Management Lessons from Movie "3 Idiots"

1. Never try to be Successful

Success is the bye-product. Excellence always creates success. So, never run after the success, let it happen automatically in the life.

2. Freedom to Life

Don’t die before actual death. Live every moment to the fullest as you are going to die today night. Life is gifted to humankind to live and live happily.

3. Passion leads to Excellence

When your hobby becomes your profession and passion becomes your profession. You will be able to lead up to excellence in the life. Satisfaction, pleasure, joy and love will be the outcome of following passion. Following your passion for years, you will surely become something one day.

4. Learning is very simple

Teachers do fail. Learners never fail. Learning is never complicated or Learning is always possible whatever rule you apply.

5. Pressure at Head

Current education system is developing pressures on students’ head. University intelligence is useful and making some impact in the life but it cannot be at the cost of the life.

6. Life is Emotion Management not Intelligence Optimization

Memory and regular study have definite value and it always helps you in leading a life. You are able to survive even if you can make some mark in the path of the life. With artificial intelligence, you can survive and win but you cannot prove yourself genius. Therefore, in this process genius dies in you.

7. Simplicity is Life

Desires have no ends. Simplicity is way of life and Indian culture highly stresses on simple living and high thinking, and this is the way of life: ‘Legs down to earth and eyes looking beyond the sky’.

Algorithmic Trading

Thousands of day traders earning a living from arbitrage opportunities in Indian stock markets may become extinct in the next few years, thanks to the accelerating interest in algorithmic trading.

In electronic financial markets, algorithmic trading or automated trading, also known as algo trading, black-box trading or robo trading, is the use of computer programs for entering trading orders with the computer algorithm deciding on aspects of the order such as the timing, price, or quantity of the order, or in many cases initiating the order without human intervention. There could be thousands of codes written to buy or sell a security, currency or commodity at a particular level when one or more factors emerge.

Algorithmic Trading is widely used by pension funds, mutual funds, and other buy side (investor driven) institutional traders, to divide large trades into several smaller trades in order to manage market impact, and risk. These programs are so fast that people, who look at various developments and decide trade, would be left behind because a machine has done it in milliseconds.

Algorithmic trading may be used in any investment strategy, including market making, inter-market spreading, arbitrage, or pure speculation (including trend following). The investment decision and implementation may be augmented at any stage with algorithmic support or may operate completely automatically ("on auto-pilot").

Example of Algorithmic Trading: A program could be to sell the stock fortunes of a particular company and buy the stock, if the fortune price is x% higher than the stock price. Also, it could be to compare a set of variables – if rupee is more than 45 to the dollar and crude oil is less than $60 per barrel, then software would sell Infosys futures and buy HPCL shares.

In 2006 at the London Stock Exchange, over 40% of all orders were entered by algo traders, with 60% predicted for 2007. National Stock Exchange (NSE) has approved applications of about 200 of its members to trade using algorithms.

Reference: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/market-news/Algorithms-may-push-day-traders-to-the-brink/articleshow/5438544.cms

Social Network Marketing

Social media marketing or social network marketing is a term that describes use of social networks, online communities, blogs, wikis or any other online collaborative media for marketing, sales, public relations and customer service. Common social media marketing tools include Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.

Most successful internet marketers today are using social network marketing as an effective way to prospect and promote. Social networking sites are a hot topic for marketers, as they present a number of opportunities for interacting with customers, including via plug-in applications, groups, and fan pages. Many sites include features where companies can create profiles. For example, on Facebook companies can create "pages" where users can become fans of this company, product, service, individual, etc.

The success in social network marketing comes from successfully targeting and offering the right product to the right market.

You do not want to enter social networking for the sole purpose of selling. Your goal with social network is to develop a brand for yourself. You do this by attraction marketing. The more you share your wealth of knowledge the more you will become known as an expert in your field.

Facebook seems to be the leading social media outlet for businesses by having pages from different companies such as Dots, New York and Company. Twitter comes in 2nd place and Myspace comes in 3rd place.

Social Networks are a valuable meeting place and should always be used to provide value and to build your personal or business brand and following. Social Networks can be a great place to build visibility and awareness and this is important because as consumers we are driven to trust familiarity and repetition.

Carbon Trading

Carbon trading (also known as cap and trade) is an administrative approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants. Sometimes called emissions trading, is a market-based tool to limit GHG (Greenhouse Gas Emissions). It is the most visible result of early regulatory efforts to mitigate climate change, and grew out of the Kyoto Protocol, which was adopted in 1997. The protocol requires that by 2012, developed countries will achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions of at least 5% against baseline levels of 1990.

In carbon trading, a limit or cap is set by a central authority (usually a governmental body) on the amount of a pollutant that can be emitted. Companies or other groups are issued emission permits and are required to hold an equivalent number of allowances (or credits) which represent the right to emit a specific amount. The total amount of allowances and credits cannot exceed the cap, limiting total emissions to that level. Member firms that do not have enough allowances to cover their emissions must either make reductions or buy another firm's spare credits. Members with extra allowances can sell them or bank them for future use. The transfer of allowances is referred to as a trade. In effect, the buyer is paying a charge for polluting, while the seller is being rewarded for having reduced emissions by more than was needed. These cap and trade schemes can either be mandatory or voluntary.

In 2005 the European Union created the world's first proper carbon market, the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which compels highly polluting industries to buy permits to emit CO2.

A successful cap-and-trade scheme relies on a strict but feasible cap that decreases emissions over time. If the cap is set too high, an excess of emissions will enter the atmosphere and the scheme will have no effect on the environment. It can also drive down the value of allowances, causing losses in firms that have reduced their emissions and banked credits. If the cap is set too low, allowances are scarce and overpriced.

Some cap and trade schemes have safety valves to keep the value of allowances within a certain range. If the price of allowances gets too high, the scheme's governing body will release additional credits to stabilize the price. The price of allowances is usually a function of supply and demand.

Carbon emissions trading has been steadily increasing in recent years. According to the World Bank's Carbon Finance Unit, 374 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) were exchanged through projects in 2005, a 240% increase relative to 2004 (110 mtCO2e) which was itself a 41% increase relative to 2003 (78 mtCO2e).

Certain emissions trading schemes have been criticised for the practice of grandfathering, where polluters are given free allowances by governments, instead of being made to pay for them. Critics instead advocate for auctioning the credits.

India is the fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world in absolute terms. But its per capita emission of 1.2 tons per person per year is much lower than the West’s figure of 20 tons, or than the global average of 8 tons. If India has to realize its ambitions of economic growth and take large sections of its population out of the low income trap, it must grow. That means greenhouse gas emission reductions will continue to be one of the country’s greatest challenges.

India certainly being the preferred location for carbon credit buyers or project investors because of its strategic position in the world today.

The companies all over the world rightnow are just adapting to changes brought by Kyoto Protocol and as and when this industry gets mature, we will see how this will impact the world globally bringing in changes across all sectors. This impact is inevitable as "Carbon" becomes the biggest commodity to be traded ever, in the world!

Social Marketing

Social marketing is the use of commercial marketing techniques to promote the adoption of a behavior that will improve the health or well-being of the target audience or of society as a whole. The key characteristic that distinguishes social marketing from commercial marketing is the purpose; that is, the benefits accrue to the individual or society rather than to the marketer’s organization. Social marketing can be applied to promote merit goods, or to make a society avoid demerit goods and thus to promote society's well being as a whole. For example, this may include asking people not to smoke in public areas, asking them to use seat belts, or prompting to make them follow speed limits.

Social marketing was "born" as a discipline in the 1970s, when Philip Kotler and Gerald Zaltman realized that the same marketing principles that were being used to sell products to consumers could be used to "sell" ideas, attitudes and behaviors.

A social marketing program might not be as effective for certain issues such as complex problems with many contributing or confounding factors, problems not under individual control (e.g. genetic flaws), and addictive disorders. Social marketing is at its best when used to effect and sustain healthful or socially beneficial behavior change, increase program use, or build customer satisfaction with existing services.

Social marketers, dealing with goals such as reducing cigarette smoking or encouraging condom use, have more difficult goals: to make potentially difficult and long-term behavioral changein target populations. It is sometimes felt that social marketing is restricted to a particular spectrum of client -- the non-profit organization, the health services group, the government agency. These often are the clients of social marketing agencies, but the goal of inducing social change is not restricted to governmental or non-profit charitable organizations; it may be argued that corporate public relations efforts such as funding for the arts are an example of social marketing.

Lifebuoy's “Swasthya Chetna” (LSC) was a five-year health and hygiene education program initiated by Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL). The program was formally launched in 2002, in eight states across India. The objective of this program was to educate around 200 million people in rural and urban areas about the importance of adopting good ‘health and hygiene' practices. The program spread awareness about germs and their adverse effects on health, and how proper ‘health and hygiene' practices, such as bathing and washing hands with soap could prevent diseases like diarrhea.

Nirma vs HUL

Until about twenty years ago, the rural market of India was considered a
homogenous mass. The decade of 1980s was a significant one for Hindustan Lever Ltd. (Now HUL), when the giant and undisputed market leader in detergents (Surf) in India suffered significant losses at the hands of a new and small firm, Nirma Chemicals.

In 1969, Karsanbhai Patel, a chemist at the Gujarat Government's Department of Mining and Geology manufactured phosphate free Synthetic Detergent Powder, and started selling it locally. The new yellow powder was priced at Rs. 3.50 per kg, at a time when HLL’s Surf was priced at Rs 15. Soon, there was a huge demand for Nirma in Ruppur (Gujarat), Patel’s hometown. He started packing the formulation in a 10x10ft room in his house. Patel named the powder as Nirma, after his daughter Nirupama. Patel was able to sell about 15-20 packets a day on his way to the office on bicycle, some 15 km away. By 1985, Nirma washing powder had become one of the most popular, household detergents in many parts of the country.

Nirma was the lowest- priced branded washing powder available in grocery stores. The middle-class housewife was happy as she could now choose a lower-priced washing powder against Surf, which was beyond her budget. Nirma also had an impact on upper-middle-class and higher income families, who chose Nirma for washing their inexpensive clothes.

Around 1984, HLL decided to take a fresh look at the market. In order to counter attack Nirma, HLL launched Sunlight (yellow), Wheel (green) and Rin (blue) detergent powders for different market segments. This strategy of segmenting the market helped HLL win back part of its lost market.

Unforgettable TV Jingles

There were various TV commercial jingles which I heard and watched in my childhood. There are few of them which I can sing out even now. These bring smiles on our faces and make us remember our childhood days. These jingles have been mingled in most of our daily lives. We use them many times while talking.

Well, jingles are a very powerful way to etch something into people’s memory. Memory courses teach people to associate numbers or answers with rhymes or two liners. You ignore the jingles, but they will find a way out, to haunt you, because they are designed to follow you where-ever you go…like the dog in the Hutch ad. They do control our minds, not just like that! The makers of jingles go through audience research and many rigorous tests. So the ad-effect is inevitable.

Some of the most popular jingles are:

1. Lifebuoy: “Tandurusti ki raksha karta hai Lifebuoy, Lifebuoy hai jahan, tandurusti hai wahan…Lifebuoy”.Some of the most popular jingles are:

2. Nirma: “Washing powder Nirma, Washing powder Nirma, doodh si safedi nirma se aaye, rangeen kapda bhi khil khil jaaye, sabki pasand Nirma, washing powder Nirma, washing powder Nirma….Nirma”

3. Borolin: “Khushbudaar antiseptic cream borolin”

4. Bajaj: “Buland Bharat ki buland tasveer, hamara Bajaj, hamara Bajaj, hamara Bajaj”.

5. ECE Bulb: “Bhool na jana ECE bulb hi lana, jyada de ujala, din-o-din chalne wala, ECE bulb aur ECE tube.”

6. Amul: “Zara si hansi, dulaar zara sa, Amul – the taste of India”

7. Nescafe: “Ho shuru har din aise, ho shuru har pal aise…Nescafe”

8. Promotion for Milk: “Doodh doodh doodh, doodh hai wonderful, pee sakte hain roz glassful, doodh doodh doodh doodh, garmi mein daalo doodh mein ice, doodh ban gaya very nice, peeyo daily once aur twice, mil jaayega tasty surprise, doodh doodh doodh doodh.”

9. Promotion for Egg: “Meri jaan meri jaan murgi k ande, Sunday ho ya Monday roz khaao ande”

10. Promotion for Condom: “Pyaar hua iqraar hua hai pyaar se fir kyun darta hai dil”

11. Pepsi: “Yehi hai right choice baby..Aha!”

12. Close Up: “Kya aap close up karte hain, ya duniya se darte hain, aap close up kyun nahi karte hain”

13. Tajmahal Tea: “Wah Ustaad nahi, wah Taj boliye”

14. Bournvita: “Tan ki shakti, mann ki shakti..bournvita”

15. Frooty: “Mango Frooti, fresh and Juicy…Mango Frooti”