open your mind - there is a fuit inside

The last weekend was spent at one of the best conferences I have ever attended. It was called designyatra and as the name suggests it was a design conference. They had speakers from all over the world explaining their work and their belief. Crazy creative stuff to innovations for rural India. Here is one image of a guy who decided to invent an electricity free fridge. He made it out of clay. Basically an earthen ware fridge where you put the water on the top and then thanks to the porosity quality of the clay the water seems around the entire fridge and then evaporating causing the fridge to cool down by at least (he claims) ten degrees. Not bad for storing food stuff/ fruits etc.

 

We had speakers who went on and on about fonts and types and explained the nuances of each. What a beautiful feeling. The guy explained how he designed the look for the Kate Moss logo which wis essentially just the name written in the right font. Then he explained how he designed the numbers on the back of the Puma jerseys for the African nations in the football World cup. Then we had characters who designed sanitary napkins at really low costs for women in rural India, creative head from Google, some more font guys, creative, designers  etc etc. It was a mind boggling array of speakers.

One wise HR head once told me – I don’t mind sending you guys for any training program. Just being away from office for a couple of days and meeting people of different companies would open your mind. And if the training is actually good then it is an added benefit. He is right. Hence I have never ever said no to a training program. I would love every training program that comes my way. Be it a conference or a classroom session. Go out and open your mind to possibilities. That is the key thing. You meet people you learn stuff, you interact with ideas and you possibly implement a few – who knows what works. It’s always nice to be exposed to various different things. You are only better from the experience.

One of the things I was exposed to this tie around at the conference was – Goan cuisine. Non-vegetarian Goan cuisine. I went there with four colleagues who were hard core non vegetarians. Every meal was like a dead aquarium on the table – Bombay duck, shrimp, prawns etc. add to that there was other sorts of meat on the table. It’s a good thing that over the years I have learnt not be queasy about this. In fact I get curious about it. I ask questions about the meat, how they eat, what are they eating – the tastes, differences etc. over a period of time I have gained enough knowledge about it. In fact a few friends many times wonder about the knowledge I have on the meats they eat. It’s a curious mind that opens it all. I don’t know why people get all touchy about the subject. A lot of my cousins (the older ones) would not want to eat in a non- veg restaurant and would die rather than step inside a KFC. I have been to KFC to eat veg stuff. It’s a little bit ugly for a vegetarian to see people biting into wings and legs but if you don’t go in you will never ever know.

So to compensate for my restricted palate I have developed a strong curiosity for all things vegetarian. I now on my travels always ask for the local veg special and try it out. Anything goes as long as its veg. this time around also I tried all sorts of veg stuff. Its helped me get introduced to new fruits as well. From my travels to Singapore I have been introduced to this lovely fruit – the dragon fruit. It’s an awesome fruit from the cactus family. Its mildly sweet and mostly bland, but really flashy and juicy. There is no real cutting required. You just peel the skin off easily and cut it if you wish or slice it into two with a knife and eat of the contents with a spoon. The seeds are tiny and scattered through the fruit and there is no spitting or removing the seeds before eating. I love the fruit.

We hardly got in India. Recently over the last couple of years we have been getting it at the super markets at reasonable prices. It’s currently at around 25 bucks a piece. Jispa also absolutely loves the fruit. Jasmine took it for her to eat after swimming. Many mothers had never ever seen the fruit, let alone taste it. They were pretty curious. One of them was asking Jasmine if this fruit any special properties, thinking that it was a special thing for Jispa’s diet. I did look it up later to realize that it is being touted as the next great big thing to eat, nutrition wise.

Here is Jispa reaching out for one piece. as you see i get great pleasure form cutting it into thin slices. its even better that way though you dont really need it like that. It is quite easily our favorite fruit. All from having just a little more curious mind than normal. Go out and open your mind – now.

the sitting train

No one in office reads anything. It’s quite a sad state of affairs. I can’t even seem to find people who read enough fiction. I have been a non fiction reader. I have nothing against people who read fiction. I personally somehow find it a waste of time. When there are brilliant books that make for a lovely read and are non fiction, I haven’t had the desire or urge to read fiction. Though some of eth fiction that I have read I have quite enjoyed. The da Vinci code and the White Tiger spring to mind immediately. I have also made my thoughts very clear in the past on stuff like robin sharma. Those self help corn ball you are good at heart shit is something I cannot bear.
But then again – I really don’t have anything against people who read that as well. The problem is that people don’t read anything. I guess TV has ensured that you must be entertained sitting on your couch. You only breathe and keep awake. Awake not alert, simple open eyes will do the trick. The TV is loud enough visually and otherwise to keep you sufficiently titillated.
Reading is a great thing that is getting missed. When I see book stores I take heart that people seem to be finding / discovering their love for books. Especially the young ones. They seem to have a wide range of books at their disposal at they seem to be enjoying it quite a bit. When we were kids, I spent a part of my earlier childhood in Dubai. We were quite lucky to be there. At least in some supermarkets there would be a book section, mainly comics, where we would gather and lie down and start reading. These were supermarkets run by Malayali businessmen. They were not meant for a reading experience. So we would pick the comics from the shelves and sit on the cold floor and read. Till one Malayali store keeper would come and shoo us all away. Only to find us come back. Much like the pigeons feasting on open grain. How long can you keep shooing us off.
The greatest thing India ever had; was the Amar Chitra Katha comics. We used to devour them, the tales of valour, intelligence, stupidity and freedom. I guess a many of them were flawed, wrong and as one book suggested – racist. But they still allowed for a lovely and vivid reading experience. The first chance I got I bought the entire set that is in print and kept it at home. I am almost spoiling Jispa by doing this. We would get them one book at a time and sometimes one set at a time. Between us and other kids we would get them all read.
Sigh… reading. I guess that why talks by authors who have written books are so popular. Yesterday I had the chance to attend an Al Ries and Laura Ries seminar. Al Ries and Jack Trout are probably the demi gods of marketing. They first wrote the book Positioning and have then proceeded to write many books since then, together and individually. Good smart guys. But the seminar is meant for those who haven’t read their books. It is meant for the TV generation. They talk about what they have written. It is almost the same thing as reading their books and seeing them convert it into a ppt. Pretty boring. Laura especially is a n extremely boring speaker. She does not even change her tone while talking. Somehow the older Mr Ries is far better and somehow more compelling to listen to.
In the good old days when I did my management, these books were not easy to get. I had taken one copy from my library and photocopied it and then bound it into a book. It is nice to get to now see these seminars. For me personally I recommended the same as it would interesting to go with the team. No matter how boring, there is always something one can relearn from good minds. And I did and I have something that I can action out right away.
But the question that came across my mind is this – at 15 grand a person it is quite expensive. My company agreed to pay for me and my two team members to go and attend the same. But if I had put up a bill for 15 grand, saying I read these books instead, I am not so sure if the company would have agreed.
When I worked in consulting with Dharen Chadha, the rule was that per month you get two thousand rupees as a personal development allowance. This was to be claimed against bills for books, movies, music etc. the thought being that as a brand strategist you would get your reference point / creative spark form any source. You could even learn dance or gardening with that money. It was a small allowance like that that to my mind changed my life. It made me look at books that cost 600 or 700 and buy them. Once the heroin struck it never left me since then. I remember when I finally resigned from consulting, my wife and me decided to keep that allowance going as a budget.
For companies the easy decisions are the ones that look like seminars and group therapy sessions. Something as simple as buying books for reading wherein you might learn and implement much more is not allowed as a reimbursable but a seminar or an offsite or a training program that is boring, not accountable and ridiculous might find greater favour. What to do. Such is the way of corporate life. I don’t think the CEO might feel good thinking that so many of his employees read so much but might feel better that so many of his employees went to a training program. And hopefully they got a certificate at the end of it all. A shiney new certified employee as opposed to a reminiscent germ of a thought in an employee brain.

superman in action

Stop press: we have photos of the spider game we played.

Here is the basic game. You can see the net and that you have to pass people through the net without touching the net itself. This is the most popular way to do it. And once on the other side you cannot come back to this side, hence in the end there will be one man standing.


So either an easy hole gets left behind or you resort to superman…. the guy with the hat is the trainer looking in disbelief.

you too can win

Here are some photos of the training program that best elucidate the principles behind our success.

The lounge set up. While other teams had an official looking room, complete with tables and chairs as their war room, we had a lounge set up in ours. This contributed significantly to the fun element and the relaxed atmosphere. Learnings to take to office - Please tear out the tables and the tight arse chairs from all conference rooms.

This is a pictoral representation of our philosophy – you too can win. It means everyone in the board room is right and that anyone is equally capable of outstanding thought. Did you get it from the picture. Fret not. I didnt either.

Deep. Really deep strategic thought.

Me trying to draw  conclusions (sad pun intended). When you can’t think without a marker and a board, then you have officially broken into top management.

This one team member is trying hard to keep her strategic direction right while the PJ’s flow.

If you make the official court jester laugh, you better be funny; or really really sad.

While the strategic direction was missing, the inspiration was out of the window. While he learnt to use his new SLR, he accidentally shot a nice pic. He was trying to get the brown statues behind. Where are the statues? I told you its an accidental pic. But you don’t argue with genius do you. It IS a nic pic.

This was supposed to be a funny pic for a group photo. Someone said be funny, so I decided to give some uptight ones a ‘push’. Another sad pun intended.

But on a serious note, this training program taught me the value of laughter (a sad attempt at another figure of speech – this time The Paradox). Thank you dude. I dont think the others really caught on to our secret. even after telling them, and presenting it as such.

training your sights on....

Training programs are like books. Even the worst ones will teach you something. I just came back from one marketing modelling one. The prof was an ex Unilevers guy with a strong theoretical base in research. His research bit was good but his marketing bit was a quite a let down. Anyone who gives examples from a Kotler marketing text book that is at least 15 years old is an issue. I wonder why people refuse to acknowledge that the world has moved on and upgrade themselves accordingly. It would have also helped to have stuck to core subjects in which you have obvious expertise. You are not teaching kids. Some of us are practioners with ten years of hard core experience.
But not all hope was lost. We had some really funny guys coming from MTV. That was some redemption. We had a character called Shantanu who is much smarter than he would like to admit. While it would kill him to admit as much he did get some of the stuff faster than others in the room. Add to that an outstandingly irreverent sense of humour, the three days went off far better than most training I have been to.
Of course it did help that he and me were in the same team trying to blast the others in the marketing game.
One realisation that has dawned upon me in recent years is that one need not be ready to win at all times. Relax and have fun while you are at it. Our team was the funniest of all. We were also the simplest of all. We did not do too much excel analysis, we had no issues with dissension and we had no arguments on way forward. I think the fact that we allowed for every one to have an opinion and the freedom to implement it was what worked. Whenever someone had a strong view we ensured that we did not go ahead till he was convinced on the decision we took or we took his word forward. We had some teams voting and some teams fighting and some teams pointing fingers, while we laughed like crazy with no such pointing contests. We had inherited in the game a bloated sales force which we did not trim as we had a parsi in the team who thought its not nice to fire. We agreed on a pricing strategy and closed conversation because the lights flickered. What’s that got to do with pricing? Nothing by itself and everything if you believe it was the message of god. When numbers came for every period, the only real thing I saw was sales and most importantly closing stock. If that’s good then you are doing a fine job. We quickly realised that there are four distinct segments and that there should be four distinct positions. Once we got that going, we didn’t change a dam thing.
The thing to learn in real life is that it’s really not so complicated. Look at a few figures you can understand and those that are fundamentally important. Rest will follow. It pains me to see so many people paralysed by analysis.
We were open about our serendipity at the post games presentations and I hope the others figured out that it’s not really that complicated. Like I was telling a younger contestant - most of the time you probably know the answer when you first have a look at the data, but when you anlayse it too much, think of creative methods, etc etc… you probably miss the wood for the trees.
Marketing or even strategic decisions are often common sense. A simple analysis should show you the broad direction, and a thumb rule might be that if it takes too much to understand then it is just that – too much to understand.
Another thing that comes with age is that you get to go for more and more places where you are the average spoiler. It is great fun to see what makes them tick and what works and does not for them. Meeting young minds is as important as meeting older ones. One tells you what was, the other, what will.
A case of opposites reconciling?

like I was telling the HR - the training was good, but for the wrong objectives.

and ya... did i tell you. we outsold everyone and got some huge brand shares and remained highly profitable. Trainers dont like to declare winners, but I reckon we won.

writers blog?

Getting a writers block for blog? Well it’s ok… I am not calling myself a writer but I can’t help it if I am suffering from a writers block. What to do… block hai toh hai.
Tomorrow I am off for a training session on marketing to lonavala’s northpoint. I am not a big fan of training sessions. They are normally quite boring and don’t really offer too much. Add to that my ego and arrogance of working for the world’s best marketing brain – Dharen Chadha. So it’s going to take some doing for me to be ‘trained’. Those this time around I am a bit excited. It is a marketing simulation program run on computers where one would be constantly at it doing something. So I guess it’s probably a good thing. I have always wanted to check out these games if they really do make sense and are not simply designed for failure. Some management games leave you with such a cheated feeling that one wonders the point of all these games. You don’t need to cheat people with unsolvable problems to give them a lesson.
And I sure hope we don’t have any of these really boring booze parties in the evening where everyone gets piss drunk trying to network with each other. On the subject of networking, I just remembered to take my visiting cards for the training program. I am definitely not taking my laptop and acting superbly busy. But I have my black berry to bury my snooty nose into if the conversation gets too boring. I could pretend to be checking mails while I am busy creating the highest score while breaking a ton of bricks. Creating and breaking in one sentence! Is that an example of creative destruction?
But I hope to be suitably impressed to be writing my blog from there. I have never blogged off location. The office time is too precious not to be blogging and the rest too precocious to be…

On that slightly witty note, by my standards at least… see ya in office on Monday.


The PS note: we had some of Jispa’s friends over on Sunday. They were being parked between two parties. It was such a fun thing to have a few kids over. I went wild with my friend’s camera that I had over the weekend (by a lark). It was 50 mm lens and it did take some time getting used to but here is one of Jispa’s photos I clicked and for some reason I so love it… I really do. For me it symbolizes what Jispa’s nature is.