(Ruta Writes...) ...Thoughts on leadership & strategy

“Wise leaders know they shouldn't loose their cool, but they must also never let up on their rivals – particularly when their company has an apparent advantage, because a lead can dry up in no time if a competitor finds a new angle or strikes a hidden chord that resonates with the customer. When your opponent is down, never let him up.”

These lines by Libert, B. & Faulk, R. in their book 'Barack, Inc.: Winning Business Lessons of the Obama Campaign' triggered some thoughts about leadership and strategy - 

You cannot out-think or out-play your competitors without thinking beforehand. You have to work towards it, you have to have a strategy. In the business world, its either beat or get beaten. One just cannot get those many lucky breaks. To grow one's business and to hold down competitors, one can not only focus on the short-term bottom line. Sustainability of the bottom line has to be the focus – one needs to develop the ability to think strategically to achieve it. Short-term bottom line affects the outlook of many a people and is one of the biggest issue in businesses. People look at the short-term benefits and discount the sustainability aspect. It is the pressure of the system and people are always under short term pressure. But, to succeed in the long term and to out play the competitors, one must develop the ability to think strategically.

I am not saying that one must have a strategy for every issue. What I am trying to convey is that one needs to enable oneself to think strategically. One should allow a 3 dimensional flow of thoughts when he is trying to solve a problem. When the thinking is inside out, one has only a single perspective – he is the center of the world. You need to learn to look at any issue in a 3 dimensional way – you need to think outside-in too. You can't always be the center of the world.

Business students are tomorrow's business leaders. These students are typically taught to carry out 'position analyses' of various situations. The easiest way to stay in a box is to write down a SWOT – you will never be open to outside opportunities when you are conscious about your strengths and weaknesses. You will never be able to think in a 3 dimensional way. Your business will never take off at 90 degrees! Developing strategic thinking skills is not an option for a good leader.

(Ruta Writes...) Nestle: Brand Evolution Story

Nestle - the World's largest beverage and food company. With the range of products that Nestlé offers – from baby foods to chocolates to confectioneries to health foods, it truly is a lifestyle brand.

I studied the evolution of the Nestle brand as a part of my Branding & Marketing Project. 

Nestlé's “objective is to be recognized as the world leader in Nutrition, Health and Wellness, trusted by their stakeholders, and to be the reference of financial performance in their industry.” It is interesting to see how they have achieved this objective. 

Here is a link to the presentation: http://prezi.com/wva3mnub-g9w/brand-analysis-nestle/

(book review) Linchpin

Linchpin: Are you Indispensable? by Seth Godin
Penguin Group, NY-USA, 2010

I gave this book a second look and ended up reading it again. At first, I did not write a review on this one as I thought everyone knew how great this book was. But then, I realized, there are a lot of people who are not even aware of this treasure!

Seth Godin really is a master of his "art". He mentions the word "art" quite often in the book - it does not pertain to art as in paintings and sculptures but art as in creativity in one's work. Seth explains what a Linchpin is and why Linchpin's are indispensable. He explains that the real world does not have any maps or pointers. If one keeps on looking for direction or a map from someone, he becomes a dispensable resource. Linchpins find their own ways and create their own paths. They bring original and unique creativity into any work they do. That makes them indispensable.

The book is a new maze of ideas and each reader can take numerous paths through it. Godin gets you glued to the ideas in the book.

(Ruta Writes...) Open source and sustainability

I am currently learning about sustainable business practices. About hows, whys and wheres. At times I feel that being sustainable is like using the 'Open Source' principle. Everyone contributes and everyone gains.

That there is no "away" for our waste is a fact and everyone needs to contribute to the very notion of being sustainable. A few hands cleaning up 7 billion people's waste is not a balanced proportion. Ideally, it should be 1:1.

With the concept of 'Open Source' hitting so well in the software industry and with the easy-to-use collaboration tools, I wonder if this approach could lead to a global social reform. There are predictions being made that Open Source is the way to go for many other industries. This makes me think if Open source is the right way to achieve complete sustainability.

(Ruta Writes...) Innovation - to tread a new path ... revisited

I was a part of the Global Innovation Forum this week and it inspired me to go back to the "... to tread a new path" article - Here it is:

They say that “Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.” It’s something that many of us believe! I feel that this is a saying for those fatalist people who believe that they are led by their destinies. Few are those gems who stride the path that no one has, seek the light in darkness that no one has ever dared to. I feel... it is not about the destination but more about the journey and the way you live it. Sometimes, it is as simple as - decide to walk and the paths start following. Imagine… one lost in an expanse of grassland of thousands of acres where no one has ever been. There is nothing but the vast spread grassland and somewhere at the horizon, the grassland meets the sky. One decides to walk to seek a human settlement. After walking for a substantial amount of time, if one turns back and sees, for once will he realize that he has marked a way of his own that people might follow. The challenge to seek new roads will be more fun than reaching the destination. One may be known only by what one has achieved and people will look just at the outcomes. But, only one as a person will know the best parts of his journey. As a designer, I have seen that people and clients get awed by the final and finished products… but at times, I feel that the final product is not as beautiful as the inchoate idea. When innovating, the part of the ideation process where a innovator can really reward himself is the creation of an incredible idea… the creation of a path, creation of the set of solutions to an issue, to a problem that no one has thought of. The evolving of such an idea sets adrenaline running in an innovator’s bloodstream and gives him the spirit to create more… But when such people are constrained and made to abide by some parameters, it is then that the level of the invention starts degrading.

It is very hard to find such a person who doesn’t succumb to any such impediment and prospers. As a designer, I have listened to many people talk about hows, whats, whens and wheres of innovation. Most of them talk about innovation as a subject and a add-on to which, I believe, no listeners pay any heed. It is always inspiring to hear from people who not only "create" as a part of their profession, but imbibe it in themselves and make new innovation, a habit.

As innovators, we have to face practical constraints and come out of them. A classic and a convenient approach to address an issue would be to give out an optimum solution that fits well into the requirements and follows the constraints. But, how will it be to gaze at the solution which would be a mere factitious beauty that we have created? Thinking from a different point of view, and the changing perception of innovation from a mere add-on to a strategic step, where a innovator becomes a path director, a manager, a strategist, a economist and other endless positions, could we say that we could just not give out solutions to people but, guide them what to do and then surprise ourselves with the varied outcomes? Could this kind of a vision be translated into reality? Can we just raise people’s aspirations and leave them on their own to make them realize what they really want? Can we as innovators believe in ourselves so much that we boost people’s understanding about what they really want and be sure that people accomplish their solutions? Can we just go one step ahead of optimists and be leaders who direct the masses? Can we be content just to point the way and not actually walk the path but still be able look back only to find that we have actually come a long way over the lonely grassland?

(book review ) Buy-o-logy

Buy-o-logy: Truth and Lies about why we buy by Martin Lindstorm
DoubleDay, NY-USA, 2008

I have already written a review on one of Lindsotrm's latest books - The Brand Sense. Buy-o-logy is a pre-sequel to that. "Neuro-marketing" is one word that describes the book.

Using reasearch techniques like MRI instead of the traditional focus groups, questionnaires, interviews, observation, etc. to study the behavior of consumers (to study why we buy) is the basic idea in this book. The author considers his subjects (consumers) as unpredictable and irrational and he atttempts to understand them through  his research techniques. He tries to make a link between thoughts and actions while we buy.

I was fascinated after reading the book and it sure made me think why I buy and I started analyzing every product on shelf and every advertisement I saw after that - interesting.

Just one complaint - This is a research focused book and the author hasn't given much on applying these findings in real world settings or hasn't focused much on giving targeted examples (marketing).

(Ruta Writes...) A Field With No Borders - Way to Innovation

Nature is just like that - no boundaries whatsoever. An atom can today be part of the oceans and tomorrow that of land.

I like to apply similar thinking to our lives - why is it that they say - a designer is a designer, that a doctor is a doctor that a business person is a business person.

We are educated from our toddler years. At first, we are taught a wide array of subjects in school - as we grow older and go to college, we choose a few subjects to study and then as we study more, we choose our focus and as we go ahead, our focus keeps on getting smaller and smaller - Nothing wrong with that - It is a good way to learn what you really like. Concentrating only on one subject deepens one's knowledge about the subject but in the course it cuts one's association with other subjects. Our thinking gets locked into a pattern and we start thinking in a predicted manner as we learn from our concentration study. Such pattern hardly evokes innovation.

But, as observed, innovation happens when there is a radicle change in the thinking pattern. When it comes to Mac and its success, Steve Jobs does not forget to mention his course on Calligraphy that gave him the design sense. It helps when you can take different points of view to look at a problem - that sparks innovation. If you have just one tiny view to look at a Elephant, you might see just the trunk or the tail or the leg - and assume that a Elephant is just that. It is only when you broaden you views, look around and have various perspectives, will you understand the animal.

Being a Master of one and a Jack of all is the way to innovation. Being multi-disciplinary in one's outlook, education and jobs should be encouraged. This is one key element to innovation.

Schools like Stanford are now encouraging and have courses where design thinking is applied to Business and Engineering. I feel this is just the start of a new era where a field will have no boundaries.

(book review) The Designful Company

The Designful Company: How to build a culture of nonstop innovation by Marty Neumeier
New Riders, Berkeley-USA, 2009

The Designful Company takes off from Neumeier's previous books - The Brand Gap and Zag. Like his previous books, this one too, is a little, not so wordy, comprehensive book that you can finish reading on a short train ride.

Neumeier throws some light on the competition that business face in today's world while attacking the obsolete strategies of the industrial age that companies tend to use even today. He convinces that a firms needs to make innovation a  permanent strategy to stay in the game and that companies today need to integrate design practices in businesses to better position themselves against competition and to stand out of the crowd. This would mean empowering designers in the company and giving them a platform in the company where they can canvas their ideas.

The Designful company sure talks about designers and design thinking, but the most important part is that design drives change or rather, design is change. Creativity leads to innovation.

I liked the reading list at back of the book - gives some relevant good read titles, listed subject-wise.

I liked this book, but not so much as The Brand Gap.

(book review) A Fine Line

A Fine Line: How Design Strategies are shaping the future of businesses by Hartmut Essligner

Jossey-Bass, SFO-USA, 2009

'A Fine Line' is written by Hartmut Essligner, the man behind the ace design company - Frog. Overall, the book talks about how the company developed, how design is now an important and respected field in the business field, the life-cycles of various products and projects that Frog did and did not. I like Essligner's work - he is the founder of Frog and has worked on some of the world's biggest brands like Apple, Sony, Disney, etc.  But as far as the book is concerned, I wish he went into more detail on the projects he describes. 

I like the way he describes his journey - defending and making successful design solutions. He spends a lot of pages writing about Frog's work with Apple, which is interesting. The book also gives some glimpses into blends of design and businesses. 

This book is a fine read, but I wish there was more written on how the projects were developed and delivered. Rather, the book mainly boasts about Frog's success and they way they got their clients and the way some companies lost on their businesses as a result of rejecting Frog's advise. I hope Essligner writes another book with more emphasis on the actual processes in design, strategy and business. 

(Ruta Writes...) Unique Experience - The brand mantra

With our basic needs served (food, shelter, clothing) and with multiple choices at hand (work, health-care, relationships), we still think we need “something” more. “Something” that is not perfectly defined but something that has to do with the very fact that we are humans. To satisfy the higher order of things that has to do with emotions, recognition and education. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need


Recall the last couple of hundred years or the industrial age - we progressed rapidly and built factories, safe homes and invented faster means of transport. All the basic needs were served. It was as some call it - the blue collar economy, the 'one size fits all' approach. But, then, the computer generation or rather the information economy sprang up and made the blue collar economy obsolete. Serving basic needs is taken for granted in this age and what this economy looks to serve is the “higher needs”. The blue-collar workers of the industrial age are the white-collared men of today (the information age). The kind of work people do has changed. A person no more has to spend his entire life in a factory setting doing the same repetitive thing over and over again to earn a living. Today's jobs require education, specialized skills that one learns in school or at work and at the least, an ability to take some decisions. One needs to be able to think independently to succeed today.

Therefore, the way companies grow has changed too. Brands are no more symbols or 2D marks that just tell the name of the company – they are identities that personify the company, talk about its values and what it represents and much more. No one has seen what Intel core looks like (except may be the computer guys) – but when we see the Intel sticker on a computer, we know that there's “Intel inside... ♫ ting ding ting ding”.  The brand race has changed. Industrial age was when companies decided what the consumers should have. Companies commanded and the consumers followed. But, with all the basic needs served and options available today, consumers demand and the companies need to serve. The one-size-fits-all approach does not hold foot anymore. (Of course, most of the thoughts I have discussed so far, apply to the Western developed countries)

With globalization and people moving all across continents, the markets are more diverse than ever. Companies need to define, focus and then serve target audience out of these markets. One-size cannot fit all - the more the targeted the audience the easier for the company to set objectives and give more personalized and targeted products. Its no more about just serving needs - needs are served anyway - its no more just about price - people pay a lot of money for the brands/ services they like/ want - Its about giving the experience. Its about making the consumer feel “special”. I like the way Marc Gobe puts it in Emotional Branding - “Cultural Relevance + Meaning + Emotional Connection = Loyalty.”

As we know, life in the information age is complex - of a higher order. We live in cities full of people and in big apartments with 100s of neighbors around, and don't even know who our neighbor is. We look to satisfy our need for recognition and our emotional needs. Relating to a brand that satisfies these needs is a manifestation of the same trait. This is natural for us. A brand that gives a unique identity and relates to our needs and gives unique experiences will succeed in today's information economy.

(book review) Brand Sense

Brand Sense: Sensory Secrets behind the Stuff we buy by Martin Lindstorm
Free Press, NY-USA, 2005 (Paperback edition, 2010)

I have always been fascinated by Martin Lindsotrm's ideas – especially after I read his 'Buyology'.

'Brand Sense' is a informative and enjoyable and yet a quick read – one that you could complete reading in 2-3 hours. While most content of the book is thought-provoking and is full of fresh ideas, some small parts of the book are basic (may be interesting to a reader new to the idea of branding).

Typically, marketers rely on vision and sound to create a marketing mix for a brand. Lindstorm unleashes new ideas on using other 3 senses as well – touch, smell and taste. He rightly points out that more the consumer is engaged in the brand experience, more likely he is to buy the brand's product/ service. In this cluttered world of advertisements, brands should create a unique story by engaging as many senses as possible to create a lasting impression.

The book contains some interesting real-life examples on brands like Microsoft, Toblerone, Coke and Apple. He highlights the use of each sense with an example. One of the examples I enjoyed was that of Toblerone. He goes ahead to explain the shape of Toblerone – the shape is what makes the product – you would not associate the same taste and experience with the same ingredients presented in a flat bar.

All in all, definitely worth a read. Would recommend this book to anyone interested in branding, marketing or in general growing his business.

(book review) Reality Check

Reality Check: The irreverent guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing your competition by Guy Kawasaki

Penguin Group, NY-USA, 2008

I have always admired Guy Kawasaki for his thoughts and ideas. I love to listen to his talks and interviews. This time, I read his book 'Reality Check'. Wonderful book, it is directed towards those souls who are trying to shoot off an idea in the business world, trying to run a successful business or for the ones working up their way to make a career.

As always, he is spot-on his ideas and gets directly to the crux without wandering around any unwanted stories or concepts - makes the read easy to grasp. His insights are deep but presented in bite sized chapters. The book is about 460 pages thick and covers a vast arrary of topics like entrepreneurship, commercialization, raising money, planning and excecution, innovation, makrketing, selling, communication, competition, hiring and firing and so on.

Like always, Guy has done it again – some brilliant work!

(Ruta writes...) Designers: Born or Made – that's the question...

I am always intrigued by the very thought if designers are “born” or if are they “made”. When I say designers – I don't just mean the people who do traditional “art”. By designers, I mean people who are creative, people who innovate. These people could be designing businesses, brands, strategies and of course graphics, spaces and products. 

At times it just feels as if they “happen” ... when you see a 'perfect' design – be it a product, a space, a print, a business, a strategy or any other form of art – when its perfect – it brings with it the feeling of being natural and then they say – he is a “born” success or he is a “born” designer...

Just imagine this situation – You are in the business market and about to start your career as a designer/ branding consultant – you give out your business card or other materials to a 1000 businesses. But, you know that it is impossible to get business from each of them. You know that only about a 100 out of those will come to you. – WHICH 100?? Thats fate. 

Just look at the picture on your right – A designer approaches 6 companies/ brands to work with – big or small, near or far. The business only happens when one of the companies in return wants to hire the designer. This is fate – to get a project to work on. Be it (project) small or big, that is an opportunity. Fate has played its part and its your turn now. What happens later is the MAJOR part that decides whether or not the designer will be acclaimed as being a “born” designer. This part is the actual work. The arrow from the company to the designer is just a matter of choice, something that the designer cannot control. But, he can control the part after that – to give his best shot to the work he has got – of course he should have some talent, he must work with PASSION, put in hard-work and persistence. As Edison once said “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration” – so is the case with design.

Good projects do not make great designers. But, hardworking, PASSIONATE, persistent and talented designers make any project they work on – great and end up being perceived as “born” with talent. That is why I like to say - no one is a “born” success or a “born” designer – they are outcomes of hard-work, passion, talent and persistence. 

(Ruta Writes...) books that made me think...

I am writing this as a reply to someone who asked me about which book I really liked... or which author I feel makes me think the most.

As far as the 'Business' domain is concerned, I like to listen to and read Guy Kawasaki. He writes and talks simplistic - but his thoughts hit the right target - spot on. Currently, I have been reading Seth Godin's book called Linchpin - and now I have started realizing why people like him so much! I have read many books on design, strategy and branding - Many of those were by people I really admire - Were educating. These books taught me a lot about the actual practice of design business - They introduced me to some of the finest and innovative projects. But there was one book that really made me think and change my perception:

Wired to Care by Dev Patnaik
We always hear or read 'be human' in your designs or 'think about the customer first' or at times giving a 'personalized experience'. This is easy to read in books, to say and to talk about. Solving real world issues by design and applying these principles at the same time, is always a hard task. At times, designers go clueless about bringing in the human factor. Dev Patnaik clears the clouds around reaching to your end consumer with a human hand - through design, branding and strategies - He likes looking at any problem through the lens of EMPATHY. It is one of the books that changed my perception about creating great brands. They do not happen - they are created through EMPATHY.

Also, I liked one of my recent reads by Alina Wheeler  (look below for the review)
She goes through the entire branding process in her book - It feels like a textbook and I like the way she goes about describing all the processes with the help of graphics, quotes and "some text". I feel this book is an important one because no one at school or in our professional careers teaches us the A-Z of the design/ branding process - You have to learn it by yourself. I feel if the entire process is taught to all the design students right from the very start - be it any discipline, I guess the interaction between teams at work will be more close and harmonious and there will be no "new discoveries" at work

I just cannot write enough about the authors, designers or strategists I like. But a few others apart from Dev Patnaik, Alina Wheeler, Guy Kawasaki, Seth Godin are Marty Neumeier, Tim Brown, Hartmut Esslinger, Tom Kelly and the list doesn't just end there. I have still a lot more to read, learn, to do and to explore. The next book on my to read list is 'Brand Identity Essentials' by Kevin Budelmann, Yang Kim, and Curt Wozniak.

(Ruta Writes...) Defining - Designer

At times, it is really hard to define what design is. We design (verb), we look at a great design (noun). I tend to get caught in the very notion of finding a definite and exhaustive meaning for the word DESIGN. 

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines design (verb) as : ‘to create something’, ‘to devise’, prepare a design’ and design (noun) as ‘a deliberate undercover project or scheme’, the arrangement of elements or details in a product or work of art’. Nothing describes perfectly what we, designers do.  And hence it becomes even more difficult to define a ‘DESIGNER’.

I have put together some thoughts about who a designer is – though not exhaustive, it pretty much sums up who a designer is and what he does.  I feel, a designer is a person who creates. Ideally, he/she is a person who is adept at going into others shoes and be the other person – be it an engineer, a doctor, a chemist, a businessman, a consumer or just any person walking on the street and understand them – including their feelings, needs and desires, their problems, their issues about the world around them and devise methodologies and get solutions in order to make lives comfortable and interesting.  This solution could be in the form of a product, a space or an experience – it could be an improvement on the existing scenario, or be an entirely new solution. This solution would ideally be one that would solve the existing problem without creating a new one, be aesthetically pleasing and at the least, sustainable.

(book review) Designing Brand Identity

Designing Brand Identity (3rd edition): An Essential Guide to the entire Branding Team by Alina Wheeler
John Wiley & Sons, NewJersey-USA, 2009


Designing Brand Identity is indeed an essential guide to the entire branding team – one of a kind book – theory blended with practical examples from the market. It is a step by step guide to the brand identity process. I believe it is a must have guide!

The book takes us through the basics of brand identity to processes like research, design, strategy to the best practices in the business – locally and globally through some live examples. The book has beautiful quotes from an array of experts in the design, strategy and branding field. 


I am a designer interested in learning and working on branding projects. This book gave a detailed picture of the entire process of brand identity. I found the book a easy read - has short, bite-sized paragraphs, underscored with visual examples. It is more like a  textbook – organized chapter by chapter – you can read sequentially or read any particular concept you want.


It is a must read for designers interested in the branding arena, makrketing people or just anyone interested in knowing what goes behing the scenes while creating a brand.

(book review) Spent

Spent: Sex, Evolution and Consumer Behavior by Geoffrey Miller
Penguin Group, NY-USA, 2009

Geoffrey Miller is a evolutionary psychologist and is the author of 'The Mating Mind'. In 'Spent', the author applies the principles of evolutionary psychology to today's consumer culture. He examines the consumer culture from the lens of a psychologist and reasons as to why we buy the things we do and what factors help us make a purchase. He states that the things a consumer buys is a strong indicator of his/her personality and that the things people buy, display or associate with exhibit our desirability to mates, friends or family members.

He starts from the basic human instincts and examines the shopping psychology of people from all age groups and stratas.  He reasons why people purchase the products they do, why some products appeal to a certain section of people and why they fail with others. He reasons why revamping a product or brand attitude, or a certain advert affects the sales of a product.  He infers messages that people give out when they buy a certain brand/ product – For example: People who buy a Honda are cautious people whereas people who buy a Lincoln prefer tradition. He tells us why people like to be associated with certain brands, why some brands become aspirations and why some brands go down the drain.

Though this book is a easy read and entertaining, it feels highly academic in few of its parts. Miller complains that the consumer culture is not really analyzed from a psychologist's point of view – a thing that is necessary in addition to the market research and consumer insights. He goes into great depths to analyze today's American shopping scenario and to discuss various human traits that are evident in shopping as well as mating.

Overall, the book is interesting and I like the way Miller peels layer by layer the human psyche and the consumer culture. The book is gripping and thought provoking. It is a book that will keep one thinking for a long time after reading it. Moreover, Miller has a great sense of humor and I liked his writing style. After reading so many books on consumer behavior from branding, advertising, marketing, economic and design points of view, this book is really refreshing!

(book review) SHIFT

Shift: How to reinvent your business, your career, and your personal brand by Peter Arnell
Broadway Books, NY-USA, 2010

A book by Peter Arnell – one of the gurus in the branding and advertising business. He has worked on top notch brands such as DKNY, Reebok, Chanel, Banana Republic, Pepsi and the list continues. Shift is about re-branding brands and re-branding oneself. Arnell intervenes his professional and personal experiences throughout the book to give a new and positive outlook on our lives at the same time discussing stories about brands he has worked on.

I was specially interested in reading about the way Arnell interprets and develops new stories for his brands and the way he applies similar techniques to his personal life. Arnell believes that branding starts with YOU. The story of his weight-loss from 460 pounds to 150 pounds is compelling. The book is about 'Shifting' – your attitude, your thoughts and thus your personal brand, your business or your career.

The book has a personal tone that makes the book enjoyable. Arnell talks about the way he learnt about himself and his patterns and pro-actively changed his habits that helped him achieve the feat of weight loss. But, I wish he had given more insights into the business of branding and advertising. Perhaps, he may write another book just on branding techniques.

The book is a quick read, with about 200 pages. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to get a new outlook towards one's life or to anyone in the advertising, branding and marketing business and of course to all the people who want to lose a lot of weight! After all, its all about making the SHIFT.