Building & Sustaining a Great Brand

Today I am going to write neither about a business person, nor about a good book. This blog is dedicated to my wife, Sweta, who exemplifies a great brand by herself. I have been looking for examples to write about a good & sustainable brand. I think she exemplifies very much what I have been searching for & I don't need to look further.

Without any doubt, I can say that she is 110% committed to her work. Then, I asked myself - lot of people are committed at their work,  then why only a handful are successful in their professional career? Is there something else? And the answer is - "How sensitive you are, to your customers? What is the depth to which you empathize with them?". In her case, she has been handling employee benefits for quite sometime & I always find her being concerned about their problems as if it's her own problem. She doesn't stop their, she takes that extra step (which goes beyond her responsibility) to ensure a happy employee at the end of the day. And believe me, it works & she is a classic example of that. All that is required is a great degree of patience, an eye for details & a strong sense of determination to make people happy around you.

Now let's talk about great & sustainable brand. Well, a great brand represents a product/service which is of very high quality, customers feel proud/delighted to be associated with it & the brand sustains its image throghout it's life. The last part is tricky, but that is the whole essence of a successful brand. As individuals, we all create a brand of ourselves. It's equally important to carry a great image all throughout life to achieve excellence. I am proud that Sweta has managed her brand image well thru her exceptionally good work & I expect her to work with same level of consistency for the rest of her life. Good luck to "Brand- Sweta" !!!

Sustainability - The Way Forward

I am always curious about knowing weather of various places of my interest. And believe me, first thing that I search in a news paper is the weather section. I seriously don't know what makes me so curious about weather, but I have observed the no of incidents of weather storms, earthquakes, snow-melting, very high temperatures have increased over past few years. I often hear about "Sustainability", but never felt curious enough to understand it's meaning till recently. I happened to be a silent & curious listener to one of the speech given by Peter Graf, Chief Sustainability Officer, SAP. And what I gathered was profound. It's like doing few basic things to bring our world back to good old green days. After that speech, I also felt bad that my contribution to build a beautiful world is so less(almost none). I always feel excited to see the beautiful snow-picked mountains of Himalaya, but I never have thought about preserving their beauty. I love to stand under a tree in summer, but I never thought of ways to plant more trees to ensure a cooler summer in future. Going forward, I hope to see myself as a person who contributes for a better tomorrow!!!

Co-CEO Model for Product Companies

I am not a specialist in the are of analysing which model works best for a company. Yet, based on my experience in Product Development Companies, I have few thoughts around co-CEO Model. Here it goes.

If you are passionate about products, then you can develop something exceptional, innovative & path breaking.

If you are passionate about relationship building & selling, then you can easily make your way thru customers.

Having said above 2 points, I believe A Product Development Company needs an optimized combination of above two qualities at the top. Usually, it's difficult for one person to be best at these two parameters. Infact these two characteristics often don't go hand-in-hand. Hence, why not 2 people at the top? One focusing on Development of Product & the other Evangelizing the Product with customers!!!

Argentina & Mesmerizing Messi!!!

I started this world cup by supporting Brazil. As matches went by, I slowly started moving away from Brazilian Magic. Particularly in the match against Portugal, I was highly disappointed to see them playing very ordinary game of football.

On the other hand Argentina continues to impress me. I am not a big follower of football, but when I saw Messi in their 1st match, I felt this guy is very different than others. His has got all the skills to become next Maradona. His speed, his intelligence, his dribbling, everything looks so extra ordinary. I feel Argentina are just playing amazing game of football & Messi makes it look even more special. Though he hasn't managed to score a single goal by far, yet his brilliance is easily visible on the field.

I am putting my money on Argentina. Let's see how far they go!!!