Dinner at the MONK

So on Thursday, me and a friend decided to try a high-end place for dinner. It should not be Indian/Muglai cuisine that was the unsaid agreement. So we went started asking our friends about any nice place around for a nice meal. Finally we got a few names such as Swagat, Pind Baluchi etc. Since, another unsaid agreement said that we would want to try a new place so we rejected most of the places from the list we had just compiled.

Left with very little choice, we started towards Galaxy hotel behind 32 Milestone to find a good and reclusive restaurant. After rowing the bike through the accumulated street water, we finally arrived at the galaxy. As we entered, the central lobby created the mood for the evening a nice quite place and live piano playing. We decided to sit there for sometime and decide if this is where we would like to have food there. The place was called "Bean Stalk" and they served only coffee and some deserts. So we decided to give it a pass and check out the restaurants on the top floor.

As we climbed upstairs, on our right was "The Monk". Its no walls and open kitchen showed that it was meant for classy and choosy clientèle. The restaurant although not too big, had an elegant brown decor showing neat and polished furniture and setting.

So we took a table for 2 for us and started going through the menu. They provided peanuts as a welcome complimentary starters. I drooled over the chopsticks and started experimenting with it.

Learnings on Marketing from trade show

Trade show marketing, some pointers:

- always have something to attract customer's attention. Because they wont stop and ask you what is this, you have to make them stop by showing stuff that catches their attention

- showing something funny, emotional, candid usually attracts attention.

- having people on wall instead of places always a better idea

- Be brief in your pitch and at the same time be ready to answer customer's specific questions

- always make customers feel important

- Never hand them just the brochure, engage them in a forced conversion to tell about the products.

- Judge their excitement

- keep asking them or speaking your pitch out even if they look like not listening.

Learning from operations

Well for the last 2 days i have been having over 6 hours of meetings everyday. But this post is not about meetings but how to manage operations and what I have been learning while managing them now for the photography firm that we are running.

- Be in the position that you are the controller or at least one of the controller and not just an update taking guy

- Sit with everybody and run through the flow so that everybody know who is doing what

- Have daily small meetings to take updates of what everybody is working on

- Involve everyone by asking them idea and giving them space to participate

- If possible, also ask them to send a daily things worked on mail for update.

- Let everybody discuss their issues.

- Have backups ready for everybody and everything

Still in the process of learning and understanding all this. Don't know what all things work for running smooth operations.

Day as it went by

today somehow i felt very peaceful and relaxed. My boss asked some difficult questions in meeting but i was calm. Another boss tried to place the burden of everything on me but i was relaxed. Some critical things were not working but i was relaxed. Thought clearly and thoroughly through a couple of difficult situations and also did not try to copy somebody else.

I do not understand where this relax ness and peace of mind came from? is it yoga or is it the belief that something better which will end all this pain is on the way? I have a strong inclination towards the second and lets also hope it is second.

aug 25, 2010

Learning for leaders

Well everyday at work brings in new experiences and thereby new learning with it. Usually learning from what other leader or people in company are doing and you either resolve to never do that or try to learn those traits. Today, looking at some of the leaders around me, thought of a few things that I should not learn from them.

1. Spend more time at work then your hardest working employees and preferably working with them. This builds confidence and inspires the team.

2. Find faults in processes, rather than people. People usually do only what they have been told to, its usually the processes which confuse and cause misunderstanding.

3. Have regular feedback meetings

4. Define responsibilities of each of your team member in order to make them work efficiently

5. Be passionate about the business and check every delivery to ensure quality in the brand.

There are many more such learning, lingering around. Will keep adding to the list whenever possible.