Wills LifeStyle Market Research


Today I obliged Wills Lifestyle’s Invitation. On reaching Park Sheraton I came to know it is conducted by Quantum Market Research Pvt. Ltd. WLS has requested Quantum Market Research to do a survey. 

It we handpicked few say seven attended the Market Research program. Each of them was Big Shots in their own way. 

We had to attend 3 hours to answer lots of questions, comparison with other brands and ways to improve WLS. We didn’t get irated and we answered everything politely because we all gelled well and we became good pals. 

For me this has turned out to be a good networking event & I grabbed every opportunity to collect the business cards of other folks.

Also I was able to get the perspective of other folks on fashion and the trends that happen in India & abroad. 

After the research was over we were asked to have dinner, but we all refused as we wanted to reach home as it was too late. Then we were given a gift voucher from Landmark for 1000 bucks. 

Gift voucher only startled me because we thought we must have got voucher from WLS itself. Other wise it was an enjoyable evening.

Ending up the year with Elite Invitations


Start of this year I evolved a set of rules so as how I must lead a life this 2009 and that was one of my New Year Resolutions.  Some of the rules are;

  • Never travel by autos.
  • Never travel by flights.
  • Never buy premium products.

And more and to the best of my knowledge I kept to my resolution. But ending this year I’m getting invitation for all elite things;

Wills Life Style Invitation: Got a call from a representative from Wills Life Style for some surprise event at Park Sheraton, Chennai. The event is on 9th and the way the women invited me was funny.

She said the invitation is only for Premium Members and she said;

  • Free dinner Buffet
  • Gift Voucher for Rs.1000/-
  • Then a surprise gift on the day.

Then she asked for my confirmation to make up to the event. It sounded funny & the lady spoke to me in a way that if I come I’ll be offered dinner. It sounded how politicians gather crowd by offering Food & Cash. Like wise I’m also invited for Food + Cash (in the form of Gift Voucher.

On the serious part I wear only Will Life Style merchandise & I don’t know why this surprise event. Anyway let me keep my fingers crossed and hope it doesn’t become a disappointing night.

CEO Lifestyles: then I got a personal invite from organizers of CEO Lifestyles which is been conducted in Chennai Trade Center on 11th, 12th & 13th. I don’t know what to expect there and I don’t know how they got hold of me. Today I got a call from then asking for my commitment to make up on any one of the day.

This is a closely held event & everyone is not invited. At least that is what they told me. I might make it along with Bala on 11th (Friday).

HSBC Premium Account: Got a call from HSBC representatives and gave them an appointment to meet me. They are offering me a Premium account with all elite benefits. Even my bankers ICICI & CitiBank whit whom I’ve maintain my account for a long time and also having transacted huge amount of money I was not upgraded to Wealth Management Account.

I was surprised to get an offer from a bank where I didn’t have any relationship all these years. Might be someone working with ICICI or CitiBank must have jumped to HSBC.

In spite of me telling the bankers that I can’t maintain a big balance for a premium account. They said they will offer it even I’ve my account with zero balance.

Again this is a shocking experience and I don’t know what is happening around me.

All the things listed above happened last week and I don’t know if I really deserve them. Anyways I’m thrilled that I wanted to lead a very simple life and I was successful somewhat and now I’m getting all Elite things at the end of the year. Let me experience all the above and see how it turns up and will sure make a Blog post about the experience.

Wired Frames Saves Time & Money


Normally we create wired frames before we start working on a website design so that a client can foresee the skeleton view of his Web site layout.

What is a Wired Frame? 

A wired frame is a pictorial representation of a WebSite Design in a skeleton format. 

What tools are used to create a Wired Frame? 

Axure RP, Justinmind Prototyper, OverSite, ProtoShare, Adobe Fireworks, Adobe Flash Catalyst and iRise. 

So, what we do at Cogzidel is we develop a wireframe design collecting information from the client and client can change the layout if it is not up to his expectation. 

Once the Wired frame is approved we will then continue with the site design.

Today morning I placed a request for a change in CCS site design & the design team approached me and collected my inputs and they have sent me wired frame for index page & inner page.

This is the wired frame for index page.

home_page 

I was happy with the layout other than the Solutions block and I’ve asked to remove the solutions block. Now we know how the Index page layout looks like;

This is the wired frame for inside page.

wireframe_inner copy 

I was not happy with the way inner page layout looks. It looks as a mimic of index page and I’ve requested for a complete rework. Asking my designers to put some thought and show some difference.

Now since this is a wire frame we didn’t loose much time. If we had shown a designed sample then the time wastage would have been much higher.

Topsy Turvy Saturday


We have decided to party last Saturday and all arrangements were planned ahead. The original plan was to head to 10 Downing Street in North Boag road as we wanted to goto a different place. My friends promised to come with two of his girl friends to take us in. 

But things started too disastrous as usual. My friends got help up in a party in ECR and I got engaged in business meetings. The girls asked us to pick then before 9 o clock which were unable to do it. 

Now all confusions started & some how we achieved what we wanted. Here is a synopsis of the night; 

  • I & my friends reached the place by 11 o clock.
  • We were not allowed inside as we were stags.
  • Kudos to our celebrity friend with whose help we were let it. But it was 11.40 PM.
  • The floor was closed by 12 o clock and we literally did nothing.
  • We didn’t want to spoil the day and we headed to Pasha. Again with the help of celebrity friend.
  • This was the first time I enjoyed danced with unknown babes. That too because of my celebrity friend. Girls approached him to dance with them and since we were his friends we got along well.
  • Then this time Udayanidhi Stalin didn’t make it to the night and the place was closed by 2 o clock in the morning.
  • We were litrally asked to leave the parking lot because it was the day of Babri Masjid demolition.
  • Still we were not fully happy and we planned to head to Checkers.
  • Checkers was a pacca local crowd. But I enjoyed a lot here as this was something new and interesting.
  • Then we were there doing some Bottom Fishing till 5 AM.
  • Then we were too tired and I reached home only by 5.30 in the morning. 

So we started with 10 Downing then hopped to Pasha & finally hopped to checkers. At the end of the day I was happy and an electrifying evening.

CCS has opened its wings on Incubation Services


Yes officially we about to Incubate 2 companies which are yet to be named. Businesses of those two companies are; 

  • Newsletter Management Services
  • HR Recruitment Consultancy Firm 

Both the companies are founded a team of two young & energetic entrepreneurs each. Both of them are confident on the opportunity their respective model offers. 

Now CCS will help these companies to Bootstrap where in we are; 

  • Offering space in our office.
  • Managing Support functions.
  • Enlightening them on business functions.
  • Sharing then resource likes Internet, Job Portal Account etc.
  • Sharing their services with our clients where in we help then to develop synergies.
  • Exposing them to our Vendors as they can exploit the benefit we gain and from economies of scale. Eg: Both companies together needs 4 notebooks and they can expect discounts as they are buying 4 in one shot. 

These are our first two companies from our Incubation Labs which is operating under my direct supervision and will document all the learning’s from this initial experience. 

Hope these two companies will have an identity (Company Name) in a day or two and will keep you all posted once they are out with their Name, Logo & Tag Line. I wish this small beginning goes a long way and creates history.

Is Terrorism – A Muslim Monopoly?


A few days back I got linked with a gentleman named Abrar Ahmed. It was a pure business meeting and we were talking hard core business. But I don’t know how we broke the jinx. I didn’t something which was not supposed or recommended to be done during a Business meeting. 

Yes it is believed not to speak Religion or Politics during business talks. But some how I pulled Abrar by raising queries about Islam. Abrar asked me to collect a DVD to get answers for most of the queries I raised him.

After two days I collected the DVD from him and then after a week I happened to watch the DVD only today. Yes the title of the DVD is “Is Terrorism – A Muslim Monopoly?” Speech was given by Dr.Zakir Naik who is the President of Islamic Research Foundation & also a qualified doctor.

Chief Guest honor was given to Justice Hosbet Suresh who spoke about the Human rights & the result of stringent laws which mislead the society.

Then it was followed by speech by Dr.Zakir Naik and I must say his speech has opened the lights of darkness on me and my perception about Terrorism. I was startled by the way he was showcasing historical data on Terrorism from 1879 onwards by giving the number of causalities, group behind the act, individual who did it etc.

As a centrist this speech has enlightened me, made me raise many questions, contradict some points and made me to do deep research about many topics. I’ve to study a lot of things on religion (Hinduism, Christianity & Islam) & history to understand the speech. Also I know I must watch the DVD more in coming days to kindly my world of anxiety.

One point which I agree to without any contradiction is;

Terrorism is born out of injustice.

We must stop pin-pointing people for misdeeds and march ahead looking ahead for a greener future.

I’ve one point to clarify to Dr.Zakir Naik & one clarification I need from him which I’m going to mail him after posting this blog. So let me post the clarification first.

One point he said LTTE a dreaded terrorist organization (Which I agree thought I’m a tamilian) that it is a Hindu organization. To clarify him more than 30% Sri Lankan Tamils are Christians. Former number two in command of Prabakaran was Anton Balasingham who was a Christian. Prabakaran in spite of being a Hindu has named his son after his friends name Charles. So, I can strongly say that LTTE is a Lingual group rather than a Hindu group.

Then the clarification I need from him is about the cast system which Islam doesn’t believe. In spite of being a true Muslim why he still carries a family / caste name (NAIK) which is opposed to Islam???

For now I must thank Abrar for passing the DVD to me and in coming years I might come with my point of view after researching on the facts given by the speaker.

But I’d recommend everyone to listen to “Is Terrorism – A Muslim Monopoly”? as it will help us to clarify our perception of Muslim Extremism, Fundamentalism & Terrorism. If any of you need the DVD kindly post a comment with your contact details so that I can drop it to you if you are from Chennai or I can courier it to you.

CCS folks use unusual methods to crack solutions for problems


One of the touch / challenging thing in Business in facing uncertainities. But that becomes cherishing opportunity for aggressive people.

An entrepreneur would love to work with such aggressive people. Today i’m proud to be associate with such people.

I want to quote a particular challenging case where we signed a contract with a client for managing their monthly Accounting.

We signed the deal assuming, that client will be using Tally as their accounting tool. To our surprise client was using QuickBook. My peers didn’t have any clue about this new tool.

Instantly my CFO Mr.Bala Murugan and his associate Ms.Vimala had a meet to work out a solution and their unusual way of thinking startled me.

They used Youtube to see if there is any tutorial and it clicked. With the help of this video tutorial we finished the task with ease.

Above case points how they applied their mind and how they extracted the power of social mediums which is available for free.

I always admire such people. And my peers made me proud to say that I’m a part of their team.

Rivers that crosses rough and steep rock will generate electricity.

This is what i learned from my peers.

Google Maps Business Directory Listing Helps CCS


I was exploring thought Google Maps a couple of days back where I was plotting Cogzidel Consultancy Services office address with Google Maps. There I came across this link Add Business Listing and I added Cogzidel immediately. 

In recent times I got a series of leads from Google. Then I got puzzled as we have a low page rank and i was not getting many results for many core keywords. 

Then one day I happened to search “Accounting Services” where in I came across this result in Google search.

accounting-services 

I was hacking with Google Maps long time back and it showed results (You can see Cogzidel Consultancy Services under maps results). Immediately I optimized for many keywords and it immediately showed in result.

Now I can see another option to get to the top page other than SEO & Adwords route. I recommend everyone to mark your business with Google Maps.

Today I marked my company with Yahoo Local Listing too.

What happened to my hobbies?


Last year I developed hobbies like; 

  • Photography
  • Blogging
  • Tweeting
  • Travelling
  • Physical workout. 

That is because I was back from a big depression and I had lot of time and I wanted to divert my mind from all bad experiences. It was these hobbies which helped me to overcome strongly. 

For last 3 months my concentration on all these hobbies are slowly coming down. I don’t know if I must take it positively as; 

  • I’m getting busy because of business commitments.
  • I’m back from memories of all bad experience. 

Or should I blame myself for cutting down on my hobbies which have helped me in bad times. 

Though there is every genuine reason like; 

  • System problem to download pictures shot from camera has diminished my interest in photography. In fact I stopped taking camera now-a-days.
  • Blogging has taken a beating because I’m taking care of Sales for CCS where I travel to client places. So, I’m not sitting online like before.
  • Same applies to twitter.
  • I stopped travelling because of the long summer this year and still I didn’t get back to loop.
  • Again this is because of my laziness because of travelling. 

But personally speaking I want to balance things and want to accommodate all the special things which were my companion during my lonely times. So from now I plan to be more professional and get back to loop.

Office Humor


After 2 years of selfless service, a man realized that he has not been promoted, no transfer, no salary increment, no commendation. So he decided to walk up to his HR Manager. His manager looked at him, smiled and asked him to sit down saying:

 “My friend you have not worked here for even a single day.” The man was surprised to hear this, but the manager went on to explain.. 

Manager: How many days are there in a year? 

Man: 365 days and sometimes 366. 

Manager: How many hours make up a day? 

Man: 24 Hours. 

Manager: How long do u work in a day? 

Man: 10am to 6pm i.e 8 hours a day. 

Manager: So, what fraction of the day do u work in hours? 

Man: He did some arithmetic and said 8/24 i.e 1/3 (one third).

Manager: This is nice of u! what is 1/3rd of 366 days? 

Man: 122(1/3 x 366=122 in days) 

Manager: Do u come to work on weekends? 

Man: No sir. 

Manager: How many days r there in a year that r weekends? 

Man: 52 Saturdays and 52 Sundays equals to 104 days. 

Manager: Thanks for that. If u remove 104 days from 122 days. How many days do u now have? 

Man: 18 days. 

Manager: I do give u 2 weeks sick leave every year. Now remove that 14 days from the 18 days left.. How many days do u have remaining? 

Man: 4 days. 

Manager: Do u work on Republic Day? 

Man: No sir! 

Manager: Do u come to work on Independence Day? 

Man: No sir! 

Manager: So how many days r left? 

Man: 2 days Sir! 

Manager: Do u come to work on New Years Day? 

Man: No sir! 

Manager: So how many days r left? 

Man: 1 day sir! 

Manager: Do u work on Christmas Day? 

Man: No Sir! 

Manager: So how many days r left? 

Man: None Sir! 

Manager: So what r u claiming? 

Man: Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…………… 

Moral-NEVER GO TO HR FOR HELP!!!