Deciphering Thoughts

Of Start Ups and Comfort Zones

Hari Ganapathy — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 18:44:50 +0000

I was a hard core FMCG guy during my em-bee-AAA days. So it was not surprising that I ended up in a FMCG role albeit with a company which was not my first choice (in hindsight this worked out to my favor). A good 2.5 years in FMCG – travelling to places i havent even seen on the map, literally living out of a suitcase (No room service or airport lounges – MIND IT!!). All that one could hope for was a room with clean sheets and cleaner toilets. I managed to sail through that phase, impressed my Marketing heads and landed up a meaty ASM role. Then did a shift (had to comply to the norm that 90% of em-be–AAA’s quit their first job within 2 years) and was doing well in my second company when I suddenly decided to change course and join a “quasi-start-up” – Inmobi. I strongly believe that was the most confused phase of my life. I still dont know if I made the right choice – cos there is still that little element in me which lights up when I see an awesome commercial/new products on the shelf or extremely well done in-store displays. Interestingly, during this “grass ought to be greener on the other side” phase of mine, I met one of my em-bee-AAA professors who put it quite bluntly – “you guys do not have patience. Why do you want to leave something you are enjoying in search of something which you THINK will be interesting? What stops you from building a career in your current role?”. But come on, I am GEN X.. its all about moving out of your comfort zone and taking CALCULATED risks. And to be fair, I had a clear picture of the kind of batch-mates working @Inmobi and I felt that given these people are here, I sure would not regret at-least on the culture fit perspective. And I could always come back to FMCG.. So why not? and how has it been?

Truth be told – 20% – elation; 60% – fun; 20% – self inflicted pain. The elation and fun bit is easier to explain – its a relatively small firm so you get to spend more time with the “actual decision makers”. So I will always cherish the evening where I spent a good 2 hours chatting with my CEO at the Coffee day in Bombay airport. The fun bit is partly cos of the inflated sense of “i am going to shape the future of mobile advertising in India” (which is actually true if one works in a concentrated manner), the sheer amount of time you spend on LinkedIn trying to reach out to people who you would have never thought of talking to if you were in a MNC and yes – bragging to friends that you have un-restricted access to facebook and cricinfo. The 20% self inflicted pain is the difficult part to put down. So what constitues the 20% self inflicted pain part? This is majorly due to 3 things:

1. EGO – I AM IMPORTANT AND YOU BETTER TREAT ME LIKE THAT

We come from well set organizations where cos you are a MBA guy you start as a middle level manager with considerable amount of people below you. There are enough and more occasions when you are made to feel important. In a start-up EGO is the first thing that you got to lose. Cos at-best you work in a 2-3 member team (mostly you are the lone ranger). You got to fend for yourself – Wait outside offices, call up land-line numbers and request for meetings (beware – the guy you are talking to has mostly not heard about your company and hence interest levels are tending to zero). Write random linkedIn requests, follow-up like crazy. The key thing to keep in mind here is – your CEO did all of this to get this company to where it is now. That according to me is the key. And yeah, the best part – even after all of this (proactive) initiatives, if things dont work out – you have nobody else to blame – you work without a safety net! But when the Trapeze connection happens – the joy is unmatched.

2. LACK OF ORDER – CHAOS

Most em-bee-AAA’s are data and process driven. So what happens when there is no process or data? Its like finding the corner in a circular room. Everybody has more than what they can digest on their plate and however mind-blowing or business impacting your idea is – more often than not its going to be drowned in a sea of other priority action points. You feel as though you live in a world of in-efficiency. This is the most difficult thought to break. You know things can be bettered and you know you can better them. But somehow, you arent happy with your own efforts. The key here is to develop a clear sense of your role and be at it despite all the chaos around. The quality of your final output might actually be affected due to the surrounding chaos but its extremely critical to keep going on. Cos, the challenge in a start up is not to set right the chaos – but to work towards defining the order which will quell the chaos. And it might take more than just a few attempts.

3. LEAP OF FAITH – How do you LEAP, when you dont have the FAITH

Its madness – trust me! Your manager wants you to project next quarter numbers – and a huge component of your EMI on the new house/car is going to come from how much you achieve next quarter. And there is no historical data.. and you have zero visibility. You still have to give a number. Add this to how crippled we feel when we dont have data – K-ed! and its not like those B-Plan contests when you put down numbers with very little direct consequence. Here you dont even know how to go about building that number. The key here is to actually take that leap of faith and say I have to get this much – how do I go about getting it. The end goal how-ever critical it might seem (from a quarter perspective) it is very important that you build up to it through a clearly thought out plan the fruits of which might not come in this quarter, but will help you in the future. The challenge here is to stay optimistic through-out. Pragmatics are as good as pessimists in such hyper growth markets.

All of the above might sound so trivial and a given when you move to a start up, but the change in approach and for the mind to accept this change takes a considerable amount of time. The longer you take, the more pain you feel! And for those who cant bring that change – at least we tried.

Without having to…

Hari Ganapathy — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 18:52:28 +0000

Lying down facing the starry sky
Without buying a penthouse

Understand patience
Without having to stand in a queue

Value relationships
Without losing it

Take decisions
Without having to regret it

Live life to the fullest
Without having to…

The Hindu rate of Growth

Hari Ganapathy — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 14:47:53 +0000

The Hindu Rate of Growth – Why is it the best?

Detachment from worldly desires, not to expect the fruit of your actions and selfless service – these are few things that come to my mind when I think of the lessons from the Hindu scriptures. Unfortunately, I am living in an era where owning the iPad or the latest touch phone or the coolest property is what counts. There is immense pressure to become an “ acquirer” - of wealth, fame, facebook friends et al. This is at the “aam aadmi” level. At higher levels of power there is rampant corruption and people make so much money that they have no clue of their assets and end up building 15 storey houses!! They have crores in accounts across countries and are still striving to make more!! For what joy? Picture this – what percentage of facebook friends are you in touch with. Extending the analogy – what percent of your phone book contacts are you in touch with? I would be surprised if the answer is more than 10%. Then why this unending urge to acquire more?

What’s wrong with the Hindu rate of growth? Why should the Indian GDP grow at 9%? Its because the auto companies want to grow at 25%, the fairness cream industry wants to grow at 40%, the packaged food industry wants to grow at 75% and all this and much more will happen only if the GDP grows at 9%. But spare a thought – What makes these companies grow? It’s you and me!! Either we are working in these companies or we are users of these products (why do we use these products deserves a separate blog on its own). Ironically the products uses us to grow when we bask in the glory that as “con”sumers we are the king!!

Getting back to the first point – We are working in these sectors and only if we grow at such neck-break speeds will we get ourselves a great career. That’s when we can beat the mediocre and slip to that all important top 10% performers list!!. But what is it doing to all of us?

We are increasingly getting schematic and devious in our approach to things. Why did that guy get promoted, its cos he sucked up to the manager. Very rarely do we feel that yes, that guy deserved the promotion. There is a constant fear of competition lingering right above our heads. Driven by the drive to succeed, we go to any levels to get work done. Not one day passes by when we are not jealous of somebody’s accomplishment. There is incessant pressure – deadlines to meet, tasks to be accomplished, resume points to be built. I believe that this has taken the joy out of things. So much growth has led to a colossal loss of human spirit. We have stopped enjoying simpler things in life and even before we learn to drive the bicycle and feel the whiff of fresh air on our face we want a car (not even a motorbike). Is there ever a solution? Satisfying the desire does not kill it. Instead it fuels it further – Yeh Dil Maange More.

The only solution is to get back to the hindu rate of growth. No pressures, no big competition. No performance ratings. All of us are happily mediocre. To think of it mediocre works best in the long term. There is no need to RG, no need to cram late hours or cheat or be jealous of any body. All of us will be happily mediocre and continue to work happily ever after. And who knows, in our spare time we might discover time travel – Then we can alternate between 9% and 4% GDP growth time space continuums. But wait, who is going to get the glory of discovering the time machine?

Just been 15 months..Why did I shift jobs?

Hari Ganapathy — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 19:52:53 +0000

An FMCG career (like most careers) is a lot about building you as a brand. You land up as a management Trainee in one of the FMCGs and your training period serves as a platform to meet heads of various departments, brand managers, trade marketing managers et al. This period is a make or break one – gives both you and the company a good time frame to build opinions about each other. Assuming you are good at what you do, your training period helps you cement your place in the company and in my opinion the training period is the incubation period for“YOU – THE BRAND”. Once you have cemented your place, why would it make sense to shift a company? Given that the eternal quest of most management trainees is to get into branding and the unproven fact that getting into branding is easiest from your first company why would it make sense to shift companies in the 1.5-2 yr time frame? I have three submissions:

Its now or never:
1. In any FMCG company, brand/trade opportunities open up after 2.5-3 years (including training period). At about 1.5-2 years you would have finished anywhere between 10 to 15 months of pure sales experience. The new company you are moving into will also expect you to work for about 15 to 18 months in sales before giving you a trade/branding opportunity. This way you don’t lose out much when it comes to your shot at trade/branding. On the other hand when you have completed anything more than 2 years sales experience (post training) it becomes a huge baggage and you will not be able to shift. The branding light will always be there at the end of the tunnel..
You get exposed to newer categories and practices
1. Sales is no magic. It’s mostly about efficiencies and execution. But branding concepts are drastically different across categories. By exposing yourself to a different category you give yourself that all important exposure to a new consumer thought space, a different consumer decision making process. For example: what kind of cross promo’s work? When does it make sense to give a bundle scheme to the trade and when is a consumer offer the best bet? I am not saying that by being in sales you will get to know all this gyaan, but yes, if you are keen enough, you will put your grey cells to work. This could prove extremely valuable and also add that little extra to your resume.
You are well poised to make middle managerial level changes
1. The experience of your previous company combined with the market research you would have done during your management trainee stint about various other FMCG companies would have given you a lot of insight into the procedures/programs/trade marketing structures in play. And the best part about sales is your end consumer (the trade) unlike the end consumer (aam aadmi) for marketing has a very similar decision making process across categories. So you can easily put to use that extra bit and create a definite edge over the incumbent employees.

Note: this is not a post-decision rationalization effort, but an attempt at starting a discussion.

The Tough Days of my Life

Hari Ganapathy — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 18:20:09 +0000

The last 1 month has arguably been one of the toughest phases in my life. My FB status messages ranged from

If life was a game of poker, currently am ALL IN and am playing BLIND. My opponent – DESTINY.

‎…and then there is this sudden urge to spend time like good ol days – random chit chat in the college ground, foot-board travel on 29c to Max mueller bhavan with the cool evening breeze on your face, hot chaai and vadai from unni nair, german class, theatrical attempts thanks toKrishna Kumar. S , followed by the 40 min bus ride back home, late night phone calls.. It was so much more simpler back then!!

To say am confused would be an understatement

stressful day.. didnt know it would be so difficult to say NO!! thanks Deepak Kapur Srikrishna Swaminathan Ramprasad Narayanan Nimisha Jain Vandana Rangarajan for helping me out!!

Now that I have taken a decision, I thought it would be beneficial to jot down this decision process just in case I wanna rue my decision .

Problem: Wanted to shift southwards due to personal reasons

Confusion: Could not decide between the 2 offers on hand – join a new company or accept the offer from my current employer

These 15 days have been a wonderful journey where I have interacted and opened up to so many people. In the process I have discovered a lot of hitherto unknown things about my own self. The most striking of them is that I use my right brain to make my decisions. Most decisions in my life till date, as I sat and recollected were basis emotion than reason. The macro picture is what mattered to me! So if I have always been a right brainer why the confusion now? To my utter dis-belief and shock, I discovered that MBA has changed me!!! I look for logic, I look for reason, a 2×2, a cost benefit analysis and then decide. I am looking for some scientific backing for my intuition.

It was a tug of war – the emotional side asking me stick to the current company and the rational pushing me to take up the new offer. Even as i write this, my stomach rumbles and churns and I can hear my heart beat get louder as the chit chat and clutter at the coffee shop fades out. To decide between something so fundamental, rooted in your self and kinda defining your identity and something which just looks rational!! in fact a couple of people I consulted (the consultants) actually said – What is there to decide? It was as simple as choosing between a Peter England and Louisphilippe for them. But the surprising thing was that 4 out of 5 people asked me to list down the pro’s and cons and make some kinda 2×2. It was difficult in part cos I have never been used to such systematized approach to a problem. I generally sway to my heart.

12 full days, and still no solution in sight. It got to a point where the fact that I had to make a choice grew larger than the problem itself. Finally, I succumbed to leftists. I decided to make a rational choice. But, even now I am not too convinced and I think that’s why the decision was difficult, as I did not have a clear winner. The scary part is that, going forward I will have to make many more such decisions in my life

Month End!! – The end and the beginning

Hari Ganapathy — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 09:55:41 +0000

Month End – Something that just cannot be ignored in sales. For some its a day when their cumulative efforts over the month translate into a hassle free closure. But for most of them its that harassing time in the month when gaali’s fly left right and center. A time when people come up with reasons right from how Mango selling at Rs. 5 a Kg has affected sales and hence he cannot achieve his number to the fact that inflation is causing the dip.

When you actually soak up all the pressure and look at it from a higher plane – its just another month that has passed by and you await with much anticipation for the next month. With the new month comes renewed hope..a belief that I can come up with earth shattering strategies to beat competion..

In general, I have tended to look back at life and say - If only I had done this better I would have been some place else etc. But, thanks to my profession, I have got rid of this bad habit. I am now forced to live in the present and see what best I can do with the resources at hand. Someone had once defined strategy as – “making best use of the available resources”. Sales personifies this statement. I need to maximize my returns from the trade spends, plan how best can I leverage the brand activities and ensure that I give a clear direction to the team in terms of what needs to be done when and how we should drive the initiatives. all this within 26 working days broken into 4 weeks!! Time flies!!

You need to be an eternal optimist to survive and bring about shifts in sales. I believe that even one day can create that much needed momentum. There is no real role for a pessimist in sales. A realist comes into play during the last week when you revise your initial plan ! As I wait for the new month the 1.5 Crore drop in plan seems insignificant cos I have bigger and better things to achieve. There is no time to feel bad, I need to pick up the pieces, learn from my failed strategies and move ahead.. Cos the market is growing and its not going to wait for me to tag along!! This is similar to what we do in our lives. No wonder my job gives me the kicks. Am not just loving.. but am living it!

Ad Review_Chloromint Cow

Hari Ganapathy — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:30:34 +0000

A funny commercial. If happy dent’s servants as lights was cheeky, this is out and out funny. This is an example of creative license put to good use. Be it the pardesi accent to the question “teen sing wala gaai why?” or the exaggeration of the freshness aspect of the gum through ice creams from cows – the team has managed to strike the chord perfectly well.

Awareness: This is where i think that they are taking a huge gamble. Chloromint has manged to create a very strong association with the tagline “doobara mat poochna” and now this advert takes a different turn all-together. they could have very well used this similar concept to reinforce “doobara mat poochna” stand. Instead they have chosen to create a new tag line – “chaba dhaba ke”. I am not extremely sure if this is going to help them. End of the day it is a “chew”ing gum and i am going to “chaba dabake” be it a wrigley’s, happy dent or orbit.

Recall - The desi music and salman’s performance are a positive. I am sure that most people would recall the concept, but not the brand name or the product category.

Overall Message – Choloromint helps me keep my mouth fresh. but which chewing gum does not give us that feel? I dont see a very clear positioning coming through this ad. we have to wait and watch if they have plans to build on this thematic and take up ownership of the “freshness” concept.

Conculsion - A creative ad. Like most creative ad’s this will do wonders for the creative guys, but not sure if the brand guy will make some chaba dabake moolah from this investment.

Ad Review_Sony Viao Vivid

Hari Ganapathy — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:55:30 +0000

Finally, I have managed to start something I have wanted to for a long time now.. Pen down my thoughts on ads. Hope to keep this coming.

Awareness – Sony has built a strong brand resonance with Kareena and this ad carries a lot of positive reinforcement to that relationship. Kareena fits the bill for the “VIVID” concept but the concept of change might have better suited priyanka chopra given her numerous linkages in the recent past

Recall - The distinctive colors and foot tapping BGM are I think a big plus point and helps in aided recall. Kareena’s “strip feel” adds to recall.

Overall Message – The concept of VIVID color options comes out extremely clearly. This is in tune with sony’s endeavorer to differentiate itself from other competitors. Most players are purely positioned either on performance or value. Sony has stuck to creating a “status” and sense of pride around its Viao series. This I think is the best positioning strategy given the fact that they command a price premium. This kind of positioning helps build selective demand and hence keeps value conscious consumers at bay. I believe that in a non-Apple world Sony Viao would be the only laptop where the consumer would attach any kind of emotional value.

Conclusion: In a market where reliability, performance, quality, features and durability are standardized, Sony has rightly taken the design/form as its positioning lever and has managed to carve out a niche for itself. But the question is, in a value conscious market like India – will this strategy work? and even if it does, why shouldnt I opt for an Mac?

A lonely birthday

Hari Ganapathy — Wed, 19 May 2010 16:26:43 +0000

Tic Toc, Tic Toc - Last three hours of my 24th year. The temperature outside is around 32 C. The 20×10 room am in is as hot as any room can get. With close to zero cross ventilation and devoid of any artificial air coolers the room just added to the frustration. Why was I frustrated?

My 25th birthday and am going to spend it alone in a godforsaken but well planned city – Chandigarh. The city is awesome – clean, pollution free, well organized, beautiful women and great food. I have asked myself many a times – Why am I putting myself through this? Why should I stay all alone, away from my family, my to be family and my friends. The only answer that I manage to come up with is – “You like your job”. No denial. To quote MacDonalds – “I am lovin it”. This is something I have always imagined – a career in FMCG.

When I first started out, I never knew that this is going to be so tough. My day begins with a follow up SMS and thats it, I spend most of my day following up on things ranging from stock, supplies, activity status, sales figures etc. As there is no set work time or office, I end up working till late in the night. Most of the time its cos I have nothing else to do. How many days can I keep watching SITCOMs or downloading movies or playing FIFA? I dont know anybody here expect my team. In short my life has taken a complete U-turn. I have always had people around, its just that right now they are too far away.

Freedom was intoxicating when I tasted it the first time. Like the rising sun, it encapsulated me and made me strong. I looked forward to the challenge the day had to offered. I knew that I could change my company’s fortune. I could impact the lives of 12 direct reportees and many more indirect ones. I had the POWER to do what I thought was best and in most cases without anybody’s approval. But as I started settling in, I realized what my dad meant when he said – “Freedom means responsibility”. That is when it hit me. The freedom was quasi. I had the freedom to do new things but my hands were tied with daily chores. Before you realize your neck deep in a lot of things that you have no idea about. People start looking up to you for direction and clarity from day 1. There is no honeymoon period. This is the fork in the road. You either give up and say, I have enough things in my hand already or ensure that you dont lose the freedom.

I have crossed that cross road and managed to retain some amount of desire to fight for my space, my freedom. But am still not clear if I want this freedom or family?

Chess and Me

Hari Ganapathy — Mon, 03 May 2010 17:03:36 +0000

I SUCK at chess. There was once a time when I have spent countless hours trying to understand the various opening moves. But never have I been able to accomplish anything close to “success”. I barely managed to foresee 3-4 moves of the opponent. Its now that I realize I was not made for Chess. I am so much a “moment” person. I act/decide and work based on my instincts. Its very rare that I have ever thought 4 or 5 steps ahead. But..My current job profile involves planning and there has to be a plan B for every action. Over the past 3 months I have learnt to anticipate possible roadblocks (some of them through instincts and some through learning) and planned to overcome the same. Wonder if I would be better at chess now?