Archive for February, 2009

Billu Barber and Dilli 6…which will be the winner?

Posted: February 8, 2009 in Uncategorized
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While seeing Luck By Chance yesterday at the PVR Phoenix, there were two film trailers that I saw, Billu Barber and Dilli 6. The former releases next Friday. A Friday, the 13th release – wonder how that will affect its fortunes! The latter releases a week later on Feb 20th. A week’s gap is enough between two big releases, as really, the first 4-5 days are the defining days, to see if a movie succeeds or not.

Purely based on these previews, my call is that Billu Barber will be an average film and Dilli 6 will be another big winner.

Billu Barber comes from Shah Rukh Khan’s Red chillies entertainment. So the full force of the SRK publicity machinery is behind it. Also because of this reason, the film has been propped up (out of insecurity, I suspect) with a whole host of special appearances from stars.

When a film needs to do this, and then of course, give that little time and presence to these stars on the screen, it obviously deviates from the core story. Its a first indication to me that there isn’t enough core strength, and these props have become necessary to support the film. There is Irfan Khan, and he is an undoubted talent. So the film will rise and fall with him. The glamorous Lara Dutta has been ruralized to a village housewife. What a waste. None of the songs have stayed in my head. Priyadarshan, who loves to work with Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal and the kind, has been given charge of this film. Might be out of place, to an extent. So an early prediction on this film is that it will be average, perhaps disappoint considering the extent of expectations.

And then there is Dilli 6. From the absolutely awesome talent which is Rakyesh Omprakash Mehra. The one who made the classic, Rang De Basanti. And an interesting experiment Aks before that.

Well, Dilli 6 looked good in the trailer. A classic capture of old Delhi life. Amazing cinematography by the best in the business, Binod Pradhan. One scene of prayers at the Jama Masjid is absolutely breathtaking. Sonam Kapoor is actually looking good.. like an early days Juhi Chawla. Very pleasing to the eyes. The music by none other than the maestro, A R Rahman, is so much fun. Check out this song to sense the energy of the kind last seen, only in RDB, I guess. Abhishek can deliver with the right directors, as we have seen in Guru, Yuva, etc. I think Mehra would have also got the best from Abhi and this should be one good movie to see. Waiting for Feb 20th now.

Here are my preview rating for a change.. Billu Barber: 2.5/5.0, Dilli 6: 4.5/5.0.

Recession? What recession?? An evening at the Phoenix Mills..

Posted: February 8, 2009 in Uncategorized
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I had spent the whole day at IIT Mumbai, at the Entrepreneurship Summit (more on that, in a separate post later). I had heard entrepreneurs talking about the recession and the tough times, and survival and cost cutting and what not.

And then, in the evening, I went to Phoenix Mills, to see a movie a the new PVR Cinemas 7-screen multiplex there. And being there, it felt like a different world! You’d wonder what those guys were talking in the day?? Recession? Where’s the recession?!

It was full of people. People who were shopping. People eating at the various food joints there. Having their ice creams and the expensive coffees. The new very large parking lot was full. I had to drive up to the 4th level before I could find a spot. The PVR cinma screens with 225/- a ticket and 70/- for popcorn (just to give an idea) was doing roaring business. As was the large extremely well located, well lit, attractive Croma store, selling all kind of electroncs.

The whole Phoenix Mills complex holds a special fascination for me. We moved in to our first office in Lower Parel, for Homeindia.com (my first startup venture) in 1999. This office was bang opposite of Phonenix Mills. And during those days for Web 1.0 in India, there were plenty occasions for us to cross the road and go to the Phoenix Mills, for food or for bowling or just for a change. At that time, the only places that were worth going to, were the CO Bowling Co, with its Sports Bar (and where they served a good lunch) and Soul Curry, a quaint little restaurant there.

And then, as we spent from 1999 to 2007 in Lower Parel (we changed offices once, but it was right there too), we kept going across to the Phoenix Mills, at least once a week, on an average.

And we saw the transformation happen before our very eyes. Big Bazaar came, and Barista, and Planet M, and McDonalds, and Bombay Blues, and Noodle Bar, and Spaghetti Kitches, and Natural Ice Cream, etc. etc. etc. The traffic increased. There were “events” in the quadrangle in the central open area. Suddenly people were all over the place. It started taking more and more time to cross the road!! In between there were a couple of ‘incidents’ – some accidents, with workers dying too. Work slowed down, but then the Ruias managed to get things under control and work resumed. And more changes happened.

All in all, if was very fascinating to see the transformation of an old textile mill into a thriving consumer hub.

Now, there is just SO MUCH happening there, that you could pretty much get LOST!

And lost I almost was yesterday, trying to find my car back in the parking lot.

But not before seeing a society that was apparently not aware of the recession, or was not affected by it, or was living in complete denial!!

State of the economy: the hoardings say it all

Posted: February 2, 2009 in Uncategorized
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Hoardings and press advertisements have a story to say, about the state of the economy.

You know which sector’s booming and shouting itself hoarse.

We cannot forget the many dot com brands that stared you in your face, in 1999-2000. We know what happened to them after the bust.

In recent months, we have seen at times, the boards dominated by Airtel / Vodafone / Reliance… the telecom wars.

We have also seen Nokia / Samsung / Motorola / LG.. the mobile phone wars.

The eternal fighters, Coke and Pepsi, or Levers and Colgate / P&G have been consistently around.

Then there was a spurt in the retail world. And you could not go 100 meters without seeing hoardings of Lifestyle or Big Bazaar or Pantaloons..

Finally came the realty chappies. And you had big buildings and swimming pools and gardens to see on hoarding as one brand lured you after another, to get you into their new construction projects!

Then, the economy went down..

For a while, the hoardings were barren and you could see the many messages of the hoarding owners.. Some with their phone numbers to reach out to, some with a public service message.. waiting for someone to pick them up!

And yesterday the new reality struck me. At least in one specific stretch of the road. Going from Sion towards Chembur, on the Sion Trombay road, we pass the Everard Nagar / Somaiya College grounds.

On both sides of this road, as well as on the lampposts in the middle of the road, are hoardings of some Gurus. The religion “brands” if I may say so. And therein, lies the bigger message.

That when times are tough, everyone turns to God…. ! ‘Tis HIS season now.. !

“Who will cry when you die?”

Posted: February 2, 2009 in Uncategorized
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My dear friend (and I’d rather call him friend than ex-boss!), Simar referred to the book by this title, few times. I never managed to read the book, but the title intrigued me, and stayed with me.

Events of Saturday brought back this phrase to my mind. As I walked the four floors of the offices of Compare Infobase Ltd., to shake hands with most of the team members, to bid goodbye to them, on my last day at work there, I was touched by several very emotional reactions.

Some young members of the team, at least 2 levels down in the reporting hierarchy, with whom I had brief interactions over time, were verbal enough to tell me, “Sir, you can’t leave us. What will we do without you? Who will teach us?”. No, I was not a “teacher”, I was the Chief Operating Officer. But I guess, I might have managed to share some knowledge over time.

I spotted many a moist eyes, as I walked around and met managers, programmers, team leaders. There were genuine feelings of loss that they were going through, and I sensed many voices choke, as they shook their hands with me.

A couple of direct reportees – senior managers – got quite emotional. And to top it all, my friend / boss /CEO, Simar, could not completely hold back his feelings.

I was overwhelmed by the many flattering words, combined with examples, that my colleagues shared at the farewell. Also appreciated, not just the gift that they gave me, but also the large farewell card, signed with special messages by my many colleagues there. A few insisted on coming down till the car, as I left for the airport.

Very touching. Quite embarrassing also – especially, the car-drop part!

As I looked back on the day’s events on my way to the airport, I thought of this book title, “Who will cry when you die?”.

Do we leave some mark where we go? Are we touching lives? Do our actions and words inspire others, and make a change in their being?

As entrepreneurs, modesty and humility is in our being. Because we have a long agenda, and there’s always things to do. So even the intermediate victories are enjoyed momentarily, before we move on, to the next agenda. We don’t make much of it.

Likewise, as experienced persons, we have a lot in our heads, and we share bits and pieces of it, casually, in interacting with our teams and colleagues. Okay, sometimes we impart specific knowledge in training sessions and the like. But more often, it’s the casual interactions, which we may ourselves not make much ado about, but for the recipient, who is still in the early days of her career, that small bit is very valuable!

As I thought about the reactions that I got on Saturday, I realized that it was in spite of having been:

  • responsible for bringing in structured reporting, which put far more accountability on everyone; ordinarily, it should have not been a popular thing to do!
  • a strong voice to change the culture from being ‘accommodative to low performers’ (by giving them opportunities in other areas, etc.) to being a proponent of ‘if there is a clear question on performance, there is no room for the person’ theory,
  • unfortunately, at the helm of affairs and at the forefront, during the period when we needed to do few rounds of layoffs; it’s never pleasant, but what had to be done, had to be done.

There were other factors too, which were clearly steering some people away from a comfort zone. So I was glad that in spite of all these, there was appreciation and admiration of my efforts and my tenure there.

I was feeling equally bad to move on, especially after seeing this reaction. If circumstances were a little different, I would have continued and tried to lead the company to even greater heights.Well, that was not to be…

For now, I cherish the farewell. I appreciate the emotions of the team.

But most of all, I recognize the impact that my experience, my sincere involvement with the team, my bits of training, my knowledge, can make. It’s something to recognize, and to utilize well, for the benefit of any organization that I am associated with, now and in future!!

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