What we do to live = What we do while living ?? NO

There is a big difference between the two statements given in the heading of this post. 

Unfortunately all of us has assumed that what we do to live is the only thing we have to do while living or we can do while living.

Imagine in a lifetime time we spent in earning and time we spent in things we like and love to do.   We spent time in earning or what we do to live is to really live life we want. But somewhere we have forgotten the very purpose of our life or our earnings and we just live as if we are here to work and earn whole life 24 X 7 X 365 X our active years.

Our needs have grown so big that it takes our lifetime to earn for that and then when we become old to treat ourselves. Period. Most of us do not think life beyond job or business ie earning activities. So much so that keep working till death is considered good. Even our most celebrated star Amitabh Bachchan could not escape this race.   

When you have enough for survival (subject to our own thinking how much do we really need, because greed is endless) it it not our obligation to give back our time , energy for the society or even do things we really love which has no economic benefit.

All of us must pause and think about the difference between what we do to live and what we do while living. We need to earn so that we live the life we want to live. But the moment earning becomes endless activities , life becomes worthless. Retiring age of 60 was set by Govt so people retire at 60 but is it necessary to retire only at 60 ?

Entrepreneurs never retire from economic life and die while doing business. We as a society must awaken to realise the difference and should work to promote ,create platforms for non economic activities. Our education institutions should inculcate importance of hobbies and pursuing hobbies. We have assumed purpose of life as keep working for earning forever. Most people have no clue what to do when they are not working for earning.  

Life is not about living after retirement , it is about living daily. Therefore more we reduce our need , less we keep working for money and more time we will have for things we like/love to do. It is here in this space life lived is worth living. 

Knowing about Three Idiot is fine but it is a real challenge to become one in the rat race society all we live in.

Pause NOW. At-least  think.

Do you remove your theatrical HAT daily ? (Off Topic)

" Every business a stage and work is a theater." Pine & Gilmore in their famous book 'The Experience Economy'.

Yes in a sense therefore every enterprise must know HOW to perform on stage to create scintillating experience for their customers. 

But other-side of the quote is equally relevant & powerful. Once you are off stage you must stop performing and start living. Usually that is a difficult proposition. 

A military men will behave like military men even in his house with his family and in his social circles. Same applies to Police men and for many other professions. An auditor will always tries to find faults with everything he encounters even when he is not actually auditing. A lawyer will always have legal angle in his personal and social life situations. A boss will mostly act bossy in his house and social circles.

Removing theatrical hat is very important as well as difficult. We become the role we play on stage. It is only the real on stage actors know how to remove such hat and live normal and natural life unlike the on stage roles they play. 

Amitabh Bachchan and the likes will not act police or goon at home , they will be natural human being different form their on stage characters. Position of power & preference is only during on stage professional and business performances. When we try to mix up our on stage roles with our personal and social roles, difficulty starts.

Family relations for all are common  - husband, wife, father, mother, son, daughter etc and friends for everyone  be it lawyer or beggar. They expect us to behave normally without our theatrical hat. 

Are you removing your theatrical HAT while with them ? Next time be conscious about the on stage hat you are wearing and removing the same when you are off stage. Life will be a different experience.

What is your team size?

What is your team size? 

Did any one ask this to Amitabh Bachchan or Seth Godin or Barack Obama or Krishna in Mahabharat ? 

Yes one person chose team over Krishna i.e.  Duryodhan and we all know the fate of entire Team Duryodhan. 

Question is often asked at every organisation whenever one goes for consultancy , What is your team size ?  

Team matters when an individual does not matters. But team does not matter when individual matters. In all the 4 names stated above , they only matter and they even need not have team at all. 

Every HERO of their own field work in SOLO mode.  When Sanjay Datt goes to Jail howsoever big his team may be its of no use to producers. Likewise it applies to everyone. 

Team matters but one need to know the difference - When ? 

One has to decide whether team is relevant or the person ? 

Who is Speaking ? You or Your work?

Either you or yr work has to speak up. Yes either MUST speak. 

There are two kinds of brand building for all : self and product / services. 

One is self promoter by its sheer nature or strategy. Aggressive advertising , marketing , self promotion , self talk etc. Making all out effort to be known among the target audience. 

Second way is to do a kind work that speak for it self. It also requires speaking but here work speaks. Users of the work will speak and spread the word. When a company creates scintillating customer experience, its customers speaks. There was a saying that it is the best selling author and not necessarily best writing author who sells. However in times of powerful social media its the best writing authors will become best selling. Only sellers without the best content will be difficult now. 

It is not always necessary that best sellers are not best content wise, however when users speaks rather than self /company , people believes most. Self sellers can be successful but when work sells - person and product not only reach up to the top but command respect also. 

We have two shining examples of person whose work always spoke more than the self and they are on the top of their class : Guess?  

Mr. Amitabh Bachchan and Dr Manmohan SIngh. Both r introverts , speaks less but cud reach to the top , sheer for the kind of work they did. You may add examples on both side. 

Are you or your work speaks more than you? 

The Superstar & The Big B of Corporate World

Rajesh Khanna wud have very happy to see HOW countrymen who have forgotten him for last many many years do remember him in his absence. Kind of tributes flowing in even after 12 days on every channel , media and public shows indicates that as a nation all of us have lost someone special. Whose presence was not felt for all these years though his absence has created some vacuum in some-part of our life. Such was a power of the SUPERSTAR. Phenomenal = Unparalleled.  

Though it’s not a right time of comparison between him and Big B , but yet its d right time to know the difference in approach towards life & success for everyone. This applies to individual as well as to companies too.

Yes phenomenal success comes with its own challenges. Be it individual be it company. When success hits your mind , mind stops functioning and thinking in balance. It takes over the realities, I become real capital in place of i becoming more and more humble. 

Those who believes in rule of English language that I is always capital, often could not see changing world around them, forgets that the change is the only constant and his hampering of vision instigate creation of own world and vision of manipulated world.  Instead of focusing on his own work in sync with the world and consumer taste with changing times unparalleled success makes one believe that , I can be on top come what may and whatever it takes. 

Big B learned,  of course may be with the precedent of Mr. Khanna and it took him 10 years to adjust to the realities and to appear in his new avatar.

In business world also there are these two traits visible in many top companies. Consumer taste changes & unless successful companies are capable to offer the food for changing taste of consumers, companies are going to fail sooner than later. Samsung over Nokia is the recent corporate example. Colors/Sony over Zee Tv , Facebook over Orkut and there are many such examples.  

It happens if companies are not proactive but Challenge is how to bounce back once fallen from grace. However,  most companies are not reactive enough in their approach to the market. If u fall and fail , its fine, how you bounce back is the real differentiator.

At the end it’s the Consumer who is the king and service providers must align to the consumer taste be it actor or companies. Taste of the exciting consumers change and taste of new consumers is any way new. Big B could align to both.  Are there any examples of corporate Big Bs? 

Does your enterprise Balance Sheet reflects TRUE Assets? No Its Not.

Opening the Balance Sheet and looking at the asset side will not give the true answer.  

Reasons:

- Fixed Assets are revalued and not MTM. We all know how much it will fetch if we are out to sale NOW. Yes but its Assets as long as it produces the goods which are acceptable in the Market with our cost structure.

- Stocks have two elements: Bogus & Inflated to boots profit and dead stock reflected having no market value. Remove these two to arrive at true value

- Debtors also have two elements: Generated through bogus sales and almost doubtful to doubtful debts

- Loans & Advances includes money given to associate concerns which is not recoverable in most cases. 

Therefore after adjusting the Balance Sheet with above realities , you may arrive at the RIGHT figure of the assets.  & if you adjust assets with actual liabilities , you may be surprised { shocked } with your networth figure.  

Therefore Balance Sheet is not the right place to find out the TRUE assets of the company.  Its the Non Balance Sheet assets that counts and matters the MOST.

Assets = Resources under Influence of an Enterprise which can be leveraged for Wealth Creation for all stake holders. 

An enterprise can influence its people working for it to give their best, its suppliers to supply best at most competitive rates, its customers to patronage again and again and refer new customers also,   its share holders to invest when opportunity demands , its relationship with government and other agencies to quicken the process and also policy influence,  its relationship with local area  groups/infrastructure ( What Tata Steel has done and is doing for the town Tata Nagar )  to garner their support as and when require , its Brand Promise & of-course its assets in the Balance Sheet. All these are the assets. All resources and relationships MUST be leveraged to create wealth. Not all area under INFLUENCE are reflected in the Balance Sheet.  

Question is HOW to leverage assets and HOW to expand area of Influence ?? Truly successful companies are masters of both. If any one is missing success will be limited but when both are present  success is to be seen to believe. In personal category Amitabh Bachchan , Dr Manmohan Singh are the shining examples of how they leveraged their Assets ( Voice / Acting and Knowledge / Experience - nothing is reflected in their balance sheet on the contrary these assets have made their balance sheet stronger ) and expanded area of influence.    Two of the largest enterprises in the country Reliance leveraged their capacity to deal with govt , capacity to execute at jet speed & Infosys leveraged owners' foresightedness , perseverance and governance policies to create wealth.  None reflected in the Balance Sheet.

To conclude its Assets outside the Balance Sheet that makes enterprise Balance Sheet stronger. Not the other way. Take stock , become aware of your off balance sheet assets TODAY and have plan to leverage them fully.

Assets = Resources under Influence of an Enterprise which can be leveraged for Wealth Creation for all stake holders.

 

My 2012 Reading List , Favourite Blogs and Tweeters

Books on the Agenda

1) Likable Social Media by Dave Kerpen ( On How to delight customers using social media )

2) Read This Before Your Next Meeting. The Modern Meeting Standard by Al Pittampalli

( On How to make meetings more effective, efficient, and worthy of attending )  (On meetings Tom Peters says " No meeting is routine, every meeting is a chance to show leadership" )

3) Get Bold by Sandy Carter ( Using social media to create new type of business)

4) Social Intelligence by Danial Goleman ( On understanding human behavior , dealing with people and soft skills )

5) Shant Sudharas by Swami Vinayvijayji ( On 12 Bhavnas i.e. 12 Reflections of the mind - concepts in Jainism )

& to Finish already started book 

6) Save the Cat  ( On Script Writing )

7) Samaysar by Swami Kundkundacharya ( 2nd time Read )  ( On Jainism Concepts of Nine Elements )

My Favourite Blog /News Letter:

1) Seth Godin

2) Social Media Examiner

3) Copy Blogger

4) Bain Insights

5) Strategy + Business by Booz & Company

6) Fast Company

7) Customer Experience matters by Bruce Temkin

Favorite Tweeters I  Follow

1) Sekhar Kapur ( Sensible views on matters relating to INDIA )

2) Tom Peters ( Inspiring , Innovative , action oriented )

3) Paulo Coelho ( Thought provoking )

4) Amitabh Bachchan  ( No need to mention reason for him, he is what HE is )

5) Arvind Kejriwal ( True nationalist and clear thinker )

6) Guy Kawasaki ( Entrepreneurship, updates and many many more, U must be ready for 

bumper tweets daily )

7) Zig Zagler ( Motivational quotes )

8) Mashable ( Updates on whats happening & powerful contents of the online world )

Will update this regularly. 

Happy Reading and Action-ing your learning in the new year. 

Why HOW is MOST Interesting ??

How is Design , How is Style , How is Courage, How Motivates, How is Execution of Strategy, How is description, How Instigates Thought Process,  How Excites. How is all about ACTION. 

I saw movies like Lagaan or Koi Mil Gaya many a times and knew who will win the cricket or basketball match , for that matter we see match highlights ever after we have seen the entire match. We do this repeatation just to watch HOW part again and again.

Someone has won Rs. 5 crs in KBC we all know by now, but still  we will see the show to know HOW of the victory. Result is less important than HOW of achieving the result. 

 Venture capitalist is pretty excited about WHAT of your business plan but its HOW that decides for or against investing. 

In school days we many a times know answer of our Maths sum but we get marks only for doing HOW of the answer i.e.steps.

HOW your cell phone or laptop or tab works is more important than anything else. Its beautiful , its cheap, but HOW i.e. functionality will be the key decision factor.

Discovery and other science channels have many program me on HOW it works or Built.

Mahatma Gandhi or President Obama or Sachin Tendulkar or Amitabh Bachchan or DH Ambani, we all know they are/were leaders in their respective domains. We read about them & what fascinates all of us is HOW they become what they have become.

Many self help books are all about HOW.

Like I promote Customer Experience as Brand In Action. Rest all is Gyan , HOW is Gyan in Action.

Point for all us to consider is to focus on HOW of what you do. Beautify / Focus/ Committed on your HOWs and it doesn't matter what you do. It will be noticed and acknowledged. In his books 7 Habits ................, Stephen Covey says "Sharpen your Saw" , yes sharpen your HOW.

Only Sales , no after Sales , forget RETURN or Refund

Zappos.com return policy is exciting - 365 days return & free both ways shipping. Neither shipping charges within the US nor shipping charges on goods u return. 

Customer HAPPINESS is the FINAL agenda not getting money from customer any how & then let the customer go to hell, we will not listen.

Justdial.com , brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. Their sales people sales the plan for 1 year and indicate that in case intermittent termination just write to us and we will do the needful. (Mis-sell to fulfill their targets)

However actual picture is quite different. They will hardly respond to your complaints, neither they cancel or stop EMIs if the customer is not happy. They want to complete the contract period any how irrespective of customer happiness or satisfaction. 

Wording they use: "However, as per the contract signed by you, we will not be able to hamper the tenure of the contract before the stated contract period; however we will always provide services to you for enhancing your business profoundly. Hence we will be unable to discontinue the ECS."

 

{ I visited the net to find customer stories with Just Dial and found the link http://www.consumercomplaints.in/bycompany/just-dial-a30775.html }

They are ready to whatever but not refund of money of discontinue of ECS. Pity. Hope Mr. Amitabh Bachchan or rather some customer champions could have been used to change the company culture instead of promoting uncultured (i.e. no customer centric) brand.

I fail to understand why companies want to earn at the cost of customer unhappiness?? When a person  becomes a customer , there are certain expectations. No one will waste his or companies' time to buy and then return or discontinue without a reason. Unfortunately most companies became less interested in customer once the goods and services are sold and even least interested when customer have a complaint or want refund on return of goods.

Companies invest huge amount on brand ambassadors but hardly any time or investments on actual brand experience creation or culture change.   

However SOCIAL MEDIA will change this mindset of the companies. Companies MUST learn this  proactively or else brand value is at stake (Huge and Quick).