Apple's " Think Different" Ad (Agency : TBWA Chiat/Day )

This is one of my favorite ads (Click on the underlined words to view the Ad). This Ad came at a critical juncture for Apple. Steve Jobs had just returned back to Apple (in 1997) after a 12 year hiatus and the company was in deep trouble and in desperate search for innovative products and creativity . And then came this great Ad (Which was followed by a slew of great products such as iMac,iBook,iPod,iTunes .....).

Apple has always been a rebel in the Computer Industry. And this ad exhorts people to "Think Different" and portrays the difference the rebels (The Geniuses) have made to this world.It features genuises such as Mahatma Gandhi,Albert Einstein,John Lennon,Alfred Hitchcock,Muhammed Ali,Martin Luther King Jr,Pablo Picasso,Richard Branson,Ted Turner,Amelia Earhart.

Here is the complete Text of the Ad " Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes, the ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things, they push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do" .

This ad is an ode to the genius hidden inside everyone of us. Be a Rebel with a cause !

P.S : Twin-Gemini, This the Gandhi "Apple" Ad , I was talking about ..
Carp, Replaced the Ad with a new URL.

Vada Pav - Dispensing Machines

It is the " food" of Mumbai . I am an unabashed fan of Vada Pav ( for almost a year Vada Pav and Lassi used to be my breakfast). Was surprised to read that an entrepreneur in Mumbai has started a Vada Pav franchisee based on Western Style . The " Jumbo King" Vada Pav uses dispensing machines and clean packaging ( a la Mac/Burger King Style) and prides itself on its Hygiene. A vada Pav costs Rs.6 and the chain has outlets near key Mumbai local stations. Click here to read more on this.

Wish they open a franchisee in Singapore !

Hollywood High-Tech Masala

Listen to this Movie Story . Our Hero is a big "dada" who vanquishes the villians and protects the good. However, On Govt's insistence he becomes a "normal" man and takes up an employment . However 15 years later he can't resist when an offer comes to him to slay the evil again. Our Hero with his family defeats the Villian and his high tech machines and emerges as the Superhero (Doesn't this sound like Rajinikanth's Basha ? ) .

Haha. What If I tell you the Budget for this movie is " $92 Million" and the movie has grossed " $260 Million" Worldwide and also won the Oscar for the " Best Animation Film" !

I watched the movie " The Incredibles" yesterday . An High tech masala with funny dialogues and amazing animation.The Graphics are very good and the voices for the Characters have been given by some big Hollywood names like " Holly Hunter , Samuel Jackson etc.."

The movie has also been dubbed in Hindi and released as " Hum Hain Laajawab" with Shah Rukh Khan and his Son dubbing the voices for the animation characters.

So Marketing folks take heart . Right packaging can sell even the most trite masala .........

Hindustani Fusion Ensemble

Music is Bliss. I was lucky to attend a Hindustani Fusion Ensemble at the Esplanade theatre on Thursday. It featured :

Ustad Shujaat Khan -- Sitar , Debashish Bhattacharya (Slide Guitar), Tarun Bhattacharya (Santoor), Ustad Sabir Khan (Tabla), Guruvayur Dorai (Mridangam).

The Concert started with a detailed Alaap in Raag " Vaachaspati" , followed by a bengali folk song and ended with the touching " Vaishnava Janatho" piece (Based loosely on Raag Khamaj). The artistes complimented each other wonderfully . Shujaat Khan (Son of the Legendary Ustad Vilayat Khan) was excellent . I was hearing a Slide Guitar for the first time and Debashish seemed to be working wonders out of it. My favorite instrument turned out to be the Santoor. It was as if a Hundred Waterfalls were descending with a sonorous rhythm. Sabir Khan and Dorai gave able support.

Though it was a short concert ( 90 minutes) , it was an awesome experience. The acoustics were excellent in Esplanade & due to the strict discipline there were no cell phones buzzing or people chatting.

A welcome change from dreary B-school cases and textbooks.

Dilbert

Scott Adams is the Master of "Corporate Satire" . Here is "Asok" -- the Intern : (Click on the image to see an enlarged view)

Telecom Italia -- Gandhi Ad

An excellent ad. This Ad (Click on the underlined words) won Europe's prestigious Epica Award ( Europe's premier creative award) recently. It has been directed by the famous Spike Lee (Director of Malcolm X) . The ad features Mahatma Gandhi with the tagline "Imagine the world today if he could have communicated like this".

The ad throws many interesting questions. If Gandhi was alive today, could he have communicated and reached out to more people? Would he have become a Global leader of peace and disarmament ? Could he have touched more lives through Information & Communication technology and made a bigger difference ?

Gandhiji's message & appeal extend beyond geographical boundaries.The Apple,Telecom Italia ads are just a testimony to it .

Indian Classical Music Concerts @ Singapore

There is some good news for the Indian Classical Music Lovers in Singapore. SIFAS (Singapore Indian Fine Arts Society) is organizing a 12 day festival of Indian Classical Music and Dance. The festival features both Hindustani & Carnatic concerts. The concerts at Esplanade are paid ones whereas the ones at SIFAS Auditorium ( Its close to Mustafa) are free. Here is the List of Concerts at Esplanade & SIFAS.

Leading musicians like Sanjay Subramanyam,Sudha Raghunathan,Ravi Kiran,Ustad Shujaat Khan,Tarun Bhattacharya,Ronu Majumdar would be performing. I have already procured tickets for Ustad Shujaat Khan's " Raga Varshini" & Sudha's concerts. Feeling really happy about attending concerts after a long time !

F1 - Malaysian GP



The F1 Experience was exhilirating. High Speed Thrill,Deafening noise,pulsating action and an unexpected winner -- all these made the Sepang visit worthwhile.The Circuit was state-of-art with a huge capacity of 130,000. I was seated in "C2" which had a big Indian Junta . The Indian tricolor was flying high and there was a huge cheering when Narain passed through our section during the Qualifying and the " vintage car" show.

Thanks to the advise of Confused Soul , I took earplugs with me ! Congrats to the Alonso,Trulli,Heidfeld and F1 has a new fan from today !

P.S : I Shall scan and post the photos once I get them developed & printed.

F1 - MALAYSIAN GP @SEPANG

I am leaving later today for Sepang ( Which is close to Kaula lampur,Malaysia). There is a huge Indian Student Junta from Singapore out there to cheer Narain. This will be the first time I would be watching an F1 race live and am really looking forward to it.

Cheers to Narain and hope he does well !

Thanks Indibloggers

Thanks to Indibloggers ( An Index of bloggers of Indian origin and/or anybody with an interest in (or focus on) India) for featuring my Blog as " Blog of the Day " on their Blog Site !

Wonderful definitions of designations at office

Nice Humorous Forward ! IT guys perhaps will "relate" to this faster .

Wonderful definitions of designations at office :

1) Project Manager is a Person who thinks Nine women can deliver a baby in One month.

2) Developer is a Person who thinks it will take 18 months to deliver a baby.

3) Onsite Coordinator is one who thinks single woman can deliver nine babies in one month.

4) Client is the one who doesn't know why he wants a baby.

5) Marketing Manager is a person who thinks he can deliver a baby even if no man and woman are available.

6) Resource Optimization Team thinks they don't need a man or woman; they'll produce a child with zero resources.

7) Documentation Team thinks they don't care whether the child is delivered, they'll just document 9 months.

8) Quality Auditor is the person who is never happy with the PROCESS to produce a baby.

News you can use

Newspapers are supposed to be one of the torchbearers of Democracy. Having lived all over India , at various times I have been a subscriber to most popular newspapers such as The Hindu,Times of India,Hindustan Times,Indian Express & Deccan Chronicle. Being a bigtime The Hindu fan , I always have had this pet clashes with GBS about The Hindu Vs TOI ( To compare Hindu with TOI is the ultimate insult you can heap on Hindu !). Its always been the content of The Hindu Vs the Marketing might of TOI ( Much like Apple Vs Microsoft ? )

Its was good to read that The Hindu had crossed a million copies a few days ago. Also interestingly , Times of India will be launching a newspaper titled " Times Independent" from May 1 . This new paper would target the serious readers who want in-depth analysis ( Does Times then admit that the current paper is just trash ??).

If I write or speak some decent english today , I owe a lot of it to THE HINDU.

P.S : "TOI is a newspaper published in India by Indians for people who think they live in some other Country !"

What ails Tamil Nadu ?

It is the third largest economy in the country. On per capita income it ranks 10th nationally and an astounding 78 per cent of its population live above the poverty line. With a literacy rate of 73 per cent as against the national average of 64, school enrolment higher than that of even Kerala and 232 engineering colleges churning out graduates, it is poised to lead the skills-set race. Add a rare distinction, surplus power, to 92 per cent road connectivity and 42 per cent urbanisation and you have a picture investors would drool over. Yet Tamil Nadu ranks No. 3, behind Maharashtra and Gujarat, in terms of investment. Why would this be so? ( Courtesy : India Today )

India Today to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of its Tamil edition held a Conclave to discuss this issue. While most felt it was a perception issue and TN was not Marketing itself aggressively , the others felt that the Political parties needed to have consistent policies.

As IT,ITES,Auto firms increasingly seek Chennai , its better that TN Govt thinks about developing the Second tier cities too . All of them agreed on two things : The state needed a long-term Plan and needs to coin a slogan ( To attract tourists) .

How about " Gods come down to earth" as a Slogan ? ( I seem to have heard it somewhere , does it already exist ?)

Indian B-schools going Global

Indian B-schools are going Global. After XLRI announced its MBA programme in Dubai a few years back, S.P.Jain followed suit ( Was Surprised to see a full pade Ad in "Straits Times" -- Singapore's newspaper about S.P.Jain's Dubai Campus ! ).

IIM-Bangalore announced last week that it would start offering part-time and Executive MBA programs in Singapore .

It would be interesting to see if the IIM Brand will sail them through abroad? Perhaps it makes sense for Indians living in these countries who want to return to India some day , to enroll for these MBA. But will they be able to attract the Local population ? That is something we will have to wait and see.

Let your memory be your Travel Bag

As someone who has lived in more than 10 cities in the last 7 years, I have mostly lived out of suitcases.Really liked this quote :

" Own only what you can always carry with you : know languages,know countries,know people.Let your memory be your travel Bag" - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Russian , Nobel Prize Winner)

SAP - Oracle Rivalry

Nothing is more fascinating in Business than witnessing two bitter rivals battling it out. Be it Coke Vs Pepsi , Boeing Vs Airbus , GM Vs Ford -- the Business landscape has witnessed many fierce wars.

The Latest to join the Bandwagon are SAP & Oracle. In order to fight SAP , Oracle acquired Peoplesoft ( A long bitter 18 month long saga). In January'05, SAP acquired Tomorrownow , a Texas based firm in order to attract disgruntled Peoplesoft customers. Today, both firms are fighting it out to acquire Retek Systems ( A MN based Retail end-to-end software provider). SAP last week agreed to buy Retek for $496 million and now Oracle has outbid SAP with a bid for $524 Million !

Coming close on the heels of the huge Peoplesoft acquisition , I wonder if Oracle can integrate Retek into its fold (When already a huge Oracle-Peoplesoft Integration is going on). But if there anything Larry Ellison loves , its a big fight and we can be assured plenty of it in the near future . The rivalry extends beyond the Software space when you consider SAP's Hasso Plattner & Oracle's Larry Ellison are fierce rivals in the Yachting races !

However, economists are worried that a SAP-Oracle duopoly would hurt the market.

Answers to "The Oscars" Quiz

Here are the answers to the Oscars Quiz I posted a week ago. Congrats to Sandhya for getting all the answers right !

As most of you pointed out, the questions were a bit tough ( But then with googling nothing is tough actually !).Point taken. Will try to repost my earlier easier Quizzes in the future.

Here are the answers:

1. This actress has claimed to have given the Academy award the nickname "Oscar" ( after her first Husband ). She was nominated for the " Best Actress Oscar" during four consecutive years and has also won it twice . Who ?

Bette Davis ( She was nominated for Best Actress in four consecutive years 1940-43 (in fact even in 1939 in which she won) and has also won it twice in 1936 & 1939) .

2. Born Allen Konigsberg , he holds the record for the most Oscar nominations for " Best Screenplay" . He never attended the Oscar ceremony ( until recently in 2002 ) , instead playing Clarinet at a Club in NYC during Oscars night. Who ?

Woody Allen ( Guess this was a sitter ! )(One of my favorite directors.His serious comedies like Annie Hall,Manhattan won him fame but try to watch his less cerebral comedies like Take the Money & Run,Sleeper,Bananas --- They are absolutely Fabulous )

3. She holds the record for the actress to win an Oscar ( For Best Supporting Actress) with the shortest screen time ( Her Character appears for less than 8 minutes in the movie ) . Her Costume designers for the Oscar Night (when she won) were Abu Jani & Sandeep Khosla . Who ?

Judi Dench

4. He was nominated five times for the " Best Director" award , but never won. Perhaps the shortest Oscar Speech was by him. When he was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial award , his speech was " Thank you" . (Understandable considering the way the Academy had treated him ) . Who is this Legend ?

Alfred Hitchcock ( Its a shame that he never won an Oscar for Best Director )

5. After having been nominated a record Seven times for the Best Actor Oscar , he never won it .Finally when he was awarded an Honorary Oscar in 2003 , he quipped " Always a bridesmaid, never a bride my foot" . Who ?

Peter O'Toole ( The "Lawerence" of Arabia)

6. Which two time Oscar Winner (for best Supporting Actor both times) said this ," I wanted to win an Oscar so that I'd get more scripts without other actors coffee stains on them" ?

Micheal Caine

7. He has directed the most actors to Academy Award success . The Actors directed by him have notched a record 34 nominations and 14 wins at the Oscars . Who ?

William Wyler ( Director of wonderful films like Ben-hur,Roman Holiday )

8. Which is the only Alfred Hitchcock movie to win a best film oscar ?

Rebecca ( One of the Haunting Hitchcockian thriller)

9. Who is the only American Woman director to be nominated for the " Best Director" Oscar ?

Sofia Coppola ( Lost in Translation)

10. This "Best actress" Oscar Winner was born in Darjeeling,India . Her mother, while awaiting the birth of her child in Darjeeling, spent 15 minutes every morning gazing at the Himalayas in the belief that their astonishing beauty would be passed to her unborn child. Her Husband was the first to direct himself to a Best Actor Oscar . Name the Couple ?

Laurence Olivier & Vivien Leigh (He won it for "Hamlet" & she for " The streetcar named Desire)

Kashmir Photos

Have a look at these Wonderful Photos ! No wonder they are fighting over this place for the last 50 odd years.

One of my unfulfilled dream is to visit J&K . Perhaps this will inspire me to make that visit !

Second Trimester Results

My Second Trimester MBA Results were released today. I got 4 A's & a B ! I got A's in Marketing,Mergers & Acquisitions,ERP, Organisational Behaviour and a B in Managerial Accounting (Costing). I think some of the Professors have been extremely generous to me because of my constant shouting in the Class !!

Inspite of my good results , I still believe the true value of MBA lies beyond grades and exams should be reduced as much as possible.

B-Schools --- Bad for Business ?

The Economist asks a tough question . Are Business schools bad for Business ? Are the B-schools partially responsible for greed on the Wall Street ( The Enrons,Tycos,Worldcoms ..... ) ? Is there something fundementally wrong in some of the the concepts taught at B-schools ? (especially the " Agency Theory" -- Its assumptions)

As the academic credibility of B-schools are being attacked, the B-schools have reacted by adding Ethics courses into MBA Curriculum. I sometimes think this is like a chicken-egg argument . There is no perfect answer.

The Great Indian Political Charade

The games have begun again. With no party getting a clear majority in Both Bihar & Jharkand , horse-trading looks inevitable. Though it looks like Laloo's 14 year old rule might come to an end , nothing is certain in Indian Politics. The only good news is that Paswan seems to agree with the Rest of the Country -- If no viable alternative is found then the President's Rule is the best Choice !

These are the different scenarios which might emerge in the next few weeks (if not days). God Bless Bihar ....

" The Oscars" Quiz

Quizzing is one of my passions. An hobby which started two decades ago and which thankfully has continued till today. I have benefitted tremendously by being part of Professional Quizzing Groups and the knowledge of my peers has been a great knowledge addition to me. Used to be a regular at Landmark & Brand Equity Quizzes while in India , these days most of Quizzing is restricted to online and email quizzes.

After being a passive Quizzer for the last few months , finally decided to wake up from my stupor. Decided to play the Quizmaster. Here is a Quiz I set for my online Quizzing Group (Quiznet) , on the eve of Oscars. Posting the Quiz here .

If you are Quiz enthusiast , please do participate and mail the answers to cogitoergosum@gmail.com . Last date for answers : 5th March. Hope you like it !

This weekend would witness the "Oscar Fever" , and hence thought would base my Quiz on it. 10 Questions , 1 week to answer them.

1. This actress has claimed to have given the Academy award the nickname "Oscar" ( after her first Husband ). She was nominated for the " Best Actress Oscar" during four consecutive years and has also won it twice . Who ?

2. Born Allen Konigsberg , he holds the record for the most Oscar nominations for " Best Screenplay" . He never attended the Oscar ceremony ( until recently in 2002 ) , instead playing Clarinet at a Club in NYC during Oscars night. Who ?

3. She holds the record for the actress to win an Oscar ( For Best Supporting Actress) with the shortest screen time ( Her Character appears for less than 8 minutes in the movie ) . Her Costume designers for the Oscar Night (when she won) were Abu Jani & Sandeep Khosla . Who ?

4. He was nominated five times for the " Best Director" award , but never won. Perhaps the shortest Oscar Speech was by him. When he was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial award , his speech was " Thank you" . (Understandable considering the way the Academy had treated him ) . Who is this Legend ?

5. After having been nominated a record Seven times for the Best Actor Oscar , he never won it .Finally when he was awarded an Honorary Oscar in 2003 , he quipped " Always a bridesmaid, never a bride my foot" . Who ?

6. Which two time Oscar Winner (for best Supporting Actor both times) said this ," I wanted to win an Oscar so that I'd get more scripts without other actors coffee stains on them" ?

7. He has directed the most actors to Academy Award success . The Actors directed by him have notched a record 34 nominations and 14 wins at the Oscars . Who ?

8. Which is the only Alfred Hitchcock movie to win a best film oscar ?

9. Who is the only American Woman director to be nominated for the " Best Director" Oscar ?

10. This "Best actress" Oscar Winner was born in Darjeeling,India . Her mother, while awaiting the birth of her child in Darjeeling, spent 15 minutes every morning gazing at the Himalayas in the belief that their astonishing beauty would be passed to her unborn child. Her Husband was the first to direct himself to a Best Actor Oscar . Name the Couple ?