BRAToSPHERE

Category: Uncategorized

  • >FASTFORWARD – Marketing channel

    >In this ever-changing digital environment, it can often be tough for businesses and marketers to keep up and maintain relevance to consumers. To help this out, google has partnered with The Wharton School to launch Fast.Forward. This site is full of helpful content, including more than 100 videos from leading industry experts — like google CEO, Eric Schmidt — and academics like Jerry Wind, Lauder Professor at The Wharton School, AAAA CEO Nancy Hill, offering their perspectives on the changing world of marketing. If you wanna see some interesting notes about entrepreneur, marketing and success in business and are interested in the Entre Institute, you should try to go here for the reviews.

    it elaborates on how to build community and customer bases in the digital landscape, through extensive videos. The Channel shows communications professionals how they can evolve to cut through the noise and spam, and build loyal audiences with tech savvy people.

    Through short videos from some of the top industry minds the group hopes to challenge marketers to take risks and create better campaigns. For now, the site comes up short as the videos appear to answer questions in a very general manner with few specifics in terms of tactics and strategy. The most promising component of the site appears to be the “Free Tools” section with a list of resources including links to a website optimizer, search insights and 3rd party trends data from Facebook and Twitter. Right now, all of those links are dead.

    The first rule of marketing: test your product.

    As consumers become more and more technologically savvy, businesses and marketers have worked quickly to keep up. As a result, many companies are left questioning what they aren’t doing that they should be, or what they should do next to stay in front of the right people, in the right place, at the right time, in an increasingly digital world. In this context, the utilization of 10 HR management software can significantly enhance organizational efficiency and streamline HR processes.

    A similar initiative by the UK marketing team of google, survival of the fittest already exists in partnership with London Business School.

    More importantly, the videos also take a look at the implications of those changes for marketers and consumers. These experts tackle topics ranging from the importance of innovation and insights, to the new definition of speed. On the flipside, we also have videos from interviews with everyday folks, where we learn about the roles advertising and online content play in their daily lives.

    In addition to the library of videos, the brand channel offers a “barometer” gauging consumer confidence levels and links to free tools designed to help marketers understand the online world a little better, as well as information on the Future of Advertising. A Wharton-led, research-based project, the Future of Advertising aims to explore and address a number of the business and marketing challenges in the current “Advertising Reality”, while developing new models and empirical generalizations for advertising.

    the event section aims to cover major marketing meets and events, coming up with some interesting behind the scenes footage.

    So if you’re interested in hearing what others really think about “advertising”, if you want to check out what’s happening at Advertising Week, or if you have your own opinion that you’d like to voice, check it out.

  • >Online CAT: Further Update

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    Okay, I am in corporate life now, and I sell chocolates for a living. My job is to ensure that chocolate are available in every nook and corner of my territory and plentiful in that. But the passion of teaching still lies within and CAT coaching is something I have been doing for sometime now, and I think it is my moral responsibility to keep my readers updated about any new happenings in this arena. Especially after it being declared that CAT is going to be online from this syear, and I am sure this has created lots of apprehensions and doubts in the minds of the aspirants. So some more dope on this –

    This is from an article on watblog about the recent update.

    We all know that CAT is about to go online from this year, and in all probability it is going to be a computer based test.

    The Common Admission Test (CAT) after recent months of speculation will finally be held Online this year. IIM has announced further details regarding Online CAT conducted from this year. CAT would no longer be a one day – one session appearance test but would now be conducted in 10 day long schedule with two test sessions in a day.

    CAT-2009 will be held during November 28, 2009 to December 7, 2009. A candidate will be given choice in terms of test date, session (morning/afternoon), and venue across thirty centers (cities) all over India, subject to availability.

    To appear for Online CAT, candidates will need to purchase scratch-vouchers from the designated bank branches, and later register online for CAT 2009. Vouchers would go on sale from 9 September 2009.

    Some more frequently asked questions about CAT 2009

    • When is the advertisement for CAT 2009 going to appear?

    CAT Advertisement will appear in leading newspapers on Sunday, 30 August 2009.

    • Once  the   advertisement   appears, is   one   expected  to   buy  CAT   bulletin   from  designated banks?

    No. One does not have to buy a bulky CAT bulletin. We want to go paperless. A prospective candidate buys a scratch-voucher from the designated bank branches, and, later registers online for CAT 2009.

    • When does the sale of voucher start and end?

    Sale of vouchers starts on Wednesday, 9 September 2009 at designated bank branches and their associate outlets. The sale ends on Thursday, 1 October 2009.

    • When and how do I register for CAT 2009 after buying the voucher?

    Online registration for CAT 2009 will also begin on Wednesday, 9 September 2009 and end on Thursday, 1 October 2009.Instructions on access to online registration will be given in the voucher, and, detailed registration instructions will be on the CAT website.

    • When will CAT be held and can I choose a test date?

    CAT  will  be   held  during the  period Saturday, 28 November 2009  – Monday, 7 December   20009. Yes, you can choose a test date, session (morning/afternoon), and venue across thirty centers (cities) all over India, subject to availability.

    • Can you give more details on taking test in a CBT format?

    Starting  Sunday, 30 August 2009, CAT website – www.catiim.in will provide all the details.

    A more comprehensive list of Online sites to help candidates are linked here.

    So all the best towards your preparation for CAT, which I am sure is going on in full swing by now.

    Till then, have a look at this article in TOI, and relish.

    Booze flowed free for over 100 villagers, including women, who partied hard after a truck carrying foreign liquor overturned on NH-5 in Jaipur district.

    Ah! Now when is such going to happen in Delhi. But what the heck? Alcochol is anyways dirt cheap in this union territory. Cheers Guys!

  • >Selling Education – Recession Proof Business

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    I have been home for the last three months or so, working for a coaching institute here as their part time faculty, teaching the kids extracts from some clep study guides. Now this is something that I really enjoy, right after I completed 10th standard. Giving tuitions to neighboring kids, trying to tutor my younger brother, and also giving gyan to whosoever cares to listen. So, teaching is something that comes naturally, and after a stressful day, spending some time with the students, interacting with them, and learning at the same time gives me a wonderful kick.

    I realize that teaching is no more an honorable role that it was previously. Teachers can build up people, a society or a nation through teaching (Ah! Big talk!), and it goes without doubt saying that teachers are valuable assets in our country. The basic job of a teacher is to inspire and enhance the confidence of the student, and to bring out his/her hidden qualities. Many more basic personality traits like honesty, integrity, ethics, etc… are inspired by a teacher, but here I am just relating to teachers at a coaching institute, and the institute in general.

    One thing that I have been observing for these three months is the mass commoditizing of education, as if it was something to be sold in the market. The commercialization of education, carried out by these coaching institutes, and then the B Schools is altering or disrupting the teaching and learning process itself. Advertising and other commercial activities in order to increase profit just negates all the goods of a nice education. It is like:

    Want an MBA?

    Join our coaching institute. More than half the junta at IIMs presently is from our institute. (How many were regular students? How many of them were actual students at all?)

    We have approved and audited results from the biggest auditory services firm in the country, confirming our
    claims (Okay! I agree to your claims, but what is the percentage of the people who do not make it anywhere?)

    Sitting in the office, I look at despair students with their clueless parents, hanging their big money bags under their vests, trying to look for some information regarding further education. What happens? Are they shown the right path by the counselors present there? Obviously No. Infact, they are marketed some or the other course available at the coaching center.

    Sir, an MBA today gives you the highest ROI, Says one of the ads at the center.

    Cool! Maybe right, but what about the interest of the candidate? Just because the money here is good, a possible excellent scientist is sold off to become a mediocre manager.

    “I think my son should do an M.Tech after engineering? He is very bright in his core subject.” asks the parent (say Mr. Despondar) very curiously.

    The counselor retaliates, “No, An M.tech even in the IITs do not offer you a great salary, sir“, as if it is a sin to do an M.Tech.

    “He should rather try for MS in the US.”

    That is because the counselor realizes that to pursue M.tech the student would have to prepare for GATE, an entrance exam for which they do not provide coaching. So she would be missing out on a possible student.

    “Nah, that would be too expensive. I don’t think I have the funds to send him to the US”, exclaims the parent.

    “Oh! That is okay. Then maybe he could consider CAT”, the counselor replies, cleverly leaving out the information that CAT is for MBA, and not for any technical course.

    The parent is now totally confused – M.Tech, GATE, MS, GRE and now this new bird called CAT. What the hell is this?

    The counselor now starts off, “CAT is for an MBA in the IIMs, sir“

    “They are like the best colleges in india, and gives you huge salary opportunities and opens up wide horizons… blah! Blah!”

    This is because, the center offers training for CAT, and she would get a high commission on admitting a student for CAT.

    After about half an hour of detailed brain washing and hard selling CAT, she manages to convince the parent that CAT is the best thing to have happened to them. The son, all this while has no say, and even now when Mr. Despondar is totally convinced, he gets no chance. Typical Indian middle class, where the parents try pushing all their dreams and decisions on their child – right from the choice of the colour of the bike, to the girl the child gets married to.

    The parent pays the hefty fees of around 20k, emptying his hard earned bulging money bag, and walks out happily and satisfied. As if his son has already made it into the IIMs.

    Now, the student – the son, who was actually interested in going ahead with technical studies, is forced to write CAT. There, the country loses one more potential scientist and there is born one more mismatch citizen who would always crib his life that he is not in a job he loves. Thanks to the coaching center.

    The only mistake being – His dad ended up at an institute which offers CAT coaching and not GATE coaching. Similarly, many a students interested in MBA, end up writing GATE, thanks to TEA.

    p.s.: More posts to continue regarding the same topic – Education at sale.

    Disclaimer: All opinions expressed are personal and my own.

  • >Talk @ Community meetings

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    About three more weeks at home and then am off. Off to the land of dreams – Mumbai (or so it is called!). The last three months here at home were amazing, and I had a wonderful time doing nothing. Absolutely nothing.

    Staying at home compels you to attend so many of these weddings, family gatherings, community meetings, which given a chance you would not want to be even seen around. I have attended hordes of such gatherings, weddings, parties, etc… Which were not really in my liking? One of these was the community meet we had a couple of weeks back.

    I have nothing specific against these so called social gatherings, and it is really good that people do come forward to meet up, socialize, and talk to each other. After all, this is what differentiates us – The Human race, from the rest of the animals – SOCIAL. (Hated it as a subject during school!)

    I made up my mind that I would try to be as social as possible, and try striking conversations with anyone and everyone, trying to know more people. Thus fulfilling the very purpose of such meets – Socializing. After all, you are supposed to talk @ Community meetings, meant for talking.

    The funny thing is the very amusing behavior of people around you, and their talks, and more importantly their topics of discussion. The whole community members can be classified into many categories and each category would converse with every other possible category, so doing the math gives a whole lot of permutations and combinations of talks. Here I would specifically like to comment on some types of conversations I overheard in that evening of ennui.

    Hair Dye Talk

    Two 40 something males, with one small kid in the hand, and running after a not so small kid, while the wife is busy cribbing about life to the fellow wives.

    Mid aged uncle 1 (M1): Hey, have you been to habib’s recently? (As if Habib’s is the latest restaurant in town, and every normal human is expected to frequent it)

    M2: yeah, was there for a haircut. (His hair looks even worse than what a normal roadside barber would do. Seems like he has gone to those barbers who sit on the pavements with one nice chair, and a mirror in hand.)

    M1: Oh! Sad, the hair cut there is not so good (Laughing within himself, proclaiming his victory), you should have rather gone to “Toppers – The saloon” for that.

    M1: The hair colouring at habib’s is really good. (Now trying to show off his latest hair colour, which removes all doubt that we are evolutes of the monkey race).

    M2: Oh! Really, that is so good. Your hair really looks nice, what colour is that? (Chuckling within himself, laughing at the colour choice)

    M1: It is the latest one available, the latest trend (I am so sure he himself did not know about it).

    You know how much it costs, a full 1200 bucks for a bottle. (Getting back to his bragging mode),

    add another 500 bucks for this colour of the streak (trying to show his streak, after he realizes that M2 is not really impressed with the 1200 bucks)

    M2: Hmmm!

    M1: Also, an additional 500 bucks is the service fee there (Still trying to prove his point that it has costed him a bomb to get that hair),

    but well, I know the guy there (Now trying to show his affluence),

    so it got settled in 400 bucks itself. (A sense of victory!)

    Call Center Talk

    I then move on to a younger group, when one of my cousin signals a Hi, and invites me to join them My aim of being social led me to this group. A group of 20 something youngsters (My age group!), with one common factor binding them all – They all work at HSBC, the call center. So obviously all the talks revolve around the processes there, the work, colleagues and HSBC, HSBC, HSBC… So even there in that group I end up as a total misfit, and just remain a mute listener.

    The thing with vizag is – there is only this one call center of repute and MNC settings – HSBC. All BCom, BBM and other graduates, who know they would not want to work for long (Family Business!), but at the same time want access to the latest and the best happening people in town, join HSBC. This pretty much includes more or less everyone, of this age, in our community (Sindhi’s)!

    One typical thing about all these 20 something youngsters was their dressing sense. Updated with the latest trends, the best brands, the “I don’t care attitude”, and the complete urban metro look. Too much money at too young age I guess. Just a look at their mobile phone models and their bikes (or cars!), makes you wonder how much are they paid!

    The talk here would typically go off with process, bands, Telemarketing, outbound calls, inbound calls, US, UK, Lead generation, HR, Customer phone sales executive, PM, AMO.. and so many other terms that I could not understand. One interesting thing here in this group was – though they all worked in night shifts, and many of them never ever met in office due to different timings, different processes and all – everyone knew everyone. And one thing that they all loved doing – gossiping and bitching about their fellow colleagues.

    A talk between two girls in that group –

    Girl 1: Hey, know what? That guy Phani is going around with that bi*ch Sheetal.

    Girl 2: What? Really (With an equally snobbish attitude, still trying to arrange her mascara and a flabbergasted look)

    G1: yes, last heard they were found in the office restroom making out.

    G2: My Gawd! Tell ya, she is a total bit^& and she is great in trapping innocent guys like Phani. Poor Phani.

    G1: yeah, only til last month she was with yadav, and their relationship seemed so intense!

    …. The talks go on, and they describe stuff, not recommended for this blog. (the parental control would get invoked!)

    You don’t need a degree in Astronomical physics to understand the happenings. Sometimes, this makes me wonder – should I have joined HSBC during these three long months. It could have got me into the most “happening” circuit of vizag. Many a things could have happened!

    Real Estate Talk

    Now coming to the third group of people and their talks.

    If the previous group was busy talking about the virtual estate, here we have over sized, pot bellied and bald over aged men discussing the latest real estate trends in the city. It comprises of an elderly group of people, most of who are very much into their own businesses, and have developed this new found love for the spiraling real estate prices. Each one of them thinks themselves to be a master of their art, and without any gusto declare their proficiency in the field.

    This group compulsorily consists of one rich Baniya businessman, who after spending all his life selling sweets and pakodas, has now entered the real estate business. A building there, a shopping complex here, and selling it off to people from the same community. So this is like an ideal place for him to market his products with complete alacrity free of cost. And also, most of the times hook in customers there and then.

    The talk here is too boring and diplomatic, with it starting off with Diabetes and ways to avoid or control it. Then slowly drifting towards the current market scenario, and then the Baniya halwai shifts the discussion to the booming real estate and why everyone should invest in that. After setting up this base, starts the pitching of his properties and his construction sites.

    Many more groups, and their varied talks – a complete book can be written on this topic.

    Alas! Amongst all these different noises was a poor blogger, who felt so totally out place, and could do nothing else but just wander from one group to another. Wondering – “Why the hell am I here?”

    Oh! By the way, I too got smitten for the maddening rush to acquire the personal facebook page id, and succumbed to it. My ID on facebook is http://www.facebook.com/bharatjhurani That adds one more web address. The others being

    iBlog @       http://jbharat.blogspot.com
    Linkedin:    http://www.facebook.com/bharatjhurani
    Twitter:        http://twitter.com/bharatjhurani

    Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/bharatjhurani

  • >King of Good Times

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    Now I seriously think Mr. Mallya should be paying me some freelancing stipend. Not only have I contributed a lot of amount towards driving the sales up, now I am also publicizing it and its tagline. Well, Mr. mallya is a big man, and is the winner of the just concluded elections, so I don’t want to pester him much. (Note to myself: I think I should still ask for the stipend!)

    Yes, without even contesting the elections, this tagline of Kingfisher – King of Good times (that very well holds with its chief promoter) is the true winner. After the verdict declared on Saturday, everything good has been happening in the country.

    I seriously hope SRK is wrong, when he says, “Hamari life bhi in picture ki tarah hoti hai.. Anth mein sab theek ho hi jata hai.. HAPPIES ENDINGS. Aur agar sab theek nahi, to picture.. Abhi baaki hai mere dost.“(Our lives are so much like the movies. In the end everything is gotta get right… HAPPY ENDING. And if everything is not all right, the movie is still not done my friend!).

    I don’t want the movie to end; don’t want it to all be over so abruptly. I know, everything is not all right still. There are still so many things that need to be mended. That is the best part of human lives and society, it is so fragmented and complex that it can never be all homogeneous anytime, and thus, the movie would never end!

    Yeah, now what are these supposedly good things that have occurred – I have quit beer and have just joined a gym. (Great, that could be like the best thing to happen forever, but alas! It has not. Told you na, there are still a lot of things to be mended.

    STABLE GOVERNMENT

    I don’t which party would be a better leader at the center. Whether L.K. Advani or Dr. manmohan Singh would make a better prime minister. If UPA is a better alliance than NDA (The third front and the fourth front would have been good supporters and bargainers). One thing is clear from the verdict – the government is stable, and there would not be unnecessary horse trading and constant threats to withdraw support. The Indian junta has shown its maturity by voting with complete responsibility and the UPA now has a lot to deliver. There could be no better situation than this, when the whole world is looking upon India and China in these times of recession.

    Some obvious revelations:
    Regional parties have been shown their place, national parties have regained their dominance
    The results are a vote for stability and good governance
    The results are a vote for “reforms” and the Congress-led UPA should, therefore, fast forward “reforms
    The nation has rejected the “communalist” BJP

    Jai HO!

    The Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) again sweeping the Assembly elections (they won all 32 seats this time, like the last time in 2004)? They are not likely to lose any seat even in 2014. The opposition (Congress) has no base and the party has no grassroots in Sikkim at all. The SDF will continue to retain power for atleast another 20 years surely. With Chamling at the helm, the SDF will continue to get support of the Sikkim people for more development of the state in all areas (Source: Varun’s blog)

    There is no power LEFT

    The left have always been a pain in the road to development in this capitalistic society. By voting them out completely the Indian junta have shown that they would want to be a completely capitalistic society, and consumerism should be at its core. After all, the king of good times is something that the left hated completely. We can no more live in a society which says equality for all. Where would the entrepreneurial zeal come in from in such circumstances? The whole country would turn into a PSU where everyone knows that the promotion is a direct function of one’s political contacts or the number of years put in, and the quality or amount of work has no say at all!

    MARKET SENTIMENT IS UP

    India’s financial markets surged on the first working day after the results were out, with benchmark stock indices halted after hitting an initial 10% circuit limit, as a decisive mandate handed to the United Progressive Alliance in federal elections raised hopes of a stable government and progress on economic and market reforms. Morgan Stanley now expects the Sensex companies to post aggregate earnings growth of 2.5%, against its prior forecast of a 10% contraction, this fiscal year. It upped its Sensex target for 2009 to 15,300.

    • UPA’s clean sweep win cheers the markets
    • The ruling Congress party wins the most since 1991
    • Trading on both the BSE and the NSE has been halted
    • Creates history; two upper circuits in one day
    • Extends its year-to-date gain to 48 per cent
    • Sensex +14,200 and the Nifty +4,300 first time after about eight months

    Investor wealth soared by a whopping Rs four lakh crore within seconds of opening of trade. Now all this has given a new confidence to the retail investors and the common junta of the country. They would again start investing in the stock markets, like it was in the boom time till mid 2008. Also, the soaring of the wealth exponentially and the positive outlook given by most rating agencies and analysts would lift the moods still up. As my friend DN, a financial analyst in making, notes,” Ya, it is a rally, but a sustainable rally. And yes…the fundamentals are not the same; the political risk has drastically decreased“. Yes indeed, the political risk has decreased dramatically. Lalu could be a lot of pain in the ass otherwise.

    LTTE chief dead

    Now this is like a typical bollywood movie unfolding for the congress. First it’s historic win since 1991, and then the chief accused for the assassination of its ex chief Rajiv Gandhi – husband of the current supremo, is shot dead. Prabhakaran’s death signals the end of the nearly three decade-long civil-ethnic war that cost the island nation the lives of thousands of innocent civilians. Good news.

    KKR finally wins without Divine intervention

    Kolkata knight riders have been facing rough weather right from the beginning of the second season of IPL. Everything that could possible go wrong, did go wrong. First, the thing about the fakeiplplayer, and the tiffs within the team. The stand of having more than one captain for the season. The superover fiasco in the match against R Royals. Everything seems so bad, that it was seemingly apparent that KKR would break the record of DC of having the least number of points. (KKR had 3 til yesterday, while DC scored a dismal 4 points in IPL 1)

    But, as the king of good times reigned, and it preferred helping KKR rather than its in house RC, Balaji blessed KKR with a victory.Belligerent half-centuries by Brendon McCullum and Brad Hodge took the Kolkata Knight Riders to a spectacular win against Chennai Super Kings. Know, it is not going to help KKR much, but now atleast the Bengalis can have their head up for their Dada, and also face the Deccanites competing in the lowest points category (The honour would still remain with Deccan!)

    Well, the thing that KKR could finally win without any divine intervention has met flak with many religious people. Afterall, it was balaji who steered KKR to victory, and Balaji is the lord at the Tirupati abode. So there still is some divine intervention.

    Now all of this ofcourse spells out good news all over the media, and I hope this spell continues for a long time to come.