How Cartoon Physics Nearly Killed Me Once

We are the 90's and 80's kids and luckily, we did not grow up on things like iPhones, Tablets, reality shows and stuff. Entertainment for us was something else - playing cricket in the ground even during the hot Indian summers, hanging out with friends till night, going to art / music / dance classes, watching TV shows etc. But since the computers during our childhoods were just good enough for MS Paint, most of our time went into watching TV shows and cartoons.

I remember the craze the one such TV show called 'Shaktimaan' had. Such was the influence of the show that children were known to have attempted the famous 'Shaktimaan spin' from the top of their roofs and meet their untimely demise. 'Pfft, are these kids are stupid or what?', used to be my reaction until I attempted to do enact something similar and came very close to meeting Sir Yamraaj. So, here goes my story...

3Vs To Consider For Making Your Business Failproof

So these days I am preparing for my MICA GD/PI and for the case study preparation, dad gave me Telenor's (Uninor, India) Marketing Guide to understand how the company carries out the process of Marketing and CRM globally. So while I was flipping through the booklet's pages, I found something  called the '3V Model'. It was a method which Uninor followed to maintain focus on its business priorities and way of working. While it was being successfully applied within Uninor, I thought that it could be extended to almost any business out there, no matter how big or small, online or offline.

Now, if you are dreaming of having a business / venture / start-up of your own or already have one, this model is a must-know to maintain your sight on your venture's purpose of existence. It is easy to dream up big business ideas but if you don't know the purpose of existence of your venture, it is bound to fail.
 

Source

So here are the '3Vs' you must keep in mind before coming up with the next 'Facebook' or 'Google' :


1. Value Customer : (V1) Who to serve?

It defines what customers are most valuable to your business. Who you should target in order to build your business profitably. Afterall, if you target the wrong audience, they most likely won't be interested in your services and hence, you are bound to fail.

Example : A pizza chain like Dominoes needs to focus on their 'right' consumers - the youth. If they started putting more focus on -say, senior citizens, their campaign would fail as they seniors simply aren't the pizza generation and hence, they are the 'wrong' consumers.

I must admit that I've also had big dreams of having businesses of my own. But with time, my common sense asked me the question - 'Who are you planning to build this thing for? Yourself?'. Just because you like the idea doesn't mean everyone is going to like it. Build your businesses based on the needs of your consumers. The reverse isn't true.

2. Value Proposition : (V2) What to offer?

The second most important question. You define what your product / service is. That is because people will come to you only if you have something valuable to offer to them. They will come to you only if you solve one of their problems or make their lives a bit easier than yesterday. They will come to you only if your brand is unique in relation to other related offerings.

Time is of essence in this generation. Capturing people's attention with your product is what really counts. But remember - you need to have a product which has the potential to do it.

Example : I have seen many designers (including me) starting a design blog just because they know design stuff and can spew out design gyaan at others. But the problem is, there are literally thousands of design blogs out there, each churning out the same type content. Hence, these wannabe bloggers fail terribly. They do not get the expected number of visitors, lose heart and then stop blogging. It happened with me. This was because I was offering the wrong thing. People did not want more of design gurus. They already had enough of them.

It is a headache knowing and coming up with something that people really want. Seriously. But there are ways.. I'll tell you when I get to know of it myself.

3. Value Network : (V3) How to deliver?

If my interpretation is correct, it refers to the 'Place' and 'Promotion' part of the 4 Ps of Marketing. OK. So you've got a product (or service), you've researched upon the justifiable price and all, and are ready to sell it. But where and how do you plan to sell it? Seriously, just because you have a nice product, it does not mean that people will suddenly wake up from their sleep one day and realise that you have come up with something that could solve their problems. You have to tell it to people! You need to promote it, not everywhere and anywhere, but only at the place where your target consumer is.

Example : Since we are using their model, lets take up the case of Uninor only. In India, they are famous for their low prices and quality of service. They may not have as many subscribers as Airtel or may have been hit with the recent 2G spectrum verdict, but they are still adding customers like hell.

Source : Operator-wise net subscriber addition (Jan 2012)

And this is because they are doing something right : the place and promotion. They are targeting the semi-urban and rural areas aggressively as it is where their concept of low prices would be most effective. They are doing localized promotion. In short, they are 'delivering' their product in the right way.

So this is about the innovative 3V model. I am sure it'll help you think about the 'why' and 'how' of your business plan and weed out the unnecessary ideas.


I'm no businessman to talk about starting businesses but all I can say is that this does bring some clarity in the flow of our thoughts. Share this post if you like it!

The Dilemma

It was a day like any other. Nothing special about it - people may say what they want, but I beg to differ. Weekday, made obvious by the merciless honking of cars and the roar of their engines. Cars containing people pretending to be too busy with their lives to care about this world. Cars containing people working without a sense of clarity in their lives, scrambling to add up penny after penny in their banks accounts, aspiring to be the next Birlas and Ambanis, very well knowing that they'll never even be 1/1000th as close.

I shifted my focus. I looked up, and there she was again. She was sitting on what I suppose was her 'favorite spot'. I observed her actions carefully for some time, from a distance, just like the way I had been doing for the last one week or so. She was lonely. Nobody paid any attention to her. To the people, she was just another soul struggling for existence like them.

The photographer in me would have loved to capture her aura in a camera. The clothes she wore were so unlike the people around her. Now you see, we live in a society wherein when a poor man wears torn jeans, he does so because he has no other option. But when a rich teen wears the same style of torn jeans, it is considered as 'fashionable'. But personal opinions aside, my subject did not care about 'fashion' even a bit. Her hair kept unattended, like she no longer cared about the trivial rituals of women of her age. It was obvious that she had more pressing issues to care about.

Her most distinctive feature were her eyes. They were unlike any others' I've ever seen. Eyes, that had perhaps seen it all in life. Eyes, that cried for love and longing - like a kitten looking up at you expectantly for more food. Eyes, that had been doing all the talking since the day her dry lips got tired of it.

I wanted to help her. I wanted to make her happy. I wanted to solve all her problems, if I had the power. My mind was racing. Should I do it? Would it be the correct thing to do?

I finally decided to approach her today. Nervous, I started walking awkwardly towards her. What I was gonna do was nothing too spectacular to anyone around me. You all have done it so many times, without giving it too much of a thought. But it was a big deal for me. For reasons of my own, I never give much thought to helping her 'kind'. I am a man of science and I believe strongly in the 'survival of the fittest' theory. But there was something about her. She was different. Her skin and her clothes convinced my mind to betray my principles. I passed by her quickly, not looking in her too familiar eyes, bending ever so slightly in front of her.

Hearing the clank of my coin hitting her metal bowl, I walked away, smiling a little, knowing that at least two people in this world are going to have a fulfilling dinner tonight.

(By the way, this was my second entry in the Scribe Hunt competition, unfortunately it did not win. Still, loved writing this post!)

Who the Hell is Kony and Why Should You Care?

Its on Facebook. Its on tech blogs. Its on personal blogs. Its on Tumblr. There is no place where the word 'Kony' has not been sighted. If you are still unaware of this sensation called 'Kony', you've come to the right place, for I shall explain what the hell exactly this 'Kony thing' is and why you should care, along with all the controversies surrounding it.

Here is the original Kony video you must watch to understand what the recent brouhaha is all about. Everything is clearly explained in this video and that is why I am not going to explain what its about :

Now, just to get an idea of how viral this video has become, here are some nice looking stats for you :

Yes, 14 MILLION views in just 4 days. Assuming you have already watched the video by now, you may very well understand the reason behind the popularity of this video. If you skipped the video above, its a request that you watch it because the cause stated above is genuine and very well explained.

The controversy regarding Kony 2012

While everyone agrees upon the authenticity of the cause, not many agree with the intentions of the people leading this movement.

This article by Mashable pretty much sums up why this movement is getting a lot of critical attention. To sum up, these are the main reasons why the Kony 2012 movement is in the news for some wrong reasons :

1. Mashable says :

"..The video has also, however, begun to receive significant backlash from organizations and publications questioning the authenticity of Invisible Children. Many of the negative critiques have been targeted at Invisible Children’s practices as an organization, not whether Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, is a war criminal."

So we know that the Joseph Kony story is real and there are no doubts that he needs to be arrested. But there is also a concern about the organization (Invisible Children) that is behind this campaign as it is being accused of misuse of funds. This is one major factor making some people (including me) a bit jittery about this whole campaign. Visit this Reddit thread to view a very thought-provoking discussion taking place about this whole issue and some more in-depth thinking.

2. KONY 2012 is being accused of promoting 'Slacktivism' - a belief (very common among the youngsters) that sharing a video on Twitter of Facebook is makes them an activist of some sort and hence contributing to the eradication of the problem. It only increases the awareness, fellas. The problem is still there unless you go out on the streets and actually do something.

Other important links worth checking out :

1. Visible children : A Tumblr blog explaining why we should think before supporting the organization behind Kony 2012. Seriously worth a read as this was probably from where the controversy originated.

2. What if : A second take on this whole issue. But then, the truth will never be known to commons like us..

3. And then I told Kony : A hilarious meme on the whole Kony issue (Warning : Nsfw language)


Well, the what side you take on this whole issue is up to you. My job was just to make you wiser than you were 10 minutes ago. Opinions please?