Vinay Kanchan’s Post

#negotiation #creativity #dealmaking #combatingtheodds The wise sage Vyasa was looking for an extraordinarily intelligent scribe to help him write the Mahabharat. He zeroed in on Lord Ganesha, though to be honest there was no tendering of applications in this case. The elephant God agreed, but he had a condition. He was a very fast writer, and he wanted the sage’s narration to match the speed of his penmanship. If at any point, the sage would falter, he would stop the project. Vyasa scratched his beard in deep thought (actual footage not available), and replied that the condition was fine, but he had one of his own. The 'tusk master' would only write when he understood fully what the sage had said, and not otherwise. This deftly meant the sage could resort to espousing complex ideas and words, which would buy him time. Truly an epic idea, no pun intended. It also presents some interesting lessons in the art of negotiation. 1. You can always ask for something in return, even if the one across the table is a God-literal or metaphorical. 2. Acceding to the other person’s request in whatever manner possible, is always good, because it brings him or her on board with the right enthusiasm. 3. Negotiation often gets positioned as purely a tussle over rational numbers, but it is a forum where creative thinking needs to be applied far more often, like Vyasa did in this incident. It allowed him to end on a win-win note for both parties. Looked at this way, one can see how any negotiation process can end on the ‘write’ note.

#negotiation #poise #makingcounterdemands #creativity #mythovity The wise sage Vyasa was looking for an extraordinarily intelligent scribe to help him write the Mahabharat. He zeroed in on Lord Ganesha, though to be honest there was no tendering of applications in this case. The elephant God agreed, but he had a condition. He was a very fast writer, and he wanted the sage’s narration to match the speed of his penmanship. If at any point, the sage would falter, he would stop the project. Vyasa scratched his beard in deep thought (actual footage not available), and replied that the condition was fine, but he had one of his own. The 'tusk master' would only write when he understood fully what the sage had said, and not otherwise. This deftly meant the sage could resort to espousing complex ideas and words, which would buy him time. Truly an epic idea, no pun intended. It also presents some interesting lessons in the art of negotiation. 1. You can always ask for something in return, even if the one across the table is a God-literal or metaphorical. 2. Acceding to the other person’s request in whatever manner possible, is always good, because it brings him or her on board with the right enthusiasm. 3. Negotiation often gets positioned as purely a tussle over rational numbers, but it is a forum where creative thinking needs to be applied far more often, like Vyasa did in this incident. It allowed him to end on a win-win note for both parties. Looked at this way, one can see how any negotiation process can end on the ‘write’ note.

#monday #liveinthemoment #tuneintotheworld This is an interesting picture. It shows a guy so immersed in his cell phone, that he utterly fails to appreciate, a once in a life time close encounter with a humpback whale. Perhaps he sees them everyday. Maybe he is having a heated argument with his better half on messaging. But that still doesn't do much to explain the 'porpoise' of his actions, even if we are just fishing around for reasons. But the reason this photograph rings true especially on this day, is that Mondays are often like that. We are so single mindedly obsessed about getting on with it, that we at times seldom notice how the very stage around us is transforming. The bandwidth of the real world is far broader, than the limited scope and perspective of our working screens. Lift your gaze. Look around. Lap it up. Don’t let some mind blowing ‘whales of opportunities’ pass you by.

#creativity #innovation #breakingbarriers #leadership #GaneshChaturthi always brings back memories of one of India's greatest freedom fighters-Lokmanya Tilak. The man who used a truly creative idea to spread the word for independence. Knowing the British had banned political rallies; Tilak helped design the Ganesh Chaturthi (Utsav)-the festival of Lord Ganesh, complete with elaborate rituals, which ended in people gathering to immerse the God's idol (and not the Indian Idol) at sea and river beaches. This inherent congregation of people, gave Tilak a stage to address them and spread his rallying call "Swaraj (Freedom) is my birthright and I shall have it". Something which would go on to become the central theme of India's independence movement. He teaches us even today, that people might put restrictions on what you can do, but that does not mean you can't find a way around them. In fact, those very restrictions, can result in the kindling of innovation which not only serves the immediate purpose, but can last far beyond. He inspires us to take on our barriers, and simply immerse them in the sea of our imagination. 

#LordGanesha takes centerstage in India, over the next few days. The elephant headed deity is unique in many respects, even among celestial beings. Which is why he is also a #master, when it comes to matters of creating a #differentiated #brand. Here's an irreverent look at #brandstrategy lessons he imparts, even as the modaks flow around. Rajiv Vaishnav Siddharth Deshmukh Santosh Ghate Sudha Shirodkar Iyer Shilpa Kamath Mangesh Mulajkar Giridhar Bhat Gauri D. Tilak Amitava Chowdhury Sainath Pai Shobhit Srivastava Vishakha Sawlapurkar Mahesh Jadhav Amit Wagh Rinku Arora Anil Jain Hemendra Chonkar Milind Gadkari Adi Sathyanarayan Anil Nandalike Dr. Sapna Prabhu Parag Doshi Nita Nadkarni Aditya Jaishankar Jitendra Soni sumitra sarkar Siddharth Bajaj Ratnakar Suvarna Sainath Maharatta Salankey Ajeet Mestry Ashish Agarwal Girish Rao Lavang Khare Shalini (Chatterjee) Gupta (She/Her) Sanjay Sakharkar Sanjay Shindgikar Manish Dedhiya PMP, ITIL,PMIACP, Prince 2,DASSM,CSM, CSPO Shipra Chinchankar

Today, Mumbai's favourite festival the hashtag #GaneshChaturthi begins. The elephant headed God is associated with auspicious beginnings. He also is the fountainhead of wisdom and incisive #insight. On that note, here's sharing a tale from his cannon, which presents a lateral perspective on #careerplanning and #personaldevelopment as well. Welcome to a taste of #mythovity. Yeh dil maange Morya!

#mumbaitales #humor Yesterday was #TeachersDay-a day to pay respects to all those great guides who helped us navigate our life journeys. And, whilst there are many who have undoubtedly help shape us, there is one teacher who often goes unnoticed on the streets of Mumbai. The venerable pothole. To be honest, there are millions of branches of it, generously spread across all the streets of Mumbai, sort of a flourishing business. There’s learning to be had at every turn and corner. They teach you: life inevitably comes with ups and downs. They remind you there are no straight and clear roads, where you can travel fast to your destination. They nudge you towards considering insurance policies. They prepare you for unpleasant surprises. And if you are walking, they splash water all over you, showing your dirty linen in public, preparing you for the embarrassments life inevitably brings along. They teach so much. Ask for so little. Perhaps just to be left as they are, which we seem great at complying with. So, if you go over one of them today and are much the worse for it, just consider it as some well-intentioned punishment handed out by a really sincere teacher.

On the eve of #TeachersDay, a look at how the Teacher/Guru/Sage #archetype, still can find relevance when #brands try to find #relevance with #GenZ audiences. Sharing my latest ET BrandEquity. Thanks Prasad Sangameshwaran and his team for their support. Prof. Chandradeep (CD) Mitra Vaneet Chhibber Preeti Sawhney Monika Divekar Siddharth Deshmukh Ajay Verma Ashish Mishra Manisha Kapoor Zahid Shaikh Rahul Jauhari Navonil Chatterjee Mohit Gorisariya Ananya Sharma Thanush Joseph Rajit Desai Srikanth Raman Garima Pant (She/Her) Sonali Khanna Geetanjali Saini G V k Samson Manas Barpanda Jose Leon sumitra sarkar Riya Anand Sharad S Chatturvedi Vinuthan Vasistha Ashwani A. Stalin Mohapatra Pallavi Mathur Lal Rajiv Vaishnav Shobhit Srivastava Vidyanath Vaddi Kaumudi Naithani Sanjay Sakharkar Sudha Shirodkar Iyer Tushar Khakhar Gautam Anand Saurabh Dahiya

#teachersday #teachers #wisdom #conflictresolution Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, was India’s second President. His birth anniversary is celebrated as "Teachers' Day", as he was also one of the nation’s greatest ever guiding lights. That educated perspective brought deeper insight to whatever he did. When serving as the speaker of the Rajya Sabha (India’s ‘House of Lords’), he would mediate heated debates in an extremely interesting manner. No, not by shouting over the offending members, or arbitrarily disciplining them. As matters would get too loud or boisterous-as they often did-he would calm everyone down, by reciting Sanskrit Shlokas. What a lateral idea! Not only is Sanskrit, one of those languages which sounds mellifluously pleasant on recitation-akin to what Latin does to a Western audience-it also cues a higher wisdom at a deeply visceral level. It quietens the soul. Even if the members did not immediately grasp the gist of that adage (shloka), the sheer act of introducing a different language-metaphorically & literally-into the mix, caused him to galvanize attention, divert the flow of attention and emotions, and help hold rising tempers in abeyance. And the passage to time, even if small, has a great effect on the diminishing of anger. The thing about great teachers, is that they always have something to teach us, even after decades. Their cerebral and spiritual gifts to us, trump the material by a long distance.

#selfdevelopment #listening #communication Interestingly, Listen is an anagram of Silent. To employ a metric related reference; that peculiarity really carries some kilograms, when it comes to insightful behavior. Often things deteriorate because we listen only to respond. We selectively hear what we want to hear, never really taking the effort of building a sense of empathy. In most cases, we are just counting down till the other person shuts up. Sometimes we don't even offer them that courtesy, butting in just as their tone and volume begins to tail off. Hence, communication fails because no bridges have been laid down. People on opposing sides merely keep ranting, ever eager to make their own 'important' points, oblivious to whether the other side is registering them or not. Just take a look at any news debate to know this to be true. To turn things around-as the anagram process points towards-one really needs to be silent when the other person is speaking. It is only then one can claim to be truly listening. It is a privilege we must bestow on others, if we expect them to offer us the same courtesy. And when that happens, most burning issues begin to fall silent.