Learning From Top Management Gurus

Excellence in Business Leadership - Ken Blanchard - 1 of 6

2007-05-17T23:01:00.000+05:30

1. Ken Blanchard runs his own company called ‘The Ken Blanchard Companies’. He is the ‘Chief Spiritual Officer’ of his company since he believes that there always has to be a spiritual foundation for leadership.

2. His mission is to be a loving teacher of simple truths which awaken God in people.

3. Leadership is about unleashing in people the power for the greater good.

4. Ego is the biggest problem in business. The main motivator for the employee is the relationship between the employer and employee.

5. The jungle is territorial, vicious, and competitive. At best we can say that we are intelligent animals. But we are more than that . We can choose between the flesh and the spirit. Animals can’t do that.

6. The best companies are family owned, value - driven companies.

7. Effective leadership starts from the inside. We need to ask ourselves ‘Why am I a leader ?’ ‘Am I here to serve or be served ?’ What I will do is dependent on how I answer these questions.

8. Without people you are nothing.

9. If you are serving for your own benefit you will not be able to pull it off. People will see through the façade.

10. There is no difference between the Brain and the Computer. Both don’t know the difference between the truth and what you tell them. Because what you tell them becomes the truth.

11. You can never be better than what you tell yourself you are. One needs to tell oneself that one is fabulous and behave as if one is fabulous.

12. We need to celebrate in organizations. What do we focus on ? Catching people doing things wrong or catching people doing things right.

13. We could begin meetings with narrating all the good things which have happened between the last meeting and this one.

14. The 4 things to focus on for attaining ‘Excellence in Leadership’ are :

Set your sights on the right target and vision. Half of leadership is Vision.
Treat your customers right.
Treat your people right.
Build the right kind of leadership.

15. We need to have customers who are our ‘Raving fans’. The best advertising is to treat customers well. They become our advertisers.

Investment Strategies in Global Market - Jim Rogers - 4 of 4

2007-03-06T09:26:00.000+05:30

61. Chinese buy companies abroad and then shift the factories to China.

62. The situation in the Middle East is getting worse and therefore one is doubtful about Dubai.

63. Buy cheap where one sees a change coming.

64. Synthetics are made of crude oil. And synthetics are becoming expensive. People will start going back to natural fibres which is cotton. So cotton’s demand will increase but the supply will not be there. And therefore cotton will be a commodity to invest in.

65. In Russia there are 124 ethnic groups not wanting to be part of Russia. In China 94% of the population belongs to one ethnic group. China may have setbacks but not like Russia.

66. The World had opened up but it is now changing again. There is a closing off. U.S. told China not to buy a company. An Indian is told by France not to buy a company. Many want FDI. The Chinese welcome it. India has some of it. South America is also getting it. But now there’s a closing off.

67. Coffee is 75% below its all time high. A coffee tree takes 5 years to mature. Coffee is the business to be in.

68. Expert analysis has proven that one can make 300% more by investing in commodities themselves than in stocks ie. Companies dealing in commodities.

69. If infrastructure in terms of roads is going to be big in India then cement will be big in India. Lorry drivers driving across China average 70 km per hour. While lorry drivers driving from Mumbai to Kolkata average around 20 kms per hour.

70. South Korea is a protective economy. Since 1998 it is the best performing index in the world. It is getting too high. Need to be careful.

71. Uranium will be big since Nuclear Power Plants will start being developed.

72. Art as an asset class grows since as a country develops people of that country want to purchase art of that country.

73. Indian companies are protected and therefore have not developed competitiveness. In the world one will see Chinese and Japanese goods but rarely Indian goods.

Pls Note : Above mentioned suggestions are totally the views of the respective Guru / Author and it does not guarantee any success / failure. Please invest by thinking through all the options available in the market and the decision should be purely yours. The Guru / Author does not expect / want / require any share of your Success / Failure.

Investment Strategies in Global Market - Jim Rogers - 3 of 4

2007-02-24T11:02:00.000+05:30

41. All assets increase. Central banks become too loose with cash. Sometimes it is better to keep cash. Cash is one thing which nobody wants. It will appreciate.

42. The dollar is really going to go down. Jim’s 2 year old daughter does not have a dollar account. She has a Swiss account.

43. If an unforeseen event like bird flu takes place then everything will be affected. It can even throw the world into recession depending on the number of persons affected.

44. If there is peace between China and Taiwan then invest in Taiwan. Asian banks hold dollar reserves inspite of its decline. This is because of a bureaucratic mind. South Korea is changing. It is not supporting the dollar.

45. The U.S. government, nation, consumer is over-extended. The best engine of growth is savings and investment and not consumption. Consumption is not sound growth.

46. The U.S. will have a recession this year or next year. This will affect Asia but Asia is doing incredibly well. Asia would continue to grow but the effect of US recession will reduce the pace of growth.

47. In China and India if everyone has a scooter then there will be a demand for lead batteries. But no lead mine has been discovered. And nobody has discovered a substitute.

48. It is a lot easier to analyse and understand commodities than stocks because stocks have a lot of external influences which need to be looked at like the government’s policy and the central bank’s pronouncements etc.

49. If politicians mean what they say, India can have a bull run for the next 15 years.

50. Most mergers and acquisitions are not good except for Wall Street. As a share holder one needs to hold the shares for a short while till the shares appreciate because of the merger and then sell. Or if one is an investor get the cash and don’t invest in the surviving company.

51. When managements get exuberant then mergers take place. Avoid the need for diversification which could lead to buying companies in industries which the current management knows little about. Most mergers don’t work. There is a clash of cultures, managements and different styles.

52. One needs to get involved in companies with better margins. Another area to look at is capital expenditure, advertising and R&D. One needs to know the trend in the expenditures in these areas which gives one an idea whether the company is being stripped or dressed up or being invested in for growth. Most mergers don’t add value. Also when buying look at interim earnings and debt maturities.

53. Today in India only 2% of savings are going into the stock market, P/E is just 17. So Indians are still to invest and the P/E can still go higher. P/E of 6 is nearing the bottom while a P/E of 26 is nearing the top.

54. Tourism in India is going to be big. The Chinese have started to travel. UK and Europe are realizing this and promoting their countries to them. However, the Chinese will come a lot to India because it is nearer and cheaper and because of the growing friendship.

55. The other areas which will become big in India are infrastructure, education and women. Because of a shortage of women in Asia the status of women will change. They will become Ist class citizens. It will be exactly as was in Europe 1000 years ago.

56. Commodity exchanges merging because of volume is good for the investor. It makes things more efficient and gives the investor a place to buy and sell.

57. The most obvious fact which the world can see is why doesn’t Taiwan with its capital and expertise make peace with China with its cheap manpower and large market. Sometimes the most obvious from outside is difficult to see from within.

58. In China if you want to do anything you can pretty well do it. This is not so in many of the other Asian countries because they have closed to that extent. The currency of China (Rinminbi) will replace the dollar.

59. Today Russia has 15 countries which will break up further into 50 countries. There is outlaw capitalism which is being practiced there. The Mafia strips assets and there is hardly any investment. It will gradually disintegrate. The military is hardly in power. Chechniya is a small country with a population of just 1 mn. and the army cannot control it for the last 10/12 years. Even the army is joining the mafia and gradually this is what will lead to Russia’s demise.

60. There is no formula for portfolio investment. One needs to invest organically. If one sees an opportunity, invest. Otherwise just hold cash. One need not continuously be doing something.

Pls Note : Above mentioned suggestions are totally the views of the respective Guru / Author and it does not guarantee any success / failure. Please invest by thinking through all the options available in the market and the decision should be purely yours. The Guru / Author does not expect / want / require any share of your Success / Failure.

Investment Strategies in Global Market - Jim Rogers -2 of 4

2007-02-10T12:52:00.000+05:30

21. One needs to buy cheap when nobody is talking about it. One will be careful to buy shares just now in India since everybody is investing in shares.

22. Jim is now buying airline stocks and bonds. In the last 5 years airlines have lost money but are operating at full capacity. One is supposed to buy low. Hence the rationale for Jim investing in airline stocks.

23. When interest rates go high shares will get hurt. In the U.S. interest rates will go higher in the next year or two.

24. India needs to open up. It is the worst bureaucracy in the world besides Pakistan and Bangla Desh. India needs to open up its agriculture, stock market and make its currency totally convertible.

25. One needs to be cautious about the stock market when foreigners start coming in. That is the time to sell not buy. Chinese stock market was declining for many years but will now start looking up. Myanmar which has been isolated for 44 years will open up. East Timor, Angola, Ethopia, Tanzania will start doing well. Europe will have problems because of bad demographics.

26. Phelps Dodge owns the 2nd largest copper mine in the world. It will not open up a new mine. It will concentrate on its current mine. This is true of all mining companies. The ones who have made it to the top in these companies are the ones who were cautious. They did not do any exploration. Those who did got fired.

27. One needs to buy the Index Funds instead of investing in specific commodities/stocks directly. 80% of the time the index funds outperform the direct investment.

28. While investing in stocks the ratios relevant for analysis are P/E ratios, Dividend yields, Price to book value etc.

29. One needs to look at iron ore rather than steel. Jim is more optimistic on Paper than steel though he has not invested in either of them as he believes that there are better options in other commodities as mentioned earlier.

30. In the last 30 years lead has not been used in petrol and paint and yet it is doing well. The supply is going down even though there is no demand increase. One needs to look at demand and supply simultaneously.

31. Worldwide sugar is projected to at least double in the next 5 years. Cotton is 50% below its all time high. And yet there is not a single article in Fortune magazine on commodities.

32. In a bull market it is better to buy and hold. If one is a good trader then one can buy and sell and make a profit.

33. Crude oil is going up like a rocket. Be careful. But buy at $ 40.

34. One can say that inefficiencies in China are promoting demand. However as China becomes more efficient there will be an increase in demand and the commodities supply will not be there. So commodities will be the market to be in.

35. Brazil has started exporting ethanol. Cars will run on ethanol. Sugar is being converted to ethanol. There will be more demand and less supply of sugar.

36. Rarely in history stocks go up without setbacks or correction.

37. Stocks went down in Japan though Companies’ profits went up. The stocks were overpriced. The bad market phase in Japan ended in 2003.

38. Today 45% of Japan’s trade is with Asia and 20% with America. It was exactly the opposite 13 years back.

39. Japan’s capital flows into Asia will increase. In fact the capital flows within Asia will increase.

40. Even though real estate is a bubble in New York still there are areas like Idaho and Okhlahoma where real estate is not a bubble. If everybody is investing in New York then that is a sign that there is a bubble in the making.

Pls Note : Above mentioned suggestions are totally the views of the respective Guru / Author and it does not guarantee any success / failure. Please invest by thinking through all the options available in the market and the decision should be purely yours. The Guru / Author does not expect / want / require any share of your Success / Failure.

Investment Strategies in Global Market - Jim Rogers -1 of 4

2007-01-29T21:35:00.000+05:30

1. Just as U.K. was the strongest economy in the 19th century and the U.S. in the 20th century, China will be the strongest economy in the 21st century.

2. The Chinese are the ‘best capitalists’ in the world. They invest over 40% of their income. In contrast U.S. invests less than 2% of their income. In fact today there is negative savings in the U.S.

3. Even though China is a growing economy there will be setbacks.

4. Jim Rogers sees problems in real estate at the end of the year in China.

5. The biggest development possible is the interaction of China and India and their becoming friends. This will create Asia into a powerhouse.

6. Jim Rogers has a daughter, 2 years old, who has a nanny who teaches her the Chinese language. If one wants to succeed in the 21st century one will have to learn the Chinese language.

7. The U.S. dollar was the reserve currency for 60 years. Today the dollar is depreciating against other currencies. The U.S. economy is slowing down. It is the largest debtor nation in the world. The debt today stands at 8 trillion dollars. The increase in debt is taking place at the rate of 1 trillion dollars every 15 months.

8. In the 80s and 90s there was a great market for bonds. It peaked in 2003. Now it is in decline on account of a rising interest rates scenario. For the next 15 years bonds is not the place to be in. Stocks are extremely expensive in the West. In India too the valuations are a concern and the Sensex would also operate in a trading range.

9. Today one needs to be in the commodities market. That’s the place to be for the next 10-15years.

10. India is just developing. 25 years ago people didn’t understand what mutual funds were. Today everyone is buying stocks and mutual funds.

11. Worldwide there are over 70,000 mutual funds for shares whereas there are fewer than 10 for commodities.

12. Historical analysis has shown that there is an inverse relationship between stocks and commodities. When stocks do badly then commodities do well and vice versa.

13. The shortest bull run for commodities lasted for 15 years while the longest lasted for 23 years. The average bull phase would therefore be about 19years.

14. The whole analysis revolves around demand and supply. There has been no gigantic oil field discovered in the last 35years. The last lead mine was discovered around 25years ago. Current exporters like Malaysia and Indonesia and other exporting nations will soon start importing oil. Oil fields and mines will deplete. When the supply is affected and the demand in commodities will rise then this will lead to a bull phase in the commodities market. Those who have raw materials and other natural resources and can manage them well will own the future world.

15. The Saudi oil reserves were estimated in 1979 to be about 245 bn. barrels. From 1988 till today the Saudi government has consistently quoted the oil reserves figure at 260 bn. barrels. It’s always the same even though one knows that since 1979 63 bn. Barrels have been consumed per annum. Every oil producing country is experiencing depletion of oil reserves. So there’s something wrong in reporting the figure of 260 bn. barrels of reserves as constant.

16. As commodity prices go up, bonds become less attractive. It takes a long time to bring in the extra capacity for commodities. For instance it takes a long time to discover oil reserves or a lead mine. But once discovered then the capacity lasts for a long time.

17. In all major developed countries stocks are not doing well since 1999. Maybe there are extraordinary conditions in India but Jim Rogers will not purchase stocks in India. He is more bullish on commodities. He owns gold but he is more bullish on other commodities. For instance agricultural commodities like sugar which has tripled in the last 3 years but is still 80% less than its all time high. Jim is also bullish on coffee and cotton. The best opportunities are in agricultural products like wheat, maize, soya etc.

18. There is more money to be earned in commodities themselves rather than in commodity stocks ie. Companies involved in commodities. For instance natural gas has tripled in the last 3 years whereas Enron which was in natural gas went bankrupt.

19. There are no stable currencies today. The Canadian dollar is strong. Canada has had a balanced budget for the last 8 years and is rich in natural resources. Jim doesn’t expect the Euro to last beyond 15 years. The Singapore dollar is very reliable today. The Australian and New Zealand economies are natural resource based and are sound. Though it is difficult to believe but Jim feels that Brazil will do better than many countries in the future since it has large natural resources.

20. When dealing with a broker it is better to have segregated accounts. One is also less likely to lose in the commodity market because the commodity brokers have to put up the money the same day while the stock broker has 3 days.

Pls Note : Above mentioned suggestions are totally the views of the respective Guru / Author and it does not guarantee any success / failure. Please invest by thinking through all the options available in the market and the decision should be purely yours. The Guru / Author does not expect / want / require any share of your Success / Failure.

Leadership - Robin Sharma - 3 of 3

2007-01-16T15:43:00.000+05:30

49. Run towards what you are resisting and embrace change as growth.

50. We organize our lives around our fears. To avoid fears is to avoid growth.

51. What you run away from runs towards you. Fears you do not climb become walls around you.

52. We limit ourselves by our fears. On the other side of every fear - door is a precious gift. One’s highest potential. To be human is to have fears.

53. The top fears of people are :

Fear of failure.
Fear of success. This fear comes from our childhood. What would people think if we became too successful ? Fears are one’s shadows. Fears need to be brought from one’s sub-conscious to one’s consciousness.
Fear of rejection.
Most people do not feel good enough. Deep down they feel they are frauds. Most people who are arrogant are insecure. Truly humble people have worked through their insecurities.
Fear of not having enough. Happiness is an act of will. It comes from one’s inner life and not from the satisfaction of the senses. Happiness is an inside job.
Fear of loss. Of losing control. Of not being in control. Of being insignificant. Of not having made a difference. Of death.

54. Stay hungry. Nothing fails like success. You are most vulnerable when you are most successful. You fall in love with yourself. It’s easy to become complacent.

55. Culture shapes behaviour. Create a culture of leadership. Robin’s company has the following practise : Always respond with “It shall be done”.

56. The ways of building culture are :

Culture is built like conversation. Talk about culture all the time. Need to have conversations about it. What do we stand for - our values etc. More people will gradually understand and buy into it.
You get what you celebrate. If someone is entrepreneurial and gets rewarded and becomes a hero then everyone knows what behaviour is expected. Leadership is what you do in the dark. An airhostess was asked by a customer in flight to get some iced tea. There was no iced tea on board the aircraft. But the airhostess calmly said that she would get a teabag and melt some ice cubes and get a slice of lime and prepare iced tea in a few minutes. The boss of the airline who was on the aircraft saw this interaction. The airhostess did not know the boss. Nor did she know he had seen her do this. At the next opportunity of a meeting, the boss narrated the incident and rewarded her. She became known as the ‘iced tea woman’. Behaviour rewarded is behaviour repeated.
Rituals also help in creating a culture. Systems and processes which are religiously followed. Like the meeting every morning for 15 minutes where people talk about the values of the organization and reflect on them.
Build culture through Training and Development. Usually companies cut the training budget when they are not doing well. The signal being given is that we are not interested in you growing. The best companies inculcate values through training.

57. Always go the extra mile. They have a ‘shall be done’ attitude. They do the same things but expect different results.

58. The world class audit. This is an audit which one conducts on one’s own life. It envisages 7 forms of success which are essential for any person viz. I-Inner Life, H-Health, F-Family, C-Career, E-Economical, C-Community, A-Adventure, I-Impact. When conducting the audit on oneself one needs to do the following : Assess one’s current status on each of these areas/parameters on a scale of 0-10. Then state the reason why you have given yourself this score for each of the areas/parameters. To increase your score in each of the areas/parameters you will now state 3 action steps for each area/parameter which you will practise over the next 90 days. For instance where Inner Life is concerned an action step could be “Meditate every morning for 20 minutes for 5 days in a week”. Things that can’t be measured cannot be improved.

59. Most people spend so much time planning for their summer holiday but hardly any time planning their lives. Each day is a platform for choices to be made. One needs to be focused on one’s priorities. A person who chases 2 rabbits catches none.

60. Make the time to think. Leaders are more thoughtful and reflective.

61. You become what you talk about. When you verbalize your thoughts and feelings and concerns it brings about clarity.

62. Some action step suggestions for each of the 7 life areas could be the following :

Inner Life - Meditation, Silence, Reading great authors. Reading great authors is like having conversations with extraordinary minds. They pull you into considering new possibilities.
Health - Exercise, Diet, Massage.
Family – Have a meal together, Become developers of one’s children, Show them what is the best in Art, Philosophy, etc.
Career – Set standards which are world class, plan one’s day in the morning for 15 minutes. Things that get scheduled get done. Get a mentor.
Economic – Get a Financial Plan done. Work with a financial Advisor.
Community – Build a support group. Build a system to help advance one’s life.
Adventure – Every 7 days inject one new fun thing to do.
Impact - Being kind to a stranger every week.

63. Tactics to show leadership.

Set a personal philosophy and precise goals. What do you want your life to stand for ? Nobody wants to experience the feeling that one has got to the end of one’s life and feels that one has betrayed oneself. We are continuously experiencing an Integrity gap. The Integrity gap refers to the following principle : The greater the gap between who you truly are inside and how you present yourself to the world, the less fulfillment you will experience. Life wants you to win. Therefore one needs to work towards congruence. Leadership is based on the laws of life. We experience pain when we are not in alignment with the laws of life. For instance ‘the hand that gives is the hand that gathers’ is a law of life. If one doesn’t follow the laws of life then one will not be able to experience sustained happiness. If one doesn’t like oneself what is the use of the Ferrari one possesses. What does one want said about oneself after one dies ?
Do the difficult, first thing in the morning. Build self-discipline and self-control. Robin Sharma gets up at 4am every morning. Do what you don’t like doing. Finish what you started.
Continuously improve at least 1 % each day.
Make time to think. Make time to get lost. Robin Sharma gets his best ideas when skiing. Ideas are ingredients of success.
Build human connections. Business is about people and relationships. A Corporation is just a stamp on some legal document but its value lies in its people. They are the intellectual capital of the Corporation We need to grow their abilities.
The formula for excellent relationships is “Real Apples Need Excellent Fertilizer”. The ‘R’ stands for Relationships. Relationships are most important. Business is about human beings. Everybody is good. A child has an uncanny way of getting into a person and connecting. Why do we treat animals better than human beings ? Dogs give unconditional love. Dogs see the best in you. Dogs are patient with you. Everyone wants to feel special. The ‘A’ stands for being Authentic. The importance of being human and removing the mask. When you are vulnerable people fall in love with you. The ‘N’ stands for Nice. Become the kindest person you know. Being kind is not a weakness. It’s the greatest strength. It gives rise to the Echo Effect. Whatever you give to the world comes back to you. Anyone can go to work and pretend that one is strong. It is difficult to be humble. Model the behaviour you want to see in others. Put people first. The ‘E’ stands for being Ethical. Manage your brand. Lead by example. Nothing more important than one’s good name. The ‘F’ stands for Fun. Laughter elevates energy and is contagious. It increases the passion in one’s work because work becomes fun. It helps to build a healthy work culture and helps in collaboration. Relationships are most important. We need to align the audio with the video.
The main regrets which people have at the end of their lives are :
- They have not done enough of reflection.
- They have not taken enough risks.
- The deeds they didn’t do and the love they didn’t give.
Questions unlock the unknowing. How old would you be if you knew how old you are ? Select a partner and sitting in front of your partner seeing eye-to-eye keep on asking the following question viz. What do you need to improve in your life? Answers have to be given in one – liners viz. I need to improve……The question keeps on being asked and the answers keep on being given without any repetition of answers. This exercise can be done as long as one wants. When one finds it difficult to find an answer then that is possibly a hint that a precious gift is lying behind the door. One needs to push ahead. After one has finished then the process is reversed viz. your partner asks the question and you answer. The other question which one may attempt in a similar manner is : ‘What do you want to hear said about you at your funeral?’
Best practices for personal leadership :
# Be devoted to continuous learning. Have to continuously work on one’s insecurities and fears. If I try I might, if I don’t then I won’t. Don’t know which book will influence you. Use one’s commute time to read. Let one’s car become a college on wheels. What you surround yourself with is what you will become.
# Get up early and have a Holy Hour. The initial effort to leave the old thoughts and habits is hard because of gravity. If one is trying something new then one needs to stay with it for at least 30 days continuously. We all have the ability to adapt. We also need to take 60 minutes for ourselves. During this time we could think, do the treadmill etc. Through this we get a psychological start over everybody else. Most people do not get up early. The way we go through the Holy Hour will infuse our entire day.
# Leaders do what’s right not what’s easy. ‘If everybody was satisfied with themselves there would be no heroes.’ Mark Twain.
# Make your health your number 1 priority. You don’t want to be the richest person in the graveyard. Health is taken for granted till you lose it. Very few express gratitude for one’s health. Those who do not make time for exercise will make time for illness.
# Balance work with one’s family. If one’s family life is strong then one is more successful at work. One needs to work on one’s family while one is growing in one’s career. What’s the point of being on top of the mountain but alone in a graveyard ?
# Leave your leadership footprint. Nurture your legacy daily. Find a cause greater than you. When you were born people were happy. When you die you will be happy while people are sad. Most of us struggle for legitimacy. For looking good. This needs to shift to wanting to leave a legacy. We should not reach the end of our lives knowing in our hearts what we could have been but never were.

Leadership - Robin Sharma - 2 of 3

2007-01-09T09:18:00.000+05:30

21. The tragedy of life is not death but what we let die inside of us while we live - Norman Cousins.

22. Adults are children in grown up bodies. Leaders need to learn from little children. Children are passionate. If leaders are passionate then this feeling cascades through the entire organization. Children are fearless. The limits which leaders put on themselves are not the limits of the world. Children are curious. Children ask. Leaders must realize that success is a numbers game. One needs to continuously ‘ask’. “SW x 3” means “Some will, Some won’t, So What”. One needs to fail one’s way to success. The only real failure is the failure to try. And if one thinks about it there is no ‘trying’. Either one does it or does not do it.

23. Failure is the price of ambition. Through failure one gets to greatness. Most great businesses have failed more than the average ones. Failure is the highway to success.

24. If you are not failing at least once a week then possibly you are not reaching higher.

25. There are other things which leaders can learn from children. Children are open. They can connect. They find it easy to create relationships.

26. How do you self-remember ? All of us were children. We need to capture the qualities of the child we once were. What would the child you once were think of the adult you’ve become?

27. No matter how long you live it won’t be for very long.

28. Leadership is not a popularity game. It’s not about doing what’s easy. It’s about doing what’s right. We are too bothered about being judged. Or about what people are thinking. We are too afraid of conflicts.

29. Everyone is a leader. Everyone can show leadership behaviour and thinking no matter what one is doing in the organization. Even if one has a world-class strategy one needs people to implement it. Leadership is all about creating a culture of leadership.

30. Do good by your people and they will do good by your customers.

31. Business is relationships.

32. Show personal leadership. Organizational leadership needs personal leadership. Before one attempts to make others feel good one must feel good oneself. One needs to work on one’s insecurities.

33. Leadership is about success and significance. Leadership is about big ideas. Taking social responsibility. About leaving a legacy. About doing good by your people.

34. One needs to not only do one’s part but also make a difference. It’s about absolute, personal responsibility. Every time one blames one’s boss one is giving up one’s power.

35. Language shapes meaning. One can tell whether an organization’s culture is a victim culture or a leadership culture by examining the language used.

36. Problems reveal genius. They offer opportunities to evolve. Only those who are dead have no problems. Don’t play victim.

37. Practise small daily acts of greatness. Everyone wants to feel great and appreciated. Listen with empathy.

38. Leadership is flawless execution around the fundamentals. Leaders are consistent.

39. There are 4 reasons why people don’t change :

They are afraid of failing.
They experience fears. Fear of being laughed at, fear of losing etc.
They do not have faith. Don’t believe it will work. People who are cynical are those who have been hurt. They don’t want to get up.
They don’t think it is fun.

40. Transformation happens one step at a time. The 1% wins. The Power of a Start.

41. The Law of Diminishing Intent states that the more time elapses between commitment and action the less becomes the probability of doing something. Leaders act.

42. One needs to do something to move it forward today. Only 1%. One little change leads to a chain reaction. The Power of a Start.

43. The first step in Transformation is Awareness. Better awareness leads to better choices and better choices leads to better results.

44. Price of discipline is always less than the pain of regret.

45. The swan effect is when we see and admire the swans beautifully moving in the water. So smooth and graceful. What we do not see is their effort of paddling under the water.

46. What difference did you make ?

47. A mistake is a mistake only if it is made twice. One is expected to make mistakes as part of one’s learning. But one must learn from one’s mistakes. If one does not learn from one’s mistakes the first time then it really is a mistake if committed the second time around.

48. Leadership is about awareness.

Leadership - Robin Sharma - 1 of 3

2007-01-03T20:46:00.000+05:30

1. Most people come to the end of their lives regretting that only a small part of their lives have really been lived with their full potential.

2. The real meaning of ‘Guru’ is ‘Dispeller of Darkness’.

3. Every dream starts small. Wal-Mart the largest company in the world started with just one store. Fedex carried just 15 packages on its very first day of business. Today it carries 1.1 million packages per day.

4. One needs to take one day at a time. Individuals become extraordinary by taking one day at a time.

5. ‘The Monk who sold his Ferrari’ was self-published. Robin’s father and Robin sold copies out of the back of their car. For Robin’s first seminar only 23 people turned up of which most were family members.

6. Leaders need to be philosophical. They need to take time to think and reflect.

7. Pain has been the greatest teacher.

8. Fears are life’s way to help you grow. If you are a human being you must have fears. Need to run towards things that continuously frighten you.

9. Whenever one attends a seminar take copious notes. Through this more parts of the brain get used, retention increases and one becomes an active learner. Beethoven used to say that by writing down everything, he didn’t feel the need to read it again.

10. At seminars one needs to show up 1000%. The Echo Effect - Life returns what you give to it.

11. The competitive advantage of an organization should be an ability to grow leaders faster than competition.

12. In a leadership culture people behave like leaders. People take responsibility for results. Everybody shows leadership behaviour but knows his/her role in the organization. Everyone feels empowered.

13. One could look at each department as a small business within the organization. For instance the man in the Mail Room can consider himself the chief of the Mail room business where every other department and employee in the company invests and therefore the Mail room becomes accountable for delivering results to the whole organisation.

14. Most people need to feel appreciated. They need to feel great. They need to buy-in to the leader’s dream. They need to see how they can contribute to it.

15. People need to be themselves at work. They need to celebrate. They need to be proud of what they are doing. They need to have fun. Only when work becomes fun can an organization become a great place to work in and people will start giving off their best.

16. The whole of life will be defined by the small contributions one makes.

17. The choices one makes today will determine one’s tomorrows.

18. Your days are your life in miniature.

19. A lady who used to earn her living through washing clothes used to collect the coins she earned and deposit some of them in the nearby bank on a regular basis. These would be her small contributions. Nearing the end of her life the bank informed her that she had nearly a quarter of a million dollars. And wanted to know what she intended to do with the money. Besides wanting to give money to her family, she decided to set up a scholarship for ‘poor children who can still dream’. One needs to dream. She dreamt of seeing the first child who had used that scholarship pass out before she died. Her dream was fulfilled. She died at the age of 90 years.

20. Leadership is inspirational. No matter what your role is, one can make an impact and achieve something of significance.

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31. Women give more. Men want to get more.

32. Women want flowers to be purchased by men. And they should be cut- flowers. So that the flowers die and therefore the men have to go out and purchase them again and again. They do not want the romance to go out of the relationship. Men on the other hand feel that if they have done it once there is no necessity to do it again and again. But women want things and messages to be repeated again and again.

33. Women sometimes give hints viz. On Sunday they will mention that they are getting their hair cut on Thursday. This is to be taken as a warning signal. The hair cut must be noticed. If a woman has to ask how she looks after she has had a hair cut then there is no value placed on the man’s comment. It has to be noticed without being asked. Women put in much more effort in looking good. Men put in more effort in their work.

34. Man wants to be appreciated. Woman wants to be listened to and noticed. Men stress more on what they do while women stress more on their being.

35. Men think that by being flexible they are Mr. Agreeable and that is appreciated by women. Really speaking women want men to take charge and suggest something which they agree on. Mr. Agreeable is boring. The ideal metaphor is to have a man with a plan and a woman with a smile.

36. Sometimes the woman feels that she does everything according to what the man wants. At this point it is necessary for the woman to say “I’ll do it this time your way but next time we’ll do what I want.”

37. Women are always keeping score in a relationship viz. When a woman does anything for a man she always gives herself a point. Men keep score in business. Men need to keep score in a relationship too. They need to do something for the woman so that they too score points from the woman’s point of view.

38. At work the man’s perspective is not to unnecessarily interfere. A man feels that if he doesn’t ask then he is giving total freedom to the woman. But a woman who is a subordinate wants to be asked about her work because silence is taken to mean ‘non-involvement’.

39. Women like the small stuff. Chit-Chat. Occasionally ask some personal questions. The magic words are ‘What else?’

40. To free a man a woman needs to say ‘You don’t need to say or do anything and you don’t need to feel bad.’

41. Listening creates healing.

42 Women by nature give. But when they find that they are not getting anything in return they need to give to themselves. Men have no problem in giving to themselves. Men don’t give enough to others.

43. Men prefer women managers while they learn the job. After learning the job they prefer a male manager.

44. Men sprint faster. Women win the long distance.

45. In men testosterone lowers stress. In women oxytocin lowers stress. Affection, considerateness, being noticed is what produces the oxytocin in women. Therefore men need to learn new skills to produce oxytocin in women. Foreplay is more important for a woman than a man. A woman needs 20-30 minutes of stimulation. A man needs just 2-3 minutes.

46. Women want sensitive men but the danger is that if men become too sensitive then women don’t like it. They want men to be considerate but not to be too sensitive just like them.

47. Don’t try to fix or change your partner.

48. When husband and wife are business partners then there needs to be clear rules. There needs to be a clear demarcated time when no business is talked about.

49. Duty is important but being authentic is more important.

50. Women can be compared metaphorically to the moon. When the moon is full, women crave for sex. When it is half-full, a woman can have it not have it, it does not matter, and when it is a new moon she couldn’t care less.

51. There are different types of sex viz. Healthy, home cooked sex, Ferrari, junk food sex, and Gourmet sex. Once a month one could have Gourmet sex which means bringing in the romance by going out for a dinner and coming home to an atmosphere which slowly climaxes. Whenever he wants sex, and it is a quickie then give it to him. Provided on other occasions there is good, regular homemade sex. In order to arrive at a meaningful understanding one could have 3 candles signifying the 3 types of sex. Either partner finds it very difficult to know the real mood of the other. Depending on which candle is lit and by whom one can behave accordingly. The candle becomes the sign of the mood.

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16. Men are efficiency oriented. Must do it the easiest and fastest way. Women on the other hand feel that taking the shortest path between 2 points is boring. Women like variation. This is especially true in the bedroom. Men go by the same formula every time while women want variation. Men like uniforms and the same uniform. Men look good in a tuxedo or a suit and that’s it. Every time the same tuxedo or suit. Women like to change their dress; sometimes thrice or even more times in a day.

17. When John’s book ‘Men are from Mars, Women from Venus’ was on the bestseller list for 6 years in a row, John realized how narrowly focused in life he had become. He only gloated about his book being no. 1 on the bestseller list. John was missing the little things of life where his wife and children were concerned. Women are able to see the little things in life and be happy.

18. The more narrow the focus of a man the more stressed he is bound to get. He can’t notice anything else other than what he is focusing on at that moment. Women deal with lots of problems at the same time and the way they cope is to talk about them.

19. Men use their brain sequentially viz. one part at a time. Where women are concerned it is usually the whole brain at once.

20. Women lower stress through talking and sharing. The collectiveness and togetherness which they share is part of their feminity. Men lower their stress by being alone. Women’s attitude is that if we can’t do anything about it then let’s talk about it and suffer together. Men’s focus is on solving the problem. And if they can’t solve the problem then they make the problem disappear by forgetting about it.

21. Men always want to be right.

22. Women, unknowingly sabotage their success. They put themselves down because they want support. Women bond by putting themselves down. For example if one is late for a particular function in the office, the woman will say what an imbecile she is by not catching the right train or missing the connection because of some stupid mistake she made and so on. And other women who are also late will do the same.

23. Or if a woman is having a problem with the computer, she will call the so called expert from the computer department and tell him that she doesn’t know anything about computers and that she is very happy that he has come to her rescue and thereby push the guy way up there. But when he suggests a solution which she tends to disagree with, she doesn’t know how to tell him because if she does it, it makes him come crashing down and he reacts by saying that she has wasted his time. In this case one needs to resort to face saving devices like ‘whatever you have suggested will I am sure help me to figure it out (even if you see no utility in the suggestion).

24. As women more and more enter into the workplace their need to being listened to and understood is not being met. The workplace is efficiency oriented. They are becoming more and more isolated. They have to raise their children alone. Unseen and unheard. And this is causing them to go more and more into depression. The man focusses on work no matter what the problems are that are being experienced at home.

25. Man is efficiency oriented. He needs to feel needed. He needs problems to be solved. If there are no job opportunities or there is no effort called for to do something then the man feels depressed.

26. When women feel nurtured they feel happy. They are happy with the small things of life. Man likes to measure himself against the goal he has set for himself. Men behave like squirrels. They focus on one thing, dash towards it and once they reach there then they turn their focus on another thing and make a dash there and so on and so forth.

27. Men see the news on TV especially after coming home, because the problems they hear about and see make their problems seem that much smaller.

28. John’s soul sings when he teaches. Need to find one’s path and go along it. The fact that one feels fear is because it is one’s path. If it was not one’s path then one would not be so worried about whether one made an impact or not.

29. The truth is I deserve to be the way I am. I need not be bothered to be perfect in order to be loved. Once one lives in an atmosphere of perfect trust the more authentic one becomes, and the more authentic one becomes the more irresistible one becomes. The closer we are to who we truly are the more people will love us. There will always be people who do not love us.

30. Forgiveness is the key. If someone hurts then one needn’t hurt back. As Gandhi said, An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.

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Dr. Gray mentioned as a preamble to his talk that when his book ‘Men are from Mars, Women from Venus’ had come out he was questioned whether one can make generalizations in terms of the behaviour of men and women. The only response he gave was whether they resonated with what was written in the book and 100% of the time they replied ‘Yes’.

1. The differences between Men and Women are universal. Women all over the world complain that “He doesn’t understand”. “He doesn’t listen”. “Only time he touches me is when he wants sex”. And men all over the world complain that “She doesn’t want to have enough of sex.” (Unless the woman is around 37 years. At this magical age women want more of sex than ever before.)

2. Women like affection from men much more than sex. They want to be hugged. John learnt to hug his wife.

3. Men like to be logical. Women like to share and talk even if there is no point in their sharing and talking. Men need to have an objective. They need to see the point in doing something. They can’t share for the sake of sharing.

4. Men tend to do one thing at a time. Women do many things at a time. Men have a tunnel vision. 95% of their attention is focused on just one thing and 5% on checking of the environment. Women are just the opposite. They are continuously taking in everything that there is in the environment whether it is useful or not.

5. John narrated the incident of his wife asking him to get some milk while coming home from work. He forgets. She considerately puts it down to his thinking of work. She asks him again. Again he forgets. She takes it personally. It’s not that the milk was forgotten but that she was forgotten. Women behave in this manner.

6. Men have their own caves on which the sign states “Please do not disturb.” Men like to retreat into their own world where they feel they are in control. Women also have caves but the sign on their caves is “I need to talk”. When a man asks a woman what’s wrong and she says “Nothing” it really means “Nothing, unless you care to listen and give me an opportunity to talk.”

7. 90% of women go into therapy because they want to be listened to. They want to be asked questions. They want to feel special. Men hate to be questioned. If men want to talk they’ll talk. If they don’t want to talk they won’t. When a man is locked in his cave, the woman thinks that something is wrong with him and goes in and asks questions. This is a wrong move for the woman to make. Men hate to be interrogated.

8. When a woman touches a man she may want to be cuddled. But for a man anywhere he is touched leads to Rome and he thinks therefore that it has to lead to sex.

9. Men want to forget the problems of the day. Women want to remember. A man will say “Forget it, it’s no big deal.” For a woman she will not rest till the problem is talked about. Her response to the man, who wants to just forget about it and not make a big deal out of it, will be “How can you be so insensitive.”

10. Men should never tell a woman how she should feel. In fact if she is unhappy, the man needs to be unhappy with her for a while instead of offering advice.

11. If the man is at a loss for saying anything when the woman is feeling bad then instead of offering advice he could build her up a bit by saying “I know how much you work during the day to make the kids and myself feel happy. It must be very exhausting.” Her unconscious response would be “He understands.” The woman craves for understanding.

12. Women make noises to get attention. Men make noises to signal “Please leave me alone.”

13. To cope with stress, sometimes, women while speaking tend to speak in long sentences and then pause. Men think that the pause is a signal for saying something. Wrong. For the woman the pause is just a semi-colon. Men need to restrain themselves in giving advice.

14. When a woman is upset and a man tries to give a solution 99% of the time her response will be “Yes….but”. When she is relaxed then give the solution. After she has been given the opportunity to talk about it.

15. If a man tries to walk in a woman’s shoes, she will be more willing to understand his point of view. Men tend to expect women to agree with their point of view because they feel it is obviously the best point of view.

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42. After studying the competition decide on the position opposite and own the word. For instance most fitness clubs are for men and women. ‘Curves’ is a fitness club only for ‘Women’. Marlboro threw out the cowgirls and began to own cowboys. Competition for United Jersey bank is Chase and Citi. The impression is that big banks are slow. So United Jersey bank became the fast bank.

43. The American Cancer Association advertises the 7 danger signals of cancer. Nobody remembers one. ‘3 signs of heart attack’, ‘5 rules for a healthier heart’. Too much information. Basically the heart is a pump. It is the same size no matter what the size of the person. So if a person starts bloating the pump starts struggling. So focus only on obesity. The 3 biggest sports in America are breakfast, lunch and dinner.

44. Leaders own the category. One thinks of the leader. One may not buy it. Where consultants are concerned, Drucker owned ‘Management’, Porter owned ‘Strategy’, Tom Peters ‘Excellence’, Michael Hammer ‘Reengineering’. Movie stars too own a word. John Wayne became a Man’s man, Marilyn Monroe, the sexy woman, Julia Roberts, the pretty woman, Arnold Schwarzenegger the ‘Terminator’.

45. If you can own one attribute in the mind, the prospect will give you many others.

46. Guatemala in Central America does not own a word in people’s minds and therefore even though it has the capacity of being a world-class tourist destination it is not. The Mayan ruins of Guatemala are one of the richest archaeological sites in the world. And just as the Taj Mahal is associated with India and the Great Wall with China, there is no such association of the Mayan ruins with Guatemala. Tourism is just 1% of GDP. In order to get that association one can think of changing Guatemala to Guatemaya. India is famous for its ‘intellectual capital’ – its Phds and engineers and so on - and yet one does not project it that way.

47. Law of the negative. See if one can turn it into a positive. Volvo turned ugliness into reliability.

48. Law of focus. Every company needs to resist the temptation to keep adding products and services. As categories grow and opportunities appear as forks on the pathway, the tendency is to take both forks. In the airline industry the two forks could be illustrated as Passengers or cargo, business or tourist, domestic or international, high or low prices, full service or no frills, first class or coach and so on. Southwest however took only one fork. Business destinations only. Coach class service only. Domestic only, no international flights. Only one type of aircraft in comparison to delta which as 8 different types of aircraft. The result is that Southwest Airlines over the last 10 years has earned a revenue of $44 bn. And a net profit margin of 8 percent. While the 5 largest airlines in the US have together earned $657 bn. And a net income loss of $ 646.

49. Law of Borders. No borders for a brand. The future belongs to brands. Anywhere in the world the bar contains the same brands. But the global brand needs to come from somewhere. Coca Cola is from America. Lexus is from Japan even though it is made in America. The brand needs to be consistent with the country of origin. Italy with fashion, Switzerland with watches, India with intellectual capital. If one is strong in one country then one can move the strength to another country. Siemens the no.1 brand in Europe now no.1 in USA. A global brand has to be acceptable worldwide.

50. Law of consistency. Success is measured over a period of time. In a constantly changing world we don’t.

51. Law of singularity. A car that’s safe. An expensive watch.

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34. Given that all cameras are going digital and PCs are turning digital, if one looks at Kodak and Kodak is associated with film, in order to save the company one could evaluate keeping Kodak as a film brand and launch a second brand for the digital market. To save the brand one could look at moving the brand name to the digital market. From a marketing perspective it means moving the name from one point in the brain to another which is very difficult. Kodak is associated with film and not the digital market even though it invented digital cameras. Kodak entered the digital market with the brand name Kodak and lost its leadership. One can claim the caterpillar to be a flying caterpillar but actually they are 2 separate entities. Barnes & Noble is the largest bookstore in America. B&N tried to move the name on to the Internet and failed. Amazon a new company succeeded.

35. Brands are built in a blaze of publicity or PR. Botox was built totally on PR over a period of 9 years. It launched its first ad campaign 9 years after its launch. Viagra was built on PR which was followed by an ad plan. PR gets the idea into the mind. It is the nail. Advertising entrenches the idea in the mind. It is like a hammer. Volkswagen was launched in 1950. It was PR that built up the brand. It was only in 1960 that the ad campaign was launched. The ad campaign helped it to reach the 500 mn. unit sale figure. Harry Potter was built by PR. Cheesecake factory is a restaurant which is the no. 1 restaurant chain in America. It never advertised in 28 years.

36. If one wants to make one’s company famous then one can make one’s CEO famous. Jeff Bezos, Steve Ballmer, Michael Dell, Herb Kellegher, Linus Torvalds. Trump is the King of PR.

37. Advertising has little credibility in the mind. What you say about yourself has little credibility. The percentage who think advertising is honest is going down. PR has credibility in the context of ‘Third Party Effect’. Oprah Winfrey picked 48 books. Each one of them made it to the NYT list. There is a book titled ‘East of Eden’ - John Steinbeck. It had sold 50,000 books but then Oprah winfrey picked it and its sales touched 1 mn. copies. What we need is PR oriented advertising. PR establishes credibility of the brand. Advertising reaffirms the brand’s credibility. Advertising Agencies focus on creativity. This is wrong. You can’t have advertising trying to make advertising famous. What advertising industry believes in is PR not advertising. They seem to be interested only in awards.

38. Advertising can be effective if message is right. Find out what’s in the mind and reinforce the idea in the mind. Any advertising that touches an idea or concept that is already embedded in the prospect’s mind is the right message. Especially if that idea or concept contains a motivating reason to buy the brand.

39. Advertising is like a good joke. The best jokes don’t communicate, they just take advantage of what’s already in the mind.

40. Law of Advertising. It maintains your brand. Many established brands don’t spend enough on advertising. Can’t rely on PR forever. The belief can’t be that once a brand is established then its market share is mine forever. So let’s spend our ad dollars on line extensions, new flavours, new market segments. Nothing decays as surely as a brand unsupported by advertising.

41. Law of the Word. Volvo looks at ‘safety’. It invests in ‘safety’. But then it lost its focus and came out with a convertible. Its sales dipped. Owning a word leads to profits. Brands are built in the mind. To find that word and own it one has to sacrifice and give up the rest of the market and focus. Nokia gave up the rest and focused on the cellphone. Movado is a museum watch. Zippo is a wind-proof lighter. Among B-Schools, Northwestern is known for Marketing, Chicago for Quantitative Analysis, Harvard for Management.

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16. Today all the hype is about convergence. Nicholas Negroponte predicted convergence. The Wall Street Journal on July 14, 1993 carried the following report : “Shock is a common feeling these days among leaders of five of the world’s biggest industries : computing, communications, consumer electronics, entertainment and publishing. Under a common technological lash – the increasing ability to cheaply convey huge chunks of video, sound, graphics and text in digital form – they are transforming and converging.”

17. Companies never give up. The first interactive TV was launched in 1977. It failed to take off. The first Web TV was launched in 1997. It didn’t take off. Microsoft is now working on a Media center TV. Every time a new technology arrives the shout for convergence goes up.

18. Apple iPod sold 14 mn pcs. And with all the hype around smart phones which are equipped with 3-G networks and have a game player and a TV and a credit card and so on have not been such a hit. ‘Trea’ the brand of such a convergence device has sold just 602,000 pcs.

19. The average life of a cell phone is 18 months. Will one sell off a smart phone so soon ? In a scenario of divergence there will be people who will opt to pay $5000 for a smart phone inasmuch as there will be people who will want a simple cell phone .

20. TVs are getting bigger and PCs are getting smaller and heavier. But everybody is running around trying to combine things. McDonald’s has gone to the extent of opening a hamburgher hotel. As if people who stay in a hotel are interested only in eating hamburghers.

21. Convergence was invented by the Swiss army knife. Convergence can work where convenience is an issue. For instance having a convenience store next to a gas station. It will not take over the grocery market but satisfies the convenience value.

22. George Santayana stated that ‘those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’ Sears Roebuck had a catalogue which had convergence products listed in it and they did not take off. One of them was a Food processor and Pleasure vibrator. In sports they have tried to have the same stadium work as a Football stadium and a Baseball stadium. It is good at neither. Single sports stadiums have prospered.

23. Bad ideas never die. Combination of an airplane and a car. Or a combination of a boat and an automobile. The resultant amphicar drives like a boat and floats like a car. It does neither well. A flying car is too light for the road and too heavy for the sky. There are a variety of cats and dogs but no ‘catdog’.

24. Law of Expansion. If a brand name is put on everything it weakens the brand name. Chevrolet is a large, small, cheap, expensive, car or truck. It is everything and yet nothing. Volkswagen, after tasting success through its Beetle, expanded to think big, think fast, think smart and think ahead and came out with different types of cars. It failed. Mercedes moved down the market. And expanded into bringing out a cheaper version, a sports car, mini van, mini truck, mountain bike, and a baby Benz. Initially it sold well but in the long run it has destroyed the brand.

25. Saturn was the only brand with one model, one price. It was very successful. In ’94 it was the no.1 car in terms of vehicles sold per dealer. Then it decided to expand and go upscale. In 2004 it was in 12th position in terms of number of vehicles sold per dealer. One doesn’t buy the same brand of car. When one is young and single then one buys a Saturn. When one gets promoted possibly a BMW. After marriage buy a Volvo and when one gets divorced a Ferrari. One moves according to the ladder of life.

26. Law of Contraction. When a brand focuses it succeeds. Howard Schultz’s Starbucks sells only coffee. Willie’s coffee shop sold everything. Starbucks has succeeded while nobody hears of Willie’s. Narrow the focus. Subway sells only one type of sandwich viz. the submarine sandwich. The conventional way of growing a store is to sell as many things as possible. But Toy r Us sells only toys and is hugely successful. With a few kilowatts of power but converted into a laser beam through narrow focusing can achieve immense power. Rolex means an expensive watch. Zara means just-in-time fashion.

27. The secret of success is if you want to be rich, you have to do what rich people did before they became rich. If you want to have a successful company, you have to do what successful company leaders did before they became successful. Don’t look at them now when they have become successful and do what they are doing now. Do what they did before becoming successful. Emery freight was into everything. Fred Smith narrowed the focus - small packages overnight. The fastest growing city in U.S.A with only one industry is Las Vegas.

28. Law of Opposites. Need to be the opposite of what got in the mind first. Instead of trying do what the leader does and do it better try to do it differently. Red Bull was the first energy drink. Everybody copied Red Bull. There were 37 different brands of energy drinks – all in 8.30 oz. cans. ‘Monster’ came in and launched a 16 oz. can. Today Monster is the no. 2 brand. It took an opposite position to Red Bull. The largest selling pickle is Vlasic. It is sold from shelves. ‘Claussen’ came in and occupied the position of being the ‘crisp’ pickle. And was sold from the refrigerated section of the Mall. Being sold from this section automatically got associated with ‘crispness’. The opposite position. Similarly candy bars are associated with being for kids. ‘Snickers’ is the first candy bar for adults. The leading operating system is Microsoft but it is proprietary. Linux took the opposite position of being a free operating system. Coca Cola was established in 1886. It was associated with the old generation. Pepsi came in and got itself associated with the ‘New Generation’.

29. Along the same lines Listerine was the leading Mouthwash but it was bad tasting. Many other brands were launched which were also ‘bad tasting’. ‘Scalp’ was a brand which took the opposite position of being ‘good tasting’. Wal Mart is cheap. But Target is ‘cheap chic’. New York is the largest city and is on the East Coast. Los Angeles is the 2nd largest and is on the West Coast. Malboro is the no.1 brand. It is Western and Macho. The no.2 brand is ‘Newport’ which is Eastern and Menthol. Hertz is the no.1 car rental for businessmen. So they have their outlets located outside the airport. ‘Enterprise’ took the opposite position of having outlets in the suburbs and serving the common man. Barbie dolls are good looking while Bratz dolls are ugly.

30. Law of the mushy middle. Nature favours the extremes. The perception is that the sweet spot lies in the middle of the market. The reality is that the center is the wrong place to be in. In the airlines industry the extremely expensive airlines are doing well. At the bottom end with absolutely no frills, airlines are doing well. But ‘Delta’ and ‘American Airlines’ in the middle are doing badly. As the market diverges the extremes do well. Wal Mart is cheap, Target is cheap chic. Both are doing well. But K Mart which tried to occupy the middle position failed. Every category diverges to create opportunities at the extreme but not in the middle. There are cheap laptops and expensive full - feature lap tops but no market in the middle.

31. Law of Patience. It takes time to build a brand. Like a plane which slowly gathers speed and takes off. Unlike the rocket launcher. Tylenol was introduced in 1956. In 2000 it became the largest selling single drug in USA and its sales crossed $500 mn. One needs 110 % of power to take off but at 30000 feet one throttles back to 70% of power. It took 17 years to build the Taj Mahal. Rocket launches turn into fads. Cabbage dolls and hula-hoops are examples.

32. Law of Exceptions. There are exceptions to every law. The law will not work 100% of the time. For instance Virgin puts its name on everything. But Virgin is headed by Branson who is a PR genius. If one’s company has such a genius then one can think of branding everything with the same name. Instead of basing strategies on exceptions base them on consensus work.

33. Law of 2nd brands. Introduce another brand for a different category. Toyota introduced a Lexus in an upmarket segment. It became the largest selling luxury brand in America. Customers don’t buy a Lexus because it is made by Toyota but inspite of it being made by Toyota. When Levis wanted to go casual they first created Levis ‘Tailored Classics’ which failed miserably. Levis then launched the range under the name ‘Dockers’. It became a successful $1 bn. Brand. Gillette’s most successful brand is ‘Mach 3’. Now Gillette is coming out with a 5-blade shaving system. It will be branding it with a different name viz. ’Fusion’. Motorola too has now started using a different brand name for its cellphone viz. ‘Razr’.

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1. The fundamental law of Marketing is the Law of Leadership. It is better to be first than to be better. Microsoft launched in ’81 while Apple launched in ’84. Apple is better in hardware, software and other areas but has only 3% share while Microsoft has 94% share.

2. Inspite of this law, every company focuses on being better. The best voted Marketing book in America is titled “Simply Better”.

3. If first is perceived to be the best, then automatically the company will attract good people, good distributors and so on. The key is to create the perception in the mind that being first means being the best.

4. To win the battle in the market one needs to win the battle in the mind. Xerox invented the laser printer. But did not enter the market. HP was the first. Red Bull was the first energy drink. Coca cola introduced KMX energy drink. Red Bull outsold KMX 20:1. Last leader brand produced by Coca cola was ‘Sprite’. Their strategy has predominantly to be better.

5. Instead of trying to build a better product win the ‘better perception’.

6. Another Law of Marketing is the Law of the Mind. First in the market is nothing. First in the mind is everything. Duryea was the first car in the market but Ford’s Model T was the first in the mind. Yuengling was the first beer in the market but Budweiser was the first beer in the mind. Similarly the first bookstore on the Net was Powell’s.com but Amazon.com is the first in the mind.

7. The first search engine was Alta Vista. But the first search engine in the mind is Google. Focus gets one into the mind. Alta Vista turned itself into a portal. It lost its focus and was ultimately sold to Overture and then to Yahoo. Today Google is the leading Search Engine. Not enough to be first but need to be first in the mind.

8. The Law of Leadership is the Law of PR. Building buzz makes news. Being first in a new category makes news. Not being better than your competitors.

9. Law of Profits. You can sell anything if it’s cheap enough. To make money you need a brand.

10. Motorola invented the cell phone. But Motorola put its name on a variety of products. In the last 10 years Motorola has achieved a sales of $ 289 bn. And a net profit margin of less than one half of one percent. It is now in the process of getting focused. It has sold its satellite and other businesses. Nokia too once made everything including paper. But it decided to focus on cell phones and has now dominated this market. Nokia in the last 10 years achieved a sales of $ 193 bn. And a net profit margin of 11%.

11. What makes India successful today ? High intelligence and low wages. Success will turn the low wages into high wages. As a result business will move from India to China. U.S.A. is a country with medium intelligence and high wages. It is successful because it has powerful brands. India will not become powerful if it does not have powerful brands. If Indian brands don’t go global, global brands will come here and take over.

12. The Law of Line Extension. You can’t stand for something if you put your name on everything. In the Japanese electronics market everybody makes everything. It’s a line extension society. Nobody builds a brand. Everybody sells on price. Nobody makes money. The total consumer electronic industry in Japan over the last 10 years has made revenues of $ 3 trillion but its net profit margin has been just 0.2%. Whereas in America the revenues of the top 500 companies in the last 10 years has been $ 7 trillion and net profit margin 6%. The automobile market in Japan is more focused.

13. Japan has everything. Intelligent workforce, worldclass production facilities and so on. But no Marketing. In the last 15 years the Japanese stock market has gone down by 59 % while the American stock market has risen by 378%. The same thing will happen in Korea. They too will put their name on everything and fail to build brands. IBM too put its name on everything. It suffered a mainframe mentality. Did not capture the position in the mind for PCs. In the last 23 years has lost $ 15 bn. on PCs. It has now sold out to Lenovo. The leader in PCs is Dell. Ironically the 2nd year student of the University of Texas was pitted against the world’s largest viz. IBM and the student won because Dell had one product, one market, one distribution channel and has had an outstanding stock market performance.

14. Law of Divergence. As time goes on every category will diverge. Telephones will branch out into becoming regular telephones, cordless telephones, walkie-talkies and cell phones. Similarly television will diverge into Broadcast television, Pay-per-view television, Cable television, and Satellite television. TV sets branch out into becoming Cathode-ray tube (CRT), Liquid - Crystal display (LCD), Liquid crystal on Silicon (LCOS), Digital Light Processing (DLP), Plasma, Organic light-emitting diode (OLED). Hotels will diverge into being Expensive, medium price, low price, motels, low price motels, suite hotels, weekly hotels.

15. Divergence comes from Darwin who has explained the concept in ‘The origin of Species’. The panthera tree has a lion, a jaguar, a tiger, and a leopard. The humanoid tree has the Gorilla, Chimpanzee, Orangutan, and the Human being. Man did not evolve. He diverged. Evolution is gradual change. Divergence is abrupt change.

Brand Sense by Martin Lindstrom 5 of 5

2006-11-07T09:08:00.000+05:30

61. B to B is the same as B to C. We are all human beings and therefore the principles which apply to B to C need to be applied to B to B.

62. The world’s most boring product ‘Roller Bearings’ produced by SKF whose vision statement is “Reduce friction to move the world forward.”

63. If you want to get ahead you don’t have to follow the leader’s tracks in the snow. One needs to benchmark against companies who are the best in the world and not necessarily in your industry. Optimize every touchpoint and compare with other companies in the world.

64. We need today more and more to look at brand alliances and partnerships. For instance Time-Warner creates content for GM cars. United Airlines serves only Starbucks coffee. DoCoMo the telecom service provider in Japan identifies for instance people and their friends if they happen to be in the same vicinity and invites them to have a tete-a-tete at the nearest Starbucks outlet. This is contextual branding.

65. It has been found that no matter which brands team up viz. whether one brand is strong while the other is weak or both brands are strong and so on, both will win. We need to think complementarity.

66. When products are more generic in nature it becomes essential that they team up with other brands viz. Nutrasweet with Coca Cola. Intel with the PC.

67. Create your own story and make your own presentation.

68. We need to look at the evolution of branding through the following phases viz. USP (Unique Selling Proposition) in the 60s to ESP (Emotional Selling Proposition) in the 70s, to OSP (Organisation Selling Propostiion) in the 80s, to BSP (Brand Selling Proposition) in the 90s, to MSP (Me Selling Proposition) in 2000, to HSP (Holistic Brand Proposition) which is happening now with trying to sensorialize the brand.

69. Brands are being used by parents to name their kids. Today there are 121 kids with the name ‘Nike’, 92 kids with the name ‘Canon’, 12 kids with the name ‘Starbucks’ and 19173 kids with the name ‘Harry’ as a result of the Harry Potter phenomenon. People are getting obsessed with brands. In a research it was found that 18.9% would like to have a tatoo of Harley Davidson, 14.8% Disney, 7.7% Coca-Cola and 6.6% Google.

70. The 10 major elements of ‘religion marketing’ are the following : Sense of belonging, Clear Vision, Power from Enemies, Authenticity, Consistency, Perfection, Symbols, Mystery, Rituals, and Sensory appeal.

71. Let’s see how brands have applied/not applied these elements. Vision creates community. Every brand needs a public enemy no. 1. Coke and Pepsi. When one makes a choice of a brand one is automatically making a clear statement of what one is not. Coca-Cola has not been consistent and has therefore lost the ownership of its red colour. Harley-Davidson stresses perfection to the extent of creating a detailed manual showing how a Harley Davidson is to be cleaned. The Coca Cola formula or 7X has a mystery created around it. Opening the Champagne bottle with a pop is a ritual. It is very easy to replace the cork with an aluminium cap but the whole ritual with the traditional popping sound will be missed. The James Bond ritual of wanting his Vodka Martini ‘Shaken not stirred’. The Olympics are full of rituals which have become more important than the Olympic rings. How to pour beer into a glass is a ritual. Corona beer which has to be drunk with a slice of lemon is a ritual which was created by a bartender in Los Angeles to see how fast a ritual spreads. One can invent one’s own rituals and own them.

72. Today’s kids (Tweens) through research, are seen to be more religious than ever. More than 50% state that having religion is more important to them They are also an Interactive generation. And control $ 1.88 trillion through their influence in the purchase of brands.

73. Today the kids don’t experience ‘information overload’. In multi-tasking kids outscore adults. While kids can handle on an average 5.4 channels at a time, adults can on an average handle just 1.7 channels. They are the instant generation.

74. Kids grow old young (KGOY). 44% prefer Internet. Next is Gaming and then TV. 20% have purchased products online. 20% find new friends online. The computer game titled ‘Everquest’ has 1.1mn. members who spend 28 hours a week playing the game. It needs to be played continuously. So that ‘Avatars’ are created. It takes 6-8 weeks to build an avatar. One can’t take a break for too long. The players earn an adult virtual salary. They then take their avatar and sell it on Ebay. There is an ‘EverQuest’ widows club. Wives divorced because the game engrossed their husbands. Entropia is a game where one purchases real estate with virtual cash. In certain games one finds that one can become a franchisee of McDonald’s and run it earning virtual cash which one can exchange for real cash on Ebay. So a kid of average age 9 years learns how to run an outlet profitably. Contextual branding is becoming more and more important. By 2010 it will be worth $ 1 bn. Hollywood is sourcing its ideas for films from Gaming.

75. The kids today are driven by fear because everything in their world is uncertain. More than half of today’s tweens feel stressed and can’t comprehend their daily life. More than half of the world’s tween population is concerned about terrorism. They find the past secure. They want stability, humour, mastery, fantasy, and love. And that is why sometimes one finds the old fashioned brands becoming popular. The retro effect. They are also continuously into ‘upgrading’.

76. The kids today deliberately distort language. 70% of all tweens change their language on purpose when chatting or texting. 30% of all tweens text several times a day. 15% prefer to text even if they are sitting next to one another.

77. Kids are becoming primary decision makers and therefore Toyota is targeting kids. They have become the primary decision makers in upto 80% of all cases. 60% decide the car brand. 58% decide the clothing brands. 57% decide the mobile phone brand. Kids are likely to become just as influential decision makers in the households as their parents within 5 years because half of the world’s married population are divorced and therefore kids will take on responsibilities earlier. They are substantially more exposed to advertising and the media.

78. Kids are now broadcasters. They have their own website. They have become brands.

Brand Sense by Martin Lindstrom 4 of 5

2006-11-02T09:00:00.000+05:30

46. Vodaphone owns the red colour and not Coca Cola. Coca Cola has not been consistent. Coca Cola’s new colours are green, yellow and many other different shades in different countries of the world.

47. In the area of sound Microsoft Windows has become the owner of its signature tune. 62% are aware of it. Similarly Nokia has patented its own tune which is easily recognizable. It was invented 7and1/2 years ago. It takes approximately 9 seconds to locate one’s mobile phone and therefore on the basis of receiving on an average 500 calls per month, one can say that one is hearing the tune 15 hours per year. And Nokia is making people aware of it without spending any money. Today there is a 41% awareness of the Nokia tune against a 56% awareness of the Intel tune but only after Intel has spent $ 320 mn. on advertising it.

48. Sound generates mood and memories. It promotes brand awareness. Sound also communicates brand quality. For instance the sound of the car doors closing. It builds brand recognition and builds brand familiarity.

49. We now have an advertisement in ‘People’ magazine that sings an Elvis Presley number. Ads on paper are now talking and singing.

50. According to a research done by Millward Brown it was found that sensibility to sight increases as education increases. With High School education it is 30% while with Graduation/Post Graduation it increases to 45%.

51. Sensitivity to smell is higher among women (28%) than among men (19%). But recall data shows that both sexes are equally affected.

52. Memories get activated and drives brand choice. Our memories are like an untidy, overstocked cupboard. Everything is recalled at once. Senses are the keys to unlocking the cupboard. Experience creates and confirms expectations.

53. Positive experience alone is not enough. Distinctiveness and differentiation also matter. Brand success is more than just a great experience. The components of brand success are : Leader, Clarity, Great experience, and business model.

54. Emotion plays a role between senses and the brand effect. Emotion drives attention and brand processing. Taste is most likely to create the feeling of satisfaction. McDonald’s creates a more cheerful feeling than Burger King.

55. Even among regular users there is a huge difference in loyalty. The more all of the senses are associated the more loyalty is experienced.

56. The Structural Path Model is based on the senses interacting and creating Leadership, a great Experience and Clarity which leads to Choice.

57. Each Brand can be mapped on which senses it is strong or weak. For instance Dove has been shown through research to be balanced on all the senses. While Irish Spring depends more on the sense of smell. Research is now attempting to put financial values on the senses and thereby arrive on the total financial value of the brand.

58. Vision is incredibly important for brands. It gives one the mandate to go beyond the normal. To do something which requires true inspiration and guts. Apple’s vision is “ Man is the creator of change in this world. As such he should be above systems and structures and not subordinate to them” The Credit Lyonnaise Bank’s vision is “You can only be a partner with someone you think of as an equal.”. Vision is not enough. If at the end of the vision statement one crosses one’s brand or company name out and puts competition’s name instead and one finds that there is no difference then throw the vision statement out. There needs to be a tangible difference.

59. At the airport one has these racks for ensuring that only bags of a certain size are carried into the plane as hand baggage. On these racks is usually written all the pertinent legal jargon in fine print which the passenger can hardly read and hardly ever does read. Virgin Airlines thought of this as a branding opportunity in keeping with its Vision and Values. What is written on a luggage rack of Virgin Airlines is “You can have a huge ego but only a bag this size.” This is not bland branding. Need to be provocative and add a sense of humour. This becomes branded jargon vs. legal jargon.

60. We should expect enemies and we therefore need to cut off competition. Even if one’s budget is low one can do something innovative to achieve this. There was a pizza owner in Australia who had a budget of just $700. He used this amount to purchase time on a radio station and the radio spot said the following : “Take your Yellow pages book and tear out all the ‘Pizza pages’ and bring them to his outlet and get a pizza free.” Today he is the biggest pizza owner in Australia.

Brand Sense by Martin Lindstrom 3 of 5

2006-10-27T11:46:00.000+05:30

31. We don’t have a name for those who can’t smell or taste.

32. In an African village the people didn’t have names. They knew each other on the basis of the individual smell they had.

33. 90% of Japanese population have no underarm odour. Through research it has been found that the Japanese are more sensitive to the senses than US/UK.

34. Purex Tabs is a floor cleaner. It was a very effective product but smelt very badly. The new marketing manager felt that it would be better to change the smell to a more pleasant one which he did. The sales went down by 42 %. The smell was changed back to the original. The bad smell was associated with its effectiveness.

35. Our senses are finely tuned to pick up signals that warn us of danger. Jack Holly, a U.S. Marine stated “I am alive because of my nose. You couldn’t see a Commie bunker if it was right in front of you. But you can’t camouflage smell. I could smell the North Vietnamese before hearing or seeing them.” We need to brand our daily touchpoints.

36. Crayola Crayons have a patented smell. So when the Chinese imitated Crayola Crayons including the packaging it was very difficult to distinguish the original from the imitation except through the smell.

37. The no. 1 recognizable smell in USA is coffee. No. 2 is peanut butter. And no. 18 is Crayola Crayons.

38. We have been given our senses to understand our world. According to Prof. Gerald Zaltman (Harvard Business School) the brain processes smell more quickly than the other senses. Metaphorically from the nose to the brain would require 3 to 4 jumps while for touch would require around 1000 jumps. Our sense of smell registers in our emotional brain where judgements are made. According to Helen Keller “Smell is a potent wizard”.

39. We also remember smells according to the time when we were born. Before 1930 people would remember the smell of hay, pine, horse and meadow. After 1930 the smells remembered would change to J&J Baby Powder, Crayon Crayola and Vanila.

40. Smell triggers memories and affects brand perception. The McDonald’s smell is greasy and associated with stale oil. It makes you feel fat even before you enter the outlet. Smell creates brand associations. Burger King is associated with the smell of ‘grilled’. The smell of fresh popcorn is used to draw people into the cinema halls. Smell impacts purchase decisions. A new car has a distinctive smell. Smell can’t be turned off.

41. Within Barclay’s Bank they brew coffee so that the customer may feel at home.

42. The smell of a new car comes about with the car being sprayed 2 hours before it leaves the factory. Rolls Royce has broken up its trademark smell into 800 odour components and created ‘Eau Rolls Royce 1965’ which is sprayed into every new Rolls Royce. Post 1965 the sales increased.

43. Singapore Airlines patented the smell of its ‘hot towels’ in 1995. One can get the Singapore Airlines smell while one is on the aerobridge and about to enter the aircraft. The cosmetics used by the airhostesses are patented Pantone shades viz. SIA face colour, eye colour and lip colour. The way the plate is placed in front of the passenger is determined. There is a brand manager on every flight who notices if there is any infringement regarding any aspect of the Singapore brand. If there is any infringement then the person concerned goes back to the Singapore brand school.

44. In an experiment conducted in Las Vegas it was found that by spraying a particular smell people gambled more and the revenue earnings of the casino increased. In a Nike experiment 84% preferred the pair which was sprayed with a smell than the pair which did not have any smell sprayed on it. And they were willing to pay extra for the pair with the smell. Similarly it has been found that in the part of the store where a particular scent has been sprayed people spend more time and money than in any other part of the store which does not have any scent sprayed.

45. 82% felt that Coco Cola tasted better from a glass bottle than from a can. The tactile experience too is important.

Brand Sense by Martin Lindstrom - 2 of 5

2006-10-25T11:57:00.000+05:30

16. There are certain words which are owned by Disney and are recognized by people as being associated with the Disney Brand. These words are : Fantasy, Dreams, Magic, Smiles, Happy, Creativity. The personnel in Disneyland use these words. These words are built into the lyrics of Disney songs. And so on.

17. Colgate owned the smile but it has gone to Disney and Mcdonald’s.

18. One needs to create a difference in the mind.

19. We are too focused on the visual aspect of branding. We need to see how we can brand ‘sound’.

20. The James Bond movie theme song. In fact James Bond has branded so many things around it. The logo, ‘Bond, James Bond’, ‘Shaken not stirred’, the gadgets, the vintage scenes, the title introduction, character names, the gun, the topic, the filming and so on.

21. The Olympics today are no longer about the 4 rings but about the rituals surrounding the Olympics like the carrying and lighting of the flame, the opening ceremony and so on.

22. Strong emotions are generated by rituals. Brands need to create rituals around themselves.

23. Always over-deliver. Martin Lindstrom went to The Peninsula Hotel. It’s known for having your own type of music made available, through downloading, for you in your room. This time when he went he was told that for some reason this perk would not be there. He felt disappointed. But he was asked what music he liked. He mentioned Eminem, Beatles etc. To his surprise he had hardly settled down in his room when there was a hotel room boy with the CDs of Eminem, the Beatles and so on. Martin has mentioned this story to now over millions of people through his seminars, interviews, books and so on. The cost of overdelivery was approximately $22 which was the cost of the CDs.

24. We need to ask ourselves the following questions :
# Which signal do we own ?
# What would we like to own ?
# Identify the top 3.
# Take it to the extreme.
# Secure ownership
# Establish a brand manual which is human and not legalistic
# Be patient
# Test for ownership

25. By the age of 65 a person in USA would have watched 2 mn. Commercials. This is equivalent to seeing TV commercials 8 hours each day for 7 days a week for 6 years.

26. TV commercials don’t work anymore. The recall level of ads has decreased from 34% in 1965 to 1.5 % today. The TV spends keep on growing. 20% would own a TiVo by 2007 in USA and 14% around the world. Murdoch will shortly be launching a set-top box which would be able to store all the movies ever produced in any language.

27. 83% of all information which people receive is visual. The visual is over-communicated. Branding is about all the 5 senses. Benjamin Franklin said “Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I might remember. Involve me and I’ll understand.”

28. We recall best what we smell more than what we see. The sense of smell emotionally affects human beings upto 75% more than any other sense.

29. The gradation of sensory importance shows that after visual there is smell and then audio, taste and touch.

30. The sense of taste and smell are one where the laboratory is the mouth and the nose is the chimney.

To be Continued.....

Brand Sense By Martin Lindstrom

2006-10-20T11:07:00.000+05:30

1. Branding is what goes on in one’s mind.

2. Brand is not a logo. The test is that if one removes the logo, will one still be able to recognize the brand !

3. Traditional communication no longer works because we are being over-communicated to.

4. What appeals to as many senses will be remembered.

5. The story goes that the challenge given to Coco-Cola was to create a bottle that if smashed could still be recognized from its glass pieces. Therefore the meaning of ‘Smash your Brand’ is that one needs to look at all the small pieces which the brand can be broken into and see what the brand can make its own.

6. The Brand wheel is a tool which indicates portions of real estate which a brand can optimize and own viz. Picture, Colours, Shapes, Name, Language, Icons, Sound, Behaviour, Service, Tradition, Rituals and Navigation.

7. Orange has appropriated a colour. Absolut branded ‘spelling error’. So it’s variants are Rasberri, Vanilia, Kurant and so on. The brand needs to own something else besides the logo. Absolut has also branded the shape of its bottle.

8. The icon of the ‘Idea’ brand is the ‘Sumo Wrestler’. So if one removes the logo and keeps only the Sumo Wrestler the brand ‘Idea’ will be recognized.

9. Brand creates community and belonging.

10. Louis Vuitton was renovating its store in Paris. To do that it created a façade in the shape of its luggage bags and accessories. The people remembered the façade. In fact they identified with it. To the extent that when it was going to be pulled down after 2 years when the renovation was complete there was a demonstration outside the store.

11. The Tiffany Box is trademarked. The shade of Pantone colour used for the Tiffany box is owned by Tiffany. Therefore one needs to get permission from Tiffany if one wants to use the same shade of colour.

12. Branding is about consistency.

13. Today Pepsi owns the colour ‘blue’. Pepsi took it away from IBM. If one wants to secure ownership then one needs to stick with it.

14. The Peuguot car has branded the ‘0’ in the middle of its car plate numbers. The story goes that the creator of the Peugot car used to experience breaking the number in the middle into 2 pieces for using the crankshaft to get the car started. Because the crankshaft had to pierce that number. So he thought that if the crankshaft had to be inserted into a ‘0’ then there would not be any breakage of a number into 2 pieces. And so all Peugot cars have ‘0’ in the middle of their car plate numbers.

15. Ipod now has extended its branding to even its earplugs. By seeing a person with the Ipod earplugs one can recognize an Ipod user.

Strategies for Success - Zig Ziglar 4 of 4

2006-10-17T11:57:00.000+05:30

61.The mission of Zig Ziglar’s company is “To be the difference maker.”

62.When the going gets tough then those with a dream keep going.

63.Dreams grow if you grow.

64.Somebody has helped you get where you are today. Honour them in the Hall of Gratitude.

65.Would rather have a fulfilling relationship with one’s wife/husband rather than a position in the Company or bucks in the Bank.

66. People are always waiting for ‘time later’.

67. The only way a Company can grow is by creating more leaders.

68. Better to train employees and lose them than not to train them and have them remain.

69. Women are more relationship driven. Men are only driven.

70. Men and women have different intelligences.

71. What happens at work affects what happens at home and vice-versa. Harmony at home makes one freer in the marketplace.

72. The Leadership Principles to follow consist of the following steps : Instruct, Expect, Inspect, Set Standards, Criticize the performance, Praise the performer, Failure is an event, Respect, Self-worth.

73. Problems need patience which leads to persistence and persistence creates character which has hope and hope creates power.

74. When developing people, do it in the same way one mines for gold. Don’t go in looking for dirt but for gold. One will have to sift through a lot of dirt to find the gold.

75. One cannot perform in a consistent manner which is inconsistent with one’s self-image.

76. Motivation addresses the ‘Wanting to’. Training addresses the ‘Education or How to’.

77. Always pull for them. Whether at home or in business when we understand that we are on the same side then everyone is a winner.

78. To find out WIN (What’s Important Now) find out what’s your real interest now . After articulating one’s goal, one should be able to state clearly after 24 hours why it is significant and appropriate now. If one can’t then it becomes a non-priority.

79. What one can do for 6 weeks straight without any real effort is one’s strength.

80. Genius focuses on the ‘now’.

81. When you leave for the day don’t talk about ‘That Company’ but ‘Our Company’.

Strategies For Success - Zig Ziglar 3 of 4

2006-10-10T16:52:00.000+05:30

41. The more you know about anything the more valuable will be the new information.

42. Confidence comes from Competence.

43. There is a light switch in each of us. We need to flip it.

44. We confuse perception with reality. We need to respond to what we believe is possible.

45. Success is always to be seen from where you began and with what.

46. Life is like a wheel having many spokes viz. personal, family, business/career, physical, spiritual, mental, financial. A smaller wheel has to travel more. Aspire to have a larger wheel.

47. Difference between the comfort zone and the realizable is growth.

48. Who I am is different from what I do.

49. Marriage is grand. Divorce is 1000 grand.

50. Never change the destination. One may change direction.

51. You’ve got to Be before you can Do and Do before you can Have.

52. When setting goals ask the following questions viz. Is it really my goal ? Is it morally right and fair to everyone involved ? Will it take me closer to my long range objectives ? Can I commit myself to start and reach these goals ? Can I see myself reaching these goals ?

53. The day you practise for what you are not paid for is the beginning of a journey to where you are paid for what you have practised.

54. If one does everything with integrity then one always does the right thing and does not suffer from guilt or fear.

55. Everything is not relative. One can’t have a Chartered Accountant who says he was relatively honest while preparing the accounts.

56. Common sense is not common practice.

57. We surround ourselves with time - saving devices and yet very often nearly miss our flights.

58. If one makes oneself a slave to discipline then the world will become one’s oyster.

59. Priorities come before goals.

60. One can do a lot about one’s ‘personal’ economy even though one can’t do very much about the national economy.

To be contd...

Strategies For Success - Zig Ziglar 2 of 4

2006-10-05T10:16:00.000+05:30

21. A positive mental attitude will help do everything better than having a negative mental attitude.

22. If one becomes irreplaceable one becomes unpromotable.

23. One gets exhausted when one tries to fool oneself, one’s boss or one’s subordinate.

24. Do one’s best today to prepare for tomorrow.

25. Standing in the middle of opportunity, we lock ourselves up by what we can’t have when most of what we can have is within our grasp.

26. If planning one day in your life can make a difference then think what a difference planning one’s whole life will make.

27. Can one see what one wants ?

28. Truth can be denied but never avoided.

29. When hope is gone then growth is gone.

30. Identify one’s weaknesses and devote one’s whole life to converting them into strengths.

31. To change one’s attitude one needs to change one’s mental diet. Through tapes, books and seminars. Become a good-finder. Stop looking for others’ faults. Change one’s self-talk from negative to positive.

32. You don’t build businesses. You build people.

33. You can buy a man’s time but not his enthusiasm or loyalty. You must earn these.

34. People stay where they are respected and where they feel they are growing.

35. The food one grows in the valley will be the food one eats at the top of the mountain one has climbed.

36. One can turn things around because one has turned one’s thinking around. Like the word ‘Stressed’ is ‘Desserts’ when spelt in the opposite direction.

37. Similarly a ‘Loser’ can be seen as Loving Others Sincerely, Enthusiastically, Responsibly.

38. Fear and Faith have the same focus - Something happening in the future.

39. Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending. One needs hope and a game plan.

40. We confuse activity with accomplishment.

To Be Contd....

Strategies For Success - Zig Ziglar 1 of 4

2006-09-29T16:16:00.000+05:30

1. If there is no hope then there is no sale. Activity follows hope.

2. Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly until you learn to do it well. If one has a poor self-image then one doesn’t want to do anything.

3. If you are somebody to somebody then you are somebody.

4. Failure is an event and not a person.

5. Hope is the foundation of change. Encouragement is the fuel.

6. If one is tough on oneself then life will be easy for you.

7. One doesn’t pay the price for health. One enjoys its benefits. One needs to change the picture.

8. The past is important but not nearly as important as how you see the future.

9. Money is not so important but is as important as oxygen.

10. Everyone wants more of the things that money will buy and all the things money can’t buy. But one must remember that if one has more things that money can’t buy like character then more will one be able to get things that money can buy.

11. When you go out to be a friend you will get friends. What you send out you will get back.

12. We are natural optimists. We are born to win. We need to plan to win, prepare to win and expect to win.

13. Four key points to remember :
a. Build and maintain a winning attitude
b. Set and reach goals.
c. Develop a healthy self-image.
d. Build winning relationships.

14. Whatever area one focuses on it will grow. Focus on problems and they will grow. Focus on benefits and they will grow.

15. Gratitude is the healthiest of all human attitudes. More gratitude one has the more one will have to be grateful for.

16. Change yourself because people want to see the change which one speaks of.

17. One doesn’t have to be great to make a start to be great.

18. There is good in everybody in terms of what one is capable of. The good news is that if you recognize what you are capable of doing then you will do it.

19. When one glimpses one’s potential one creates a passion for achieving the potential.

20. Most of us are not aware of what a minute is worth. Become a time miser.

To Be Contd....

The Success Principles - Jack Canfield 6 of 6

2006-09-15T10:23:00.000+05:30

56. Like an iceberg the conscious mind is just 1/6th and is seen above the water. While the unconscious mind is 5/6th and is not seen and needs to be reprogrammed.

57. Act as if. Rehearse in your mind as if it was a reality. By doing this one attracts whatever is needed into one’s life to help in the achievement of what one is acting out.

58. The one thing that separates winners from losers is ‘Action’. Winners always take action. One is willing to do whatever it takes.

59. What stops us from taking action ? Fear. Feel the fear and do it anyway. Fear is a cautionary sign not a ‘don’t do it’ sign. Fear stands for Fantasize the Experiences that Appear Real. The Body can’t tell the difference between the real and the imaginary. There are two ways of dealing with the imaginary. Either one stops imagining and comes back to the present moment or One focuses on imagining the positive.

60. Ask, Ask, Ask. Continually even to the same person. Get interaction. Create relationship. Chad Pregracke a 19 year old student just went ahead and asked for money from Corporations to clean up the Mississippi. The Corporations were impressed by the boy’s sincerity and gave him the money.

61. Reject rejection. Rejection is a myth in one’s mind. When you asked and got rejected you are no worse than when you were before you asked because you didn’t have it in the first place before you asked. So go ahead and ‘ask’. What’s there in feeling foolish. SWSWSWSW (some will, some won’t, so what, someone’s waiting). It’s a numbers game. Go on asking. The average sale is made after 6 calls. Therefore keep going back. When people say ‘No’ say ‘Next’. Ask the person concerned ‘What would have to happen if I wanted…..’

62. Exceed expectations. Consistently exceed expectations. The principle followed by Walt Disney was that one needs to do whatever one is doing so well that people will bring others back to see it.

63. Transform yourself for success. To do this one needs to …

64. Complete the Past to embrace the future. To complete the past one needs to
a.Acknowledge your successes.
b.Acknowledge others’ successes. To acknowledge others’ successes one needs to
resort to ‘auditory’ viz. telling them about your appreciation, or showing them your
appreciation, or touching them in the form of embracing them.
c.Learn from your failures.
d.Let go of your resentments.
e.Total Truth Process. Forgive others.
f. Practice meditation.
g.Practise releasing techniques.
h.Clean up physical messes and other incomplete areas.

65. Practise uncommon appreciation. Everyone has a sign ‘Appreciate me’. Everybody wants to be noticed, listened to or touched. In a survey done among Supervisors and Employees on 10 ways to motivate an employee the results showed that as far as the supervisors’ responses were concerned ‘Appreciation’ was at the very bottom of the list. Whereas for the employees ‘appreciation’ was at the very top.

66. Ask for something small first. Appreciate it. Then ask for something big. One will hardly be refused.

67. Practise strength bombardment. Get three to four people to bombard you with the good they see in you.

The Success Principles - Jack Canfield 5 of 6

2006-09-11T16:38:00.000+05:30

41. Get an Accountability partner. Report every week what one has accomplished. We have proven that we are undependable in various areas of our lives and therefore we need Accountability Partners.

42. The next step is to set measurable objectives for every part of one’s master plan. How much by When ? An objective is something I want which is measurable in time and space. Be specific.

43. Transcend your limiting beliefs.

44. Believe it’s possible. Laura Schultz a 65 year old lady lifted the back of a car alone so that her grandson could free his leg. She refused to give any interviews regarding this incident and the reason she gave was that the incident made her ask herself a very painful question viz. ‘What was I capable of doing but haven’t done ?’

45. Believe in yourself. To change a belief first identify it. Write down the opposite and then say it to oneself everyday.

46. We think 50,000 thoughts a day. Follow the law of replacement. Replace a negative thought with a positive thought.

47. Thoughts communicate. It’s like an ‘Innernet’. Masaru Emoto has shown that when thoughts are communicated to a glass of water one can see the effect on the water. For instance when one sends out thoughts like love and gratitude to a glass of water then if one examines a drop under a microscope one can see beautiful crystal formations. Whereas when one sends out thoughts of ‘you fool’ to a glass of water then on examination of a droplet one will find just a blob of an outline. 70% of our bodies are made up of water. We need to be conscious of what kind of thoughts we send out to ourselves and others.

48. Do the following exercise. Ask oneself the following 3 questions viz. What is an area of your life or work that is not working right now ? What belief of yours is keeping you stuck at your current level of results ? What belief you would need to have in order for you to move up to the next level ?

49. Release the brakes. We are walking around with the brakes on. In order to release the brakes we need to use affirmations.

50. An affirmation is always stated in the present tense and has a verb and feeling. One sees with the mind’s eye the goal being already achieved. For instance “I am enjoying looking at my physically fit 185 pound body in the mirror.” “I am calmly watching the sunset from my Malibu bungalow”. The repetition and image of having already achieved this is important.

51. See what you want and get what you see. The power of visualization. There was an experiment conducted among 3 basketball groups viz. the first group was told not to practice at all. They showed no improvement. The next group was told to practice for 30 days. They showed an improvement of 24 %. The 3rd group was told only to visualize their shooting capability improving and experience it as if it were already achieved. At the end of doing this for 30 days they showed an improvement of 23 %.

52. The brain is designed to put into reality whatever we put in there as an image. But we need to do this for a minimum of 30 days. Whenever we want to initiate a new behaviour we need to practice it for a minimum of 30 days. By thinking positive thoughts the brain creates new neural pathways. Visualize your goals and results as already completed twice a day.

53. Vision doesn’t match Reality. We need to focus on Vision so that Structural Tension is built up deliberately because then motivation arises. This structural tension creates a shift in perception, expands creativity, and increases motivation.

54. We see what we believe. And therefore we need to look at the beliefs we have about ourselves. And our goals.

55. Once we see it we will never know how not to see it. It becomes obvious.

(Part 5 of 6) To Be Continued.........

The Success Principles - Jack Canfield- 4 of 6

2006-09-06T23:18:00.000+05:30

31. We all have an inner GPS. Now a GPS system in a car keeps delivering instructions in small chunks not all at one go because one can digest and follow only that much at a time. Our brains have been designed to deliver the solution. But we must be committed to do what we want to do. The “how” will gradually show itself up. If we believe in the possibility that we can, then the ‘how’ will show up. But it will reveal itself gradually not all at once.

32. A Vision is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) – Jim Collins. Jack Canfield’s company’s 2020 vision is “One Billion Books sold. $500 mn raised for charity.”

33. Set a goal that is big enough so that in the process of achieving it one will become someone worth becoming. As a result of pursuing the goal one may learn many things one didn’t know. One becomes a master of life. This mastery can’t be taken away. Who one becomes as a result of achieving or pursuing the goal is more important than the goal. One needs to set goals which stretch oneself.

34. Create a breakthrough goal. A goal which will break you to a new level.

35. It doesn’t take any more effort to dream a big dream than to dream a small dream. Small dreams attract small people, and big dreams attract big people.

36. Many people will tell you that your dream is impossible to achieve. Like Fred Smith was told about his proposal to deliver packages overnight anywhere. He went on to create Fedex. It is better to be a ‘dream maker’ than a ‘dream spoiler’.

37. Use the ‘Rule of 5’ for one’s breakthrough goals. This means choosing 5 specific things to do every day which will help one in realizing the breakthrough goals.

38. For drawing up one’s Vision divide one’s life into the following 7 areas viz. Financial, Business/Career, Fun Time, Health/Fitness, Relationships, Personal (Doing something just because one wants to do it), Contribution (What kind of contribution or legacy one would like to make or leave behind?)

39. For each of these areas write down one’s goals to be achieved at the end of 2 years. Then one gets down to writing down one’s one-year master plan.

40. Usually we come up with the objection of not knowing how to do whatever needs to be done. The answer to this is to see if there is anybody else who has done it. Ask them how they did it. Jack Canfield volunteered to become a chauffer for a successful Trainer for 4 hours in return for which the Trainer would answer any questions Jack would ask him regarding how he got to where he was. Many people don’t like to ask. Success leaves clues.

(Part 4 of 6) To Be Continued.........

The Success Principles - Jack Canfield- 3 of 6

2006-09-02T11:13:00.000+05:30

21. High Achievers have unusual clarity on Purpose and Mission, Vision, and Goals and Objectives. If you don’t have goals then you end up working for someone who has.

22. Jack Canfield’s company’s purpose is “To inspire and empower people to live their highest vision in a context of love and joy.”

23. Each one has an innate purpose. Goals need to be aligned with one’s purpose. If they are not aligned then even though one may meet one’s goals one doesn’t experience any satisfaction. One remains unhappy.

24. To discover one’s purpose, the first step is to think of the times when you feel that you are truly yourself. You feel completely at home with yourself . There is no effort required. What are the 2 qualities that come to your mind. The second step is to think of 2 ways through which you could as well as you would want to express these qualities. The third step is to think what according to you would the world be like if it has to work perfectly. What would it look like? Now take these 3 elements and string them together in the form of a statement which would express one’s purpose.

25. Jack Canfield’s Company’s Mission is “To positively impact one billion lives through inspirational print, radio, TV, products, speeches, training and charity.”

26. Make an irritation list. Can do this every 3 months. This list contains all the various irritations like one’s table not being cleaned or one’s clothes being in a mess or any of a hundred other irritations one may have. Some irritations may take a day or two to clear up while others may take months. But this gives one a focus to clear up one’s cluttered space so that one feels free to do the many other things which one wants to do.

27. One can have whatever one wants out of life. But here one needs to make a distinction between addiction and preference. One needs to avoid addiction but make a choice based on preference.

28. Perception and Awareness are the most important tools for Success.

29. Make an ‘I Want’ List. Anything one wanted to do or achieve but haven’t done. There is no restriction on the number of goals. We keep putting off wanting to complete what we want to do and therefore have so many regrets. Therefore take up 3 goals a year.

30. Give your child memories. Maybe the craziest things one does on a holiday becomes a lasting memory.

(Part 3 of 6) To Be Continued.........

The Success Principles - Jack Canfield -2 of 6

2006-08-29T20:34:00.000+05:30

11.Jack Canfield gave a demonstration of Kinesiology (understanding of muscles). He got a gentleman volunteer to step up. He then asked the volunteer to raise his left arm. He asked the volunteer to state his name in the form of “My name is…” and simultaneously to resist Jack’s pressure to push his left arm down. Jack Canfield found it very difficult to push the volunteer’s arm down. He next asked the volunteer to think up a name other than his own and again state this name in the same manner as in “My name is…” and simultaneously again resist Jack’s pressure to push his left arm down. Jack Canfield this time found it much easier to push the volunteer’s arm down. When one lies the muscles loosen up.

12. Similarly when one says “I can’t” it weakens one. Whereas when one says “I can” it strengthens the body, makes one feel more in-charge, alert and creative.

13. We hypnotize ourselves with “I can’t”. We need to realize that we are capable of doing almost anything. If we want to be successful then we need to eliminate ‘I can’t’ and ‘I have to’. Nobody can make anyone do anything. There are choices which one has to make. Given all the options one is constantly making choices.

14. We affect one another with our energy fields. The mind extends beyond the physical brain. Every thought is like an email being sent out to the world.

15. Colours too play a role. The colour orange is a colour which nobody wants to hang around. Whereas blue and green are soothing colours.

16. Successful students take copious notes and review them that very night. Read fewer books and review what you have read.

17. Successful students also get 8 hours sleep. This is the time when the short-term memory gets locked into the long term memory.

18. Got to pay yourself first. 10%-20% of everything one earns should be invested wisely so that one’s personal equity continuously increases. What is the use of earning $25000 per month and at the end of one’s career one has just $25000 left.

19. If you are an average person with a negative attitude then you are half-way to the bottom. Whereas if you are an average person with a positive attitude then you are half way to the top.

20. Another Principle of Success is to decide what you want. Don’t base this on what is possible but on what one really wants. Most often people have resigned themselves to their place in life.

(Part 2 of 6) To Be Continued.........

The Success Principles - Jack Canfield- 1 of 6

2006-08-29T13:07:00.000+05:30

I have attended various seminars by some of the best Management Gurus of the world. I would like to share my learnings for everybody's benefit. The blog would cover the following :

The Success Principles - Jack Canfield
Investment Strategis in Global Market - Jim Rogers
Brand Sense - Martin Lindstrom
Leadership Seminar - Robin Sharma
New Strategies on Brand Building - Al & Laura Ries
How to create, win & Dominate Markets - Philip Kotler
Strategies of Success - Zig Ziglar
Negotiation Techniques
Effective Leadership - Leadership Styles

The Success Principles - Jack Canfield

Success is whatever you want it to be. For Jack Canfield it is to love and be loved and to give and receive joy.
Never give up. Keep playing till you win. ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ was rejected by 144 publishers over a 9 month period. Now it has sold over 100 mn copies in 39 countries.
If one knows the combination of the lock of success it has to open.
Jack Canfield stated that if one implemented the Principles of Success then one could double one’s income and free time in 2 years or less.
You can’t hire other people to do push-ups for you. If it’s meant to be then it’s up to me.
The first Principle is to take 100% responsibility for your life and results.
Give up all blaming and excuse making. Give up blaming everything outside of us.
Events + Responses = Outcomes.
It’s the Response to the Event that produces the Outcome. One is responsible for the choice of how one reacts to the event. If you want a different outcome then change your response.
One can influence responses in 3 areas viz. one’s behaviour, thoughts and images.

(Part 1 of 6) To Be Continued.........

Shake it Off

2006-07-01T15:00:00.000+05:30

One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do.
Finally he decided the animal was old and the well needed to be covered up anyway, it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey. He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement, he quieted down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well and was astonished at what he saw. With every shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone w as amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and trotted off!
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a stepping stone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up!
Remember the five simple rules to be happy:
1. Free your heart from hatred.
2. Free your mind from worries.
3. Live simply.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less.

Life's too short!!
Enjoy Your Life & SHAKE IT OFF!!