THE ART OF NOTHING

This article is dedicated to all those people, who at any point in their life, feels like doing JUST “NOTHING”.

Every day we all strive for completion of our long list of events ….assignments , case studies , meetings and more meetings , we keep on adding stuff to the “TO DO LIST” to keep ourself more satisfied and busy , but there is one thing we never think to add to our list ,which is “NOTHING”.

By doing nothing, I don’t mean being Idle or lazy, but it is more related to be oneself. It is like walking down the street with free thoughts and ideas which can inspire you ignite you or make you more natural. We all are aware of the changing season , time , nature ,&  government , but are we aware of the change in ourselves , are we still the way we wanted to when we were kids, or probably a little sensible on thinking the same.

Sometimes, we can achieve a lot by doing nothing. You can day dream about the various things you want to do in your life, or you can make a mental list of “100 things I want to do, before I die”.  The dream will be the fire that will light up your thoughts in the darkest of the days, and will be the winning edge at the finish line.

This does not mean that you bring the life to a stop, and start doing nothing in the vein of making yourself more relaxed or productive, experience the difference of this nothing by understanding yourself and your priorities in life. Detach yourself from the regular and monotonous work, and go out for a walk is a part of doing nothing, sitting calmly in the garden, or taking shower for more than required is also a part of doing nothing.

It’s not possible to completely avoid the regular work, but reducing the “all time” exposure on your mind can give you a little extra space to live your life your way. It is important that people read the fine line of difference between doing nothing and being idle and start making the new list of events in a smart manner, in “their manner”.

Thank you for reading :)

Ujjawal Sharma

1/12/11

ARE WE FIT FOR TOMMOROW????????

Organisations, companies, enterprises and free markets all are unlocking the doors for creative Potential; they have come to a realisation as to how important Managers are for any organisation. Developing leaders is a prime-facia for the business world, but still some companies are failing to determine the right kind of people they want, and hence they are lacking in the competitive world.

Nowadays, corporate giants are spending millions and billions in training the executives, and shaping them into the right toy for their Game. They are building amazing infrastructure, huge development centres and large training departments to lure the crowd.

The above line sounds critical, but the reality is much more haunting. Companies pay huge amount of development budgets in training and development programmes, which at times disturbs their credit situation and leads to Job Loss. And the whole reason behind this is inappropriate choice of workforce for their business. They assume that they can develop the personality of a person in a time span of 3-4 months, and this practice is still continuing………..

The question here is, does this training actually help? Do these subtle and soft skills pay all the time? Do they work in all circumstances?

We have heard this statement thousands of times in our lives, but I am not very sure as to how many times do we ever think about this?

“All that glitters is not gold”

This is exactly what is happening in the business world .Companies are hiring people on random basis and low wages , just keeping in mind that their Organisational training will mould this unskilled labour into an efficient workforce, which is undesirable and questionable.

The confusion is that it is not easy to teach and mould a person physiologically and just fill in the qualities of a leader. A leader has to have qualities like being intellectually strong, aware, intelligent and courageous. The organisations and the human resource planners need to understand that there is a difference between being cunning and smart, and it’s highly improbable to change the first into the second form.

The world is changing, and so are the definitions of words like Intelligence and Activeness. Evaluating an individual’s skills by his marks and grades is no more a trend. A manager has to manage and decide, rather than doing a scientific research, for which the criteria has to be different. It is imperative for the individual and the organisations to understand that the talent is no more found in books. Diversity in skills and passion for work is what matters today.

This is a mere attempt of sharing the complexity that the world holds, and preparing ourselves for the same ……………………

Thank you,

Ujjawal Sharma

 7/12/11

BRANDING

                                                                  Cafe Coffee Day

I love cafe coffee day. They make a nice coffee with lots of designs including hearts and leaves.:) :)

 Their store locations are usually spacious and comfortable. I have recently figured out the fact that those who hate the brand are snobs. As the company grows, they start falling into different fields and people should appreciate it.

The above lines were told to me by one of my fellow colleague, when I had to give him a huge lecture regarding his limited knowledge and scope of thoughts!!!!

Originally, CCD was one brand which led to a huge change in the Indian coffee market. It 

narrowed down or almost finished the gully coffee shops (at least for the “DUDE” class 

initially) in and out of every single youth location. In our faded memories, we all have the

 image of those small shops and “tapras” where we used to get coffee for 5 or 6 Rs.They 

used to sell hot,black,cheap,undrinkable,acidic coffee (in the name of strong coffee!!)It 

was fun for us as we used to sip it down speedily. At that moment, we never thought that 

there could be a different place for youngsters, because all that was offered to our limited 

knowledge and all other places were meant for Uncles!! :p 

There were a few places here and there, but they were unable to capture the mass, as regarded boring or not mah type!!! Furthermore these places were hardly inviting, 

comfortable couches with ac and attendants all around, where you can comfortably read

 a book or play a game and carry your laptop around.

CCD is losing its charm!! Forgetting what has made it popular, the brand evolved to a 

further different platform including lounges and unnecessarily open spaces. Each month it

seemed store space had been sacrificed to accommodate a new shelf of junk.

Do people ever purchase those crème rolls and cheesy chips or for that matter the CCD t-

shirt....alas!) They have started with new eat in menus but have forgot to keep the stock 

of cappuccino and Tropic Temptation or Iced Eskimo. Expanding brand requires a lot of

 research & development, keeping in minds the core customer interests. Many a brands 

today are losing the interest of their main customer’s .And now that CCD is expanding into 

all small cities, you can find the store at every corner and street, which is one way 

negative as its losing its diffentiability and uniqueness. Not only CCD, many service brands 

are blindly colliding in the same race keeping the pursuit that the consumer purchasing 

power has increased in the due course of time, some of them have extended with the same 

speed as that of their extended product lines.

When it comes to overextending of brands ,older brands are more prone to face danger because of the related market value and expectations attached to them .Think about the Ponds Toothpaste ,which was a complete failure ,as people relate ponds to fragrance and cosmetics, and they were not ready to except the extension.

As CCD is readily expanding its branches in many states and cities, it needs to soon focus on the major implications it might face soon, with entry of competitors like Starbucks, Costa and Barista, CCD might have to face a tough time soon. Because now “A LOT CAN HAPPEN OVER COFFEE ANYWHERE”. With its unplanned extensions along with annoying music or local channels playing at some of the locations, people find it difficult to differentiate its uniqueness, which was attractive earlier.CCD, has lost its core customers, and now it is hard for it to persuade them to come back.

The greatest Irony for CCD’s success was the absence of other high-end brands in the same game.CCD is a very small brand; these fatalities are even harming large brands like Suzuki which miserably failed in its scooty Access 125 because it is difficult to change the relativity of brand with consumer. We all know the reason of extension is to attract alternate market and consumers, but it is imperative to keep in mind that retaining the old consumers is any day easy and efficient than acquiring new ones. At all times, company needs to be in the shoes of the consumer, to understand the specific wants and the related utility that the brand is providing to him.

With this all I certainly not mean that you should stop marketing, advertising and branding, but yes you can be a little more intelligently focus the Adage of your company to retain the long term bonds with your old and existing customers and mean while can choose using alternative approaches to pull the new customer, keeping in mind your core product. Keeping just to the core doesn’t mean sacrificing expansions, it’s just what you are known for, or for that matter it is actually your Name.