Recommendation/Testimonial from the President and Founder of www.knowledgeoman.com

It is indeed an honour to receive a recommendation/testimonial from the president and founder, Mr. Tariq Al Barwani of the leading knowledge portal of the Sultanate of Oman, www.knowledgeoman.com . I am associated with this novel learning initiative as part of my social contributions and towards doing that extra bit for this excellent nation, in line with the dream of the great leader Sultan Qaboos Bin Said. I joined as a contributor then moved on a column coordinator and presently associated as community contributor. My profile in the portal can be seen at-http://knowledgeoman.com/en/?page_id=281

Other blogs from the same blogger – www.manishankarscribbles.wordpress.com and www.twitter.com/manitwitts

Recommendation for Dr. Manishankar Chakraborty from the Founder and President of www.knowledgeoman.com , Mr. Tariq Al Barwani

486th Publication in International Journal

An Important Announcement

After my blog www.manishankarthetrainer.blogspot.com and microblog www.twitter.com/manitwitts, welcome to my third blog www.manishankarscribbles.wordpress.com!

Learning from the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 Opening Ceremony

Size doesn't matter, the attitude matters!Yours truly was stunned after seeing the fabulous ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 Opening Ceremony held in Dhaka, Bangladesh.The immediate thought which crossed the mind was the comparison of the opening ceremonies held in the subcontinental world cups dated 1987 and 1996.There are some important learning which the bigger and more powerful neighbour(read India) can decipher from the recently concluded opening ceremony in the capital of its eastern neighbour.They are as follows-
(1)The country marketed itself in a commendable manner by riding piggy on the ICC World Cup 2010 stage.
(2)The homogenous and simple flow of the event without and hiccup or glitches is praiseworthy.
(3)Everyone contributed under the able leadership of PM Shiekh Hasina, which was evident from the all round support and preparations of the event.
(4)One point agenda of everybody starting from the rickshaw puller plying Dhaka to the cricket official of BCB(Bangladesh Cricket Board)was to make this event a grand success which in turn would generate lot of foreign revenues and indirect employment in the months to come.
(5)No last minute hassles like Eden Garden and CWG fiasco in India
(6)No Kalmadi type corrupt sports administrator in the helm
(7)Adequate opportunity given to fellow co-hosts like India and Sri-Lanka thereby displaying their big hearted approach towards the neighbouring country
(8)For once Indian corrupt politician, Agriculture minister and ICC President, Sharad Pawar was honest and vocal while saying this was the best opening ceremony he had witnessed, indirectly referring to the maladies of those held in India in 87 and 96 respectively.
(9)The show as simple yet modern with all the latest technologies in display, not to forget the perfect blend of Bangladeshi culture and modernity
(10)Refusal of Shakira and accepting Bryan Adams as the latter quoted an astronomical sum speaks volumes about the reality the decision makers lives in.India would have accepted that offer and the decision makers would in turn had generated personal kick-backs for the same.

Its time when Indian cricket board, supposed to be the richest, but the most fragmented within and the Indian politicos understand and learn from their small neighbour.Size and selfish approach doesnt matter, attitude, determination, passion and love for the country matters when it comes to organizing global events like Common Wealth Games, World Cups etc. Is Kalmadi and co listenting?

Unique Promotion by Red Bull in Oman

Everyone globally is aware about the leading energy drink,Austria based Red Bull. A whole lot of case studies has been written about the same, focussing on branding and other allied aspects of marketing, viz. promotion. Yours truly had been witnessing one of the unique promotional strategies of this novel brand in the Sultanate of Oman for the last two years. Being a brand especially targeted to the youth segment of the society who are not only health consciousness, but also the upwardly mobile cutting across demographies (read students, corporate executives, professors),the brand presents its attributes through adventure sports. The bicycle specialist roped in from Europe having expertise in making acrobatic displays stunning jumps from one peak to another trough to the applause of the audience present. Yours truly witnessed the event two years in succession in the leading colleges and universities especially when the institutes are busy arranging events like Career Fairs/Job Fairs which in turn draw huge audience from different parts of the Sultanate.To add to this extravaganza the company distributes free samples of Red Bull and the acrobatic display has a DG in the background revealing the dynamism of the brand.The approach adopted to relate the features of the brand with the promotion and advertising is a marketing professional's delight. The video of the eye-catching promotion would soon be attached to this blog. Meanwhile,read and comment.

Muscat Festival-2011

Muscat festival-2011 being underway is a gala event organized in the capital city of the beautiful country, the Sultanate of Oman.An annual event it's a blend of art, literature, handicrafts, culture and heritage of a galaxy of nations from all over the world.The confluence of so many nations, coupled with the fun-filled environs of the celebrations makes it a grand place for family and friends to meet, greet and learn as well.Yours truly along with a pal joined the celebrations and trust me the lazer show, the musical fountains and the light show were great stuff.However, what caught the attention was the education being provided to all on the fall-out of drug abuse, along with the cultural shows being presented by the artists of different countries.The traditional Russian dance and the Omani dance were absolute delight to the eyes.The arrangements were absolutely perfect and kudos to the organizers for the same.Some of the snaps can be seen from https://picasaweb.google.com/100721812686617711632/MuscatFestival2011?feat=email#

Made in India brand making it big in the Global Stage

It is indeed soothing to the eyes when an Indian traces MADE IN INDIA brand in any of the other markets apart from that of the domestic one.Most of the Indian companies have gone global by either acquiring global brands (read Tata-Corus, Tata Motors acquiring Jaquar, Landrover range of cars)or by selling Indian brands to global behemoths(read Ramesh Chauhan's Parle beverages being acquired by Coca-Cola)or even made in India cars from the stable of Maruti Suzuki like Alto, Swift plying on the foreign roads. Even a Tata Nano here and there being sold in the global market under the parent brand name or that of the marketing partner is a moment of pride for all Indians, as we present our frugal engineering capabilities to the world market.Tata Tea and Tata-Tetly Coffee can be sipped in the leading hotel and cafe chains,which in turn adds to the overall flavour of the iconic Indian brands.A serious thought would make one wonder as to how these corporations found their feet in the highly competitive and regulated overseas markets after coming from an emerging nation. Indian IT brands like Tata Consultancy, Infosys, Wipro to name a few are household names and even giants like Big Blue(IBM)have felt their tremors.Inspite of the bottle-necks and red-tapism, not to forget the mammoth corruption being unearth every now and then, hats off to corporate India for taking such gigantic leaps in a cut throat competitive era.Indian leaders needs to understand the inherent capabilities of Indian organizations and its manpower thereby reducing the looting spree of the public exchequer! India can glorify even more if the so called national decision makers realize the importance of the sentiments of a billion plus population based inside and outside India.2G, Adarsh Housing, erstwhile Fodder Scams are taking center-stage for all the bad reasons, mainly due to their sheer magnitude and impact!What an irony!

Ancillaries or Vendor Development in Indian Healthcare Sector

It was the second visit to Chennai's Apollo Hospital, a renowned corporate chain with its Chennai unit creating a niche for itself,both domestically and globally.The present blog doesnt get into the services provided by the chain or the other aspect attached to it.It talks about the indirect employment generation, contribution towards the state exchequer of Tamil Nadu which has compelled me to scribble this blog.Apollo in the Greams Road of Chennai with its different subsidiary like Heart Hospital, General Hospital,Children Hospital,Dental Hospital have created a wide range of employment for the local youths of the area and also indirectly in other parts of India.The number of small lodge, motels all over the area filled with patients coming from different parts of India and other parts of the world,predominantly, the Middle East, generates revenues for the owners.At no point would you witness empty rooms in those joints, which talks a lot about their occupancy rates.Most of these patients checking in stay put for a longer period of time, and also come back for follow-up and prefers to check in at the same old destination.The queue of auto drivers all around the hospital premises and hovering around the motels and hotels provides them readymade income without much effort.The travel and tourism operators are present in almost all the reception enclosures of those motels, providing ticketing facilities while they return back to their respective homes, apart from arranging tours locally in Chennai and the rest of Tamil Nadu.The number of medicine retailers offering hefty discounts ranging to even 15-20 percent on a high value bill so as to poach patients from the in-house apollo chemists and druggist says it all, about the drug retailing industry.Even the restaurants offers food matching the taste buds of all the patient and their dependent folks. As most of the patients coming are from the North Eastern and Eastern part of India, one would see signboards in Bengali,that too in a far flung Tamil Nadu, where even Hindi, the national language doesnt have any takers!Its the impact of money,honey!It is time for the Tamil Nadu government to take notice of the same so as to organize all these ancillaries, which would culminate in better infrastructure, avoid hoarding and generate more employment and money for the state exchequer.Is Karunanidi and Company listening?

Learning and Observation from Egypt Tour

The three nights, four days tour to Egypt was an eye-opening one especially from a tourist's perspective.The tour was purely a personal one devoid of any professional hook-up and was also finalized at the last moment.The duo, including yours truly decided to venture out to witness this North African beauty known for her historical tradition, heritage, culture, and remnants of many century old structures to name a few.The tour was planned by a leading travel and tourism operator in Oman and prima facie was quite competitive in the sense that, it included insurance cover, both travel, health and other miscellaneous heads apart from the cost competitiveness. However, the travellers didn't realize conduct a thorough analysis of the competitors and therefore wasnt compared with the actual offering given by other players, head to head.The lack of adequte ground work by the traveller, owing to the paucity of time was probably one of the reason to have resulted in creased foreheads when certain things didn't go as per expectation, apropos the presumption while doing the booking.The flying was excellent with Oman Air serving delicious cuisines on board along with the top class beverages, not to forget the on time arrival and departure.The tour operator on the spot was good enough to meet the expectations and it was probably the whole lot of places which could have been ventured upon had the sites being chosen carefully with the help of adequate home-work on the part of the travellers.Nevertheless, one realized that a fantastic destination like Egypt needs at least 15 days and not three nights and four day. The duo can derive solace from the fact that the itinerary was fair enough considering the situations and the factors which were beyond their control.The partner of yours truly being a pure vegetarian initially had some issues with the reciepes served on the resort, and even while on the river nile cruise or during the city tour of Egypt and Alexandria.Felafil the popular egyptian dish came to his rescue.The best thing which drew the attention immediately after landing in Cairo was the electric fast immigration, customs and luggage retrieval resulting in moving out of the airport within 15 minutes flat!Other things which was praiseworthy were very strong marketing skills of the Egyptians encountered while purchasing Egyptian perfume and handicrafts.The marketers are thorough with the product knowledge, having the right mix of marketing acumen and communication skills, with the perfect tinge of soft skills required.A close observation across the pyramids, sphinx, catacombs, largest library in the world based in alexandria, the unique Musuem in Cairo, having mummies, process of mummification,the delicious egyptian dishes would make a tourist to come back to this fascinating destination time and again.They are in true sense a tourist's delight. The cities especially Cairo had some similarlity to India(a blend of Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Kolkata), while Alexandria had that historic and unique touch to it.The tour guides were informative,sans afew instances which weren't really good apropos the international standards.Seeking tips in airports/nile cruise after provding a tissue paper in the washroom, or after putting up the luggage for check-in within the airport,taking the tourist for a camel ride with a soft approach and then forcing to pay a specific sum, even though the tourist was hesitant to avail the service are some of the grey areas to an otherwise excellent destination!Our tourist guide explained it all saying, "Egypt has 60% unemployment".

Live on RADIO for a fourth time

It was the 1st of December 2010, 12 Noon, Oman Standard Time, when yours truly got a call from the corporate relation manager of www.knowledgeoman.com, Rym Auodia.She invited him for the fourth interview on Oman Radio FM 90.4, on leadership and management.The interview was anchored by the informative host, like it was done on the three earlier occasions.The interview went on for 20 minutes approximately, from 6.00 PM to 6.20 PM, Oman Standard Time and the queries hovered around leadership and management, what makes a true leader and a manager, the difference between a leader and manager, is a leader born or made and many other interesting aspect of the topic often discussed by people from all walks of life.This small endeavour of yours truly is a humble way of giving something back to the society for the welfare of the people at large and its indeed an honour to join the cause by aligning with a novel initiative started by www.knowledgeoman.com.

A customer comments again.....Service Goes for a Toss!

Customer is the undisputed king.In a world full of options with competitors vying for the mind followed by market share, no players, be it from product manufacturing or the economic driver of services sector can afford to take the customer for granted.The options available to voice out his dissatisfaction for the disgruntled customer are a plenty, thereby resulting in a cascading negative word of mouth publicity all around.It was the late evening of 15th November 2010 when yours truly decided to come to India from Oman to celebrate three days Eid Holidays with family, friends and well-wisher. As it was a planned visit the customer didn't hesitate to have an advanced booking for the travel with chances of minor alteration once the exact dates are announced.Most of the passenger travelling world wide by air would vouch for their native flag carrier as it gives them solace and satisfaction and sensible few would even think that his own small contribution would find its way into the national exchequer.That, the passengers are compelled to competing carriers owing to the poor quality of services by the national carrier, culminating in being a frequent flier with foreign airlines is indeed a shame for the national or even private carrier of a country.Same was the case with yours truly while he boarded IC886 from Muscat to New Delhi.He was given a window seat and unlike most of the private carrier or rather a regular exercise by all carriers, none of the flight attendant even bothered to come along and explain the nuances, the responsibilities and management of a seat next to the emergency exit.Air India staff were their normal reluctant self with very less of a services led mindset.It was evident that even a 'smile' was hard to come by.To the wonder of all the passengers, the airline provided an old obsolete aircraft,sans televisions, and with many of the AC duct not working including the one at 11F, where yours truly was seated.Repeated requests fell on deaf ears and the least interested lot of old, reluctant air-hostess started giving frailed responses with one saying, no other seats available for a swap, the second voicing her confidence of things falling into place once the plane takes off!Nothing of that sort happened and when yours truly retorted back saying her promise of everything would work after take-off didn't materialize, she was taken aback.After all IC and Air India are not used to such harsh questions from the passengers as most of them travel out of compulsion(read absence of tickets in other airline during festivities, thereby accepting the status-quo)or the passengers generally comprises of people who are semi-literate or at times even illiterate to question the quality of services, the legitimate rights as a passenger/customer and allied activities therein.The second instance which was even more dangerous to witness as a passenger, was when a fellow passenger occupying the seat 10F showed the air hostess the broken inside window pane next to his seat. She immediately called an IC personnel seated in the business class and he assured not to worry as there are two more linings!No wonder why so many air mishaps are averted at the last moment or few actually takes place involving the national carrier of India or its subsidiaries!On the top of it, the flag carrier seem to believe that the gulf market which has been a cash cow for them, would continue to be the same, irrespective of services level enhancement.Wishful thinking as slowly and gradually the market dynamics is changing with more Indian private carriers flying in, not to forget a wide range of world class GCC based carriers.How can Air India and its subsidiaries turnaround a multi crore loss making entity even when small but important things those can facilitate that change is not in place?The mindset of the employees from the top to bottom of the fledgling carrier is a typical that of an India PSU mentality which displays arrogance and 'I don't Care' or 'Chalta Hain'attitude.Indian aviation ministry along with the PMO is fooling Indian citizens by doling out huge public money to the ailing carrier, only to use it as their own fiefdom for their so called professional but personal visits of their OWN choice!The only accolade the airline can deserve is for their quality food and beverages served on board and for a change their fast turnaround time with on time arrival and departure.Was that an exception or a routine, only time can TELL!
A word or two about the much hyped Terminal 3 of IGI International Airport.The architectural beauty resembling the World Class Dubai Airport in terms of interior, offered a sorry figure as it was resembling a typical Indian fish market with passengers running helter-skelter.Surprisingly most of the immigration counters are meant for Business and First Class passengers, Diplomats and Special Officials with only a handful for SAARC and surprisingly none exclusively for Indian passengers, considering a chunk of the travellers are Indians and its THE capital of the country. Seems Indian government have taken its citizens for a jolly good ride, like they do in everything else!
If semi public sector corporations are known for their sub-standard quality of services and lackasiadical approach towards the stakeholders, there are quite a few even from the private sector displaying the same attitude and behaviour.Yours truly had booked a hotel room in New Delhi. Regale Inn, located in CR park happened to be the one where he intended to stay put for the day for some personal work(instead of bothering a host of relatives in Delhi).The deal was finalized with the hotel and the customer after posting a online request from their website.Subsequently, there were exchange of 16 mails including the last confirmation from the customer just a day before travelling and acknowledgement by the general manager of the hotel of sending the hotel vehicle just on time for the pick up of the passenger from terminal 3.An unhappy customer(courtesy Indian Airlines flight IC886 and chaos at Terminal 3 of Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi)was never expecting the same nightmarish horror would continue. To the dismay of the passenger the pick up vehicle didn't even turn up even after two hours of the arrival of the customer.Repeated attempts by the customer to contact the general manager on his cell, who was the one point contact wasn't possible as he was asleep keeping his cell in switch off mode.After that the passenger called up the hotel and the front office guy who took the call, after waking up from deep slumber offered a loose apology and 'rather ordered', albeit mildly to take a cab and come down to the destination(read Hotel Regale Inn).How can such stupids be appointed as service providers that too managing the front office of a hotel or an airline is beyond explanation?Is that sheer ignorance by the decision makers or the entrepreneur who started off the venture isn't serious enough with this project, as its one among many of his small set-up?Or it may be more humble Indian customers vis-a-vis their western peers who are not willing to take such companies to the logical end by filing a case or two in the consumer courts?Kindly add your comments on the same and you can also incorporate your own nightmares pertaining to customer service experience.