Chetan Bhagat - Spark Keep it Shining Speech! - What about the ACTION?

Summary: I liked the speech given by Chetan and they way he showed the 4 thunderstorms of disappointment, frustration, unfairness and isolation trying to thwart you. What I couldn't notice in his speech was the Umbrella or the Rain Coat to save yourself from these thunderstroms: THE ACTION. 

"Sincere ACTION is the Umbrella that can help you brave the thunderstrom!"

-Sachin Uppal, 1st August 2008

I was reading Chetan Bhagat's speech at the inaugural function of Symbiosis College in Pune, India. He spoke about a simple concept that keeps people kicking and striving to reach higher success. He likes calling it Spark, and urges to keep that Spark Shining. It is nothing but your will power and your passion to achieve something more in life and your continuous drive to reach it. 

Download the complete Speech in a PDF format along with comments here.

In my life I have learnt that this spark comes to you if you are passionate about something and that passion is driven from your goals. If you set your goals (short term and long term) you always have a direction and you can measure and strive harder to achieve the same. Some time back I wrote about Goal Setting and how it's important to achieve and bring a direction to your life.

When I look around I see a lot of talented people and see a lot of them with new ideas but what I fail to see is people taking action to fulfill their dreams. Having a long term and short term goal helps you get focused in your life and you can actually achieve what you have set out to achieve in your dream.

I liked the speech given by Chetan and they way he showed the 4 thunderstorms of disappointment, frustration, unfairness and isolation trying to thwart you. However, while saying that don't take life too seriously, instead sincerely, what he missed out was a BIG point: ACTION. 

What differentiates people from being Great and not good, is ACTION. Having dreams, living life sincerely and keeping yourself focused towards your goals need ACTION. Not taking life seriously shouldn't make you complacent and shouldn't make you lack in Action. Action comes to you from your passion. There are thousands of people out there who like to talk about doing something great, but how many take action to achieve it? These days with the competition increasing at such a fast pace, you are going to face one or more of these 4 thunderstorms.

Have you ever thought what's going to differentiate you? 

To SUM it up in a sentence:

"Sincere ACTION is the Umbrella that can help you brave the thunderstroms!"

For many people reading this the obvious question would be - How do you do that?

- Set up your goals.
- Be realistic or upgrade your self.
- Believe in yourself.
- Follow some dicipline.
- Breakdown your goals in small milestones.
- Congratulate yourself on achieving milestones. (get yourself a pair of new shoes, a tie, a watch, a perfume or whatever you think you like)
- Bring your passion to everything that you DO.
- Let your passion Permeate  amongst the people around you.
- Show the world that you are not just about the Talk, but you prove it with your small Actions.
- Small steps go a long way to achieve a goal.
- Influence people in believing your goals.
- Ask for help (don't feel ashamed).
- Give help - It's a 2-way road.
- Follow- Ethics and Integrity.
- LIVE your dream and don't give up. Even at a failure learn and stand up again and give your "passionate best shot".

Enough of talking. Let's DO!

Online Media - Solution to Crude Oil Price Rise and Real Estate Market in India?

You must be hearing that the crude oil prices worldwide have been rising and it has led to inflation in a lot of economies. Can “Internet” and “Online Media” become a small stepping stone solution to abate the rising Crude Oil and Real Estate prices?

The continuous rise in Crude oil prices worldwide is posing inflationary effects in emerging as well as developed economies. We all understand that Crude oil is a resource which will diminish one day. So the environmentalist, the energy honchos, corporate and governments worldwide are trying to find out solutions to reduce crude oil usage and trying to develop parallel sources of energy like: Bio-Fuel, Nuclear Energy, Water, Wind etc. I am hereby explaining the affect on Real Estate industry in India and how they can recuperate from the same.

What’s the Present Real Estate Industry’s situation in India?
The recent bloodbath in the real estate sector has started taking a toll. Almost all large developers are now facing a severe cash crunch and finding it difficult to complete their ongoing projects. In fact, the situation is so bad that most of them have reported a 50-70% cash shortfall. Industry sources say that the liquidity crunch has forced many developers to pick up cash from the unorganized market at interest rates as high as 35% to 50% annually. The lending rate of banks is between 18% and 20%. The grade A developers which are facing crash crunch include DLF, MGF Emaar, Shobha Developers, Unitech, Omaxe, Parsvnath Developers, Hiranandani Group, Ansal API, BPTP Developers and TDI Group. As a result of the crash crunch many developers have started going slow or even stopped construction of projects which are either in their initial stages of development or which would not affect their bottom line in the near future.

Why it happened?
There are multiple factors (explained in my previous entry) which have led to this situation which can be like:
-Rising Crude Oil Prices
-Inflated Cement and Steel prices
-Recession in US
-Increasing inflation
-Over-hyped prices of properties (for higher gross margins)
-Overspending on Marketing by these developers (tradeshows, marketing collaterals, TV ads, billboards, hoardings etc).

All these reasons put together led to the increasing real estate prices and here we are with cash crunch amongst real estate developers.

What’s the Solution?
Obviously, if people start buying more houses, the real estate developers get more cash. If people start using lesser oil, the consumption will go down and subside the demand and help in reduction of prices. However, with the inflation mounting the cash in hand is reducing for the common man and impacting the purchase cycles of the buyers and sellers. I can’t suggest what can be “ONE” solution to this country wide problem. However, here is one solution which I can think of, and can be helpful from a perspective of a “techno-marketing” professional.

Presently in India the consumption of fuel follows a pattern like this:

· Transport (Petrol, Diesel, CNG, Aviation Fuel) : 51%
· Industry (Petrol, Diesel, Fuel Oil, Naphtha, Natural Gas): 14%
· Commercial & Others : 13%
· Domestic (LPG & Kerosene): 18%
· Agriculture (Diesel): 4%

These numbers clearly show that Automotive Industry is definitely a majority fuel consumer. So if we can help reduce a small amount of automotive fuel consumption, we are surely headed to ease the pressure.

Solution: Leverage the Online Media.

Benefits of using Online Media in solving various issues:
Lower energy requirements.
-Work from home.
-Instead of people traveling for so many meetings all across the city, you can have web conferences and reduce your travel time and cost of traveling. You are saving time, money, oil and gas. Eg: www.webex.com
-You will be more productive while you are meeting people online and you would be able to do more in lesser time.
-Set-up Web cams in your construction sites to show the present construction status.
-Give maps of everything online to help people see the location of your site and many more similar things.
-Less print promotions, lesser expenditures and more ROI
-Lesser marketing expenditures.
-You can do online exhibitions and tradefairs eg: www.unisfair.com
-Spend less on marketing by doing away with billboard, TV and other sort of ridiculous expenses.

Spend money in promoting your websites and driving people to go Online and save money. Lesser use of energy sources which will get depleted one day. More usage of technology which can drive businesses and reduce dependency on oil based energy.

Though I am proposing something which is far fetched, however, things like these take a definite time span to get implemented and early adopters reap the benefits of Brand leadership and differentiate themselves from their competitors.

Also, this is just one small solution which can go a long way in helping to reduce energy requirements and may help the inflationary pressures, public discretion can never be discounted for!

World's worst sales letter? - Direct Marketing

Geoffery James author of over 7 books has recently blogged on BNet, sharing one of the Worst Sales Letter he has seen. Here is the letter which he got:

The bracketed numbers refer to comments below:
"Dear Mr. and Mrs. James
During the past few months, I have completed an intensive training program for real estate professionals through the Century 21 learning system. [1] With this recent training and my experience as a full service agent, I feel quite confident in my ability to help buyers and sellers with their real estate needs. [2]
Century 21 is one of the best real estate firms in the area due to the many educational programs promoting current market strategies[3], as well as many years of experience within the real estate community.[4] In addition, we provide:
- Outstanding service to all clients.[5]
- Market data that is always changing.[6]
- Weekly updates for clients listing there homes.[7]
- A wide variety of buying and selling tools.[8]
It is great working with a company that has so much to offer their clients.[9] If you or someone you know is considering buying or selling [10] property feel free to give out my name or business card [11] and I will do everything I can to meet their real estate needs.[12]
Sincerely,"
His comments:
[1] OK, you’re fresh out of school. So why would I want to work with you?
[2] That’s nice. Unfortunately, you’ve said absolutely nothing to make me feel confident in you.
[3] Why do I get the impression that some marketing guy wrote this as boilerplate?
[4] Experience doing what? Sending out awkward direct mail pieces? And compared to whom?
[5] Outstanding in what way? Outstandingly bad? And by how much? And where’s the proof?
[6] Huh? Does this mean that the data is getting more accurate or less accurate or what?
[7] And that’s important because…? And what’s with the typo?
[8] Sounds like a hardware store. Why would I care? What do the tools do?
[9] Glad you like it. Why should I care? What’s with the grammatical error?
[10] Trying to address two different markets weakens the entire pitch.
[11] At this point it starts sounding positively desperate.
[12] Why would I risk my friendships for somebody I don’t know?
What’s really wretched is that the letter was sent first class mail to individual families, on heavy stock paper. This means that each piece cost somebody — hopefully not the obviously hapless agent — at least half a buck per letter. I’d be surprised if the guy gets so much as a nibble. Pitiful. Truly pitiful.

10 reasons why IIM Fees hike is justified!

Recently there has been a lot of discussion and rants on the IIM Fee hike. I strongly feel its a welcome step and IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Kolkatta and for that matter IITs fees hike is justified. Here are 10 reasons why this fee hike is justified?

1. Best Academicians cultivate Best Businessmen
   The best professors across the continent can be brought in and retained with better salaries and they will contribute in creation of best businessmen of future!
2. Infrastructure expansion: Why do you pay higher for your home?
   Better infrastructre, more facilities, more research and more credible and authentic content can be created for the benefit of society. The inflation has increased, the prices across the board in Bangalore have risen, why on earth do you pay higher prices to buy Home? If you can expect higher salaries then this hike is definitely justified.
3. Fewer Subsidies means more capital for primary and secondary education.
   Govt. can spend on subsidising PG education and help these institutions become autonomous. More fee will bring in more funds and this can help the government inturn to focus more on primary and secondary education.
4. Education loans are more freely available.
   Today more banks are willing to give education loans, also government has urged to reduce interest rates for education loans. So it's much easier to get loans and pursue education.
5. Scholarships for needy.
   The director of IIM B Pankaj Chandra has also announced the increase in the shcolarship package to 8 Cr to help the needy pay their fees. So it will be much easier for people.
6. Brand building for IIMs – Expansion to Newer Geos + More revenue.
   The Brand IIM can be taken to the other parts of world now and you can see more IIMs opening in other parts of world expanding the IIMs realm and brand and bringing more revenue.
7. Competing in the International arena.
   It will also help in branding exercise of IIMs to take them into multicultureal multi geographic arena. You can see IIMs focussing on expanding it's presence on the international scenario.
8. Building India Inc education brand as most premium.
   Premium brands need advertising and branding not just in a local region but also in international scene. SO obviously increased funds will help in brand building exercises and taking IIMs brand to the next level in turn making BRAND INDIA INC. visible worldwide!
9. New programs can be started and better learned society.
   Newer niche programs can be started, more industry can be supported with better and newer skills. More industry partnerships can be built! This will lead to a better, knowledgable, learned society that India has.
10. More industry interaction can be brought in.
    More industry programs means more industrial revenue. Also more industries will participate in funding and expanding IIM brand to various parts of India and aborad.

This increase in fee has a overall positive effect. Student and aspirants have to be educated more by IIMs and similar society associations on why it's important and how it will be beneficial in turn for them only!

1st Linkedin F2F(face to Face) Kicks off

LinkedIn is a business-oriented networking site founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, mainly used for professional networking. As of December 2007, its site traffic was 3.2 million visitors per month, growing at an annual growth rate of about 485%. As of January 2008, it had more than 17 million registered users, spanning 150 industries.

LinkedIn's CEO is Dan Nye. As of February, 2008 founder and former CEO Reid Hoffman, previously an executive vice president of PayPal, remains President of Product and Chairman of the Board. LinkedIn is located in Mountain View, California, and funded by Greylock, Sequoia Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and the European Founders Fund. LinkedIn reached profitability in March 2006.

LinkedIn members in India, the biggest market for LinkedIn in the APAC region, are all set to meet face to face in cities across the country.

Hundreds of users have already expressed interest in putting faces to names, and the first such event is expected to take place in New Delhi in February 2008.

Those interested in being informed may join the Yahoo group set up for the purpose as follows:
Group home page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/linkedinf2f To join group, send a blank mail to linkedinf2f-subscribe@yahoogroups.com Send mails to group at: linkedinf2f@yahoogroups.com

The 1st linkedin F2F in New Delhi will be followed by more similar F2F meetings in cities like Bangalore, Mumbai and more...

People who are interested in expanding their networks, meeting more professionals from their industry with similar interests, discussing about issues and solutions, new ideas, etc can join in.

For bangalore F2F you can contact me here.

HR 2.0 Strategies - Niche Professional Networking - The Young Brigade of Knowledge Professionals

HR 2.0 Strategies - Niche Professional Networking - The Young Brigade of Knowledge Professionals

In my previous post on Enterprise 2.0, where I explained how Web 2.0 can be leveraged for Business Transformation in today’s world and wrote about HR 2.0 as the new emerging trend in organizations, here is another HR 2.0 Strategy for your organization.

Niche Professional Networking (NPN). This trend is catching-up and quickly this is taking over the traditional methods of knowledge enhancement, community building, internal communication and recruitment in organizations. Attached to this is another trend of Young Brigade of Knowledge workers – In there early 20s, they have emerged as the dynamic lot who understand business and action around it at a very young age.

Ok, So What is NPN?

It’s like a playground where the kids are allowed to do what they like doing best i.e. play. So you let the people enjoy by allowing them to play in their home ground, in other words, it’s a knowledge workers’ forte and you help the knowledge worker by providing a platform to exchange ideas, share knowledge and let them give comments on the topics of their interest.

Essentially, you allowed the individual to live their lifestyle in the way they want it. And the innate human need of communication gets satisfied. Just by watching the individual living his lifestyle in front of you while you invisibly watch them doing various activities, you can pin point the correct candidate for your needs.

What can NPN offer?

In NPN, the individuals connect with people of their choice, caliber, interest types and more…They not only share their knowledge, obviously they learn a lot, while commenting on a certain issue, their thought process gets more organized, their personal network expands and what more, they are all doing it voluntarily.

Just by sitting in front of their PCs they are able to gauge the worldwide best practices and keep themselves abreast with the latest trends in their field of work.

How is it different from Intranets?

A lot of organizations are doing it through Intranet networks like Wipro, IBM, Infosys, SAP etc. However, the issue is that people use these intranet for a unwind experience and the content takes a hit.

People from various departments with varied interest log on to Intranet and they talk about things as varied as movies, books and favorite actors. So this goes on to killing their productive time.
With knowledge networks or NPNs this time killing techniques are avoided and instead people learn more about their profession, knowledge expansion and networking is what they are able to get as compared to the Intranet.

NPN advantage – This niche professional networking will allow individuals around the world to network, learn, share, collaborate and above all grow as a individual and as a professional!