Professionalism!

I was at a suburban railway station 'Borivali' in Mumbai yesterday when it was raining cats and dogs in the City. This tremendous amount of rain put the city infrastructure to test, causing water logging in low lying areas in the City. So, there was a delay in the local train timings.

Picture: Aerial view of Bandra-Worli Sea Link, Mumbai, India

Sometimes, its the beauty of this city that such incidents bring Mumbaikars much more closer and then strangers talk and discuss their life stories. There is a profound depth in the life story of every Mumbaikar. There is a story of work, love, hatred, friendship, struggle and success. In the 15 minute interaction with a fellow Mumbaikar in his 50's while I was waiting for my local train back home, I learnt of a short story about professionalism.

He was a typical local Mumbaikar with a square framed spectacle, tucked out shirt and a black shoulder bag. He worked for a Courier Services Company in Mumbai and was handed over the responsibility to personally deliver a parcel containing a pair of sports shoes worth around INR 16,000 (US$ 290) while it was raining heavily. I have a lot of respect for the courier guys, they really don't care if the weather is sunny or rainy but just do their work honestly. While walking down a lane, he told me that he came across a path which was completely water logged and couldn't even see the road properly. His feet were shaky because he was scared to put one more step further fearing it may be an open man hole or a big pot hole. He said, "I was not scared of falling down but I was scared about destroying/ damaging the responsibility which I was carrying (pair of shoes in his case)". It was his responsibility to carry the parcel and deliver it without any damage. He fearlessly stepped ahead and kept walking till there was a clear path ahead and delivered it to the destination. He took charge of the situation while risking his own stand. 

In this case, that person had a complete advantage of going back to his office saying, "No, I can't go, its raining heavily" or he could have just mishandled his parcel complaining the city water logging. But, he didn't complain. He was responsible for his work and about his professionalism. Its the same set of qualities we look for in the Corporate decision makers as well. That 'parcel' in this case could be the 'expectation of the Company stakeholders'. 

I forgot to ask his name or about his Organization name but I understood that he was a gem and his Company must be very fortunate to have him as its employee. After that I just left the station to think about other alternative route back home. But, I was happy that I had a small story to share on my blog. 

Be Courageous! Be Professional! Be Honest! Be Hungry! Be foolish!

"Aashiqui"- The Brand Extension

'Aashiqui' is a hindi word describing 'love'. Before I talk about the Brand development strategy of a recently released Bollywood Movie 'Aashiqui 2', let me ask you to just enjoy this amazing video of the song called, 'Tum hi ho' from the movie. 

Source: Youtube video of the song 'Tum hi ho' from the movie 'Aashiqui 2'

I suppose, you must have really enjoyed this romantic melody. This song has become a massive hit among different demographics in India and has topped the charts across various media platforms. It's being played everywhere, be it a local laundry shop or an expensive coffee house. Its being shared massively on Facebook and other networking sites as well. It is also one of the reasons, the movie became popular and has been declared as successful. In Bollywood, music has a great contribution in the success of a movie and this history is being repeated year after year. 

Picture: Movie Poster of the 1990 released movie 'Aashiqui'

Now, let me come to my point of discussion. 'Aashiqui 2' which was released in the year 2013 is a sequel to the 1990 released movie 'Aashiqui' which was commercially and critically successful mainly because of its popular music. There are many such movies which have released their sequels and have been really successful. Some great examples of Hollywood movies are Spiderman, Batman and Harry Potter. This is a perfect example of 'Brand Extension' where the existing brand name of the movie is extended to a new and modified product (its sequel or a completely new story). In other words, the brand name 'Aashiqui' has successfully leveraged its already established brand name to launch another movie with a completely different story  but the essence of 'good music' still being intact. Here, the biggest advantage is that the cost of expenditure in advertising and making the audience aware of their core competency can be reduced. 

Picture: Movie Poster of the 2013 released movie 'Aashiqui 2'

Brand Extension can sometimes be really very risky and can cannibalise the brand name. Like in this case, when the audience heard about 'Aashiqui', the first thing they remembered was the music of the Original movie. A perception was created in their minds about the good and appealing music which the brand will carry with it to 'Aashiqui 2'. This perception was carefully preserved by the movie makers and it delivered its promise with good music and it was a success. 

Now, if the producers of the movie use 'Aashiqui' as a brand name to make more movies to extend their brand and suddenly decide to drop all songs from them and make it a thriller without any melodious music, it can create a confusion in the minds of their audience because, then they can no longer associate good music with the brand name 'Aashiqui'. 

Some brand extensions in Bollywood and Hollywood have been really very successful but some have even failed miserably, but this hasn't stopped movie makers on using this formula of brand development strategy. Its a great and perfect formula for movie makers if they really wish to reduce their expenditure on creating a brand name but 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down' review by the audience is difficult to predict due to changing demands and expectations of different market segments in domestic and international markets. 

Let us keep a look out on how movie makers can leverage the brand value of their original flicks to create new movies, with innovative ideas. 

Grab your seats!

Picture taken at Thane S.T. (State Transport) Bus Stand, Thane, India

Found this picture while clearing the old files in my system. Had clicked this picture way back in the year 2007 while on my way to College. 

There is always a huge queue of people to catch the 'Thane- Bhiwandi' Bus in the morning. These people are however trying to break the queue and getting in from the emergency exit door to grab a seat. Smart!! The monkeyness in humans is still present.

Al though, it may seem funny, but its the depiction of a common man in India. A Common man in India spends his entire life trying to cross the limits just to grab a seat in a bus or struggles to find a fourth seat in the second class compartment of a crowded Mumbai local train (my fellow Mumbaikars will definitely understand what 'fourth seat' means). I seriously think, a common man deserves more than that!

The present infrastructure in India needs to be revived. This may be the deterrent for GDP growth in India. The current infrastructure isn't sufficient or satisfactory for the 1.2 bn + population in India.

Mind your feet!

I had been to South Mumbai last weekend. While waiting for my train, I just thought of clicking this picture. Had been thinking about it since so many years.

Figure: Picture taken at Santacruz Railway station in Mumbai, India

Just take a close look at the platform gap. It is around 12 inches in this case. I have even observed a platform gap of around 15 inches in some suburban railway stations in Mumbai.

For a young and energetic person like me, it quite cool to jump of the train when it stops or board the train very easily but, what about our elders and senior citizens? Can they jump like youngsters? The answer is definitely NO! I honestly think, something should be done. Consider the plight of the senior citizens when they have to board or get off the train during peak hours. It must be so very bad. There have been so many accidents in past years and even few months back when people just slip off while boarding and end up even loosing their feet.

I have stayed in Singapore for more than a year and travelled to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as well. I just observed how careful these countries are towards their senior citizens. These countries have the basic infrastructure which I feel, not only senior citizens need but we youngsters need as well. They have Air Conditioned stations and Escalators and even travelators to save the travelling time and make the journey less tiring. It is good because, the amount of energy we spend in climbing the stairs and sweating out in the heat can be put to proper use in school or at work. Also, the platform gap is just negligible in these countries but still they keep on announcing in the MRT's and LRT's over there to mind the platform gap. We need to have such announcements over here as well. Maybe, someone's feet could be saved!

If not the Air conditioned stations or the Escalators, I think there should be some initiative to at least amend the platform gaps at different stations in Mumbai and also the responsibility lies with people to protect the public infrastructure from getting damaged. We need to think about our parents, elders and senior citizens right now! There is no point in duplicating the world class cities in other countries to build our infrastructure if the basic necessities of our elders aren't safeguarded!

I am sure, if these small issues are rectified which I don't think is impossible, together we can move towards a sustainable city and a nation!

Lets all look up towards the shining India.

Officially M.B.A.!

Happy for being officially conferred the Master of Business Administration (MBA) Degree from the Chancellor of James Cook University- Australia, Lieutenant General John Grey AC (ret'd)

Now, looking ahead to begin the next exciting phase of my life!

Cheers!