Less is More. Measure and Scale.

Monsoons, are generally dull and boring. I had to keep seeing the beauty in things, the beauty in nature that surrounded me, as I hopped, skipped and splotched along the puddled, graveled road. My morning walk during my holiday break, in a remote town in India. 

 

The sky, a giant canvas that blotted grey ink in twenty shades, the trees swaying like the fans meant for Gods. As the morning light peeped in and out, the vastness of the paddy fields, foliage and sounds of the birds, a perfect pantomime that swathed another 20 shades of green. And as though that wasn’t enough, the small town that this was, was peppered with color that even the Gods would be blinded by.

 

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Lessons at Lunch. Age no bar.

A wisp of smoke curled thru the dense air outside a coffee shop on Orchard’s. I poked at it while listening to a friend of mine, a partner in a leading consulting firm. These sessions are invaluable for me. I usually come out validating some of my work thus pressing onwards, or realizing things need to change. He had rich experiences with M&A and enabling growth strategies.

Rajesh, we grow in any area – be it quality of life at home or business accomplishments or anything else, we listen and then learn what sticks…

those two words right there had my fingers snap at the smoke, planting a grin as wide as a cricket pitch. So, I probed and listened. Somewhere, maybe somewhere he read about the culture my team and I had birthed.

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Why We Do, What We Do. How to Innovate in there.

Our 8-week-old pup coiled up like a worm, as thunder shook the windows and lightning lit up the night sky. He was positively petrified at the unfamiliar. It happened again a few days later. This time it caused him to clamber expeditiously, tail between his legs, to my daughter who cuddled him. Days later, it happened yet again but this time it seemed far more familiar. Now perplexed, he barked and moved towards the source of the sound. He began to understand the plethora of sounds around him and even distinguish a few of them, quickly adapting to his environment.

 

Hence, we think about the shift from EMOTION and INSTINCT to KNOWLEDGE and UNDERSTANDING. Underscore these 4 words. This will be the most important takeaway from this blog. In the past 3 centuries, beginning in the 18th C, the industrial revolution brought tremendous disruptive and transformative changes to our world.

 

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Emotion Sells. Money Smells.

A wailing child clings on to his father’s arm, and is dragged along into a wholesale store. The man’s routine to buy his weekly stock. Early 1980’s. The store owner reaches into a 2 feet glass jar of orange candies, grabs a handful and cups them into the child’s tiny palms. There was glee all around – Father, Child and Store Owner. Win! Win! Win! A gesture since trade started I bet. Now termed “Emotional Insights/Intelligence”.


At that tender age, I did not realise the sales element in this. But, it came handy decades later.

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