Hip Hop Grannies and Generational Mash-up

One of the entities under The Futures Company is Yankelovich - a leading consumer research company that has helped marketers understand consumer values and behavior since 1958. It has also done pioneering work in 'generational marketing'!

It's pretty cool that I am now working on projects with the Yankelovich dudes and getting a hang of 'generational marketing'.

Now one of the concepts on which we are currently working has to do with generational mash-ups. The grey zone where generational values, attitudes and behaviours seem to be cohabiting.

The 'Hip Hop Grannies' from China are a good example...

Generational Mash-ups. Maybe marketers for Lifestyle brands, travel, well-being should study this space of 'generational mash-ups' to unlock new spaces!

Cool Grey/ Silver.There also is a market for cool stuff for the elderly. From spectacles and watches, to hi-end fashion, the wallet-rich elderly are good targets not just for expensive but 'expensive and cool' stuff. It's just that we seldom look at them in a mashed up way! My 65 year old father has started wearing 'shorts', is now comfortable wearing the colour 'red'(no longer just greys and khaki for him) and I think sometimes uses the word 'cool' when he speaks to Neo!!

Baba Ramdev & AOLCloser home Baba Ramdev, Shri Shri Ravi Shanker and others are already transforming the lives of the elderly. And while they aren't exactly hip-hopping, there is a sea change in their attitudes and aspirations which mainstream brands may not be tapping into.

The kapal-bhaati and anulom-vilom have energised the minds of the elderly. They might be willing to experiment more than we imagine. Mascots - Zohra Sehgal. Amitabh!

Power of TV. While one of the most powerful media of our times - TV has been chained to saas-bahu and now the reality trash, there could be a welcome space for subjects around generational mash-ups...

Every time somebody or something crosses a neat boundary or silo, interesting/ provocative things happen/ can happen...

Kreatve Inside

At my company, am a part of a 'creative committee'...Currently, we are doing an all office audit of what are some of the creative stuff we have done in the recent past... Since the entire exercise was about being and acting creative...tried making a video out of it. It hasn't come out that well though. Limitations of the video making site!

But found playing with video and images liberating. Thanks animoto.com! It also helps sell the ideas better. Planning to tool around a bit this month. Maybe start with a video for Neo's birthday, a short film(maybe) on a story I wrote a couple of years back, a creds for the Millennials study that I am working on and also some new business video conversation-starters... But first maybe a video post on 'social media fatigue':-)

Anti-boredom Dawai!

Friend of mine sent this...Cute and funny!

Sending it to my mother!!

Finally the Outliers!

Finally I bought my own copy of the Gladwell book - Outliers! I just waited endlessly for the paperback and a discount(both together). Blink had made me cautious! Just managed to read some 3 chapters in a moving car!

As with the Tipping Point,interesting observations replete with loads of stories, often repetitive to perhaps make the book fat enough for 200 pages:-)

I loved the point(in hindsight quite obvious) that he makes about the highly successful guy in any category investing in about 10,000 hours of practice compared to the not-so-successful(but equally talented) guy putting in half the number of hours...

Picked up a few quotes from the net which Gladwell Saheb has made:

1. The closer psychologists look at the careers of the gifted, the smaller the role innate talent seems to play and the bigger the role preparation seems to play!

2. When I wrote Tipping Point, my expectation was it would be read by my mom and that was it ... I had no notion I was creating a kind of public document. Now I realize I have a bit of a podium, so it seems silly to put the podium to waste.

3. At the end of the day, I'm just a journalist. I spend my time talking to people who tell me things, and then I write them down. I'm necessarily parasitic in a way. I have done well as a parasite. But I'm still a parasite.

4. People are experience rich and theory poor. My role has been to give people ways of organizing experience."

And a lot of the experts are theory rich and experience poor:-)

5. No one who can rise before dawn 360 days a year fails to make his family rich.

Well am 1 month into it(rising around dawn). Feeling rich a little...am I?

6. Hitchcock began making his best movies in his late 50s. Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, and many others did their best work very late in life. Sometimes success isn’t recognized until late in life. That’s not uncommon.

Javed Akhtar, Gulzar Saheb too!!

7. Google is the answer to the problem we didn’t have. It doesn’t tell you what’s interesting or what’s important. There’s still more in the library than there is on Google!!

So true...okay will leave it at that!

Tweet What You Eat and Other Thots

Was having an end of day quick chat an with ex-planner-colleague on twitter. She is a great user of the service, I an on-and-off user/critic/admirer:-)

And then in the morning discovered this small factoid about 'How Twitter may help you shed some extra kilos!'
Slim people worldwide are now posting their healthy food diet on 'Tweet what you eat'! Suddenly some ideas pop up in the mind on how we could use twitter(maybe they already are being used)

A ramble at the end of the day!

1. The Great India Discount Tweet. Tell where the biggest discounts are. With where it's convenient to park:-)

2. The 10pm what-movie-am-I-watching-tweet. One always keeps looking for people to do some post-movie-chat!

3. The weekend 'where-am-I-lunching-today' tweet or what's-great-on-the-menu tweet

4. The know-your-gadget-better tweet for the tech-challenged. Learning about the new gizmo one tweet at a time!

The trick I guess is to be more useful in a less and less obtrusive way

Faults of Argument and Parallel Thinking!

One of my colleagues had a great argumentative mind. He would impeccably find 'fault' with every concept and idea. And yet, having found the 'fault' in reason/concept, he would fail miserably in building something new.

As I look back at many of the professional relationships I have had in Indian advertising, am amazed at how good many of us are at finding faults in other people's arguments and how little time(in relative terms) we devote to co-creating some idea/ concept!!

In case you are interested in this line of thinking, you could browse through Edward De Bono's book - Think! Before it's too late.

De Bono says...

1. With the traditional argument or adversarial thinking each side takes a different position and then seeks to attack the other side. Each side seeks to prove that the other side is wrong. This is the type of thinking that was established by the Greek Gang of Three (Socrates, Plato and Aristotle) two thousand four hundred years ago.

2. Adversarial thinking completely lacks a constructive, creative or design element. It was intended only to discover the 'truth' not to build anything.

Value is never really created by only the adversarial mode of thinking! You get an ego boost. That's all about it...

3. But there is another, more constructive form of thinking called 'Parallel Thinking'. With 'parallel thinking' both sides (or all parties0 are thinking in parallel in the same direction. There is co-operative and co-ordinated thinking. The direction itself can be changed in order to give a full scan of the situation. But at every moment each thinker is thinking in parallel with all the other thinkers. There does not have to be agreement. Statements or thoughts which are indeed contradictory are not argued out but laid down in parallel.In the final stage the way forward is 'designed' from the parallel thought that have been laid out.

4. A simple and practical way of carrying out 'parallel thinking' is the Six Thinking Hats method which is now being used widely around the world both because it speeds up thinking and also because it is so much more constructive than traditional argument thinking.

5. As you may already know, the "Six Thinking Hats" is a powerful technique that helps you look at important decisions from a number of different perspectives.

While we all know these things, rarely do we put them into practice! The different hats and what they stand for are here...Am meeting a friend for some idea-generation for his new venture, so let me wear the yellow(positivity) and green(creative) hats and meet him...cheers

50 Things That Are Being Killed By The Internet

We the technology-awed populace always view all technology as being better, faster and taking us to a better place. The internet seems like no exception. Yet, every new technology also takes away something...

Stumbled upon this interesting article 50 Things That Are Being Killed By the Internet at PSFK. Have a read...

Gleanings enmeshed with my thots on some of them...

1. Punctuality. Before mobile phones, people actually had to keep their appointments and turn up for lunch on time. Texting friends to warn them of your tardiness five minutes before you are due to meet has become one of throwaway rudeness of the connected age.

This is going to be a huge conflict area between generations. My father runs his life by the hour, I am far more comfortable keeping things fluid all the time!

2. Memory. When almost any fact, no matter how obscure, can be dug up within seconds through Google and Wikipedia, there is less value attached to the "mere" storage and retrieval of knowledge. What becomes important is how you use it – the internet age rewards creativity.

Today, if you have a story, the facts and the props are available for free on the net. However, as an agency planner and now a trends and futures consultant, I find this aspect liberating!

3. Dead time. When was the last time you spent an hour mulling the world out a window, or rereading a favourite book? The internet's draw on our attention is relentless and increasingly difficult to resist.

All former dead-time is now pottering time - twitter, flickr, youtube, fb, sms, mobile chat, gtalk...And we are more busy than ever before, our reflection time has dropped to an all time low!

Just because the pipe of our conversations is broader and the flow 24X7 hasn't guaranteed that better stuff is flowing through those pipes. Although, the more plugged you are, the more you can scan the global brain for ideas and inspiration.

4. Mainstream media. While in India, print might be growing and TV getting higher TRPs, for some of us mainstream media has been quietly marginalised over the last few years.

- We don't miss the week-night news. In fact haven't watched the weekly bulletin which were so much a part of life a decade back.

- Right now we are consuming a mash-up of mainstream media and new media. This may be the intermediate step before some of us totally migrate to newer forms of digital media(personalised, customised, on-demand)Already, in the Western markets, free news and the migration of advertising to the web threaten the basic business models of almost all media organisations.

Mental post-it : What else is being killed by the internet, new media? Isn't it an interesting thought to stay with for a while...

Brand New From Bagchi

Just ordered the new book by Subroto Bagchi- The Professional on flipkart.com. Triggered by reading an ET interview of Subroto - How do you align knowledge with customer needs? Bagchi says - There are three layers of knowledge - technical, experiential and existential.

Most Indian firms and professionals are very good in technical skills. You are given a set of specifications and you deliver the best project, but that’s about it.

However, if you look at what Nissan did years ago while exploring to enter the European markets, they were focused upon the experiential aspect of knowledge. Nissan sent some 200 engineers to Europe with each driving almost 2,500 kilometers across different roads to understand what it takes to be a motorist in Europe. The engineers came back and then defined a design. This is like stepping into the shoes of your customer.

But this is not all. You also need to get into the mind of your customer, which is all about existential knowledge. Companies such as Sony and even Narayana Hridayalaya are great examples of such companies. Since each of these knowledge layers is separated by a glass ceiling, we need to break free.

Looking forward to reading the book...

Thums Down!

Thums Up 'Got It' from Campaign India on Vimeo.

This post had been languishing in the draft mode for a while now. Am talking about the now-not-so-new Thums Up TVC.

As a fan of the drink(surprisingly a very infrequent drinker) and it's commercials over time, I found this new departure from the usual action-packed thrill quite uncalled for.

Unconvincingly elucidated by the team behind it on afaqs and campaignindia, I failed to see what's so excitingly different.

Akshay doesn't quite know whether he has to play the action hero or the comic man. The battered BMW with billowing smoke is a total waste even on the 36in LCD! The orgasmic oohs and aahs after every sip of TU is quite irritating. The extras in the story all need lessons in acting...I can imagine Akshay laughing all the way to the bank without performing any stunts...

While the promise of showing - 'Action in the imagination' might look appealing on paper/ power-point, this rendition is a dud!

Hope the next ad brings the action back. Guys I want to see the action. People love carbonated sugared water brands only for the action and imagery(at least I do). Don't believe what a few morons say in an FGD sitting in a dark b-grade hotel room:-) And I feel so strongly because TU is amongst those rare Indian brands that we have managed to build and consistently sustain over the years .

It's so easy to mess with what you have and take it to 'the next level'. The really difficult task is to stay exactly where you are and yet have engaging stories to tell time and again!

Why we don't have iconic youth brands?

Pi-shaped Talent

As I wade through the workplace, transitioning from agency planning work to consultant work there are interesting shifts that are taking place in the sort of work that I do. And also in the way that work happens. More complex work - with a fine balance of 'analysis', 'logic', 'creativity' and 'ambiguity'. Geographically spread out work. Talent hot groups. Being a part of many such groups at the same time...Some you lead; in some you learn. In most you collaborate and build upon each others work. Multi-tasking, learning, forgetting...

And all this work requires a very different sort of talent than needed in the past! Eduardo Braniff in this Adage.com article describes beautifully these pi-shaped talent that's needed in this creative collaborative economy.

Pi, the Greek letter, describes talent that is broad in its interests and expert in two areas, if not more. As a decimal representation, pi never ends or repeats which, when used to describe talent, means no two "pi talents" are alike. And, as a circular constant, it is inherently about well-rounded talent. Though a constant mathematically, the only thing constant about "pi talent" is the rate at which their attention changes and ambitions evolve.

Excellent article. Do read it and share view-points...

What's age got to do with it?

In the afternoon today, I got a full primer on PlayStation from Neo(age 6)(who lectures me regularly on mobile and video games, thinks am way behind on the learning curve...) and then a lil later my father(age 65) wanted me to help him install skype!! My younger brother is quite a blogger and a web 2.0 expert!! Quite a digital savvy family balanced only by the combined tech-unsavviness of my mother and mil:-)

As the Internet turns 40, our one preoccupation that all technology products and services will only have the youth as early adopters, practitioners and evangelists will be put to test regularly...Just when I was mulling over these thoughts over a crazily busy fortnite, my planner buddy Meraj sent me this NYT link - Who’s Driving Twitter’s Popularity? Not Teens. Worth a read and some reflection...

Archiving some nuggets from the article..

1. Surprisingly(actually not so surprisingly, if you pause to reflect) many teens in the US(do we have data for India as well?) are not that heavy users of twitter. As one of them says - "I just think it’s weird and I don’t feel like everyone needs to know what I’m doing every second of my life". Well am not teen by a wide margin but have similar thoughts about twitter...

2. Though teenagers fueled the early growth of social networks, today they account for just 14% of MySpace’s users and only 9% of Facebook’s. As the Web grows up, so do its users. The notion that children are essential to a new technology’s success is now proving to be largely a myth.

3. Adults have driven the growth of many perennially popular Web services. YouTube attracted young adults and then senior citizens before teenagers piled on. Blogger’s early user base was adults and LinkedIn has built a successful social network with professionals as its target.

If I look around at my digital habits and behaviour and many of my friends, the digital adoption curve doesn't always co-relate to our age in some simple linear fashion...On the other hand, India will be different because we are crazily young in age and outlook(as far as statistics go).

On another note, this reminds me of my interview with Javed Akhtar in Bombay when he brushed aside all this fanatical obsession of marketers with youth - "Aap logon ne youth ko hauaa bana rakha hai. Youth ko yeh chahiye, youth ko woh chahiye. Arrey saheb, youth ko toh khud he nahin pata ki usko kya chahiye:-)"

A trip to Chanderi

Few days back, I spent a day in the sleepy 'kasba' of Chanderi in Madhya Pradesh. A 'kasba' famous for it's 'Chanderi sarees'. It also has lot of Rajput and Mughal architecture. It's the birthplace of Sangeet Samrath - Baiju Bawra (1542-1613) a dhrupad singer. and the court musician of Raja Mansingh of Gwalher...It was nice ,this journey back in time...

My Son's Father : 5 Things I Re-Learnt From Neo

I was a bit apprehensive how my son, Neo would adjust to this city shift - Bombay to Delhi. He took less than 24 hours!! Children are that adaptive...I have tried to spend more time with him these last two months...It's amazing how you can learn/ unlearn/ re-learn tons of stuff from your kids. In their innocence and curiosity they often make profound comments and observations....Here's what I picked-up!

1. Look beneath/ look around. I remember it was one of the first few weeks in our Gurgaon house, he ran upto me to show something, Dragged me to the 'backyard' and asked me to look at 'the thing'. With my well trained planner eyes I kept searching for 'a thing' a 'big physical thing' while Neo wanted me to show how tall the grass had grown!!

He often stops me and shows me an unusual flower, the full moon, a bird on the wire, ants in the bathroom...

2. Play and learn. Like all kids, he has an insatiable appetite for play. Kids want to play in the morning, while eating, while studying, before going off to sleep...In play they learn. Playing UNO, snakes and ladder, cricket, ludo and Monopoly has made me wonder how we can inject more play at work. Increasingly a lot of work that we( at least I do) is conceptual and creative. Being too serious and working like a factory shift has diminishing returns beyond a point. It's the play value at work that adds that extra bit!

3.Do you know my friends?It's important for him that my wife and I remember all his friends names(often I fail miserably)- Bombay school friends, Bombay Ashiana building friends, Gurgaon school friends, the colony friends, the school bus friends...

What I feel is in all the lip service that a lot of marketing pays the DM mailer often reads - Dear loyal customer, the call centre guy often calls up from your mobile company to find if you are a post-paid or a pre-paid customer!!

If it's a relationship you care, remembering names is important. Period.

4. M and H.The other week-end I had taken Neo to the Qutab Minar(achcha tower hai he kept on saying), he suddenly points out to some similarity he found between the Hindi letter 'mm' and the English alphabet - 'H'. I wondered why this thought never came to me.

Is it because our analytical minds have been trained to spot the differences more than focus on similarities...Kids are good at recognising patterns. And it would help if we could learn to relax our grey cells and hunt for patterns in unlikely places.

5. Deliver-what-you-promise. It's very important for Neo that I walk the talk. If you have promised a bedtime-story, it must be told. Neo would wait upto an hour with sleep-filled eyes to hear a 'Ram-aur-Shyam' story from me.

Kids I have realised can teach us an awful lot...Next time before we brush them aside - Accha chup raho, abhi tum bache ho - maybe it would make more sense to lend them a ear!

P.S. The picture is that of a 'digital drawing' that he made on my laptop:-)

Truth Well Sold(?)

I had avoided 'Sach Ka Samna' by default till I was caught in the cross-fire of a water-cooler conversation at office and therefore decided to watch a few episodes. And I was hooked onto the show for the next 2 nights...

As NYT described it's original Fox US avatar -'Moment of Truth' - this is indeed a cash-prize competition that is neither a game of chance nor a test of knowledge. It’s a pseudo-psychological trial by ordeal in which the contestants trade candor for money.

1. Of course the show has rocked the parliament and the MPs have made high decibel noises and sung the familiar - hamari sanskriti, hamara samaj' song. I guess the film-maker and nominated MP Shyam babu(Benegal) made the more sensible comment -

“Sach ka Saamna is demeaning to human beings and obviously has high TRPs. It is like someone stripping publicly to get paid for it, spectating in these cases is involuntary, like pornography it is demeaning to your own sense of self-esteem. When an act is in private it is different but TV is a social medium watched by public at large and 90% of it is about family viewing.

However, government must have no serious role in this, we need to create a self-regulatory body of channels with equal number of people from the civil society, TV industry and the casting vote should rest with civil society,” he said.

2. I quite agree with the 'personal pornography' part of it. I mean in the 3 episodes that I watched, the cross-dresser(Bobby Darling), a middle class HW(who it appeared as if she came prepared to dump her husband on national TV) and a UTD(uncle trying to be dude) who owned up to being unfaithful to his wife and in the process lost all the moolah as well - seemingly normal people were hell-bent on stripping themselves on national TV and on 2/3 of the cases got zero money for all their 'reveal'!

3. The way the questions get tougher and 'nosier', no sane guy can ever reach the booty of 1 cr without losing his/her spouse, alienating most of his/her family...I would love to know the actual motivation of the studio participants or maybe I am just too old fashioned for these reality-shows...

4. Dressing up. All game shows are by definition mercenary, but producers go to great lengths to try to dress up contestants’ greed as altruism(that's the facade that the public loves).

A man wants the money to buy his wife the diamond engagement ring he could never afford. A young woman wants to help her ailing mother buy a home.

These shows also use loving-wives, aging parents and smiling-siblings as advisers or cheerleaders to add some human warmth and humor to a prosaic and dumb contest.

5. No matter how profound Rajeev Khandelwal tries to act(in his new hair-cut that makes him look more like Apurva Agnihotri) and bandies casually - Yeh hai 'Agni ka hawan kund', 'aapki agni pariksha' and other such lofty pronouncements...SKS is plain crass American programming at it’s best.

This made-for-TV-and-TRP show is junk, voyeuristic, highly manipulative and addictive. Like a cheap porn mag, it’s good for limited use but eventually ‘people like us’ would drop out or so I think:-)

Already after a diet of 2 episodes on TV and another 2 on youtube, I think I know what the fare will be...Evenings are too precious to be squandered on people’s dirty linen washed in the national bathroom!

The danger is not what SKS does to viewers. It's a late-night show and one has the freedom to not-watch-it; the real danger is the precedent that it sets for future programming. And while Mr. Benegal thinks that our TRP obsessed TV channels are capable of self-regulation, I seriously doubt their intentions!

Big Idea : Nano Ganesh

Had read about Nano Ganesh a couple of days back in ET. The relevance and the desire to share the story got amplified post a telecom client mtg!

It's a story about the leap-frogging India. The other India(read rural)that is also growing exponentially in technology adoption and aspiration but often doesn't feature prominently on the radar of big media!

It's a story of innovation amongst farmers in Anand’s Sojitra, a village cluster, about 30 km east of Ahmedabad. On a sleepy summer afternoon in Sojitra one Bhavesh Patel makes a game changing call from his Nokia E-75, but says nothing and hangs up. “Will it come?” asks one of the villagers. They were all eagerly waiting for water to flow into their fields from a reservoir 10 km away. Patel had just activated the pump set at the site by making the call.

The inventor of this mobile-phone enabled gadget however named it Ganesh first and them prefixed it with ‘Nano’ after Tata Motors decided to relocate its Nano factory to Sanand, near Ahmedabad.

Santosh Ostwal, the Pune-based founder of Ossian Agro Automation has developed the gadget that’s revolutionising irrigation in farms across Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Around 7,000 farmers are already using Nano Ganesh. Ostwal hopes his impending north India launch will take the number to one lakh in two years.

Ostwal is taking advantage of low mobile tariffs and handset prices. Among many of the USPs of the device are its price tag at $15 - 55 apiece, and ease of use.

The idea has its roots in Ostwal’s childhood when he spent time with his grandfather, a farmer who grew oranges. His village didn’t have a television set; even electricity was a luxury. The senior Ostwal had to walk deep into his orchard late at night, with a stick and a flickering oil lamp to water the trees. “He developed infections on his feet and had to lose one of his legs.

That set Ostwal thinking whether he could do something for farmers so that they wouldn’t have to walk into the fields to water the saplings or plants!

A good education helped him become an engineer and got him a job at Telco. He quit in the mid-eighties, and started working on his idea. 10 years later he had developed the 'Nano Ganesh'.

Ostwal’s simple application is already winning him accolades the world over. Nokia recognised his work at the All Innovators contest in Barcelona last year with a cash prize of $25,000 and promised to distribute his mobile application to consumers worldwide!!

Big Idea : From Jayanti Janta Express to Soleckshaw

The big breaking news on Brand Equity yesterday was the scam-ovation by Publicis. Anyone who had spare time for such inanities(and that includes me:-) would have read the article/ expose by Brand Equity written in a breathless adolescent tone!

Anyways this post is about a quiet and real innovation that I found tucked as a story in the newly launched India edition of Technology Review - the MIT's magazine on innovation!

The story was about a solar powered rickshaw - perhaps the only non-polluting commercial vehicle in India and the sole means of earning a livelihood for over 5 million people!

After 100 years of the rickshaw era, scientists at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research(CSIR) New Delhi have found a pollution-free solution to end the bane of this large population by developing the Soleckshaw.(All this rickshaw talk reminded me of the rickshaw that used to ferry me to play-school - it was branded Jayanti Janta Express branded on the train that ran between Howrah and Delhi passing through Patna!!)

Soleckshaw is driven partly by pedal and partly by electric power supplied by a battery that is charged from solar energy. The initiative has come as a small step towards improving the life of 800 million people who are living below the poverty line, including 5 mn rickshaw pullers.

Though the good ole 'autos'(driven on fossil fuel)are also an economical means of transport and used by millions, Soleckshaw with its zero carbon footprint promises cleaner environmentproviding quality of life for rickshaw-pullers without any reliance on fuel...

Hope the Soleckshaw happens. Hope it gets the requisite push by the govt. And some corporate good Samaritan also takes up the cause...

And hope the conversations in big media are a little more about game-changing innovations and a lot less about scam-ovations!!

P.S. A piece of trivia - this is the chaar sau beeswan post of Indiadrant:-)

Conversations with Consumers

Working around shifting is a moving goal post! As soon as one completes one area, a totally new one stares in your face and quietly takes the weekend away.

Last week, I attended many FGDs for a client project. While I am not an ardent admirer of this research tool, a lot of our insights are mined this way. Was giving some tips to my junior. Sharing the same...They are not in any particular order/ emphasis.

1. Capture more verbatims(as many as possible) - the actual consumer quotes. There are two purposes it serves.
(a) it's more evocative /rich/ has a nuance which may have been overlooked earlier
(b)it helps you later to weave a better narrative...

(Remember the first notes are like an FIR. Just write all the stuff, don't analyse at this stage or try to give structure to the discussion/ thoughts.)

2. Even before one enters into a GD as observer/ moderator, it's important to have a POV. Don't be rigid on your point of view(POV) but ask questions to vet it/ or drop it.

3. Compare stuff - with what you know before the FGD and what gets said during the FGD. I believe research is a dynamic, on-going conversation which we must have with consumers/ people. Also they are just 6-8 normal people in the room. You don't have to treat their word as gospel. They are capable of lying, speaking rubbish, rant because they are bored...Over time, one learns to separate the wheat from the chaff!!

4. The Importance of the Deviant/ Stray Comment
- Never underestimate the importance of the small comments, stray comments. They can lead you to places your original discussion guide couldn't have/ never intended!

5. Stories
Capture real life stories as vividly as possible. They are rare. They are true. They often are stranger than fiction...They give you a glimpse into the shifts and the drifts as nothing else can.

Then later during the analysis phase try to find out what - the motivations were
- Why they recounted those stories.
- Any hidden/ deeper meaning.
- What could a brand/ your brand learn from that story.

Good researchers and planners are story collectors and raconteurs!!
Keep mulling over the thoughts. Reflection when the FGD is done is very important. Research(any research) is not a power-point to be made, presented and archived...It's an on-going conversation with the consumer and with oneself!!

Osianama and gymming the mind

Just came out of a four hour brainstorm with a friend. Am helping him start a new creative venture! It has been a serious Sunday so far:-) But starting this week am signing a no-work-on-Sunday bond with myself and then stick to it...Had bookmarked this interview of Neville Tuli yesterday in ET where he was discussing this art show Jashn Osianama in the capital! You may want to browse through the interview here!

Jashn-Osianama — is Tuli’s curating effort and is a new festival for the visual arts which juxtaposes, some of the world’s most refined, subtle and expensive art works with simple artifacts of popular culture; with Japanese Samurai art, Tibetan Thangkas, Rajasthani and Pahari miniatures, vintage world film memorabilia, political propaganda, magic memorabilia, antiquarian and modern photography put alongside modern and contemporary art from the Indian sub-continent.

Most of the stuff that Neville talked I found very interesting. Sharing it with shards of my random thoughts.

1. He focussed on the need to create an 'art space' which everyone feels “is ours”. Intellectual intimidation should not be to a point of making people feel insecure about even entering a space where art is on display.

For a generation which is almost lost in the labyrinth of malls and commercial space, it may not be a relevant question:-) but I guess some body's got to think of the museums and not just the malls!

2. Creativity is a birthright and is a part of every mind but it takes a little effort to trigger this creativity? Viewing opportunities, where prior knowledge is definitely not a pre-requisite are critical. Once that opportunity is grasped, people will slowly begin to realise that a visual is like a piece of text, it needs to be read because it has its own grammar and language. This reading requires learning and education. Since visual is not text and is therefore not equated to knowledge they become an easier form to seduce a newcomer into the art space

It's a fine point. I think I have refrained from entering art spaces on many a occasion because of this intimidation that Neville talks about. That and the self created expectation and pressure of prior knowledge!

3. Tuli believes there is an urgent need to build new institutions to occupy the energy of people, to ensure that their families participate, so that there is no numbing of minds, give opportunities to occupy the mind which is a muscle after all and if not exercised will rust. “There is so much boredom in daily Indian life, edutainment is the new ‘fashion’ word across the world but India has not even begun this process. Right now what is the choice you have? Kambakkht Ishq?

And perhaps we need it the most in 'Kambakkht Gurgaon' where the malls and the 'firang sounding' towers and the ubiquitous theka do not leave any/much space for art spaces for the community!

Bye Bye Mumbai, Hello Delhi

After 6 years of a sort of dream stint in Mumbai, last week I packed my life and belongings in 105 cartons and headed north to Dilli!!

It's been a busy week settling down in Delhi(actually Gurgaon)! One needs planning skills of a different kind getting a new home started...Finally this evening I am connected to the web again thanks to Airtel broadband.

Trying to catch up with the world having missed much of the debate and action around Cannes, the run-up to the budget and Wimbledon!!

While I chug back into the blogosphere, read a nice post recommended by blog-buddy Neil Perkin on Creative Paralysis by Dave Trott. I love collecting stories like this in my head. Here it is...

When Bill Shankly(one of Britain's most successful and respected football managers)managed Liverpool he had a very gifted young striker playing for him. This young star worked hard, trained hard, and studied the game.

In one particular high-pressure match he found himself with the ball at his feet and only the goalkeeper to beat.

He thought about everything he’d learned.

Should he wrong-foot the keeper and go round him?

Should he bend the ball around the keeper into the top corner?

Should he try a power shot and hope the keeper can’t hold it?

Should he hold up the ball so he could lay it off to someone in a better position?

While he hesitated a defender took the ball off him and booted it upfield to the other end of the pitch.

When the young striker eventually came off the pitch, Shankly asked him what had happened.

The striker said he’d been trying to pick his best option.

Shankley said, “Look son, if you ever find yourself with the ball at your feet and just the goalie to beat, stick it in the net and we’ll discuss all your options afterwards.”

I often think advertising is like that.

We’ve got young copywriters and art director getting confused by concentrating on complicated things that aren’t their job.

So they can’t do the simple job they should be doing.

Instead they spend all their time thinking about brand theory, new media, cultural memes, and social latency.

Now maybe brand theory and the all rest has some relevance for planners.

But that’s their role in the team, not ours.

It’s our job to stick the ball in the net.

And that’s simple, or it’s nothing.

Now, I don't follow football at all and I have recently left advertising, but loved this story for it's simple and powerful lesson...

Looking forward to Monday and the start of a new and exciting journey! Must rummage through my notes for some other post ideas.
Neo's Ben 10 overlooks our packed samaan:-)And while I hardly drove my old war-horse Lancer, felt nostalgic about selling it off:-( I was particularly fond of its blue-green-silver colour and the front grille. I don't know why I am sharing it, but I guess it was important to say it one last time! And our new home...actually a small independent house in Gurgaon, quietly redefining my Bombay sense of space!

Big Idea - Green Livelihoods

It's been a hectic fortnight. Looking for a flat/ house in Gurgaon. Sometimes you can be spoilt for choice:-)

At the airport, leafing through the latest Outlook Money with the cover story on 30 businesses under Rs. 5 lacs, stumbled upon this innovative 'green company' Bamboo House India!

Bamboo House India, a social enterprise, started by two First Generation Entrepreneurs, Aruna Kappagantula & Prashant Lingam in 2008 aims to use Bamboo as an economic driver for providing sustainable livelihood opportunities to rural & tribal artisans in the Bamboo sector through market linkages.

BHI is striving to create a chain of bamboo showrooms across the country which shall promote & market all bamboo based products under one roof starting from Bamboo pens to Bamboo Housing Structures!
Do check out their products here!

Their vision is to create a long term sustainable non-migratory business model for rural and tribal artisans in the Bamboo sector by using locally available raw material i.e. bamboo and develop contemporary life style products to suit the market tastes and demand rather than being consigned to age old basketry items.

I am trying to get in touch with Aruna and Prashant. Starting this month, I plan to devote 10-15% of my time to support, help market and evangelise such efforts. In case you know of any social-enterprise that is in need of marketing, strategy, branding, design support, please direct them to me. I would be happy to help them!

Wish BHI best of luck in their innovative and sincere effort to create green livelihoods!

Jonathan iVe - design sutras

Read this piece on the world's 100 most creative people on fastcompay.com on my feed-reader! Perhaps predictably the fabled Apple design head Jonathan iVe tops this list.

This week as I slip into a new job and a project on the Millenials, for some strange reason, I am pulled towards design and design related thots.

Few design sutras from the article gleaned from Jon's profile.

1. Design According to Ive - "There's an applied style of being minimal and simple, and then there's real simplicity. This looks simple, because it really is." (Wired)

2. Referring to the Apple design team - "The memory of how we work will endure beyond the products of our work." (Interview for Design Museum,2003)

3. "Very often design is the most immediate and explicit way of defining what products become in people's minds." (Interview for BBC, 2002)

This is such a profound revelation. Often in most agencies, planners(me-in-the-immediate-past included) waste a lot many hours unlocking the meaning of the brand only to discover that the design maybe at variance with the meaning. More frightfully, the design and the brand communication happen in separate silos. Brand communicators and the design guys are frequently not in sync with each other.

4. "With technology, the function is much more abstract to users, so the product's meaning is almost entirely defined by the designer."

And it's so strange and sad that product design in many companies is totally delinked from marketing's hunt for meaning.

5. "Something like the iPod is a melding of design and user experience and marketing and pop culture, and you don't achieve that without coordination throughout the company. And for that you need a CEO who gets it."

Mental note - Must catch more of iVe's interviews on the www.

iShift

I was planning to hold this post till sunday night when I would have blogged my departure from Mudra/ Tribal DDB.(Not that 48 hrs makes much difference:-) But since DigitalMedia already got wind here...here are the details!

Sometimes, mid-way through a job, your role starts mutating in a way which may not be to your liking! So, I decided to hang my digital boots which were getting a bit sooted(I hope there is a word like that) with analog dust.

I am joining The Futures Company as Principal Consultant. The Futures Company has been formed by the coming together of Henley Centre HeadlightVision and Yankelovich. This WPP entity is a pretty cool global trends, futures research and consultancy company. Got offices in the US, UK and India!

And am shifting base to Delhi/ Gurgaon. Will start the Delhi innings from July 1st week.

The blog stays, the rants stay...even though I may not be privy to agency insider information:-) Banking on my small group of friends inside agencies. And while I don this new hat of a consultant, I think I will remain an account planner(in spirit). The hats are quite interchangeable!

Room 16

Have been away in 43deg heat of Delhi and then the much cooler environs of Bangalore over the past two weeks...Away from the keyboard and therefore Room 16 has had to wait!

Essentially, it was a chance comment from a young friend of mine at BBH India that has led to this post. Apparently, BBH internationally has a day when John(Hegarty) and Simon (Sherwood) meet the youngsters in the agency and discuss the business, the future, trends, technology, life and more...

It's the day when grey hair learns from young grey matter. In fact at RMG(David) Josy, Kumar and I regularly used to interact with young students(mostly from Xaviers) and used to discuss new business pitches, difficult campaigns and other stuff...

All of 'us' learnt a lot from 'them'. I remember using our David play-school to crack the Flying Machine and Excalibur campaigns and even a couple of new business pitches.

At the rate at which technology is changing and stuff is happening around us, it now pays even more to learn from the 21 and the 16 year olds. And therefore Room 16 or 21 is a must for the Rooms 36, 46 and 56...

So what are the thumb rules for interacting with Room 16/21.

1. Experience needs to learn a lot from curiosity and play. Today the flow of knowledge between experience and the inexperienced can almost be the same. Agencies can learn a lot from a formal Room 16 day! Unfortunately the sr. management at many agencies at most times is insulated from the Room 16/21 guys!

2. It's okay for Room 36/46/56 to admit "I don't know!" Can you teach me? At work I continue to learn a lot from junior planners and young students. Young bloggers and designers. Often they are more connected. They come across more 'cool stuff'. They are invariably closer to the 'edge', the stuff at the periphery!!

3. Access to Room 16 is not restricted to a room. Even if one is running a very small agency, today one can connect with Room 16 virtually. Room 16 is available on gmail, fb, linkedin...It just needs an honest ear and some patience...

4. Room 16 Yellow pages. The folks in HR must have a sort of yellow pages for the diverse and invaluable talent of the Room 16 to 21 guys. Imagine the gains that the company can make if it taps into this for client projects and more. And believe me it is not a very costly affair to manage this! But of course it costs a lot of time and precious attention.

5. Room 16 are digital natives. This fact alone makes interacting with them a big plus for Room 36 and beyond. In fact recently I got sound advice from Room 6( my son Neo) who proudly stated that - "Papa ko toh computer game khelne ke liye kitaab padhna padta hai, lekin humko toh khelne se hi pata chal jaata hai!!"

While I was putting this post, read this article by Rishad Tobacowala in Brand Equity today. Do read it here if you haven't already!

Rishad makes a couple of very important points.(Putting him almost at the top of my growing interview list)
(a) (the Room 16/21 guys)are highly energetic, motivated, and driven individuals who are creative, accountable and hungry to learn and they have very high standards they hold themselves to.

They want the answer to three questions on any assignment.
Q1. What are we hoping to achieve?

Q2. Is there a better or cheaper way to get the same outcome?

And Q3. How can results, outcomes and they themselves get better? Answering these with a) because we have always done it this way, or b) we cannot do it that way because that is too much work and will change our business or c) the boss says so, are not considered answers worth considering.

(b) Provide access to information and tools.The Room 16/21 guys can access information and opinion with one click on their web browser or phone in their personal lives and they expect this open access to information and empowering tools at work. Anything that slows down or anyone that hoards is resented while those that provide access are celebrated.

(c) Run the workplace in some ways as a model University. There is a reason that more and more companies call their physical locations “campuses”.

This is because in many ways an ideal workplace for the Room 16 generation represents a continuation of their University days. It is a place for them to continue to learn, to contribute and to grow. And like any great University they want access to superb facilities, good mentors and teachers and strong fellow students.

In school the end result may have been grades, passing examinations, dissertations and learning. While at work it is revenue, profits, new products, patents and more. They want an environment that is challenging but also one where they can challenge the status quo.

The Room 16 generation thinks differently, behaves differently and has already started to demand big changes in the way society, business and individuals interact. Is your company/ agency prepared for the Room 16 generation? Is mine:-)

How many 16 year olds do you know/ understand? How many do I know/ understand!!!

Kuch Aur ZooZoo...

My friend Reshma sent me these making of the ZooZoo pix and Shubho wrote a note on the Zoozoos on fb which triggered some more zoozoo-istic thots!

- Conversations once started have a life of their own. You can't CONTROL them anymore...You can only(maybe) guide their course. You can't own the beta tape of the conversation. Nobody can...

- The more content you give-away, the more they get used, recycled/ threaded back/ enmeshed into the conversation. Here we need to think like Bollywood. The trivia around the actors/ stars, the shooting, the making of the ZooZoo DVD all become a part of the conversation.

- But why the hell would a brand(in this case Vodafone) with stuff to sell and a life beyond this one campaign to be lived invest so much thought into sth which would have a short shelf life in the larger scheme of things?

- Maybe in this converged increasingly digital-at-the-upper-crust era, there is space for small ancillary companies that can make a living out of fanning the branded conversations - the T shirt makers, the zoozoo-sodes guys, the zoozoo-phics(graphics maker), the zoozoo short films, the zoozoo games/ widgets.
It's like the ipod and it's eco-system...

- What we are witnessing is a mass ripple of adulation. Not so much for the brand but for the cute quotient of these funny characters, which can be digitally aggregated at digital hang-outs like facebook, youtube, etc. We now need companies and smart people to make use of this hanging out.

- What's the paid-for-coffee in the zoozoo barista? What's the top-up:-)

Next post - Room 16!

Sorry, Not Much Fizz!!

Read the write-up on Appy Vs. Grappo Fizz at afaqs...

Quite like the on-air TVC, the digital effort is trying a bit too hard to be cool. You can check the site here at appyvsgrappo.com! (BTW, my friend Russell tells me it should have been Grappy and not Grappo; somewhere the sound of Grappo is not quite right and I agree with him)

I find it has a done-in48hrs-to-add-onto-mere-pass-bhi-digital-hai kind of feel! Creating engaging digital content requires far greater thought and craft skills...Or perhaps I am a bit too harsh on the effort.

While on the subject, stumbled upon this raging debate on the BBH Labs site - Why isn’t there more great work in the interactive space? and a response post by Tim Malbon - How to be Better at Digital or Interactive or New Media or WhateverTF it's called here...

New Heads for New Hats

Read this post on New Roles in Advertising at Scott Goodson's blog...Am reproducing the 'new heads' with a few comments of mine...

Digital Presence Strategist
This person is a hybrid web strategist with curiosity about new technologies and a familiarity with mobility applications. This is not a media strategist or a technologist.

I have played this role to some extent at Tribal. But then again, a lot more can be done. A lot more conversations need to happen between the agencies and the technology companies. The tech companies are ready and raring to go, the agencies are sadly not...

Let me add the hat of Synthesizer to the list- Last Sunday, was having a chat with my friend Josy(Paul) over breakfast and I did share with him this need for a synthesizer. This guy, has to be a creative strategist who has this ability to both look at things from a helicopter view and also should be able to handle the micro details. But most importantly, he can synthesize the brand idea, the social/ cultural environment and the available new technology to create impactful communication and to engage people. Synthesis skills perhaps need to replace/ augment the traditional planning skills.

Idearator
This is an idea generator who has a legacy in the digital space but is broad enough to come up with ideas that live in all media. This person must play across many disciplines. This role will become increasingly important because the emphasis, the value, and the fundamental business model for agencies has shifted away from a focus predominantly on execution to a focus on ideas.

The way I look at things the art-copy team of the past will gradually get replaced by the Idearator-Synthesizer duo in the future facing agencies!! Of course, in India it's still conceptual. The creative fiefdoms at legacy agencies(and we have mostly those) will stomp the idea in the womb.

Partnership Director
Partnering with ‘best-in-class’ individuals and firms is what enables agencies like StrawberryFrog to leapfrog the traditional legacy corporate agencies. This person’s role is to continuously manage the agency’s partnerships and be able to draw on the world’s best talent, tailored to a client’s specific needs. While all agencies work with outsourced talent in some shape of form (some more openly and overtly than others who hide this fact), this is now becoming a mainstream way of working in the evolving media revolution.

I had written about 'the networking quotient' of employees here. I totally agree with Scott, just like great product/ brand ideas like the ipod evolve an eco-system of ancillary companies, ideas around itself - accessories, itunes, docking stations even massage chairs with ipod holders!! The partnership director must focus on evolving an eco-system of small and big ideas/ products/ marketing around the starting idea.

Social media-whatever
But anyone with any expertise in social media has been important for some time now, and this area of expertise will only keep growing.

I think generally the guys who can translate any piece of communication into conversation will be invaluable.

I was having lunch with Madhu Mantena, the producer of Ghajini, sometime back. And he mentioned that once the movie was ready, he and his team looked at creating a 100 conversation points for the content. And lo we had a 250cr block-buster. Maybe, folks from Bollywood, the avant-garde PR guys and people with large personal and professional networks could be tapped for this role.

Thanks Scott, once again you got me thinking...

Mere Pass ZooZoo hai!!

Amidst all the IPL hoopla, the new series of Vodafone ZooZoo ads stand out. You can read the entire story of the making, the production, the props and people involved in the campaign here at afaqs... Ads on youtube here.

Was speaking to my friend Kumar @ Ogilvy after browsing through the zoozoo fan club on facebook(it's got > 26K fans!!) a while back and then generally thought about the zoozoos...

1. Talk Value. It's a great example of awesome creatives generating a natural buzz for the brand in internet time. With the top end of the audience now digitally immersed, they are commenting on, participating in the zoozoo conversation.

Also the brand is giving back enough stuff - wallpapers, screensavers, ringtones, IPL related offers, special tag-me images, Zoozoo sounds(Zoozoo laughter and music tracks, ad previews, Twitter updates etc.

2. Stories. But is that enough? Perhaps not. Maybe there is space for an entire zoozoo world with zoozoobeings with their zoozoo antics! In a digital world, the digital creative has an infinite life and therefore if you have great creative content like the 'zoozoos' one could look at creating more stories for niche consumption and popular culture seeding. Of course vodafone has done good stuff through the zoozoo quizzes and contests!! But there is scope for much more.

3. Conversation Creative.Zoozoos are a great example of a new creative style - the conversation creative where the TV creative generates great and ongoing conversations in the digital world(and of course the offline world as well). The 26K+ fans on facebook, the 84 comments on the afaqs article, the twitter fan following are all adding on to the conversation.

While I quickly scanned through the comments on afaqs, stumbled upon some zoozooisms- "Mummy mujhe zoozoo lagi hai", zoomply great, keep zoo zooing, zoo che!!!

This is a new strain of co-created conversation creative that is being created in real time and the agency and brand team can brainstorm how best to make use of it...

It is interesting content which can either die a natural death or put to better use!
Also, is the brand bold enough to open up the Zoozoo creative for the consumers to play! A campaign that can create 26K fans in a short time has great UGC potential.

4. Amplification. The other area where brands need to put more focus is amplification of the 'core idea'. A great and viral-ble idea like the zoozoos should now be amplified and seeded into popular culture. Of course the facebook, twitter stuff is good but perhaps it needs to be amplified through the mobile phone to really blow up the idea in a big way!!

5. Surprise is the new consistency. In the consumers-are-bored-and-networked era, brands must learn to surprise their followers rather than needlessly bother about consistency. Zoozoos have nothing in common with the pug(apart from the simplicity and cuteness quotient) or the Vodafone boy-n-girl, yet they make for arresting memorable stories. The consumer mind has evolved to a stage where he/ she can store these multiple stories and enjoy them and connect them back to Vodafone.

We shouldn't worry too much if the Zoozoos get more Talk Value in the short term than Vodafone itself! Zoozoos, the pug are cute characters , obviously they will get talked about more than the brand name...

Once again, some inspiring stuff from Ogilvy and very digital-media-friendly creatives...

Fake IPL Player, Real Conversations

Spent the last 30 minutes browsing through the Fake IPL Player's blog. It's incriminating, it's salacious, it's bawdy gossip at it's best/ worst!

Now whether it's a (a)real fake guy, or (b)a marketing ploy(I hope) or (c)an actual player blogger(rarefied chance), this guy/team knows how to create smutty buzz and generate conversation! Aren't you amazed at his site traffic and the thousands of comments from visitors and followers!

For quite some time, I have been arguing the case for conversation as brand content. But it mostly goes over the head of body-copy-only guys. Well the fake IPL player comes to my rescue.

Here are a few random thoughts which are floating in my little sleepy mind post lunch...

1. Context is Everything. The fake IPL player's blog gives a lot of inspiration to creating engaging alternatives to vapid 'Hilaa Denge', 'Dhikha Denge', 'Bataa Denge' ads on TV. He/she shows how gossip, locker room talk, the management vs. the player jibes can be engaging content as well. Maybe brands like Sprite, Levis, Axe can do more niche social media stuff which can draw lessons from this guy!

2. Don't Control the Conversation.Most Indian brands try to control/ avoid the conversation in the blogosphere/ social media and read too much into the controlled conversation(read FGD). This guy's posts have a thousand plus comments!! Comments by readers, visitors are part of the conversation. They add flavour/ spice to the conversation(even though here it degenerates into uncontrolled bitching:-)

Maybe brands like Mentos, Sprite(again), some of the bike brands(Pulsar for instance) could encourage a more intimate conversation with their niche audiences instead of merely pummeling the great looking, expensive ads. (Okay, I love the Tarsem(?) made Pulsar ad, but after the 13th viewing I now reach out for the remote/ or better still close my eyes. Instead guide me to the making of the ad web-site or the making of the bike(to the more engineering inclined DTSi variety)

3. Celebrity is One Of usWe knew(for some time now)that celebrities are not always on a pedestal. They lost some of their halo when they signed their 10th brand contract:-) But didn't know really that he/she is merely one of us.

The celeb can be reviled(SRK is called Badshah Dildo on this guy's blog- now how worse can it get from here). In contrast,the big brands largely treat celebs in an anachronistically sugar-coated way replete with a fake smile, fake swagger and fake talk!!

And the funny thing I feel is that all this bad talk and gossip from blogs like these won't really harm the celebs. But they will just make the Dish TV, Hyundai and sundry other badly made fake-talk-fake-smile ads even more boring for some of us!!

Celeb bashing might be more interesting than celeb grovelling!!

Well hats off to the fake IPL player and his blog!. You are giving us all real-time lessons in generating conversation(even though it's smutty). We need more brave brands and a mutant strain of journo-copy-writer-gossip-columnist to perfect this art for Indian brands.

BMW Vs. Audi Outdoor Skirmish

Ajay, our Tribal planner mailed me this nugget. It seems new fighting between BMW and Audi has started in Santa Monica, USA!

AUDI hung up a commercial on the main street with the text: "The entirely new AUDI A4. Your move BMW."

BMW thought about it for a week and hung up on the next building a much bigger advertisement hoarding, "Checkmate!"!! (source: interesting-thingz.blogspot.com)

Pepsi : The Recycle Video

Somebody mailed me this a while back. Probably their best video in some time:-)

Good Tea & the Future The Way We Want It To Be

Just finished my second cup of well-made Darjeeling tea in my favourite white cup! Ah the small pleasures of life...Getting ready for a long day of book research and writing after a two week hiatus...

Had read this post by Scott Goodson, the Strawberry Frog CEO on the different agency models and the need for extreme agility and adaptability among agencies in times of recession/ slowdown. You can read it here...

It also got me thinking about the need to adapt as a worker-ant/ employee/ networked knowledge worker/ creative portfolio worker...Thots not exactly in order...

1. The department must die. I feel the rate of our contribution dramatically increases with our ability to collaborate across the blurring boundaries of department. I am talking strategy, creative, servicing, digital media, OOH, research, brand identity...Though there are no visible signs of 'the department' dying in an Indian agency any time in the near future. Long live the fiefdoms!!

2. Employee NetworksThe agile companies must respect, use and reward employee networks. At 437 LinkedIn connections, I am perhaps a little more useful than I was a year back:-)This is a social network. But it's also a knowledge and personal network that can do great stuff together, solve issues, share experiences. Suddenly, the sum of all these employee networks can become a potent force for the small agile company!

3. Portfolio Working. I had been wanting to do it ever since I first read about the concept in Charles Handys' book - the empty raincoat! As we increasingly get hurtled into the ever closely knit creative-knowledge economy, opportunities to do portfolio work(not just for pure creatives) but everyone has risen through the roof...

4. Make New ConnectionsWhile the economy has slowed down dramatically, the potential to make new business connections has never been greater.

Take 1 jar of open mindedness and enthusiasm + add a full saucer of environment scanning + heat it a little + shake it with new thinking + add 1 table spoon of new ideas and approaches and hey you have a new business idea or model or new portfolio friends...

eg. A specialised Bollywood/ A/V content Marketing Agency*, Youth Marketing Company, Personal Branding Consultancy, Low cost SOHO brand building packages(this one came as of yesterday as I was approached by a London based company for a guest blog post)

Gmail, LinkedIn, Skype ensure that this souffle comes for FREE!!

5. Re-skillingMost of us(all of us) sit on a few kilos of unused talent. A minor re-skilling can polish up those and can be gainfully employed in a portfolio way. In the past 3 months or so, at a personal level, I have discovered that I could be a trainer, executive coach, youth/ culture/ Bollywood film marketer...It's just that we sit on our asses waiting for things to happen(at least that was my case) Whereas the environment is right for re-skilling and creating new revenue models(both for the company and personal)...

6. The Un-Company ManWhen I was looking for a job two years back, a very senior media person(ality) said that I wasn't much of a company man(the spirit of the remark was a wee bit pejorative)...However, if we look at the debris of corporate America and the loss of jobs closer home, the company as the sole provider of financial security and stability no longer exists. It's both a scary and a liberating thought. In fact now may be the best time to finally come out of the life long shackles of the COMPANY.

The company will definitely exist; but that will no longer be the sole/ desired work model. Like I said, (a) portfolio working, (b) greater degree of employee entrepreneurship, (c) company as a employee collective, (d) virtual creative/knowledge worker networks and more are/ will emerge stronger...

I feel the time, the tools and the environment is just right to create the future the way we want it to be!!

The Evolution Of Communication

Source : Mike Keefe's cartoons

Firaaq -Kuch Der Se Hi Sahi

I saw Nandita Das's Firaaq about 10 days back, in a rather empty theater. It is not often that one is numbed by a movie these days. But Firaaq made me quiet for the day. I was overwhelmed by the way the movie captured the tension, fear, the violence and the psychological scars of a city...

There were many thoughts that traversed in my mind that day - sad, poignant, disturbing images, lingering anger. And yet like most bogged-down-by-personal-livelihood-problems men, I carried on the week. Often a fleeting image from the movie would cross my mind...

I would pause for a moment and then go back to the pressing personal crusade...Yet once again this morning images from Firaaq came to haunt me as I read a powerful write-up on Firaaq by Shoma Chaudhury in Tehelka...

Shoma captures the film, the reason why civilised society must never forget the Gujarat riots and the apathetic unconcern of people like us evocatively here. Do read it even if you haven't seen the movie.

And notes to myself from Shoma's article...
- OF THE many crises of our age, the most helpless perhaps, are the crises of word and image. Bludgeoned in ways it’s never been before by an excess of information — the entire compact of sight, sound, emotion — the human race has not just become inured, it seeks inurement. Obliteration. When everyone is desperately seeking inurement, how is one to evoke? All the old descriptions are dead. “Awesome” is no longer something terrifying or aweinspiring; it is just a good ice-cream.

Into this opacity of meaning, occasionally, something slips. Briefly breaching our fortifications. Briefly triggering a healing disquiet in our being. Nandita Das’ directorial debut, Firaaq is such a moment. To say something new about the horror of Gujarat 2002 is almost impossible, to evoke empathy for it is heroic. But Firaaq does that.

- Emotionally taut, self-assured, pared, Firaaq is a searing exploration of subterranean poisons unleashed by Gujarat 2002. Guilt, rage, self-hatred, suspicion, the brutalisation of survivors — Nandita reminds us that the legacy of violence is more dangerous than violence itself. In one of the film’s most disturbing moments, the little boy in search of his father smacks an ant dead with sudden force. “Maar diya sale ko,” he says with unexpected vehemence. He has borne witness to vast and tiny cruelties. Now, he is a premonition of a new generation.

- Says Nandita Das - "I wanted to take small ordinary incidents so that people who watched could not hide from themselves by saying, ‘Oh I would never do this kind of thing’.” Among other things, this is what gives Firaaq its disturbing charge. It reminds you it is not just the 2,000 dead that makes Gujarat such an indelible rupture in our national life (though that ought to be reason enough). What makes it indelible is that the riots were just the most horrific face of a prejudice that runs much wider beneath the skin.

- For all this, Firaaq should have been a moment of great gratification for Nandita. A moment of recognition and animated discussion. Instead, this quiet, thoughtful gem of a film has come unheralded into our multiplexes. In all probability, it will slide unnoticed out next week. The director’s great conviction is unmatched by her producers. This shameful neglect is just one of the many creeping crises of our time.