iGate – Entrance Gate or Exit Gate?

Brand in News: iGate

Executive Stepping down: Sean Narayanan, The  Chief Delivery Officer at iGate

Executive who is shaking up things: Ashok Vemuri, CEO at iGate

Press Story: Narayanan had differences with the CEO, Ashok Vemuri’s operational and management style.

Background: Narayanan joined iGate in 2006 and helped create an integrated delivery organization. Prior to joining iGate, Narayanan was VP and global practice head of IT infrastructure services at Cognizant.

The Big Irony: Narayanan's resignation comes within months of his receiving fresh stock awards and retention sops from the Nasdaq-listed , $1-billion IT services firm. In July, iGate approved retention bonuses for five top executives, including Narayanan , under which each would get $1,50,000 on June 30, 2014, and $1,00,000 on December 31, 2014, provided they were still employed in the company on the applicable payment date.

My Take: Another case that shows ‘money’ is not the end-of-all things when you in the top layer of management. You look for other intangibles like respect, pride, prestige and satisfaction. 

~ Satish Chathanath Call : 9884011654 Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

"ABEL, YOU'RE FIRED."

Brand under boil: AOL

Scene: Cafeteria at Patch’s headquarters in Manhattan

Patch Who: AOL's local news subsidiary

CEO under lens: Tim Armstrong

What really happened in the cafeteria, filled with employees to hear Tim’s ‘I want to deliver a News’ kind of speech.

News reports say that an employee was trying to take a photo of his CEO. (I have no idea why he did that when his CEO was blowing warm and hot)

Armstrong interrupted himself to say, "Abel, put that camera down right now."

Then, without taking a breath, he said, "Abel, you're fired."

The silence that followed this shocking incident was deafening not just to the employees at Patch but to the entire workforce!

It is good that CEOs are transparent... but a transparent and public firing!????! I am finding it tough to understand his over-the-top action even if he was in an irritable mood.

Catch the full story at: http://www.businessinsider.in/THE-COST-OF-WINNING-Tim-Armstrong-Patch-And-The-Struggle-To-Save-AOL/articleshow/25355140.cms#!

~ Satish Chathanath Call : 9884011654 Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

CHUGS, MUGS, BEER BELLY & A NEW FONT

Kinglish – Kingfisher claims that it is the world’s first crowd sourced font. The unique tag is that it was created by people populating the most happening watering holes in the pub city of Bengaluru. Kingfisher with enthused spirit invited the chillers and drinkers to spill some beer and create a new font. The beer induced parlance was then taken to the design studio. Hundreds of expressions for each letter were examined, instagramed, tweeted, shared, and curved until the perfect alphabet screamed BEER from every angle.

KINGLISH, the world’s first crowd sourced font found its place in history as it was launched as the official font of the Kingfisher Premium The Great Indian Octoberfest – 2013 and the unofficial dialect of the beer guzzlers around the world. See Video

~ Satish Chathanath Call : 9884011654 Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

Assault on Google!

Assault on Google - new, large banner ads are being tested by Google in the US market, apparently breaking a 2005 promise by the company.

“There will be no banner ads on the Google homepage or Web search results pages... There will not be crazy, flashy, graphical doodads flying and popping up all over the Google site. Ever.” said Marissa Mayer, who was then the vice president for search at Google.

Well, she said this in 2005 and we are in 2013. If we have to believe what Synrgy says and Search Engine Land reports (The banner ads were first noted online last Wednesday on the Twitter account of Synrgy, a digital marketing start-up, and first reported by Search Engine Land.) my first crazy reaction was... so what?

Now, Marissa is the chief executive of its rival Yahoo! And more importantly Google is battling a slowing desktop search business and falling ad prices. So what comes first to Google – bottomline or your 8-year old promise!?!?

All said and done, I wonder why Google is not coming forthright about its intentions on featuring these ads... if there is a change in stance, just say it Google.

~ Satish Chathanath Call : 9884011654 Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

Overnight Success in Business

Doodling a business idea for some time now... make sure you are ready for the jump before you actually jump... here is a quick test:

1    1)  You like chaos, challenges and setbacks

2    2)  You like corner place, command and easy cheques

If you have selected 1), I think you should continue reading...

You should be ready to forgo vacations and do more work than a 9-6 job offer. You will be forced to change your role from a strategist to a clerical admin without changing your seat.

And on the softer side if you embrace your start-up with all your time and energy, be ready to miss the hugs and kisses from your home partner.

And on the harder side reality can suck... your sales presentations face repeated rejections and your potential buyers turn you down. Every nerve will be strained and tested as if you need to prove to them that you are still in and want to succeed. You better hang on!

And the toughest part is that you need to do this not just for days or weeks or months... buddy it could be for years... if things work out well... it will be less than 8 years!

Forgive me for yet another motherhood statement: “Achieving 'overnight success in business' takes a few long years!!”

~ Satish Chathanath Call : 9884011654 Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

Boxed Customer Delight – Do online shopping sites getting it right?

For every consumer ad on TV today there is almost one promoting a website business. Take sites like flipkart, jabong, fashionandyou, myntra, snapdeal, inkfruit, yebhi, caratlane and others have got just 2 big asset to showcase: 1) their own website where transactions happen 2) Packaging of the product their customer order for. Luckily they do not have multiple other customer touchpoints to spend their time, money and focus. On the other hand, unluckily, they have only these 2 touchpoints to attract, entice and retain their customers. While website is an ever-changing tech piece and  it is a stubborn marketing piece yet to reveal all of customers’ sales-push buttons... but most players are figuring it out really good to get this property working and helping trickle-sales to a flow. But how are they faring when it comes to the second asset of theirs – packaging?

This asset is special because this is the one customer touches, feels and experiences. To an extent we can say, if they bungle this up on the last mile of the 2 miles;), they will lose customers. No wonder that most of these sites are working with design experts (Indian and international names like Michael Foley) to make the final delivery of the boxed customer delight to be pure awesomeness!! Most of them are reluctantly jumping into customized packaging ideas like red based packaging for a wedding gift wrapper.  Are they succeeding in Package Branding? Time will tell... but they are extending the branding space and have put more focus on areas like costume branding of the delivery person and delivery vehicle branding. Looks like they are hungry for more sales-driving branding ideas!

~ Satish Chathanath Call : 9884011654 Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in

How racist our brain is !?!

We always believed that a right-brain person is a creative thinker where colours have a field day, while a left-brain person is a boring accountant splitting things in black and white!  This is a myth says science now!

Scientists at the University of Utah have debunked the myth with an analysis of more than 1,000 brains. They found no evidence that people preferentially use their left or right brain. All of the study participants — and no doubt the scientists — were using their entire brain equally, throughout the course of the experiment. (source: http://www.livescience.com)

So... one good feeling I get out of this is the proof that our brain is not racist!

~ Satish Chathanath Call : 9884011654 Mail : csadhy@yahoo.co.in