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Tag: Bhaskar Das

  • The findings of the latest Indian Readership Survey didn’t paint a very healthy picture of the print players. So we asked this question to the veteran print honcho. He may not be connected with print currently, but if his curation of the INMA South Asia conference recently is any indication, there are few people in the business who understand the dynamics of print better than him. Without further ado, Das ka Dum by Dr Bhaskar Das

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: Surprised with the recent IRS data? A word of advice to print sales folk on sellling despite low numbers?

    The findings of the latest Indian Readership Survey didn’t paint a very healthy picture of the print players. So we asked this question to the veteran print honcho. He may not be connected with print currently, but if his curation of the INMA South Asia conference recently is any indication, there are few people in the business who understand the dynamics of print better than him. Without further ado, Das ka Dum by Dr Bhaskar Das

     

    If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

     

    Q. The recent Indian Readership Survey numbers report a fall in readership of a large number of publications. Are you surprised? A word of advice to print sales folk on how they can continue to sell despite the numbers being low?

     

    A. I am not surprised as historical trend follows the same graph. Also societal metamorphosis, led by accelerated technological change and globalisation and its consequent impact on consumer behaviour, have contributed to the shifting audience behaviour. This gets reflected in measurement metrices. In the ultimate analysis, IRS is an indicative direction and not a deterministic or an exhaustive label on the efficacy of a publication. Once the various data points of all access points for a particular brand are measured and the various data points are capable of taking to each other, the perceived deceleration of print news brands would most probably evaporate because an omnichannel audience measurement can decimate a siloed view of consumption.

    Coming to the task of the sales team, dwindling of audience base could be a challenge for monetisation. Hence a different approach like evidence based-selling, storytelling as route to behavioural shift , empathising with the business challenges of the associates, thinking complementary as a solution provider et al are the routes that may be adopted.

    Besides, media owners can take initiative with IRS for adding new dimensions in the methodology including reading and noting study for each title so that the quality and quantity of audience immersion in the content can be measured. In an algorithm-based media planning and buying ecosystem, the print sales team needs to get encultured into the new lexicon of smart prospecting and put their skin in the game, as Nicholas Taleb recommends.

     

     

  • Welcome to yet an all-new week of Das Ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das. Some ‘solid’ questions for the Wizard of Words this week. Read on…

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: Would you, as Rahul Bajaj did recently, ask questions to biggie ministers if you were at an event with them? And what would you ask/tell them?

    Bhaskar Das

    Welcome to yet an all-new week of Das Ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das. Some ‘solid’ questions for the Wizard of Words this week. Read on…

     If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

     

     

    Q Rahul Bajaj recently embarrassed three senior ministers in the Narendra Modi cabinet about the state of fear that exists in Indian industry. If you were at an event and could ask a question or state a fact to the Home or Finance Ministers, will you do it? And what would you tell them?

     

    A. In a democratic country these kind of questions are normal. Even the concerned minister replied to it appropriately. I don’t discern any agenda from either side. It is possible others might not have thought or felt about it due to hyper-sensitivity towards political or social correctness of raising issues in public forum. Or didn’t want to engage in polemical discussion about signs of democratic deficit because of alleged pervasive  perceived apprehensions.

    To your question of whether I would have raised the issue. Well, One has to face it to raise a question. Being a small fry with limited exposure to any alleged political holocaust, such issues don’t matter. If it doesn’t matter, I don’t apply my mind to it. After all for me actions speak louder than words.

  • For those even with the remotest interest in news, the weekend was hilarious. Well, more because everyone was caught napping… politicians, pundits and journalists tracking the business. So we thought, we will pose a question on the issue to our every own Wizard with Words. Presenting Dr Bhaskar Das in Das ka Dum. Read on…

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: On Saturday, every news entity was caught napping on the political twist in Maharashtra. Does this mean that newswallahs do not have their ears to the ground?

    Bhaskar Das

    For those even with the remotest interest in news, the weekend was hilarious. Well, more because everyone was caught napping… politicians, pundits and journalists tracking the business. So we thought, we will pose a question on the issue to our every own Wizard with Words. Presenting Dr Bhaskar Das in Das ka Dum. Read on…  If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

     

    Q. On Saturday, every news entity in the country was caught napping on the political twist with the BJP forming the government with the NCP leader.   As a senior industry professional who has spent a lifetime with news, what does this say (to you) about the newswallahs… the news community? Do they not have their ears to the ground?

    A. One news channel has broken the story though. Let’s not go into the debate of which channel broke the story. It also doesn’t mean that that only one channel has ears to the ground — a typical syndrome called heuristics bias. History is replete with examples of many channels breaking many other stories. The nihilism about a sector on the basis of one stray incident can’t be used to generalise either about a sector, or of the fraternity per se. In fact you are underestimating the dexterity with which the political class have guarded a secret from the ever-prying eyes of the media. That’s pretty smart. Now if the pink ball outsmarts Bangladesh players, can you blame the pink ball? Or that the future of cricket or its players needs to be contemplated. I wonder.

  • Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: When will the achhe din happen in Indian M&E?

    On the second working day of this rather short post-Diwali week, here’s a question uppermost in our minds. If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

     

     

    Q. According to you (given your market intelligence and inferences), for the M&E sector, kya achhe din aane waale hain?

     

    A. What is achhe din for the M&E segment? I presume your answer would be when monetisation would be facile? No inter-category/ format migration of attention and cash would happen? No rightsizing will happen? Double-digit growth would accrue to all leading  media companies, if not all, et al? Imagine ships are constructed to be anchored in the shore. As a result, no ship would get drowned.

     

    But is predictable and favourable wind the only indicator of acche din? I differ. I find that the M&E industry is going through the best of times. Technology and consumer culture are together tectonically shifting the topography of competitiveness. In this journey, headwinds might queer some pitches but when one remains perpetually paranoid and permanently in a beta state, one develops  agility, excitement and resilience during  navigation. Now if that’s not acche din, what can it be? Instability is the new stability.

  • Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: If you and Shashi Tharoor are in the same room, who would use tougher words with each other?

    Bhaskar Das

    We hope you had a good Diwali weekend. We are back with a new (short) week of questions for Dr Bhaskar Das as part of the Das ka Dum series. Our response to his response today: “Holy Cow, whattan answer!”

     If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

     

     

    Q. Wonder if you and Shashi Tharoor in the same room, who would use tougher words with each other? My view is that on words, he may beat you, but on the turn of phrase, you can win hands down. Comment

     

    A. You are extra generous. I am no match for his flowery style of articulation. Needless to say. I am simultaneously  flummoxed and embarrassed by your epithet. Sometime no comment is the best comment. At least I can’t be sued.

  • We end the week with an all-new question answered by Dr Bhaskar Das in the Das ka Dum series. Read on…

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: Which work better in media – family-owned or professionally run set-ups?

    We end the week with an all-new question answered by Dr Bhaskar Das in the Das ka Dum series. Read on…

    If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

     

     

    Your view on family-owned organisations versus professionally run set-ups? Which can work better in the media sector?

     

    Your question smacks of availability heuristics syndrome where a chosen conclusion has been put into binary baskets on the basis of unrepresentative samples. Secondly, I strongly believe that there is no special qualitative difference between the two differentiated form of set-ups. Every business organisation has to be managed and there are examples galore where the share of failures are equally available in both the so-called clusters. And as if the media sector is something unique that requires extra-terrestrial skills. If business success is considered as one of the key litmus tests, it’s neutral to sectors and to  so-called family run or professional set-ups. The reason for failure happens for a variety of factors which can be clubbed under the broad categories of mismanagement and crisis of leadership. Period. Any other reason is merely a subset of that.

  • An all-new question answered by Dr Bhaskar Das in the Das ka Dum series. Read on…

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: Can you talk to us of a low in your career and as you look back, how would you have handled the issue differently?

    An all-new question answered by Dr Bhaskar Das in the Das ka Dum series. Read on…

     If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

     

     

    We all know of a variety of super-achievements in your professional life. But would you like to talk to us of a low and as you look back, how would  you have handled the issue differently?

     

    I have no high or low in life. I developed a stoic approach to everything. I knew that moving fro on peak to another has to pass through a valley, unless one is a superman or spiderman. When one makes peace with the flow of life, any feeling of regret is an anathema to the core belief.

  • Yet another provocative question we have asked Dr Bhaskar Das in the Das ka Dum series. Read on…

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: You have been into hardcore sales for most of your professional career. And then you went on to do a Ph D. And not one, but two. Isn’t a bit of a contradiction – the ‘saleoo’ & the ‘gyaani’?

    Yet another provocative question we have asked Dr Bhaskar Das in the Das ka Dum series. Read on…

     If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar.

     

     

    Q. You have been into hardcore sales for most of your professional career. And then you went on to do a Ph D. And not one, but two. Isn’t a bit of a contradiction – the ‘saleoo’ and the ‘gyaani’?

     

    A. This question suffers from the usual attribution myopia and stymies the human potential. Can you tell me who is not a salesman in this world? So I am not ashamed of being labelled a ‘Saleoo’. Academic interest liberates you from the darkness of bounded ignorance to the world of unbounded curiosity. In the process, one gets conscious of one’s imperfections and surges forward to an enlightened space.

  • Decidedly the most provocative (and some may say unfair) question we have asked Dr Bhaskar Das in the Das ka Dum series.

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: Did being a Bengali help you in your career given the number of Bongs in advertising, media and marketing?

    Decidedly the most provocative (and some may say unfair) question we have asked Dr Bhaskar Das in the Das ka Dum series.

     If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar…

     

     

    Q. Did being a Bengali help you (in your career) given the number of Bongs across levels in the advertising, media and marketing fields?

     

    A. All generalisations are wrong, including this one. Ethnic classification as a contributing factor for success can at best be a symptom of intellectual impoverishment. Coincidences can’t be a base for a statistically significant conclusion. They can at best be treated as apriori. It’s ultimately an individual’s commitment and smart work that paves the way to success, material or otherwise. If accepted, it tantamounts to trivialising commitment to work.

  • Welcome to an all-new week of Q&As as part of Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das. Enjoy! (And do come back tomorrow, for the most provocative question asked thus far!)

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: If you could re-start your career, which media would you join? And BCCL again or an InShorts or Dailyhunt?

    Welcome to an all-new week of Q&As as part of Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das. (And do come back tomorrow, for the most provocative question asked thus far!)

     If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar..

     

     

    If you were given the option to start your career all over again – and in 2019 – which media would you join – print, television, radio, digital, outdoor or whatever else? And would you still like to join BCCL or would it be some other conglomerate? Or a company like InShorts or Dailyhunt?

     

    If wishes were horses… but I am not a dissatisfied soul to opt for an imaginary throwback. But then I can’t upset you… So: I would love to join Elon Musk and would love to be part of a voyage to a visionary future. Now don’t liberate me by saying: “Ja Bhaskar, Ji le teri Zindagi”

  • On the last day of the week, we ask Dr Bhaskar Das for advice that many professionals must be seeking as they turn professionals. Read on…

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: What’s your advice to media professionals turning entrepreneurs?

    On the last day of the week, we ask Dr Bhaskar Das for advice that many professionals must be seeking as they turn professionals. Read on…

     

    If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar..

     

     

    Q. Am sure there are several people who come to you saying they want to turn entrepreneurs. What’s your advice to media professionals turning entrepreneurs?

     

    A. In today’s context, it’s a very logical question where individuals want to make a difference and express their freedom outside the boundary of a monolithic structure and protocol. I usually don’t believe in giving advice as I might be needing it more.

    But I can share what would I have told to myself if the entrepreneurial urge came to me. Here it is: be conscious of the fact that three things viz consumer value, Business model and Ecosystem would keep you on your toes and they have to be based on robust data platform. A collaborative mindset and navigating a platform-based approach for business will be critical. Finally, it’s always good to start early (not necessarily true of course) and don’t forget to inculcate the agility to pivot in case there are signs of too much headwind for the relevant business.  And it’s not a bad idea if emotion and ego are left behind at home before doing business.

     

  • The Q&As as part of Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das are a lot more than just fun and repartees. Like the question we have today, and BD’s response to it. Read on…

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: Why is it that there are no true blue creatives among the officebearers of Ad Club or the IAA or even the AAAI?

    The Q&As as part of Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das are a lot more than just fun and repartees. Like the question we have today, and BD’s response to it. Read on…

     

    If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar..

     

     

    Q. Why is it that there are no true blue creatives among the officebearers of Ad Club or the IAA or even the AAAI?

     

    A. It’s not be design for sure. It’s a fact that most of the officebearers are from agencies, media houses and are marketers. All of them are creative in their areas. It’s not that in the past mancoms, there was no creative person. In fact they were very much there. And  through our various Industry award events, they play a seminal role in shaping and judging the awards. What is important is the presence of their wisdom in AdClub’s abiding principles.

     

    So far as physical presence is concerned, you must note that there is a lot of work happen at the backend which border on management and execution. All the officebearers do the same pro bono and beyond the call of their core job. I can imagine the life of a creative person is more cognitive and routine works create pressure on their calibration and expression of the same. It’s not that they are not interested, but AdClub over the years has been sensitive to their operating imperatives and mine their wisdom more than a symbolic presence. Incidentally this is my personal view and should not be taken as an official version. For that, the current President of AdClub is the best person to answer.

     

    Q. And what about IAA and AAAI?

     

    A. I am not competent enough to comment on other august bodies. But I have noticed human beings generally suffer from a syndrome called availability heuristics where they arrive at a conclusion and look for facts to support it. I am sure the aforementioned bodies have similar process like my thinking or more evolved imperatives to act in the way they operate.