The Hindu Business Line : The obit tool

I attended an interview for a marketing role in London recently. I was asked to write a self-obituary. What the tarnation is this all about? An example, please.

- B. L. Shafee, New Delhi

Shafee, first of all, apologies for replacing the word you used with `tarnation.' I had to!

Now, I am sure that caught you by surprise. We humans are not too good at handling discussions about death, leave alone writing self-obituaries. That must have shaken you!

Self-obituary is but another tool to use in shaping and assessing the perception of individuals. It is indeed a good tool to make a young man jump out of his skin to sit outside and look at himself as the real person he is perceived to be. It gives a good self-portrait as seen by the person you are about to recruit.

Let's remember, perception is important. And there are two sets of perceptions at play in all our lives. One is what we feel about ourselves, our lives, achievements and failures. And the second is what the outside world thinks of us. Both are equally important in modern-day commercial society. Man is no longer an island in commercial society. He needs to live and thrive amidst people. What these people perceive of him or her is important in moulding the person at hand. A self-obituary makes you sit up, think of all that you have done and not done. Makes you look at yourself as someone else would, when you are no more.

If done properly and with sincerity, stripping the exercise of human pomposity at one end and extreme humility as well at the other, this can be a useful tool that helps introspection. A management tool that can help you rewrite the script of your life. Remember, obituaries are normally written by people who survive you and who have survived with you as well in some way or the other! Self-obituaries as a tool must, therefore, focus on the real and strip the two extreme tendencies to exaggerate and under-value as well. One must be real with this tool to deliver real results. I would certainly use this tool to evaluate a person if done with the sincerity it deserves. There are indeed ratification tools available to check if the dose of sincerity required has been used or not as well.

An example? If I were to write one for myself ... here's a crisp one: "He lived by his own terms. He did not believe in the rat race. In the bargain, he created a race all his own. He believed in doing the right thing. It did not matter whom he irritated. He believed that excellence in a niche is better than mediocrity in ten realms. He remained focused all his life. He believed in the power of NOW! He forgot achievements of the past as quickly as they were done with. He fretted not of the future as well. He believed in the value of Now! The merit of Now! Every day was a new challenge and the day had to have 25 hours. So much had to be done!"

Howzatt?

Everyone seems to want to value their brands all of a sudden. Why? And what could it cost?

- Pinky Mathur, Mumbai

Pinky, you are right. Every Tom, Dick and Harish is onto this. There is a scramble for brand valuations. In my company, four years ago we used to handle two brands in a full 12-month period for valuation. Three years ago, it was at six, two years ago, it was all of 16, last year we valued a total of 21. The trend-line is surely going one way!

Why this rush? I think this is linked completely to the gung-ho India story. India is on the fast track and is emerging as a very big and robust consumer market of interest. Growth rates have touched the double-digit numbers in manufacturing and services (11.2 and 11.3 per cent), and the market is being viewed as one big market that offers the second largest numbers of consumers in the world. Companies located overseas are witnessing a rather sluggish growth in their home markets. Looking at a 2.4 per cent growth is a big thing there. These transnational companies are, therefore, bent on entering markets such as India. As they put their India plans together, there is a substantial degree of interest in the possibility of picking up brands within the country for quick access to markets and consumer hearts.

Indian brands in diverse categories such as FMCG, durables, education, media and entertainment, pharmaceuticals, technology, end-to-end-services, ITES and biotech equally want their brands valued. And I am not cribbing about this trend!

Getting your brand valued costs money, particularly if you want to get it done by a good name. And names charge monies. Companies are willing to spend on this all of a sudden. Even companies with turnover of Rs 400 crore are willing to spend all of Rs 30 lakh-40 lakh on a detailed exercise of sorts at times. They see potential value in the effort.

Another reason for the valuation rush is the fact that several companies have started to put the value of their brands on the balance sheet. Investors are keen to know this factoid. Market trading sentiment is boosted at times by this piece of data quantified by a reliable external source.

HLL has taken a name change. How do you see this change?

- Swati Pinto, Pune

Swati, as they say, what's in a name?

The HLL of yore will now be an HUL. A small semantic change. Will it matter? Does it matter?

Of course it does! I guess that's why the name change is what it is. It could have been a global sounding `Unilever India.' Thankfully, it is not.

The `Hindustan' equity in HLL is significant. This has been preserved. Just goes to prove that India is big in the scheme of things of Unilever worldwide. Big brands, deep consumer involvements and, of course, a very widespread touch of millions of consumers unparalleled in the world.

To the consumer at large, the individual brands of HLL matter that much more than the name HLL itself. If this umbrella name is now a `HUL' from `HLL', it doesn't make too much of a difference, I guess.

(Harish Bijoor is a business strategy specialist and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. Email: askharishbijoor@thehindu.co.in )

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