Entrepreneurial Generation

Here is a thread to an interesting speech made by Jeff Cornwall, Director of the Belmont University, Center for Entrepreneurship.

It is an interesting read.

Tragic & Spellbound

I managed to spoil my DVD of Spellbound. As of yesterday morning I was half way through this Hitchcock classic and I was supposed to finish this movie yesterday evening when tragedy struck (may be I dropped it down or something). I am going to give it another try to see if the DVD works this evening. If that doesn't happen, I would have to wait till the weekend to see if another copy is available in the local store and watch this movie.

Indeed a great tragedy that has left me spellbound.

Aesthetics, airlines, advertising and the Rio Carnival

In the ancient Olympics the competitors ran naked for a prize of an olive crown. This was more looked at as a celebration of the human body, the male body to be precise. The organizers and the elite of Brazil have now (this year) compared the Rio Carnival to the Olympics.

A quote attributed to them in one of the website's says this "It is the celebration of body, closer in sprit to the Olympic games than a Strip bar". May be had they mentioned "ancient" before Olympics and "predominantly female" before body, it would have been more appropriate.

It also quotes a scholar saying ''Here, nakedness doesn't only lead to sexuality, it leads you to aesthetic appreciation,'' said Roberto Da Matta, a retired University of Notre Dame sociology professor and author of the book ''Carnivals, Rogues and Heroes: An Interpretation of the Brazilian Dilemma.''

Whatever said, the aesthetic appeal of the carnival pulls in aircraft loads of people from around the world. And this makes the carnival a delightful period for the airlines, hospitality and tourism industry. It is also an advertiser's delight, with so many advertising options available including the beautiful bodies of the samba dancers (Is anyone exploiting that media??) and a very captive audience.

The blog profile

I have got a new profile note in here... I suddenly decided to leave out the mundane details like me having worked across some 10 different places spanning 5 industry sectors. This one up there I think gives a good account of what I do now. I have also added a couple of interesting books I read over the last couple of months.

This change is part of my "Greener the better" drive

Semi Spellbound…

Another Hitchcock, starring Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman. I could only help watching half this classic late yesterday night. I'm sure I would have a small post once I am finished with this movie.

The Wrong Man (1956)

Actors: Henry Fonda, Vera Miles
Dir: Sir Alfred Hitchcock

Classic Hitchcock, that would be the one phrase definition of this movie. Based on a true story, this movie is more a gripping documentary of the events which happened. Sir Alfred has also used many of the locations where the events happened and has also used the people involved in the case in some small roles in the movie.

The story… In New York, a wrong man is accused of hold-up and robbery. All the witnesses and the circumstances point to this man, who is a honest, law abiding musician who works in a local club as a cello player. How is he absolved of the acquisition? That is the story.

Henry Fonda plays Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero Aka. Manny Balestrero. Vera Miles plays Mrs. Balestrero. Sir Alfred moves the story around how things unfolded and the court room drama before Manny is acquitted, but that is not before he checks his wife into a mental asylum.

One thing very unlike many Hitchcock movies is the final frame of the movie, a super saying Mrs. Balestrero came out of mental rehab 2 years later and they lived happily after. This is very unlike Sir Alfred, who normally prefers an abstract ending for his movies giving freedom for the viewer to come to his own conclusion about the ending (necessarily a happy one!!).

That said, this is a great movie and a must watch for anyone who likes Sir Alfred and his movie making style, Suspense, tension and those will he or will he not moments.

Trivia: Sir Alfred Hitchcock appears early in the movie. Introducing the movie to the audience and familiarizing them that this is a true story.

This film is based on the book "The True Story of Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero" by Maxwell Anderson, who incidentally has penned the screenplay for this movie.

Maxwell was contracted by Hitchcock to write the screenplay for what would become Vertigo later. But unfortunately his screenplay was rejected by Sir Alfred.

Insights - The lethal weapon for any good communication

Insights kick-off the planning process. It is the insight that determines whether a creative rendition is cutting edge or crap.

Wikipedia says that Insight is the act or result of apprehending the inner nature of things or of seeing intuitively.

An example for an insight

This is something I did sometime ago for a consumer durable major back in India. They wanted to launch a Picture-in-Picture television. I drew the insight from my experience back home. When my mother would want to watch a daily soap on TV, my father would fight her to watch his day-night cricket match.

Hence the insight "People fight over which channel to watch" gave birth to the creative expression which had the proposition "You don’t have to fight for control anymore".

I particularly like the great Jeremy Bullmore's expression of an insight "It is like a refrigerator, the moment you open it a light comes on". I love this analogy of the great man.

Here's some more about what the other planners around the world say about insight…
Russell Davies has some exciting threads about insights in his blog. And here is something from Abu Dhabi.