Latest Raves!

Here are a few raves about stuff I liked in the past few days.

I was reading a book ‘Mavericks at Work’ by William Taylor and Polly LaBarre, a brilliant book on strategy and the way a company can make itself stand out. One area of emphasis is the values that the company stands for, and advocacy as strategy. Another area is utilizing external innovation for creating products eg: P&G’s Connect + Develop where they have a system in place to make use of innovators such as individuals or other organizations. Examples in the book range from strategies of ING Direct, Southwest Airlines, a low-cost airlines service in the US, Cirque de Soliel – a performing circus company. Another area of focus is disruptive innovation, daring to do things that other competitors would not dare to, and aligning the employees with the overall strategy of the company. Creating areas of products/services that never existed, competition is absent – touching upon Blue Ocean strategy - Google. Filled with contemporary ideas and samples of companies that have succeeded, it is one very interesting book – a must read in my view!

‘The Tipping Point’ by Malcolm Gladwell that I read a few days back is another brilliant insight into social aspects of marketing.

The song ‘Headlines’ by the more mellow Spice Girls is an amazingly good song, with its melodious, soothing music and equally good lyrics. Makes for a nice song that you wouldn’t expect from this cacophonous group; what with their background of noisy, high energy songs earlier. The group is indeed a talented bunch of singers!

The Kannada NRI music director Mano Murthy is making waves with his soul-ful, mellifluous music; and rightfully so. His compositions for the movie ‘Mungaru Male’ are indeed very good, also 'Amrutadhaare' title track. But one of his songs that I loved the most is ‘Ade Bhoomi, Ade Bhanu’ from the Vishnu Vardhan/Jayapradha starrer ‘Ee Bandhana’. Sung by Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal (a new trend in Kannada movies, most songs are sung by singers from Bollywood) it is a glorious mix of Indian and western forms. Music is indeed global and knows no boundaries.

Among other songs that I liked are ‘Kholo kholo’ a brilliant composition by Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy for the Hindi movie ‘Taare Zameen Par’ with amazing guitar work. ‘Allah Duhai’ from the movie 'Race' is also a powerfully stirring song with its equally good guitar works.