Editorial

The art of PR?

All the usual things happened at the recently concluded Team Leaders’ off-site. By that I mean presentations, discussions, minor arguments and drawn out debates, not to mention the impromptu song and dance sessions in the evenings – well within striking distance of a well-stocked bar. But there was one other activity that bordered perhaps on the unusual. With business as usual by day, our seasoned PR and advertising pros turned artists by night. Yes, artists, who wield paints and oils and brushes to capture life in all its myriad complexities. The idea was to create a single full-length painting with inputs from everybody. The brief given to everyone was to not think too much but to try and be as spontaneous as possible. However, to keep it from becoming a complete freewheeling exercise, all participants were given a common theme: ’Blue Lotus’.

A large canvas was divided into fragments, each team leader being apportioned one to artistically interpret Blue Lotus. Bishi, the only certified artist in the entire group, moderated the entire exercise. The results surprised everyone, including the participants. Personally, it reminded me of a workshop that was conducted in Mumbai a few years ago when a group of kids, randomly selected and who’d never before handled a camera, were first instructed on how to operate one, then asked to venture out into the city and shoot whatever took their fancy. The results, as in the case above, were quite incredible. I know because I happened to see the photographs when they were later reproduced in a popular city magazine. They revealed intelligence, insight and refined artistic sensibilities – extraordinary, given that the photographers were all barely into their teens.

It just goes to show that all of us have a latent ability for creative expression. All we require to bring it to the fore is the right stimulus. Having an accomplished artist like Bishi in your midst must also help.

We’ve reproduced the painting below. Take a good, long hard look at it. What do you think? Do the pictures reveal anything to you? Archana has taken the pains to review each fragment of art. You can read her observations here and see if they match your own. And in case you want to see the real thing, just take the staircase to the fourth floor.

Feature Story

The Feature Story was contributed by Piyush Jain. Piyush heads Business Development at Blue Bytes.

The new buzz at Blue Lotus

In the month of October, we witnessed two events of significance at Blue Lotus. The first involved only a select few, getting together to take stock and plan further - the quarterly TLs’ offsite. The second was the most awaited half yearly ritual which concerns all of us - the Performance Appraisal.

We’ve all been through the grind involving Performance Appraisals, so I will not delve into that. The Team Leaders offsite, however, would be of interest to all those who were not a part of it. So here’s the inside story...

It’s definitely not all fun and games, as Umesh keeps reminding everyone, but a place where serious introspection takes place.

The TL offsite typically gets underway with Mouli outlining the company’s vision. Soumitro takes it a step further and grinds it into everyone, at the same time providing details on the progress made by Mustard and Blue Bytes. Darshan then reveals the quarter’s figures, which really don’t show us in a very good light. Then it’s the turn of the team leaders themselves. One by one each TL makes a detailed presentation stating his team’s performance, which is subjected to close scrutiny by others. By "others" I mean the "Council of Elders", who perform a role similar to that of the Board of Directors.

The previous TL offsite - my first - was all about setting targets and looking at ways and means to achieve them. This time it had more to do with how much of that target has been met. Unfortunately, as most of you would know, for the first time in our group’s history we had to revise our targets downwards. This however did not dampen anyone and each one was motivated enough to achieve more than what was set for them.

The team leaders spoke about the numbers they’ve achieved so far and outlined their plans to achieve the balance. Each one also presented a success story in the form of a case study. All of this was critically reviewed by those sitting in judgment over the presentation.

It’s a great platform to bounce your ideas off others. Since all teams are interdependent, the offsite presents an opportunity to voice your opinion regarding strengthening of the BL network, better coordination between team members, issues with critical hands etc. Individuals come up for reviews and informal votes are taken on the performance of the person concerned.

Standing up and presenting your team’s case in front of the "Council of Elders" can be fairly challenging. To ease the stress, evenings are given almost entirely to unwinding with a whisky and soda, a sprinkling of shaayari, and freewheeling banter.

A major highlight of the offsite was when all the TLs turned artists, and used their collective skills to create a single painting. All this under the watchful eyes of Bishi. The painting, a highly abstract piece, now occupies a place of pride in our fourth floor office. The last day was devoted to "leadership training" by an external faculty. All were required to undergo a leadership test, the results of which are not encouraging enough to share on a public platform.

After 3 days, the TLs are suitably motivated to take on the oncoming challenges. But the very first challenge immediately after the offsite is to get to office on time the following day.

Special Story

This special article was contributed by Archana J. Sharda. Archana heads the Delhi operations of Blue Lotus.

From the creator – The Brahma

Blue - the colour of water, which represents movement; it also symbolizes honesty, faith and trustworthiness. Lotus, one of the Ashtamangala or Eight Auspicious Symbols that also signify purity, as the suffix. Two good enough reasons for me to adopt the name. The origin may never be explained but an attempt is possible.

Before the brightest star, 'The Sun', had to shine on the clean blue horizon, cobwebs had left me disillusioned, clouded the clarity of my mind. It needed more than the vision and the divine inner voice that kept calling inside, it needed the power to say to myself ‘I CAN’. As soon as my perspiration that dripped on the parched earth dried as I could do that the black threads melted into days and nights and then on the sky one fine shining day after I wrote ‘Blue Lotus'. The inner self was no longer thirsty, it was hungry now. The knowledge around was immense to be captured in my arms, so I gathered as many to form my ’Team Blue’.

On the sunrise orange canvas, ‘Blue Lotus’ was planted to spread its fragrance, the goodness had to multiply and reach out to the farthest corners. Five years today, the networks across represent the principles of the organisation, the butterflies and kites painted a prosperous picture and the business congruence started to take shape. The concentric squares are so true to my objective of achieving a work place that learns from within each other, cross pollination as we call it; the fresh green ideas from the young leaders allows us to spread our wings.

It brings me so much pride when I see the rainbow touching many hearts where, not just the team, but the external world knows about us too. Like the mythological flower we, born and destined to bring out something good, unerring and pure, are sure to achieve Nirvana – for us it would mean progress and growth, success as we may all like to call it!

What better a place can I offer you, where the blue lotus has grown over these few years and is trying to mount up the sky, the team is striving to hand hold each other, opportunities for business women are as much as for any of us. Heart, soul and mind reverberates the body and yet binds them all for the sake of oneness.

The oneness is the essence. The farther the links, the more significant their contributions. Harmony is quintessential as we all walk towards the same goal and unlimit ourselves to ‘possibility thinking’

I urge you all, let’s move together to map the unreal to the real. We’re still far behind; the competition is harsh and cutting our skins through. We all have to put all efforts as much as we can, as much as we should, for we know we can, for we know how it was when we took off, how it was when we started flying, but what will be the most wonderful would be something we still don’t know – how would it be flying much, much higher – reaching new heights, that will be infinity, that will be ecstasy.

PA Party

This article was contributed by Mayuri Kirloskar. Mayuri heads the Pune operations of Blue Lotus.

A night to remember

On a crisp Friday evening, the entire Mumbai team of Blue Lotus (and their Pune counterparts) trooped towards Hotel Apollo where the PA results were to be announced. Although everything appeared bright and merry on the surface, I can assure you that there were many experiencing the ’butterflies in the stomach’ syndrome.

Some walked in with very high expectations. For others, it was déjà vu time. As for the new-kids-on-the-block, it was obviously a ‘Night to Remember’ – their first-ever performance appraisal. It’ll suffice to say that the atmosphere was heady with anticipation, mixed with equal parts anxiety.

Pooja got the event underway with a short, spirited speech, her characteristic tongue-in-cheek humour very much in evidence. Then it was Darshan’s turn to brief us on the current financial status of BLC. Some worried glances were exchanged after Darshan was done with his speech. But Soumitro and Mouli took over from there and injected a much-needed dose of optimism into the evening’s proceedings. As Soumitro very rightly pointed out, "there’s no point dwelling in the past as you can’t change it; what you can control is tomorrow. So let’s get our acts together and prepare for what’s to come". After that, a few of the oldest and a couple of the newest members of Blue Lotus spoke a few lines each. It was all very earnest and heartfelt.

Once the announcements had been made, it was time to hit the dance floor. One look at the couples jiving and it quickly became evident that all the hard work put in during the Salsa sessions had paid off big time. Even those not learning the Salsa did their thing in great style.

A few pegs down and everyone forgot about numbers, figures and results. It was time to be merry. A fitting finale to the evening was when the next day was declared a holiday.

Training

This piece on new training initiatives was contributed by Tapash Pal. Tapash is the Training Manager at Blue Lotus, and also heads team Blue Bridge.

Leadership Theory

Earlier this month at the TL offsite, team leaders and "potential" team leaders underwent a session on situational leadership as part of their overall training program.

What is situational leadership?

Classical theory defines different styles of leadership - autocratic, dictatorial, participative, bureaucratic etc., where a person is usually attributed with one style of leadership. But we all know now that this isn’t a very productive approach. GE along with Ken Blanchard (Author of One Minute Manager) developed a "Situational Leadership" module, which says that the leadership ought to be flexible and different styles should be adopted depending on the situation.

Ajai Singh, CEO of Transformation International, India and Principal Consultant, Shamrock Training Consultants & Master Leadership Coach, came down to conduct a one-day training session for Blue Lotus. Ajai is a Certified Professional Behavior Analyst, Certified Professional Value Analyst (the only one in the whole of South Asia), Certified Attribute Index Analyst, Certified Achieve Global Master Trainer, Certified Synergogic Master Trainer, Certified Entretel Master Trainer and Certified Leadership Foundations Master Trainer. He is also a Certified Master Leadership Coach and the sole Ken Blanchard Coach in India.

The first session was about a leader’s role in the changing work scenario. It touched upon the importance of workforce and how a leader has to adapt his or her style of leadership depending on the changes in workforce.

The second session was a LEAD self–assessment, which revealed our style of leadership. We were pleased to know that as an organization, we follow the "Selling Style of Leadership", which happens to be on the better side of the normalization curve.

In last session, Ajai spoke about Follower Centric leadership. What should a leader do if he has no follower? This session touched upon the third dimension, which is not covered by Ken Blanchard’s Situational leadership – PEOPLE.

All in all, the program has given us the direction for our thought process towards a three dimensional leadership.

Photo Feature

PA party at Hotel Apollo

Puja chronicles

This article was contributed by Biswajit Das. Biswajit heads Mustard Communications.

Goddess Durga is a form of Shakti worshipped for her gracious as well as terrifying aspect. Mother of the Universe, she represents the infinite power of the universe and is a symbol of female dynamism.

She is also called by many other names, such as Parvati, Ambika, and Kali. In the form of Parvati, she is known as the divine spouse of Lord Shiva and is the mother of his two sons, Ganesha and Karttikeya, and daughter Jyoti. Destroyer of demons, she is worshiped during an annual festival called Durga puja, especially popular among Bengalis.

She is usually pictured as having ten arms holding Sword, Conch, Discus, Rosary, Bell, Wine cup, Shield, Bow, Arrow, and Spear. She is most often shown riding a lion from which comes her august name, Simhavahini, "She who stands astride the king of beasts". She is gorgeously dressed in royal red cloth and has several ornaments decorating her personage. Her hair is dressed up in a crown (karandamukuta) which then flows out in long luxuriant tresses that are darkly luminous and soothing to the eye.

She went to battle on her ferocious mount lion, armed with the weapons given to her by the other Gods. Durga is one of the angry and aggressive aspects of the goddess Shakti. In the battle, she fought and killed the evil Mahishasura, restored heaven to the Gods and the occasion is celebrated as victory over evil.

In West Bengal, Durga Puja is five days of sheer festivity. It hinges around Mahalaya day, a week before the actual celebrations begin. It was on this day that Durga was assigned the task of eliminating evil. So the familiar pose of Durga unleashing her wrath on an outpowered asura (demon). Legend goes that Ram wanted to invoke the blessings of Durga before his great war with Ravan. He performed the Durga Puja despite the time of year not being right. That is why the puja is also known as Akal Bodhon, or untimely invocation. It is only from the day of Mahalaya that the preparations for the Durga Puja reach the final stage. The midnight chants of various hymns of ‘Mahishasura Mardini’ remind one of the beginnings of Durga Puja.

The battle started on Shaptami and Ravana was killed at the Shandhikshan (in between) Ashtami and Navami; he was cremated on Dashami. Therefore the four days of the puja that we celebrate ends in the triumph of good over evil. Finally, on 'Dashami,' the tenth day from the new moon, the idol is immersed in the river.

Article

This article was contributed by Prabalika Borah. Prabalika heads the Hyderabad operations of Blue Lotus.

When I joined Blue Lotus I was told the Hyderabad office is well-placed, it’s neat, and blah blah blah... After a month in hotel White Pearl, Mumbai, I arrived at our Himayatnagar office. At first glance, the office appeared compact and smart. And the little toilet looked in good enough condition until Mouli, in his list of dirty outstation toilets, included the name of my branch in what was my very first offsite.

Embarrassing, no? So I come back and begin a close inspection.
I remove the curtain next to the toilet and espy brush, soap, rug and other cleaning paraphernalia. Then I peep inside the non-descript bucket. Yuck! It’s laden with fungus! Water in Hyderabad is hard, so standing water tends to form a layer on the container it’s stored in if not cleaned regularly.

I immediately fire the old maid who would keep doing her own numbers. Then I clean the junk from the loo. Suresh rolls up his sleeves and joins in. Anil’s desk is always the cleanest and tidiest. He is finicky about stains on walls, doors and on the telephone. In fact he actually sat with down detergent and cleaned the stains, to set an example really. That was one mad drive and it was possible because we all felt the need treat our office like our individual homes. I discarded the old mat and instructed the maid to not pass over the nooks and corners. For e.g., no random stuffing of rugs into the first available corner; the same applied to polythene bags. They are to be folded neatly and stacked and used as garbage disposal bags.

Anil and I both conduct surprise checks every now and then to ensure cleanliness is maintained. It wasn’t just Blue Pearl who took the initiative of a cleanliness drive. BLUE SAINTS did too. October has been a great month for them what with the team first acquiring a new client in the shape of Oceans Connect, and the subsequent arrival of Prashant Gunjan to further reinforce the team. Prashant tracks media movement and shares the information with all of us. With Diwali approaching, the Pune branch took up the cleanliness drive with gusto. Right from clearing personal drawers to rearranging files to instructing the maid to clear cobwebs from the windows and ceiling.

In the midst of all the cleaning, Mayuri realised that that such an exercise helps team members bond as everyone is working towards a common objective - cleaning the office! It generates a great sense of belonging. There’s the subtle transition from ’the office’ to ’my office’.

New Employees

New at Blue Lotus Family

New Clients

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