Kathmandu faces an acute traffic congestion problem. As thousands of people face this problem on a daily basis and more vehicles being added to the capital’s roads, I’m researching how cities around the world are managing their own traffic congestion. I found a related/useful video on Ted which is worth listening to: Bill Ford talking in A future beyond traffic gridlock. Bill Ford’s great-grandfather was Henry Ford.
When celebrities speak up on contemporary issues, is it good or bad for their “personal brand”?
Do all celebrities have the luxury to speak up on contemporary issues and voice their opinion(s)?
What current or potential sports endorsements would be affected for the athletes if they speak up (or not speak up)?
Do consumers today believe that athletes should be more responsible and use their platform for the greater good of society? If they don’t use their platform “properly”, would we support them any less?
What topic(s) should the athletes stay in or can they comment on issues related to global events?
In a good business environment, the customers have a lot of product/service options to choose from. Whether customers are shopping for groceries, fashion, gadgets to cars, houses, boats, there are a plethora of product/service providers. As choices become abundant, the customers make decisions based on many things. Some things that make customers choose your brand are price, service, reputation, availability to name a few.
Other factors that are less than obvious which make customers choose only your brand are how much does your brand seem to care about the customers, how is the overall customer buying experience, can the customers trust you, can you deliver what you promised in your marketing, what is the first interaction like with your brand. These are some things to consider as choices are aplenty for the customers.
57% of senior leaders today say soft skills are more important than hard skills. Strengthening a soft skill is one of the best investments you can make in your career. Plus, the rise of AI is only making soft skills increasingly important, as they are precisely the type of skills robots can’t automate. –LinkedIn
Soft skills that are very important in 2019 according to LinkedIn are: creativity, persuasion, collaboration, adaptability, and time management. Learning or honing these soft skills will pay huge dividends in the long term.
To stay relevant in the market, be ahead of the competition, and to attract/keep talent, the company’s members’ need to be continuously learning. If the members are not learning, they are not growing.
Most companies know that the employees are its biggest asset. What they know and how they act can differ greatly. Learning has to become a core part of a company’s DNA. It has to be embedded so strongly in the company that employees themselves are proactively learning new things and staying updated. The management needs to provide the right environment where learning is encouraged, incentivized, and acknowledged. Just a few people here and there sent off to a corporate training won’t move the needle.
With experience, comes confidence, knowledge, and a good sense of intuition. When you get hired, you get paid for your “experience.” Can you tell us about your experience managing teams or projects is a common question at job interviews. Employers’ believe that a new hire with relevant experience will take their company to new heights. As much as experience is valued and it should be, another asset is to also have a learner’s mindset. When you can count on your experience, you should and when you are not sure then you should approach people who know/research the topic/ask tons of questions.
re:Work is a collection of practices, research, and ideas from Google and others to help you put people first. re:Work is organized around ways you can make an impact in your workplace.
I love this part “Learning & Development – Empower your employees to grow and develop by making learning part of everyone’s job.” I’ll be sharing what I learned from re:Work in the coming days.
I used to believe that getting a lot of press coverage for any business would be good. It would be great to create more buzz, more people would would know about it, more people would be ready to purchase the product, and ultimately there would be more sales. What could be wrong with that right? Well now, I have started to think that it depends where you are in the business stage (startup, survival, sustainable, growth and scale).
For a startup, getting buzz creates hype and excitement towards the company. That buzz can create demand for the product or service, get market feedback, attract talent to the company among others. Yet I have started to see the pressures and repercussion of too much press early in the business stage. First time founders are really excited and passionate about their idea and want to get it out there. It’s hard to resist getting that coverage when it is coming your way. However, when the idea is out in the media, more resource equipped people and companies can easily change their strategies and almost destroy that upcoming new business. Also, if the founder(s) don’t move fast in the market, the weight of the early press coverage/even awards can hold them back. The team dynamics and egos of various people can also be affected if not taken care properly.
It sounds almost counter-intuitive to not get too much press coverage and recognition early. This is definitely not the case for all businesses. However, I’m starting to feel and believe that for startups in Nepal that want to make an impact domestically and internationally, it’s best to extremely focus on your product/service (and resist press/other coverage until you are ready). The time will come when you need to market it, generate press, and grow your company.
If there is one thing that I strongly believe will improve Nepal’s educational system, it would be improving the quality of the teachers.
The foundation of an excellent education system is the teachers. Students spend majority of their time at school/college with the teachers compared to other stakeholders (admissions, career office etc). If the teachers are incentivized the right way, then the magic flows from there. When the teachers are excellent, the students’ learn, grow, and have the confidence to take on the next challenge. This will help the school/college earn a good reputation which will carry over to prospective students, parents and other stakeholders. Thus, a lot of marketing of the school/college is not needed after that.
How do we then incentivize the teachers so that our education system improves?
Kathmandu faces an acute traffic congestion problem. News of traffic congestion worsening are not rare. The population density is increasing, more vehicles are being added on the road, construction happening almost everywhere etc. We can’t just wait for Dashain holidays to be able to drive comfortably in our capital when most people go to their homes to celebrate the festival. The problem needs solutions right now.
I started researching on how cities around the world are tackling traffic. A good overview can be found on World Economic Forum’s Seven ways cities around the world are tackling traffic. From electronic road pricing, electronic journey planner to integrative public transport model and active traffic management approach, big cities around the world are managing traffic and creating ways to increase their revenue while providing a better quality of life for their citizens/visitors.
Nepal government, concerned government and city agencies, private sector and all other stakeholders should proactively start working on solutions to improve traffic management in our capital. Better late than never.
The best way to build a personal brand is to be yourself.
Being authentic is the most prized asset in today’s world. For people who want to become a personal brand or have their company connect with the customers, the decision is simple: be authentic. Your audience can easily see right through when you are not being authentic. It’s far more easier to just be yourself than trying to be someone else.
What did I gain out of participating in Startup Weekend Kathmandu 2013?
Frankly, I got so much out of it. It’s hard to put it in words everything that I got out of the three day Startup Weekend but I will try to summarize it. The first Startup Weekend Kathmandu happened in early February 2013. I was very excited because it was the first time that Startup Weekend was coming into town. That edition of the event took place at SAP Falcha, Babarmahal. The event started on Friday afternoon with registration and networking culminating into final pitches to the judges on Sunday evening. I could feel so much raw energy at SAP Falcha. Everyone was excited to be there as I was. When I look back to the people I met then, they are doing amazing things in Nepal’s startup and business ecosystem now. I’m in touch with most of the people I met then. Besides the friendships and network I built, I was able to understand and consider various perspectives on building a business. It’s amazing what a team can do in a weekend when we are all working together.
It’s extremely tough to describe the details of the Startup Weekend Kathmandu. You have to participate in the event itself to get a feel of it. I highly recommend you to do so.
We all have our personal narratives. When we go through life and experience the high’s, low’s and everything in the middle, we build experience and look at life from a certain lens. Our personal experiences, our personal and professional networks and what we see/hear/feel influence us to create our own personal narratives. Those personal narratives are powerful on how we go about each day and how we see the world around us.
A Psychology Today article states that if we can consistently empower students to tell stories about their lives in a more positive way, we can help them become resilient and motivated as they pursue their goals. Personal narratives are very powerful and it greatly impacts our successes and failures.
There will be times when the tide changes and things move in a certain direction. Sometimes you know when the wave is coming; other times we don’t know when the wave comes. Once in a while we see an established institution recognize the incoming changes, promptly address it, and adapt with it.
