permalink

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!

Did you Marry the Right Person: A Co-founding Experience

February 7th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

A recent post I contributed to the IndiaMART Knowledge Services Blog:

The business needs more minds on board: lets get Co-founders

At the start-up stages of a business, while it all starts with the passion and dream of either an individual or a team of friends/ common connects together, who are committed to adding value by creating services/ products for addressing the market needs.

Two to tango: look around

Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, all these major businesses have been built by two or more partners. There is a certain chemistry that works wonders for a growing venture when like-minded people come together to create an enterprise. There sure are many successful businesses, which have been created by entrepreneurs single-handedly and there will always be, but even they have felt the need for getting more people and especially those, who are smarter than them, on board to drive real value of their ventures.

Its a relay baton

Sports teach many a lessons in business. The relay race in which the baton is passed by the first runner to his/ her partner, who carries the same further to the finish line is a perfect example of an enterprise being set-up by a core team/ co-founding team.

There is a sense of strength, bonding, sharing and mutual growth in such teams which actually takes the venture further to achieve greater heights. Many a times, when an entrepreneur loses steam and feel down and out, its the real jet setting that is received by the core team sharing the same vision and dream, which gets him. her back on track! The core team is like a band of brothers which plays the same tune at all times and knows each others moves with just the look of the eye.

How is it being single?

We have seen and met many ‘single’ entrepreneurs who have expressed the need of actually getting someone on board at a senior level with them, but one of the major most challenges they face is the passion.

A major learning we received from such entrepreneurs is, finding such people is easy, who are passionate initially looking at the opportunity, but there have been instances when that passion fizzles out and the steam runs out.

Strikingly, we have also seen instances where the teams have dis-integrated post the joining of members on board who have great potential but are a cultural mis-fit to the organisation and hence not really well aligned with the growth of the enterprise.

Hence many a times people (ready to mingle) say its good and bad being Single.

Did you get your Horoscopes match?

Like in a marriage, in business, a few rules do apply. Its always good to have more people adding real value to your business in more ways than one. But you must see that your Co-founders must have the same set of values, principles, goals and vision for the business.

They must also be at least till a certain extent like minded on business issues as yourself. Its about how being a ‘Couple’ is. The chemistry quickly shows.

Lessons Learnt: A complexity increases, define the KRA’s

In the highly complex business ecosystem today much of the human reactive approach is aspirational. And aspirations may change with time and may also hence instigate a change in the behavior and needs and wants of various people. The same may also happen with the co-founding team of a business venture.

*IndiaMART Knowledge Services team has hence identified for such businesses the smart move is to quickly and clearly define KRA’s and ensure that a 100% ownership of the same is taken and well adhered to.

Finally, there are times, when marriages don’t work and its time to bid adieu

Yes, marriages are supposed to be made in heaven, but God helps those who help themselves and hence you have to work towards making a successful married life. A strong bond, a relationship forever.

Similar is the relationship which has to be worked upon amongst your Co-founders who have to really work hard in aligning themselves with the core vision of the business and place the business before self. But at times this may really not work and if its the case, keeping the business concerns alive and kicking and working towards its growth, the partners may have to look towards exiting out.

Its not easy to leave your own dream mid way, but as we have spoken to so many entrepreneurs who have been through such experiences, well, it sure will give you a huge relief which will set you activated once again to further look for challenges and create real value.

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