The Television Conundrum

Context
I live as a "bachelor" in Mumbai.

If you are from Mumbai, you'd get it. If not, its a (often derogatory) term used to define people who are un-married, live without parents in accommodations that are sparsely furnished (no beds, tables - just the bare minimum furniture). Often these bachelors "engage" in wild parties, keep the place unclean and in general, lower the standard of living at the community you live at.

From personal experience, in large part this is true. And in some parts, as far from truth as things could be.

Of course its not unusual to live as a bachelor. Blame it on urban mobility, concentration of jobs in certain pockets etc. What is unusual is that at my age, very few people live like that. Either they get married (India!) or they step up enough in life to start owning assets and make enough money to actually buy designer furniture, state-of-the-art gadgets and other things vain. None of the above two is true for me.

Story
So I've lived like a bachelor for about 10 years now. In cities like Gurgaon, Chennai and Mumbai. And because I've had a fairly limited access to money, I never had the fancy places. And while I have wanted to buy things that could take me out of the perceived bachelorhood, I havent been able to afford those. Plus whatever little I could buy, I did not because my sense of decor is fairly fucked.

And I've always remained light. I mean when I moved last, I had 2 bags of clothes, 1 guitar, 1 writing table and few cartons of books. Unknowingly I was being Steve Jobs ;P

The point is, I did not have any material possessions. And because I was growing old (not up), I saw all these friends, acquaintances around me growing old and up and getting things that I've dreamt of since I was a kid. And of course I am / was jealous and I long /ed for them.

So, when in the last year I made some money I started to splurge on things. I bought a book shelf. I got a shoe stand (to make space for those numerous pairs of shoes that I buy by the dozen and do not wear). And I got a TV!

Day 30 / #100HappyDays. Who says money can't buy happiness? It helped me but this TV - my first "material" possession. And I love it. pic.twitter.com/uDFk46LXW6

— SG (@saurabh) July 14, 2017

The next in queue, after a TV is a car and then, a house. And then, world domination! 

The TV Conundrum
If you ask the brand planner in me about three things that transform a house from a bachelor pad to a home, I'd say it would be a double bed with a proper mattress, a clean and functioning kitchen and a television!

The place that I live at came with a double bed and almost functional kitchen. So all I needed was a TV.  And I have wanted one for a long time. I dont know why. May be to tell myself that I am not too far behind from my peers?

Anyhow, since I got the TV, I have rearranged my entire house to make the TV the focal point. I mean I don't even remember how the hall looked like when we did not have a TV. I mean the houses where they don't have a TV, where do the sofas and other seating structures face? Ask Simpsons ;P

The Reason
So, coming to the REAL reason why I started writing this post. I want to analyze the decision. And then may be bookmark this post, remind me often of the foolishness that I epitomize. Yes, I believe that buying the damned TV was a wrong decision.

When I had the money to be able to buy one and I decided that I want one, I knew of a few things. Here is a list, categorized into positives, negatives and neutral.

Positives

• A TV becomes the focal point of the house and the bachelor pad starts looking like a home. I wanted that (as mentioned above). Call it my mid-life crisis. Or call it the rat race. I wanted one. While this looks like a negative, this to me is a positive. 
• Allows my parents to kill time when they visit me. If they visit me. Thats all they do now that they are retired. Not trying to be derogatory. But thats how it is. And thats ok. Not everyone is on a mission.  

Neutral

• Its a good to have thing. Like a checkbox in that long form! 

Negatives

• Money. My budget was 50K. No, its not a small amount by any stretch of imagination. For 50K I could've bought a holiday and dont know what all. 
• Maintenance. I will have to lug it around when I move houses (I still live at a rented accommodation - and its contingent on whims and fancies of the owner of the house). Plus its an electronic product - it will get damaged and will stop working. It will give me unnecessary heartbreak when that happens. 
• Time sink. With Netflix and others, a TV is such a time sink that its not funny. No wonder its called an Idiot Box. 

Apart from these three, here are few more notes that I dont know where to categorize...  

• It was not an impulse purchase. For some weird reason I wanted a TV for a long time. I actually looked online. I went to the stores. And I sat on the decision for at least a month. And then finally one fine day I got it. 
• Since I've got the TV, after the first few days, I have hardly used it. Key reason being, I dont have cable TV. I rely on Netflix and since I have a bad connection at home, I cant spend time on it. Which is a good thing. 
• A great influencer on the decision was the 15K worth of reward points that I had on one of my credit cards. It made "sense" to buy a 60K TV for 45K. I could see a bargain. I made the classic mistake of looking at potential savings and not at the money I'd have to spend. A great case where points look good to you, but are bad! 
• Ideally, in life I want to be at a place where I dont have to think too much about money and these decisions. But till the time I reach that point, these incidents are interesting milestones, to help sharpen the decision-making acumen. 

Conclusion

As I was making the list, I automatically realised that the list of cons outweigh pros already. I dont have to think too much about it. The decision was a fucked one. I shouldn't have bought the TV. But just to make a list, the mental models at play were Loss Aversion (did not want the points to expire), Validation aka Social Proof (from society about not being a bachelor), Constant chase of excitement (I bought it when I was probably not doing so well in personal / work life - though I have no way to validate this), FOMO (obviously), Envy. These are the ones I can think of. And I am sure there are more at play. What could those be? 

That's about it. You are welcome to see the Smart TV I bought :). And here's to making wiser decisions. What do you think waise? 

To pay or not to pay...

"Influencer" marketing

Continuing from where I left on Tuesday (the rant about book marketing), I have a few decisions to make. And I cant seem to arrive at em. Let me first put forth the questions. And then I'd talk about my thoughts on those.

a. Some very popular book review blogs, websites, e-zines have agreed to cover my book (website, buy) and review it. Surprisingly most of them are asking for money. The money will apparently go towards "writing" the review, "promoting" the review (on their websites, Facebook and twitter) and creating imagery associated with. Though the brazenness with which they've asked for money, it looks like a norm in the industry rather am exception but I am not sure if I want to pay to get my book reviewed. Or may be I ought to pay because I have to market the book somehow. So this is question number one.

b. Most of the publications that I've wrote into (begging to cover my book) haven't replied. Some have. And most of those "some" have huge ego issues. The emails are snooty, arrogant and full of words that I can't even comprehend. Some dont even understand the context and market for books. It was surprising to know that such ignorant people run these successful websites. The question thus is, is it worth talking to such people? Agreed that they would help market the book. But do I tolerate them? And why is that I am the only one seeing such attitude? What about my other writer friends / contacts? They don't seem to be fazed by any of it!

c. Where do I draw a line between marketing, advertising, bribing, advertorials, editorials, product placements, interviews, debates? I know that boundaries are blurred. Who else will know this better than I (after all I work in the industry)? Am I willing to do this for my own product? All this while, I have never had issues paying people to talk about other people's products / services. Why is that I am having issues paying for mine?

d. Will I spoil my relationship with these "influencers"? After all I am in the market for the long haul. I am hoping to write one book every year. And I need all the help. Each of these people can tell me if I am a good writer or a bad one. They can help me improve the craft. They can connect me with others. So on and so forth. By refusing to work with these guys, am I sort of alienating these guys? Am I making enemies out of these guys? Will this come back to me in future, to haunt me?

So far, I dont have any answers. Since the book has started to ship, I need to now probably pull up my socks and get along with these influencers somehow. Would love to hear thoughts and opinions from other authors, writers. And if you read a lot of book, want to know what you think as well.

Thanks!
SG

May 24, 2013 - 1000 Words a Day v2

Today is day 5 of the 1000 words in a day, edition 2. And so far I havent missed a single day. Early goings though. Today I have a few decisions to make. While I was writing this post yesterday, I was done with the text in about 800 odd words. I had to stretch the post by some words. Thankfully I could manage with that disclaimer at the bottom but I know that I am not being true to the cause. The idea is not write 1000 random words (like those infinite monkeys) but to work on the craft.

So there are three options really.

A is that I write a post everyday and close it in as many words as required to do justice to the post. So it could take 50 words, 100 words, 500, 1000, 1500, 5000. Whatever. Knowing myself this means that I can find a backdoor when I want to be lazy. I would write 100 words and get away with it. And then use the 100 word post as an excuse that I did the job. Do I want this shortcut? No I dont.

B is that I publish 1000 words, even if it takes more than one post. So each post could be less than 1000 but collectively I publish those 1000 words. That means I give due justice to each post and then if required write more than one posts. Nothing wrong with it but my experience tells me that the one on top is the only one that gets read. The others below is, are ignored. And this means that the rest of the posts that I write on a certain day get a step-brotherly children. But then anyway most of the people that read my blog, do not look for a specific post. So this can work out. And this is a good way to hone the writing skills. I can say whatever I want to say in as less words and as many words. And write about more than one thing.

C is to ensure that I write posts that requires 1000 words or more to write. This means that a lot of things that I want to talk about get sifted out automatically. This includes things like random observations and other things get excluded from my posts.

Wait, may be I can club A and C. I will ensure that I write a 1000 word thing everyday and if there is something special that makes me want to write about it, I can write it in whatever number of words required to finish it. So there could be multiple posts each day!

What do you think? I will ponder over this for some days and then decide. For the time being, I think I would go with B. I would write a total of 1000 words, even if it spawns more than one post.

Dear Diary,

Last night, I had a dream. In the dream, I was reading van Gogh's letters (primarily to his brother and some to other assorted people) and when I woke up, I realized that though a maintain this blog, use notepads to scribble thoughts and keep notes as text files on my computers, I have never had a diary per se. And the thought of keeping a dairy sounded interesting. Like it would be so cool to know what was I thinking on, say, 9th Dec 2007.

It goes without saying that I enjoy writing and I am big fan of recording things, may be I can put the blame on applications like Evernote, but can I (or should I) turn this obsession of writing into maintaining a diary?

Of course the answer is not easy. Here is a list of questions that I need to answer before I decide on the  diary.

• Would I actually go back to the diary at a later date and read what was I thinking on a given day in distant past? Do I do that with the blog? After all I have been writing for well over 7 years now!
• Will the process of writing, give me some clarity about things that are cluttering my head? Both in the long run and the short run? For example, blogging helps me put things in perspective and allows me to meet new and interesting people. Would a secret diary give me some clarity in my head?
• Would I have time to record my thoughts on a regular basis? Is the investment of time worth the returns that one gets from maintaining a diary? I dont know at this stage. A blog is a no obligation method where I am not reporting into anyone and I have keep motivating myself to write every once in a while. And more so when I dont have any regular readers! With a diary, there is no possibility of a reader ever.
• And last but not the least, there have been tons of notes that I have saved over the years. I need to figure a way to quickly get them at one place? Preferably on Evernote? How is this important to the  diary? They are not but then if I am going to have a diary, I would want all notes, past, present and future, at one place.

And then there are trivial things like the medium, the frequency, privacy etc.

When faced with these sort of decisions, I need to be able to put some filters in place to help me find answers. Right now, I have a very vague idea about those filters.

Anyways, coming back to the diary, I am not sure if I really really want one. The idea is tempting though. Or may be I would try recording some thoughts on some days and see how it goes.

The final answer, as of now, is No. I may reevaluate it at some other day in future but in the meanwhile I would try and get all my scribbles on Evernote. 

Do you guys maintain a daily diary? If you do, what are the best practices (if I may)?

EDIT
I wrote this post as "dairy" and I realized that I have used this word like ten times and each place, it was incorrect! Thanks to N for correcting me!

One year at Creativeland Asia

This day, last year, I moved from GE Money to Creativeland Asia and its one of those few decisions that I have not regretted or reconsidered.

Reasons are two fold.

1. GE was not my kind of place. It might be very very good place to work and might have very good work policies but it did not work for me. May be I am not programmed to work under structures and rulebooks and guidelines and policies and checklists.

2. Creativeland Asia on the other hand, has been a very rewarding and enriching experience. Its my kind of place. Its my land. Just about over an year old, its not really perfect. It can obviously be better. And I, we at Creativeland are working towards it. Hopefully will see some results soon.

I have learned lots of lessons and have made tons of mistakes in this past year. And Creativeland has truly given me a canvas where I can make mistakes and learn from them. At Creativeland we are moving towards that fictional Utopian world.

Hope the coming year is even better and we get closer to making that revolution happen.

P.S.: Why do I always talk about revolutions?

Why I like mountains?

Me @ Yanker Pass

On way to Mumbai, in an Air France flight, flying over mountains.

I have often asked myself if I am a mountain person or a water person. To be honest, I like both the things. There is no better feeling than climbing a mountain, reaching the top and anticipation of the world that lies beyond it. On the other hand, a water body is all I can ask for. I love the concept of swimming, boating, water sports and my idea of fun is actually spending a day with water sports.

If it is not required that I put myself into a category but an introspection on this can be a fruitful exercise. Not that it would help me economically, it would help me frame my thoughts better when I talk about this to someone next time.

So, what is about mountains that I like? I think there are multiple reasons. First would be the sense of achievement that you get when you have climbed to the top of the world. Its like an award for a difficult task done well.

Second could be being at a place where so few people have reached. Not a lot of people think like that. Being able to climb makes you one amongst the few special ones.

Third is obviously the view that you get from the top of the world. There are so many things that you can see from there. The entire world transforms into a giant landscape with miniature objects. All objects are disconnected with each other and yet collectively they are part of something larger at the same time. Suddenly you feel so powerful about the fact that you can see everyone and no one being watched can even imagine that they are being watched. Its like being able to control the destinies of people.

Fourth I think is the curiosity. I want to discover the hidden, create the unthinkable and explore the secret worlds. A mountain is like a symbolic barrier that prevents this movement and exploration. I agree that we now have travel options that are easier and more convenient than sleeping in a luxury bedroom, but still the thought that mountain is a barrier and you can overcome is exciting.

Fifth the sheer size of the mountains makes you feel so insignificant. You can climb on for days and you will still remain as far from the summit as far you were when you started.

Sixth the mountains makes you realize that we the humans are very fragile. We live in our comfort zones and take things for granted. Moment there is a hint of adverse situations, like the ones on mountains; we realize how weak we are. How insignificant are the things that we spend our lives chasing.

Seventh the climb itself could be tiring, taxing and fun at the same time. You invariable come across thousands of species of life including a few human tribes that have been battling the mountains and have survived for ages. These are the people who have fought against and won the evolution battle. If evolution was correct, there people would have migrated to plains, in easier living conditions and would have concentrated on creating better generations. But here they are, living in tough conditions, with old tools, without complaining or leaving their homes. There are times when you wonder how did the very first these men and women reach the mountains and why did they decide to settle there. Still further, how easy or difficult would have lives had been when all they would have had is their courage and few very basic handheld tools. What about the times when they got hurt? When they got sick? And what about the fact that we humans are social animals and anyone devoid of any contacts with other human cant really develop in true sense. Would these people even bother about their development? Before I get on another tangent about existence and meaning of life, need to think of another reasons.

Eight I think climbing a mountain teaches you quite a few things - teamwork, decision-making, crisis management, character development, preparation, adjustability, attitude, fear, courage, strength. I can carry on adding words. Bottom line is that everything starts because of one reason – being in an uncertain and unfamiliar environment. And you develop all these skills because you are trying to be in control of situations. Or should I say trying to cope up.

Ok, now one of my colleagues has wakened up and anyways I am out of my wits on this, better take a break.

Haasil - The Movie

Bollywood is known to release the maximum number of movies in a year. And most of them are forgettable. A lot of them go onto become big hits and send the cash registers ringing. And then there are times when a movie creates a whole new world. The way people think. The way people talk. They way people perceive cinema. One of them is obviously Sholay. The other one is Haasil. I cant really compare the two but Haasil deserves its place along side any other acclaimed movie in the history of Indian Cinema.



The plot is really simple. Its about a small town in India where people are happy go lucky and go about their own tasks. Its a typical story of a young guy. Its a typical story of a pesky father. Its a typical story of a guy in love with a girl and trying to express it. Its about a typical university in India where student politics is more important than the academics or anything else. Then its the typical story of hatred, envy, love, politics, corruption, anger, wars and other such things.

And this is where all the typicalality ends. The story is interesting and compelling enough to captivate the audience. The dialouges are impressive and more importantly their delivery makes every small scene a cult. To the extent that I will probably call each scene a conversation between two characters. Characters who are small yet giant. Who are incapable by themselves yet can do anything if situation demands. Performances by Irfan Khan and Ashutosh Rana that can put any other actor to shame.

Personally, for me, the best two conversations are "Pandit hum der na lagaenge maarne main" and "Hum to ShivJi kay bhakth hain, saara zeher humein hi peena hai". Although I don't support piracy, the entire movie is available here for watching online and free download.



Haasil fans, please share your stories. And please note that this is not a movie review.

Links
Orkut Community for Haasil Fans
IMDB on Haasil
Wikipedia on Haasil

1V1: Whether vs When

Next in the 1v1 series. Whether vs When.

Today I will talk about Whether and When. Most of the times when you want to take a decision, there is often a debate between whether and when. You argue on things like "Whether you will do or not", "When will you do it" etc..

I think the use of these words greatly affects the decision.

The WHETHER questions by its very nature brings along uncertainty and with it a possibility of not doing it. You might do it. You might not. You will ask more people about it. You will seek more approval for the idea. And in the end you might or might not do it.

Moment you start asking WHEN question, the whole paradigm changes. You have already made the decision. You are going to do it. If not now, later. But you will do it. And this decision makes all the difference.

What do you think you will choose when making decisions? Whether or When?

Originally posted at Saurabh Garg @ Thoughts

You know its Delhi when ...

After living in Delhi for 24 years, I moved to Mumbai last year. On a recent trip home (Delhi), I realized that there is so much there makes that place very special. Here is a list of 19 things that I could think of immediately.

You know you are in Delhi

1. When you have honed your negotiation skills over the years by never ending haggling with the autowallahs and rickshawallahs over amount as minuscule as 1 rupee.
2. When you know more about your neighbors rather than your own family. And you see that your neighbors remember your aunt's son-in-law's birthday.
3. When bus passes and Metro cards become a currency.
4. When community buying becomes the norm and vegetable seller takes the place of the chaupal where ladies gathers to share gossip.
5. When U special buses are followed by bikes. And cars.
6. When any one wearing a skirt is stared at by everyone. Even the person wearing the skirt starts staring himself/herself.
7. When autowallahs simply refuse to go by meter. And they dare you to do anything about it.
8. When people drive as if the road is their personal property and they can do anything they want to on those roads. And they mean it.
9. When you have to bribe for any small government work. And to even pee.
10. When everyone knows someone big and throws attitude because they know someone.
11. When you spot a chole kulche bicycle in every nook and corner of the city.
12. When hanging from DTCs buses becomes a norm and your day feels incomplete without it.
13. When you use a student bus pass even after you have graduated from college 5 years ago. And you are ready to go any lengths to get it renewed.
14. When you boast of awesome infrastructure the city has all the while screaming profanities at Sheila Dikshit and Congress govt.
15. When spotting a celebrity adds to your coolness factor. And you weave stories around it and repeat them at every speaking opportunity.
16. When you buy and sell books at Nai Sarak and hope to spot girls doing the same thing, strike a conversation and leave as a couple.
17. When giving seats to old women and kids in Delhi Metro becomes a fashion statement. And then curtly asking them to hold your bags, suitcases etc.
18. When sealing and policing takes a new meaning altogether. Shops are sealed, de-sealed and sealed again.
19. When there is some sort of strike, procession, movement is being staged at Jantar Mantar and you start assuming that it was build to host these rather than tell time.

Obviously the list is incomplete and I shall keep on adding to it. Please drop in comments and help me make it longer.

P.S.: I love Delhi and there is no city like Delhi. The tone might sound derogatory but trust me its not meant to be like that.

Ceat, Shoppers Stop and Godrej Rebranding stories

Three very big Indian brands have gone for a makeover. Godrej, Shopper's Stop and Ceat. Before I get into a long rhetoric on these individually, I think except Godrej, Shopper's Stop and Ceat have got it wrong.

Godrej Industries Ltd.
Godrej has added colors to it age old logo. Shoppers' Stop and Ceat have completely changed their looks. Also, Shoppers' Stop says "Change is Good" and Ceat says "Change is here". I wonder if both these have been created by same team?


Godrej the behemoth that sells everything from shoe polish to animal feed to almirahs to locks to lavish food for rich to real estate to a lot of things unimaginable has got a new look. They did not do anything drastic. They retained their logo. Added some animation, color and jazz to it. As a customer I love what they have done. For me I have grown up in house where we had tons of Godrej almirahs and locks and for me Godrej means trust. Is the new look enhancing that? No it does not but it gives me a sense that owners are trying to reinvent the old company and are committed about it. And since And are they doing it because a Godrej Properties is planning to come with its IPO?


Shoppers Stop
Coming on to Shopper's Stop, its is a chain of premium retail megastores. They sell clothes, accessories and other fancy things that riches and the great Indian middle class buys. In fact they are amongst the first players in Indian retail industry to have experimented with large format stores and organized retailing. Their earlier logo and identity was very classy by Indian standards and for the last 10 odd years that logo has been itched in the minds of the customers. It had everything a premium brand's logo should have - curves, stars, symmetry. It was very very appealing.The new logo is anything but premium and yet is a good piece of work on a stand alone basis. But moment you compare it with older logo (and comparison is inevitable), it looks dull. It looks like someone has stepped back in time. To start with it is plain text in a font that can be used by anyone and everyone. A plain text logo could have been good if you added colors, gradients or other elements to break the clutter (hint Godrej). But that too is missing. I think they wanted more serious and elegant look for the brand and the logo has failed to deliver that. I would say this was created by an amateur designer trying random text layouts.

I have no clue what warranted the need for a change in logo. I understand that Shoppers' Stop is coming up with an IPO but did it require a change in look?


Ceat Tyres
Ceat is one of the oldest tyre manufactures in the country. Its a publicly traded company and although I have not had any interactions with their business (never purchased a ceat product), have heard a lot about them. The new logo looks like a half baked pie. Its like work in progress and first time I saw it, I could not relate it to the type manufacturer. When I read the headline, that was the time I realized that it was ceat they were talking about.

As a customer and as an observer, I like their earlier logo better. It had a meaning to it. I could see a rhino and I could conjure an image of a vehicle running on a ceat tyre negotiating hard curves. The new look might also have a road (the E looks like a road with a divider) but it fails to conjure any kind of imagery. Is there a trend in design houses to move towards plain text fonts with minimal use of colors? Or both Shoppers Stop and Ceat have been done by the same agency with a Creative Decision Maker believing that plain text is good and we should talk about change to go along with that?



Its often said an organization is as good as the decision makers it has. I dont really think design teams for both Shoppers Stop and Ceat have done their homework and tried to design a contemporary look. And they should consider the fact that people do not buy products or services. They buy and consume brands. And brand is something that makes the decision process for the consumer simpler. Not more complex by creating conflicting images in their minds.

Design, Advertising and financial markets may sound very different but there is indeed some kind of a relationship. Any more IPOs or redesigns coming up .. ?

P.S.: All the comments are not from an aesthetic point of view. I am hardly a person who has good design sense. I am talking from the perspective of a customer. I have tried to think how would a customer feel when he is interacting with a brand that is supposed to be premium.

All three companies trade on the stock exchanges and I own certain number of shares of Godrej Industries ltd. I might or might not choose to buy/sell these shares.

And I just realized that I am indeed passionate about brands and way consumers think abut brands. As a very good friend would say .. "Aha" moment of the day !

Tags: IPO, Indian Financial Markets, Godrej, Ceat, Shopper's Stop, Retail, India, Design, Logo, Re-design, Advertising, Marketing, Branding.

Basic Human Needs - An Indian Perspective

I was reading this awesome text located here about Basic Human Needs. I am trying to draw parallels between that text and people in India as I know them.

The article says that there are 9 basic human needs. These are Security, Adventure, Freedom, Exchange, Power, Expansion, Acceptance, Community, Expression.

Following are my opinions and views on these 9.

Security - Most people I know tend to have this need. In fact if I can generalize things, most Indians would have a very high security needs.

For me, Security is not that big a deal.



Adventure - Again if I could generalize, most people would want to believe that they have high adventure needs, I dont think they really do have it.

And yes, I do have high adventure needs. And yes I have all positive aspects and a few negative aspects. Wow. This is accurate.

And I should not make friends with people with high needs of security.



Freedom - Again this is one of those things where people would want to believe that they have freedom but they dont really have it. They are cooking pre-cooked food.

As for me, I DO belong to the group of people who think they are free but they arent. We shall get into more details in subsequent posts.



Exchange - Yes, most people around me have high exchange needs. From things as mundane as recipes to things as involving as gossips, people do exchange things around me. But somehow we dont really make good employees. I think its because we are most bothered about "self" than the group.

Me, I think I have high exchange needs. I express them by participating in discussions etc. Actually, come to think of it, I have high recognition need rather than exchange need.



Power - People tend to think that they have high power needs but they lack initiative. Most of Indians around me tend to wait for orders. They love passing buck.

And I am also lazy. I dont think I have power needs but as I said, I have very high recognition need.



Expansion - I did not understand this one.



Acceptance - Very much. Most of the world around me has high acceptance needs. Probably can be attributed to the way we are raised in India. Every small achievement if praised and highlighted and as we grow up, we grow used to appreciation. We need acceptance for our efforts.

I also have high acceptance needs. I think acceptance and recognition go hand in hand.



Community - People say that Japanese have strong communities, I would say Indians have stronger communities. We might not be as loyal as Japanese but yes we tend to stick to our clans. We are still divided in Baniyas, Shudras, SCs, STs etc.

I personally want to break free of these communities but knowing myself it will be a difficult task.



Expression - I think I confused this one with exchange. I think people want to express themselves in India but because of way we are brought up (keep secrets within a family, women often dont have the opportunity to speak up etc), most of us dont express. Although when we start expressing, we can be very good at it.

I love the concept of expression. In fact one of the things that I want to do in life is to express myself. I have used images, text, videos in the past and I would love to experiment with other things.



Anyone wants to share their opinions?

Analyze vs Act

Yesterday I was reading The Ambler Warning by Robert Ludlum and he talks about this interesting 1v1 dilemma. Act vs Analyze.

There are basically two kinds of people. People who analyze and people who act.

The ones who analyze things are in great demand. Most of managers, consultants, experts are generally the ones who analyze. They look at any situation with an analyzing mind, often use decision trees, rely on expertise and use tools to find solutions to the problems they are facing. Their motivation is to make a rational decision and they need an anchor to base their decision on. Ambiguity does not have any place in these decisions. They have created and live by terms like water-tight, rational decisions etc.

And then there is a second breed of people. People who act. They do. They are the ones who don't really understand, cant really explain and don't believe in analysis, research and other frivolities around decision-making. They claim that they just know when a thing is correct and when something is missing. They use words like gut feel, guess work, spur-of-the-moment, knew-it-all-along etc. These people are more likely to be sportsmen, entrepreneurs etc. who rather live on the edge than to wait in the conference rooms or meeting halls.

You could be someone who either acts or analyzes. There is nothing wrong on picking either. Its all about personal comfort (and breaking away from it).

Me, I have relied all my life on analysis. I think its about time I move on to action (wow a discovery... Action comes from Act).

Originally posted here.

Related list of 1v1s
- 1v1: Excellence vs Mediocrity
- 1v1: Expert vs Employee
- 1v1: Popular vs Pertinent

Human Thinking - Decision Making - Well Read Person

With this post I am starting another Label called Human Thinking. I will be writing on things that I think are applicable to human thinking - way we think and act (rather REACT) in certain situations. These would not be backed by any kind of research or data. These are just a collection of thoughts and my thumb rules.

This one is about people who are very well read and are supposedly looked upon by everyone else.

People who read a lot might be at an advantage in a lot of situations. But they are at some disadvantages at times.

For example, if they encounter a familiar situation, the first solution that comes to their mind intuitively is one that they are familiar with (because they have read things that are similar to those situations). This solution could be optimal, suboptimal and even non-applicable in a lot of cases. And this is where their disadvantages from reading a lot comes in.

People might think that by creating this section on my blog, I am limiting my OWN thinking.

Inspired from Prof. Ray Titus.

Future of Blogging figured out !

My last few posts have been about future of War of Words and Thoughts. On way to office, I think I have figured out a way.

Here is a simple solution.

War of Words will be my personal blog where I talk about things that are personal to me. Things like I hate watching movies, I love watching cartoons, I want to meet Steve Jobs etc. These would be the things that no one else is interested in. These things matter to me and hence I blog kinds.

Thoughts would talk about things that I think passionately about and where I believe I can contribute. I would talk about technology, marketing, media, India, entrepreneurship, people, ideas and a whole lot of things that I would think and compile. Basically things on Thoughts would be useful for everyone. It is meant to be read by people. People would be able to make some sense of these posts and thus will contribute to their learning. This will also give me a good platform to showoff my prowess of these matters (which is obviously debatable). In one line, as management professionals would put it, will add value to them.

Obviously, if I get another brilliant idea, might throw this one out in the dustbin and move on.

Surprisingly, other people also seem to have the same issue (d_grailed for example). Financial community might interpret this as slowing own of Internet Addiction and might downgrade their ratings of technology stocks :D

Future of War of Words

Few Facts First

1. No one reads your personal blog if your last name is not Hilton or Spears.

2. Even though people dont read your personal blog, it still hangs in the air (stays on the Internet) for everyone to see and read.

3. It still reveals a lot of things about you. Lot of them desirable (that you think, that you are honest, that you like straight-forward, that you love adventure sports) and lot of them undesirable (that you are old, that you are a MBA, that you are getting balder with each passing day, that you are still single and that you dont want to get married) etc.

As I have said earlier that I am thinking what to do with this blog (here and here), I will try to pen down the arguments against and for the decision.

Reasons against shutting down

1. 4 years of effort (first post ever here)

2. Emotional attachment (even though no one else reads this, I write because I want to write and I like venting out whatever I think is relevant to me).

3. Very strong identity (Google for Saurabh Garg and this is amongst the first results).

Reasons for shutting down

1. 4 years of effort - with every passing day this 4 years is growing and would be more difficult to shut tomorrow.

2. Very strong identity - I started this when I was a student. Today I am looking at creating businesses. Every new contact I make in the real world would search for me on the Internet. And they see this blog - which is a good thing but does not talk about my work and other professional interest areas. One way to go about this is to brand this as a personal blog and move on (this is a good idea - I will do this right away).

So basically there is only one strong reason for me even thinking about shutting this blog. Point to ponder is that is it that big that I shut this down (wow three "that"s in six words - a new world record?). Will keep on adding points and thoughts to this. And come to think about it, this could be an interesting personal marketing and branding problem.

How about selling this on ebay? May be I get few interesting bids and money can motivate me to finally end this? Any offers from any generous people around?

More Rational thoughts on the reservation policy in India

The last piece I wrote was an emotional outburst. This is more rational argument on reservations. I shall try to figure out the impact of reservations, thoughts on what could have been done and finally is there any hope?

Ok why reservations in the first place?
Reservation was the card played by the VP Singh govt. when they decreed for the first time that India needs reservations to help the lower castes. Some people credit their win at the centre to this card only. Obviously its a thing of past and no one can say what really happened. After-all history is written by people who win the battles.

I am not saying that reservations is a card that is played when you want to elections. You actually want to help the backward classes. You are motivated by general upliftment of the country.

Is it really going to help?
I have my doubts. These doubts are based on following observations.

1. I don't have numbers but I am told that at engineering colleges of repute (not the ones that are opened in small homes on outskirts of Bangalore), the candidates admitted from reserved classes don't pass at all. Most of them flunk in first and second year and stop studying thereon.


2. Then a lot of seats for reserved categories are filled with people getting less than 10% marks. End of the day education is about quality of students and maturity of interactions between them. If there are 53% people from general categories and average scores of 80, and 47% of people with average scores of 20, what kind of discussions are we talking about?


3. There seats remain empty because there aren't enough applications in the first place to grant admission to people belonging to reserved categories. If an institute can intake 100 students and it has to start a course with 80 students only because we could not find enough people to take reserved seats, aren't we depriving other students of an opportunity to study?

Obviously I don't have numbers to prove or reject these claims. Can someone help me with this?

To end this chapter (if I may say), honestly I don't think that reserving more seats is going to help. They should rather try to find out why do people from these classes perform this bad in the first place. Is there a flaw in the primary education system? Is it because they assume that education for them is going to be easy and hence no need to put in effort?

What will be the impact and what could be possible outcomes?
Impacts would be many-fold. For the students that avail this opportunity, students that are now deprived and the country itself.

1. Reservations means that only the best from the education system get into quality higher institutions. What happens to people who were average? They would have to settle for below average education. And because of this, they would miss the opportunity that could have transformed them from average to exceptional.


2. This also means that general quality of education will come down. Not because people from reserved categories cant perform or they lack intelligence. But because they are not equipped to face higher education. Mind you a person can be intelligent and ill-equipped at the same time.


3. Brain-drain might be back. And with a bang. I can already foresee a lot of talented budding doctors, engineers leaving the country in search of a place where their talent is respected. Not their castes.


4. All the hoopla about FDI and India's growth story might be in for a rude shock. If I was Microsoft or Google or Suzuki for that matter, I would not want to set shop in India because I know that finding good people would be tough and costly. It would also mean that business environment is unconducive. And once the growth story stops, then its a debate for another day if the country would grow or not.

Is there a way to help backward classes?
Getting a reservation done at under-graduate level does not guarantee that the life standard would improve. This move might create a large work force that is unemployable. And this would bring in more frustration. You are educated and cant find a job. From personal experience, I know for a fact that there is no feeling worse than that.

So what can we do to change things for people who have been oppressed? To start with I think we need to change the way they live. A child learns as much from his parents as from his surroundings. How about taking a cue from Madarsas and Gurukuls and replicate this in mainstream? These are the places where gurus preach and teach kids about virtues of life. Make them aware of the world around them. If we cant provide quality education to these kids at formative stages of their lives, how about making the system unconventional.

I used to work with an NGO called Pratham and they used this concept really beautifully. They would take a community and teach all the underprivileged children there. Mind you - underprivileged, not the reserved category. And they did it very well. That model runs on a self-sustaining model and is awesome. Can share more details if someone is interested in knowing more about it.

What can be done to mark protest against this move?

1. How about getting talking to all bloggers to write about it? At least the ones with reach like Mutiny, DesiCritics etc.?


2. Can this be a topic for blogathon? Anyone from their team listening/reading?


3. Help YFE and other forums with online propaganda and marketing.


4. Make an online task force and spam news websites with comments, thoughts and opinions. And make these quality comments so that they have to raise it on their prime-times. Knowing Indian media, they would anyways do anything to hike their TRPs.


5. I am strongly against any kind of mass agitations that stops the normal functioning of the country. I voiced my opinions on the medico strikes, batti bandhs etc. I think I was wrong when I took that stand and I need to change. Now I am neutral to it. Is there a strong case of a mass agitation?

I am simply out of ideas. Can someone please put forth more thoughts so that we can actually do something constructive rather than just debating? Another peril of Indian education system is that we start debates and never finish things. Lets come forward with solutions rather than talking about things.

To end this on a light note, I was thinking about way forward for people who advocate reservation

1. Just education is no point. We need to reserve places on the buses also. How about roads? Special clubs for reserved categories. Does someone remember 'Dogs and Indians not allowed' posters? How about 'dogs and unreserved not allowed' posters? Come to think of it, this could be an awesome article.


2. Now that we have reservations for SC, ST, OBC, how about talking about reservations on the basis of religion? region? height of a person. Imagine - we only accept applications from people who are 5 feet 7 inches and weight 150 KGs.


3. How about creating small states for every simgle category that you can identify and then ruling over them? Who wants 29 states. Lets split India into 19043 states all with homogeneous people. There could be a state for people who are bald and have Sharma as their surnames. Oops what about ladies then? Will they marry inter-caste, inter-state? Will these be approved?

Please understand that views submitted are personal only and might be flawed. Please help me see the correct picture.

Crossposted

The Art of Looking Sideways

The Art of Looking Sideways is an awesome book by Alan Fletcher. I just bought a copy.

I had blogged about it earlier also on SaurabhGarg.com (on 13th Jan 2008).

This book should help me with a lot of inspiration about design, advertising, creativity, decision making and thinking. Looking forward to reading it.

And now this book becomes the second most expensive book that I have purchased after Still Reading SRK.

Other links
A vid on Youtube where Alan Fletcher talks about it.

1v1: Excellence vs Mediocrity

Third in series after Popular vs Pertinent, Expert vs Employee.

Excellence vs Mediocrity

You can either pursue excellence or remain a mediocre.

A mediocre by definition is someone engaging in an act where objective is to finish the task rather than to complete it with best of abilities. Often, shortcuts are used and outcomes are ordinary. Borrowed wisdom is put to work and original thought process takes a back seat.

Excellence is where the objective is to compete with oneself. Idea is to create something out of the world even though the objective is well defined. Excellence could be in way you work, in way you opine of things or even the way you execute. People who pursue excellence sleep easy and tight.

Mediocrity vs Excellence in one line: The pursuit of excellence creates original thoughts that a mediocre person would put to use.

Both these are more about an attitude rather than expertise or availability of resources. And once you start the pursuit of excellence, its very easy to fall in the trap and move back to mediocrity. By definition, most of the human population falls in the mediocre category and funny thing is that they dont even realize it.

You can pursue only one at a time. You could be mediocre or you could be excellent. What are you?

Originally posted at Thoughts @ Work

1v1: Expert vs Employee

This is second in the 1v1 series after Popular vs Pertinent

I was talking to Monica when I remembered something I had thought of about 5 months ago. Finally posting it.

Expert vs Employee.

You can be seen and known as either an expert or employee.

An employee is a "just another person". He is competent and does his job well but that is all to him. There is no such thing as new ideas, innovation, bright sparks coming out of him. He is one amongst the crowd. No one expects anything from him.

Expert on the other hand is someone who is everything an employee is and then there is lot more to him. He is expected to change the way world moves, come up with brilliant yet simple ideas and should be as close to indispensable as someone can be. Expert belongs to the rare breed.

Expert vs Employee in one line: You would not want to meet an employee but would pay to see an expert.

And interesting thing is that the distinction between an expert and and employee is often an outcome of the way a person himself thinks and approaches things. Until you start projecting yourself as an expert, no one would consider you an expert.

What are you? Expert? Employee?

How Zero marketing can revive Indian hockey?

Prof. Ray Titus talked about reviving Hockey on his blog here. I am copy-pasting it here ...

You don't need a marketing genius to plot how hockey can come up to cricket's stature in India. For that matter, pin no credit to anyone in the cricket administration team (read BCCI) for cricket's supremacy as a sport in India.

The only reason why cricket is what it is, despite being one of the most boring of sports, is 'cause that's one game at which we are 'world-beaters', never mind the 'world' being just a few countries.

Want a resurgence in hockey? Get India to win!

Sure, that's a tall order considering yesterday's Olympic qualifier debacle. But its not impossible. Can the guys who manage the sport. Get in foreign coaches. Revamp the admin. team. Build astro-turfs for players to play and practice on. Bring in something akin to Corporate governance.

Again, an initial investment is needed. Well, its worth it, if that can propel India to become world beaters. If that happens, watch the moolah roll in. No marketing whiz-kids needed.

I dont really agree with him. I left a comment there. Reproducing it here ...

Hi Prof. Titus,

I am mostly a silent reader of your blog and agree to most of the things that you say. However today I disagree with you.

I dont think getting more facilities and making the game professional will help the status of Hockey in India.

I think there are two huge variables in making something a mass phenomenon.

1. The network effect coupled with a feedback loop: Most people (including media) talk about the game because most people want to hear about it. And more people want to hear about it as everyone else around them is talking about it. No one wants to be left behind. Over a period of time, this network effect gets a positive feedback loop and suddenly you have a mass hysteria for something. In our case, cricket.

2. Experience: Most of the current fans of Cricket have grown up playing the game in the gullys, homes, schools etc. Most of the people have fond memories of the game and somewhere or the other they relate to the game and hence the following.

Am sure there are other things also. Please share.

Regards,
SG

P.S.: Posting this on my blog as well.

Any thoughts?