Book Review - The ride of a lifetime by Robert Iger

Book Review - The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger, ex CEO of The Walt Disney Company 

Great book on understanding the journey Robert (Bob) took from his early days as starting ranks in sports division of ABC entertainment to the CEO of ABC to COO of Disney and becoming one of the longest serving (15 yrs) CEO of Disney conglomerate.

He takes you through the mental models and decision frameworks that he used while a concoction of emotions of self/others tried to get the best of him; but didnt succeed. How he dealt with various crises over the years - a crocodile attack at a kid in Disney theme park to a fight with the disney family successor (during his appointment for being CEO) to a series of thrilling mergers and acquisitions (Pixar, Marvel, Fox).

The book also mentions how he treaded his way through impending change needed at Disney when world was embracing change. How he approached Steve Jobs and got Pixar acquired with intense conversations about future with the undisputable creative supremo.

A must read for #media industry folks as well as creative professionals. Top 5 gems from the thriller -

1. It talked about how he always embraced people & cultures in each acquisition without throwing away the secret sauce - from as silly a thing as how people celebrate new joinees & games they play.

2. He cited an example of a disaster on one of the main sport events that they didnt get much coverage (ABC). Next day in a boardroom full of hierarchy, when the CEO demanded who did this blunder; nobody said anything (including the heads responsible) but he raised his hand being in middle/entry level mgmt that I did it 🤚, the accountability he took, went a long way in his career.

3. In his discussions with Steve, the whiteboarding excercise that Steve did comparing pros and cons of Disney Pixar deal, brought in crystal clear clarity on why the acquisition should happen and who would benefit.

4. When Pixar animation was giving a run for Disney's money (due to superior creative talent and processes), Bob on contrary decided to think if Steve will sell Pixar to him - which was unthinkable especially with how Jobs had been critical of Disney & how expensive it could be. But bob still decided to give a shot to the impossible! Asking is very importat. No ask no get!

5. Bob always embraced change...when steve shown him his video ipod prototype, he thought that content distribution is going tp change forever and started working towards this distant future...today Disney+Hotstar is one of the leading content apps in the world!

Which book have you been reading lately and would recommend me?

#books #disney #hotstar

5 iconic brand logo/name stories I didnt know!

5 iconic brand logo/name stories I didnt know!

1. #Evernote - Why elephant in the logo?The primary work of the app is to store and remember the notes your write and it's for that reason it uses the Elephant symbol because the elephants have impressive ability to store the memory!

2. #Volkswagen - It means 'People's car' in German. There was a time when only very expensive cars used to be there on German roads. Volkswagen was a revolution.

3. #Budweiser: Named basis origin. Beer has been brewed in Budweis, Bohemia, since 1245. Budweiser means 'of Budweis'.

4. #Vodafone - This I had noted earlier…but unbelievable as to how a simple a+b+c name became a famous brand. It’s Voice + Data + Phone = Vodafone.

5. #Adidas - We all know it’s named after founder, Adolf Dassler. However, the story behind logo of 3 stripes is that they represent a mountain, pointing out towards challenges and goals people need to overcome.

Any other fascinating brand logo stories you came across? 

#brand #logo #marketing

Williams sisters & art of learning from a movie

#Inspiration from my son

Cajoled my 11 yr old son to watch this beautiful family movie - "King Richard". Will Smith obviously is a great actor (Pursuit of Happyness, Seven Pounds, ..) in my books despite his questionable actions this oscar.

However, apart from Acting, this movie (real story) about a parent's dedication to his daughters. This story of Williams sisters goes in great depths and details of how the family pulled this 'unimaginable dream' come true.

In the movie and in real life, the father has displayed some awesome qualities like great steadfastness despite difficulties (like rejecting the first multimillion deal when they were living off on coach' expenses ).

Not giving any spoilers, but in the movie Richard (father) makes family time for a screening of a movie - "Cinderella" and literally asks his daughters to share what you learnt from it - some say 'dream come true', 'attitude' etc and debates it with kids on nuances of learning.

I loved the idea, so much that i asked my son to write actionables from the movie 😎. And boy, he did write and shared with us. And some of those were much deep. Felt awesome when i read those.

Learning - "Never underestimate the power of a common..err little man!"

Here are few lines my son wrote -

1. Dont think about the result, think about the quality of your game.
2. Never be greedy of money, if you work hard it will follow you.
3. Always believe you can do better.
4. Never underestimate your opponent or fear him because of his age/rating (he plays chess).
5. If you watch something, take a learning or its a waste of time.

Its a must watch for the same reasons, the profound effect it can have on young minds of how to deal with tough times in life & stay still on the path!

#parenting #life #kids #thinkingbytes

Why going LONG is LIFE?

Going LONG is the most undisputable law of Life!

Here is why, we are told-

1. Don’t setup goals but a system. Don’t wait for irrational motivation, build habits for the long haul! Daily habits will take it over from you for auto mode for long term.

2. Don’t invest for short term, good companies take time to deliver. Invest diligently month on month via SIPs for long term.

3. Don’t expect all personal finance advice to deliver in short term, plan for long - buy term insurance, health cover, emergency fund, pension, PF all from a perspective of long term sustainable and power of compounding to help.

4. Between right and wrong, shortcut or long; choose the path that is helping you develop yourself into a principle led judgement system for decision making through life (long term).

5. Build your body with habits on a daily basis for a long sustenance - through right food, exercise, meditation and the works. Fast food vs Slow food, sprint vs marathon, and so on.

6. Meaningful conversations vs like/comment ones on social media. Instant gratification on social apps vs deep slow insightful conversations. Long courses with case studies vs crash courses. Test match vs T20, one is boring vs super exciting.

So, Time my friend is a friend that can help you develop for long term - be it wealth, health, learning, value & belief system and so on.

Wherever in life I look at, I increasingly find a fight between ‘long but difficult, untasty stuff’ vs ‘ fast & tasty shiny stuff’.

It’s up to you to condition your mind and help it to determine, which one wins.

#thinkingbytes #life #wealth #health #long #short

This connect with the thought that power of compounding is applicable in life everywhere. Find my post on that here -Eighth Wonder - Compounding

Laurels of Past - Relevant?

Basking in Laurels of distant past - Justified?

A lot of brands continue with decades old campaigns thinking that customers remember them for that and hence they should keep doing the same thing.

Eg - Onida's Devil, Flipkart's kids playing adults.

Apart from instant recognition, do you think there are downsides of such elongated repetition?

IMO, few aspects one should consider-

1. Is the idea still relevant?

Neighbour's envy Owner's Pride by Onida was a classic line in 90s for a TV market with few brands. New wave of liberalisation was bringing consumerism in people's lives and importantly what brand of color TV u own. And those days, people used to frequently mingle with neighbours.

With current times, that bonhomie is over. Millenials and later gen spend time more within themselves.

Flipkart made its point super clear of "kids kind easy way of shopping online" decade back with thier campaign. But at times, they still show it despite being #1 ecommerce player today & that too in same markets where consumers frequently use thier app (they understand its easy). Why we stretch too far without much freshness?

But others do it well in retaining legacy or great ideas. For eg, Daag Acche hain by Surf Excel. I dont know, i am seeing it for at least 15 yrs and they keep refreshing the context. And idea is still relevant!

2. Do mascots still work?

With media mix changing from large screens/Print to smaller forms, consumer directly clicks logo to land wherever you want him to. The mascots were emotional/human symbols for brands to convey retention of the story. Does it lose to clicks or QRs? Relevant?
Dont remember mascots in recent times other than kids categories where clicks/devices are away.

What do you think?

#brand #mascot #consumer #marketing  

Power of Will?

Just do it!
Where there is a Will, there is a way!

Lot of such slogans or sayings, exhort us to simply move ahead and accomplish any task.

The ability to control oneself to determine one’s actions is powerful. Base it on training, we call it discipline. But do it because you simply can, that’s raw power. Also, called as “Willpower”.

Heard of Marshmallow Test? Where kids were locked in a room with a marshmallow and given a task of delayed gratification (u can eat this marshmallow now or if u wait for 15 min and don’t eat it, you get one more). The test told the world that kids who passed or ‘gratification delayers’ were far more successful in life throughout. There in that test again it’s about willpower - to delay gratification.

But, when I try this in my life, I realised that my resolve to not have that unhealthy food/drink, when it’s sitting in the kitchen isn’t uniform all through. I can easily resist in first half and eat that apple but in evening I give in to cookies. The willpower is gone.

Willpower has a battery life, it drops through the day, and needs recharging with downtime.

Heard of “Eat that big frog first thing in the morning”? Essentially, manage willpower and use it in the morning (when it’s full) to do most important & difficult stuff.

In this book, “The One Thing”, author suggests evidences how decisions made by judges drop to easy/default verdict as the time passes through the day, essentially suggesting dropping willpower. “Take best decisions early or we drop to default/easy levels of decision making”.

Do you feel you have the Will to accomplish, but you give up thru the day? Manage your willpower like a mobile battery. Make important calls earlier on, when it’s full :)

#life #learning #productivity

Productivity Hack - Self Whatsapp Group!

Self Whatsapp Group!

This happens to all of us:

1.We browse, we find important links, we bookmark or use apps like pocket.

2.Important PDF you got on a whatsapp group, you download it; but its difficult to find later.

3.Download images from linkedin, get saved somewhere else.

4. Key thoughts or insights that u get while reading...write in phone notes.

But this all can be done with a great tip, i found thanks to Ankur Warikoo.

- Make a self whatsapp group, add a friend and once done, remove the friend. Pin the group to the top and viola! You have your own SELF whatsapp group to keep putting what all you find important - links, pdf, images etc.

Do share your goto productivity tip or tools?

#productivity #hacks #life #ideas #tip

Book Review - Big Billion Startup (Flipkart Story)

Finished this book on audible recently - Big Billion Startup by Mihir Dalal. Its actually is like an action packed thriller!

If you are interested in indian startup space and want to go down memory lane on how 2 young IITians built this behemoth, its a must read. And it has lot of learnings to pick from.

Listing some of my key takeaways -

1. Never trash a sounding unrealistic idea (because its against conventional wisdom) - When one of the senior folks at Flipkart floated the idea of exclusivity (as a marketplace); it was laughed at. But later it became a mega trend with Motorola and Xiaomis where phones got sold in lakhs in minutes!

2. Self-belief and confidence of positive feedback from customers can give immense power to founders in this case to not exit early! Bansals were given cheap exit offers (though good prices) but they stuck thier guns.

3. Vision enables you to take bold bets. Due to Sachin's vision and trend spotting in data (that bulk of shopping will move to app) led him to declare an app only strategy which was ridiculed at that time.

4. Having one day as a non-operations day where thinktank just debates future is a plus. Else, most days and nights in a startup goes in firefighting.

and many more. 

I thoroughly loved it.Recommend!

#flipkart #ecommerce #book

Book Review - No Limits by Mukesh Bansal

No Limits – A book on performance optimization of our lives with tools & maintenance manual for the billion dollar body – body, mind & soul.

If you are always intrigued about how to pack a lot more productivity in your days and are tired of tracking & testing hacks that listicles & gurus keep sharing; this is your encyclopedia.

Mukesh Bansal, founder behind Myntra & Cure.fit; at least packs 25+ good book learnings into this one in a bid to decode a manual to draw max out of life.

And its not just around health & fitness (diet, habit building); it also addresses mind & soul with mindfulness, meditation, creativity & purpose search. A simple read with at least 50 productivity hacks peppered across text for people who want to skim through.

Here are some gems from the book –

Ø Thoughts around plasticity of brain & body – Humans have spent 90% time on earth as hunter gathers & 10% working in agricultural fields; thus to believe you are too old to pick up a musical instrument at 40 is naïve. Your mind is plastic to learn at any age.

Ø What's needed to max performance – Deliberate Practice, Ignition, master coach, mindset (growth), will power, creativity & meaningful purpose.

Ø In life, in every sphere you can apply Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey – aspiration, odds, evil, effort, coach, right path, victory.

Ø Deliberate practice is all about those 10,000 hrs narrative to master anything.

Ø Ignition triggers our practice – inspiration from an idol, environment, parents etc.

Ø A master coach often shortens your journey with correction/feedback on practice.

Ø Strong mind & body together work to boost your muscle you flex most (to make it stronger).

Ø Sleep is a key maintenance process to boost performance.

Ø Meditation helps us to attain higher freq of brain activity associated with bliss.

Ø Mindset decides whether we work on ourselves to grow Vs believe its all about innate talent and stay stale.

Ø Will power keeps you going despite distractions during deliberate practice. It is cultivated with 3 drivers of sleep, fitness & food.

Ø One needs to taste, read & experience different things/fields to boost creativity.

Ø By understanding and channeling all the power of your mind and body into your true purpose, you can make magical things happen in your life.

New Email Marketing 101 - courtesy Zomato

In today's times of social media's organic reach diminishing day by day; its important that brands work on their email marketing and website which are true Owned channels for securing future. Zomato has been upping its Email Marketing Game with superb content marketing as its lever.

Stories which are engaging and relevant to its audience - either around the category, target audience's life or topical trends. And while telling stories on the above themes, it keeps a razor sharp focus on the soul of the story - brand essence. The content creator thinks - "how would the funny savior of hungry/bored souls - brand Zomato" would interpret a particular trend/event? And that's where the tone of voice, the quips, the wits, follows! This is super evident in its creatives across channels - social, email, digital etc. This is the power of Content Marketing done right from a Brand. 

Here i am putting 4 Great examples of unexpected pieces of content in Emails from Zomato -

1. Slice of Customer Life X Zomato

Subject - Leaked! Zomato WhatsApp Chat
Creative - This long chat inside.
Content - Topical & Customer Life X Zomato

What i loved was that email didn't even talk about food/food delivery (category) in this long chat. It hits the topical mark and is full of brand attitude even without talking about what brand is or does! Its funny and enables a great connect with "working audience" which is the TG. This audience goes through such life dramas daily in work groups, brought beautifully in this creative by Zomato.

2. Bollywood X Zomato

Subject - Agar tumne aaj order nahin kiya toh...
Creative - Red & White + Dialogue + Code
Content - Bollywood X Zomato

Inspired by Bollywood dialogues, Zomato has sent many emails with a quirky subject line forcing a bollywood fan to open the email. And within email, lies the complete story + incentive. A great way to push open rates and also to drive traffic with coupon codes; a new way to help businesses get rid of those transactional coupon code emailers.

3. Music X Zomato

Subject - Tere bin nahin lagda 

Creative - Red & White + Food image + Code 
Content - Music X Zomato

Here using Music as another lever; Zomato flips uninteresting "Miss You" Emailers into interesting ways to connect with consumers.

4. Fun X Zomato 

Subject - Our copywriter is on leave this week

Creative - Red & White + Story completion + Code
Content - Music X Bollywood

These are genuine ways to tell funny stories. Why would a consumer expect such an email from a brand. And that pushes the curiosity to open the email.

I have just selected 4 of such emailers that i keep receiving from Zomato; but most of the times, they ensure that i try to open the email. Opening emails from them definitely brings a chuckle, whether i order or not. But many a times when i order, i open Zomato by default. Such is the connection, a brand can establish with focused efforts to push a metric; here for example is Open Rates. And the levers used are - Content Marketing anchored in Brand essence and yet always being relevant to target audience. 

Conversely, you receive umpteen emailers on festivals, New Years written exactly the same way by many brands across categories - "This (Festival Name), celebrate with (Brand Name) & get (Offer)". I have also been a culprit in initial years of my career, there :)

- Please note that its not a paid partnership :). I am a Zomato Pro/Gold member for years and this is an honest confession by a customer/marketer.

-Nitin