Economy of Social - Social Media Tips, Marketing and Business

This post is on a different tangent from what I write on this blog, but I could not resist myself from sharing this. This is the story of Mughli whose son disappeared after being taken away by security forces in 1990. After 19 years of search, she breathed her last this Sunday. A mother kept on the relentless search for her only son, her only ray of hope. Her son, Nazir was born after she was divorced by her husband. She decided not to marry and give her child a good upbringing. Her last words: “ My Nazir, have you come ” When I read this story (courtesy: Indian Express/ Kashmirlive ), I could not control my tears. Looking now at the situation in the valley, what has changed is the intensity of hatred. It just keeps on increasing. You kill us, they kill blab la… Huh! There are many such stories that have become history; many more will be the order of the day if this keeps going. The only person to live in the valley would be neither me nor you, just hatred and hatred alone. Many m...

I had little time to take a view of the election campaigning process that took place in the state elections, the results of which gave BJP another Jhatka. Looking and analyzing the results and results alone, it wouldn’t be hard for anyone to say that second innings for congress has just got going. The glaring thing about BJP is the big rupture in the party. The word missing from the party character is “Integrated”. As a marketer, if I am not clear with my product or an idea I’m trying to sell, how would I convince others. It is as simple as that. But to convince yourself and that too when you have a 100 heads (just a number, no reference) is tough. There is still going to be that unhappy head, which would give you a big time headache. And then there are those tumors and genetic defects. Now the meaning of this post can slip. I’ll keep it simple – It is not possible to satisfy everybody at the same time. And not to say that winning parties don’t have conflict of ideas. When there are t...

Obama for peace! A hope for peace, a new dimension. There is a lot of debate going on whether he has done enough to deserve it or can he work for it. I won't be talking about whether he is the right one or not for the prize but lets look at it from how is it going to influence him. Maybe the man for hope will choose a path of peace. The prize definitely has increased the expectations of the world (atleast mine). Obama's policy initiatives, especially foreign policies can have more of a peaceful nature than his predecessor. One negative aspect could be that Obama's influence and popularity could reduce if robust measures take the place of popular measures. On the positive side, the expectations from Barack Obama would become higher and the positive effect would be that the world's most powerful man would force himself to act towards peace. I agree that it has been more of speeches till now, but that is what is needed. Without intitating dialogue how can you plan in ...

I was recently going through this article, which talked about lenovo's strategy in rural China. Lenovo, in the first half of 2009 had a market share of around 28% in China making it the leader. The article had an interesting statement regarding lenovo's rural strategy. It read "They like to give desktop PCs because the boxes are large," says Li Zhong, director of Lenovo's consumer business in the Beijing and Hebei region. "They deliver the computers to brides' families on trucks, which everyone can see. In these cases the bigger the box, the better." WSJ LiZhong seems to have caught hold of the need of the rural Chinese consumer. India's large untapped rural markets are still waiting to be explored. Given the uniqueness of these markets and the innovative strategies required to tap them, the first step to explore them would be to understand the needs of the rural consumer. The tough part is that most consumers don't know what they need. T...

The NIT suicide case is an incident that reminds us of the dragon hidden in the invisible poison of stress. Stress due to any wanted or unwanted activity can result in consequences, either positive or negative. Ragging is an unwanted harmful activity that can be fatal to the mental makeup of an individual. In such circumstances the individual subject to it may take extreme measures as in Satyendra’s case. Environmental factors cannot be avoided. Stress is just like a road accident. Most of the times, you might not be at fault but still you have to bear the consequences. To avoid them, you adopt safer driving. The same is the case with stress. Asking yourself the question “how big is the problem, how insignificant is it as compared to me, my life” can be the major difference between overcoming stress and being overpowered by it. I recently did a project with my team on “Health Hazards of stress and its effect on productivity”. Based on our questionnaire, survey and analysis we came up...

The 5 day strike of jet airways pilots that ended on 13th September 2009 is another example of the dangers of taking communication lightly. According to sources the simulated strike cost jet around $40 million. The damage done is although much deeper. Looking at the nature of strike, there are 3 things that went wrong Communication Negotiations Interpersonal stage collapse There was clearly a communication lag between the management and the pilots association that led to an ugly concert and pilots holding management to ransom. Labor unions can sometimes take advantage of the shortage of skilled labor and and can set terms and conditions not conducive to the growth of the organization. The history of the communication lag between Jet Airways management and its employees goes way back to Oct 2008 when around 1900 employees were laid off but later asked to return after government intervention. This drama of layoff, which went awry in a way, gave the employees a sense of power over th...

This was my team's entry in Prayaas 2009, a case study competition on child labor by Bhavishya. Bhavishya represents the united voice of the students of IIM Lucknow against the strains in our social fabric. Bhavishya is active in the domains of education, unemployment and health and women empowerment. It leverages the technical and managerial competency of students and the faculty to aid NGOs and the government. The other two musketeers studying the case along with me were Joshin and Mayank. Although we did not win the competition, I'd like to share the three cases we studied. Below are the cases along with our suggestions Case 1 – Mohit – aged 12 – sells ice cream. We met Mohit at Kapoorthala, Lucknow. He was selling ice-cream. To break the ice, and to get to conversation mode, we approached him and bought an ice cream. Conversing with him we got to know his story. Facts about Mohit: • He is 12 years old. • Lives near Aliganj, Thana. • Has never gone to school, although he des...