Work _____________Balance

Stumbled on my own blog after so many years...saw some comments which readers have put in...some talking about dreams, some about IIMI, some about lost friends..

Feeling like writing something...but wheres the time?

Job, Work, Boss, Operations, Phone calls, mails....an MBA changes everything i think now.

Now my gmail/facebook don't get many senders/posters...asking me how am I, what i am upto..and so on. Truth is, even others are caught in this daily run - Getting work done, clearing mails, taking phone calls..

Now my phone rings all the time! And 99.5% all work! Between life - Official and Personal...personal has faded away!!

My family awaits a clean weekend (which has a Saturday...) but not happening. My kid has understood that i am a person who is available post 9 pm on weekdays and more than hourly affair on Sundays.That's exactly like a TV Soap!! Runs on Weekdays at prime time and bigger telecast on Weekend! As i am typing this; i am discovering the same...i have become a soap on an idiot box??

Whats more - There is a bigger idiot box (lid open box) on which i am typing right now and that has become a place i am always available. So much for human touch in this universe.

And not to forget the small screen on my mobile...so it has become 'Smart' and have made fools of us. Its like a tracking device for Bosses to find out - What you are upto...Hmm that's why my company pays the bill!

So much for life, for creativity...?

And, now i feel paradoxical about the name with which this blog is named - 'Creativenits'.

Enough realization to close this post.

~ nits

Some Memories of the past...

Some sad thoughts in my mind are on and yes they belong to Planet I. Some brilliant people we have worked with/learnt from at planet-I during 2006-08. Some of them were -

Nikhil Malhotra - Amazing Guy with all ideosyncracies inbuilt. a new perspective about things and an awesome actor. I remember, when we joined the Theatre Club at planet-I, this guy taught us how to create sound of rain in the common room. Just use finger tips of two hands and clap with them and you have rain gushing all over. And i sai...wow! We even did our first theatre mime act with him! We shared jokes & stuff during our crossover with this different senior at I & remember him even today!

Deepali Bhatia - One of the seniors with ample & diverese experience of journalism, She rocked the Utsaha! Stage we know. She was again an animated character & we saw lot of energy during Utsaha! And we remember her today as well.

Neha Singh - One of our Batchmates, she was the most effervessent girl in our batch & she can talk about anything and everything. We remember little acts of cute girl even today.

Nitesh Agarwal - This was one of the un-talking kind of guy i met and was two rooms past mine on my floor - the N Floor. And most of the times...he was very chill & sombre kinda guy. And we remember him as well.

Today the reality is that we can only remember these guys! They have shared some experience of life with us and then went away! May they come back & share the same energy/enthusiasm with a newer set of friends!

Planet-I or some ppl of planet-I still remember them!

-nits

Movie List - (Depression killers)

Was recommending few movies to my friend..then i thought it would be cool to put the movies i like most in my life...especially movies which inspire you and create a burning desire to achieve your dreams/goals. (Though it is just a thought..some people believe in it..some dont)Anyways hers the list -

Extremely Powerful Movies

The Shawshank Redemption (Life turner for me!!)

The pursuit of Happyness

Cinderella Man

Schindler's List

Brave Heart

Gladiator

Patriot

Its a wonderful Life

Powerful ones..

Men of honour

The Insider

The last Samurai

Seabiscuit

The Fountainhead

Jerry Maguire

Hindi ones

Black

Mein Aazaad Hoon

Swades

Will add more...and also put in ur comments, movies which inspired you! 

Marketing is missing..

Dream lives on & still a dream!

Even after years of persistence to enter the world of ideas, business plans, marketing warfare...the marketing world remains elusive(lost). Why?

Blame the subprime crisis, it rocked US & EU, and had an indirect effect on the economies of the world including india. Indian financial sector has been marred in a way it will take 1-2 years at least to get back to normal. Stock Markets....you already know!!

However, people tend to say that consumer-driven sectors like retail & FMCG should be shielded from such meltdown. This isnt true. Retailers have been hit really hard this year 08-09. Consumer Spending declined given the fears of rising inflation, melting equity market & increasing interest rates! Also, the apparel exports declined like anything as lakhs of workers went without jobs and mills closed given the lost business demand from US & EU.

What else, 26/11 happened and drove away consumers from shopping malls, giving them a run for thier invested money (rentals, inventories, promotions...). Diwali season was a 'Diwala (bancruptcy) situation. SALE SALE SALE...everything was on sale...but what got sold were those banks in Us & EU...including the prestigious 'Lehman Brothers'!!

And now the latest from India itself...to add to all the worries...'Rajugate' - 'Satyam' got its balance sheets fudged & kept running in the inflated fashion for 7 years...The only problems i have with Mr Raju...is that why this time only - to clear the burden on your conscience! - To put us in burden....??? So, 53000 people might soon be in the run for a better job...er rather for a job! Raju will not be associated with 'Chacha' anymore!

Given these times...MTs are yet to get into some meaningful profiles - personally i have been through cost-cutting task forces, Rental negotiations, Warehouses, Logistics, Competition Scan, Product Cycle Project and blah blah blah....

Marketing is still elusive,....and the dream continues!! Long live Kotler!

~ Nits

Marketing world starts...!

Started a new phase in my life...finally out of the software world...!

New job....with new status of married and employed!

The new phase starts in retail/marketing profile in a retail apparel manufacturer!

Can you imagine from software codes to apparrel (i m staggering to spell it only..:) )? However, i think this will be interesting. I have already spent past few days in visiting various malls (as i have been doing since my MBA started..) and my roommate is already cribbing about how i keep dragging him along.

Branded Apparel from some estimate i read last time is around 9000 crore market in india, and each brand is doing a miniscule amount of it given the spate of brands in the market. And given the population advantage, young poulation, increasing incomes...(u must have read it hundred times i guess..), this market is a big opportunity. And truely so, each brand is trying to put up some presence in malls, high streets, tier II, III cities..wherever they can find a manageable rental (thats kinda rare these days...).

However, as marketing bhakt, i always wondedred how cool is FMCG to start a marketing career..but i realize now that apparel market is very tough....given the no of brands ( i heard that it was 28000 on last count in India), and the kind of least u can do in product differentiation....ppl have already tried segmentation - pricewise, genderwise, occassionwise, designbased...agewise...whats left? The kind of retail formats thru which apparel is sold are again umpteen...LFR, MBO, EBO, SIS, MOMPOP, ....And promotions? - buy 2 get 6 free, flat 50 + 20 + 5 + 3.45 + 2.657 % less (what does that mean???), a gillete on 2 trousers, .....again u start doubting am i buying the right stuff...

SO, the big question i am asking these days is that what i will do as a marketing person in apparels?? Whats left?

Lets see....how things move!

Proxy!

This post is a proxy!

The same proxy which respected participants used to practise in the pious corridorrs of an institute...

My life has changed with lots...

1. MBA Over! (Alas!)

2. Life Over....err bachelor life (u can understand...it sounds the same!)

3. New life calls...(joining in june)!

4. No Newsgroups to refresh :(

5. No more vella chai-friends to bakar with..

6. No indori poha :(

7. No MERCURI activities...

8. No Tension (???) - thats another problem

9 No workload :(

10 No late nite maggi-chai-omlette

....

...............

You can understand!

Bored!

~nits

PS - written in the spirit of blogging....however i am happily married :)

Learning from Class...

Had just finished one course called Rural Marketing in Term 6 of MBA programme. The professor was a 66 year old veteran in rural marketing..Mr. Rajan. He tought a lot of new things and most importantly key insights about rural people, rural markets in India from his vast experience of 3 decades!

He concluded the course with few things on personal front, which i believe really do matter:
1. Success of a person is not measured by the money he earns or by the status...but whether he/she played all his/her roles perfectly be it son, parent, husband, brother, employee, etc
2. Dreams = life, else you are dead! Whats the point in living a life of compromise....dreams should lead your actions!
3. Nothing is impossible. Create a balance sheet of all your assets & liabilities (which you think) and revisit them periodically in life....see that most of the liabilities have been moved to assets side.
I guess real nice learnings from life. Thankyou Sir!

~nits

Vibrant Advertising on our Campus! - Marksman

This post is for all Marksman fans!

Posted on my other blog - Who is Kotler?

~nits

Walk the talk...

Nice message to start afresh and practice..the things you always talked..

Walk the talk

When hopes died...

Why i am sad today? May be because I know. I know that one of my neighbour isn't in his room. And i know that he will never return! I also know that another friend of mine, who was "'the' effervescent soul" of our campus also will not be there with us, forever!

At times, knowledge is painful. I would rather not like to know few things, that they happened. I would rather stop the time and rewind it. Alas, science proves it wrong!

But science cannot understand, as to what is the difference between a person live and dead...apart from that one's heart isn't working anymore. That the cells, tissues, molecules...etc don't function anymore.

However we know. That the difference is immense. We know that a 'geminithegreat' will not be available on my gtalk. We know that the mornings at IIM-I will not wake two souls anymore. We know that two of the seats in some of the classrooms will be vacant. We know that an LAB class's performance will be a swan song...that a certain calm and shy chap will not be there on the N-floor..

How painful can knowledge be...

May the souls of Nitesh Agrawal and Neha Singh, PGP-II IIM Indore rest in peace. May god give immense power to their parents and relatives.

Click Here for the unlucky day at choral river.

~nits