e Magus

Management's history is steeped in the rigid discipline of military order. I remember my MBA professor’s mnemonic— Manage/Men/Tactfully —a sly nod to management’s early roots in hierarchy and precision. F.W. Taylor, the father of scientific management , designed a system built on oversight and efficiency, where managers commanded from their thrones of polished mahogany. When I joined the workforce in the mid-90’s, the control structure was very much visible. The manager’s workspace spoke volumes: a cavernous office with a desk that could seat a small nation, side tables, a fridge laden with benevolence, and a sofa set that whispered exclusivity. In India, most meetings called by the manager, was called a durbar : audience in the royal court.   Control was about proximity. Managers were gatekeepers of information, issuing directives and reinforcing order with the close watch of an army general. In some companies, at the time of joining, they even required a conduct certificate, prov...

These are interesting times. With the lockdown and impeding near-recession scenario, agencies will be faced with challenges in terms of both revenue growth and being prepared for the new norm in a changed world. As advertising agency business is closely linked to client’s business and since most companies will focus on business continuity, portfolio sustenance, and holding to their market position thus impacting marketing spends…it will not be business as usual at the agency end.   Some of the answers that agency leaders seek are - Profit: Where are the growth opportunities for agencies? People: How do agencies retain/attract talent? Process: Will there be any change in the way agencies work? Growth opportunities: Going by the popular catchphrase - follow the money, we know marketers have and are investing heavily into Martech & data in a big way. Their future marketing actions would be based on these investments. As a marketing and communicat...

Pic sourced from Flexijobs I know that only a few of you will get to read this article. Taking a cue from the apocryphal Chinese saying, we are living in interesting times. It is really disturbing not being sure of how the future will be. With the virus out there and most people confined to basic travel and self-isolation, Work-from-Home might become the new norm. This article is future-gazing on the obvious and not so obvious impact, if working from home becomes common. The obvious impact would be seen in the commuting sector. There will be lower demands for automobiles, cab hailing services like Uber & Ola, and affiliated categories like fuel. The demand for commercial real estate would also decrease, with more manpower for lesser commercial spaces. Remote working pods will increase. Telecom - internet service providers would see increasing demand for data, smartphones and better computer devices that can be used for networking and collaboration would increase too...

After a long time, I attended a full NASSCOM conference (Yes, all of three days!!).  As good  events go, this event too was good, with a long line of illustrious industry  speakers (Ginni  Rometty) business leaders (Mukesh Ambani, Anand Mahendra)  to sportsperson (Anil  Kumble). The topic curiously was more introspective  rather than outward looking –  To reimagine and not reengineer While a variety of topics were discussed ( https://nilf2017.sched.com/ )  for me the key takeaways from the event were: Artificial Intelligence Virtual Reality HealthTech From IBM Watson to Startups creating NLP & Deep Learning based solutions for enterprise,  I'd noticed AI coming in all shapes and sizes. Some call it Machine Learning, some others Cognitive  Business. However, the idea that data will drive businesses is...

Season's Greetings and warm wishes for a great year! In Content Marketing, 'tis the season for either predicting the trends/things to watch out for this year or give a quick review of what worked and what didn't in the year gone by… or maybe both. My content calendar too has the same topics :) However, looking at my past blog posts that I posted around this time, I realize how repetitive the predictions were year after year. For example for past few years, all subject matter experts including me, are talking about Mobile, Augmented Reality, IoT, etc as the things to watch out for and it looks like it will remain the same for next couple of years too. Hence this year, I wanted to look at trends in a broader but more impactful perspective. I was attending a corporate event during the last week of December and got to hear various speakers from technology, consultancy, and media fields. They shared their observations and wisdom on how they perceive digital will im...

December is the month for Santa Claus and Predictions. Every ‘Influencer’ and ‘Thought Leader’ will come with a bagful of trends and predictions about what’s going to happen next year. In the spirit of yearend and Santa Claus, I too share my thoughts on what the next year holds in terms of digital marketing Customer Experience to drive Digital For the past couple of years, we have been hearing a lot about how digital/technology is impacting customer experience. Now there is a role reversal, Customer experience is going to drive digital innovations Changing formats of content Content has always been about information. Another moniker for Internet is Information Highway. This is going to change. Content is going to become more interactive. Use of visuals, A/V is going to rise. Even the format of engagement - gamefication, conversational, VR, etc will be on the rise Apps to become more personalised and social The integration of CRM principles and social marketing wil...

Manufacturing sector has always been the main driver for economic growth and creation of wealth. Be it large industries or SMEs, they have a direct association in creating more jobs and allied services. One of the biggest concerns with manufacturing has always been that it is very resource-intensive. The factories need to be built near to raw material access. They are capital heavy to start. Logistics and distribution plays a crucial role in terms reach and cost.  The advent of 3D printing technology will change the manufacturing/production model as we know now. Manufacturing might get crowd sourced. In the future, hundreds and thousands of small players (most working from home) will start making different components in small quantities and the same will be collected by the companies and assembled as the final product. Imagine, a manufacturer of Air Conditioners. Except for the crucial components, say compressor, the other parts, like the body, blower, circuit board, et...

S tarting of the year is always a good time to talk about trends and how it will impact us. I don’t want to be left behind too :) Year end or Year beginning contents are usually highlights about what happened during the past year, or what is in store for the year ahead. I too have a lot of optimism about technology, devices, digital marketing, and all other  things that I’m interested in. This is a perfect setting for writing this topic. My Kid is right now playing with his toys, building blocks, while I’ve opened my iPad and started typing this blog. There are times when I’m busy with my iPhone/ iPad and he comes over asking me to spend few minutes playing with him. Most times, I oblige. But, there are instances when I deny him my time and continue working on my devices.. his reaction is palpable.It is usually “close your iPad/mobile” “play with me, please” kind of reaction.  This made me think, as we spend more time with our devices, there is a potential for a ch...

I ’m not sure why am I even writing about this. It is mid-March and there would be 1000’s of articles forecasting what will happen this year. Do I need to add more pixels to the ones that are already there? Well, maybe...or maybe not. Having worked in the digital marketing for so long, I’ve realized that we tend to forecast the same thing over and over again like - the mobile story, online video, the King content, etc - and guess what, most of the time this holds true - like statement written on stone :). The following are what I’d want to add on to what other Digital Marketing pundits have predicted: Digital story-retelling: For long brands in India have looked at online as a place to create and publish content. Most social media activities too are loosely based on content distribution and ‘engagement’ (from contests to customer service to games). The most popular stories are children’s story or mythology - and the reason for their popularity is that it is simple and easily ...

One good thing about writing about future trends is that no one has been there. If you are wrong, nobody notices; and if you are right, you could tom-tom about it, saying, ‘I said so…’ So, here I go with my 4 safe bets for the year:: 1) Facebook will become more Google 2) Google will become more Facebook 3) Year of engagement (likeable and shareable) 4) Convergence – One content, many formats Facebook will become more Google: Even today, advertisement revenues happen to be lifeline for most online platforms. The success of the Google PPC campaigns is based on the ability to place preferred advertisement, with high relevancy. This Google business model hinges on its algorithm. Be it the ubiquitous search results or their adwords, it all is possible because of the logic that is build basis the data. Advertising on Facebook has so far been on the basis of the user profile. But, unlike the profile, which becomes mostly static (as most people do not update it after creating it)…....

There was a time when the roles were clearly defined and work demarcated. Each person and department knew what their function were, where it began and where it ended. As technology got adapted into business, the lines began to blur. And as technology evolved, the lines have almost disappeared. Now-a-days, it seems like, you need to be jack-of-all-trades and maybe master in some too. The same can be said about gadgets. Each gadget found its origin for a specific task. Be it the pagers, mobile phones, computers, music players, cameras, etc.. all having a specific role and function. However, as the technology grew, so did the blurring of roles and functions. Newer gadgets came across amalgamating different functions - Laptops, iPods, Smart-phones, iPads... The most versatile of the gadget is the one that hogs the limelight. Imagine, today, with a versatile gadget one can do 'normal' stuff like - - make calls, access internet, click pictures, check mails, listen to songs, c...