Shiv Shivakumar

This is the full new look of Air India

Weekly Learnings 33

Competition is human just like you and me.

I landed in Male yesterday for a keynote session at a Life Sciences company's offsite.

I was waiting for the boat to transfer me from the airport to the hotel when Arunselvam walked up to me. Arun works for Coca Cola Maldives and is from Salem. He was in Coca Cola India till 2015 and a competitor.

He is the key account manager in Coca Cola in Maldives and has 100 pc market share!!

Arun was amazing, he insisted on treating me to a tea / coffee, took me to the coffee shop and ordered the tea/ coffee. He enquired about my booking etc and offered to help in any way.Arun was warm and gracious. It was humbling to be treated so well.

I reflected back on how we deal with competition as managers for this note.

1. We look at competition as enemies both at a company level and an individual level.

2. We look at competition as a zero sum game,one wins other loses. in some individual cases this could be true eg for a promotion etc but the options are many.

3. I have always had good relationships with my competition from the time I was an area sales manager. I have always reached out and gone to see them in their offices.

4. I believe one competes in the consumers mind and while you respect competition,you have to do a better job of winning with the consumer. In many cases managers used media to pull down competition.

5. In every company review meeting or board meeting,the competition is always portrayed as being underhanded, unscrupulous and doing silly things. In most cases this narrative is wrong.

6.In Nokia, I always asked for inputs from Motorola, Sony Ericsson, LG and Samsung if I was ever on a TV show or meeting the government on matters that could benefit the industry.We ran an electronics waste recycling program for the whole industry and not just Nokia phones in the Nokia priority dealer retail network.

7.In PepsiCo I reached out to Venkatesh Kini and Krishna Kumar and told them I would never speak ill of them in media. We worked together to see if GST could be at 28 pc.We went and met the late Finance minister Mr Arun Jaitly in his office on a Saturday afternoon. Kini called me a day or two before the news broke of his leaving Coke. I respected that. When Roger Enrico of PepsiCo passed away Coca Cola ran a full page ad in the USA saluting him. That was class.

8. Today's rules on products and advertising are much tighter and one cannot do what competing ads or claims did in the 90 s. Today's social media also pushes consumers to take sides quickly. Consumers typically tend to favor the underdog because every individual has experienced that feeling on some occasion.

9.The nature of competition today is not between brands but between ecosystems.

We need more Arun's in every industry. The industry will be a better place and will have more respect.

Respecting your competition but winning in the consumers mind is my lesson.

shiv
Arunselvam Alagesan
www.shivshivakumar.com

Happy to be a LinkedIn Influencer

As I start my journey as a LinkedIn Influencer, I want to share with you my five takeaways from this platform.

1. I have been on LinkedIn for just four years. It is the only social media platform I use. It is both a formal and informal way of staying connected with professional colleagues.
2. I have expanded my network, learnt from the perspectives of the various posts and kept pace of professional people moves. I think I have got a lot more than what I have given on this platform.
3. I have shared some summaries of books I read and my speaker engagement presentations on LinkedIn. I wish I had done this earlier. I like and read all the comments , both positive and challenging comments and learn from them.
4.LInkenIn learning is a continuous process- 'Learning is a fire to be lit, not a bucket to be filled' LinkedIn lights that learning fire.
5. My book 'The Right Choice' was marketed only via linkedIn posts in the middle of the pandemic and made it to the bestseller list. I must thank LinkedIn and the community.

Stay in touch if you want to connect about
#careers
#transformation
#digital
#leadership
and #marketing

Here's a caricature that one of my colleagues gave me after the book success !!

shiv
www.shivshivakumar.com

#createOnLinkedIn #linkedincreators

Ankit Vengurlekar (he/him)
Vaishnavi Singh

Independence day National anthem sung in the voices of the founding leaders thanks to Generative AI.

Independence day ads are many.
This content from Aaj Tak is a memorable one and strikes the right patriotic chord.

Thanks Rahul for sharing this truly creative communication.

shiv
www.shivshivakumar.com
Hindustan aaj tak
Rahul Kanwal

The Art of Management went into reprint last month,three months after launch.

The new cover comes with the National Bestseller tag.

Thanks to all the buyers, readers, contributors,editors in making this book a bestseller.

Thanks Penguin, thanks Autumn grey,thanks Atika Gupta and team,thanks Poonam Kaul for your contribution

Penguin Random House
Radhika Marwah
Poonam Kaul
Atika Gupta

AutumnGrey (Autumn Worldwide)

The new Nokia X 30 5G phone

I just started using this new Nokia phone. I am a Nokia loyalist and have only used Nokia phones all my life.

I think Nokia has built a great smartphone with the XR 30. Am really happy for Nokia. This phone is stylish,fluid,slim with great color rendition.

I liked the eco-friendly approach,the back case is recycled plastic and the body is recycled aluminium.The packaging reflects the eco friendly theme.

Its very light at 185 gms, it has a 50 MP pure view camera, and its low light imaging is awesome.

I was happy to hear from the Nokia team that they still have a 20 % share of the feature phone market but need to win big in smartphones.

Self declaration - I posted this on my own,no one in Nokia asked for this.

shiv
HMD Global
Sanmeet Singh Kochhar

Burger King Indonesia

Spent last week in Indonesia with the board.

1.Visited all types of QSR outlets
2.Saw the launch of Popeyes
3.Got to know the local team
4.Tasted the new innovations on the menu.

There is no substitute to getting a personal perspective via a market visit. As John Le Carre said ' A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world'

Picture of board dinner with Sandeep Dey and his team. Thanks Madhulika for handling the week's schedule and arrangements effortlessly.

shiv
www.shivshivakumar.com
Sandeep Dey
Madhulika Rawat
Sandeep Chaudhary
Ajay Kaul
Amit Manocha Jaspal Sabharwal
Sumit Zaveri