INDIBLOGGER MEET IN CHENNAI – 20th March, 2010

This was my first meet and it was a great experience than what I expected. Mr.Renie Ravin introduced himself when I entered the hall at GRT Convention centre in Chennai. The crowd that gathered which Included mostly fellow Bloggers from Chennai was superb. The interaction was quite good (for the given time) during this meet.

We can have such meets once in Six months so that the interaction and association between fellow bloggers will be much better. The presence of Press personnel from The New Indian Express, NDTV – Hindu and Zee Tamil added sheen to the event.

We took a considerable time to see how the Blog will be useful for promoting Ads. Especially UniverCell (The Sponsers) engaged the audience on promoting their product which could have been shortened by way of time. We could have spent more time on Blogging and interacted more on the various terms associated with it as given under:-

1. What is RSS feed?
2 .What do we mean by Traffic?
3. How to increase the traffic for your Blog?
4. What is a Directory and how your Blog can be connected to the directory?
5. The various ways of presenting your Blog?
6. How your name when entered in Google will take you to your Blog? What methodology to be followed?

By having a question answer session on the points mentioned above, we could have spent our time more productively and at the same time it would have been educative and useful for all the Fellow Bloggers. Perhaps we can think of doing this in the subsequent meets that we propose to organize in the days to come.

To sum it up, on the Whole (I don’t mean the other hole) the event was very good. I enjoyed this meet of Bloggers from Chennai. I hope all the others who participated would have enjoyed it too!!!!!!

Cheers to every one of you.

Thank you for your kind understanding and cooperation

S.Sekar
Contact: sekrajc@yahoo.com
Working together Works – Aligning Capabilities

BRANDING (BRAND BUILDING)

This topic struck me while I was washing my Car on a Sunday morning. The topic kindled interest in me and made me to go deeper and see the benefits of Brand building.

In this modern-day where distance doesn’t matter and usage of Internet and other devices makes communication and travel very easy, building a brand takes its place of significance. It is important that we build a brand for each one of us as an individual, for an organization or for something else. This is very relevant in today’s context and will make things easier to capture the attention of audience in a short time and the benefits are immense.

You can create a brand LOGO for yourself or for your organization or for your community. This perception of brand image will seep deep into the minds of people and will induce them to buy the product of that brand or Logo without even looking into the cost aspect. Thus the strength of the brand is the outcome of the results it generates by pulling the consumers and pushing the people go for the products of that brand, immaterial of the cost and price aspect.

Quality, Delivery, Point of Purchase, over the counter, Reach or Coverage and Service to customer are some of the areas to be focused and complete attention has to be given in order to derive the full benefits of branding.

Branding for an Engineering or Industrial Product

Reaching out to customers and educating them is an important aspect which follows any developmental activity. It is the customer who decides whether to go for a particular product based on the product quality, unique characteristics that the product possesses, and the awareness created by the manufacturer in instilling in his mind the features of the product. In management parallels it is called branding and it has its value.

Let us see an example. For selling an engineering product like an Industrial Valve, the company sets the ball rolling by meeting a number of personnel from various disciplines say the oil and gas industry. This also gives them the opportunity to listen and understand the client’s material requirements and to formulate a strategy to meet customers’ needs. Having tasted success, they thereafter start moving into other unexplored territories towards achieving their objective of becoming a key player and a major supplier of Valves in that region.

Then the next step is to make paper presentation in international forums like conferences and Exhibitions. This is very important and more relevant today as this is one way of building your brand. Earlier the manufacturer would only produce the item and not get involved or be interested in Exhibitions, Seminars, and Paper presentations in International forum. They remained content with their limited involvement externally. Today one has to be involved both internally and also externally to achieve success.


Branding for a Chemical Product

Branding is not restricted only to consumer goods industry. A strong brand will create significant advantage for a company in their quest to become ‘the most creditable partner and employer in the industry’. It’s like building a ‘trust’ between the company and the stakeholders. A trusted brand is the single most valuable asset of a company, which can sustain and survive the company even in the worst market downturn (conditions). At the same time the company has to actively manage on Brand.

First, there are commercial advantages – when the salespeople approach target customers, the customers already have confidence in the company. At the same time, the vendors will provide better service at a preferential cost because they are proud to have this company as their client. In addition, a strong brand gives the resilience to recover more easily from any crises which are inevitable for any large company.

Beyond these obvious benefits, a strong brand can also play a crucial role in engaging top talent. The very best people will come to join the company because they believe in the brand and what the company stands for. IBM and BASF are the companies which can be taken as examples. We can feel the pulse of the market by asking someone in the target market of the company if they know the company by name.

Awareness and confidence in a brand is created by thousands of ‘touch points’, or places where the company’s brands touch the lives of their target groups. This includes advertising, media outreach, and sales. The target groups must see the company from their actions, not just from their words. Everybody in the workforce in all units and teams must become involved in cultivating that confidence and trust.


Branding for a Consumer Product

Here the term ‘Branding’ takes a different meaning as consumer products have a lesser shelf life in general and usage of the product is frequent. People buy the product from the retailers after the products have changed hands in the marketing echelon right from the manufacturer to the OTC or the retailer.

Thus by way of branding the product, one can save enormous time in reaching the consumer. Hence we can call branding as a time saving device. Thus by managing brands and communication, the choice-making by the consumer is made simple and less traumatic. We can see that most FMCG companies release their advertisements between the month end and the beginning of following month. This is the time that middle-class India makes its monthly shopping list and sends it either to the kinara at the corner of the street or to the big bazaar in the neighbourhood. As marketers, we want the home ministers to write the brand name of the item and that is why the advertising. The brands derive their power from the way it is delivered in the media consistently with boring repetition day after day , year after year, for as long as the consumer so desires.

Brands must maintain consistency and yet evolve to stay fresh. While there are a multiplicity of ways in which the brand can reinvent itself, the most palpable and visible way is the logo. The logo has been the point of entry to the brand and perhaps the most visible part of the brand, something that consumers recall. TATA has tweaked its logo a few times over, since its inception a century ago. TATA brand is worth several Billion US dollars and is known the world over.

Sachin Tendulkar is an excellent Indian cricketer. Was it sufficient to be a fantastic cricketer? No, because there have been other fantastic cricketers in the past who have not achieved such striking commercial success as Sachin. Something else was needed and it was the modern television. But even modern TV alone would not have been enough. In 1983 India won the World cup in cricket at lords in England followed by world Championship of cricket which also India won in 1985 and thereafter world cup of 1987 was played in India and Pakistan. Despite this, nothing even remotely resembling Sachin emerged.

Something more was needed and that something came with the economic reforms of July 1991 in India – just 18 months after Sachin’s debut. Reforms led to the growth of consumerism about 1995 onwards, just six years into his career.

As product competition grew, the need for product differentiation grew; as product differentiation grew, the need for advertising grew. As these grew, the need for a cheap way of reaching out to the audiences grew, which is where TV came in. It was this combination – his cricketing prowess, modern TV and the economic reforms – that propelled Sachin forward as one of the top product endorsers in the country. The other two are both film stars – Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan.


There is also the question of viewer competence. How many people who watch an ad featuring Sachin also know enough about cricket to truly appreciate Sachin’s performances? There is another question as well. Sachin does not always perform well. He went through a lean patch which was hurting India because he was not helping India win.

Finally, we don’t really know if people bought products Sachin endorsed or merely contented themselves with watching him with the brands.

Perhaps brands use celebrity endorsements as a habit. After all, where is the evidence that a Boost did better than Bournvita in terms of sales growth because it used Sachin?

I always tell my colleagues, “When you involve you will evolve”. This is for certain and by doing this, success is for sure and your brand will encompass the globe over a period of time.

The future will belong to those who build brand image. An indelible impression on the purchaser’s mind is made by building a logo for the company. For this we have to think differently and work for attaining market leadership and thought leadership. We should introspect and see if our brand is getting there.

S.SEKAR
Contact: sekrajc@yahoo.com
Mobile: 9940617421
The Positive thinker, Sees the Invisible, Feels the Intangible and achieves the Impossible

RELATIONSHIP – AQUAINTANCE – FRIENDSHIP

This topic is an interesting one as you can see the subtle difference between the three. In the present mundane life we cannot win all situations we come across by using our knowledge alone. It is the relationship that counts which works wonders for us, for our life hinges on relationships. Acquaintance is a mere meeting between individuals and friendship is developed through acquaintances. Relationship building is far more important as it is the one and only stepping stone for success.

I got awakened by understanding about relationships as I read an article recently on this very topic which moved me very much. I share my thoughts with you for the benefit of everyone who is interested in this subject. We can see that life is all about relationships.

The primary one is intra-relationship – your relationship with yourself. We can give only what we have. Be it Prosperity or Poverty, we can share only what we have. If I don’t accept myself for what I am, I will not be able to accept you for what you are. It goes without saying that whatever I need to give the world, it must first start with me. The world I perceive is just a reflection of how I perceive myself. I can love the world only to the proportion I love myself. We must get our relationship with ourselves right, before we even attempt to get our relationship with others right.

The second is interrelationship – our relationship with others. We can see a typical transaction like: If you do this, then I will do that for you. If you don’t do this, then I will not do that for you. When love depends on ‘what you do’ and ‘what you don’t’, it disturbs the flow of relationship. Where conditions succeed, love fails. Where love succeeds, there can be no conditions. Relationship is a matter of the heart between persons. The net result where there are conditions is insecurity in relationships. If my thought process makes me feel that for enduring the relationship I have to keep doing things that would please someone, it can happen with two possibilities.

Possibility one: I want to be ‘me’, and so much I want to be ‘me’ that I will let go of that relationship, which doesn’t allow me to be ‘me’. Once, twice, thrice… when repeatedly my relationships fall apart, and all that because I wanted to be ‘me’, I become insecure. Helplessly the question creeps into the mind, “why is that no one is able to accept me for what I am?”

Possibility two: I want that relationship so much that I am willing to do anything and everything for the sake of pleasing him. I don’t care what I lose, but I want to save the relationship. My values, my principles, my originality, my priorities… in effect, my very life goes for a toss, for the sake of keeping the relationship intact. Eventually, I become manipulative. This everyday struggle to keep the relationship going makes me lose my self esteem, and that makes me insecure.

Remember that Love is love, only when, what you do and what you do not do does not alter my love for you which is called unconditional love. Otherwise be sure there is no love.

If we have even one relationship in our life – just one, where, what we do and what we don’t will not alter their love for us – we will certainly transcend insecurity. With the strength of security derived from that one relationship, we will be able to face everything else in life.

People have to be corrected when they have to be corrected. Tell them they are wrong when they have to be told. There are certain responsibilities that must be fulfilled in every relationship. But we should not let this define our love. Let others know, no matter what they do, no matter what they don’t, you will love them the same forever by being a source of security.

Finding an unconditional lover is a consequence. Being an unconditional lover is a choice. Wanting an unconditional lover in your life makes you dependent. Choosing to be an unconditional lover makes you dependable. The best words you can ever utter in a relationship is, “I will love you the same forever…”

The all-important relationship is the Spiritual relationship – your relationship with god. No one can tell as to the time period for life to go on without the source of energy, the sun. For every cause there is a effect and this is very true. Thus we can see that on removing the sun from the sunrays, there are no more sunrays. Also if you remove the gold from the necklace, there is no more a necklace. If you remove the mud from the pot, there is no more a pot. So also if we remove that source of life from ourselves, from our relationships, then nothing remains. Through prayers, through meditation, through the way you live your life, by the purity of your thoughts and feelings, by blemish less character, by devotion, surrender and faith, by doing, by non-doing… whatever be your ways …by all the ways live a life where you feel his presence all the time. It will augur in good stead and will give you a feeling of the expression, “My life is flowing…”


From the fore going we can see that relationship and life are tied and we should attempt to build a proper relationship and also make it sustain for infinite length of time. It is all about transactions between individuals. Maintaining an excellent relationship in our life will get us networked with others by proper bonding and the results will talk for itself. You will certainly have good thoughts in your mind where there will be clarity and no cloud and you will see prosperity and no pain and also have a peace of mind added with happiness.

Be blissful.

S.Sekar
Contact: sekrajc@yahoo.com

TRY, TILL YOU SUCCEED

Twelve months have gone since I started to write a topic once a month starting from January, 2009. I should say it was eventful and the responses from the readers and my well wishers were enthralling and I went into ecstasy. What I had started off as a hobby has ended up in a habit making me continue my journey of writing about different subjects that we encounter in everyday life. A careful analysis of the happenings around us and making midway corrections will bring a change in a person and give him ananda or bliss.

Here I am pleased to exchange my thoughts on the word “I” in a poetic form.

If I am I, because I am I
And you are you because you are you
Then I am and you are.
But If I am I, because you are you
And you are you because I am I
Then I’m not and you’re not
But we are not.

The alphabet “I” when spelt makes you get into agankara (ego) mode and induces you into a feeling that you (refers to “I”) are great and can surmount any obstacles that you come across in your daily mundane life. In reality it is that supreme power or the bagawan or the almighty who lends us a helping hand to surmount any difficulty that we are posed with at all times. Till this realization sets in to your mind, you will be an ignorant human being. If you have good thoughts you will attract good things and if you have diseased thought you will attract disease. Thinking of god and chanting the mantra “Om” will keep us in good stead at all times as we have the protection of the almighty.


There is an underlying philosophy that comes to my mind while I am writing this page. It is interesting and thought provoking as it conveys the truth and brings out the fact of life. It goes like this:-

‘The rain it raineth on the just and also on the unjust fella but chiefly on the just because the unjust steals the just’s Umbrella’.

If we understand this, we become realized souls and start appreciating what is happening to us including the twists and the turns of everyday life that we encounter. We should bear in mind that at any cost we should not give up our efforts in fulfilling our goals and aspirations. We should not quit till we succeed. I am reminded of a Poem which I am pleased to share with everyone.

When things go wrong as they sometimes will,
When the road you’re trudding seems all uphill,
When funds are low and the debts are high,
When care is pressing you down a bit-
Rest if you must but don’t quit…..


Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As every one of us sometimes learns;
And many a fellow turns about
When he might have won, had he stuck it out.
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow
You may succeed with another blow.


Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor’s cup;
And he learned too late when the night came down,
How close he was to the winning crown,


Success is Failure turned inside out
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt
You never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems afar
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit
It’s when things seem worse that you mustn’t quit.


Don’t quit but turn to god for
He who has shielded you all these days
He is the doer and also the destroyer
He who has given a helping hand always
In your efforts to attain your goal
He who is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient

I am also reminded of King Bruce and the Spider story where the king in distress observes a spider who kept on weaving the web till it got the shape and perfect enough to catch its prey. Thus if we are determined to succeed, our thought process should always be on how to win and never think about the word Quit. The moral of the story is try - try - try again till you succeed.

S.SEKAR
Contact: sekrajc@yahoo.com

DECISIVE MOMENT

Every one of us should decide the decisive moment in our life. People take decisions when things are going smoothly for them. Glen McGrath the Australian Cricketer was doing pretty well in his career when he decided to retire from the game. Same is the case with Oprah winfrey who hosts the famous Talk Show in American Television. She intends to put a stop to her activity by the year 2010 after being in the limelight for 25 years.

Routine is what defeats us in our mundane life. The game plan that one has, should include the immediate game being played but doesn't necessarily exclude the rest. Very often it's better to leave the moment behind before the moment has left us - because it always does.

Hence it is better to decide our decisive moment before the moment has left us. I am sure all my followers and readers of this page will agree with me and take appropriate decisions at the appropriate time. The saying goes that “Time and Tide wait for no man”

Hope you enjoyed reading this page.

S.SEKAR
Contact: sekrajc@yahoo.com

CONTROL YOUR DESIRE

I recently read an article on philosophy and it made an indelible impression on my mind. I came to understand and got convinced that by restraint you can win the things you want.As you may be aware, everything worthwhile in life takes time. Once you learn to restrain your desires, anything becomes possible.

Take the case of PATTINATHAR who was a king in the beginning and when he became a realized soul renounced everything in life and became an ASCETIC and finally attained Samadhi.

"For its very existence, a culture has to impose restrictions on an individual and his appetites. In this sense there is an ascetic in all of us and asceticism is, at its root, very much domestic, very much social."Some evolutionary biologists even talk of an innate tendency towards renunciation, an ascetic instinct similar to the language instinct. This ascetic is at home, everywhere.

Be Blissful

S.SEKAR
Contact: sekrajc@yahoo.com

WINNING AS A TEAM

Does it sound good to win as a team? Yes indeed, to win as a team is a wonderful thing happening and is also joyful for the team members. This is called team spirit and one will be overjoyed on achieving success as a team.

You can achieve success as an individual but your joy will be much more when you win together as a team. The team spirit will be at a much elevated level as you have to take the view points of others in your team, use them as separate resources, make them perform their tasks as required, motivate them and there by influence them in fulfilling the desired tasks and achieve success.

A player in a team will know his position is in danger if he fails to perform well. But one must have a strong mind, to be in a team. It is important for the captain to infuse confidence in his players to mould the team into a winning combination. “As a captain, one should be a person who does not have an ego. The team should be infused with confidence particularly during the failures.” "Only team effort could help you win a match."

Creating teamwork is a challenging process. Typically, a team shares leadership and is interdependent, meaning they depend on each other for information, services or products to achieve a team goal. A leader (manager, supervisor) spearheads a group; members work on their own most of the time with little or no dependence on other members to do their job. There may be a group effort but it is not a team. You can't have the same expectations of a group as you do for a team.

A team should have a common framework for every member so that they perform well at all times. A team is a mass and every member of the team should get motivated and get involved in achieving the objective. In this way one can see a happy environment around him and within the team. If you involve it is for certain that you will evolve.

In life and in work we find that we have to work with many others and achieve certain goals which will keep our spirits high. We have to forget our individuality and try to place ourselves as a contributing member and a resourceful person of the team. Saying this is easy but performing the act is a difficult one especially when one (a person) is not used to working in a team situation. It requires a dramatical change in the attitude of the person and this in turn will change his position as an acceptable member and a resourceful person in the eyes of his team members, his subordinates and by his superiors.

Thus we can clearly see that winning as a team has its own plus points. The single most is the leadership quality and acceptance of a person in working as a part of the team as one of the team members. This definitely will give more joy to any one on this earth (so called mundane world) than winning an award as an individual. Team performance is always a greater achievement than individual performance as it produces that synergy effect to achieve the success that we are looking for.

I am convinced deeply that winning as a team is a wonderful thing. Your happiness will get multiplied, the joy will be fulfilling and enjoyment will be total as a team together.

Hope my readers of this page enjoyed this topic as well. Be blissful.

S.SEKAR Contact: sekrajc@yahoo.com