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This quote flashed on my cell’s display just now…

“We attract love by the quality we display,

but we retain love by the quality we possess.”

25 Brand Building Mantras by Jagdeep Kapoor

Recently I read 24 Brand Mantras-Finding a Place in the Minds and Hearts of Consumers, a book on Brand building by Jagdeep Kapoor. As the author rightly claims, the book puts forth 24 mantras for building brands in a lucid way. The 24 mantras, well illustrated with examples, will be an interesting read for management students, and all those who are/will be involved in one or another way in marketing including building brands. Wait… before you think this post to be a review of this book, let me surprise you saying that I have no intentions to do so . There are a plethora of websites where you can find reviews of this book. In this post, I am just penning down those 24 mantras, which by mere headings will convey

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One of my favs…

“Excellence has always been achieved by those who dared to believe that something inside them is superior to circumstances”.

- Bruce Barton

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“Love makes you feel you are surely lovable”.

I believe in fuzzy vision

My MBA program at NIASoM is about to end in the next 3.5 months and companies are coming down to the campus for recruitment. During one such interview of mine with a recruiter, I was asked, based on my CV, “Why you like to experiment with new ideas, new things? Don’t you think it shows lack of  aim/target?”

I have pondered over this question a few times earlier too, “Why am I always eager to try out new things/ideas”? And few days back, I got an answer to it and this was what I told the interviewer who asked me the question I mentioned  above (in italic bold).

“At this age, I don’t want to prematurely lock myself into one course of action and stick to it throughout my life or may be for the next one decade. I feel it makes me unfit in achieving my aspirations.

My passion towards trying out newer ideas and concepts help me develop a fuzzy vision which guides me in achieving my aspirations by way of general and newer directions. It rejuvenates my dream, my aspirations. It’s the Kaizen way !”

Lately started tweeting !

My Dear Readers,

I have lately started tweeting !

Follow me on Twitter @ www.twitter.com/shalinjain27.

You can also find my live tweets  under “on Twitter.com” in the sidebar.

What difference agricultural productivity, distribution and NREGS together can make ?

With reference to one of my earlier posts on the drought India is currently battling with, I feel this drought has something more to write about. One of the reasons India was able to withstand the dreadful drought of 2002 is due to its efficient distribution system (no doubt, it has its own pros and cons). In the present droughts, two most important aspects to be looked upon are:

1. Shortfall of rain has taken its toll on the food production of our country. However, we still have productivity and distribution factors at our rescue.
2. The economic slowdown experienced in the last one year (for some of us, even more than that) has depicted that – in times of crisis, markets are expected to drive limited resources to those places which not only needs them the most, but has the capacity and the ability to pay for it. The NREGS (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) is expected to increase the purchasing power of the rural population and thereby increase their capacity to pay for the limited resources they can utilise most efficiently in times of drought.

To efficiently address the impact of drought in rural areas, agricultural productivity and distribution alongwith NREGS have a significant role to play.

In a minute

Dear Readers,

The phenomenal success of Twitter as a micro-blogging platform has assured me of one particular thing. People prefer concise information – a piece of text which can be read in a matter of few seconds and gives you ample time to think and act upon it.

From today onwards, my blog will also feature short, lucid and concise posts under the category ‘In a minute’. These posts are expected to take a minute or even lesser than that to read through.

Keep visiting!

Keep reading!

We are amid a Drought – A tough yet an opportunistic time

It’s official now. The country is in the middle of the worst drought since independence. The statements made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his recent meet with the Chief Secretaries of States testify the intensity of this drought. Official estimates state that there will be 29% shortfall of rain as compared to normal levels and at least 246 districts have been declared drought hit till now.

Hey wait. So, are we going to talk about the same saga of how this drought will adversely affect the growth rate of the economy, how the already suffering agriculture sector would be doomed, how the drought will encourage distress migration and pose a danger to the food security programmes? No, not at all. We can leave upon this task on to the experts of whom articles on drought are being featured in newspapers on a daily basis. Let me accept this. Instead of serving as piece of information, such articles give me the jitters. They paint a gloomy situation of the country post-drought where everything looks doomed.

So, for a change let’s look at a positive side of this drought. This may even make you think how can there be a positive aspect of a drought. Surprisingly, there is. A look into India’s history of droughts is a testimony to the same. The drought of mid 1960s

What Shoba Narayan has to say on ‘Chennai of today’

Half awake, eyes half open, I get up from my bed. I take a look at my phone to have a sense of the time. It’s 11.30 in the morning. On any other day, this would have stunned me up. Those tasks which I am supposed to complete in the next couple of hours would have started dancing wildly in my mind. Which task to take up first, which should be the next? I would have hurried up to get ready in the minimum to minimum possible time. For some time, even guilt of awaking so late would have crept into my mind. Getting up at 11.30 in the morning really screws up your time-planned activities of the day. But today, my actions are not the same. They are different. I rub my drowsy eyes off and say, “It’s just 11.30.” Today, it’s Saturday. No classes, no project submissions, no research, nothing. I go near to the door and pick up the newspaper. I am anxious to find something interesting, apart from the daily political and business news.  And to my surprise, I stumble upon an article written by Shoba Narayan on a sweet transition of Chennai – from a typical conventional city to a new, edgier hub where people are still close to their culture. The Tamil Culture. For a moment, I fix my eyes on to the article to assure myself, ‘yes, it’s an article on Chennai, its culture and traditions and how things have evolved in Chennai.’ Since I have been back from Chennai (recently, I spent 2 months in Chennai, May-June, doing my internship as a part of the MBA program), I have been missing it a lot. I really love Chennai. A mention of Chennai by way of its culture and traditions, the Tamil language, the Tamil food or the Tamil movies refreshes the memories of my stay in Chennai. And it compels me to visit my blog again and again and read and re-read my Chennai experience.

You can read Shoba Narayan’s article on “The new, edgier Chennai” over here.