Let us anounce “war against terrorism”


Serial blasts are attacks on democratic structure. And I feel the solution lies in our strong democracy itself. None of such malicious activity is possible without the support or involvement of general public directly or indirectly. Terrorist are in our society itself. They are using all the government infrastructure for their plans. They are traveling in same buses or trains. They are using same banking system to transfer money from one hand to another as we do. And somehow they are successful in using us also.

The labors transporting materials from one place to another do not know what is inside the box. They are doing it for their daily living. The person at check post clears all the materials for the want of very small money. Knowingly or unknowingly he is also involve and responsible. The police can not check all the luggage arriving in a city. But they can randomly check. They can use information technology to identify a suspect. I do not know how effectively they are doing their jobs.

These terrorist get shelter in our society. Knowingly or unknowingly they are using us. They could be in my very neighborhood. They are buying a pressure cooker or a bicycle or a bike from the same places where we also buy. Somewhere somehow they must be leaving a scope for a suspicion. At that time tell me honestly how many of will take pain to inform police? I am sure few of us will be daring enough to do. I am using word dare as I feel police has lost its credibility. Many of us will agree that helping police is inviting them to harass yourself.

Another issue is the insensitivity we have developed towards our society and so nation. Very recently a lady got accident on the roads of Mumbai and no one come to her rescue as it is only the responsibility of police. This loss of sensitivity is making us selfish. Most of us think that all the calamities are just a news as long as it not happening with me. Directly or indirectly these attitudes are also helping enemies of democracy.

Before designing a comprehensive solution to the problem of terrorism. We must fill all these gaps already existing in our society.

Serial Blasts. What is the value human life in India?


It happens only in developing countries like India where one after another terrorist attacks keeps government busy in counting causalities. Bangalore, Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Delhi, I do’t know how many more to come. The worst part is inactivity of government to change anything at ground level. Our politicians are expert in blame game. State vs. Center. Or our politicians are even more busy in solving bigger issues than terrorism like Hindi vs. Marathi.

What would have been the sequence of actions if it was happened in developed countries like USA? We have one example in recent history. A 9/11 and then government responds with serial attacks on Afghanistan. At least government there understand value of human life (of course of their own country only) and assures its citizens that they will do anything to secure them. What are we doing? Why our government do nothing attacks after attacks? Is human life value in India is nothing?

This is basically a failure of system. And we all are responsible for that. It can be proved very easily. Let me ask few questions.

Do you think it’s a result of only religious fundamentalism? If yes, think again. Are all the people involved in transportation of RDX, weapons or any other explosives belong to one religion? Are the people clearing the tonnages at various check post doing their job honestly? Are the people supporting these fundamentalist during their stay, travel or anything a society can do with a stranger, not Indians?

As per as government policies are concerned, do we have any comprehensive database on identities of citizen of India? How the government tackles corruption in various government departments? Even in anti corruption department? Why government do not have a common and comprehensive policy on terrorism?

There are infinite number of such burning question. And if we feel that we carry some value of our life, we must seek the answers to these questions.

Brand Managers! What are you building, a category or a brand?


One distribution channel is setting up the rules of game in today’s environment is multi franchise organized retail. Now a days the only distribution channel is prominent for the most of the consumer durable and FMCG product is organized retail. This multi franchise model is redefining challenges of branding and product management.
The older brand building activities now become category building activity. For example, imagine a manufacturer of refrigerator who successfully builds a brand and in turn customers turn up to the retail store. But inside the store, story is different. The need trigger or decision to have a refrigerator could have been augmented by the said manufacturer, but inside the store customer is open to buy any brand. For a walk in customer inside a store there are lot of variables available to take a purchase decision. It may or may not be dependent on the branding of the company which prompted the customer to consider the product.
This case implies that the older way of advertising and branding are basically building more of a category than a brand. At this point positioning of product plays a key role. The brand managers should think of which gap or problem they are solving by making a positioning of a product. Because a slight differentiation if exploited properly could play a major role in making purchase decision. These gaps or points of differentiation are available everywhere. It could be price point, product features, point of entry in customer home, geography, channel or even variables like buying need of customer, perceived value of product by the customers etc.
While positioning a product one should be very clear on competitive strategy. As in multi franchise sales network a wrong strategy will give opportunity to competition to win and set the direction of game. It’s a zero sum game. Its like a game of cards where you keep guessing of available cards with the opponents. You check your strong and weak cards along with setting trump card. You make a plan with a sequence of moves. And if your sequence of moves are ideal you can even win with your weaker cards, because you are setting the direction and opponents have to react to your move. But there is one flaw. The whole strategy is based on few real things ( strong and weak cards, trump etc) and more guess work like who are the opponents having cards stronger than your weaker cards. And an assumption that all the best cards are not in one opponents basket. So it is risky. And so it is challenging. When you put a wrong move someone else wins and then he starts setting directions to the game. Since guess work and risk are still on the table, you’ll have to wait for next opportunity to win a move and take the commands of the game back in your folds. Strong and weak cards can be replaced by competitive strengths and weaknesses of any organization.

What should be role of captain while communicating in media?


I have done it or we have done it? Why Dhoni become so colloquial of his choices, he made before last tour of Australia triangular series? He has all the credit of historical win or has he? I do not know right answer of above questions. But I am shocked to see this news; team practicing in Chennai for the coming test match against South Africa was seen polarized in two groups. Not to say surprisingly it was seniors vs relatively juniors. Kumble vs Dhoni. One wrong word in media is dividing the team. Dhoni, maturely could have avoided his personal feelings while talking to media. Dhoni should remember that he is not a caption of Junior team. He is captain of India. And seniors too represent India. BCCI should think on some polices on what should be role of captain while communicating in media.

Sanntosh Srivastava publishing

Seniors vs Juniors; what should be the right selection process?


M S Dhoni recently proved all the critics wrong on his choice of some junior cricketers over seniors by leading a spectacular performance in last CB series. All credit goes to him and his team. But I am surprised why he becomes so colloquial on his choice. As a captain representing a nation, how can you publicly announce that your choice is age based and not performance based? If he wants to prove a point then how could you forget the incredible performance of test team led by one of the senior most cricketers and performed by all especially so called seniors? If you closely analyze performance of young cricketers even in CB series, I had few doubt on actual potential of young cricketers in batting line up. In most of the matches middle order lead by all new blood cricketers failed. Only few performances can be counted as great that is too by Sachin, Gambhir and Dhoni himself. None of them can be claimed new in the team.

No, I do not want to prove seniors better over young cricketers. But I want to understand what should be the Ideal team selection process? Should it be based on age or performance? Should it be based on experience or recent forms in domestic, first class or international cricket? Should it be solely governed by a captions choice or be institutionalized through a robust performance management system? In all of the above questions I would like to prefer the later choice.

Sanntosh Srivastava publishing

BCCI ready for next Olympic


No, Cricket is not going to be included in next Olympic Games. After mega launch of IPL, BCCI has surprised again by announcing a corpus of Rs 25 crore for sports other than cricket. BCCI and sports ministry will contribute Rs 25 crore each towards national sports development fund which will be applicable for five disciplines; archery, boxing, judo, swimming and weightlifting.

This is great news for Indian sports. Few days back there was a lot of debate on future of Indian sports other than cricket when Indian Hockey team failed to qualify for Olympics. By announcing participation in development in other sports, BCCI has shown how a private participation can change outlook of sports disciplines which are relatively underdeveloped. Cricket being leading sports in India, BCCI is also showing right leadership.

The current focus is on few individual sports only. No hockey, no football. However; this could be starting of new era of private participation in Indian sports.

Sanntosh Srivastava publishing

ICC ODI Ranking and Indian Cricket


Not surprisingly Australia is no more number one in ODI ranking. South Africa has just taken over the first slot. Credit must go to India as their recent wins against Aussies in CB series forced Australia to step down.

One event can change course of history. Last year when India departed very early from world cup, none had ever thought that just in one year the come back of same team would be so fascinating to watch. But one event changed every thing. That was 20-20 world cup.Cricket India is in the talk now. Domestic cricket is boosting as IPL is emerging as one of the biggest commercial domestic sport.

India is not far behind from no1 position in ODI or Test ranking. I am confident with healthy domestic tournaments and new winning attitude will very soon make India as no team in the world. The probability is even more as other top teams have to manage their new problems. Australia need work on youth composition in team along with focus on quality of cricket. South Africa is clueless on their team selection process where quota on proposition of colored is still prevalent.

Sanntosh Srivastava publishing

Unconditional Love


Have you ever watched the first sun ray coming to earth? I had very few occasions to feel such experience. one of those is unforgettable. It was during my college days when along with some of my friends, I was trekking at Purnagiri Mountains. Mountains around Purnagiri are famous for religious regions. People walk up the hill to see and worship ‘Maa Puragiri’. We did it too for the same reason during Navaratries of Oct’1998. We started in midnight with a target to reach at top at just in the morning. We did so. And you can’t imagine the experience of watching first sun light from top of the world. Every thing was in black and white just before the sun to start his day. And in fraction of a second the color of world changed. Black and white become full of colors no one can count.

The above experience is no way correlated to the center idea of this blog. But this experience gives me some insight on the topic. Sun, the source of power for all, gives us energy uniformly and consistently. Sun, the highest in hierarchy is unconditional donor of power to earth. It is unconditional because sun is not taking any thing in return. This is the law of nature. In humans or even in other living creatures look at the mother. Who gives unconditional love and nurture to her child.

I want unconditional love. I want to extend the same. First you have to give unconditional love to your family, profession, friend or society then only you can expect the same from them. Because it is a give and take process and not a take and give.

Hobby vs Profession


There was a story on Warren Buffet. In his childhood he used to study annual report of various companies during his vacation. That was not intended to become biggest investor. Rather it was derived from his own deep interest to understand financial of a company. We call it a hobby. Fortunately Buffet’s hobby become instrumental to his success as there was no difference between his hobby and profession.
All of us have some or other interests. Only few of us posses their interests as their profession. Not surprisingly these people are more successful and satisfied in their life. When your interest become your profession, you put your passion to work along with your knowledge, skills and attitude. Moreover, when you work passionately your quality of experiences and learnings become higher. There are lot of examples in our surroundings. Most of the known sportsmen, actors, artist, musicians have followed their hobby passionately to make that their successful profession. There could be unknown people from the same category struggling to leave a mark but I am sure they must be at least satisfying their inner voice.
I am from the other category of people who’s profession and hobby are not same. However; I can derive one conclusion from the above to answer the biggest question of how to get exceptionally successfull career.
In life sometimes undoing things is not easy. For people like me, at 30, if its not late then at least not viable to pursue new career in the area of biggest hobby or interest. However; converting my profession into my biggest interests or hobby is the easiest option. Option is easy, but execution is not. Converting your profession into your hobby will require an honest effort from your inner self. There is no formula of quick conversion but an honest approach will change your professional outlook and success.

Confusion


There are three types of people in the world. I will explain this with an analogy of a farmer seeding his field for a healthy crop full of grains. Type one people are exceptional achievers. They get level field, healthy seeds and healthy environment. They only sow to get healthiest crop and healthiest grain. I will explain second type later. Before that here is third type. Type three are just opposite of type one. They do nothing. healthy or unhealthy, good or bad, they do not sow at all. There is a law of nature which every one knows. You will get good crop only if you sow good seed. But for the third type of people opposite is not true. Because its not like if you do not sow anything you will not get anything, instead you will get something in either case. In this case there will be weeds which will not only spoil your level field but also kill the fertility of the ground.
Now the great type two people comes into the picture. They are not given any level field. Their fields are full of weeds created by type three people. These people are real hard worker. They will first remove weeds, then they will cultivate field to make it level and suitable for sowing. Then they will sow and wait for result. And because of lost fertility of ground they will only get variable results in the form of unhealthy to semi healthy crops and grains.
My confusion is on law of Karma. People in type two are basically honest and hard working. They give their full efforts but in return they are still underachievers.
In a society type one and type two can be correlated with high class and the class wanted to upgrade to high class. Type three is parallel to the group institutionalizing evil and crime in the society. This is true in an organizational perspective too.
Confusion number two is instead of cleaning the weeds why not to clean up type three people itself. This could be biggest task to debate for execution. But at least a healthy education system, goverment and society can start the process. The effort will be useful for all of us. Who does not want level playing field and healthy conditions?