The challenges of monetisation - Crazytok podcast

 ST12 | Nidhi Arora | Challenges in Monetisation (crazytok.online)

This podcast was about our experience at The Children's Post - how we managed to create a great product, build audience, but failed to monetise the offering. 

Podcast on all things Nidhi

 Nidhi on manifestation, braille and children - Small, Big Wins. (hvj.coach)

There are conversations and there are conversations. This podcast is one of the most special conversations I've ever been a part of.

Talking with Harsh Vardhan Jajoo gives us conversation goals. Some day, I hope to be able to draw out my speaker one tenth as well as Harsh Vardhan Jajoo was able to do here.

This has been a masterclass. Thank you!

For the listeners: In this one, I was able to mention, for the first time, how spirituality contributes to all my work. If you're trying to sync your personal and spiritual pursuits with your professional ones, this podcast might be very helpful. Spiritualism and work are not antonyms. They're synergistic.

Would you hire for passion, or competence?

We had a chat this morning. 

There was an open role. For some reason, all the candidates passing my level were not clearing the CEO round. 

Today, he spoke about the importance of passion, commitment, and research into the orgn. And culture fit. 

My stand was that if the person has an overall values alignment with the orgn, we hire for competence, not passion. Better competence without passion than passion without competence. Even otherwise, I don't see a necessary relationship, causal or otherwise, between a person's research into a company at the interview stage and their performance later. I do see a correlation between past performance and future indicator. 

For a long time, I used to go to work for the money. Even now, that is a major motivator for me to be at work. While i am being fairly paid, i deliver the best one can, professionally. Its a straight transaction - i get paid for work and i do the best possible work in that time. 

So, would you hire for competence, or would u hire for passion?

Women's Day at FA

Women's Day is about women. Elementary. 

Isn't it funny, then, that families, offices, and brands decide women's day events - with the best intentions, but with very little voice? 

This Women's Day, at FA, is about voice. Voices of women, and men hearing those voices. 

Unless men are part of the conversation, part of the thought process, we cannot really make progress on inclusion. Men and women are neither two sides of a coin nor adversaries. They are members of the same team, rowing to a common destination. 

When we go home and sit down to dinner, do we wonder, "What does mom want for Women's day?" Perhaps we ask. Maybe we even do breakfast in bed for her. But suppose we asked, in a fun yet deep way, to really understand what she would like Women's Day to mean? 

At FA, this Women's Day, we decided to ask - What would YOU like Women's Day to be?  

Our activity was simple - All employees get a blank meme template. The female employees could fill it up themselves, and the male employees could take it home and have someone from the family fill it up. In this fun way, we give a voice, and we listen. Deeply, Intently. 

This year, let us Listen. Understand. Amplify. 

Lessons from the Ukraine-Russia war

 The war is teaching us many things. Let me start a list, please add your points:

A. The importance of creating higher education infrastructure for students of India.

B. The importance of national backbone for things like payment gateways, financial transactions, etc.

C. The importance of indigenous defence equipment and telecom.

For in a war, the proverb of देखें ऊंट किस करवट बैठता है, is absolutely true. You do not know who your allies are, and what they are going to do, if anything.

5 questions to ask your new team on your first 1:1

When you join as a team leader, or become a team leader for the first time, one of the most important conversations you will have is a one on one with your direct reports. 

How does one go about this? Should one establish authority or empathy? 

Here is a simple, one word answer to all those questions - In the first meeting, LISTEN. Don't talk. 

Your team members have likely read your resume at least twice - once circulated by the corporate communications team, and again, when they checked you out on Linked in. So, don't tell them more about you. Find out about THEM. 

Here is a set of questions that you can pre-circulate to your new team, to have a positive first conversation. I have used either this set or a suitable sub set many times, and it has always been the start of a good, positive, trust based relationship. 

1. What was your greatest achievement and learning last year? 

2. What do you look forward to learning for your professional growth this year? 

3. What are your expectations from me? 

4. What do you bring to the table? 

5. What is your communication style? What works and does not work for you? What is the best way and time to speak with you? (And I will share the same thing) 

Some supplementary questions that you can use as per the situation: 

A. What drives or motivates you? What keeps you coming back to work? 

B. According to you, what are the best and worst traits a manager can have? 

C. What kind of manager would bring out the best in you? What kind of manager would you never work with? 

D. What is the best thing about this organisation? What would you never change and what would you change as soon as you got a chance? 

Brand is the price you pay for not knowing the quality of your product

 Dad said, "Brand is the price you pay for not knowing the quality of your product." 

The time was early '90s. Dad had been a retailer of clothes for over 20 years. 

You got a pair of unbranded jeans for about 250-300 rs, and if you wanted to go "expensive", you paid about 450-500 rs for them. 

Along came Lee's and Levis with price points of 1500 rs for one pair of jeans. Yet, people flocked to the stores as if it was a giveaway. 

Not surprisingly, traditional jeanswear retailers and manufacturers suffered. Dad did not deal in jeans extensively, but it was a product close to his heart. 

One day, at the dinner table, we got talking about Lee's and Levi's. 

"Why do you kids want to buy Lee's and Levis?" he asked. 

"Its cool dad. Their jeans are really good." we answered. 

"They are? How so?" 

Well, obviously, we did not know the answer. 

Then, dad paused, "Brand is the price you pay for not knowing the quality of your product. If you could hold the jeans in your hand and check the fabric, the stretch, and the dyeing, you would not need to spend 1500 rs for that which should not cost more than 300."

 It was a dinner conversation, and it was apt to be both ignored and forgotten.