Legalizing of Prostitution as a Trade:Management guru's perspective

                                                                      
Today the author will like to write a blog that deals with a very controversial issue.It is about legalizing Prostitution as a trade.Before the advent of the blog the author will like to clarify the fact that he doesn’t intend to promote or even justify prostitution. The philosophical ground on which the blog is written is that “ If you cannot control something it’s better to accept it”.


From the past many thousand years prostitution had been in practice. Some Historians even claim that it is the oldest trade in the world.Even in the present scenario it’s prevalent everywhere in the world including India ,there are red light areas in the big cities, sophisticated rackets are operated in hotels & hostels, “Badnaam mohallaz"(ill reputed colonies)are in small towns and kothas( house of a prostitute is also known as kothas in India)are in villages. It’s a universal concept in India. Though the idea of legalizing prostitution in India may not be digested well by the self proclaimed puritans and custodians of Indian culture but seen with a managerial & Socio economic perspective there is a very strong reason to support it ( Though in the land of KAMA SUTRA & KUJHRAHO, why should prostitution be prohibited on cultural grounds too, in the land where there had always been a connection between sexuality & spirituality why should expression of sex in any form be a taboo, though these are again valid points but the author will not like to delve into this, the analysis will be purely managerial.)

Procedure of legalization of prostitution:-

• Legalize the process.

• Provide license to prostitutes.

• Practicing it without license should be strictly prohibited.

• Proper sexual education and medical facilities should be provided to prostitutes.

• The entire process should be regulated and a particular code of conduct should be put in practice. Tampering of this by any one whether by the prostitutes or the customer should be a culpable offence.

• Like any other trade prostitution has to be a trade and taxes should be charged accordingly.

• The entire system should be very flexible so that anyone can join & leave the business

• A proper database should be maintained & updated , the entire activity can be taken under the ministry Health/commerce/tourism.

Social benefits:-

• Many a time’s girls and women are forced into the business; once licensing will come into picture no one will be forced. Whoever will come will come with her own interest.

• Hubs of prostitution are always run with the help of close nexus between local mafias,police and political machinery. Once govt. will come into the picture the nexus will become ineffective.

• Proper sexual education can be provided to existing as well as new entrants. This will help in the prevention of sexual diseases.

• Many a times it is seen that prostitutes are sexually and physically assaulted. Once the entire system will come under the govt. ambit, a code of conduct can be set into practice. This will provide insulation to the prostitutes from inhuman behavior.

Economic Benefits:-

• Taxes will help the govt. in making earnings.

• The very same earnings can be spent on providing general health and education facilities to prostitutes and their family members, in distributing free condoms and giving sexual education to them.

• If someone feels like coming out of the trade, she could be rehabitated from the same earning.

• A regulatory frame work will (should) also ensure better fee for prostitutes thus resulting in their well being.

The entire system will not be socially as well as economically beneficial but will also be self-sustaining. Only thing that is needed is a fresh insight into the issue with a practical approach. Rationality must prevail over the tendency of moral policing.

(a>Views here are personal and are not intended to hurt any kind of social, cultural or religious sentiment.
b> Thoug the blog has been written with keeping India in mind but the idea can be used anywhere)

DTMT :Basic Terminologies

                                                                      
The following blog has been written with the intention of explaining the basic terminologies which are used in distribution and supply chain management. Distribution and supply chain management is an integral part of marketing management and the author hopes that the following blog will really be helpful to all the students who are looking forward to take marketing as major. Other students and working professionals can also relate to it.


1> Primary participants:- These are the primary ingredients of any distribution process and are dependent on one another for successful execution of the distribution process. Basically includes Manufacturers, Wholesalers, Retailers & Customers. Primary players take the maximum amount of risk in any distribution process.

2> Specialized participants:- Other than the primary participants there are other businesses that help in facilitating the distribution process, these are known as secondary players. Exp:- Logistics, Warehousing, Information providers, Assemblers, Financers. These are further divided into two parts functional specialist & support specialist.

3> Functional specialists: - These are actively involved in the entire distribution process and help the primary participants in successfully executing their job. Exp:- Logistics, Assemblers, Warehousing, Sequencers etc.

4> Support specialists: - These are not actively involved in the actual distribution process but help in facilitating the distribution process by providing proper support. Exp:- An information provider never plays a direct role in a distribution process but by providing information to help in the purchase of services such as logistics, warehousing ,assembling etc it can support the primary players. Other example includes Financers Insurers, Advertisers etc.

5> Channel structures:-

• Direct selling:- Products /services are sold directly to the customers.

• Central market system:- Produces are sent directly to a central market from where it can be purchased by the customers.

• Multiple channel distribution system:- Commonly used channel arrangement. Consists of more than one channel partner between the manufacturer and the customer.

6> Spin off:- When a dominant player in a channel delegates or subcontracts a part of its functionality to another player ( either for cost advantage or for gaining better expertise ) then this process is known as spin off.

7> Sorting:- Demands are always fluctuating. It varies not only with time but also fluctuates from location to location. Sorting is an broad level concept that aims for designing the distribution channel in such a way that it can fulfill all the time based & geography based fluctuations in demand. Sorting includes Standardization, Accumulation, Allocation & Assortment.

• Standardization:- Collection of uniform products from alternative industries. This is basically performed at the site closer to the manufacturers.

•  Accumulation: - Assembling of standard products in large quantity . This is generally done at places nearer to costumers .

•  Allocation:- Generally similar kind of products are distributed through the same wholesaler. This is known as allocation. Exp:- fruits, grains, seeds etc are similar kind of products and can be sold through the same wholesaler who has required resources such as cold storage, transportation facility etc available with him.

•  Assortment: - Is done at the retailer’s site. It consists of keeping various kinds of products ranging from farm produce to furniture to electronic gadgets in an orderly fashion. Once they are displayed in an orderly fashion customers visit the site and based on their requirements make orders. Thus sorting can satisfy the customer demand in an orderly fashion.

(Author has written the blog for purely theoretical purpose. The blog can be of some help for those people who want to understand the basic idea of supply and distribution management. Though fundamentally intended for MBA students it can also be read by MBA aspirants and working professionals)

5 Socialzing tips for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

                                                                 

                                                           
If you are an aspiring Entrepreneur then the following piece of writing might be of some help for you .The author has written few points which might be helpful for someone who is an aspiring entrepreneur ,in making strong as well impactful networks.

1> Try to meet more and more no. of  people.

2> Your acquaintance must include people from all kinds of socio economic sphere:-

• Rich & big shot people who has the potential to make big investments in your business plan.

• Govt. officials/employees who can use their positional power in warding off various issues that a start up might come across such as paper works, legal hassles, registration etc. If not in winning contracts then can at least help you in including your name in the govt. tenders.

• People such as lawyers, add agents/media people, furniture shop owners, electrical appliances shop owners etc. Whatever kind of start up one might be contemplating these are the basic few services which are needed in all. So having such contact is always helpful, if it cannot get you things in free then at least can give you some discounts which is always of great help given the fact that initial stage of a businesses are always associated with resource crunch.

• Have good contacts with creative people so that if needed some kind of their help can be availed.

• Also have good contacts with people from lower strata of society, because for a venture not only creativity and capital is needed but also brute labor is required, so such contacts have its own use.

3> Whenever you are meeting a big shot you need to be very cautious, beware of the fact that you are meeting your future investor. Try to take care of the following points:-

• Don’t speak much, do not interrupt in between, but do not also mum, speak when it is required.

• During any such conversation if you think that you can be of some use to the man then without hesitation offer your service, if some remuneration is offered after the service deny it amicably.

• Listen to him patiently(even if you feel he is bugging or bragging too much be patient)

• While leaving ask for the visiting card and while receiving it show humility and respect.

• If possible immediately add the person in some social networking account of yours. Do not buzz him too much but try to interact with him at regular interval of times. Always greet him on special occasions like anniversaries, festivals etc.

4> Coherence of political idea:- While meeting someone if you find there is a coherence of political ideology between both of you leverage this as much as you can. Try to discuss with him on these stuffs. No bond in the world can be stronger than the bonds of political ideology (provided both of you are really about it.)

5> Stuffs such as Cigarettes, drinks & foods (in decreasing order of their effectiveness) are also of great use in socializing with people.

(Views here are personal and since the author is just an MBA student he might not be an expert in dealing with such stuffs, but based on his personal observation he had tried to explain his opinion. Any additional information from the side of the readers is welcome.)

Hypocrisy of Indian IT Companies

                                                                                                                                  
Well the author today intends to write a blog on a very common practice followed by most of the  IT companies in India.Almost all the Indian It companies follow the practice of making new joiners sign a bond according to which if the joiners quit the company before a stipulated period he/she should give a lump sum amount to the company. The logic often used by the IT firm is that since firms spend a huge amount of money on training fresh entrants the company has the right to fulfill the loss which it incurs due to premature departure of the employee.

Today the author will like to write a blog against this practice or rather malpractice of IT companies in India,Before presenting his view point the author will like to clarify that the topic is not based on some managerial analysis but on some philosophical ground whose inspiration comes from the holy spirit of Globalization & liberalization that intends to create a more fair,balanced & liberal market space.

The logic which is being put by these firms are pretty simple , since a huge amount of money is invested on individual training,so it is the right of the firm to make up that loss in case if someone quits early.Now let me ask if a company goes to a college, recruits someone and if the person after attending the firm for a few days does not feel like continuing shouldn't he be given the freedom to leave the firm without any constraint. Why the hell should this bond amount come into picture.Is this what globalization & liberalization teach us? Is this liberty?The very basic principal of globalization & liberalization is freedom ,freedom from every kind of draconian legislative rules that were once imposed,freedom from exorbitant taxes,freedom from regulations ,from high rate of custom duties,stiff labor laws, bandhs and gheraws. One must know that this freedom is not only for respective firms but also for respective employees because freedom cannot be a one way tool of human exploitation but an prevalent idea of human development. If globalization calls for flexible labor laws and supports hire and fire policies, it must also support giving basic freedom to each and every soul to hire and fire an organization. What is wrong if someone goes to a company and leaves it prematurely. It has to be his/her individual choice,one can leave the company for any damn reason,that might range from simple disinterest to availability of better opportunities. But why should he be forced to pay the bond amount.If he has to pay the amount then it simply means that in a liberal word a big company who has got strong clout in the pockets of power has the right to exert his independence but not an individual who is just a pawn in the game of exploitation often disguised as a free market economy.
In U.S also such bonds are there but there the bonds are two way bonds were if the employee leaves a firm prematurely he is suppose to pay a amount but even the other way round is also true where in case an employee is fired the company is responsible to pay an amount to the employee.Such systems are always valid since it gives equal rights to both that is the company as well as the individual.But how come the Indian way be a valid way where the entire rule system is biased towards the company with individuals having no right of his own.
The company often claims that the reason of such bond is the recovery of huge amount money that the company invests on the training of employee, now the author will ask do they spend such huge amount for mere charity purpose?They spend because of their own need, Spending in the recruitment and training is the basic necessity of the firm, so there is no reason to cry foul if some of the amount invested cannot be recovered back. It must be taken amicably ( as demanded by the holy spirit of globalization and liberalization.)

The reality is that no matter how much these firm cry in the name of globalization and liberalization but in reality these hypocrites still have sweet shop mentality. For them free market makes sense only when some govt. policy has to be annulled, only when flexible hire and fire policies have to be put in place, when land has to grabbed at lesser price to build factories and offices,when tax rates have to be reduced.When the same spirit of free market will demand something from them they will prefer running away.

(Views here are personal but the author wants that the gravity of the matter must be understood sooner or later so that public opinion can be gathered against it as soon as possible. One more point that the author wants to clarify is that though this malpractice is present in other industries also but since the author has a brief work ex with an Indian IT company and has a personal experience with such malpractice the term IT company is used.)

Strong Beer : two Indian cities & two entirely different consuming behavior

                                                              
The latest blog is written with the intention to describe that in India things might go for a toss if a marketer relies too much on the general fundamentals of consumer behavior. Nothing specifies this better than strong beer .Just take the case of two cities Mumbai & Bangalore ,while Mumbai is extremely fast ,humid and known as a city where dreams come true Bangalore is more upmarket in it's approach ,is more sophisticated ,known for having a very pleasant weather and is the Silicon valley of India . Now take the case of a strong beer brand ,lets say Haywards 5000, going by intuition who are the ones who should consume Haywards 5000 in Mumbai and who are the ones who should consume it in Bangalore. In Bangalore it should be consumed mainly by the down market crowd or the typical blue collar employees where as the more sophisticated upmarket consumers should be preferring costlier wine brands. In Mumbai it should be the other way round, Mumbai where life is so fast that no matter you belong to what kind of socioeconomic strata life will always be sweat drenching ,fast & furious,here even if you are an upmarket consumer at the end of an exhausting day nothing can be as chilling as a mug of strong beer with some upbeat sounds at an upmarket pub. So that's what the behavioral approach says, but if you really believe this then kindly revisit your thinking. In fact its just the other way round. In Bangalore strong beer is consumed more by upmarket , sophisticated customers who love to have it in posh pubs along with their respective girl friends/ boyfriends .In Mumbai it is mainly consumed by Blue collar employees who generally come from lower income group . Probably while coming back from their work they probably prefer drinking a glass or two in some Irani restaurant along with some snacks.While in Bangalore it's more of an item to have fun with, in Mumbai it is just an item which is taken in small quantity to refresh one self. Based on the pattern of consumption it is very essential that this very same product that is strong beer must be promoted in a different way in both the cities . If a marketing strategy is designed with out really understanding the consumption motive then it might not be very effective.

India is such a diverse country with such a diversified demographic profiles that here no rule works. Only thing that can pay off will be doing an extensive on field research followed by learning from doing real business.

PR Blunders: Vivek Oberoi presents a good case to study

                                                                      
Vivek oberoi made a bombastic debut in 2002 with his films Company and Sathiya, very soon he was touted as an actor with huge potential . But his career path didnt go the way it was expected, soon after this ,flops like Kyon ho gaya na,Kisna & Home delivery followed as a result of which Vivek's career graph took a downward turn. Though in the due course of time he gave hits like Omkara & Shoot out at Lokhandwala but since these films were multistarer the credit had to be distributed among a larger lot of actors .As an actor he had always been a reservoir of fresh talent but in spite of that things were not working out for him . Though inability to perform at the box office was definitely a factor but poor marketing & pr along with extremely bad man management skills were also equally responsible. Some of the very big PR blunders which he did were:-

1> Having differences with each & every one that came across him:-
He had troubles with his mentor ramgopal verma, had troubles with Shaad ali during Sathiya's making, had trouble with Sanjay dutt and Aporva lakhia during Mission istanbul's making, with Salman khan, bachans etc over Aishwariya rai. Now if someone has such a large no. of fights then there is definitely something wrong with him. One must understand that Bollywood is a place where personal relationship matters the most, & in such an industry if you make an image of a trouble child for yourself you are definitely going to make a big loss. The same happened with Vivek. His attitude problem compelled good makers to keep distance from him.

2> Salman Khan Episode: - The entire Salman Khan episode did a lot of negative publicity for mr. Oberoi. First of all he showed his childish attitude by making the issue of personal phone calls public, but his biggest blunder was the apologizing act where he bent on his knees to apologize from Salman khan .This added nothing other than projecting him as an immature, confused & kiddish individual. One must understand that a typical Bollywood hero is someone with whom everyone tries to relate himself; he is someone who has a larger than life kind of image among his fans. So it is quite natural that they expect these heroes to be heroic, brave & matured in their real life also, apologizing in public and that to in such a stupid way can never be well received by the general public . One must understand the general sentiment that “a hero is after all a hero, how could he act foolish in public ". By acting in that manner Vivek achieved nothing but of course made a fool of himself.

3> Aishwariya Rai episode :- This is another area where Vivek showed that how kiddish one can be . Aishwariya Rai never admitted the fact that she is having a relationship with Vivek oberoi, but it was this blabbering Vivek oberoi who even went to the extent to herald that he will be marrying Ash. Not even this even when the cat was out of the box and it was very well known that Ash & Abhiseck are going to tie knot Vivek could not control the temptation to come up with stupid comments in the media. This entire episode added another feathers of immaturity in his cap.

4> Consistent insistence on showing off himself as someone terrific, someone very moralistic & someone holier than thou :- during his initial days ,In each and every one of his interview Mr. Oberoi used to put a lot emphasis on himself, starting from the fact that he is a great actor, a wonderful womanizer, a complete teetotaler to the fact that he is a big time foodie( because he is a teetotaler, now even I don't know how come there be relationship between one's gastronomic inclinations and whether one is a teetotaler or not ).His approach of projecting himself in such a good light looked very artificial and irritating. One must understand that it's essential to promote oneself in Bollywood but again point to be noted is that it's one thing to promote yourself and entirely different thing to be an ego maniac. Beyond a point bragging does a tremendous harm to one's image, both in eyes of general public as well as the media.

Website Measurment Standards

                                                                  
Web based marketing is becoming very popular these days .It provides a lot of interesting revenue generation model. It is also very significant for startup companies where due to resource crunch application of offline media and traditional marketing channels are not easy, web based marketing solutions provide easy, economical & creative media & marketing solutions. But before choosing a website for marketing a product it is very essential that the size and the type of traffic for the website should be found out . There are various kinds of traffic measurement standards that are followed to measure the effectiveness of a website, though all these standards look similar but they do differ subtly . Another point that has to be noted over here is that the choice of measurement standards also depend on the objective of the marketer .Here the author will like to high light a few important terms regarding website measurement standards.

1> Hits :- is the most common and most misleading standard of measurement. Every website/blog has some html code embedded in it . Whenever a website is visited the no. of hits are equal to no. of html code embedded plus one more ( this extra is for the website as a whole ).Thus by making a blog/website complex with added photos, videos and gadgets the no. of hits can be increased .

2> Visits :- Whenever a blog is visited once by a user there happens to be one visit.

3> Page visits :- The no. of times a website is refreshed plus the no. of individual pages in the website that had been visited (& refreshed) in an website .

4> Unique Visits :- Visits are never a very effective tool for measurement, since it can happen that a small set of users might be visiting a website throughout the day, that means though the total visits will be high but the no. of unique visitors will be very low. For a marketer it is very essential that his advertisements must be viewed by a large no. of unique individuals .So unique visits come into picture. It gives the total sum of unique visitors visiting a website.

5> Bounce rate :- If a website is a visited by an user but left within 30 seconds then this is considered as a bounce .A high bounce rate is undesirable .

6> Average time spent:- gives the average time spent by an user during a single visit to a website/blog .Though much more pragmatic than the above said standards ,should be used with a bit of caution especially when dealing with social networking sites . For a social networking sites like Face Book & Orkut these are always high because once logged in users have tendencies to be logged in for a large time but this surely does not mean that users remain active .Users are active for small time periods and remain idle for the rest of the time .An idle user though logged in is not in the interest of the marketer.

7> No. of clicks per ad:- These days this is the most commercially accepted standard . It gives the measurement of no. of individual click an add gets while posted in a website .This is quite an accurate measurement since it directly gives the measurement of popularity of the ad itself rather than platform.

8> Geographical Profiling of visitors: - Many a times it is in the interest of the marketer to know that visitors from which geographical location predominates in a website. There are various tools available these days through which the geographical profiling of the visitors can be done.

These are the fundamental standards of website measurement, other than these there are various other standards. This is an emerging domain and every day newer standards and tools of measurement are coming into picture.But the author feels that going through the above standards will definitely give a fair idea regarding how blogs and websites are measured .

Image Consulting for Varun Gandhi

                                           

                                                               
 Varun gandhi is the Gandhi who has been really successful in carving a small niche for himself, thanks to the pre election diatribes that he spelled out against a particular community .Not only did Mr. Gandhi won the Lok Sabha election with huge margins but  also recently managed to become national secretary of the BJP .At this point of time he does not have an image crisis but of course an image chaos , he is donning too many images. In the author’s opinion these are as follows:-
1. A Hindu hardliner who is loved for his arrogance and aggressiveness, a Gandhi with a difference who loves speaking his mind.

2. Sanjay's ambitious son who has a vision and to make it happen he holds the guts to take strong actions.

3. An educated elite who loves reading books, does poetry, holds a post graduate degree in public policy from London School of Economics, has a Gandhi surname and who holds the potential to make an impact in the landscape of Indian politics which is often cluttered by goons, regional chauvinists, pseudo socialists, feudal lords etc.

4. A moron, publicity hungry youngster who will not hesitate to put his foot in mouth to get some attention.

Thus Varun in someone for whom people have very divergent views . Now the author will try to do some image consulting for Mr. Gandhi and will also like to suggest some future strategy:-


1. Be a Right winger but avoid being a an ultra conservative:- Varun must understand that there are lot of takers for moderately conservative Hindutva but there is absolutely no space for ultra conservative agendas neither in the media nor among any sizable mass of public. The kind of speech which he spoke in the pre- election rally is never expected from a statesman. What had happened had happen, with time people will forget all this but what is important is that Varun should never use such stuffs in the nearby future .Having said this it does not mean he should not capitalize on mild Hindutava, issues like terrorism, fundamental Islam, illegal immigration are alarming dangers and if projected in the right spirit holds a lot of potential to influence the voters. Varun being a learned person and a good orator can definitely take lead on these issues and by drafting an objective analysis can surely include those people in his supporter’s base who are definitely not hard liners but have concern for such issues.

2.  No comparison with Rahul:- Varun Gandhi should always try to avoid himself being compared with Rahul Gandhi, since both the brothers belong to the same political family there will always be temptation in the media circles to compare them but Varun must understand the fact the kind and the scale of media attention which Rahul enjoys is almost impossible to attain at this stage of time .So there is absolutely no sense in trying to get himself compared with Rahul .Rather he must try to build his own independent image .


3. Avoid Sanjay's name:- Varun's statement on mass sterilization was nothing but an attempt to show that he too inherits his dad's charisma and vision but it must be understood that it will take Varun nowhere .Though Sanjay was a charismatic leader but he was also very sly and shrewd and was often seen in the Indian media as someone who is autocratic and ruthless, so having Sanjay's tag will not be a wise decision .More over it will also irritate the BJP & at this stage of time it’s not the family tag but the support and encouragement of BJP which is more essential for Varun to Bolster his newly started political career .

4. Leverage his Intellectual capital:-Varun has always been considered as someone who was known for having an intellectual perspective. He must leverage this and should always project himself as a very well learned & knowledgeable individual.

In short Varun must understand that initially he will have a comparatively smaller but reasonably decent enough space to work upon. He must try to use it in a proper way and must avoid making blunders to build a bigger base. He cannot be suave and elegant like his cousin or uncle; he cannot be the cynosure of indian politics like his stylish father, power full like his grandmother, idealistic like his great grandfather but can definitely be the Gandhi with a touch of difference, someone who is learned, aggressive and opinionated. Who speaks when needed and prefers silence when there is no need. Who is witty and has the guts to face the volleys of rapid fires , who has the intellect to take on the media and is not bounded by some "good boy" image, if needed can stretch a little bit beyond to challenge the conventions (but of course more on content & logic and less on rhetoric.)

Image Consulting for Abahy Deol

                                                                 
PROS:-He is the deol with a difference, smart ,suave & stylish. He might not be considered conventionally very good looking but is definitely charming and enjoys a strong brand value among the intelligent audiences .He has a large female fan following too and is considered as someone really cute by his female fans .Known for delving into unknown territory Abhay is never worried of underplaying his character if the script demands .He is someone who is equally comfortable playing various different characters be it an arrogant alcoholic in Dev D , the smart yet emotional thief of Oye Lucky Lucky Oye,or the young lover of Socha na tha .
Bollywood where generally actors are not very well read and well aware he is an exception, reads extensively and had good knowledge of lot many stuffs other than acting , is quite active for social causes & had even lectured at Stanford University .With Dev D this talented actor has also tasted some commercial success & has shown that along with artistic credentials he also holds commercial potential .

CONS: - Though considered as a talented actor he is yet to feature in some A- grade main stream flick as a solo hero .One must understand that India is a country where not too many audience have knack for intelligent films, so until unless one doesn't give hits with the main stream cinema he or she is not going to be a super star. The same might happen with Abhay deol . So far he is considered for his off beat roles and  if he keeps on maintaining the same  image it might happen that in spite of having commercial potential he might not get roles in main stream films .He does a less no. of films & his fans often complain that they have to wait a lot to watch him, he is quite media shy and is not very active in media especially in off line one  .In the author's point of view he doesn't also have a very impressive voice , his low pitch voice sometimes becomes a misfit in the kind of tough roles he does .

FUTURE STRATEGY :-Abhay deol is right now in a wonderful phase of his career where not only has his talent well tested but has also tasted a bit of commercial success .It's natural that a lot of offers would be coming his way , so rather than being choosy he needs to grab this opportunity and must sign a few good no. of films .Secondly he is venturing into production which not be a very good desicion at this stage of time, film production is quite a cumbersome task that often consumes a good amount of time and energy and there is no guarantee of the end result as well, so rather than production what the author feels is that this is time where he should focus more on acting & should atleast do 3-4 films a year. There is no intelligence in making your fans wait for so long .Film production can be taken in the nearby future after establishing yourself as a big name in bollywood .As much the kind of cinema he chooses then surely he is not made for typical bollywood masala film where you don't need to bring your brain along with you to the theatres ,but still there will be a lot of scope for him in the main stream cinema from where he can easily deliver 3-4 films a year.He can surely try for genres like good rom-coms,political thrillers, suspense thrillers, psycho thrillers satirical comedies, book adaption( other than rom coms & political thrillers he has done others so far but on a small scale, he needs to scale it up).As much film makers are concern then he can surely work with the likes of Farhan Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Sudhir Mishra, Milan Lutharia, Prakash Jha,Dibankar Banerjee,Raju Hirani, Ram Gopal Verma along with a lot of new comers who are ready to challenge the conventions of the Main stream cinema and can yet deliver hits .Along with this he really needs to expand his visibility in the media, needs to sign more endorsements ,just one LG add is not sufficient, can very well endorse products like electronic gadgets,aparels,fmcg items, cars(not bike),tourism, watches, NGOS, can even try his hand in beverages, alcoholic drinks etc( but should avoid cigarettes & strong beer ).

To sum up what the author will like to sum up is that Abhay is an actor who definitely enjoys a decent amount of fan following, who has so far received no negative branding and there is a large mass of audience who have positive thought for him but can still not be considered as an ardent fan base . It's here where Abhay really needs to work upon,he must understand that there lies a potent base that can be easily converted into a fan following, only thing that needs to be done is that increase the visibility amongst them with the help of more no. of big banner flicks which are marketed well , more media presence and more endorsements .

In the end on behalf of the whole "MANAGEMNET GURU” team the author will like to wish Mr. Abhay deol a very successful career and hope he touches new skies in all the dimensions of his life .

Few Traits & Skills :A Manager should have

                                                                                                             
In any industry in order to succeed a manager needs to have a sound domain knowledge but other than this also their has to be a few important traits which are really important if one wants to excel as a manager. These are -

1. Computer/Internet Skills :- A manager must be extremely comfortable with the computer and must have thorough command in various tools like power point, excel, word doc,Gjavascript:void(0)oogle doc etc. Active participation in various social networking sites will be an added advantage .

2. Able Communicator :- He/She should be an able communicator with neither too aggressive nor too submissive kind of persona .A manager must have a pleasing behavior and should always be in a position to communicate the required idea smoothly & convince some one amicably .A good English is more or less a must but knowledge of additional languages will always be an added advantage .

3.Should be Action Oriented :- along with thinking & making plans he must have the zeal to put things in action. ( Mind it this is the most important trait because Planing - Action = Shit )

4. Inclination for reading should be their :- There is no need that a manager should be an avid reader but he must be in practice of regularly going through the latest happenings on and off the business world, few domain specific or interest related websites , one or two magazines . Following a few good blogs, reading some inspiring autobiographies along with some good management books will be a nice add on .( But beware of too much of reading , that might hone your thinking abilities at the cost of putting stuffs into action.)

5. Should not have a very anxious personality :- A manager needs to go through a lot of chaos and ups downs in his course of action, there fore chances of anxiety creeping in is quite high . Now a small degree of anxiety is always helpful in giving a positive push , too much of anxiety will definitely hamper efficiency & decision making ability .

6. Should have some Quantitative approach :- Though their is no need for a manager to be a nut cracker in Maths ,but a mathematical approach is surely a winning trait. A manager must have the ability to observe a qualitative idea with a quantitative frame work

DISCLAIMER :- ( Views here are personal and based on the individual understanding of the author , The author has just finished his 1st year at a B-School with almost no prior work-ex and may not hold the prime authority to give judgment on some thing like this .)

Rural Branding:- Political Parties can provide a good opportunity

                                                           
Rural marketing is surely the buzz word these days .Every company is trying to position their products to the rural customers .A lot of companies are into picture that specializes specifically in rural marketing domain, even the regular big wigs like Ogilvy & Mather has started their own rural branding wings namely " O & M OUTREACH" .

In spite of so much of hoopla going around regarding projecting the rural customer as the next big thing the author is somehow skeptical about this. The basic reason of this doubt is that no matter the rural India constitute a major chunk of the Indian population ,the fact cannot be denied that it still ranks low on per capita income .Moreover in order to cater to the rural India companies need to come up with lot of product & process innovation which they are still not willing to do .Baring few of the companies like Hul who have successfully implemented programs like "Shakti Amma" or Itc there had been hardly any land mark success in the given domain .

But there is an area that can provide a very interesting platform for both the client firm as well as the branding firm to implement rural marketing & this happens to be the promotion of political parties .India the biggest democracy of the world has many national level as well as regional political parties with their political ideology spanning across the spectrum from far right to far left .The fate of these parties are decided in the Lok Sabha election & the Vidhan Sabha election conducted once in every 5 years . What had been seen that though these parties spent huge amount of money in media & promotional campaigns but most of them are spent in print media and tv media which often have low penetration in the rural landscape where as the point to be noted over here is that majority of the voting population (around 70%) comes from the rural India .So no matter what kind of promotion happens in the regular media circle it cannot make any damn difference to the fate of the party until unless the campaign does not target the rural population .The best example is the 2004 Lok Sabha elections where in the regular mass media circles there was hell lot of noise regarding the "India Shining " campaign and almost every news channel predicted that "BJP the party with a difference " is going to win the election but when the result came out to every one's surprise it was n't the BJP but the Congress which made the government .The reason of the BJP'S debacle was very simple , though the promotional campaign targeted the urban mass well it was totally insulated from the rural crowd which in general plays main role in electoral victory owing to it's bigger number .
In spite of such practical examples still the political parties are not serious enough when it comes brand their image in the mind set of the rural voters .The general tendency still is to target them with the same general mass media tools used for targeting their urban counterpart .They must understand that the rural people might be economically laggard but politically they are quite active , only thing that is needed is that if one wants to target them then it must come up with specifically designed local campaigns . One must understand that in the realm of rural india its not the mass media that matters but what does matter is the local as well as the outdoor media activities such as demonstrations, plays, small budget theatres , promotion in local events such as melas, pujas etc, convincing of influential people such as the surpanchs,post masters & teachers who can then convince other people etc .

Professional rural brand management agencies can provide a lot of expertise in this pursuit .Hope this so far neglected domain of branding will soon be taken into consideration and will provide a new set of partnership between the cash rich political parties and emerging agencies of rural branding.

Branding of an educational institute like "TAPMI": few innovative measures

                                                                    
 When it comes to the realm of branding , branding of an educational institute provides a good case to experiment, especially if the institute happens to be some some thing like "TAPMI" which though enjoys a decent amount of reputation in the academic as well as the corporate world but is surely not among the so called Indian ivey league .

In the given blog author attempts to design a few innovative ways that might help in branding "TAPMI" as an institution . (Having said this the blog is not going to describe the general tools of branding that includes the huge offline media & other regular activities such as inter college events , seminars, pr,alumni meet etc )

1. Be Online as much one can & use "TAPMI" as prefix in your user name :-Students should try to be active in lot of on line activities that should include not only the regulars like fb or orkut but also lot of blogs, websites ,forums etc and if possible the suffix "TAPMI " should be added to their regular user name .Exp:- Paritosh@TAPMI, AJAY_ TAPMI etc .That will provide a lot of on line visiblity to the college .

2. Please have more and more mentor-ship programs:- Recently "TAPMI" had started one mentor-ship program in the field of film & media marketing where a passed out alumni is mentoring a few students in the given niche area . Since the author is the part of this program it is his personal opinion that such programs are really of great use , not only do it help in building strong rapport between the college and the alumini base but it also help the current students to get some sort of industry exposure which indirectly make them more employable .

3. Reactivation of Research committee:- The defunct Research committee should be reactivated and students should participate seriously into various research activities .Point to be noted over here is that since PGP 2 can not be very active because of lot of other responsiblities the onus should be on the shoulders of PGP- 1 students .

4. Circulation of brochure :- Placement committee had distributed brochures to the students which they are suppose to submit in their mip( management in practice / internship) firms, but the author feels that a single brochure  per student is not sufficient because in the entire process of mip a student gets exposed to many companies .( for exp:- the author is doing a mip on a purely b2b kind of platform where he needs to consult around 20 big companies for a marketing research work ,similarily it applies for other students also) It will be in the favor of the brand image of college if a brochure is given not only to the mip firm but also to all other related client firms .
Now since further brochures  can not be sent to students what the placement  committee can do is that it can send the soft copy to the students from where the print out can be taken .

Though the given ideas where said in the context of "TAPMI" but can be very well used for other colleges such as IMT, XIM-B,SYMBIOSIS, GIM etc of the same league with required modifications .

Few misconceptions regarding the BOP customers?

Often companies who want to cater to the BOP customers suffer from some kinds of misconceptions. These misconceptions are not only untrue but they also demotivate big enterprises to see the huge potential available in the BOP segment .Some of them are :-

(1)Bop customers don't have buying potential:- this is the biggest misconception that private enterprises have.BOP customers  have huge potential, albeit they do not have buying power like their well off counter parts.  These people who constitute 4-5 billion of the world population with there own latent needs and demand should not be ignored at any cost .These people might look poor at the surface but they do have capacity to spend and they are doing it .It's estimated that 85% of the population living in Dharavi(mumai's slum) have tvs, more than half of them have mobile phones and so on .
One another important fact thta is often ignored is that these people often pay much more than there well off counter part to make purchases . In economy there is a special term for this known as POVERTY PREMIUM ,often this premium amount is paid on account of poor distributions, lot of intermediaries, lack of accessibility ,vested interest etc.For exp:- a comparatively well off person can go to a bank and can get loan at a decent rate of 10-12% ,but if a poor person has to do the same then due to lack of accessibility he will be forced to go to a local money lender who might charge interest as high as 600-1000%.Similarly due to water mafias generally poor people are forced to pay a much higher price for water than there fortunate counter parts living in middle class areas . Thus this poverty premium provides a real time challenge as well as opportunity for the firms to cater to the BOP customers .

(2)BOP customers don't have collective strength :-This again is a very short sighted vision which firms have for BOP customers . As said earlier most of the BOP customers have access to tv, radio ,mobile phones etc as a result they are also well connected with each other, they have their own minimum requirements and expectations which they expect from various external agencies such as the govt.,NGOS and private players .

(3)BOP customers cannot be catered because of poor distribution facility :-

The genesis of this view lies in the misconception that BOP consumers reside only in rural area and since in most of the developing nation rural infrastructure is not well developed it is often tough to reach to them .Now its true that rural infrastructure is not well developed but a very large chunk(around 35-40%) of BOP customers reside in cities not in villages, as much the rural customers are concern there also the demand is high but due to lack of roads, transport, un availiblity of electricity and tv signals they donot constitute a measure customer base. Companies ought to think innovative and cost effective methods to cater to them. There are companies like Avon and Hul who have catered to such markets by appointing distributors from there own local population who can understand there needs and demands in a much better way .

Serving the BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID:-Prahalad's one of the biggest contribution

Last week we lost one of the most influential Thinker of our time mr. c.k.prahalad.Mr. prahlad will always be remembered for his end no. of contributions in the filed of management and social science .Though definitely prahlad was known for his writings on strategy and innovations but one of his most remarkable contribution has been the idea of creating wealth at the lower strata of the society .Prahald was the first man to coin jargon BOP ie bottom of the pyramid , according to him poverty is an evil that must be eradicated but it cannot be eradicated by mere political rhetoric or by just doing some philanthropy. It can be scuttled only when proper business initiatives are taken, initiatives that have a clear cut vision , clear cut plan to generate money, clear cut revenue generation model.He proposed that rather than thinking them as a burden business must consider them as a resource and devise such plans that are mutually beneficial , plans that consider the BOP crowd as potent consumers who can be catered by the modern business there by generating profits for the business and the same time should also provide enough entrepreneurial cum development opportunities to the people from BOP so that these people can avail better livelihood .

On behalf of the whole management-guru blog the author will like to pay tribute to this great persona who had enlightened the world of management in the past two decades.

Branding of an after shave brand

When it comes to branding of an after shave brand how can it be really done ?well i am not an expert on this but based on my personal experience as well as on some insights i will like to evaluate some thing like an after shave on various parameters .I think some thing like an after shave can be perceived on following parameters

1) Medicinal purpose:- an after shave is supposed to be an antiseptic , that takes care of the skin after shaving . Well this is what an after shave is supposed to be doing but since this is a basic requirement from any after shave this parameter cannot be used for differentiating a brand , for that matter if medicinal purpose is the only factor then there is hardly any difference between an after shave or lets say alum or an antiseptic cream .

2) Price :-the role of price in branding does not look very clear over here. But one thing is for sure that is since it is a luxury brand a price some how in the higher side will do favor .

3) Packaging and color :- Things like packaging and color of an after shave product will definitely play a vital role in building the brand value of the product. A good packaging and color will not only give a feel good factor to the consumer but will also prompt the consumer to show it to their friends there by multiplying the band value.

4) Advertisement :- a brand like an after shave is not a basic need , it is more of a desire and so for any such kind of product it is very essential that it should be promoted in a very stylish and glamorous fashion .The advertisement should strike instantly with the consumer psyche , it should be in a position to compel the customer to spend few extra bucks from his pocket to get the brand. In view of this it becomes essential that an advertisement for an after shave brand should contain added flavors of glamor, style or sensuality .Those elements should be produced in such a beautiful way that it must compel the viewer to connect himself with the brand .For exp:- an advertisement that promotes an after shave as a product which helps in attracting females then in that case the ad should be made in such a mesmerizing way that it must compel the viewer to think that after applying it his sex appeal to the females will increase two fold.

These above given factors are important for developing the brand value for some thing like an after shave but a very important fact that has to be considered is that these factors do not directly affect the consumer, the impact made by stuffs like lets say the packaging or advertisement will either be of some imaginative nature or aesthetic purpose or at most of ego satisfaction but to make a mark as a brand it is very essential that the brand must make a deadly impact on the consumer while he is using , as a consumer(as a consumer not merely as a customer ) there must be a chord between him and the brand.As a product it must give some direct value addition to it's consumers ,for this purpose in my opinion two parameters are very essential .

a) Feeling of freshness that the shave can give and the longevity of freshness :- by feeling of freshness i mean the cooling effect which the after shave gives and the smooth skin that one gets after applying the shave .This is some thing very important for building the brand value of the after shave, a point to be noted over here is that not only the intensity matters but what does matter is the longevity, because the more the feeling freshness will prevail the higher will be the bond time between the brand and the user and stronger will be the impression of the brand in the eyes of the user .

b) Fragrance and its longevity :-Similarly fragrance and its longevity are also very essential factors that can help in building the brand value of an after shave brand. Fragrance is something that directly impacts the consumer .So its quite natural that a nice fragrance will make a strong impact but a very important factor that has to be taken care of is that simply a strong fragrance is not going to serve the purpose since mostly any after shave brand has strong fragrance , what does matter is the longevity of the fragrance , like freshness the higher the fragrance will remain the stronger will be the impact. A nice fragrance will make the first impression but if it will vanish of soon then it cannot reaffirm it self, but if the fragrance can maintain it self for a longer period of time then every time the nice soothing smell will enter the nostril of the consumer the higher will be the feelings of the consumer for that brand.Longevity of the fragrance will ensure a prolonged positive interaction between the consumer and the brand and will surely give enough time and space to the brand to win the heart of his consumer .

IN THE END I WILL LIKE TO LIST DOWN ALL THE FACTORS THAT CAN AFFECT THE BRAND VALUE OF A PRODUCT LIKE AN AFTER SHAVE IN INCREASING ORDER OF THEIR SIGNIFICANCE :-

a)Medicinal use.
b) Price .
c) Color, Packaging, Advertisement.
d) Freshness and it's duration, Fragrance and it's duration.

Emirates Airlines: Brief Introduction

               fig 1 : fly Emirates logo ( source: telguprofessional.blogspot.com)                                                           

Dubai based Emirate airlines, is among the most successful airlines in the world. This largest airline from the Middle East had played a vital role in shaping up the Emirate state from a, oil rich Emirate to a global tourism destination. In the following blog, author will attempt to give a brief description comprising of, history, profile, strengths, corporate strategy and areas of concern, for the airline.

History:

After its independence in 1974, Dubai along with other Emirates were served by Gulf Air, but since the very beginning  relationship between the airline and Dubai was tensed, owing to Dubai’s unwillingness to abandon its open skies policies. In 1985 when Gulf Air reduced its flights to and from Dubai by 2/3 rd, the ruling elite at Dubai realized, to have an exclusive airline for Dubai , hence Emirate Airline (having just two carriers at that time) was born with   an initial investment of US $ 10 Million from the government. The 1st ever flight departed to Karachi on 25th October. In 1987 it started its European operation with flights for London and Frankfurt. A perfect exemplar of phenomenal success stories, Emirate airline had kept on almost doubling itself every three years, growing with an average growth rate of 25% annually. Presently not only it is serving 100 destinations across 60 countries but had also won myriad prestigious awards and accolades. (Andreas E, Alexander K)

Facts and figures (2010)

• Fleet size: 152 ( Boeing: 91, Airbus: 61) + 18 on order/ planned (Boeing:5, Airbus: 13) (planesspotters.net, 2010)

• Average age of the fleet : 6.5 years (planesspotter.net, 2010)

• Destinations served : 100 destinations, 60 countries

• Financials: revenue: US $ 11.8 Billion, profit: US $ 964 Million ( a 416 percent increase over 2009) (emirates.com, 2010)

• Employee strength : 36, 000 approx

• International passengers: 25.9 Million (2009-10), 7th highest in the world in terms of number of passengers. ( arabiansupplychain.com, 2010)

• Number of flights per week : 2400

• Head office: Dubai

• Key people: Chairman and CEO: Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President: Tim Clarke

Parent Company

Emirate airlines, is the part of the bigger conglomerate namely Emirate group, with a range of individual companies, serving various verticals of international travel and tourism industry. Emirate airlines comprises of; Emirate airlines, the biggest airline of Middle East; Dnata, an aviation service company providing ground handling services; Emirates Holidays, providing tailor made holiday packages to over 100 destinations; Congress Solution International , a PCO (professional conference organizer) offering a wide range of services; Arabian Adventures , offering wide range of overland adventure programs such as deep sea diving, desert safari etc; Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa, an exclusive conservation-based resort bordering the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area in Australia; Mercator, Emirate airline’s IT solution provider, is a leading supplier to IT solutions across the globe; Emirate’s engineering, maintaining the expansive fleets of Airbus and Boeing of Emirate airline as well as seven other airlines through 3rd party maintenance contract ; Alpha flight Group Limited, an in flight catering company employing more than 6000 people and serving 58 airports across 11 countries. Beside these, Emirate group also has a wide range of joint ventures such as; Emirates Flight Catering, Emirates Leisure Retail, MMI, Oman United Agencies etc. Emirate Group, employing more than 40,000 individuals from 160 nationalities is a state run entity, managed by Dubai Investment Holding. (emirtaesgroupcareer.com, 2010)

Strengths (Andreas E, Alexander K)

• Political support: Emirate Airlines had been  very crucial with respect to Dubai’s  strategy of transforming itself into world class tourism cum commercial hub, hence the airline was always up on the agendas of the ruling elite of the Emirate.

• Strategic location: Dubai’s is strategically placed between the crossroads of North and South as well as East and West, there is hardly any major agglomeration in the world which is not with in 8000 miles from Dubai. Some 3.5 Billion populations reside with in an 8hr flight from Dubai. The strategic location had played a major role in transforming Dubai into a a very successfull tourist destination. Strategic location coupled with easy immigration policies (transit travelers do not require clearing emigration at Dubai airport) have also helped Emirates Airlines being preferred by many transit travelers.

• Indirect subsidies: it is said that Emirates had been indirectly subsidized by the government of Dubai in the form of almost no charges being paid for various at Dubai airport, such as, ACT, noise and security charges.

• Top class service and high labor productivity: another competitive advantage for Emirates had been its ,great services in almost all the class and  high labor productivity. A study done by UBS in 2005 showed that Emirates per unit cost was 40% lower than that of KLM.

• Tax free regime: the tax free regime at Dubai had not helped in adding to the over all profitability of the airline but also in attracting high quality human resources from all across the globe.

Corporate Strategy (Andreas E, Alexander K)

• Focusing on healthy mix of both O & D (origin and destination) as well as transit travelers.

• Focusing strongly on cargos. 20% of the revenue comes from cargo for Emirates Airlines.

• Along with organic growth strategies, it had adopted inorganic ones as well ,such as having a 43.6% stake in Srilankan Airlines.

• Providing high quality services in all classes.

• Maintaining high frequencies , serving every location at least twice weekly.

• Making strong presence in underserved markets such as Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Hamburg, Cochin, Kolkata etc.

• Making strong presence in markets such as Sub Saharan regions that have been so far unconnected to the global air traffic network due to lack of a effective national carrier.

• Markets itself very strongly, though over all marketing budget is confidential but is expected to be 3-5 % of the overall revenue. Out of the wide range of PR and marketing strategies used, sponsoring major sporting events are at the fore front of its branding agendas.

Areas of Concern:

• Politically unstable Middle East: the present unrest in Middle East poses serious concern for the Emirates Airlines. Though UAE is enjoying a peaceful political climate, but the uprising in various parts of the gulf and Middle East, will surely result in apprehensions, among the travelers in visiting the region.

• Emerging carriers from the region such as Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways are posing tough competition to Emirates Airlines. Though yet to break even, their strategy of matching Emirates level of service in comparatively lesser price is can be a source of serious threat to Emirate airways.

Reference:

1> Andreas E, Alexander K, how sustainable is Emirates business model, available at < http://www.aerlines.nl/issue_38/38_Knorr_Eisenkopf_Emirates_Business_Model.pdf >

2> Planesspotters.net, 2011, Emirates: details and plane history , available at http://www.planespotters.net/Airline/Emirates

3> Emirates.com , 2010, emirates group makes record profit this year, available at < http://www.emirates.com/fr/english/about/news/news_detail.aspx?article=567011 >

4> Arabiansupplychain.com, 2010, top 10 international passenger airlines, available at < http://www.arabiansupplychain.com/article-4997-top-10-international-passenger-airlines/1/print/  >

5> Emiratesgroupcareer.com, 2010, Emirates Group Company, available at http://www.emiratesgroupcareers.com/english/about/companies/  Default.aspx

6> Andreas E, Alexander K, how sustainable is Emirates business model, SWOT analysis available at < http://www.aerlines.nl/issue_38/38_Knorr_Eisenkopf_Emirates_Business_Model.pdf >

7> Andreas E, Alexander K, how sustainable is Emirates business model, Emirates business model, available at < http://www.aerlines.nl/issue_38/38_Knorr_Eisenkopf_Emirates_Business_Model. pdf

Marketing yourself as an ACTOR in bollywood:Where was Abhay Right and Where Vivek went Wrong

The concepts of marketing applies everywhere and Bollywood stars are no Exception, your success as an actor depends heavily on how well you market yourself and how correctly you market yourself .Here i will like to tell stories of two bollywood actors ,one started off well but made blunders in his brand promotion where as the other started off slow but promoted himself in a very slow but strategic sense .

Vivek Oberoi:-

From his very first film Company vivek became the darling of bollywood ,and the press heralded that bollywood has got his new Shahrukh khan,soon after Sathiya followed and vivek gave his second hit in the same year,after the success of sathiya vivek was signed by all the big film makers of bollywood ranging from Subash Ghai,Karan Johar to Mani Ratnam etc.Vivek was now the blue eyed boy of media ,and he was commanding a very strong brand value ,but here vivek made a blunder ,rather than becoming slow he started playing his games very fast, in each and very press conference vivek started to dominate, in every conference a kind of artificial over confidence was quite evident in vivek oberoi, he started pretending as if he was not the would be but the real shahrukh khan,and then there was the famous salman khan controversy ,These all things projected vivek as an inflated balloon ,who was some how a talented man but was highly over rated, soon after what had to happen happened ,one by one his films started bombing at the box office,so here was a man who was holding a very strong brand value as an actor but as a product he was a dud, his brand value itself proved to be short lived and got vanished quickly, very soon he was forced to play supporting roles from main lead roles ,as there is a wonder full saying in marketing nothing kills more than a bad product but a strong promotion, the same happened with vivek, but here i must confess that the product was really not bad,with time vivek had really learned a lot from his mistakes , As an actor he had become quite serious , though still he is not smart enough in dealing with media but he has some very exciting projects in his kitty, and is ready to make a comeback with a bang.

ABHAY DEOL:-

The mistake that vivek did was that he promoted himself so strongly that there was exorbitant amount of expectations with him but when his films came ,there was a mismatch between what was expected and what he delivered(though no doubt he was a talented actor, but the expectation itself was so high that it was tough to deliver),But where as vivek did mistakes another actor abhay deol who debuted in 2005 with his film Socha na thaa, played his cards very intelligently, from his very first film it was evident that this deol is a deol with a difference, there was no doubt that abhay could be nurtured into a great actor ,but abhay never tried to be aggressive in his initial days, since the release of his very first film he was offered a bunch of flicks but rather than choosing any film that came on his way he was very choosy with selecting film, even while choosing the kind of roles to play Abhay preferred playing offbeat roles ( different from playing intense roles in parallel cinema and at the same time avoiding typical bollywood hero kind of roles where an actor is more a hero rather than an actor) , he preferred such roles where he could really deliver and the result was that not only did he receive a lot of rave reviews for his performance but also since he choose the middle path his prospects as an actor was open in both kinds of cinema , that is in parallel/off beat cinema as well commercial flicks .while dealing with media also he always projected himself as a smart, elegant and intelligent actor .(He has got the privilege to speak min WHARTON UNIVERSITY ), but never crossed the line ,as an actor he knew his limitations and never tried to project himself something larger than life but at the same time never went underground as well , at regular intervals news related to him was there in the media. The over all result was that not only was he in a position to establish himself as critically acclaimed actor but after the commercial success of DEV D he is one of the sought after commercial actor of bollywood .

Both VIVEK and ABHAY have huge potentials and have got a long way to go, only time will say who will be more successful but right now the ball is in Abhay's court and a great degree credit definitely goes to the way he marketed himself .