Summer vaccation in Chennai

Chennai is definitely not the ideal place where you would like to spend the summer, but I am here again back to Chennai, the place where I did my engineering. Last time when I had come here to collect my Degree certificate I bade good bye to the city without knowing that I will be back here in a year’s time. Chennai is not among my most favorite cities but there are few things here that you will miss in other cities: the wide variety of non-veg foods, juice shop in every corner of the road, the smooth roads etc. The city has changed a lot since I left it in 2006. New buildings and companies have sprung up in outskirts of the city, the traffic has increased, things have become costlier the same juice which used to cost Rs. 10, now costs Rs. 25 and the autowallahs seem to have become little sober(though I still prefer bus over the overpriced autos). One thing that has not changed is that you need to have some knowledge of the local language to manage on your own, the Hindi speaking population is still very little, and of course you will find people who speak English more often that in any other city in India. This gives me another opportunity to enhance my Tamil speaking prowess.
climate is as hot as ever though the summer is still on the side but with every passing day the temperature is soaring and its promising to be a very hot hot summer.

Sports teams as Brands beyond performance in the field

Sports have certain qualities which our daily life doesn’t have. First it is finite. Most of what we are encountering today began yesterday and will not be resolved till past tomorrow. In sports nearly every game have has a winner and a loser- and real heroes, sportsmen who have swea

ted it out to get the glory. Throughout the history sport has played a part more th

an just entertaining. During the Spanish civil war FC Barcelona was the symbol of right wing movement, the wins of the club were taken as win over the dictatorship by the common people. Mohan Bagan’s win over a British side in 1911 IFA shield boosted the fight against British rule.

The passion that surrounds the teams of the major leagues in any sport is very strong. Football clubs from English premier leaguer, Serie A, La Liga are followed everywhere as they have created a loyal fan base through out the world. Unlike any other market, where the customer of a brand is potentially open to change, a sports fan gives his or her unconditional and perpetual allegiance to a team. The fans stick to their team eve

n when the team is not performing on the field. The biggest yardstick for the measur

ement of strength of a team is its fan base. Fans are the most important asset of a team. They are never listed in the annual report of a company of a franchise but at the same time has a profound effect on how well that franchise does at the end of the financial year. The relentless emotional and physical investment the supporters make in their teams; give those teams the strength to survive. Examples are Chelsea and their fans, A C Milan and their fans, Washington Red -skins and their fans. In all these cases the fans have supported their teams through thick and thin, while winning or losing. Fans connect not only with the team but with their sponsors as well. The loyalties of years show up on caps and Tshirts bearing the team logo, in coffee mugs and key chains all of which communicate to the world that he or she is true supporter of the team. Manchester United the second richest soccer club after Real Madrid is going to make an annual turn over of £ 300 million of which £ 23 million will come from their sponsor Nike. Nike in turn got the right to put their logo on Manchester United jersey and has the right to sell Manchester United merchandise.

Support for a team is etched in stone, often passed down through generations. It can start with a father taking his son for a soccer game or listening together to a broadcast of cricket match over the radio on a hot summer night without power. Dedication towards a particular team often starts with an early exposure normally with parents, a brother or sister, or sometimes friends. Fans see their team as an extension of themselves, for them team success is personal success and team failure is personal failure. Sports may have started more simply as recreation mostly for those who participated, with spectators being an after thought, but that is history. Fans and their devotions have been the primary cause of this evolution, and an entire industry has been created because of them.

A team’s market share is linked to the actions of two categories of individuals: fans going to the stadium and fans following the broadcast of matches, and sympathizers who care only occasionally about the team’s fortunes. The former group shows enduring, life-long fidelity to the team’s brand. On the other hand, the latter group of supporters is more easily swayed by the acquisition of an international ace or success in a major international tournament. It is toward this segment that professional clubs orient most of their efforts. In this age of digital a

ge the followership of sports team has crossed all barriers, teams which once used to be city specific now has followers all over the world. An Indian wearing a Manchester united t-shirt or an Australian wearing a New York Yankee baseball cap is a common site. Teams are now trying to gain international fan base. Perugia in 1998 recruited Japanese footballer Hidetoshi Nakata to gain additional exposure and attract sponsors in Asian markets. Signing of fast bowler Mashrafe Mortaza last year was an attempt by Kolkata knight riders to gain popularity in Bangladesh.

Every team have their own brand image. A variety of factors shapes the brand image of a team-- the city in which the team is based, the way they play the game, the culture in the team, the behaviour of the fans etc. Sports team like hockey clubs in ice hockey league have become one of the most important part of pop culture in Canada. Cricket is a big industry in India, Cricketers here are more popular than Bollywood actors and their image is avidly sought by advertisers. BCCI’s turnover of more than RS 700 crore proves that it is one industry which is recession proof. A major chunk or BCCI’s revenue comes from Indian Premier League. Indian Premier League teams within two years have created their own brands which have high recall value even among kids.

At present it is frequently said that success of a business is crucially determined by endowment in intangibles, sports team as brands are validating this statement.

Quiz after a long time

I hosted a quiz after a gap of almost 2 years. Last one was in 2008 in Yokogawa; since 2002 every year I have hosted a quiz the only exception was 2009.

Though it was just an intra college event still it felt great to be back among the questions, the audience and the excitement.

I have uploaded the question here, for those who are interested: http://mantavya-nmims.blogspot.com/2010/01/quizzatics-finals-questions_31.html

Hopeless Sports Management

The news of olympic medalist Sushil Kumar being ignored for the padma awards didn't come as a big shock to me. The sportsmen of our country has always been treated shabbily by the government and the sport bodies alike. Sushil Kumar represents majority of the Indian sportsmen, a guy from humble backgrounds made it big in international level but the sport he represents is not popular in India, neither he is proficient in English nor does he has the Adonis like looks of Vijender Singh. It is another discouraging signal sent to the budding sportsmen.
In fact the development in different sports in the last few months was not very encouraging for some one who wants to take up sports as a future profession. The national hockey players were offered a meager sum of 25,000 for representing India, Gold medalist Abhinav Bindra is not allowed to play in Common wealth games as he didn't participate in national camps, Leander Paes didn't play in Chennai open as he was not given the appearance he wanted. The root cause of all this is the same, the sports bodies which control the respective sports think that they are bigger than the sport and the sportsmen. People with magnanimous egos run this organisations. Until and unless there is a major change in the attitude of the management the sporting scene of the country looks bleak as ever. May be this organisations should start recruiting managers from B-schools, I know quite a few of my friends who wouldn't mind giving up a hefty a pay package for a career in sports management.

Pictures of Tripura

A search in the Google for "pictures + Tripura" resulted in maps of Tripura and a few pics of Ujjyanta palace. Thats horrible if a state wants to promote it as a tourist destination. So I decided to upload some of the pics which I took on my last visit to Agartala in Oct'09. These are not pics of Ujjayanta palace or Neer mahal, but the open paddy fields, the dense jungles, lush green tea gardens, village roads and the zigzag roads through the hills. Happy watching.(If your speed is slow it might take a few seconds for the pictures to download)

If you drink we'll drive

If you are wondering what the title of this post means? It is the latest marketing drive of Easycabs.

People of Bangalore and Hyderabad are quite familiar with Easycab and Merucabs. This were the only two taxi service providers who were given the license to operate in the international airport of Hyderabad and Bangalore. At the time of opening of Bangalore international airport(BIAL) the number of cabs of both this companies were the same. But by 2009 the number of Meru cabs doubled and the number of easy cabs remained the same. What went wrong? I don't know exactly. From my experience I can say that Meru gave a better customer service. The first time I had to go to BIAL, I first called Easycab, the reason was the name was more english and the number was easier to type. I didn't had a good experience talking to the lady attending the call, there was constant noise and cacophony at the background and I had to shout to talk to her, being irritated I cut down the call and called Meru cabs and ever since I have been always using Meru cabs.

This christmas when I went to Bangalore I saw billboards with "If you drink we'll drive" ads all over the city. Easycabs also tied up with Radio One for on air promotion. As a student of marketing I liked this strategy by Easycab. They have repositioned the Easycab in a whole new light. It was very much necessary for easycab to survive with increasing competition from local taxi cabs also. Bangalore has a huge number of pubs and drunken driving incidents are quite rampant here. The cops laso make good money as bribes from this drunken drivers.So Easycabs will not run out of customers for sure.
This Christmas-New Year parties must have been a good source of revenue for them.

Farewell letter to my team

I wrote this letter to my team on my last day in Office, it was very hard for me to say good bye to all those people with whom I had spent majority of my time of last three years. When I read their reply it makes me miss them even more.

Here are both the mails below.

From: Som
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 11:15 AM

To: Team ESD

Subject: Farewell, My Team, Adieu...

Dear Team,

Today is my last day in office and I am writing this mail with bag full of emotions, for the last 3 years I have been entirely involved with the team ESD. I have seen this team grow from a team of 4 to be the team which handles all the Safety projects in exports, I have taken every success of the team as my own success and every failure of the team as my own failure. My team I can say is the best team in any sense, technically as well as creatively; being a part of this team I always felt a sense of ownership and responsibility towards my assignments. Today when I am leaving most of you are not here at the office so I am writing this open letter though I would have loved to say this personally to each of you.

Vinay Sir:

I learnt my first lessons of teambuilding and leadership under you and today when I am going to do my MBA these will help me a lot. In my tenure in Yokogawa I have worked with a lot of lead engineers but you are the best I have ever worked with. Be the way you are never mind what others say, as I am assuring you that your team loves you. I am sorry if couldn’t live up to your expectations.

Sachin:

Your discipline and dedication to work is exemplary. So many times it has inspired even me to put that extra bit of hard work which in the end made the difference. I will miss a good friend like you.

Chandana:

I still remember the day when you were put into the team and I was assigned to teach Pro-Safe to you. Today I can proudly say that you have learnt everything about Pro-Safe without any of my help. You have all the requisites of an excellent engineer keep working the way you are doing now.

Arnab:

I have not enjoyed working more with anyone else than you, it’s simply because the sense of sharing you put into it. My only piece of advice for you would be: don’t mix emotions with work, finish your work and don’t expect any rewards, your only reward will be satisfaction that you will get from successful completion of work.

Ranjith:

I will miss your company and your jokes. Your presence itself lifts the mood and spirit of the team. My advice for you will be same as I had given to Arnab: don’t mix your emotions with work.

Arpitha:

You are one of the smartest members of the team, I like your fighting spirit, keep it alive. I will miss your advices and good luck wishes.

Shaheen:

I have never seen anyone as passionate about work as you are, don’t let the world kill your passion, whenever it feels that you have reached the bottom of everything just remember that it’s the beginning of another high.

I can go writing on and on but the space is too small so I would stop here. Please stay in touch with me through Orkut and Gtalk . Before I sign off I would like to recite this poem by Rabindranath Tagore,

Poem

Will Miss you all,

Som

From: Vinay
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 11:15 AM

To: Team ESD

Subject: Re:Farewell, My Team, Adieu...

Dear Som,

That was a very heart-warming mail from you.

We will really miss your presence in a very big way. The organizational skill (can be trip or any other thing) and the dreamy look of yours will be missed for a very long time to come. Not only the ESD team, people outside this team will miss you a lot J. In fact we were planning for an outing after the complete team finishes their assignment, alas now we will miss our key resource planner.

I really appreciate your contribution and a very heartfelt thanks for being the pillar of this team building process. Without active co-operation and help from all the members we would not have come to this position today.

Don’t worry you have lived up to most of my expectations, but do remember that you have a very long way to go. I only hope that the lessons you have learnt here, shall be of good use for your journey of life.

All the very best and keep in touch. Do let us know when you come down to Bangalore, we would like to have a get-together and a belated farewell party. I am very sorry that we are not able to give you one at this moment of time as most of us are outside.

That’s it from me.

Dear Team,

“THREE CHEERS” - for one of the best member of our team.

Regards,

Vinay.