Ambition

Company hired the Mckinsey & Company to benchmark and design the strategy for the expansion plans. It was expected that this exercise will result in some new ideas and businesses where company can further explore. I was one of the project team members along with other cross functional members from editorial, marketing, circulation etc. fifty percent members were from the company and fifty percent from Mckinsey. It was a great development experience where we learnt the thought process, platforms etc on which the Mckinsey works. It was a great learning about the way of working and identifying the core issue and proposing solutions.

There were a lot of initiatives parallelly going on like SAP implementation, new design of newspapers which company are publishing, lean six sigma roll out and convergence project (Convergence in media is linking one media platform to different platforms and design the content as per the platform and consumer behaviours.) Global top consultants were advising the company on those projects also.  

While we were discussing the progress of one of the projects, our Managing Director told me to leverage the learning from those consultants, develop the internal talent with those learning. In short, working on such projects was a great development opportunity for us. He also mentioned that consultants are good, and they have the huge data and we should use that data to improve the business, learn the way they approach the solution and their approach toward the design thinking. Personally, I gained a lot while working on those projects.

It was mid-summer in 2006. We all were in the final workshop with the management team and few cross functional senior members. Different workstreams presented their story. Finally, there was a presentation from the consultant on the recommendations. Every member in the boardroom was given voting pads.

Data was presented. The government was planning auctions of licences for radio frequencies. Members were asked to vote if the company should invest in FM, Events, Televisions Channel- entertainment or news or info-entertainment etc. Based on the presentation 90% participants voted for FM radio Channel. Finally, the consultant put the final slide on the screen with his recommendations to invest in FM Radio frequency. For other ventures like television etc we had a gap in capabilities. The workshop concluded with a lot of deliberations.

Next day, the Managing Director invited the meeting of the management team where I was also a part. He asked for feedback about the workshop and views of the participants. After listening all, he declared, “We will not go for the radio licence, we will invest in television channel.”

There was a pin drop silence, “We have a good benchmark, the team has done a wonderful job and our strategy is in place, but I believe that we should have ambitions. Unless you don’t have dreams, we will not be successful. We should take decisions considering our ambition. I believe that we understand our business and we should go for television channel. We need to discuss whether it is entertainment, info-entertainment or only news channel.”  He broke the silence. He explained the logic behind his decision, risk involved but he also explained why we should think big. He pushed the boundaries of the team to think big. 

After a lot of discussion, finally the project started and after 1 years the television channel started. Initially it was info-entertainment but later on converted fully into a news channel. Today the said channel is number 1 in TRP in regional language (Marathi). It is known as Saam TV.

We make decisions based on the data, however sometimes it is intuition and ambition which takes you toward success. Such decisions may be risky. But confidence, courage, conviction and calculated risk and trust on self and team are keys to success.  

(Opinions are purely personal & does not represent my organizations, current or past) 

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Mind Map

When I took a charge of establishing professional HR function in Sakaal Media Group (http://www.sakaal.in, also see:-http://esakal.com, http://www.sakaaltimes.com, http://www.agrowon.com, http://www.saptahiksakal.com) in 2005, it was a real challenge. Sakaal has the history of almost 80 years, known brand in media in Maharashtra and Goa with almost 2,500 FTES and almost 5,000 stringers and part time employees. My team had comprised with employees who were working for last 10-15 years and also employees who were hardly 2-3 months old in the organization (including me).

My first task was to map the current processes which were not even documented and to apply pragmatic HR processes. There were almost 20 team members from different locations in the meeting room. Team was dynamic and enthusiastic to learn new things.

My first challenge was to get new ideas and brainstorming was one of the tools to get good ideas. In a typical brainstorm new ideas come at random and totally unorganized, especially when the subconscious mind is being accessed. If you want an effective brainstorm, each idea has to be captured and written down first. Then only, ideas can be evaluated and organized in ‘lists’ as a next step.

I had heard in past about the technique called “Mind Mapping”. This technique was pioneered by a brain researcher, Tony Buzan.  This technique describes a special way of writing down ideas to create new and better ideas by providing new relations and insights.

A typical Mind Map looks like a neurological pattern of the brain, where branches with ideas, observations and insights spring from a core idea in the middle of the paper. A Mind Map is often a colorful drawing with words, pictures, doodles and symbols that provide readers with a quick and memorable understanding of the issues. Extensive research has not only shown that Mind Mapping leads to more and better ideas, but it also leads to a much deeper learning experience when used to learn complicated subjects.

Making a Mind Map is simple:

•        Take a blank sheet of paper and describe the subject in a few words in the middle of the page.

·         Draw branches from the middle of the page to the side of the page and name each branch with a word (or a drawing) describing ideas, concepts or connections that are linked to the main subject.

•        Each branch can create a new branch with a new word. The branch expanding process is unlimited.

•        After creating multiple branches, take a complete survey of all branches and find synergies and relationships between the words, ideas, concepts and drawings.

•        When the Mind Map has been finished you will notice that each time you review the picture you have created earlier, it will instantly trigger your memory and the key concepts of the Mind Map are easily remembered.

You will have different ideas when you use colored pens. The reason is that our brain associates colors with certain concepts (for instance ‘blue’ with ‘calm,’ like a calm ocean). These subconscious concepts trigger new associations and new ideas.

You can also this technique for Not taking, preparing for Speech, Lecture, Presentation and even discussion points.

There are few softwares for preparing your Mind Map.



(This is a Mind Map while we were discussing about Manpower Planning. This is a generated through software.)