The newspapers are awash with news of the proposed merger between Bharti Airtel and MTN, Africa’s largest telecom company being called off. With this, Sunil Mittal’s aspiration of entering the African market with potentially 20 circles comes to an end. This must be quite a blow for him considering that the ARPU in India is one of the lowest in the world and getting worse by the day, with the entry of newer players every ready to cut prices in order to gain new customers. He would have been looking forward to the deal being inked, which would have signified Bharti Airtel’s entry into yet another territory.

However, the bright side to this is that this leaves BA free to bid for the 3G network, the licensing cost of which alone is around 3.5K crores on an all India basis. 3.5K crores!!! It would take a few seconds to count the zeroes in that.

This would also leave them with an opportunity to enter the Sri Lankan market, something which they have been eyeing for a while. Had the MTN deal gone through, both the 3G opportunity and the Sri Lankan opportunity would have been a little tough for BA to cash on considering that the MTN deal would have had them completely cash strapped.

So its a wait and watch game, whether the call off is a good thing or a bad thing.

As a side note, while we are happy we posted a healthy quarter, the sheer scale at which these players are working tells me we have light years to go before we have time to rest. 3.5K crores!!! Jeeze!

One year is a long time! 365 days. In some cases 366. Ask a new mother whose baby completes a year. Ask a prison inmate who has just one year to complete his term. Ask a nanogenarian who has reached 99. Ask me! On 15th October 2009, precisely at 9 am, NetworkPlay, our baby, will complete a year. Like all babies, even NetworkPlay has had its share of happiness and joy, illness and suffering. And like all new parents, I have stayed up nights tending to the baby and also proudly showed it off to the outside world.

And like all proud parents, I am getting goose bumps now that the baby is finally going to turn one.

Things done in the year that have left a mark:

1. Getting the first RO in the name of NetworkPlay
2. Closing the first quarter at a healthy number
3. Showing growth in the second quarter over the first quarter
4. Having multiple exclusive relationships (w/o MGs)
5. Collecting the first cheque in the name of NetworkPlay
6. Signing up with LinkedIn
7. Showing growth in the third quarter over the second quarter
8. Cracking a few toughies
9. Getting ‘New’ advertisers on the Internet with offerings from NetworkPlay
10. Being able to ensure that the right kind of talent is hired.

Sure there have been downers as well like not meeting Sales Targets, not meeting Collection Targets, not managing to get Ten Sports but well, you win some, you lose some. We are fully charged up to ensure that the second year of our existence is bigger than our first and by a long margin.

Where’s my Long Island Ice Tea? I will drink to that!

The week of 21st Sep was by far the fastest week in a long time in my professional life.

We had some of the best brains from the silicon valley including Jeff Weiner, Deep Nishar and Arvind Rajan who were on a market visit to India to understand not only the internet market but the over all media landscape in the country.

Jeff in his previous roles has had a lot of time spent across geographies building consumer facing products for Yahoo as its Executive VP and has rolled out many a winners during his 7yr tenure there and Deep has been one of the most prolific product strategy guys who you never want to miss an opportunity to chat up with, what may come out of it is something unknown and that unknown is what intrigues people about Deep. Having built and led the mobile product and strategy for APAC while at Google it was indeed an eye opener in many ways for us as their sales org and they wanting to know the mystic reasons for some mega growth for LinkedIn in India. LinkedIn’s largest market in terms of user growth outside of the US is India and it is but natural for any executive team to come down to meet clients, strategic partners, users, potential employees etc etc.

It was a fast paced week and we had some very smart meetings with several leading companies in the telecom, media and software space and nothing is ever more redeeming a feeling to get first hand feedback from all aspects of the ecosystem.

It dint end there for me, my week went onto the weekend :-), Singapore GP beckoned and off I went on the Friday evening, 25th Sep to hear my prancing horse roar, too bad they dint make it to the podium but what a race for Lewis having lost his Kinetic Energy Recovery System in the 8th lap to finish where he started off at pole position. With 25kgs of extra weight and in one of the most bumpiest tracks in the world this street circuit demanded a lot of character for a victory and thats excatly what Lewis did. To me Fernando Alonso’s drive was a dream, what a control he had on this erratic Renault and he featuring in the podium just shows the kind of resilience this driver has, a true former champion. Timo Glock was very consistent, focussed and right there to take the 2nd spot on the podium.

I am back into office and here we are closing our quarter, which has been as difficult a drive and maybe a worser circuit than Singapore, hopefully we will be in the top 2 this Quarter in terms of revenue in the ad network space.

The festive season is right round the corner and its going to be an exciting OND for sure.

All the best and wishing everyone a fantastic festive season.

Jai Ho!!!

It’s been 2 months for me @ Networkplay….and must say, that I am really enjoying every single bit of it. There’s a lot of action happening around me and it’s just motivating me to run fast and match the pace, which I’m sure I will. There are so many things to do and I feel 24 hrs are not enough…it’s just getting bigger & bigger with additions in the Network sites & Airtel DTH which is something really interesting. Everyone is so enthusiastic about the developments @ NP and is combating hard to achieve the desired goals. The OND quarter is just about to start in a fortnight’s time which is really crucial for generating revenues for any company, the atmosphere in Networkplay is as it is so encouraging and now it has transformed into total aggression.

It’s amazing to see Networkplay achieving several milestones in such a short span which is a proud feeling – Vodafone the 100th advertiser on board and some exciting stuff coming up soon is just taking us on a different height. October will be the month to watch out for, its Networkplay’s 1st birthday on 15th October

NP’s just sprinting ahead like “Usain Bolt” with time; like the 9.58 secs record, we proved it in 11 months of existence

All the best team….way to go!!!

Why is it that so many people are willing to tolerate work they don’t enjoy for the sake of a paycheck? I think it’s because most of them simply don’t know what it’s really like to be in love with their work. Their fear is greater than their power, so they never make the leap into the unknown to find out what it’s like to work from love instead of for money.
“Work is love made visible”
For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man’s hunger.
And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distills a poison in the wine.
When you do work you dislike, you poison your output. If you cannot work in a state of joy, don’t work at all. Otherwise you’re doing more harm than good, both to yourself and others, even if you have the talent to sing like an angel. No amount of money can compensate for that kind of damage.
Decide today that you’ll manufacture no more poison.
Don’t settle for less than you’re worth. Demand of yourself that you’ll do work you love — or no deal.
Instead of turning away from those feelings of fear and resentment, turn towards them. Engage them head on. Dialog with them. Journal your way through them.
You aren’t here to settle, to fit in, or to work for money. You’re here to shine.
Hey team Rise and Shine…..Just stay with me

So it will be a year soon at NetworkPlay.in, come 15th October, it would be our first anniversary and what a feeling it is to have gone through this journey.

I had set out with my wonderful pals of 7, 1 of whom is with us no more, works for our competitor but the journey has been one of the most exhilerating journeys of my life. What a team I must say, they became family, we lived, ate, drank NetworkPlay and today the family is now over 20 and the passion continues to be the same even today as much as it was when we began just that the number of people who are with us in this journey has increased and I just love each one of them who were and continue to be part of this journey.

We are still 35 days away for being a year old but the countdown is just pulsating.

We started with 3sites on our network inherited from Gosindbad, from where we quickly turned our business model in such a fashion that we now are over 75sites, which are premium in nature and it is because of our wonderful partners that we have managed to grow, ramp up and get to where we are today.

If our competition serves 650M advts a quarter to get to a revenue of half a million dollars, we serve 65M to get to the same number though our nos are net in nature outside of agency commission, that has been the power and a change catalyst NetworkPlay has been in the Indian Market. To us this is just a beginning and we have a long way to go but the kick is suprememe when you know that not only has competition followed your model but the market has responded positively and thanks largely to our wonderful clients who understood our view points and responded cleverly by foreseeing our vision. It is that incredible agency community that has backed us tremendously and what an impact all of us have done to the ecosystem.

Way to go ecosystem and Team NP.

We had our 100th advertiser on board today, whose campaign went live on the network and what a brand to have as your 100th Customer.

Welcome Vodafone

These are the lyrics of a song by Daniel Powter…Reminded of the bad days we have… Everybody has his/her share of bad days.Those days where nothing goes your way “at all”.

No matter how good you do something but they just dont go your way!I seriously dont have a solution for this.. But what i do when i have a bad day is do something to relax the head… There is no better buddy in a situation like this… Its music n music only..It might sound silly but this sure has helped me.. to a great extent.

There is no real reason for a bad day…. Nothing logical or proven but it sure exists…Probably an indication that ur brain needs some rest… I have had my share of bad days.. most of them in skool where i get caught for little things i was good at doing.

Social media is fast becoming a standard element in the marketing mix of major consumer brands. And with good reason: never before has such a creative landscape existed for people and the brands they love to interact, share stories and build relationships – in all directions.

With social media marketing spends predicted to grow at an annual rate of 34%; trends support these thoughts. Yet, not all companies are sold, with many taking a “Wait and See” approach as they believe the landscape to be risky and unproven.

Just the opposite is true – waiting may prove the riskiest move of all as brands who wait too long only succeed in yielding ground to agile competitors. When consumers pledge allegiance to favorite brands, they may stick with those brands indefinitely and outright ignore competitors.

At this point, the rewards far outweigh the risks, especially for brands following a social media roadmap, something which sets themselves up for success.

Can you really afford to ignore the new medium of choice for consumers?

I know exactly what everyone thinks this means. And you are right. It IS that. Bribe! Rishvat! Ghoos!

Recently, I was stopped by a traffic cop for a reason as inane as lane cutting. He also said my licence would need to be impounded. No amount of reasoning worked as well as a fifty rupee note did. And not only did I pay the money, I also ended up saying Thank You.

I also had to accompany my wife to the Police Station for passport verification and was told by more than one person that I would not be able to get my job done without greasing some palms. I nevertheless tried to do it and to my pleasant surprise, managed it quite well. The cop was a gentleman and at no point did it even seem necessary to offer money.

I think I made a mistake by bribing the traffic cop. Maybe the system is not as bad as we make it out to be. Maybe the system is getting better but we are not even exploring to find out if it has and continue to believe that it is made to trouble us.

Or maybe I am living in a fool’s paradise if I think that way. Because I also understand that to get a government contract (even an advertising contract), crores exchange hands.

With so much uncertainty in the system and with an intent of using the system to make money rather than help people out, how will corruption ever get wiped out? A new rule is introduced, it is followed diligently for a while and then just forgotten. And when unsuspecting citizens get into the habit of ignoring it, bang! You are fined for not following a rule that you didn’t know, existed. Honesty might have been the best policy earlier but these days it does not find mention anywhere in the administrative machinery. Its just not worth it anymore.

Maybe one will just need to feel one’s way through and play by the ear. Not the most desirable option but the alternative (of being harassed at all steps by the rusty wheels of bureaucracy) is lesser so.

There is wisdom in these words of C.P. Snow, “The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase; if you pursue happiness you’ll never find it.” Happiness is not on the run, it is ever present within you. However, the decision to be happy or to be sad or angry is yours & yours alone.

The idea of pursuing happiness may have come from the thought that you can only be happy WHEN you already have what you want. Most people tend to postpone happiness until they have enough money, until they have met the right person, until their children have finished college and all other excuses. They have forgotten that everyday is a different day from the rest.

According to the article “The Keys to Happiness, and Why We Don’t Use Them,” research have shown that people who are living more satisfying lives are those who appreciate what they have and grateful for even the smallest things. They forgive others, practice positive thinking and invest time & energy with family & friends.

It will be a lot easier to be happy if you see the good things in life more than the negative ones. Happiness comes when you learn to appreciate what you have rather than complain for what you do not have YET. Remember that through the law of attraction, you attract more of what you focus your mind on. The energy of appreciation intensifies each moment you are grateful for something and then it manifests in your reality as more objects/blessings to appreciate for. Unfortunately for those who are always complaining, it works the same way too.

A life that is deliberately created involves choosing how you spend each moment. Learn to take control of your REACTIONS to situations instead of just FOLLOWING our reactions. In Magnetizing Your Heart’s Desires, Sharon Warren pointed out that a person can choose to be a REACTOR (someone who always reacts to the situations) or a CREATOR (someone who deliberately creates the situations). Incidentally, the word CREATOR is formed when the first 4 letters of the word REACTOR are rearranged. Instead of getting angry at your nosy neighbours, you can choose to forgive instead. It will not come easy, but with constant practice you will be able to do it. The key is to keep your consciousness at the present moment & stop putting labels on people, objects & situations.

Problems do exist and it is difficult to react positively to every situation that we encounter. Sadness, misery, anger maybe negative emotions, but they have their own roles in our lives. It is not good to eliminate them because they serve as a wake up call that we are not doing what we ought to do with our lives. We are not living as we want and as we are suppose to live. Happiness does not open the gateways to improvements, but problems & trials do. If you fail to improve or learn the lessons that each problem brings, you are bound to go through it again.