Raj Shankar's Blog, page 41

When is social media engagement highest?

Most of us are on social media networks. It is very rare to find somebody who is not on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr and so on.  It is very rare to find somebody who does not spend a little time online everyday. All of us send out emails, post messages, tweet, pinup pictures etc. But of all the stuff that appears on your feed across all the media channels, very few evoke a response.  Most of the responses are necessary social responses such as greetings and wishes. Does this mean there are no interactions beyond personal relationships? No!

There are still blog posts that get viewed by millions, that get commented by the thousands, that gets shared by the hundreds and get written about in the tens. No, I am not clinging onto the numbers stated above. They are merely indicative. But there are tweets, pinups, photo albums, blog posts, Facebook updates etc which make people speak up. When then is social media engagement the highest?

It is when you speak about what you truly care about.  It  is when  people speak something which resonates in the reader on seeing your message. It is when people for whom that message is intended derive meaning and value. Every once in a while, every one of us spontaneously liked a post, commented on a blog or re-tweeted a nice quote. What made us do it?

It is the same thing that makes the other person do it to our messages. So if you are planning to make the social media an inherent part of your life and business utilize it for a reason. Reach out to people for whom your cause and concern makes meaning.  Then engagement is an obvious outcome. It can also result in magical thing happening well and beyond the online world. 

Are E-Commerce Sites the new stock markets?

Over the last year, I have been buying a lot of my books online.  Many times while I was at bookstores, I was tempted to check the price online before deciding to pick up a book.  This habit came about because of the deep discounts that online bookstores started offering for the same titles.  The delivery of books was so quick and easy that it still remains  a delight to see a book land at your doorstep before you expect it. All this has made me do most of my book shopping online.

But over the last few months, I have begun observing an unusual habit that I engage in. I look up the prices offered for the same title now across online stores. I try to find who is offering the deepest discounts and I end up buying from them. It is almost equivalent to what our mothers used to do in real world – look up multiple stores before making a purchase. But the most surprising thing that I engaged myself in very recently was visiting the online bookstores almost everyday. I keep looking up at the same titles everyday. The discounts on the products, namely books in my case kept varying. A couple of times when the book was not a hurry I ended up waiting for it to touch a reasonable discount, deep enough for me to believe that it can’t go lower.  So I started tracking the prices everyday and waited to buy on the day it drops the most. I found this almost equivalent to trying to buy a stock on the day that the stock price dips the most. At times, I feel bad that I couldn’t catch the lowest price.

Are E-Commerce sites becoming the newest stock markets?

Vedantic Wednesday: How to find your ideal?

All of us set goals. All of us attempt to achieve success. All of us want to have something that we are passionate about. Finding your passion and setting goals is a big industry in itself. There are books, CDs, online courses, offline workshops and innumerable one on one coaches waiting to help you become successful. With so much of support why is success eluding most people?

Let us quickly look at what Vedantins of the past have said about this.  With respect to this topic the following quote of Swami Vivekananda stands out in my mind “ Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life; dream of it; think of it; live on that idea. Let the brain, the body, muscles, nerves, every part of your body be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, and this is the way great spiritual giants are produced”

At the first level this means we need two important aspects to be defined before we begin life.:

Finding an area of natural inclination
A goal that moves higher on a achievement

Let us take a couple of examples to understand the above.

Steve Jobs, his personal passion for design and applying it in the area of digital computers led him to spend a lifetime building a variety of beautiful products which were easy to use. His goal was making simple, elegant and beautiful digital devices which will make people think and be different. The goal was not to make the largest company or an award winning laptop.  This led him to lead a fulfilling professional career which was also incidentally successful.

The next example is Peter Drucker. The professor and thinker, popularly called father of modern management.  His active writing career spanned over six decades with him producing a book just months before his passing away at the age of 96. His identification more closely with the people’s side of the institution rather than the analytical side, is highly reflective in his works. His choice to live a life of learning across domains connecting them to managing institutions and stick to his skill of acute observation led him to create classics such as the effective executive, innovation and entrepreneurship, practice of management amongst others.

People who struggled to find their natural inclinations and had the courage to set goals which by normal standards were unimaginable and in some cases did not even fit into the worldly definition of goals – are ones who seemed to have led fulfilling lives – which were both happy and successful. Happiness was intended; their success was just incidental. Their success was but a natural fallout of following their inclination and channelizing it towards an ideal.

Vedanta asks everyone of us to first spend time understanding ourselves so that we may seek the right things in life and more importantly in the right way. This is also goal setting and finding passion, but just that the approach to doing them is contrarian. Do you have the courage in you to try this route?

Networking – It is not in the numbers

Things are getting tougher by the day. Be it to find a business or a job – it is not as easy as it used to be. Everything seems to be getting disrupted daily.

Being constantly networked and engaging the environment is probably the only way out. Social media and the internet have made it easier to network, has redefined the concept of accessibility and boundaries.  But just as with any other tool in its early days, the excitement of the tool has overtaken the intended purpose.

No doubt business networking or professional networking is an integral aspect of a working life. However in the process of creating an ecosystem and getting connected into one, most of us has moved from quality of connections to quantity of contacts. With social media marketing techniques and online networking forums we all have moved to believe and rely in the strength of numbers. Forgetting that in networking – irrespective of the medium (offline or online) quantity can never overtake quality of connections.

Having thousands of friends on Facebook, or LinkedIn is not going to enable you to get a business or a job if you can’t call and be instantly recognized by even a handful of them. To make sure this happens, we need to ensure that we build quality connections. You need to have a well knit and a strong relationship mechanism to sustain and grow your network. Everyone in your network who you have rightly added, is an asset. This asset has to be valued and nurtured. And for this you need to have a method. If you can have only a handful of high quality connections, you can reach as many people as you want through them.

While the approaches, tools and methods will keep changing, the essential purpose of networking which is to build a strong and healthy bunch of connections will not change. So the next time you decide you or your enterprise needs to engage in networking, think twice before you accumulate business cards or increase your friend list on Facebook. Remember, it is not in the numbers.

Landmark Sale 2013

I did not make as many trips to the landmark sale this year as I would have usually done. Being a bibliophile and a voracious reader, I used to find the landmark sale exciting for multiple reasons. The first one is the pleasure of being in the midst of so many books. It was also a chance to get books that don’t normally make themselves visible during normal days.  Rare titles, collectibles and highly discounted costly books are easy to find in this sale.  But this year I found the sale not so exciting- atleast not in books.  I found very less titles, and not many of them deeply discounted.  Infact some of the books were cheaper in the online stores, even after the discount offered by the store as a part of its sales. Is this an indicator of a larger trend in the offing?

Are large bookstores, becoming a thing of the past? Is the book retailing business holding on to an already disrupted model? Is it time for the book retailing business to see some serious business model innovation?

I would always want physical book stores to exist. Landmark has always been a much loved bookstore for me. I hope to see Landmark and many other bookstores find innovative ways to thrive in today’s competitive markets.  I hope the 2014 sales will be more exciting. Book stores as a business, needs a makeover Will landmark lead the pack?

Interesting Links This Week: 18-Aug-2013

With social media becoming widely believed to be the resource constrained marketers tool to fight larger competitors – will niche networks help? While on one hand the number of followers on twitter or fans of facebook is a measure of your popularity, do they turn into revenue? Will niche networks with lesser but focused participation solve this challenging correlation? Here are some thoughts. Link: http://bit.ly/114aAYf 

Samsung recently enhanced its efforts under the banner of “Open Innovation” by launching an accelerator in the Silicon Valley! Why would Samsung want to do this, especially at a time when its innovation programs are doing well. They want to utilize the startup ecosystem to strengthen their feeder for innovations related to software. This can then be funneled into all their products. Sounds like corporate are exploring the use of entrepreneurial talent in a variety of ways. I am sure this is just another step in that direction. We are sure there is more to see than this. Here is one interesting article on it: http://onforb.es/1btcUMN

Life Sciences is an emerging domain. But the entrepreneurs starting up are mostly scientists and technically oriented minds. So many find it difficult to take off and become commercially viable. Here are some tips from people who crossed the chasm. Link: http://bit.ly/1ag4Xw6

Books and Me: Spiritual Life Of The Householder

Book Title: Spiritual Life of the householder

Author: Swami Ranganathananda

‘Grhastha’ means Householder. ‘Grhastha Dharma’ means duties of a householder. Most people end up leading worldly lives. They are born into a family and grow a family. A few of these people which is most often a small minority, take to spirituality in the real sense.  They go to talks, listen to tapes, attend satsangs and read books.  They take the little learning back to their homes where the nuances of day to day living challenge their learning.   All of these create doubts in the mind of the earnest student. They also result in confusion and conflict.  While most people give up at this stage and drop spirituality, a few stay with these conflicting question longer. Most of the core texts on spiritual philosophy, don’t speak about the world or such conflicts. It takes some of these learned masters to help clarify to lead a spiritual life as a householder.

This little booklet is by Swami Ranganathananda, a very senior monk of the Ramakrishna Order. During his days, he was a sought after speaker, especially by lay disciples.  His ability to translate serious philosophy into practical tips of use for the people who live in the world, remains a treasure house of wisdom.  The two lectures relating to the topic were offered by the Swamiji in the early 90s in Hindi.  The talks have been transcribed and translated and further edited by the author before appearing in this current book form.

The two lectures are titled, ‘Grhastha Dharma’ and ‘How to be an ideal householder’. Many of the books, provide explanation on the transcendental, but Swamiji’s lectures help the householder devotees to apply spiritual living in day to day activities, without confusion or conflict.  Though some of the contextual references are dated the essential message is highly relevant and applicable.

Though this is not the last word on spiritual life, it is definitely a nice beginning.

How can we teach thinking?

If you believe that education is to enable and sharpen thinking function in an individual, then this is a question to answer.One of the biggest complaints across industries is that educated youth are not able to think objectively and deeply.  What is the reason for such shallowness in thinking? Even policies and decisions when turned into actions seem to display shallowness in thoughts. 

This is primarily because no school or college teaches a child or a youth how to think.  When teachers and students had more engaging sessions they seem to have the opportunity to question and discuss a topic.  As the pressure on the student and the teacher increased, the first thing that left the classroom was questioning.  The teacher no more questions the student and the students are happier leaving the teacher undisturbed.  Questioning is the singular tool that can develop the thinking function.  Not accepting things as-is is the first step to enabling thinking. If we question and then accept the knowledge it remains with us for a much longer time.

The lack of questioning has resulted in rote learning which in turn has hardened the thinking muscles.  To ensure that we train children and inspire them to learn, classroom time has to be spent in raising questions, doubting stuff, experimenting to validate and allowing whatever learning to be absorbed happen.  Such learning will produce liberal minded and self thinking people who will necessarily by habit think before they act.  Teaching people how to think is probably education’s top challenge and priority today.

Independence Day, 2013

15th of August is declared as India’s independence day. Last evening when I was at a client’s meeting I watched a number of people having pinned the national flag on their chest. It also looked like a lot of organizations use the opportunity to have ethnic day celebrations. As I was having coffee in one of these dinning halls, I happened to overhear a few snippets of conversations. They were all about clothes, movies and what their individual plans were for the forthcoming holidays.

Should people spend time thinking about Independence – on independence day? Should people spend time thinking about the nation on independence day? Is this the day where everyone must ask themselves the famous question – that a past president of US raised decades ago ‘Ask not what the country has done for you – Ask what you have done for the country?’  Without getting too emotional and complaining about the degeneration of patriotism amongst the current generation, the lack of interest about it in the next generation let me share with you one observation that maybe worthy of reflection.

Vedanta, constantly declares that freedom is a state that we are inherently in. Most of us don’t think or act so. We feel constrained by our environments, our ecosystems, our relationships, our education, our jobs, and even our own selves. Where is freedom in midst of all this? While we do complain about it once in a while there is no initiative to experience true freedom.  True freedom from what is the question that should arrest our interest, atleast for today,

True freedom from our own past, from our bias, from our conditioning, from our own narrow thoughts is the answer.  Spiritual pursuits (not religious) enable us  go towards true freedom.  Since we can share only what we have, let us try to spend time finding freedom for ourselves and then spend the lifetime sharing it, helping others find it.

Happy Independence Day!

Something that Einstein’s driver never did!

This story of Einstein and his driver in many versions is quiet popular!

There’s a story about how Dr. Albert Einstein was traveling to Universities in his car , delivering lectures on his theory of relativity. During one journey, the driver remarked ” Dr. Einstein, I have heard you deliver that lecture about 30 times. I know it by heart and bet I could give it myself.”

“Well, I’ll give you the chance”, said the Dr. “They don’t know me at the next University, so when we get there, I’ll put on your cap, and you introduce yourself as Dr. Einstein and give the lecture.”

The driver delivered Einstein’s lecture without any mistakes. When he finished, he started to leave, but one of the

professor stopped him and asked a complex question filled with mathematical equations and formulas. The driver thought fast. “The answer to that problem is so simple,” he said, ” I’m surprised you have to ask me. In fact, to show you just how simple it is, I’m going to ask my driver to come up here and answer your question”.

Whether this incident is true or not we may never know. However one thing we know is Einstein allowed his driver to get only this far and no further in his journey of scientific exploration. Though Einstein must have been thrilled and grateful to have a loyal driver who drives him around – Einstein knew the best place for his driver was behind the wheel of his car. What could have happened if Einstein was taken up at the capability of his driver to parrot his speech? What could have happened if Einstein decided to involve the driver in scholarly discussions – one because of the driver’s ability to parrot and second because of the sheer long association of being in his employ? Einstein would have lost a good driver and we would have lost Einstein.

Funny as the above many sound, many of us in our attempt to involve and improve our ecosystem take decisions that have disastrous and self destructing effects on the long run. The ability of an entrepreneur to understand contributions of his team members and ecosystem -and subsequently plan for their growth and larger contribution is essential. However when this is done, the impact on the longer run at the individual and the institution levels should be carefully extrapolated, studied and then crafted.  Failure to do this will ultimately lead to disgruntlement, frustration, stagnation and sickness of both the individual and the institution.