MxMIndia

Tag: Bhaskar Das

  • The Q&A today is treading on delicate matters. But questions like these must be asked, and hence ought to be answered. Which we've done. Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das is as no-holds-barred as it can get. There are no holy cows, whatsoever. Read on…

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: Are Indian newspapers not run professionally?

    The Q&A today is treading on delicate matters. But questions like these must be asked, and hence ought to be answered. Which we’ve done. Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das is as no-holds-barred as it can get. There are no holy cows, whatsoever. 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. There is a sentiment that many Indian newspapers are very unprofessionally run or rather not very professionally run. You’ve spent a lifetime in the business. What’s your view??

     

    A. You want me to be objective is a subjective matter. The moot point is what is a professional approach or unprofessional approach. HBS or all business schools can write tomes on the subject. Besides, what is professional to one person need not be professional to another person. Do you dump unorthodox players in cricket because they are grammatically not impeccable?

     

    In the ultimate analysis, what works, what delivers. Market is the best arbiter and not text books. Even in the most sanitised professional environment, some whistleblower can crop up. Corporate world are replete with examples of so-called unprofessionalism. Leading  newspaper organisations have been surviving for years not just by happenstance. So far as my personal experience is concerned, I have always worked in a professional environment. I also believe that “I am the cause of everything i experience”. Consequently, when I remain professional, the world resembles the same.

  • Future backwards thinking in acquisition of skill is a critical variable

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: Your words for those sacked by media organisations and your advice to owners/ bosses who have effected these pink slips?

    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. We’ve heard that many large media organisations have sacked a lot of people.  Two questions: 1. Your words for those sacked. 2. Your advice to the owners/bosses who have effected these pink slips?

     

    A. Rightsizing (perhaps euphemism for the alleged sacking in your question) has always been in the lexicon of business to shore up the bottomline. Any environmental air pockets only exacerbate that trend. I believe that one can’t question the rules of the game when one is playing the game. So with frequent volatility in business for a variety of reasons in the external environment (I am not saying that internal environment is sanitised like operation theatres  but that’s outside the ambit of my answer) and one has to be adroit enough to navigate such choppy waters.

    Here is what I have been following in life: one should work the hardest during peace time. This implies upskill oneself continuously when there is no air turbulence. It means one has to be anticipatory and positively paranoid about any future eventuality, be it sectoral or organisational.

    Future backwards thinking in acquisition of skill is a critical variable. And the skill has to be two dimensional viz horizontal and vertical. Horizontal for adjacent pivoting and vertical to make one remarkable and indispensable within an organisational set-up.

    So far as owners/ bosses are concerned, I won’t be able to empathise fully with their imperatives and imponderables. But if I were the person, I would have approached the subject from a different perspective (a soliloquy of course): every separation leaves a scar and affects their family. May we discuss individually their challenges and counsel them to mitigate emotional trauma. Plus keeping the job is important. So how about reducing the salary of those who would be jettisoned and expose them to acquire different skillsets to help the organisation. It’s as if one is recruting a new candidate where experience is not the logic of recruitment. Post that offer it’s the individual’s choice. Secondly, encourage people to be entrepreneurial within the larger ecosystem that is beneficial to the organisation and hold their hand for a fixed period for just enabling them to take off and in the process achieve the twin objectives of emotional stability and develop entrepreneurship in related areas of the organisation for its benefit.

  • It's not at all kosher to love crackers , given the alarming level of pollution and global warming.

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: What is your view on firecrackers? Your view on rising decibel levels in the media?

    Welcome to an all-new week of Q&As as part of Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das. As we promised, here’s a cracker of an exchange. And not just one Q&A, but two… a double dhamaka.Enjoy!

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

     

     

    Q. What is your view on firecrackers? Do you enjoy the sound and air pollution caused by our homegrown or even Chinese firecrackers?

    A. It’s not at all kosher to love crackers , given the alarming level of pollution and global warming, around the world. However, metaphorically I love cracking ideas that make any profession exciting.

     

     

    Q. A supplementary question, if you allow me: What is your view on rising decibel levels in the media? People writing in CAPS in digital, melodrama in entertainment software and noise levels in news television discussions?

    A. With the atomisation of media formats of delivery and audience themselves becoming media, the perceived cacophony is a collateral impact. For some, it epitomises emphatic assertion. All of us are aware that as a society we are loud. It works on many occasions as it reinforces masculinity as social and cultural mores. But I strongly believe in the audience’s ability to decode signal from noise.

  • Presenting the Q&A with Dr Bhaskar Das on the last day of Dassera Week 2019. Enjoy and Enrich yourself

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: Who among the professional managers you’ve worked would you say you’ve learnt a lot from?

    Presenting the Q&A with Dr Bhaskar Das on the last day of Dassera Week 2019. Enjoy and Enrich yourself

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

    Pssst: Do come back on Monday, October 14 for a cracker of a Q&A. And not one, but two of them. A Double Dhamaka of sorts!

     

    Q. We’ve asked you for your views on the owners of media companies you’ve worked with. Who among the professional managers you’ve worked would you say you’ve learnt a lot from?

     

    A. If one’s mind is open and perpetually curious and incorrigibly paranoid about obsolescence, every individual becomes a source of learning. So naming specific individuals may be challenging as so many individuals have contributed to whatever I am today.

    I have also learnt from global sources by attending conferences and through constant upgradation through pedagogic immersion ( ncluding my PhDs).

    My kindergarten, school, college and university was BCCL and all my bosses and colleagues had  been great teachers. Then ZMCL (Zee) had been a source  great learning about various media formats through bosses, peers and colleagues. And later my stints in DB Corp, and now Republic Media Network have kept the search for pebbles  continuing on the shores of knowledge.

  • Its brand salience is alive in a popular Zee News show and the digital version gains traction on the Web

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: Your sentiments on closure of DNA’s print avatar? Should other print laggards also go in for digital-only presence?

    While the tone of the Q&A Dr Bhaskar Das in Das ka Dum is one of fun with provocative questions and responses given in his inimitable style, we couldn’t help slipping in a slightly serious and topical question today. Given that he was Group CEO of Zee Media Corporation Ltd, the company that owned the paper, it would be incorrect for us to ask him to compromise confidential information, so we asked him a very generic question. Read on…

     

    Q. As a veteran media professional, what are your sentiments on the closure of DNA’s print editions? And do you think other media groups should also consider a similar transition given that the print business model works well only for the leaders in the pack?

     

    A. I always believe that hindsight is a great science for diagnosing what is right or wrong. In any business, venture calculations can go awry. Yes, one feels sad that DNA print has shut shop after 14 years of existence. It definitely carved a niche amongst the newspaper-reading audience. Its brand salience is alive in a popular Zee News show and the digital version gains traction on the Web.

    One can’t extrapolate learning from episodic cases. Each business and its model is unique and has unique challenges. Hence any deterministic answer on the last part of the question can at best be speculative. Astrologers may be good at that. But a pracademic (practising academician) like me would not be suitable for that.

  • Presenting yet another Q&A with Dr Bhaskar Das in Das ka Dum. Provocative questions, Thoughtprovoking responses.

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: You are almost always colourfully and stylishly dressed. Now what if a 22-year-old were to do the same in a key client meet?

    Bhaskar Das
    Bhaskar Das

    It’s the festive season, and we couldn’t help asking this question to ‘Wizard of Words’ Dr Bhaskar Das as part of our Das ka Dum series of Q&As. Provocative questions, Thoughtprovoking responses.  If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar…

     

     

    Q. You are almost always colourfully and stylishly dressed. Now what if a 22-year-old in your organisation does the same: wear green trousers or a yellow jacket to work or even worse: a client meeting?

     

    A. I presume your wonderment about the colour skew in my outfit has no pejorative insinuation to lack of sartorial finesse (either by age cohort or by occasion inappropriateness). At a meta level, colours do contribute to change in one’s dopamine flow. So long as it’s not garish and asymmetrical with the combo and the personality, it needn’t be out of place. These days, in the start-up ecosystem, the freedom expressed through outfit/ dress is more evolved amongst the Generation Z  or others who defied demographic gravity.

     

    The larger confusion that you might be harbouring is the conflation between form and content. Both are different but can be complementary. It needn’t be an either-or. But lack of content can’t be camouflaged by the garb of colour.

     

    There is of course corporate protocol which needs to be adhered by all age groups for disciplinary requirements. It differs by organisation. There are practices of weekend dressing or outfits on festive occasions. ‘Judgmentality’ on the same is superfluous. Every organisation  is justified in its approach. Incidentally, I have also followed the same protocol during my career. May be I engendered in you some confusion where my colourful personality (an expression full of modesty and not narcissism) got seamlessly mixed with my outfits.

  • Presenting yet another Q&A with Dr Bhaskar Das in Das ka Dum. Provocative questions, Thoughtprovoking responses.

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: Your view on the trend to hire MBAs and FMCG-trained execs for the top deck in media companies?

    Bhaskar Das

    Presenting yet another Q&A with ‘Wizard of Words’ Dr Bhaskar Das in Das ka Dum. Provocative questions, Thoughtprovoking responses.  If you wish to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar…

     

    Q. You’ve grown through the ranks in The Times of India and occupied the highest office there. But the trend now in media companies is to hire B-school educated, FMCG-trained executives for the top deck? Your view on this trend?

     

    A. Times change, markets evolve, contexts alter and imperatives of business get transformed. In a scenario like these, talent scouting is bound to be a challenge. In fact the pace of change of consumers and markets would generally be asymmetrical with corporation. That is expected as corporations have to balance continuity with change. They have to balance the capability and copability of the experienced with the audaciousness of the young.

    So it’s nothing about scouting talent from one sector or the other. So long the talent pool is constantly churned to be in sync with the operating environment, it should be fine. In today’s business environment, to remain uncomfortable is the new route to comfort. Hence orthodox approach to rejuvenate the workforce need to be a constant exercise. Ans since there is no one answer to ever evolving business landscape, any deterministic approach is a sure recipe for disaster.

  • Greetings on this Friday before Dassera. We’re here with a question that a lot of us have been seeking an answer to. So read on for Dr Bhaskar Das’s views on paid content…

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: Is it right for a news media company – respected or otherwise – to pass off paid content as editorial-generated and editor-okayed?

    Bhaskar Das

    Greetings on this Friday before Dassera. We’re here with a question that a lot of us have been seeking an answer to. So read on for Dr Bhaskar Das’s views on paid content… in Das ka Dum.

    Please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar, to visit the archives of Q&As.

     

    Q. Is it right for a news media company – respected or otherwise – to pass off paid content as editorial-generated and editor-okayed?

     

    A. The slant of the question has a definitive drift towards an answer of  ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. These days, more often than not, answers may not be in black or white but somewhere in between. What the media industry eulogises as native content can also be clubbed under your question. Or for that matter how some public relations companies facilitate content in the media.

     

    I think a more fundamental question needs to be asked if the veracity of a story is compromised. Or if the concerned story has been flagged as sponsored content. Infomercials are a legit route to consumer awareness. The problem starts when the paid  content is camouflaged as non- sponsored content. One can’t take the audience’s intelligence for granted. They can see through it in case paid content is masqueraded as news.

  • After a break for Gandhi Jayanti, Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das is back. Enrich yourself, and enjoy!

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: Everyone says print is dead or is dying. What is your forecast for the Indian print media?

    Bhaskar DasAfter a break for Gandhi Jayanti, Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das is back. Enrich yourself, and enjoy!

     Please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar, to visit the archives of Q&As.

     

     

    Q. Everyone says print is dead or is dying. What is your forecast for the Indian print media?

     

    A. Your question has the germ of the answer: death is the beginning of life. No one dies. It’s only the form that migrates. I strongly feel that News on Paper won’t ever die. In fact no business dies. It’s the morbid attachment to form/formats and business model that stymies possible transmigration to a contemporary/ evolved/ market-friendly (read user-friendliness) state. Those who believe in survival of the fittest (as a business for sure) would never get afflicted by extinction. One needs to migrate from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset.

     

    In the prevalent interconnected and interactive, anytime, anywhere world , where consumer activism is dominant,  a passive medium with active audience (that a print medium is) needs to transport itself to a different mindset to complement other formats of delivery. In an ecosystem economy, a platform-based fluid existence would be a good route to thriving existence.

  • Presenting Week 4, Day 2 of of Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das. And do come back tomorrow for another question and another answer. We’ll be back with a Q&A on Thursday.

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: Any Gandhi-ism that you think is most appropriate for the Indian media as it attempts to sail through these VUCA times?

    Presenting Week 4, Day 2 of Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das. And do come back on Thursday for another round of questions and answers.

     Please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar, to visit the archives of Q&As.

     

     

    Q. It’s Gandhi Jayanti tomorrow. Any Gandhi-ism (or thought/statement) that you think is most appropriate for the Indian media as it attempts to sail through these VUCA times?

     

    A. To my mind, Mahatma Gandhi represents certain values that would always be relevant. In fact in a VUCA world, its relevance would be more beneficial, if practised in their true spirits. Fundamentally, he espoused goodness for all and by all. He also postulated truth and non-violence as  non-negotiable foundation of everything. These principles are sector-agnostic and quintessentially pertinent. My conviction has succinctly been  expressed in  Albert Einstein’s golden words on the Mahatma:   “Generations to come, it may well be, will scarce believe that such a man as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth”.

  • Presenting Week 4, Day 1 of of Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das. And do come back tomorrow for another question and another answer. Pssst. A Gandhi Jayanti question for tomorrow!

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: Would you say the Festive Season 2019 will be possibly the worst ever for media entities?

    It’s going viral. Each Q&A we hear is firing up the Whatsapp and mail circuit. People have been laughing, screaming out incorrigible reading a response… but there’s no denying that each question-and-answer is profound and funny. Presenting Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das. And do come back tomorrow for another round of questions and answers.

     Please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar, to visit the archives of Q&As.

     

     

    Q. We’ve asked you a lot question on the health of the media business. Would you say the Festive Season 2019 will be possibly the worst ever for media entities?

     

    A. You are looking for deterministic answer (usual for a journalist) to a transient situation. There is nothing christened as best or worst times. It’s in our mind. It’s a cycle (one that  frequently happens these days due to VUCA headwinds). Human beings tend to behave bad in good times, so bad times follow good times and vice versa. The old adage  works: as you sow,  so you reap. So the current perception of worst times will also pass. In a VUCA world, one needs to detox more frequently. A bend is not an end.

  • Presenting Week 3, Day 5 of Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das. And do come back on Monday for another thoughtprovoking week of Q&As

    Das ka Dum with Dr Bhaskar Das: Dassera is a few weeks away… any media evil that you think should get killed on D-Day?

    Bhaskar Das

    Presenting The Wizard of Words with Das ka Dum. Day Five of the Third Week.

    And do come back on Monday for another thoughtprovoking week of Q&As . If you want to access the archives, please go to the Das Ka Dum tab on the website’s top navigation bar..

     

    Q. Dassera is a few weeks away… any media evil that you think should get killed on D-Day?

     

    A. I know of a demon thait is sector-neutral. The demon is called EGO: acronym of Edging God Out, as a saint said once. Social media has further accentuated it. My personal preference is to burn this hydra-headed monster for ever. But can we? Will we not get enervated by ego emaciation? It’s a personal journey and collective wisdom will never come handy.