Monday blues: Monday and Time

Continuing with the Monday series, Robin Sharma speaks to us today.

Time is a beautiful commodity. It is part of the hardware of life. What you do with it shapes, in so many ways, what your life looks like. And yet, while almost every one of us wishes for more time, we misuse the time we have on hand.

I am no guru, you know that. But I have become pretty good at using my time well. Time wasted is time lost and the big idea on time is that once it is lost, it can never be regained.

I recently read that John Templeton, the celebrated financier, never went anywhere without a book in his briefcase. This way, if he found himself in a long line, he could use the downtime to read, learn and grow. I also read in the Rolling Stone magazine that Madonna hates wasting time. She used to bring a book with her when she would go out to a nightclub to use the time when she wasn't dancing, efficiently.

My coaching clients are like that. And they lead big lives as a result of that giant devotion to time management. I want to be clear: I am in no way suggesting that every minute of your days, weeks, months need to be scheduled. Be spontaneous. Be playful. Be free. I am a free spirit at heart. I just find that the people who have the most time for fun are those who know how to plan and use their time well.

In my experience, the people who feel stress the most and lead their lives like a five-alarm fire are those who leave life to chance and make no time to set schedules, articulate goals and follow well-thought-out plans.

"Anxiety is caused by a lack of control, organisation, preparation and action," observed thinker David Kekich. That's a powerful thought, isn't it?

--Robin Sharma is the author of The Greatness Guide (Jaico) [via DNA]

Fitness trends

Most of my friends are hitting the gym to get back in shape while some, including yours truly, hardly get time to do so. The reason is they don't want to look the way they are on the D-day. Now this may seem normal but DNA reports something different.

As they prepare to tie the knot, they are even ready to go under the knife in search of that 'perfect look' for their wedding day.An increasing number of would be brides and bridegrooms are queuing up before cosmetic surgeons ahead of their 'D-Day', with some asking for a perfect nose while others seeking fat reduction. While people seeking liposuction, nose jobs or breast implants are a regular feature at cosmetic clinics, their number often goes up ahead of the wedding season, surgeons say.

This gets funnier... Another interesting trend we have observed lately is that besides the would-be brides and bridegrooms, their close relatives also come seeking treatments.

Whether or not going under the knife healthy is doubtful but I think you should look at yoga, walking, dieting and other ways of regular stuff to get back in shape. Thanks to Divya, Tulasi who are experts in dieting and fitness and in pushing me, I am getting back in shape too. Since Divya turned a fitness freak, she lost like 12 kgs in five months and is into salsa, kick boxing, yoga, painting and what not! Tulasi is on Dinaz's team that broke the Asian record conducting aerobics classes for 20 hours continuously and is attempting to break the world record by doing it for 26 hours in Hyderabad on January 9 and 10.

Whether it is for the D-day or not, you need to be fit to do well at work and be healthy. So go for that walk, play whatever sport you want to, skip the lift, eat a tad smaller less oily diet, sleep well and start getting back in shape today.

The way you look tonight

One of my all time favorite songs :)

There are several versions but the original which won the Academy award in 1936 is here. Isn't the melody awesome?



The lyrics...

Some day, when I'm awfully low,
When the world is cold,
I will feel a glow just thinking of you...
And the way you look tonight.

Yes you're lovely, with your smile so warm
And your cheeks so soft,
There is nothing for me but to love you,
And the way you look tonight.

With each word your tenderness grows,
Tearing my fear apart...
And that laugh that wrinkles your nose,
It touches my foolish heart.

Lovely ... Never, ever change.
Keep that breathless charm.
Won't you please arrange it ?
'Cause I love you ... Just the way you look tonight.

Mm, Mm, Mm, Mm,
Just the way you look to-night.

Jingle bombs

Achmed sings the Jingle bombs for us tonight :)

Secret to success

Found the original quote in Latin for my previous post and here it is...

Pedes in Terra ad Sidera Visus
(Feet on the ground and sight to the universe)

Moulding or misshaping?

I was just talking to an old friend and our discussion drifted to his 2 yr old niece. After mentioning how cute she was, he went on to mention that she turned irritating and annoying after her mom got pregnant again. It only increased when her baby brother came home. She would throw tantrums and get upset about everything, throw things and create a nuisance. This they found happening when they ignore her for sometime. This discussion went on till he started telling me how they found a way to stop these fits of anger. They used to lock the child in the bathroom and let her out only when she stopped crying. Most of the times it didn't work but repeated trips to the bathroom worked. The highest duration was 85 mts! Now if the child is annoying they just mention locking up in the bathroom and she turns nice. This is the point when I lost it. Moreover, he started to tell me all the MBA crap and how he implemented the classical conditioning theory to get a desired behaviour from the child.

85 mts in a bathroom for a kid of 2 yrs is like 2 years in solitary confinement for an adult. Either you are sick or something is seriously wrong. Don't you think you put a fear psychosis in the kid which would taunt her all through her life? Cmon. Why don't you try staying in the bath room for 2 days, crying? This discussion made me sick and what followed ensured that we are not on speaking terms anymore. It scares me to even think there are people like this in the educated lot.

This brings to my point. Whatever you study doesn't actually need to be applied to everything. Sure things seem fit but just don't apply everything everywhere just because you find a similarity in the situation.

Indian sleeping pattern

I am missing something very dearly these days and it seems to evade all my friends and peers. I guess we am not alone as Phillips' study reveals the same details. Some points from the report:

• 93% Indians are sleep deprived and get less than the eight hours of mandatory sleep required for good health while 11% actually fall asleep at work
• 11% Indians took leave from work because of lack of sleep
• 58% of the respondents felt that their work was impacted due to lack of adequate sleep
  
• 74% woke up anywhere between one to three times during their sleep. Reasons for waking up were need to answer call of nature (90 percent), stress at work (15 percent) and noise outside the home (10 percent)
• 62% of those surveyed displayed high risk of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), a condition characterised by repeated cessation of breathing during sleep and which can potentially lead to heart disease and worsen heart failure

Sounds scary but every bit is true. Staying fit and sleeping well should be the first priority. Try checking these stats with your own sleeping schedule and check if you are in the risky zone too. If you are, then sleep :)

About me missing sleep, am dozing off now. Good nite.

2009, in pictures

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Check this amazing collection of photographs from 2009. They take time to load but the wait is worthwhile. Here are the three parts: One, two and three.

Top 10 of 2009

AFI's top 10 movies of 2009 are...

1. Coraline
2. The Hangover
3. Up
4. Up in the Air
5. Precious
6. The Hurt Locker
7. The Messenger
8. A Serious Man
9. A Single Man
10. Sugar

Here is a glimpse. You know what to do :)

Creator

(Click on the image to enlarge)

Got this as a forward. Don't know if this is true or made up but makes superb sense. What do you think?

Bruce Lee as a lifestyle

Albert Einstein, dead since 1955, is earning $10 million a year. John Lennon, $15 million. Elvis, $55 million. Marilyn Monroe, $8 million, about the same as Andy Warhol. Deceased artists, celebrities and rumpled physicists can generate substantial revenue for their heirs through merchandising and endorsement deals. Marilyn curtain rings, Warhol flip-flops, Elvis candy dishes — the possibilities are as endless as they are tacky.

“We look at Bruce Lee as a lifestyle,” Ms. Lee said.

Read the full article here.

You cannot do

The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do, especially when you love doing it. Setting up goals that are difficult to achieve and striving to get there is always motivating and stimulating. This week go and do just that. Take up that thing you have been putting away because you didn't have time, some one said you cannot do but you always wanted to do. Might be a small thing but give it a shot.

Salesman of the year

Did you see the initial promos of Rocket Singh - Salesman of the Year? It had a desk and Ranbir sitting on it and talking to you. "Hi, Harpreet Singh Bedi, salesman," he smiled at you. He then said that he would sell the movie to you - the audience - in 60 seconds flat and went on to tell you how the movie would give you complete value for money. He finished it with the statement - a salesman's job never ends.

You may have liked the promo, or thought of it as nothing great. But you have to give it to it for being so honest in its approach. Most movie promos aim to attract maximum viewers with shine and sparkle, or shock.

If they manage to hook you, you watch the film and then find out if the film lives up to your expectations or not. Here was a simple ad campaign asking you to give the movie a chance and then to make up your mind about it. The film, itself, is as simple as the ad campaign. But it's brilliant too.

Norway UFO

This video shot in Norway showing an abnormal activity is turning as the most watched on You Tube. Alien? Misfired missile? 2012?

Oye Amritsar!

Well... wanted to post about it since Dhiru took us there. Oye Amritsar is a wonderful restaurant to get away from the regular closed environs of a restaurant to chat, eat and catch up with your friends. I loved the place, their taste & variety of food. Ambiance is awesome too. Ever wanted to get out of the buzz in the city and enjoy a good meal on a road side dhaba, travel in a truck with careless abandon but couldn't? Decked up in mass estyle, for some 300 bucks you can get that here. Worth a try.

Here is MJ's review.

Quote

Quoted from Arti's site...

An achiever is like a tree, his dreams are like branches; which, spread seemingly to touch the sky, his values are like roots that keep him firmly standing on the ground.

Incredible India!

India's growth rate over the next couple of years will be 8-9 percent, World Bank president Robert Zoellick said here Friday.

'India's growth rates could over the next one to two years see a return to the 8-9 percent envisaged in the country's 11th (Five-Year) Plan,' Zoellick told reporters at the end of a four-day visit to India.

The government has been pegging the economy's growth rate for this fiscal around 6.5-7 percent.

'India has emerged from the economic crisis with a clear vision of what it will take to accelerate back to earlier growth rate and beyond,' said Zoellick, who also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee during the visit.

'Its strong fiscal and monetary policies had helped counter the decline in exports and withstand some of the external shocks brought on by the multiple food, fuel and financial crisis.'

Read on.

Leave Tiger Alone!

To satisfy the public’s insatiable curiosity for dirt? To pull one of our greats down into the gutter? On what grounds exactly? Because The National Enquirer and Us Weekly have sniffed out possible affairs? Because CNBC's Larry Kudlow is telling Tiger to “fess up” because of the lesson learned from Governor Sanford’s stonewalling?

Well, Tiger Woods isn’t a politician who might have used the people’s money in the course of having an affair, getting into an argument with his wife and crashing into a fire hydrant.

And, you know what, maybe he’s showing that the almighty dollar isn’t the only thing that counts for the most highly compensated athlete in the world? Once you give away your privacy, you can’t buy it back for any price. Maybe he’s willing to lose a few sponsors over this.

Ronald Reagan once said that freedom means the freedom to be stupid sometimes.

What if being stupid is all Tiger Woods did?

What if instead of the worst guesses and rumors of marital infidelity and a spousal golf-club beating, Tiger was simply stupid in a very innocent -- and dare I say it -- normal married way. He got into a spat with his wife, tore out of the driveway at a crazy time of night, hit a hydrant, hurt himself and felt like an idiot when his wife -- now both of them very sorry for their spat -- had to pull him out of the car?

Read what John Tantillo, The Marketing Doc has to say.

Mastering marketing

Marketing takes a day to learn. Unfortunately, it takes a lifetime to master.

--- Kotler(?)

Mobile Marketing ahead

Numerical data is finally starting to corroborate claims of mobile marketing’s potential for massive growth in the future of advertising. According to a new report from industry analyst Berg Insight, mobile marketing could account for as much as 11.7% of all digital advertising by 2014.

In conjunction with these projections, it is estimated that the total value of the mobile marketing sector could similarly increase ten-fold. Berg Insight has based its projections on the evolution of mobile marketing as a more commonplace component of traditional ad campaigns, as well as other digital marketing endeavors like online newsletters and email marketing.

“Advertisers are increasingly aware of the opportunities and seek new ways to exploit them,” says Marcus Persson, telecom analyst at Berg Insight. “Just the simple fact that people are able to make a phone call or send a text message anywhere at any time has changed the conditions for marketing in general.”

To read the full report from Berg Insight, click here.

I'll kill you!

US Open video showing Serena lose her cool is worth a watch. Whether she said 'I will kill you' or not is still debated but there is a lot of gesturing and threatening. It is not normal that players at that level vent out their feelings, especially in public. Looking irritated from the beginning of the match, Serena broke her racquet and towards the end launched a volley of words at an official and lost the match, was fined a hefty sum and left with a bad taste. There have been several opinions about this event and how Serena should have held herself and behaved like it is expected of the players at her level. All kinds of racist remarks from black vs white, African vs Asian, American vs Asian, feminist, African American, etc. have been hogging the blogosphere. How unfair could this be? A little emotion is good or should I say, necessary. What Serena did was that she was carried away. But I am sure she would come back soon in a serene avatar. There have been players in the past who were idolized for being what they were and yet won matches and loads of fans. The response was very different then. Ever heard of John McEnroe and the famous racquet throwing and yelling incident?

Back home, Sreesanth is in the best of his moods and seems to concentrate all his energy on his game and pitching the ball in the right spot and getting some wickets. The well known antics and body language is no more to be seen. What made him a star on the field and giving it back to the Aussies in their own mode and hitting the wickets seems to be a thing of the past. Is it not true that his antics were one of the reasons that helped build a momentum which made us believe we can take on any team in the world and win? Did it not contribute a bit? When such antics are sure to attract a disciplinary action from the match officials, could it be possible that the captain or the management ignore this? Don't you think all of them agreed to have him in this mode and either encouraged or silently supported him? Cricket is a team game and it is essential to have different elements effect the individual at the pitch and get the best out of your team. Well Sree, go back to your elements and we don't mind. But as of now stay calm and win those few matches and admiration of people who find amusement in holding on to the leashes of their puppies. Once you get a few hundred wickets you can be back.

Emotions are a part of any communication. In fact, they are vital. Different people use them differently to get things done. Anger is the most misused. On a retail floor or servicescape, customers try and wrestle favors for small operational mistakes and get things done. Usually floor supervisors, managers let them have what they crib for and wash their hands off. But let me tell you this... when you do that you lose all respect the staff has for you. Want to be a big loser who has all the toys but no one to play with? It is right to show your emotions when you are right and are on the wrong side but using your anger over everything is stupid.

Marketers and salesmen should have emotions built into their selling pitch. When you believe in what you sell and the cause, then it is easy to convince the other person to buy. If you don't believe in the product or service yourself, it would be a stale sale. Not that I have seen people selling things they don't believe in, but the enthusiasm is much more when you believe in it. Emotion is the best thing to have and when used well can turnout as a powerful tool in your arsenal. Brands use emotional appeal as a carrier of the message.

Have you ever used your emotions to get something done? Or seen someone who did? What do you think about that? Given a chance would you do the same?

Courage

“Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow.”

With thee... to thee

To walk with God! O fellowship divine!
Man's highest state on earth-Lord, be it mine;
With Thee may I a close communion hold,
To Thee the deep recesses of my heart unfold!

--- H. Smith

Would you

“Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength.”

Pic: FFO

Jump in

You can never learn to swim if you sit on the bank of the river and read a book about swimming. You might gather all the knowledge you want in the world about swimming but never would that theoretical knowledge help you in assessing what is out there and how it feels to kick for life. How easy it is to stay out of the water and keep preaching? Trust me there is nothing like learning it on the go.

Over the last few days I am working on a project as a part of my doctoral research and I see that my view about many things is quite different from what it was before when I was a fresh grad. I would try and share some of these learnings or musings as you might call them with you all here. While the material I am reading as a part of my literature review is similar and from the same time, the interpretation is varied, with a zillion possibilities. This just makes it more interesting.

Heraclitus is famous for his doctrine of change being central to the universe, as stated in his famous saying, "You can not step twice into the same river."

Plato(?) takes it to another level. You never enter the same river, even once!

Because by the time you decide to enter and you actually enter, the river has already changed. So if you want to learn and change from what you are to better, jump in.

Why me?

Arthur Ashe, the legendary Wimbledon player was dying of AIDS which he got due to infected blood he received during a heart surgery in 1983.

From world over, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed: "Why does GOD have to select you for such a bad disease"?

To this Arthur Ashe replied: " The world over -- 50 million children start playing tennis, 5 million learn to play tennis, 500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the grand slam, 50 reach Wimbledon , 4 to semi final, 2 to the finals, when I was holding a cup I never asked GOD 'Why me?'.

And today in pain I should not be asking GOD 'Why me?' "

Happiness keeps you Sweet,

Trials keep you Strong,

Sorrow keeps you Human,

Failure keeps you humble and Success keeps you glowing,

but only Faith & Attitude Keeps you going...

A good forward & pic

For everyone

New song!

Far away beyond the shadows,

There a bright and joyful throng

Wave their palms of holy triumph,

While they sing the glad New Song!

(Julia Sterling)

Visit StanleyonBible for motivational articles on christian life :)

Come to life!

Awesome isn't it? Check http://www.pomegranatephone.com for the firm behind it and Wiki for summary. Nice brand name :)

Self author

Shakespeare, the genius English playwright, once noted: "To Thine own self be true." Such powerful words. To lead remarkably. And to live richly.

More than ever before, the clients we do leadership development work with are embracing the imperative of authenticity as a means to build fast teams and grow real results. "Authentic" simply means to "self-author". To show authenticity at work is simply to be yourself. To stand comfortably in your own skin. To be real versus plastic. And to express your absolute best. In so doing, you will become the passionate author of an excellent career. And the wise scriptwriter of a life well lived.

--- Robin's blog

Private brands, Jai Ho!

According to the latest report from IRI Times & Trends, private label unit share has grown 12 points to 22.8 percent over the past 12 months, while dollar share has grown 0.7 points to 17.6 percent. Growth was highest in the grocery sector, driven by at-home food rituals and continued consumer focus on low-cost products.

Sainsbury's said sales of its 15,000 own-brand products were growing on average 6% on the year, while sales of branded goods were up 3%. The supermarket's own-label ranges now make up more than half of total sales. Some 163 of its own brands are 20% cheaper than their branded equivalents - which would translate into an average customer saving of £452 in a year, according to the market research group TNS.

Do I see a thousand middlemen scream?

Painless quick success

There are only two ways to win in the market.

You can create a breakthrough. A promotion so powerful that people can't help but engage. An innovation so remarkable, people can't help but talk about it. A pricing strategy or ad campaign that breaks the mold and is worthy of attention. This takes huge guts and substantial investment.

Or you can win with consistent benefits, delivered over time. You win by incrementally earning share, attention and trust. This might take years.

Almost all marketing attempts to do neither of these, and of course, fail. Painless and quick are rarely associated with 'successful.'

--- Seth's blog

Marketers and measuring social media

Marketers don't think they're very good at measuring social media. When my colleague Emily Riley asked marketers to rate their ability to measure the impact of their social media initiatives, the average grade they gave themselves was 4.5 out of 10. Not a great score -- especially given that accountability is one of the key selling points of interactive marketing. So I've spent a lot of time this year trying to understand why marketers aren't good at measuring social media -- and how they can do better.

The fact is, social media marketers are drowning in a sea of metrics. Every social platform and vendor offers its own metrics, and there are literally hundreds of ways to measure the success of social initiatives. With so many numbers to choose from, and so little insight into which metrics are important, it's not surprising that marketers feel overwhelmed.

Most marketers fixate on easily-available measures like followers or fans -- regardless of whether those metrics are important. Many others fail to measure obviously useful numbers just because they're not on the first page of a report. A marketer focused on talking [video] should have a radically different definition of success than one focused on embracing [video]. But marketers are much more likely to tailor their social media measurement to the tools they're using than to the objectives they're trying to achieve. Have a look -- most marketers measure pretty much the same metrics, no matter what their objective:

It's obvious that marketers need more clarity into which social media metrics they should be tracking. So we've developed a simple three-step process to help marketers better tailor their measurement strategies to the objectives they're pursuing. Walking through these three steps will help you cut through the clutter on your marketing reports and measure your social media initiatives more effectively:

• Step 1: Think back to your marketing objective. Go back and find your notes from when you were first planning your social marketing effort -- and remind yourself of the objective you were pursuing. If you don't know what your goal was, you'll never know what you should be measuring, or if you succeeded.
• Step 2: Consider what types of metrics signal success. Don't think about specific lines on a report yet -- instead, think about what types of consumer behaviors and sentiments match your objectives, and focus your measurement on those categories of metrics. If your goal was energizing, success is defined as lots of people saying positive things about your brand; if your goal was supporting, you want to know if users were providing good advice to each other -- and whether it kept users from having to ask you for support directly. Again, this isn't about specific metrics, it's about how you hoped your social initiative would change your relationship with consumers.
• Step 3: Look for that category of metric in the social technology you're using. Once you've identified the type of metric that will signal success, then you can look for ways to track those metrics within the social platform you're using. This is when you should get into the specifics of which lines on the report Facebook or Jive gives you are most important -- and which other vendors you need to use to find the exact numbers you're looking for.

Via Forrester Research

Monday blues: A very happy monday!

It pays to wake up to good music and greenery, always. Trust me it would help setting your mood and a good start for the day. This is the view outside my guest house window in Calicut, Kerala. Wonderful isn't it? You should see when it is raining and birds and butterflies flock under the leaves!

Today is Monday, which happens to be my favorite day of the week. I set some personal goals to achieve this week like diet, reading, posting blogs and catching up on things I have been neglecting the whole week. On the work front too I have certain goals lined up and targets I personally want to achieve. This helps in knowing where I am, what needs to be done by when. I recently picked up a Blackberry curve 8520 using which I took the above pic which helps me to be in touch and in control about what needs to be done when. Among the various reviews that are pending here are my new mobile, Blackberry and a wonderful book titled My Story by Arti Honrao which would be done this week.

This works for me and should work for you too. Try setting your goals, time lines, prioritize and achieve them. 2009 is zooming towards the finish line, what have you achieved this year? Think...

Happy successful Monday and have a great week ahead.

Psyche... huh...

Sad but true.

Buy now

Loved the concept. What do you think? Good job eBay!

Beyond hope

I couldn't post for a few days as I was traveling. You would find frequent posts here from now on. Thank you for visiting.

Happy reading :)

Where are my slippers?

Change is so unexpected but happens in Cricket. Read an interesting observation by Mike Browning on the missing relevance of slip position in Cricket over the years.

The popular saying goes, “Bowlers win matches.” In the longest form of the game they can’t without help. First-class and Test matches are also won by guys who are usually the least athletic members of the team. They are the fieldsmen who don’t run much and stand with their hands on their knees; sticking out their backsides at the spectators. For these are the “slippers”, the unsung heroes of Test cricket.

As a quality pairing though Australia were never in better shape than when Mark Taylor stood at first and Mark Waugh at second slip. They were equally brilliant catching spin or pace and added pressure to opposing batsmen who must have believed any mistake would be their last. Taylor like Colin Cowdrey and Greg Chappell at one time topped the tree for Test catches. In one of the greatest fielding feats of all time he won the Man-of-the-Match award in a one-day international against West Indies at the SCG in 1992 for taking four slips catches.

Mark Waugh, who has now be pushed to second spot in the Test catches list by Rahul Dravid, has said, “Slip is a position where you have to be a natural at it. Really, you’ve either got it or you haven’t. You have to have reflexes and the ability to concentrate every ball. You might be in there all day and the ball comes to you once and you have to be ready for it. It’s a tough spot.” Waugh’s spectacular ability was best demonstrated with the low right-handed horizontal dive when he caught Alec Stewart at Leeds in 1993. It is available on recorded vision and one of Waugh’s own personal favourites. The anticipation, speed and flexibility will leave any viewer gob smacked.

Criticized? Handle it this way

Listen, learn and keep moving forward!

Know Magic?

We are back in November, I like to call Know-ember! So start exploring, learning, understanding things around you. Personally I have learnt so much from this blog as I had to read a lot and then post thing that you would love to read and take home some. While I keep doing that you can help me by reading, commenting, referring to your friends, colleagues about this blog.





Here is a video of some amazing tricks with football. The search for perfection is a never ending one. You never stop getting better. Just keep at it and when you have surpassed all your competitors, you compete yourself. Good luck and happy Know-ember.

Sweet hour

Sweet hour of prayer that calls me from a world of care,

And bids me at my Father's Throne, make all my wants and wishes known!

(William Walford, 1772-1850)

This is not it

While audiences across the whole world are awestruck by the This is it performance and disbelief that Michael Jackson is no more, many fans are finding it hard to believe that he was so overused to bring in extra bucks for the companies behind the come back tour. Though the propaganda may be questionable, this video from This Is Not It speaks a lot.



The controversies would never die down as long as they get the kick out of it. Who cares? MJ lives on.

Great Communication

From Robin's blog:

Six of the most common things that uncommonly good communicators do:

1. They tell stories and paint pictures through the words they use
2. They are interesting and entertaining
3. They are sincere and authentic
4. They are able to distill complexity into simplicity
5. They radiate passion
6. They listen spectacularly well

Slowdown! Where?

Slowdown or no slowdown, parents never seem to ease up on indulging their kids. I see long queues in Calicut everytime I go to Focus mall. It is echoed in all the other metros too. With spends on kidswear showing no signs of letting up, even major players in the premium kidswear segment like Gini and Jony and United Colors of Benetton are eyeing growth of 10-40%, while at the same time, going in for significant expansion. There are many new varieties and options for kids clothing that have come up recently. Though the prices are on the higher end people just seem to pick up stuff.

Checking with few of my friends and colleagues about the changing buying pattern after having kids, if there is any, after they had kids revealed interesting facts. The better dressed the kid is, the lesser attention the parents get! So concentrate on the kid and you have passed the test. For all I know the most precious one gets the most attention. So for the marketers and sales force out there, the message is clear. Concentrate on the kid and you get the parents emptying their pockets. The target is the parent here more than the kid.