In this episode of The Positive Charge, Ankur shares the importance of absorbing learning from all sources to energize our souls and bring the Power of Positivity and Possibility into our lives.
In this episode of The Positive Charge, Ankur talks about the importance of pursuing your ambitions bravely.
In this episode, Ankur focuses on the importance of Happiness and correlates happiness with other desires in life.
Ankur encourages you to ask yourself whether your choices are based on what you really want?
It was April 1993, I was 15 years old and on the first day of my first ever summer job selling soft toys door to door in Lajpat Nagar, Delhi during school vacations.
Amongst my fair share of snubs, partial interest, bargaining etc. I managed to make my first ever Sale. The biggest toy in my bag, a 4 foot Teddy Bear for a cute little girl who was playing in her courtyard. As soon as her father bought the teddy, it was the biggest and sweetest burst of happiness I had ever seen. That is where my love for sales was born.
I felt I had played some role in bringing joy to the girl and the family.
That feeling stayed with me which led to more part-time sales roles at Uni and even resulted in me leaving a coveted gazetted officer position with the Government of India, all for the love of sales.
I was fortunate that my Sales and then subsequently Strategy, Marketing and Consulting journey took me to roles with ICI Paints (Akzo Nobel)India, Procter & Gamble Europe,
and Accenture Consulting Global.
It was when I started my Consulting journey and my exposure to multiple clients increased that I realised that there were “ Ways of Working” or “Sales Transformations” being undertaken by Consulting/Client teams with an extremely limited participation of Sales people with actual selling experience. What really bothered me was that the Sales professionals were then expected to fully adopt these new processes without proper incorporation of their role perspective. It led to some very emotional discussions in the project teams I was part of (I was still learning the art of diplomacy 😊) but I felt there was a huge gap. That was the moment I decided to set up our business to give a proper voice to the Sales profession which has now taken the shape of Asbiverse Group.
We were very lucky that in our initial years until 2014 we found like minded partners @Consulting by Kantar and we did some great work together.
In more than a decade of our operations,the best feeling in the world is when fellow Sales professionals share their happiness on feeling more equipped having attended one of our training programmes or as a result of a project outcome. Personally when I see dots on the global map increasing where we had the opportunity to work with Sales and Commercial teams (more than 50 countries on last count across 6 continents) I feel extremely humbled that I have had the opportunity to work in the field I absolutely love across the world and hopefully have been able to make a small contribution to the happiness quotient of my fellow Sales professionals.
A Sales professional takes on a lot of responsibility and pressure in the process of helping clients fulfill their needs and deserves to get the best support possible.
I hope to play a small part in that and continue pursuing my purpose of “Empowering Sales Professionals and Profession”
Over the past decade or so, there has been a lot of focus on the word “Why”. There have been thoughts that one should try to find their own “Why” or “Purpose”. Is that the journey you have taken? How have you fared in that endeavour? Have you managed to find your Purpose? What has been the experience since then? Do you feel fulfilled or unsure about what this discovery should have brought?
I have seen a lot of interesting developments along the lines of finding the Why and the Purpose. Some of them are fantastic, very good, but some make you question that once an individual or an organisation feel they have found their Why, then what? How do you ensure that discovery is helpful in some shape or form?
There are examples such as a recent politician in the UK who came to power with great ideas, and you could say who had a clear sense of their Purpose or Why. However, they ended up having the shortest tenure ever as a Prime Minister of the Country. What do you think happened there?
Facebook bet hugely on the future of Metaverse, even going to the extent of naming their parent company on similar lines. However, despite having umpteen resources at their disposal, the realisation of that dream still seems very distant. What do you think could be the reason behind that?
The beautiful Southeast Asian country of Sri Lanka, with a clearly identified purpose of promoting Organic Farming, brought in policies to encourage the practice, but instead, it had the devastating effect of a food shortage crisis never seen of that magnitude before. Why did such a situation arise?
In all the examples shared here, the individuals and organisations had identified or discovered their Individual or Intrinsic Whys. I call them the I-Whys. The I-Why maybe is ok if you just want to feel good about yourself or live in isolation. However, in environments where Individuals and organisations depend on others for an outcome, just the I-Whys or the I-Purpose don’t really serve a Purpose.
It is essential in social environments that an individual or an organisation (Let us call them Patrons) understand How their I-Whys interact with what their social counterparts want. A social counterpart could be an individual, group of individuals, or an organisation that the Patrons interact with that has a role to play in the combined outcome. The needs or the Questions of the social counterparts could be called the Q-Why. These are the WHY questions a Social Counterpart would have of the Patrons, such as “Why should I support you in an election?”, “Why should I try Metaverse?” “Why is the sudden overnight ban on chemical fertilisers good for promoting sustainable organic farming?”
A solid and positive outcome can be expected only when there is a good balance between the I-Why and Q-Why. You might recall that in my theory of the drivers of Intent, Relevance is a crucial Intent driver. Relevance can only come when the I-Why and Q-Why are balanced. Only then do we see the formation of desired Intent and then Action.
The proof of that is all around us. For example, we have the best interests of our children at heart, which is a very strong I-Why. However, if we don’t match a direction to our child with solid reasoning that addresses their Q-Why, it is challenging to drive sustainable desired behaviour. Another example is sales practices, where I-Whys are the features of a product or service. However, if they are not communicated using the Q-Whys, i.e., the language of Benefits for the potential customers, the order book would be relatively empty.
Maybe if there were a better balance between I-Why and Q-Why, Liz Truss would still be Prime Minister, Metaverse would be much further in the Consumer adoption journey, and the culinary crisis in Sri Lanka might have been avoided.
“A bend in the road is not the end of the road…Unless you fail to make the turn.”- Helen Keller
This post is dedicated to all who might be looking at new options either because of recent job cuts or otherwise. There might be a few doubts creeping in, or you might be receiving undesired statements from the world. Nothing and no one can decide what your future looks like except YOU!
I came across a LinkedIn post from an individual some time ago where he listed down an array of demotivators thrown at him when he was trying to start a new life in a new Country, such as “You will not find a job in your field”, “You will not be able to have a senior position if you want to settle here”,” You will need to adjust your expectations downwards” etc. etc. He then proceeded to proudly share that “He was glad he only listened to himself” as he was now on the Board of Directors of a reputable organisation within that year.
I assume most of us have encountered such situations in our personal & professional lives where we are faced with similar statements/doubts expressed on capabilities. There can be one of three outcomes in such a situation:
1) Get demotivated/stop attempting
2) Not affected/carry on as planned
3) Challenge becomes a huge motivation/multiplies the effort.
In my personal experience, these have actually proved to be significant motivators to try to accomplish what has been stated as “can’t be done”. Granted that subject to the limits of science and the supernatural not everything will be possible but I hope you get my gist :-).
It was the year 1993; I had just given my year ten exams (sort of equivalent to GCSEs) and had about four months of holidays coming up. Although it has been quite common for 14+-year-olds to take up jobs in Europe, the Americas etc., in the Northern Indian town of Faridabad where I grew up, it was almost unheard of (the landscape has changed a bit over the last decade or so but still not common) due to multiple factors such as too young, family reputation, limited belief in capability etc.
However, in very simple terms, in my heart, I wanted to learn the value of money and expressed a desire to my family that I wanted to work. You guessed the response right…” You can’t do it”. So the third outcome, as above, “ Challenge becomes a huge motivation”, kicked in, and I tried to find a way. As luck would have it, I learned about a boy known to my family who had started going to Delhi as he had taken up a job there. I spoke to him and was told that he works for a toy company. Somehow convinced my father to accompany this boy called Happy for one day and see if it was something decent to be involved in.
As agreed with Happy, I reached his home the next day at 7:30 AM to go to Delhi with him. Not sure why, but surprise, surprise, he had left without me. Now definitely couldn’t just go back home and miss this golden chance, and in those days, there were no cell phones, so I couldn’t contact Happy either. I remembered Happy had told me that the company he works for is based in Delhi’s “East of Kailash “area and had shared the company name. Armed with these two pieces of information, without ever having travelled alone to Delhi and that too on Public transport, I headed for the old Faridabad train station(Google hadn’t graced our lives yet:-)). At the station enquired about the train stop I should get off at in Delhi to reach East of Kailash and learned about Okhla, my destination station for the day. Once I reached East of Kailash ( it was not a couple of blocks, more like a small town), I started enquiring about this Toy company, and after about an hour, luck smiled, and a phone shop( called STD/ISD booths in India) which this toy company used to route their long distance calls gave me their address.
Late morning, I arrived at A3-East of Kailash, which was originally a house but now had offices in the basement & ground floor and someone’s residence on the upper floors. The toy company’s office was in the basement. When I entered the office, my friend Happy was there and was suitably surprised. Anyway, I spoke to the boss and found out that this particular office employed people for door-to-door selling of their Soft toys and board games. They said they would give me a trial for a week, and I jumped on the chance.
So that day in April 1993, armed with around 20kgs of toys and games on my shoulder, with a desire to learn and motivated further by “You can’t do it”, at the grand age of 15, on the streets of South Delhi was my first day at work! The journey of a salesman had begun.
That day defined my life. I ended up working there for the remaining three months, and that is where my love for Sales was born. There are many other memories of knocking on doors, my first sale etc., which I might share in future posts. Since then, there had to be a component of work along with my studies, and I ended up working part-time all through my graduation in Sales roles.
Most of the time “You Can’t do it” challenge has worked positively for me as a motivator and as a catalyst to help push boundaries, get out of my comfort zone, etc., on multiple occasions. It is not surprising that the same must have played a considerable role in the lives of many people we have come to respect, such as Muhammad Ali, Nelson Mandela, Richard Branson etc., and must be a key ingredient in their success.
Ankur Shiv Bhandari
ChatGPT, this very techie-sounding word, came to my attention only a few weeks ago. I did not make much of this initially until all of my social media feeds started getting flooded by thoughts/articles/videos, and every type of content possible on how wonderful this was. I believe it took only five days for ChatGPT to have a million users.
To feed my curiosity, I tried to sign up and see the wonder for myself. Well, it was running at capacity at the time, so it took another couple of days before I got access. So what came next was.. hmm..Interesting.
The use of the tool and the clarity of results left me pleasantly surprised. It is but natural that a Chat/language-based search tool is compared to the Czar of search, Google, and that is what I did. I tried comparing these two on some basic terms and then on slightly advanced terms. For example, I am interested in Engineering Psychology and our business; Color Parlour works in packaging design. So I thought, let me find out what it says about this topic. Lo and behold, ChatGPT came back with quite a decent definition of Engineering Psychology, including its alternate name around human factors; it was fantastic. In comparison, the exact search on Google helped me arrive at similar information but was packaged in different sources that Google introduced me to.
Thinking about this, a simple comparison came to my mind of a Shopper vs a Cook. I had a need, and what Google did was shopped around the net for me and presented me with some good options to consume the content that I felt met my requirements. I sampled a few of them and then took a consumption call. In comparison, ChatGPT tried to satisfy my need by cooking up a solution itself. It looked around for the right ingredients, mixed them up using its own recipe, and provided me with a complete dish of content to consume. It was not as if I wanted Pizza, and it gave me Pasta; it was a Pizza alright.
A vital role that search engines play is understanding Intent. Google and other established search engines assist individuals and businesses in understanding and acting on Intent. As a recap, in the online world, there are broadly four types of Intent:
Although ChatGPT has had a strong start in the area of Intent focused on information consumption, it will be very interesting to see how the other areas and beyond are supported in times to come.
Whether we need a Shopper or a Cook will, of course depend on individual needs. However, will look forward to continuing interesting developments in the space.
Ankur Shiv Bhandari
I think I heard while watching a TV series once, that the day we are born, the day we come into this world, the countdown starts of us leaving this world one day. This is the ultimate truth for everyone, it is just that the duration of our time here is different for every individual whether it is days, weeks, months, years, decades or maybe a century for some. Unless someone has a secret stash of Elixir hidden somewhere or until the fountain of youth is truly discovered, this is the reality of life. I would not call it a hard, rough or crude reality as is heard sometimes as whether it is hard and rough or smooth and enjoyable is to a great measure dependent on each one of us.
The undeniable fact is that this particular innings that we have is “One” or “Aek” composed of moments that might be of joy, sorrow, exhilaration, depression, wonder, surprise, enlightenment or just pure fun. An effort to live each of those moments fully is “Aek Life- One Chance to Live.”
I would like to think that I try to live my life with this principle of “Aek Life”. Yes, I cannot control everything and yes, I have many moments of despair, frustration and sometimes complete annoyance but as life has taken me on its rollercoaster , I have come to realise that it is not what happens to you that defines you or how you capture that as a moment of your life, rather it is how you respond to it that can largely result in the type of feeling you retain or the memory you capture. In my recent readings, I came across this Stoic’s prayer which I think helps me greatly and I try my best to incorporate it into my daily life. It goes like this: “ Dear God- Give me the Serenity to understand the things I cannot change, Give me the Courage to change the things I can and Give me the Wisdom to know the difference”
Through this medium of “Aek Life”, I will try to share my own experiences and thoughts on trying to live this “One” life as fully as we can, in spite of and with everything that this journey brings. Where possible and relevant, I will try to get others to join me in the conversation. I would welcome thoughts from all of you on your experiences and perspectives as well.
Life is not always what we want it to be, or let me rephrase, Life is not always how we think we want it to be. There are many mysteries which life reveals only at the right time and it might be that if you don’t get what you desire might be the best thing that happens to you. We will try to form perspectives on some of these mysteries as we go on this journey and try to augment every moment we have in this “ Aek life- One chance to Live”
Thank you
What a few weeks of UK politics it has been. Looking at it with my Lens on Intent, it was interesting to see different perspectives and thought might be a good idea to share. I am not going to comment on what was right, what could have been better or on the suitability of various candidates etc. I am purely going to focus on my view of how I saw intent formation amongst different stakeholders since Boris went, to Liz Truss’s ascent, descent and finally the coronation of Rishi Sunak including decisions of Boris and a perspective on Why did Penny drop?
If you have not already read about my thoughts on How intent is formed or have watched my TEDx talk on the subject, let me refresh your memory. I believe the development and the strength of the Intent of any individual is dependent on the interaction between “Belief “ and “Relevance”. The stronger, the belief and relevance in a particular situation, the stronger the Intent which then is directly proportional to the action that is taken or not taken. I call this “ THE BRIA Model”
Let us start with a few months ago when Boris resigned. Do you think he wanted to go? I don’t think so. So what happened that made him give that resignation speech? Yes yes, I hear you that he had no choice, his support was diminished etc. etc. but coming to the cold end of it, what really led to that decision? Let us put my thinking of BRIA into practice, Beliefs, Relevance, Intent, Action.
Did Boris believe in himself and that he was doing a good job for the country, “ Getting the Big things right” Yes, of course, he did. Until the avalanche of resignations, did he feel his actions were relevant to the positive future of the party and the country? I think he did. My reference point is his performance at the Liaison committee on the 6th of July where I personally think he batted various questions and barbs reasonably well and the strength of his intent and the resulting action i.e responses to various questions even until then was reasonably robust. It is when the downpour of resignations started that his feeling of relevance to his party maybe started getting weakened a bit. So although his belief was still strong, the diminishing relevance weakened the intent to stay on and hence we saw the action of resignation.
Coming to Liz Truss, I think it is a slightly different story. Here, even if the belief in the actions that were being taken was strong, I think there could have been more work done on communications on making those actions feel more relevant to colleagues, and stakeholders both within Government and in wider markets and the general public. Even if some of the policies were strong, their potentially feeble relevance in the current circumstances could have weakened the intent of the markets and other stakeholders to support them.
Now coming to the Coronation @ Diwali of our new prime minister Rishi Sunak and the events leading up to it. I believe the relevance of Rishi potentially strengthened over the past few days due to multiple factors such as:
In this situation, even if some might doubt the belief people had in Rishi, his relevance was potentially too strong in the current circumstances that led to the formation of intent amongst many MPs of supporting him and the resulting actions of endorsement.
With Penny, I noted that her tweet of withdrawal came at almost the last minute possible at 13:58. What does that tell you? There was a very strong belief amongst her supporters until the last minute. One can absolutely understand that as she is an extremely strong candidate with very strong credentials, It is just that her relevance at this moment in time was potentially not as strong as Rishi and hence the intent to support Penny at this particular time amongst MPS was maybe not as strong and Penny had to drop.
Ankur Shiv Bhandari
Disclaimer: These are my thoughts in a personal capacity and do not represent thoughts of any particular group or committee.