Personal Branding- Take 2

 Yeah, a slightly different take. You don't have to yell from the rooftop (or anywhere else)- to be a great personal brand. You may be a great cook, for instance. Or an unusual cricket umpire - I met one of only 3 women umpires in India- and so on.

Or you may have an uncanny knack of solving Math problems- most of these types are introverts, in my opinion. A strict teacher you may remember, or a loving one- can both be remembered for long. Or one that gives you very different kinds of exams. I have had all kinds, so I remember a few of both kinds.

A problem-solver, a problem-creator are both remembered. We are not talking likeable brands here, unlike product brands. If the brand is strong (either way), you are likely to remember it, or him/her in this case.

There's a reason Birbal is remembered, or Tenali Raman. May I ask if you have heard of them in stories from your childhood?

The News

 This is based on a survey of around 5 English news channels- three international, and two national.

Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Nigeria are the major countries in the world. Myanmar comes fourth, when there are protests. Kidnappings or protests that turn violent pushes your country up a notch. Palestine and Israel replace Myanmar, when they have fireworks.

The only news is bad news, with very rare exceptions. Fear-mongering is a part, about Mucor..whatever, the Third Wave, and impending doom, in general. Businesses closing down are news, but not those that are booming in the pandemic.

Travel shows and cookery shows are most popular, but they are not on news channels.

Political violence or killings are very important news, because they never happened before in the history of mankind.

Who took oath as what is news. What they did after that is not. Every word spoken by a small time politician is more important than what an artist, a scientist or a common man speaks, if you go by time allocations. 

Brands That Surprise Me

 Either with good product quality, or with service, I mean.

Dabur Red toothpaste. It looks good, tastes good, and I have the same kind of loyalty to it (my wife discovered it, to be fair) that I once had for Colgate. But Colgate was in a monopolistic situation, with not much of competition. Dabur is also a home-grown brand.

Polo. I have grown fond of the mint with a hole since the pandemic began, and I usually have it around me in office and at home. It's comfort food, and doesn't do much harm.

Airtel has improved its service over the years. Now, it's pretty good. Pre-sales and after-sales, particularly. 

Wion, among TV channels that I watch for news, is pretty decent. Also, I am now a regular watcher of some films and serials 3 days a week on TV 5 Monde (Asie), which has no ads, and decent evening content with English subtitles. 

Branded clothes, I was never a great fan of, I care more about fit and comfort, which no brand seems consistent with. So I am a switcher, and stick to a budget.

The deliverers and their back-end have improved a lot. The food deliverers are a deliverance for many during the pandemic times.

Bookstores. I am now a fan of Blossoms and Bookworm, both on Church Street, Bangalore. I recently found a few Nero Wolfe (by Rex Stout) books at Blossoms, so doubly a fan. 

Sayaji at Indore used to be consistently good with food. Barbeque Nation is their brand, though I haven't seen much of that.

Park hotel in Belapur was pretty good with its service, and I spent a lot of time there. The breakfast buffet was very good, better than a lot of others. In Kolkata, I liked the Peerless Inn. The Adamas Hotel in Hanoi was a good international one I stayed at. 

ANA, the Japanese airline, and Sri Lankan were two that surprised me pleasantly. Almost everything about Sri Lanka as a destination, actually. 

Good Versus Evil

 They say the world is a constant tug of war between Good and Evil, or Good and Bad. All epics or legends have these two sides, so do most movies. But the idea of setting up a BAD bank gave me some ideas.

Why not have a Bad Governance model, and study it as a contrast to Good Governance models? It will be interesting, to see who is classified where.

We can also have a Bad Boy award, like a Good Boy award, in schools. So we recognise both, and know where we (and they) stand.

Not just boys, we do this for Girls too. Not all girls are good (though most are).

A Bad Actor Award- an Oscar or Filmfare for really bad acting? Ram Gopal Verma would win for Bad Direction every year, at least in India.

Bad Cricketer Award, maybe? Bad Author?

Bad Politician award may get controversial, and there might be too many contenders, so we'll forget that.

Bad Teacher Award, along with Best Teacher?

Ok, will let you think of some more, I am running out of Bad ideas.

Year 2020- A Wrap

 It started off innocuously enough. In fact I travelled in each of the three month before the thunderbolt hit us. Met a few alumni of IMT Nagpur, in Delhi and Mumbai, and went to a get-together of a music group in March first week, and got to Pune for a weekend, just after finishing my Marketing Research class. Did not realise that I would be stuck there for almost six months.. the lockdown began on 24th March.

There were good and bad things about the year. I met my Mom several times after the lockdown ended, at her place. Other relatives who live close to her too. Celebrated her 91st birthday on August 10, with a Zoom call, where she heard her favourite songs from old films too. But later in November, we lost her to complications from old age. We were happy that she was happy almost till the end, and that many of us were around. 

One of her pics from 2020. Pune.

Taught some Ph.D. courses on Zoom. Got back to IIM Indore campus, and started packing for my new destination- NMIMS (Narsee Monjee) at Bangalore. But also got a chance to train some enthusiastic students (Prachi, Akansh, Anusha and Shantanu) in playing Golf, and made friends with them as a result. So I now have a pal each from Bho-pal, Delhi, Ghaziabad, at least. I also got some lovely parting gifts from them.

Got to Bangalore without a mishap, and Agarwal Packers did their part of the job. Joining an institution where students are not on campus is a new experience, but I have met most faculty and staff in person, and that's a start. 

A couple of nieces, and a couple of ex-students became mothers for the first time, and that was a big plus. Some got married, and others got new jobs and moved.

It was not as horrible as it seemed, at the end. But still, hoping for a better and brighter 2021 for all, like many of you. Some goals for the coming year are to get re-acquainted with Bengaluru hudugas and hudugis (boys and girls), and new (to me) students/alumni of NMIMS. We might do a virtual Convocation/Graduation soon-that'll be a first too.

And yes, I made my first video- on Personal Branding-thanks to a former student, Shailaja Gupta Kapoor, who also kindly lauded me for my courage!

Good Governance- Lessons From Monarchy

There were good monarchs too. We sometimes forget that. What did they do?

Ideas that work.

Jobs/work.

Peace.

Justice.

They had respect for wise people, many of whom were advisors in their court.

They had a witty humorist too, to break the monotony. Tenali Raman and Birbal come to mind readily.

Did they build walls with the neighbouring countries? Probably not.

They were well-informed, and used multiple channels to get information, including personal visits to corners of their kingdom.

They assigned the right people to the jobs they had in mind.

Restaurants- My Michelin Rated ones

Hilton- at Osmania campus, Hyderabad- Irani chai, biscuits, bun-omelette. At that age and in those golden days, the best of the best. There were several similar joints in Hyderabad at the time. Kohinoor on MG Road in Pune is another one with similar things on offer.

Raj Bhavan in Davangere, Karnataka. We spent many evenings there with family, dining at leisure. It was a garden restaurant, which meant that the kids (small then) could roam around and we could hold a conversation or admire the garden.

Taj Mahal at Abids, Hyderabad. A simple veg. platter (thali) which was tasty, filling and within budget. Kamat's at Koti next to Women's College was another.

Lucknow chat place, the name of which I forget. Great chat and mithai. I think it was in Aliganj. Also, the gilawati/Tunde kababs and biryani in Hazratganj and beyond-the film Dawat-e-ishq rekindled some of those memories.

Alpha restaurant, Garden restaurant in Secunderabad area were among the best for biryanis when I lived there. Paradise, too.

Bharwan da Dhaba, Amritsar. Makke di roti, and Sarson da saag.

MTR and Maiyya's, and lots of darshinis in Bangalore.

Savji restaurants in Nagpur for fiery stuff.

Nanking, an old Chinese restaurant in Secunderabad.

The Bong Adda in Belapur, new Bombay.

and of course, food eaten anywhere in good company, accompanied by nostalgia, laughter...

Masaan-Film Review

Watched this gem of a film yesterday after I read reviews of it in the Mumbai press. For once, the reviews were bang-on! This is a great little film. It is about life and death. A bit tragic for my liking, but ends on an upbeat note. It has a very realistic storyline, and is convincingly authentic.

The actors and the director I don't really know, except that they did their parts well. A story that has unexpected twists, good acting, beautiful cinematography, good music, and a leisurely but engrossing pace. Can't give away the story here, as it'll spoil the fun for those who might want to watch it.

Reminded me of my two other recent favourites- The Lunchbox and Finding Fanny. Do watch if you like serious (and good) cinema. I am loving it!

Customer Service- Good and Bad

We live and learn. I learnt a lot from two instances of customer service today.

First, we were out trying to fix a punctured tubefull (for lack of a better descriptor) tyre. The first couple of guys were either not at their station or ignored us. The third guy condescended, but after he learnt it was not a tubeless one, nochalantly asked us to get the tube removed at "a showroom" and get the tube to be worked on. He would only work on the puncture, but not remove the tube. Amazed, we moved on to try our luck at the fourth. After giving us dire warnings about the tube quality (trying to sell a new one), he fixed the puncture and we moved on in life.

Immediately therafter, we had a delightful experience of some great service. At the restaurant called Haveli, we asked for food, and we asked him to make it quick as we had something to do in 45 minutes (he must have heard that from our talk too). We were literally out of the restaurant, bill included, in less than 30 minutes! Amazing, this time in a positive way.

As I said, one lives and learns.