Aek Life- One Chance to Live: A perspective by Ankur Shiv Bhandari

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I think I heard while watching a TV series once, that the day we are born, the day we come into this world, the countdown starts of us leaving this world one day. This is the ultimate truth for everyone, it is just that the duration of our time here is different for every individual whether it is days, weeks, months, years, decades or maybe a century for some. Unless someone has a secret stash of Elixir hidden somewhere or until the fountain of youth is truly discovered, this is the reality of life. I would not call it a hard, rough or crude reality as is heard sometimes as whether it is hard and rough or smooth and enjoyable is to a great measure dependent on each one of us.

The undeniable fact is that this particular innings that we have is “One” or “Aek” composed of moments that might be of joy, sorrow, exhilaration, depression, wonder, surprise, enlightenment or just pure fun. An effort to live each of those moments fully is “Aek Life- One Chance to Live.”

I would like to think that I try to live my life with this principle of “Aek Life”. Yes, I cannot control everything and yes, I have many moments of despair, frustration and sometimes complete annoyance but as life has taken me on its rollercoaster , I have come to realise that it is not what happens to you that defines you or how you capture that as a moment of your life, rather it is how you respond to it that can largely result in the type of feeling you retain or the memory you capture. In my recent readings, I came across this Stoic’s prayer which I think helps me greatly and I try my best to incorporate it into my daily life. It goes like this: “ Dear God- Give me the Serenity to understand the things I cannot change, Give me the Courage to change the things I can and Give me the Wisdom to know the difference”

Through this medium of “Aek Life”, I will try to share my own experiences and thoughts on trying to live this “One” life as fully as we can, in spite of and with everything that this journey brings. Where possible and relevant, I will try to get others to join me in the conversation. I would welcome thoughts from all of you on your experiences and perspectives as well.

Life is not always what we want it to be, or let me rephrase, Life is not always how we think we want it to be. There are many mysteries which life reveals only at the right time and it might be that if you don’t get what you desire might be the best thing that happens to you. We will try to form perspectives on some of these mysteries as we go on this journey and try to augment every moment we have in this “ Aek life- One chance to Live”

Thank you

Why did Penny drop?

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What a few weeks of UK politics it has been. Looking at it with my Lens on Intent, it was interesting to see different perspectives and thought might be a good idea to share. I am not going to comment on what was right, what could have been better or on the suitability of various candidates etc. I am purely going to focus on my view of how I saw intent formation amongst different stakeholders since Boris went, to Liz Truss’s ascent, descent and finally the coronation of Rishi Sunak including decisions of Boris and a perspective on Why did Penny drop?

If you have not already read about my thoughts on How intent is formed or have watched my TEDx talk on the subject, let me refresh your memory. I believe the development and the strength of the Intent of any individual is dependent on the interaction between “Belief “ and “Relevance”. The stronger, the belief and relevance in a particular situation, the stronger the Intent which then is directly proportional to the action that is taken or not taken. I call this “ THE BRIA Model”

Let us start with a few months ago when Boris resigned. Do you think he wanted to go? I don’t think so. So what happened that made him give that resignation speech? Yes yes, I hear you that he had no choice, his support was diminished etc. etc. but coming to the cold end of it, what really led to that decision? Let us put my thinking of BRIA into practice, Beliefs, Relevance, Intent, Action.

Did Boris believe in himself and that he was doing a good job for the country, “ Getting the Big things right” Yes, of course, he did. Until the avalanche of resignations, did he feel his actions were relevant to the positive future of the party and the country? I think he did. My reference point is his performance at the Liaison committee on the 6th of July where I personally think he batted various questions and barbs reasonably well and the strength of his intent and the resulting action i.e responses to various questions even until then was reasonably robust. It is when the downpour of resignations started that his feeling of relevance to his party maybe started getting weakened a bit. So although his belief was still strong, the diminishing relevance weakened the intent to stay on and hence we saw the action of resignation.

Coming to Liz Truss, I think it is a slightly different story. Here, even if the belief in the actions that were being taken was strong, I think there could have been more work done on communications on making those actions feel more relevant to colleagues, and stakeholders both within Government and in wider markets and the general public. Even if some of the policies were strong, their potentially feeble relevance in the current circumstances could have weakened the intent of the markets and other stakeholders to support them.

Now coming to the Coronation @ Diwali of our new prime minister Rishi Sunak and the events leading up to it. I believe the relevance of Rishi potentially strengthened over the past few days due to multiple factors such as: 

  1. The risks he warned of upon taking a particular economic path seemed to have come true
  2. He had the practical experience of having run finances during the pandemic and finances is where a huge focus is required at the moment
  3. He seemed to have the backing of a big chunk of the Conservative Parliamentary party which is potentially extremely important for the unity of the party and the actions that need to be taken especially at this moment.

In this situation, even if some might doubt the belief people had in Rishi, his relevance was potentially too strong in the current circumstances that led to the formation of intent amongst many MPs of supporting him and the resulting actions of endorsement.

With Penny, I noted that her tweet of withdrawal came at almost the last minute possible at 13:58. What does that tell you? There was a very strong belief amongst her supporters until the last minute. One can absolutely understand that as she is an extremely strong candidate with very strong credentials, It is just that her relevance at this moment in time was potentially not as strong as Rishi and hence the intent to support Penny at this particular time amongst MPS was maybe not as strong and Penny had to drop. 

Ankur Shiv Bhandari

Disclaimer: These are my thoughts in a personal capacity and do not represent thoughts of any particular group or committee.

Episode 1 - Introduction to Intentonomics®

Episode 1 – Introduction to Intentonomics®

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Hello Everyone, I am Ankur Shiv Bhandari. Welcome to the first episode of Intentonomics®. What is this Intentonomics® and who am I to talk about this? Let us take it one by one.

Let me start by asking a question? Can you think of a situation where you needed someone to do something and although you felt that action would definitely be done to your surprise it was not. It could be a customer of yours about to sign a deal or make a purchase, it could be an employee of your organisation you might be managing, it might be your child, your friend, your parent, politicians….could be anyone.. Now let us flip the situation where whatever you thought needed to be done was actually done.

What do you think led to that particular action being done or not done? It was the strength of The Intent of that individual. In either of those situations you might have felt a Pain can also be called loss or Gain.This Gain or Pain was driven by The Power of Intent and an understanding of that is Intentonomics®.

Can you control this Power of Intent that has an impact on the outcome of an action and hence on Gain or Pain? Yes, of course you can!

This is where a part of me comes in. In my recent TEDx talk I had talked about the drivers of Intent and how a good understanding of those drivers can potentially help convert Intent into Action. In my reflections on this Intentonomics® platform, I will further try to bring these concepts to life. But who am I? Who is Ankur Shiv Bhandari and why should you listen to this?

I started my career as a door to door salesman. My corporate career since of more than 2 decades has encompassed work in more than 50 countries as both an employee of organisations such as ICI, Procter & Gamble, Accenture, WPP and a consultant to many others such as Unilever, Castrol, Coca-Cola, Glaxo Smithkline, Boots, Philips, Panasonic etc. etc. I also wear other hats such as in Local Government where in Bracknell Forest Berkshire, I have been elected as the first ever Mayor of Indian Origin, first ever person of colour and also the youngest Mayor in History. I am also a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Marketors, a Freemason and an Academic. I also run various businesses around the world mainly in the field of Shopper Marketing and Capability development.  So hopefully, it is fair to say that I have looked at life from close quarters and from multiple angles.

In all my experiences, I have been curious to understand factors behind decisions and indecisions which in some cases have led to monetary Gains or pains for organisations running into millions even billions, for individuals have led to bundles of joys or heartaches which although non-monetary are key contributors to an someone’s sense of fulfilment. This led me to study this concept in detail until I discovered the most important lever behind Action which is Intent. A further study of Intent gave rise to the BRIA model which I believe demystifies the drivers of Intent and ultimately Action.

My reflections will try to bring in real-life examples to hopefully showcase The Power of Intent in driving Gain or Pain.

I welcome you to join me on this Intentonomics® Journey and hopefully we can discover more Gains, alleviate certain pains but above all explore thoughts and learn something together

Thank you

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Do what is right by your conscience,trying to match to everyone else’s definition will not work

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As we all enter a period of reflection over the holidays, it felt apt to share this. I feel that almost everyone starts with a strong moral compass and the ability to take right and fair decisions. This is refined over time by one’s experiences and education to help distinguish between right and wrong. The way human fabric works, we are able to absorb what comes our way in terms of information and make choices.

This compass gets corrupted when one tries to do things by the definitions imposed by others of what is right. Some examples being influences of religion, customs, peer pressure, society perceptions etc. In our hearts we all know what is the right thing to do but still do what others tell us is right. In many such situations in the end neither we are happy nor are the people whose direction we have followed as what is done is never enough. This can lead to a feeling of despair.

Follow your heart and feel the strength that provides you. Notice the burden of not doing what you really wanted to slowing drifting away!

Episode 1 - Introduction to Intentonomics®

The Sales Journey starts – “You can’t do it”- That’s Wonderful!

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I came across a nice LinkedIn post from an individual sometime ago where he listed down an array of demotivators thrown at him when he moved to Canada such as “You will not find a job in your field”, “You will not be able to have a senior position if you want to settle here”,” You will need to adjust your expectations downwards” etc etc. He then proceeded to proudly share that “He was glad he only listened to himself” as he was now on the Board of Directors of a reputable organisation within that year.

I assume most of us have come across such situations in our personal & professional lives where we are faced with similar statements/doubts expressed on capabilities. There can be one of three outcomes in such a situation:

1) Get demotivated/stop attempting

2) Not affected/carry on as planned

3) Challenge becomes a huge motivation/multiply the effort.

In my personal experience these have actually proved to be huge motivators to try to accomplish what has been stated as “can’t be done”. Granted that subject to limits of science and supernatural not everything will be possible but hope you get my gist:-).

It was the year 1993, I had just given my year 10 exams ( sort of equivalent to GCSEs) and had about 4 months of holidays coming up. Although it has been quite common for 14+ year olds taking up jobs in Europe, Americas etc., in the Northern Indian town of Faridabad where I grew up it was almost unheard of ( landscape has changed a bit over the last decade or so but still not common) due to multiple factors such as too young, family reputation, limited belief in capability etc.

However, in very simple terms, in my heart I wanted to learn the value of money and expressed a desire to my family that I wanted to work . You guessed the response right…”You can’t do it”. The third outcome as above kicked in and I stepped up efforts to find a way. As luck would have it, found out about a boy known to my family who I learned had starting going to Delhi as he had taken up a job there. Spoke to him and was told that he works for a toy company. Somehow convinced my father to accompany this boy called Happy for one day and see if it was something decent to be involved in.

As agreed with Happy, I reached his home the next day at 7:30 AM to go to Delhi with him. Not sure why, but surprise surprise, he had left without me. Now definitely couldn’t just go back home and miss this golden chance and in those days there were no cell phones so couldn’t contact Happy either. I remembered Happy had told me that the company he works for is based in “East of Kailash”area in Delhi and had shared the company name. Armed with these 2 pieces of information, without ever having travelled alone to Delhi and that too on Public transport, I headed for the old Faridabad train station( Google hadn’t graced our lives yet:-)). At the station enquired about the train stop I should get off at in Delhi to reach East of Kailash and learned about Okhla, my destination station for the day. Once I reached East of Kailash ( it was not a couple of blocks, more like a small town), I started enquiring about this Toy company and after about an hour, luck smiled and a phone shop( called STD/ISD booths in India) which this toy company used to route their long distance calls gave me their address. Late morning, I arrived at A3-East of Kailash, which was originally a house but now had offices in the basement & ground floor and someone’s residence on the upper floors. The toy company’s office was in the basement. When I entered the office, my friend Happy was there and was suitably surprised. Anyway, spoke to the boss and found out that this particular office employed people for door to door selling of their Soft toys and board games. They said they would give me a trial for a week and I jumped on the chance.

So that day in April 1993, armed with around 20kgs of toys and games on my shoulder, with a desire to learn and motivated further by “You can’t do it”, at a grand age of 15, on the streets of South Delhi was my first day at work! The journey of a salesman had begun.

That day defined my life. I ended up working there for the remaining 3 months and that is where my love for Sales was born. There are many other memories of knocking on doors, my first sale etc. which I might share in future posts. Since then, there had to be a component of work along with my studies and I ended up working part-time all through my graduation in Sales roles. Most of the times “You Can’t do it” challenge has worked positively for me as a motivator and also as a catalyst to help push boundaries, get out of comfort zone etc on multiple occasions. It is not surprising that the same must have played a huge role in the lives of many people we have come to respect such as Muhammad Ali, Nelson Mandela, Richard Branson etc. and must be a key ingredient in their success.

So next time, someone says to you” You can’t do it”.. just say and feel “That’s Wonderful!” 

Ankur Shiv Bhandari

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Customers don’t know what they want, You do!- Believe and help them

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How many times have you doubted the strength of your product or service? How many times have you asked yourself the question “Do they really want what I am selling?” Am I wasting my time?”. However, if you genuinely believe that the Product or Service you are selling is going to make a positive difference for the customer, then the power is really in your hands. “Customers don’t know what they want, You do!” is a bold statement to make, I know. However, think about this. You have spent 5 years perfecting or learning about a Product, Service, Model or a simple proposition. Chances are you have looked at it from multiple angles and viewed it within many scenarios and in many cases know the value it can bring to your customer from different areas more than they know.

The onus is on you to articulate that in a simple way for your customers to help them understand the benefit of what you are proposing and help them believe why they really need it. But before that you yourself need to believe, what you have can make that difference. Steve Jobs believed Apple can change the world and it did, Colonel Sanders of the KFC fame believed that he had a winning recipe and it did win and I can quote many others but I guess you get the gist. For any of these,success did not come overnight but they persevered and it did come. Many of you might have seen the Steve Jobs movie where he said “People don’t know what they want until you bring it to them” is so true.

A similar scenario plays out from my chosen clip today from the movie ”The Hundred Foot Journey”. Have a look and would be good to know what you think?

 

Regards,

Ankur Shiv Bhandari

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The Birth of a Salesman with “I Wish I Could Sell”

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Hello Everyone,

For those of you who don’t know me, I pride myself on being a salesman at heart. Having started my sales career in the 90s, I have seen interesting changes in sales team’s profiles at different levels and in different geographies across the years. I have been lucky enough to have supported sales and marketing initiatives in more than 50 countries and across different channels from the most organised to the most fragmented such as those supporting BPL ( Below Poverty Line) consumption in the developing world.

In the recent few years there are a few key topics around Sales & Distribution management which I feel very passionate about and I look forward to sharing my thoughts on those with you. One topic which I have seen discussed a lot recently is the relevance of a Sales person in today’s Digital world. I have seen some posts marking the phenomenon as the death of a sales person’s role, lost world of sales etc etc. This amuses me quite a lot as in my view this changing landscape is and should be “The Birth of a Salesman”, birth of a salesman who can be relevant in today’s world, birth of a salesman who can use his amazing skills from previous experiences such as relationship building to bring more life into the management of current channel landscape and birth of a salesman who combines richness of being able to understand customer needs with the agility of being able to fulfill them through the modern digital methods.

I will share more details on that perspective through this medium of “I Wish I Could Sell” so watch the space. Through “I Wish I Could Sell”, I will be sharing blogs that capture my learnings from the sales journey across years and geographies. I will also be sharing podcasts on key areas impacting the world of sales.

Look forward to connecting.

Regards,

Ankur Shiv Bhandari

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Bhandari’s BRIA Model of Intent – TEDx Talk

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What causes a sports team to overhaul its dismal performance to an outstanding one within days?
What drives differences in performance between individuals?
What leads to discriminatory behaviours such as Racism?
What could be a key factor that leads to crimes?
What creates a sea change in political outcomes for political parties?
What causes shoppers and consumers to prefer and/or purchase a particular product or service over others?
What has the power to bring about a monumental change in the results for an organisation?

The word is “Intent”

It is the generation and power of intent that leads to or prevents actions. An understanding of how intent is created and what causes it to have the right strength, that can lead to action can both enable and prevent certain behaviours.

A result of my continuing study on “ The Role of Intent” has resulted in the BRIA Model. The BRIA Model tries to bring the process of creation of Intent and its correlation with action to life.

My TEDx talk on the subject provides more detail and I will continue to further build on the principle. I will try to share thoughts through this website and also via “The Intentonomics® Podcast” which can be accessed from my website and will also be available on major podcasting platforms.

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I wanted to, But … | The Role of Intent | Ankur Shiv Bhandari TEDx Talk

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In this TEDx talk, Ankur shares his thoughts on a key ingredient for success and happiness, Intent. Ankur talks about how to generate Intent and harness it so that it leads to Action bringing desired results. Ankur brings this to life using a simple model and real-life applications in the world of business, family, law, personal relations, public sector and many others. Break barriers to achievement and contentment through learnings from this talk by generating Intent and converting it into Action.

 

 

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Speak to your fear and see it disappear – That’s Me Talks by Ankur Shiv Bhandari – Episode 6

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In this episode, Ankur talks about the power of acknowledging our fears and overcoming them on the path to positivity and possibility.

(Asbicon is a Shopper focused “Sales & Marketing Support Company” catering to the Consumer Goods and Services sector. Asbicon enables this through its 7 verticals of Capability Development, Dezign Services, Data Services, Research, Assisted Advisory, IT Solutions and Digital Marketing providing Retail & Distribution effectiveness to its clients.)