"A very forgetful big hearted artist" - My Friends and Me!!!
"If you win you need not explain... But if your lose you should not be there to explain"
- Adolf Hitler
"Winning doesn't mean being first, it means doing better than you've done before"
- Bonnie Blair
"If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything."
- Mark Twain
"I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious."
- Albert Einstein
"Believe Nothing,
No matter where you read it or who has said it,
not even if i have said it,
unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense"
- Budhha
“The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them.”
- Albert Einstein
"Get not your friends by bare compliments, but by giving them sensible tokens of your love."
- Socrates
“Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today.”
- Mark Twain
“Perfection is not when there is more to add, but when no more to take away”
- Antoine de Saint-Exuper
Wondering whether or not to,
Do something I'll never want to.
But the truth is that I very much do,
And about time to make or break this too...
Have you sold anything significant to a person more intelligent than yourself? Do intelligent people really take important decisions based on a sales pitch given by a lesser man?
Take for example a selling a laptop to a tech geek. Apple finds it way easier than other brands. Why? You may ask, cause Steve Jobs is seen as the very smart amongst tech circle. You don't really need to sell a Canon to a professional photographer, they believe the awesome scientist working behind to make an even more awesome product.
The outsourcing boom happened post realisation about the lack of capability of the self. This realisation was ofcourse made apparant by the all so intelligent people at helm of a BPOs to their clients. I am quite sure it would not have been acceptable to clients without the intellect behind the sales pitch.
So all one needs to become a perfect salesman is be the most intelligent man in the world. An Einstein probably... Imagine selling Relativity to the world without the intellect behind it.
Its been a long time coming,
Breaking this almost never ending.
Yet I'll not be done this time too,
My heart keeps pumping blood in many hues...
Pune has a Barcamp this weekend – on Saturday, 14th November, from 10am to 5pm, at SCIT, Hinjewadi.
What are the common problems that companies face in branding?
The temptation is to make too complex a brand statement which confuses the marketplace. A major error in brand formation is saying too much. Simplicity is key, especially in such a crowded landscape.Where do India's brands stand?
From an offshore perspective, there are only two or three highly recognizable Indian brands. Tata's Nano has captured the world's imagination, while the world isn't as aware of any of the other things that Tata provides. It's ironic that a car, a tiny part of their business, has been the sub-brand that the world is aware of. As far as companies abroad looking at India as a potential destination for good branding business, no. Not yet.What are the things Indian brands can learn from US brands?
Many things not to do, especially concerning the traditional strong-arm tactics of marketing and advertising. What the brand can do is simplify, and not be so consumed with the sense that a company's name, logo or strap line is of the utmost importance. What they can learn is that mindful, responsible, ethical conduct is the greatest attribute a brand can have. And that they will be judged by their actions, not their words.
Most new brands make the mistake of giving more importance to the company name, logo and tag line.
Like DoCoMo for example is already making people feel that its a very people friendly brand without spending enough time in the market to make friends with the consumer.
A diary remembers all thats precious in your life,
A photograph makes old memories ripe,
A song brings that gone moment alive,
A dream is to live it one more time...
This was my first attempt of photographing Diwali Fireworks. I had just got my Canon EOS 30 back in 2003. Was up all night taking a lot of snaps, very few turned out well. Presenting one of those few...
Happy Diwali to everyone.I remember the incident - I was in a restaurant, and one girl in our group was especially charming. So I, like any other male, tried to put on a wooing act. You know the routine, a nanosecond extra eye contact, a few more nods to whatever she says, and attempts to throw in those one-liners which you know you wouldn’t if she weren’t there. And it seemed to be working. She leaned forward when she spoke to me, and every now and again, we’d have a small conversation of our own, separate from our group. She laughed at my approach with the fork and knife, and I teased her about her hair band, which had little teddy bears.
Yes, we were flirting. A while later, she asked me the question - what did I study? I said engineering, without any particular meaning attached to it. And then like a cold metal rail, she went stiff. My jokes weren’t funny any more. Her eyes wandered to everyone else. What was it?
Japanese save a lot. They do not spend much. Also Japan exports far more than it imports. Has an annual trade surplus of over $100 billions, that is Rs. 5 lakh crores. Yet Japanese economy is considered weak, even collapsing. Americans spend, save little. Also US imports more than it exports. Has an annual trade deficit of over $400 billions, that is, over Rs 20 lakh crores. Yet the American economy is considered strong and trusted to get stronger. Indeed a contrast.
But where from do Americans get money to spend? They borrow from Japan, China and even India. Virtually others save the US to spend. Global savings are mostly invested in US, in dollars. India itself keeps its foreign currency assets of over $50 billions in US securities. China has sunk over $160 billions in US securities. Japan's stakes in US securities is in trillions.
Result. The US has taken over $5 trillions from the world. Want to know it in rupees? Rs 2,50,000 crore crossed. So as the world saves for US; Americans spend freely. Today, to keep the US consumption going that is for the US economy work, other countries have to remit $180 billions every quarter, that is, $2 billions a day, to US$. Otherwise the US economy would go for a six. So will be the global economy. The result will be no different if US consumers begin consuming less.
A Chinese economist asked a neat question. Who has invested more, US in China or, China in US? The US has invested in China less than half of what China has invested in US. The same is the case with us. We have invested in US over $50 billions. But the US has invested less than $20 billions in India.
Why the world is after US? The secret lies in the American spend, in that they hardly save. In fact they use their credit cards to spend their future income. That the US spends is what makes US attractive to the world to export to US. So, US imports more than it exports year after year.
The result. The world is dependent on US consumption for its growth. By its deepening culture of consumption, it has habituated the world to feed on its consumption. But as it needs money to finance its consumption, the world provides the money. It is like a shopkeeper providing money to a customer so that the customer keeps buying from the shop. The customer will not buy, the shop will have not business, unless the shopkeeper funds him. The US is like the lucky customer. And the world is like the helpless shopkeeper-financier.
Who is America's biggest shopkeeper financier? Japan. Yet it is Japan, which regarded as weak. Modern economist complain that Japanese do not spend, so they do not grow. To force them spend, the Japanese government exerted. Reduced the saving rates, even charged the savers. Even then the Japanese did not spend. Their traditional postal savings alone is over $2.2 billions. That is, Rs 60 lakh crores, about 8 times the GDP of India. Thus savings, far from being the strength of Japan, has become its pain.
What is the lesson? That is, a nation cannot grow unless the people spend, not save. Not just spend, but borrow and spend. Dr. Jagdish Bhagwati, the famous India-born economist in US, told to Dr. Manmohan Singh that Indians wastefully save. Ask them to spend, he said. On imported cars and, seriously, even on cosmetics! This, he counselled, will put India on a growth curve. But like Japanese we too are not obliging.
Modernists may not, but one who has read the Mahahbharata will, know. A Rishi by name Charuvaka gave the same advice when Pandavas were around, which many modern economists are giving today. He told the people to spend and be happy. If need be by borrowing. No need to repay, if you cannot, he counselled. No sin would attach, he assured. Fortunately his advice was rejected by us thousands of years back. That is why perhaps we are alive as a nation. Our old companions are in archives today.
Now we have the very same advice. That is saving as sin and spending as virtue. This is central to neo-economists, Caution. Before you follow this neo-Charuvakas, get some fools to save so that you can borrow from them and spend after you exhaust your savings. This is what US has done in the last two decades.
Courtesy: The New Indian Express, Chennai, July 26, 2002
