P R and Narayana Murthy

 P.R. is  Public Relations. And one of the finest practitioners of this individually was, in my view, Mr. Narayana Murthy. I.T. industry as a whole benefited from it, and Infosys also, of which he was a founder with a few partners.

He would tirelessly go and speak at various forums, on various subjects, and I have heard him twice myself. At PES Bangalore, and later at IIM Indore. He spoke about the industry, of course, but also about the quality of education in India, etc. Having an opinion and expressing it are two different things. He was a rare combination of these two. He did this for more than two decades, probably three.

Combined with his company's story of how it brought I.T. to Bangalore, in the days when it was not easy to do I.T. from India. His story about importing a computer (for his company) through the red tape that was Indian bureaucracy also became a talking point for a long time.

The company also did a few things right, including increasing transparency in accounting- their Annual Report was a THING- and listing on an American stock exchange. But his use of personal P.R. techniques added a lot of value, in my opinion.

Social Media is Bullshit- Book Review

Yes, it is the title of a book by B.J. Mendelson- I'm not kidding. And it is by far the best book on the subject I have read. Not that I claim to have read hundreds, but still, it is in the spirit of this book that I exaggerate a bit.

But seriously, anyone who is in marketing, advertising, PR, or anti all these, must read this book. Disagree or not, it is a brilliantly provocative book on the alleged pluses of Social Media. Mendelson has a page that you can visit to find out more. Here is an excerpt from that page (http://bjmendelson.com/faqs-about-bj-mendelsons-social-media-is-bullshit/) which describes what the book is about-

"Social Media Is Bullshit is a guided tour through the bullshit factory that is the social media marketing industry. You’ll see how their primary product, bullshit, is made, who is selling it, and how they’ve been getting away with selling bullshit since 2007."

He is mainly focussed on what social media cannot do for small businesses or small guys (like u and me) who are unconnected, and need marketing to survive. He says it could work for big corporations (but not always), celebrities and the like. But then, they can afford to lose a few millions here and there if it doesn't. A compelling read, and written engagingly, with a lot of references as end-notes, so you could refer to them if you like. Insiders' comments from ex-facebookers and Youtubers and Twitterers (company execs who worked there) are particularly good.