• On Medianama

    Converted the talk at the Social Business Summit into an article at Medianama. It’s long, but do read! 🙂

     

  • For brands to make it….

    At #SBS2013 Jeff Dachis posed an interesting thought, captured by Gautam in this tweet.

    Both Gautam and Haroon then shared interesting links in this context – content from Jeremiah Owyang and Loic Le Meur respectively. (had not seen the first one before) The ‘lunch conversation’ didn’t really happen around this, so I thought I’ll share my thoughts here. 🙂

    Jeremiah’s post also has a link that shows how fast this collaborative economy is growing. Recently, he also wrote a post on the ‘maker movement’, and his experiences at a fair he attended. It also had a short note on how brands could leverage the movement – become enablers, building a marketplace around themselves, and offer customised products directly to individuals.

    At #SBS2013, as part of my presentation on ‘The Currencies of Engagement @ Scale‘ I’d shared a rendition of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to show how engagement should be scaled to (also) satisfy the needs (of a user from a brand) at the top of the pyramid. (slide 17 here) It had both collaborative consumption and co-creation listed as narratives because they traded in the currencies of community and esteem respectively.

    At this stage, I thinks brands have a great chance of being a significant part of the ‘maker movement’ if they can change the outlook of their business processes – from production to marketing. After all, they’re makers too, except that when they attained massive scale, they moved more and more towards a one-size-to-fit-everyone approach, pursuing efficiency @ scale. Again, it is not as though brands who do not change will suddenly cease to exist – it’s just that their narratives won’t be strong enough for any affinity. As I said in  the presentation, there is a limit to the currencies of efficiency narratives – cheaper, faster etc – because once a better player comes along, a switch is imminent.

    In the medium term, these brands will exist because not everyone has the same involvement with every category. Let’s take the example of an automobile. I still ride a two-wheeler, because for me the narrative is a very functional one – move from Point A to Point B. When I do buy a car, it will continue to exist in the functionality narrative, but I know several for whom the car is a reflection of their achievements in life. Just like the t-shirts I wear are a representation of my philosophies. For those several, a t-shirt might just be another garment they wear, or again, a representation of their material possessions – easily captured by wearing a costly brand with little involvement in the design. My belief is that in every domain, there’ll be enough consumers who buy a brand for the currencies they offer at lower levels, (price, convenience etc) and that will continue to be the short head. (in the long tail concept) But as time passes, the economics won’t work out because the resources a brand has to spend to keep its consumers would prove to be far more than the money it makes out of them.

    At this point, all the narratives at the higher levels of the pyramid (co-creation, collaborative consumption) are in the long tail, but brands will soon realise that with evolving technology dynamics, it will have to learn to cater to the long tail, where the currencies will be different. This is most definitely an evolution and not a sudden shift. For starters, brands would have to learn the new dynamics of production and distribution and the impact on their balance sheets. They will have to learn balancing acts. Imagine a branded retail store that allows you to buy their regular products as well as make your own versions (which are also branded – hello NikeID) at various levels of customisation. In terms of economies of scale, the former would be better off with traditional mass production and the latter with a technology like 3D Printing. The online version of this store would also have both, and probably the ability to buy the materials and print it yourself as well.

    It is not just the production side which will require a balancing act, think of what the brand stands for. It needs to speak different languages to different kinds of consumers – from the guy who wants a convenient off-the-shelf purchase to the guy who wants every-part-customised, so that both feel they’ll get value from the brand. There are nuances as well – sometimes my association with the brand is not because it allows co-creation or collaborative consumption, it is only because I identify and relate to other things they stand for – and my consumption of them deals with the currencies in community or esteem. In short, what does it mean for brands? Exactly what’s happening to everything else – massive disruption. The way to tackle it is to try and get a bearing of the narratives your brand should be part of, (oh yes, Big Data and predictive analytics can help) because no brand can compete for every consumer with every maker.

    until next time, break first, then make

    Bonus Read: Emerging Bets at the Intersection of Technology & Culture

  • Axomi

    I’m trying to remember how we came to know about it, but when we did, it had only been a couple of weeks since this restaurant specialising in the ‘Taste of Assam’ had opened. Its predecessor had been Rasoi (if I remember right) and it’s exactly opposite Zingron (map) where we are frequent visitors thanks to the spicy North Eastern dishes that get rid of our sinus blocks! 😉 There are ample side lanes for you to park your vehicle.

    A flight of stairs will take you to what we thought was the restaurant, but though the furniture was there, there was no sign of life. So we climbed another flight of stairs and found a friendly face sitting at a counter in a bright restaurant. In the limited space, there are photographs, handicrafts and knickknacks that clearly bring out the Assam connection. The seating is neat and functional.

     

    The menu is limited, (click for a larger view) so drop in here specifically for the cuisine. No multi cuisine stunts have been attempted. We asked for a couple of basic thalis, and also decided to try the fish fry and the pork fry. Later we also added the duck for good measure!

    The thali has rice with a series of side dishes – an awesome chutney, brinjal both fried and a thick pasty version, dal, papad, a dry mixed veg dish, a mashed potato + chilly combination (pitika) that was superb. I didn’t really like the khar much. The pork was excellent though heavy, and we enjoyed the fish as well. But the duck was probably the best dish, with a refreshing (made from papaya juice, apparently) gravy. It went very well with the Lusi (luchi) we ordered.

      

    We barely had space for dessert, which was a mix of many flavours, though the curd dominated it more than we’d have liked. All of the above cost us exactly Rs.800. The service is pleasant and courteous, and quite prompt as well.

    Axomi, 360, 1st Main Road, Koramangala, Ph : 09986731340

  • A different kind of more

    (image via)

    Sometime back, I read this excellent post titled “Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed“. A colleague shared it with me because he felt I’d like it. And right he was, because it echoed my own thoughts on how our consumption these days have little to do with our needs. The author in fact, goes a step further to say that the typical 40 hour work week (actually it’s way more) manufactured by big business has reduced our free time to such an extent that whatever we do get is spent less in meaningful, healthy activities and more in drowning ourselves in wanton consumption. While that may or may not be true, I think we have a choice, but one that involves winning a battle within. When we lose the battle, we begin indulging ourselves covering it up with the ‘deserve it/earned it’ argument, and the culture of random consumption lives to fight another day. The author sums it up rather well with “We buy stuff to cheer ourselves up, to keep up with the Joneses, to fulfill our childhood vision of what our adulthood would be like, to broadcast our status to the world, and for a lot of other psychological reasons that have very little to do with how useful the product really is.”

    In a larger sense, we tend to live a life that’s not really ours. I cannot help but remember the words of a near-immortal “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.“

    In essence, what we consider as motivation from our own self is actually not. I found an amazing/bizarre manifestation of this in the truly unique story of Mike Merrill, who divided himself into 100000 shares and ‘sold’ himself. Known as the IPO man, his investors would earn a profit out of activities he did outside of his job. In fact, his intent behind the entire activity was to raise funds for things he wanted to do, and felt he would make a profit from. What followed is a fascinating story that has resulted in the investors even getting to have a say in Mike’s personal relationships and sleep patterns!

    I couldn’t help but think of how similar it was to an ordinary person’s life. It is an extreme case, but when we’re driven by wants and motivations that have little relation to needs, the only difference is that Mike is conscious of his lack of control, while we are smug in our belief that we’re in control. I most definitely am not saying we should be living like ascetics, but the balance does lie in consciously separating needs and wants. That, I believe, is the way to a fuller life. A different kind of more from a different set of mores. I wonder if it’s a coincidence that the term ‘Utopia’ was coined by a person named Sir Thomas More. 🙂

    until next time, more or less over

    P.S. The good news is that increasingly these days, I see people making conscious choices across the board – lifestyle, media, time, relationships. The more the merrier 🙂

  • The Secret of the Nagas

    Amish Tripathi 

    Part 2 of the Shiva Trilogy. Shiva continues his journey from Meluha into Swadeep, after managing to broker a peaceful arrangement between the Suryavanshis and Chandravanshis. He then shifts his focus to what he considers a common threat, and a fount of evil – the Nagas. His search for the Nagas takes him into the Chandravanshi kingdoms and brings him in touch with various populaces who have ties with the Nagas. As the book progresses, events force Shiva to reconsider his belief in the Vasudevs as well as his stance on the Nagas, and towards the end, he begins his journey into the land south of the Narmada – the abode of the Nagas.

    The book sees the birth of Karthik, Shiva’s son, as well as the introduction of other popular Hindu mythology characters – Ganesh, Kali, Parashuram etc. The author, as with the first book, tries to find a logical explanation to the mythological portrayals, though he does take a lot of creative liberties. Book 2 also ends with revelations and a set of questions which most likely will be answered in The Oath of the Vayuputras.

    I felt that the prose and the style had definitely improved from the first volume, though I still found the rampant use of modern day phrases and expressions by mythological characters a put off. Once again, the narrative is paced well, and there is no dearth of imagination. I’ll definitely be waiting for the third volume and the ‘master puppeteer’.