Blogs - Onio - Design Research & Strategic Innovation Consulting Company, India

Innovation Blog

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 05:14:00 +0000

An advice for freshers in the creative industry

Over fifteen years now, we have been involved in recruiting designers and other personnel connected to creative industry. Every month now, at least a hundred resume and portfolios from fresh graduates land-up on our company email, seeking internship or employment. In a small company like ours, it sometimes becomes difficult even to acknowledge all of them. Surprisingly, in an industry that is 50 years old in India, it is difficult to find people with experience more than five years on a consistent area/platform. So the creative industry, especially designers, ends up employing a whole younger lot. I have been noticing that there has been a change in expectations from ‘fresher’ in the profession. Our own knowledge leadership in some areas has progressed from just 'product design' or 'graphic design' swiftly to ‘Design Research’, ‘India Insights’, ‘Megatrends & Foresighting’, ‘Productisation’ 'Creative Engineering' etc. while speed of delivery, like any other field, has also gone up. I thought it would be good to jot down some of the basics that we struggle to inculcate in the freshers. Infact this may be useful to all ‘freshers in the service industry’ on how to prepare brace for the changing professional world around them.

1. QUICK PRIMING: Lead team goes and meets clients. Understands their business complexity and vision stages. Team also expounds the work done earlier at Onio at length and comes back charged with the mandate to be handed over to the creative team. At this juncture, seniors in the team are looking for quick resonances of the though process within the team. A classical mind suggests “this is just the beginning of the assignment...just collecting information right now”- While the new mind actually puts the project on the mental assembly line already. Mind starts searching immediate correlations, possibilities and some time even some preliminary thoughts on outcome, without getting attached to it. In a days’ time, the new mind has actually chewed the content and it is now ready with a set of some important questions for the client. New mind’s best tool is Google and the best friend is solitude. New mind is absorbs fast and tries to run concurrently on conception and delivery.

2. STRUCTURE IT: Sun Tzu says in the ‘Art of War’- “that army shall win which arrives first and waits for the enemy”. In the era of downpour of information and reducing attention span, it is stupid to let the audience /boss/client structure the content pushed down to them. People want to grab the sense of everything you are saying, top down i.e. they quickly want to understand the macro-context and then a ‘bit’ of micro. Rarely someone wants to go whole hog in your presentations. We work with European clients as well with Asian clients. Koreans would insist on putting complete story on one slide, with top five conclusions/actions also. While Europeans would call it kitsch and would go in a more story telling way. However, our experience shows that the world is tilting to East now. How fast a person can assimilate thoughts and how smoothly one can put them in visual hierarchy, gets the cake.

3. HOT FRONT SEATING: It is usually cozy back there. The one on the front has to go through the grill of handling comments and expectation on the opposite ends. Sooner one gets the taste of being there on the front, the faster his/her personality gets the boost. Those who let themselves fall in the background, remain untouched from the brutal shocks of ‘prim and proper communication’, tight deadlines, negotiation on the delivery front etc., but they also lose all the glamour of meeting high & the mighty, travel to far off places and also building a personal brand.

4. 10000 HOUR RULE STAYS: Well this is not my proposition. Malcom Gladwell already proposed it in ‘Outliers’. I am just copying it for the sake of validating his point of view and supporting it with my experience. We have seen how smooth talkers with no-substance winning the first chance, but sooner or later, they fall like a dry leaf. Getting a good command on any domain and any skill is going to take years. More than often, you would need a good guide and a mentor in the initial years, who could happen to be a tough boss. Persevere it. People who found their way inside Onio by being street smart were also shown the street soon Organisation has its own mind. System, sooner of later, ejects a person not really fitting in. On the contrary, those who began humbly; built their skills brick by brick and remained honest about it, proved to be the winners and became a darling of the team.

5. POSITIVITY MEETS POSITIVITY: As one enters the organization, one comes across a variety of people and a variety of vibes. A happy lot will be envied. A disgruntled lot will try to increase their clout. The neutral lot will try to see the newbie with indifference and “let’s see” eyes. It is up to the new entrant, to pick up the right side of the situation. No system can hang in negativity for long. It resolves itself one way or the other. So make sure to listen to those who are still anchoring positivity. There must be deeper reasons.

6. CURATE YOUR WORK: Care for your work and your work place like ‘painting of the Monalisa in Louvre’ respectively. However ordinary the job and the work place is, it must be taken just about a little less than the worship (equating the daily work to worship, denigrates the spiritual realm, in my opinion). People who forget to close the door behind or to put the chair back in place when they leave, are actually the people who can’t find the document in time or can’t recall an important conversation with the client. People who were found to be careless in communication were also the people who were careless in their work. Though there are exceptions everywhere. Seniors are always looking for a person whom they can trust for full delivery of a task assigned. People who are half committed to themselves, are also half committed to the work and the company they are working for.

AUTOEXPO 2012 - Memoirs

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 04:52:00 +0000

Better late then never. This post was written long back...didn't get to post it.
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We chose to go there on non-media and non press day, primarily to see how consumers react to the new launches and experiences created by the emerging biggest auto market of the world. And just to put on the record, people/consumers didn’t disappoint us, but the new products on display did.

Queue to get into the Autoexpo- of those, who had a valid ticket

Car colors are spilling over to LCVs now

One of the eye-catcher styling- Renault Dezir

Real-Virtual integration at Maruti Stall- LIKES
on facebook are displayed instantly on the large screen at the entry and exit

Camera styling now crossing over to scooters- TVS Qube

Affable styling of Maruti XAlpha concept- reminds of Swift- the hot seller
hatchback small car

BMW stall- Launching the Mini - Thanks for lifting it up for public view- Crowd swelled to unbearable levels later

Entering the expo at 11am in the morning, we were on our toes till 6pm in the evening. Seven hours of visual blitzkrieg and several pulls and pushes in the crowd, left us utterly tired. We entered through gate seven, and headed straight to Maruti pavilion. Lack of proper signage is not something new to Indian eyes. While malls, roads, airports and hospitals are getting the due upgrades which India didn’t think, will happen to it so fast, signage and navigation guidance is a missing piece in the puzzle. Western best practices of certain distance, and certain signage are followed, but the kind of crowd that swells up in India is something unforeseen under ‘global best practices’. We need bolder and bigger signboard that can be read from 30-40 feet away. Signboards that are placed below 10 feet height get obscured by the people themselves. Once inside the venue, you are literally left to guide yourselves by looking at the tallest hoardings/banners of the halls. Later, I noticed some people passing by the hall, where huge banner of Mahindra was hanging (though the brands like Renault, Enfield, Hero, Bajaj were also present), saying “arey chal, Mahindra ko kya dekhna ( hey, let’s skip Mahindra)”. Searching for toilets was not so difficult. One can just ask any guard and he promptly points the direction. However, there were no sign of the signage here, which is assumed to be a basic mandate for any event of this size.

Maruti, stall stood out, in my opinion on several counts. It did present an aggressive styling stance in the new concepts, missing so far in vanilla mode it has been running. The small SUV styled on the lines of Swift, appeared to have got the elements of bold and robust styling along with elegance of the Swift. Indian sensibilities are not tuned to the extremes. Or I would say, there is a feminine touch to styling that Indian mind seeks. XUV of Mahindra has been styled with ‘prancing leopard’ as an inspiration yet it does appear ‘feminised’ in several elements. I also overheard that though Maruti presents several new ideas and refreshing styling in the concept models, but fails miserably in translating them into real products. Maruti’s application of new color scheme on the existing models was refreshing. Use of multi-hued matt-metallic colors was refreshing. It was a sort of deja-vu for us, as we had forecasted these colors for mobile phone two years back. Trickle down of trends from accessories to automobiles takes this much time. Another interesting element common to many stalls but more aggressively used by Maruti was using Facebook registration desk and fingerprint terminals at each display that picks up your ‘likes’ and runs a scroll on a giant screen at the exit. Exhibition design today is getting digital more and more. TVS stall had a giant cylindrical screen (360 degree), of around 10 meters diameter, with a co-ordinated projection through several projectors, creating a seamless experience of giant screen around you. Later, I met the MD of Insta Group in the flight on way back to Pune, the company who designed and executed the stall. I did congratulate him for the good work here and how his small company, which has acquired a few companies abroad, is trying to make an Indian dent in the global exhibition industry.

In 2006, when we conducted the first ever Mega-trends conference in India, along with Style-Vision of France, the film ‘Dhoom’ was just released. The trend ‘Magic Kingdom’ took note of the economic and infrastructure revolution in the country and predicted that everything mega, over sized, super-powered and over designed is about to come to the country. One can see the power-bikes on display at Autoexpo and can see that this trend has matured. From TVS to Suzuki to Hero, all had put up ‘power’ version of the bikes. Polaris had put up the off-roaders on display. As the Trend ‘Hypershift’ predicts the boom in ‘activities’ rather than ‘relaxation’, in the times to come, off-roaders and SUVs or SUV looks are a foregone conclusion in automotives.

My personal favorite in styling was Renault’s Dezir. The sensuous curves of Ferrari legacy were well contrasted with Techno-fluid grills. Bionic design of seats, gull-wing doors, combined with magical use of LEDs were some of the interior elements that complemented the styling. Pixel from Tata was another refreshing styling. Reva redesign proved to be disappointing. Rear treatment of Reva made it look more boxier than it currently looks.

Bajaj’s RE-60 seemed to have lost the sheen it originally envisaged. People commenting on TV “arey, auto ko ek wheel aur laga diya hai (just another wheel added to the autorickshaw)”, had already toned down expectations. We got to know that the primary market for RE-60 may actually be south-east Asian market rather than India. My own calculation with regards to Indian auto-market is that Bajaj is committing the same positioning mistake that Tata did with Nano. For an autorikshaw owner, Nano might now appear a worthwhile option after spending few more bucks. Indian consumers still get driven not by absolute virtues, but with relative comparisons. In my opinion, Bajaj should quickly plan another upstream product in small car range to fully utilize the potential of the innovation they have cobbled together without a foreign partner.

One of the noticeable things this time, at least for me, was presence of ‘Brand accessories’ by Enfield and Yamaha. Though the Enfield stall was badly designed the write-ups and the display of brand accessories was impressive. India is just about beginning to get the taste of ‘brand cults’, which are a purely western phenomenon.

We could not see the BMWs, Volkswagen, Merc stalls closely as the crowd swelled to a level where you are guided by the push and pulls of the crowd. One of the things common between them was that unlike others, despite having a large exhibition area, they enclose the stalls from the top also and use empty spaces and lights to maximize the appeal.

Overall, this year’s autoexpo proved to be standing at a lower alter than I expected. It did not have enough inspiring content- products, displays, event management and the perennial hunt ‘India Insights’ – all seemed to be wanting. Probably this is the reason that this blog post I wrote immediately after coming back from the expo, yet it is being put on the net after four months.

India Trending 2012

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:49:00 +0000

As 2011 ended, the last week of the year was a good time to socialise a bit. As an innovation strategist, I think it is a blessing to be living in a middle-class housing society. I don’t need to travel too far for insights into consumer innovation for India. It happens right in my house and also next door. My house is located in one of the suburbs of Pune, which earlier used to be a satellite town of Pune and today is probably in the heart of the city. Next to our gated community (somewhat dated building by now), there is a small slum settlement, which is a good source of support manpower – drivers, house-maids, cleaners, painters etc. Our house-help, who lives there is a constant source of updates on what is happening in the rural belt of the region; what is the prevailing political mood around during the local elections etc. Residents of our housing society are an upwardly mobile crowd with both the spouses in a family gainfully employed. Since our building is close to a busy street, I can walk down to purchase daily consumables and at the same time visit a bank, gym or a sports stadium - all at a walking distance. Thus I get a wide range of spectrum to catch the pulse of people.

A fellow resident happens to be a distributor of luxury eyewear in the state. I asked him if there was any pointer to a ‘double-dip’ in his business. He said that the overall quantity being sold has literally doubled in the year gone by. His company is on a launching spree of exclusive stores and that is allowing it to offer a wider range of eyewear which earlier was limited to only a few designs (sold through the shop-in-shop format). A data check suggests that the luxury segment in India is anyway growing at 20% CAGR, which validates my neighbour’s corroboration. Even as 60% malls are underperforming in India, the categories, which are missing exclusive retailing experiences, still have sufficient retailing ground in terms of footfalls and revenues.

Another neighbour who is a manager in a manufacturing company drives a compact, entry-level car and has a grown-up son who is yet to start earning. He recently purchased an ‘Enfield Bullet’ bike for him. Our conversation revealed to me how his son had been pestering for a specific brand. Enfield is a revived retro-bike brand, doing very well in India. He also told me how power bikes are a craze in his son’s friend circle. I found out later that, another fellow resident who also drives a compact Maruti Suzuki car had gone out of the way to purchase a ‘Yamaha Fazer’ bike for his son. In the Indian context, a USD 2000 bike is costly indulgence for an ordinary family (annual family income below USD 12,000). Motorcycle market is another promising market of India, growing at over 17% annually.

Bikes or bicycles with gears are a new aspiration for kids in the five to 15 age group, but only second to gaming. It is amazing to see bicycle stores coming up in the city selling kids’ bikes for upwards of Rs. 5000 going all the way up to few thousand dollars (not rupees). A city kid who is just seven, is able to specifically mention the brand he wants to purchase and also the accessories such as suspension, eighteen gears, pedal brakes etc.. ‘Gizmofication’ of their lives is being fuelled by TV shows like Power Ranger and easy availability of computer games. PSP, Wii, PS2, PS3 etc. are now a part of common vocabulary. Walkman or iPod now no longer are the aspiration, and are probably becoming an accessory for the older generation. My son who went to meet his friend (both study in the 6^th grade) was surprised to see his friend constantly busy with extra tuitions, while his father, constantly playing on PS3. Electronic malls like Tata Retail’s Croma ,now stock many ‘odd gadgets’ apart from massagers which were earlier stuffed only with white goods and computers. Our own trend prediction ‘Hypershift’ calls for binding innovation to ‘activities’ rather than ‘single need’. For example, a chair is not to be designed only to ‘sit comfortably’ but for ‘muscle activity’ & ‘mind activity’ instead. Combining gadgets that track and reward your muscle activities while sitting, is one of the ideas many start-ups are working on, around the world.

Mobility for working women in India 2011

LED revolution is happening around the world. As part of the on-going research at Onio, one of our teammates recently purchased an LED lamp, which took us by surprise. It was a Chinese product, resembling an ordinary LED retrofit bulb with a mode selector switch. During a power outage, this bulb can be shifted on battery mode and can operate for 8 hours. Priced around Rs. 200 (USD <5) apiece, it is a boon for what can be done with LED lights in India. Another friend of mine who lives in an upmarket gated community in Pune, changed the common lighting of his residential complex, into LED-based lighting, saving nearly half the electricity expense every month (nearly USD 6000 every year) besides of course saving natural resources. He said the ingenuous masterstroke was to retain the existing lighting fixtures and just make them LED adaptable through extra fitments. This saved a lot of replacement cost.

Trends have been usually understood in the ‘fashion design ‘parlance. Of late, I have started seeing business conferences around the world, including a session on Trends or Mega Trends, connecting them to business strategy. Onio has been organising ‘Insight India’ conferences since 2006. As we usher in another new year, I am looking forward to tie these tiny pearls of insights into a common thread of Megatrends, around the time when Pune Design Festival unfolds in Pune (tentatively around the first week of February 2012). Look out for Pune Design Festival – Trends to Business Strategy Workshop by Onio.

EMERGING INDIAN CONSUMER: A 'LEAP' YEAR AHEAD

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 08:56:00 +0000

As another year yields to a new one, the race to grab the attention (and wallets) of emerging Indian consumers, heats up even more. Amidst the cynicism of double dip and optimism of robust Indian economy that is beating all projections to emerge as the third largest market in the world, the Indian consumer is at an inflexion point of consumerism.

The ‘optimist’ Indian consumer who was ‘celebrating’ in 2006 with mega-malls, buying super big homes, bigger bikes and watching cinema in style is sort of gasping for breath at the moment. It is time for the Indian consumer to pause and reset the direction before the next race commences.

(INSET: Mini-Vending on 2Wheels: India Needs More Platforms: Photo: Manoj Kothari)

In the year that saw ‘Jasmine’ in full bloom from the Middle East to India, mobile phone customer base that rose to 800 million and Internet connections to 12 million, consumer awareness and articulation has touched new highs. Sensex has been flirting around the 16000 mark and the government is routinely getting cornered on the issue of corruption. These developments have caught the public fancy. Single brand FDI is now allowed 100% even as 60% of malls in India lie vacant leading to fears of a supply-side glut in the orgainsed retail sector. This in turn has sparked fears of a retail bubble with profitability mirage thrown in for good measure. Car launches in the country are about to touch the figure of 50 a year, as a direct indicator of what this market means for the global carmakers. Legendary innovations that are being discussed as case studies in many colleges abroad like Tata Nano, the ultra low cost (ULC) car and chhotu-cool refrigerator of Godrej are not selling as they should have been. Maruti is still the king with several lakhs of Swift cars being booked well in advance with a huge waiting period, while India centric innovation by Toyota (Etios) is yet to catch consumer fancy. These signals are mixed. But I clearly see the Indian market entering its Phase-3 of the post-liberalisation consumption. Here are the phases-

PHASE-1: LINK & LEAP: After the Western companies discovered the size and hunger for new consumption post liberalisation, they rushed to dump their ready inventory into the Indian market, leveraging existing network of local companies and distributors. Several collaborations took shape of which very few survive today. Indian companies learnt the game of scale, while their foreign counterparts learnt the tricks of handling complexity of Indian market and they parted ways. FIAT & TATA JV survives till date but may not be for long!

PHASE-2: BAZAAR-AZAR: Second phase saw the rise of home-grown consumer companies that took advantage of increasing consumption and scaled up their operations in the times of less competition. King of Indian retail, Future Group led the trend leaving the early movers like Shopper Stop far behind. Some touch of Indian habits like open-grain retailing within air-conditioned Bazaar were some touches of localisation of the new formats. Launch of Tata Nano car falls in the same category. This phase made use of Western best-practices but most of the output in this phase resembled prototypes rather than finished products. Late entrants in online retail like Flipkart is one such example as well. It will be a while before Nano as an innovation, or Tata as a brand, catches the fancy of Indian consumers as Maruti did years ago. Several layers of operational perfection are long overdue. Mind you, it is not the lack of INNOVATION, but diligent attention to details thereof.

PHASE-3: BRAND BOULEVARD: After the BazaarIT phase, the next one is about springing up of small chains which will fill in the gaping holes, in the quality of delivery left by larger companies in BazaarIT phase. Innovation would be still at similar levels as in the previous phase but greater seamlessness would be evident in the consumer experience. More personalisation and a touch of more tolerant Indian hospitality will be visible across products and brands in this phase. One can already see that FabIndia as a brand is creating visual fatigue in its loyal customer base. Malls selling the same brands all over at the same price are now left with only location or food court as advantages. Brand Boulevard will open up opportunities and vistas for smaller, better-integrated and better-designed brands in such a scenario, either to collaborate with bigger ones or to establish independently. I anticipate this phase from now till the end of 2015.

PHASE-4: PERMA-NATION: Real power of Indian innovation will unfold only in the period 2015-2020. In this period, the biggies would have optimised their operational glitches and smaller players would have chalked out the expansion path. In both the cases, a mature Indian consumer would have driven home the point about judicious choices. Disruptive, frugal or just adjacent innovation; the consumer wouldn’t care less. What would matter is innovation which makes him/her more efficient, buoyant about life and provides a sense of permanence. More clues on Innovation for India which will blossom during this phase are in my TEDx talk- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUuIu2KvNCE

What is the future of Kirana Store or C-store or independent retail in India?

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 02:08:00 +0000

There was this discussion that ensued after a short lecture by three professors from University of Delft, including Prof. Rodney Fitch (of Fitch Design fame, though he does not have anything to do with that company now). It was interesting to note his observations on how organised retail is taking shape in India, is maturing in assortment, presentation and in-store communication. He also presented some pictures of independent retailers in India, fast aligning to the best practices of organised retail. People present were practising designers, innovation strategists, retail consultants and some academicians.

First, Prof. Fitch accepted that the first impression of India is that of ‘chaos’ to an outsider. While a very dynamic business environment and young population hold a lot of promise, the infrastructure gap remains a big deterrent. He was also critical of the government controlling FDI in retail. He said that in the West, whenever governments interfered with the free economy, it had always been counter productive. The big guys would always find their way around if they wish to, but the small enterprises suffer.

While several people spoke on the possibilities, the mood and tone were very defensive. Participants almost took to jingoistic tones that kirana stores or small shop keeper shave survived hundreds of years and would go on for another hundred.

Suggestions like small stores will offer more value-added services, will take on more technology, will have regional language advantage, will have better product mix for higher RoI etc. were tabled. However, I think many of these are likely to be natural responses of <500 sq ft store owners to the large and organised retail. An entrepreneur is equipped with basic ‘fend off’ skills to survive.

However, an interesting point in the discussion would be what will be the inflexion point at which the per square foot earnings of a small store will not match the aspirational living cost of these owners? A cup of tea by the roadside costs Rs 5 today. The same cup of tea, at Cafe Coffee Day costs Rs. 75. But I haven’t seen a cup of tea being sold for Rs. 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45,50, 55etc. Currently there is a huge range of price points available for expansion for differentiated positioning of the retail business.

Earlier one could only fly full service airlines like JetAirways or a low fare airline like SpiceJet, if one had to look for economy class flying. Today, even SpiceJet has multiple price points and categories within the low-fare category. JetAirways has expanded into Jet Airways Konnect, JetLite, Jet Airways Konnect Premium etc. We need to realise that our economy which is in transition, is yet to reach thepeak of consumerism, which the West is done with. With rising spending in India we have many more greys in retail between to be or not to be questions on independent stores.

I was somewhat disappointed at the overall discussion hovering around the current situation and people not being able to project strong influences that will tweak the trends. Meta-abstracting was missing from the discussion. Formalism that builds models and helps in articulating the complex topics like this were missing from the speaker as well as the audience.

One important point Prof. Fitch made in the end, was about the emergence of small store chains. While he predicted this, we can already see how a Marwari Kirana owner or a sweetmeat owner multiplies his stores in a city. How he sources his manpower from his native village, gives them a semi-hostel like accommodation to keep costs low and slowly anoints one of them as the store manager is a study in itself. Many of these stores have already taken to modern packaging, acceptance of credit cards, glass and steel counters, more interactive ambiences and usage of loyalty programmes.

I have always wondered at the business of the quintessential mochi or the cobbler on Indian streets. To be or not to be? A slight stretch of logic can give the answer...but not on the blogJ.

LEARNING THE ART IN PARTS

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 10:25:00 +0000

Last week I attended a lecture by Prof. James Wodhuysen, who is Professor of Forecasting and Innovation at De Montfort University, Leicester. Apart from other things, he spoke of how SOCIOLOGY has become a very important subject to study for connecting ‘FUTURE’ and ‘INNOVATION’. He also discussed about the need to focus on TECHNOLOGY and ENGINEERING, which has become a bit out of fashion today amongst designers.

We at Onio started engaging with SOCIOLOGY probably around 2005, when out of my own passion for futurology, Trend Research became a practice and we started working with a German automotive major, to help them structure their India entry strategy. Slowly, SOCIOLOGY, CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, ETHNOGRAPHY, MEGATRENDS kind of words started dotting Onio’s terminology. While this was on, another team at Onio headed by Prakash, co-founder of Onio, remained focused on TECHNOLOGY application, core product design and design engineering. What made this holistic approach to innovation, gain ground? It was surely a combination of rich ingredients in the roots which made our minds open to receiving wider realms, that add up to new age of innovation. On teacher’s day , I thought of a few great influences that touched me, coloured me or sometimes changed my entire trajectory for good. Here is a fond remembrance-

Remembering Immanuel Suresh, my teacher at NID, an extraordinary observer of nature, human behaviour and more importantly an extraordinary human being, gave me the understanding to connect the seemingly unconnected. Prof. B. D. Mishra who taught me at IIT Mumbai (the multifaceted talented man who represented India in Asiad in athletics, trekked with Tenzing Norgay to Mount Everest and represented India in UN on Population and Development) who exposed me to a whole new world of Futurology. I still remember the book reading sessions discussing Future Shock, Small is Beautiful and One Straw Revolution at Nescafe Stall at IIT Mumbai during the course. Together these two gentlemen fired the spark in me of diligent inquiry into the future. Current practice of Trends, Design Research and Strategy at Onio actually emanated here.

I also feel grateful to my first Alma Mater, IIT Mumbai for exposing me to wider learning through humanities courses during the study. Indian Philosophy, Psychology, English Literature and Futurology were some of my favourite courses. I felt enriched. I gained more from these and the side learning of guitar classes, reading books on grandmasters of art and science in the giant library, and by conversing with talented peers, than what I learnt in the structured courses of mechanical engineering.

I must remember Professor Ram Jaiswal at Ajmer, who was generous enough to give me water-colour and portrait painting training with no obligation. It was truly a wonder to see a master at work. I still remember the pleasure of pencil gliding and seeing the face of the person sitting in front appearing on the paper. Sketching is meditation. Sketching is a renaissance art that I cherish. While I was never a good student of Engineering Drawing at IIT, I think I was a good student at NID when it came to perspective sketching.

Prof. J. A. Panchal, who taught simple things at NID- model-making- “If you know three things perfectly- How to cut, How to join and How to distort- you can make anything”- were his famous words, stuck in my mind. He is a perfectionist and taught me to be diligent.

NID, my second Alma Mater, taught me to respect the work I do. Every piece of paper I scribble on, every sketchy drawing I make, every word I say is ‘mine’ and it is no less than a ‘piece of art’. By building love and care in our own work, we slowly move towards perfection.

My schoolmate Chaman Singh Verma had beautiful handwriting. I always ended up trying to copy his way of handling the pen and did manage to move up a few notches.

Some teachers are so busy in everyday teaching that they have no time to reflect that they have transformed the lives of hundreds of students and students are indebted to them. Mr. A.K. Rehman, my maths teacher at St. Paul’s School at Ajmer, was one such man. In those times when IIT was not even heard of, in smaller towns like Ajmer, he was one man who prodded us to think of making IIT as a career goal. Once I was at IIT(Mumbai), my life and perspective changed forever.

Valentin Manolov, a physicist from Moscow University, whom I met in a train from Ajmer to Mumbai, transformed the way I looked at spirituality. Super qualified ISKCON volunteers (some of them were PhDs in various areas) who were a regular feature at IIT that time, discussing teachings of Gita, did fuel the fire that Valentin Manolov started. Osho, whose writings articulated some more hidden areas of human life and para-knowledge, in contemporary terms. I still read the anecdotes, poems and stories spread across the Osho literature.

Renaissance master, Leonardo Da Vinci, whose sketchbook, I copied end-to-end a few times. Michael Angelo, whose biography –‘The Agony and Ecstasy’ taught me that you don’t need to live an ‘extraordinary life’ to be the man that he was.

Sunil Handa, professor at IIM-A and erstwhile MD of Core Emballage when I interned at his company, was a real hard task-master and stickler for details. He did teach me that how a person who works passionately at the task at hand, ‘never falls ill’. Famous words –“50 percent of the time of your life must be spent in arranging it carefully, so that rest of the 50 percent can be enjoyed”.

Arup Dutta and Deepak Kamath, my wing-mates at Hostel-7 in IIT, were two walking encyclopaediae of knowledge from history to movies. From correcting my English accent to telling me the story plot of ‘The Good, The Bad, The Ugly’, these two gentlemen surely helped me evolve as I am today.Vinayak Kini, my ‘weirdo’ classmate at IIT, who successfully runs a big business in USA today, who could write much better poems than I did, who freaked out ten times more than I did and still managed better marks than I did.

Genevieve Flaven, my collaborator on Trends Research and head of Style Vision, France- a magnificent trend researcher and power thinker, I did learn a great deal from her- from trend thinking to event organisation.

Prakash, my business partner, who has been a good friend all this while,taught me to have more faith in people, to accommodate more ‘greys’ while dealing with tough situations and to have ‘leader leaves the last’ virtues.

My father- who still goes out for the morning walk at 5a.m. since the time I have come into this world. Be it any weather, guests at home or a return from a tiring journey- his morning walk has never stopped. I have never seen a more steadfast man than him. I have seen that how he retained the same persistence in publishing a journal ‘Economic Challenger’ for last ten years, despite several ‘challenging’ situations where it almost closed down.

Finally, Sonali, my wife, who helped me stretch my thinking from ‘timely’ to ‘perfect’ work and from ‘done’ to ‘the way it should be’.

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