Interesting quotes

“At some point, probably about 32 seconds into my commute, it dawned on me that I had inadvertently become a metaphor for life in general. Life is half delicious yogurt, half crap, and your job is to keep the plastic spoon in the yogurt. “

Quote from the Dilbert Blog

“The most unfair thing about life is the way it ends. I mean life is tough, it takes up a lot your time. What do you get the end of it? A death. What’s that? A bonus?! I think the life cycle is all backwards. You should die first, get it out of the way. Then you go live in an old age home. You get kicked out for being too healthy, go collect your pension, then when you start work you get a gold watch on your first day. You work forty years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement. You drink alcohol, you party, you get ready for high school. You go to primary school, you become a kid, you play. You have no responsibilities, you go back, you spend your last 9 months floating with luxuries like central heating, spa, room service on tap, then you finish off as an orgasm.”
George Costanza

MBTI test

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is probably one of the most useful personality tests around. It looks at 4 sets of attributes : Introversion|Extroversion, Intuition|Sensing, Thinking|Feeling, and Perceiving|Judging. This leads to 16 combinations, that give you a surprisingly clear and accurate indication of your overall personality type. Ask yourself if your current job profile/career matches your personality type. If it does, chances are that you are quite content with your job.

Here is a free MBTI test that you can take. The 16 types at a glance.

Update: A comment points out that the validity of the test is questionable. You can read about multiple points of view on the test here, at Wikipedia.

The basic skeptical claim against the MBTI is that any conclusions made from the types lack falsifiability, which can cause confirmation bias in the interpretation of the results. It has also been argued that the terminology of the MBTI is so vague and complicated that it allows any kind of behavior to fit any personality type, resulting in the Forer effect, where an individual gives a high rating to a positive description that supposedly applies specifically to him. Therefore it is difficult to validate any of the claims made by the MBTI using scientific methods. Carroll says, “no matter what your preferences, your behavior will still sometimes indicate contrasting behavior. Thus, no behavior can ever be used to falsify the type, and any behavior can be used to verify it.” Carroll is correct in this observation, however, the MBTI is not intended to be used as trait measurement instrument, but only as an indicator of preference similar to handedness. Carroll’s argument could be construed as spurious since no behavior could be used to falsify one’s handedness preference (right-handed or left-handed), nor could any behavior be construed to verify it.

I tend to agree with the above argument that the test could be used as an indicator of preferences, and not a trait measurement tool. Of course most people fall somewhere between introversion|extraversion, inuitive|sensing etc and not necessarily at either extreme, but it still helps to know your dominant preferences.

Lessons in Positioning – Nokia n-Series Vs Reliance Infocomm

My favourite ad on television these days is the Nokia n-series ad. I cannot think of any other ad that communicates to it’s target segment as precisely (like a hot knife through butter, if I may use a Sidhuism) as this one. The film opens to the shot of a guy removing rings pierced on his face, and moves on to a guy with long hair, who gets a haircut (and I presume a new Nokia n-series phone), then we move on to a guy who trades in his old tattered jeans for a new one, and similar such life situations where people make that transition from being young and rebellious, to older more mature selves. The fantastic jingle begins with ‘Zindagi ki nayi mod pe, aa gaye aaj hum’ – which roughly translates to –Today, we have come to a new turn in our lives. The positioning is crystal clear – the n-Series is not your first phone, it’s your second phone, the one you buy when you move up in life, the one you buy when you have had enough of living your rebellious college bum life, and move on to greater things (like employment, your first car etc).The whole ad just focusses on positioning and customer segmentation (by stage of life) – no rubbish about the phone’s features or the prices. Sweet.

Link to Storyboard. Link to ad.

On the other hand, we have the new and youthful ‘Reliance Infocomm’, which has absolutely gone berserk with colours. Their new ad celebrates 2.5 million customers (and growing). However, the positioning goes haywire. The ad features these young twenty-somethings humming the new Reliance signature tune, while facts about the company appear to their right (in colours that I can only call vulgar). The average Reliance customer is NOT a twenty-something youngster. It is more likely to be a gujju businessman, migrant north indians (who need to call home cheap), small business owners, the neighbourhood DSA employee, and in short, any cost conscious group. I am a twenty-something, and the ad does nothing for me. Zip. It’s like a nuisance video clip that I have to endure, while hoping that the Nokia n-series ad comes on again.

What seems to have happened is that Anil Ambani has decided that all his brands will be ‘youthful’, in stark contrast to brother Mukesh’s staid brands. So, suddenly Reliance Infocomm (which had, and continues to have no brand attributes associated with it except cheap) finds itself in a desperate situation trying to be young and hep, instead of being itself – a lesson that is as important for a brand as it is for us mortals.

The analytical genius of Times of India

This article (titled, Want salary hike, join financial sector) on increase in salaries in the financial sector points out:

“India Bulls was amongst the highest payers in financial sector with a 262.44 per cent increase in their staff cost. Firms like Geojit Financials, IL&FS and CRISIL also registered 82 to 85 per cent rise in their staff expenditures.”

Thus TOI would have us believe that a 262% increase in staff costs, corresponds to a 262% increase in salary, thereby making Indiabulls the highest payer in the financial sector. Wow. Now, if Indiabulls doesn’t hire you, I suggest you head to Balaji Telefilms , where again the staff costs went up by 251%. Needless to say, TOI would like us to believe that this means that salaries went up by 251%.

Do we need to point out that staff costs go up when you hire more people (both Indiabulls and Balaji being growing companies), and not necessarily because you are paying your people more.

“The salaries rose by over 251 per cent in Balaji Telefilms and the drop in the profits of firms like Cinevistaas, UTV, Zee Telefilms, Mid Day Multimedia and TV Today can be partly attributed to the increasing staff costs, the release added.”

I can see the young journalist writing this piece as it was originally meant to be – one about salary costs going up and affecting bottom lines. But, why would an ordinary reader of TOI be interested in something like that? He would be interested if you told him that salaries (particularly his own) are going up. Now, with that marketing insight in place, all you need is to substitute the phrase ‘staff cost’ with ‘salary’ in a few places in the article, and you have a story about salaries – which can then be given a juicy title – Want salary hike, join financial sector. Subsequently, this story can be put up right in the front page of the website, where readers will keep clicking, generating more revenues for TOI (Cost per ad impression).

MBAs prepare people to manage nothing

Or so says Henry Mintzberg .

To some extent it is true, because most MBA courses focus only on functional areas, and not on true people management or leadership. An ideal MBA course should probably focus on business concepts in the first year, and pure practical management and leadership in the second (possibly through social projects, live consulting projects, startup incubation etc.), culminating with placements.

I suppose one of the main reasons why IIMs, XLRI etc produce successful business leaders could be that the input raw material itself represents the topmost performers on the entrance tests with 10s of thousands of candidates, a group of people who I suspect would succeed anyway.

Iranian President’s Blog!

Well, if there was any doubt left about blogs becoming mainstream, this should dispel it. BBC reports that the Iranian president, now has a blog. Read about it here.

Surprisingly, Iran is the first off the mark. Wonder when other heads of state will adopt this new medium. I would predict that the next ‘head of state blog’ too would come from a small country somewhere. The analogy in the world of business is how smaller companies tend to be more nimble when it comes to embracing technology, while larger bluechip companies take much longer to change.

Carnival of the capitalists

The lastest Carnival of the capitalists, featuring great posts from the week from business and economics blogs is out. Incidentally, this week’s edition happens to feature Slow Leadership, a blog I recently wrote about.

Downtoearth.org.in – a new kind of cola war

If it wasn’t enough that softdrink makers use up precious reserves of ground water (thereby depriving farmers of the same) and spend very little on it, they now wish to have no standards to be set for pesticides in soft drinks. They contend that since vegetables, milk etc already contain pesticide, what harm can a little more of it do?

Three years after releasing the findings on pesticide content in softdrinks, the CSE continues its fight.

Read this, from downtoearth.co.in : The street fight
And read this from The Frontline: Thirst for Profit

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Update: Since this post is attracting more comments, thought I should add some more views on the way the issue is being handled by the cola companies. They seem to have realized that the best way to react to any controversy in India (be it terrorism, flooding in Mumbai etc) is to just keep quiet, and hope that the issue dies a natural death in our collective consciousness.

Secondly, this is also an example of how companies view customers as ‘target segments’, (who can be fooled into buying a product, leading to increased revenues) instead of actual people. What I would like to see instead is an ‘explanation’, not a yogic meditative silence on the issue. If you believe that the pesticide content in your product is at acceptable levels, tell us why you think the CSE is wrong, and don’t put your US lobbies into overtime duty by threatening that this issue could affect FDI prospects in India.

Thirdly, the argument that there should be standards for inputs in the product (water, sugar etc), but not the final product is illogical. Consumers drink the final product, and not the inputs whatever their level of purity may be. I have noticed pani puri sellers who put up little signboards that say ‘Only Aquafina water used for pani puris here’. Surely, we expect better from a multi-billion dollar MNC.

And finally, I am sure other industries too use up ground water. But lets have answers from the soft drink makers first, shall we? I suppose steel and paper contribute in some manner to nation building, whereas softdrinks just corrode teeth, and make people fat. Mangola (Pepsi’s mango drink) for instance, contains about 15 grams of sugar per 500 ml, and if I am not mistaken, the dietary requirement of sugar would be about 12 grams for an entire day. (I could be wrong about this last bit though.)

And yes, in case you did not read the Frontline article at the top of this post, do so now. Click here.

Leadership vs Management

I have always believed that leaders and managers are two different kinds of people. This article, distinguishes between leaders and managers quite well.

Leaders conceive and initiate strategies that create and sustaincompetitive differentiation and advantage. They continuously pursue and evaluate innovations that may lead to increased productivity, new business opportunities and markets, and new or expanded competitive advantage and differentiation. They direct and influence corporate activities and behaviors to develop an environment and processes that support and sustain these strategies

Managers implement strategies in day-to-day operations. They establish processes and systems, create business rules and operating procedures, and monitor performance to maximize the efficient production of the company’s products and services. They have the frontline responsibility for ensuring efficient and appropriate use of company resources, including equipment, employees and capital.

Thus, in summary it appears that leaders think, and managers implement. Now, here is my insight:

Most orgnanizations actually reward good managers. Good managers, over a period of time tend to occupy leadership roles. Is this necessarily good? The skill sets that are required from a manager seem to differ from what a leader requires. A manager is likely to be one who is good at delivering results, planning, organizing, people skills, data analysis etc. A leader on the other hand would need to begood at analyzing the environment, predicting trends, understanding human potential (of his team), influencing people and so forth. Plato believed that philosophers would probably make good kings. In the same vein, it appears that a good leader would be one who is an evolved creature, who can get away from the mundane operational issues, and look far ahead into the future.

Now, if this hypothesis is true, shouldn’t organizations look for different kinds of people to occupy these two kinds of roles. In other words, I would like to see organizations look at creating two kinds of talent pipelines – a management pipeline, and a leadership pipeline, and not mix up the two. The management pipeline would consist of the left-brainers, the people who know what needs to be done to get the job done – the analytical people, who are good at making plans, roadmaps etc. The leadership pipeline would consist of the people with softer skills – creativity, intuition, vision, good values, a sense of justice, fairness etc. A leader is almost like a lighthouse, that creates paths, while good managers are probably like sailors who know where to go thanks to the lighthouse, but need to use their own talents to ‘get there’.

Needless to say, this classification may make the ‘leaders’ appear more glamourous, but that is the case anyway in most modern organizational hierarchies. I however believe, that both skills are equally valuable – without good management, ideas would just remain ideas.

The new and improved ‘Management by Matrices’

As you can see, this blog has just made the leap of faith, from being a drab old blog (in terms of look, not content!), to a sleek, sexy branded look. Many thanks to Joshua ‘design’ Karthik for that.

I recently discovered, that a few quality blogs (like this one), find this blog’s content worthwhile to list it in their favourites. That was motivation enough for me to go for a more branded look, in addition to trying and maintaining a healthy posting frequency. Now, if only I actively ‘promoted’ this blog, I suppose more traffic would come in. However, I tend to be a little more traditional in my views as far as promotion is concerned. I would prefer my readers to do the promotion if they like my stuff, rather than do it myself. Yes, I seem to be disregarding, an important ‘P’ of marketing. Hmm..who knows, I may just decide to turn immodest!!

Watch this space for more…