It is funny when things work out the way in a manner you never expected them to.You try hard to explain a concept to someone and that person simplifies it for you in three simple words.

It was a typical response to a lead we received one day, we set up an initial meeting with the prospective client. Objective of the meeting was to understand his needs and goals and explain to him in short on what we do.
First and the most basic rule of B2B sales, never pitch to the client the first day, naturally it becomes very hard to explain “what we do?” without explaining “what we can do for you?”
So I set out on the very first meeting, keeping in mind on what will be the agenda of the meeting. I waited for about 10 minutes in the lobby before I was ushered in by a polite peon. After formal exchange of greetings and pleasantries the prospective client shot at me, “Tell me what you people can do for me.” Ah! The Golden rules ‘never pitch to the client the first day’ so I tried to cover up saying, “First I would like to get an understanding of your business, your needs and goals. After a brief introduction of his business, I started out on what we do…

Basically we are a strategic design firm. In simpler words we provide online strategies to clients across various functions like Marketing, Sales, Innovation, Branding and communication, Website usability etc.

So are we an Internet Marketing firm? No.Are we a web design firm? No Then what are we?

Let’s take it form of two examples.
1. In construction of a building there are basically two people involved an Architect and a contractor. The Architect prepares the blueprint of the building and the contractor constructs the building accordingly. Here we are the architects who prepare the online strategy blueprint.
2. in an orchestra there are musicians and a conductor, the conductor composes the music and conducts the orchestra and the musicians play it accordingly, here we are the conductor who composes and conducts the online strategies.

So after this long explanation, I expected the person to be perplexed and ready with more questions. But to my amazement he had a clear and calm expression on his face and said, “So you mean to say that you are like an Outsourced Online Brain?”Simple!

I was having a conversation with my wife at home the other day and complained that my eyes hurt. She immediately reminded me of the “Frame” she had gifted me about 6 months back so that I could go change my glasses and wear something that looks more trendy!!! It has been over 2 years for sure that I have got my eyes checked. It is sheer inertia that I have not done this. I checked with a number of people and most do not check their eyes even once a year even if they wear prescription glasses.

This is where Opticians (I have loosely used this term to indicate all the retailers who deal with prescription glasses) have an opportunity. Their needs to be a mechanism for a company like Lawrence and Mayo to utilize this opportunity and build year on year ongoing revenue by just servicing their existing customers. How about rather than just sending once a year “Happy Birthday” SMS that Lawrence and Mayo does (this itself is admirable since most other retailers I have shopped with do not even do this all though this is a straight forward activity which a Software could do), if these guys have mobile Optometrists go to customers and check their eyes. I would have changed my glasses atleast 3 times in the last 2.5 years had this been done. And just imagine the wonders Word of Mouth Marketing from existing customers would do for Lawrence and Mayo’s business. Vivek (Marketing Director of Lawrence and Mayo – is a good acquaintance) are you hearing!!!!!

We were just having an internal discussions around building community centric products in India. One of our team member vehemently disagreed with this idea saying that with all these community divisions that already exist across so many issues in this country, doing so would be morally irresponsible. I kind of don’t buy into this idea personally. As an organization I believe our role is to help our customers reach out most effectively to their users and if it can be done using a community centric approach then why not do so.

As an idea why can’t one of the telecom service providers launch a Value Added Service only for say the Parsi Community and call the service “Patra ni Macchi”. Obviously the factors like will this VAS generate revenue and more importantly ongoing revenue is something that will need to be considered. Studying the Parsi community closely would surely give answers to these questions. So Vodafone, Aircel, Airtel – are you listening!!! “Patra ni Macchi” might be your next big Value Added Service.

It is obvious that cultural differences exist across different countries and in India across states as well. Having travelled in the the US and having lived all my life in India some things pop out of my mind right away. One of this is around table manners while eating — In the US it is OK to blow your nose (your own nose ofcourse!!!) with a tissue when you are eating. But you would never do that in India. Why is it so? My mind works very simplistically and makes me conclude that one reason could be that most Indians do not use a tissue paper to blow their nose. They would either use their handkerchiefs or their bare hands to blow their nose. Maybe since most Indians eat with their bare hands rather than with the spoon/knife/fork it is not possible to blow your nose with dirty hands. A rather weird conclusion but could be a good start to find the real reasons!!

Also in India it is OK to belch while eating. Actually not sure why people do this but a lot of people do this. Just heard my father in law a couple of days back do this on the dinner table. You would never do that in the US. Why is it so? Maybe Indians overeat and that leads to belching. Maybe the kind of food and the ingredients within the food and the way it is prepared that leads to belching.

Next time you sit on your dinner table you now have some interesting conversation to engage in!!

We have been discussing internally that we need to start blogging for a while but never got to it. It was high time that we as “Design Thinkers” started expressing ourselves.

As they say “Necessity is the Mother of Invention” similarly I think “Procrastination is the Mother of Failure”.. We have finally got over the hurdle of starting this blog. Lots to write and lots to share. We will keep expressing ourselves from now on.