Chetan Bhagat in Shillong – People’s Person
His presentation
entitled ‘How to be a super achiever’ was simple and direct, interesting for
teenagers. His 6 step model (1. Setting
clear goals, 2. Knowing the reason behind the goal/goals. 3.Finding the
group. 4. Detailed action plan. 5. Setback dealing mechanism.
6. Faith) for achieving success was quite the same as researched by many
academicians, though he made it simple.
He narrated his journey to become best-selling author and emphasized that
he is best-selling and may not be best.
It sets me thinking that the
response to market forces has become such that we start thinking more on what
sells best and not really what is really best.
May be he is able to relate more to the young Indians and he knows the
language of the youth so they are able to connect better with him and he knows that’s
what really sells. I have read most of
his books (5 point someone, 3 Mistakes, 2 States, Revolution 2020) and
think that he knows the pulse of his audience and accordingly manufactures the
product which sells well. Anyway he has learnt the art of logic and rationalizations
from IIT and the art of selling from IIM.
A good mix, a good marketing mix for being successful. Market is what really matters.
CB follows Kotler who
gave us 4 Ps of marketing and while Kotler was asked if one has to add one more
P, what that P could be, his straight forward reply was that would be PEOPLE. Mind
it CB has been a student of Marketing. And
as it looks he is a true practitioner of all those marketing principles. Throughout the presentation he kept saying he
is ‘people’s person’. May be he is people’s
person through social media and in the virtual world. Certainly not when one looks at his rude and hypocritical
behavior. I sent a mail to his secretary (email id as given on www.chetanbhagat.com) for just looking for
the possibility if we could meet for few minutes. I was at least expecting a reply, an
acknowledgement, may be few words mentioning that it may not be possible or
otherwise. But there was a complete
lull. While in Shillong when he was asked questions he took them but after few
questions he said I would take the questions off line, but just after he finished
the presentation, he vanished from the venue, leaving behind so many of us
trying to meet him, so many of students who wanted to take his autograph. (Before he went on stage he was sitting in
the front row, my daughter went to him for his autograph on his book ‘what
young india wants’, he said after the presentation he would do that).
Somehow this part of his personality, I did not like but then who am I to like
or dislike. He already has put so much
of wax as that of a lotus, that nothing affects him (his own confession).
The role for which he
was called was that of a motivational speaker because he is a brand in himself
and a role model for many of teenagers.
For that he fitted well though he has acquired the status of a brand for
what he writes so the role ambiguity that one observes in his packaging is well
balanced. However I am skeptical about
his being successful as motivational speaker in the long run. He is following a diversification strategy
through connecting to people by 9 modes (as he explained) and the challenge as
he sees is to connect to rural India. I
wish him luck. He has no intention of
becoming Bhagat Baba or Chetan Baba, though the title is quite catchy. But in a
way he seems to be getting towards that.
Further as any
product/service there is a PLC (Product Life Cycle), he is at the level of in
between maturity and saturation, where the product should try staying or going
ahead, I really doubt that he would be able to avoid reaching decline stage of
this PLC after 8-10 years. Anyways peak
for 10-15 years is not a bad thing. The
authors are remembered after 100-200-300 years as well that’s what makes them
great authors. Products also live long
but concentration on core competency requires more serious thinking than
whining away from honest intentions. Of course
intention mapping is no child’s job.
It is the people that
matters for the person and not the other way.
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- Patricia Mukhim's report on the CALM fest in The Shillong Times CLICK HERE
- The Shillong Times report on CB's visit CLICK HERE
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