My interpretation of learning from book " Art of War - sun tzu"

Dear friends,

As most of us are losing our habit of constantly reading books, journals in times of digital & social media invasion and an era of online streaming of movies, we all are getting too engrossed in technology which is hampering all of us to grow as human beings who were by DNA once programmed to be enterprising, innovative & hard working.

My current blog is dedicated to those who have lost their habit of reading books and it is my effort to summarize some of my learnings /key notes from famous books that I have come across. (let me be honest that I am trying to come out of social media addiction myself…)

(Disclaimer: my learnings /keynotes from particular book is completely my opinion and may differ from individual to individual).

Recently I was gifted a wonderful book called “Art of war-sun tzu”. Below are some of my key take outs which could be correlated to corporate world.

       a)  All wars consume 3 main resources i.e. Time, Money & Energy.

In corporate world we compete with our services/ products on daily basis and try to win mind space/ market share from our competitors; Professionals invest their time, money and energy in order to win consumers & sell their goods/services.

Brands should know when to communicate (timing), what to communicate (message) and how to communicate (media planning) and monitor its end result (call to action through market research).

b) Ignore choleric comments:

Sometimes competition passes comments or runs campaigns in order to irritate you or their targeted brands. (for example: Coke’s campaign in India in 1990’s official sponsor of world cup cricket vs Pepsi’s response – Nothing official about it).

                   

Always remember, ‘Wars are won by people who control their emotions’. Don’t allow your emotional quotient to overtake rational or logical behavior.

 c) Know yourself first and Opponent second.

We need to first completely understand our strengths, weaknesses prior to even enticing or acknowledging competition.

We all have seen a famous Bollywood blockbuster “ Dangal” wherein the key protagonist Aamer khan first studies weakness of his daughter and train her to overcome them prior to even attempting to compete with other wrestlers. Knowing yourself is most important.

Understand your weaknesses and overcome them to make it your strengths.

                       

d) Prepare beforehand to take your competition unprepared.

Winners prepare themselves before hand to face tough situations.

We all have heard story of Ant & grasshopper in our childhood days wherein Ant works throughout year to collect food for winter season vis a vis Grasshopper who is flamboyant and doesn’t sustain itself when weather changes.

We all brand managers, retail professionals should ensure that we work like an Ant i.e. taking care of our brand strategies in terms of its market share, inventory planning, marketing, customer service and implement continuous improvement drive in whatever we do in our professional lives.

I hope sharing of some learning will help in some way or other to my friends, upcoming entrepreneurs, budding brand managers to develop their brands in better & more successful way.

Cheers

Ritesh

#nevergiveup #believeinyourself.

Failure is nothing but SUCCESS delayed.

Dear Friends,

As I write this blog, there is an advertisement that is playing in back of my mind which says “Dirt is good” (on clothes.. used by popular detergent brand).

I feel it’s a master piece of mass communication which can be translated to the topic that I have chosen for my blog i.e. FAILURE IS GOOD.

“I have not failed, I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t light a bulb.” Edison once quipped.

Key take out learning from this is that one should fall forward and not backward i.e. Learn from the mistakes of others as well as your own.

I recall a statement from famous American writer, Comedian & TV star, Groucho Marx who once said    

 “ Learn from the mistakes of others, you can never live long enough to make them all yourself”.

Avoid looking back for too long. Contemplation is good but failing forward is about beginning the next project, starting it very next day.

Focus on what you could have changed in failure phase. Experiment & keep doing it. Never give up. Every discovery or invention came on back of repeated so called failures.

Most importantly you need to look at what’s working and certainly NOT at what’s not working.  

Coming from aviation background as aviation is in my genes, I recall one learning which my father had once told me i.e. Pilots are taught not to focus on what’s not working in emergency situations BUT on systems that are functioning.

I don’t mean that by doing so pilots can avoid air crashes etc but this thinking would certainly help pilots develop “Never Give up" attitude.

I would be writing a complete blog on ATTITUDE shortly but successful entrepreneurs always look away from the problem and catalog all their resources which are in their favor and utilize it to overcome any problem or issues.

I would reinforce one key learning to budding entrepreneurs or management students, “Turn your wounds into wisdom”, Learn from failure and bounce back… NEVER GIVE UP.

Wishing all my readers a very happy entrepreneurial journey!!

#NeverGiveUp

Ciao!

Ritesh Mohan