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...

Wanted Entrepreneurs!

Came across StrawberryFrogs'Scott Goodsons' blog entry - ADVERTISING NEEDS MORE ENTREPRENEURSHIP, MORE THAN EVER.

Says he - 1. The sign of a healthy industry is the state of its entrepreneurial spirit. The advertising industry as a whole needs more entrepreneurs. The large conglomerates that control and dominate the industry need more competition.

2. We need more entrepreneurs. A little backbone and a lot of ambition. Because this drives the industry forward. And the more people in the huge conglomerates see indies succeed the more they should think "hey if they can do it, I can do it too"!!

Scott's post made me think what's wrong with the big networks who have a fair share of talent and entrepreneurial spirit.

(a) It's not that the big networks don't have talent, it's just that there is not much incentive to do things differently. Failure is heavily censured. So, the brightest guys are afraid to deviate from the dotted line.

(b) Entrepreneurship grows when there is a small pool of like-minded people with shared belief and passion. Big networks seldom actively allow their brightest minds to pool their talent and energies together. Most often talent is locked in silos that seldom partner each other.

(c) The existing power-structure is so focused on the things that worked in the past and in servicing the current big clients that any new thought/ project/ venture never gets the attention, money and backing to lift-off...

(d) And many a time the best of the CEO's vision gets lost in translation as it has to pass though the fat layer of middle management and mindsets stuck in the past...

But looks like the winds of change are blowing hard:-)