Rohit Narnoli - Man of his Own Image!

“ Beware buyers ”, warns US regulators of bitcoin’s dangers, that surged by over 1700% this year. Bitcoin is like the musical chair game. Everybody knows that music will stop and there will be people left out with no chair to sit on. Still the game is a thrill! Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and worldwide payment system. It is the first decentralized digital currency, as the system works without a central bank or single administrator ( Wikipedia ). Many of us might have heard about Bitcoins after it was acquainted with most notorious nature. For an ordinary person, who does not understand what Blockchain Technology is or how it works, it is the magical elixir to multiply ones money manifolds. In 2010, ‘ SmokeTooMuch’ unsuccessfully tried to auction 10000 BTC for $50. And today one might be shelling out millions of dollars for the same. As a fact, had one waited for 7 years, he would have been richer than Bill Gates now. However, this was not as simple as the mainstream media wo...

A female friend of mine jokingly said to me, if you can design a Nano to fit in a budget size of Rupees 1 lakh, why can’t you provide a wardrobe for us in the car? She went ahead and asked me for space behind the driver’s seat to hang her purse, makeup-kit in the dashboard and what not. In short, she was expecting a complete bedroom in her car.  This made me to contemplate, where are these aspirations coming from. Moreover, why were they ignored for so long? This urged me to ponder over a critical segment that was often linked to men, i.e., cars . Women are gaining momentum in terms of cars, which was seen as a symbol of masculinity so far. However, the gender gap on Indian roads is rapidly decreasing. As with other roles, women in India are taking the wheel in larger numbers—a shift that can be attributed to several factors, including rising education levels and improved career opportunities. Women have further became financially empowered to make critical family decisions...

#Google recently introduced the bike view in their maps application. I must say, this was much needed from the Indian context, where a considerable population still commutes on two-wheelers. In addition, the traffic conditions impact differently when you travel on bikes as compared to a four- wheeler. This could be easily substantiated from the difference in ETA. This unquestionably puts Google much ahead in the race of precision and accuracy (Well, I did not have any doubt even earlier!). Second interesting thing to be noticed was the cabs tab. Hence, Google stepping out to be an aggregator of aggregators by integrating APIs of not just Ola & Uber, but Meru as well. Apps like #Tapzo that started with similar concept of ‘one app instead of multiple apps’ might endure some heat. These mobile apps are like patients in ventilation that will die off as soon as investors pull out the pipeline. Another new thing that I noticed was the information on parking condition. I believe this ...

As I pen down this story, I believe that my audience might vary widely from an industry expert to a novice, from an HR to an SME, from an existing B-School student to an aspirant who has taken CAT yesterday. “An open survey by one of the leading B-School research websites points that the percentage of people in some of the top B-schools switching jobs in the first 18 months stands at around 25%.” A simple look around in my vicinity delineate that the number would be in the ballpark of 55-60%. It is also evident that the number of graduates switching domains stands at about 40% and this could be a modest number. Another report by CNBC states that, based on experiences, 77% of businesses expect a recent graduate hire to stay less than a year. I always say, engineering might be an accident but if you are cheesed off after an MBA, it is a sheer mistake. While the world is acknowledging Indian talent, it is hard to believe in the inadequacy of the Indian professional education ...

Marketing today goes beyond the marketing department. This is no longer just spreading information about the product. Customers today are a tap away from all the information that they seek about any product. In addition, marketing campaigns are expensive with low conversion ratio. According to Seth Godin , marketing is primarily about telling stories and spreading ideas. The only thing that technology could not replace completely is human touch and henceforth, every employee can spread personal stories through their personal connections to strengthen the marketing department under the approach laid down by Seth Godin. This, one-to-one conversation builds up trust. JetBlue airlines spent 15:1 on media as compared to its nearest rival and still maintain to remain on top of the mind of the customer. The first thing that their employees are being told is that, “Every one of you is a marketer.” Every employee fortifies the company's ability to spread its message and to captivate ...

Gone are the days when soldiers used to engage in a combat to protect the motherland by proving their supremacy in power, strength, strategy and patriotism. Uninstalling mobile application, de-rating Official Facebook pages and trending hash tags, are the new age war tactics by ‘Social Media Warriors’ or the Digital Patriots. In the past few months, we have come across an interesting social behaviour where Netizens participate in a social media war. Similar to a nation having three forms of defense i.e.; Army, Navy and Air Force; Netizens have it in the form of Facebook, Twitter and Google play store. In fact, ‘Angel Priya’ has replaced the ‘Guerrilla warfare technique’. Digital patriots are night owls, whose patriotism boils up after finishing off their everyday chores. They peek into others’ life for dessert. These warriors suddenly start feeling bad about everything in the world. They poke in their nose to criticize all the policies without any logic. Apparently, lack of ...

#Year2017, Speaking on the Antaragni Foundation Day! One fine winter morning of the year 2013, when I was still in standard 12, I was dragging myself out of the bed to attend the last lecture of my life. Within a span of 30 minutes, I found myself inside the corridors of Shiksha Bhavan College. I never liked studying, but at the same time, I did not know what I would do in my life. Therefore, getting involved with boring books was the only option left. To my surprise, there was an unusual crowd in the campus in that freezing winter morning. I took a few steps ahead with the puzzled mind. I could see that people were hastily rumbling just outside the college main building. Immediately, I heard a loud siren of an ambulance van followed by a police jeep. Four people, dressed in white uniform, came out from the ambulance van. To get a clear picture of what was going on; I made my way between the crowds to reach to the front. I could find a bewilderment of noise, and pushing people....

The Future was decoded in a true sense at Microsoft #FutureDecoded2017 conference held on 21st and 22nd of February. The 2-day event was divided into two tracks – Technology(Day 1) and Management(Day 2). While the technology track was about ‘ What ’ technology an organization should adopt to digitally transform its future, the management track was about ‘ How ’ to make digital transformation a reality in any organization. The Star-studded extravaganza saw eminent personalities from the worlds of technology, business, politics, and sports. We heard, Satya Nadella (CEO,Microsoft), Guenter Butschek (MD, Tata Motors Ltd), Norm Judah (CTO, Microsoft Services), Devendra Fadnavis (CM Maharashtra) and shuttler P. Gopichand , to name a few. It was a privilege and personal honour to learn about the transformation journey of new Andhra Pradesh, straight from the Head of the State. Altogether, there were over 80 sessions, 15 key note, 54 product and solution showcase and 26 Microsoft partners...

The following stories are glimpses from the lighter moments that I encountered while interviewing MBA aspirants. PI stories #10 Corruption is not bad. It is just illegal. #ImeanSeriously PI stories #9 Every MBA aspirant has been a leader in his friends group and decided to do MBA thereafter. #YourOwnStory PI stories #8 Every candidate want to do MBA to give a kick to their career. #PayChequeYouMean PI stories #7 An MBA aspirant will accept the campus placement offer, only to reject it and pursue entrepreneurship thereafter. #EntrepreneurshipIsAbuzzWord PI stories #6 There are three categories of IIM that exist today among student community - "Old, New and Baby". Apparently, they will call the upcoming IIMs as 'foetus IIM'. #AfterThat? PI stories #5 Every MBA aspirant thinks that his hobby is 'reading books' after reading Chetan Bhagat. #YouRealisedHowUselessYourGraduationWas PI stories #4 I want to do MBA in HR because I am the eldest amo...