Shombit SenguptaChrysalis to butterfly

Sunday 3 July '11

Ignore the trend, and all youll be left with is tangible assets.

Aspiration at the fulcrum

Sunday 26 June '11

After finishing a daylong corporate meeting in Chennai, I went to Marina beach. Suddenly, a huge Audi stopped.

Retail addiction
Sunday 19 June '11

The shoppers mind and eye are always in a Yes/No mental wrestle.

Drive V, achieve vision

Sunday 12 June '11

But the letter V opens wide into infinity, it drives unrestrained vision for achievement that is sustainable.

Lonely Independence
Sunday 5 June '11

New age urban women Zappers below 30 years are truly liberated.

Sexodrama of political leaders

Sunday 29 May '11

Sexual harassment was probably unknown when monarchs reigned with all-pervading command

MSD drives entrepreneurship

Sunday 22 May '11

Do you have the grit, gumption and decision making capacity to tackle ambiguous situations in an enterprise?

Do political parties know today's he and she?

Sunday 15 May '11

Choice. Thats what the free economy and competition gives the masses.

West Bengal: Blood or prosperity?

Sunday 8 May '11

Let me share with you the nuances I could follow due to my Bengali origin

Decisive, regular repeat purchase makes a brand

Sunday 1 May '11

The so-called customer care service of one of India s largest mobile phone operators regularly calls me, and then asks, Whats your name, sir?

The PUB Reflex

Sunday 24 April '11

The PUB Reflex is not about emptying jarfuls of draught beer down your gullet in a pub

Individualism vs Cadre
Sunday 17 April '11

When you buy Pantene shampoo, you as a consumer dont care about P&Gs enterprise culture, who does its R&D, Marketing or the CEOs name

Rejig failure with curiosity to succeed

Sunday 10 April '11

To my dismay, Ive discovered a school of thought in this part of the hemisphere that supports understanding of failures, not to learn from them.

Depoliticise the common man

Sunday 3 April '11

In todays digital world, its an uphill task to lift society without industry strengthening the economy

National identity puzzle

Sunday 27 March '11

Its so refreshing to see bright, trendy saffron-white-green painted faces cheering India at World Cup Cricket matches

Devils workshop legalised?

Sunday 20 March '11

Do you really want to die today? asked the nurse, a small glass of deadly barbiturates in her hand.

Im indebted to stimuli
Sunday 13 March '11

Stimuli make human beings act differently; thinking is mere fuzz. Thats what I wrote last week.

Dont think, choose stimulus, act

Sunday 6 March '11

Thinking, does it exist? Is it not infinite hazy vapour?

Build your core, globalise your business

Sunday 27 February '11

My Human Resources Manager says recruitment at MBA schools exasperates him.

How the West has won

Sunday 20 February '11

Light was invented to brighten up nights, aircrafts to hit the skies with, pacemakers to fix an ailing heart.

Seny rauxa pull for business

Sunday 13 February '11

When digital technology is commoditising the world, the only way for a brand or corporation to survive is with the pull of seny rauxa.

A viable retail model breathes shoppers

Sunday 6 February '11

Organised grocery retails in India are not driven by traditional social and shopping habits.

Disrupt IT for client biz-tech solutions

Sunday 30 January '11

Natural spring water is a gift of nature; anybody can bring a container and collect water.

BUG mania
Sunday 23 January '11

In those days, romantically approaching a young girl was taboo.

Change your car ever so often?

Sunday 16 January '11

The automobile is an adults ultimate aspirational toy.

Lessons for Indian IT in the world of cloud

Sunday 16 January '11

Indian IT could be in big trouble if it doesnt sit up and prepare to take the plunge into the new computing paradigm, writes Shombit Sengupta

Whos influencing your shopping?

Sunday 9 January '11

Those of us born before 1980, saw our fathers, sometimes mothers, doing the familys shopping.

One-world New Year brainwash

Sunday 2 January '11

To Christianitys credit, their globalisation of New Year is the clear winner.

Jingle bells dil ki doya

Sunday 26 December '10

Christmas puja is what the Santa Claus cap is for, explain beggars-turned-salespersons at traffic jams.

The business of human odour

Sunday 19 December '10

Fortunately, the human body emits numerous smells considered unacceptable in civilised society.

The importance of soft skills in retail

Sunday 12 December '10

Within five minutes, 30 saris were swiftly unfolded and draped extravagantly over outstretched arms.

Corporate lessons from a cart seller

Sunday 5 December '10

Roadside fruit sellers have an inherent sense of exposing perceptible selling differentiation (PSD).

How democracy plays out in Bengal

Sunday 28 November '10

Today, a big sardine blocked the entry of the harbour, thats why the yachts could not go out to sea.

Bengali politicians in Torja theatrics

Sunday 21 November '10

About Torja song: Bengali politicians are highly coherent with Bengali culture.

A cowboy triggers big business

Sunday 14 November '10

He swaggered in on Air Force One, keeping a watchful eye on the herds in the wide open ranges.

Soft skills, ITs bottomline booster

Sunday 7 November '10

Driving $60 billion of the arguable $800+ billion global IT business, India with 2 million IT professionals has flourished in the demand-led market.

Applying emotional surplus

Sunday 31 October '10

A repeatedly admired subject in society can be measured in the Emotional Surplus frame as Id explained.

Genesis of emotional surplus in 1993

Sunday 24 October '10

Through the 1970s in Europe, I observed several new brands take birth and just as fast disappear into market oblivion.

Middle management drives Japan

Sunday 17 October '10

The extreme politeness of the Japanese can bowl you over.

Shadow behind the opulence

Sunday 10 October '10

Cherry blossoms and high technology, Mount Fuji and dazzling neon lights are all iconic images of Japan, the worlds second largest economy.

Visual art to transform engineering products

Sunday 3 October '10

Theres a difference between aesthetics and visual art.

Consistency, from Picasso to Shakira

Sunday 26 September '10

This is my 52nd column in this publication; a year has passed! When I was first asked to write in this newspaper.

Global consumerism trauma

Sunday 19 September '10

Why do brands fail to engage the below-30 Digital Zap generation?

Disruption and convergence in 21st century

Sunday 12 September '10

Are we ready for the new departure that the 21st centurys digital era is bringing to human society?

Visual art transforms fabrics to fashion

Sunday 5 September '10

How can you create an apparel brand that commands premium price and instills pride of ownership in a customer so she/he returns to it?

Unlearning to learn
Sunday 29 August '10

From my struggling artist and then NRI phases, I entered the intellectual blah blah period working for global companies.

Adventures of an NRI
Sunday 22 August '10

Flying in from Paris to New Delhi airport in the wee hours of a January morning in 1998, I was greeted by a chauffeur waiting to drive me to my destination on the outskirts of Lucknow....

Artist, but at what price?

Sunday 15 August '10

Your article seems to reflect three stages of your life, wrote a reader of my last column, Culture Connect Marketing.

Culture connect marketing

Sunday 8 August '10

Marketing practices in India generally try to superimpose experiences from Western books.

Fractured technical skill set

Sunday 1 August '10

Idea generation supported by advanced technical skill set creates differentiation excellence for a product or service....

Art magnifies imagination

Sunday 25 July '10

History has documented different eras that have taken business forward. Technology advancement in the 19th century established the mechanical age, the 20th century belonged to electronic technology......

Breaking through musically

Sunday 18 July '10

Music is an emotion and passion that people cannot do without. A recent study by global market research firm Synovate with 8,000 adults, ages 18+, across 13 countries....

The Zap connect to profits

Sunday 11 July '10

Last December Id written about how Indias three generations: the Retro and Compromise generations seem to have connived with this countrys peculiar socio-eco-political circumstances to create Zap86...

Leading the value-led market

Sunday 4 July '10

Business across the world operates in the paradigm of either catering to demand or leading the market with value...

Is history dead?
Sunday 27 June '10

Nobody seems to appreciate history as a valuable asset in India...

Marketing as manipulation
Sunday 20 June '10

Europe does not consider marketing to be an economic strength that serves organisations and societies....

Football can turn around fortunes

Sunday 13 June '10

The first time I watched the World Cup on TV was in 1974, a few months after arriving in Paris....

Prison as irresistible tourist attraction

Sunday 6 June '10

The symbol of Americas dark side is Alcatraz. But this former military prison and dreaded high-security federal penitentiary in California for 104 years also demonstrates the ultimate success of mark...

Crime as cultural phenomenon

Sunday 30 May '10

Its a country where everybody is allowed to have a gun. Would you say danger lurks at every corner in the US so that a gun becomes a necessity?....

Times Square circus and crime

Sunday 23 May '10

Lets watch a Broadway show called Times Square circus and crime....

Big Apple to Steves Apple

Sunday 16 May '10

Adopting feminine characteristics in business

Sunday 9 May '10

Women decide on, influence or make most purchases. Hidden behind their logical mind are delicate, subtle and unstated desires that are factored into their choice.

The jagged edge of version culture

Sunday 2 May '10

People enjoy the rapid change that improved technology brings, and benefit from it. But quick, unexpected changes also create hidden, psychological disappointment....

Discomfort brings innovation

Sunday 25 April '10

Social mores dictate consumerism. An organisation not relating to social trends becomes laidback; consequently, business can shrink....

Six curse sutras

Sunday 18 April '10

Nothing can stop you from cursing, its the only pleasure in life that doesnt cost money....

China scares, India inspires

Sunday 11 April '10

The Western mind feels totally threatened by China. They think of China as a terror that will eat them up.

Bringing the world closer

Sunday 4 April '10

The day after the iPad was launched, I was working with my small 4x9-inch laptop computer while having dinner at a Bangalore restaurant....

Intangibles extend every human moment

Sunday 28 March '10

Whenever I speak of intangibles having unlimited value, Im often met with silence in India.....

Gender bender

Sunday 21 March '10

Woman is the nigger of the world, said Yoko Ono in 1969. Her husband, my singing idol John Lennon, embraced the words in a contentious song in 1972....

To fight poverty, fight the acceptance of it

Sunday 14 March '10

Karl Marx wrote, Religion is the opium of the masses. My personal experience from being born into a poor family is that acceptance of poverty is also a sort of opium in our highly tolerant Indian cu...

The creativity of CEOs

Sunday 7 March '10

Art has been a human right before civilisation started. The earliest cave painters at Lascaux, France, dating back 30,000 years, drew animals....

How incredible is India?

Sunday 28 February '10

Along with a global insurance client chairman, a Scotsman operating from Japan, I visited homes of consumers who earn Rs 5,000 per month in different states in India and we micro-detailed their though...

The perils of reality TV

Sunday 21 February '10

On a reality show, when a child or an earnest youngster is criticised for his or her imperfect performance, telespectators find vicarious fun there, although most do not admit it.

Pesticides and test tube babies

Sunday 14 February '10

I love to trickle down the crevasse of our social fibre, away from software emperors PowerPoint and Excel sheet, or cyber gods demanding cut, paste, save before loads of hard work disappears forever i...

Why Bengal lags behind

Sunday 7 February '10

Who would have believed that one of Indias least industrialised states today, West Bengal, was the ignition of the late... Shombit SenguptaThe Indian Express Group

Shombit SenguptaSurrealism for differentiation

Sunday 31 January '10

Last week, my article, Fact, fiction or fantasy, evoked the following response from a reader: The man belongs in a madhouse....

Fact, fiction or fantasy?

Sunday 24 January '10

In a small village on the foothills of the Pyrenees was born the second son of a strict, bourgeois notary.

A design for Indian roads

Sunday 17 January '10

The green hype

Sunday 10 January '10

Making the world go fast has resulted in todays catastrophic environmental situation....

Does marketing exist?

Sunday 3 January '10

In the 60 years after World War II, consumerism started with marketing, the organised selling of mass scale products....

Think democracy, act monopoly

Sunday 27 December '09

Sustainability depends on family and kinshipboth in Bollywood and Indian politics. Legacies are handed down from generation to generation....

Trauma in activation
Sunday 20 December '09

The buzz: India has high growth potential. Question: How to unleash it? Answer: We need large numbers of skilled working class people who are sensitive craftsman, almost like connoisseurs....

Indias future trends

Sunday 13 December '09

Since 2001, Ive started writing a white paper on Indias Zap86 generation. As time goes by, the trends that they are setting are becoming more evident.

Rootless polictics
Sunday 6 December '09

Indias Constitution has been downloaded from those of nine countriesBritain, US, Ireland, France, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Japan and Weimar, plus the UN Human Rights Declaration....

Emotions of the other woman

Sunday 29 November '09

For men, a woman is an essential object of lust. Women engage in sex without love to overcome monotony, out of monetary greed or the poor ones, for livelihood purposes....

Hazy Subtlety
Sunday 22 November '09

Subtlety resides in the subliminal private garden of every person. Subtlety introduces an element of elevation into society, it contributes to a civilisations refinement....

Foggy aesthetics
Sunday 15 November '09

To look alike is a major crisis, especially when people have money. For industry, differentiation in deliverables is essential to increase net worth....

Chinks in hygiene and civic responsibility

Sunday 8 November '09

About 2.5 billion people in the world have no access to safe sanitation, and half of South Asia suffers the indignity of open defecation....

A future without women

Sunday 18 October '09

Europeans often ask me about female foeticide in India, but Ive always considered it Western exaggeration drawn from an incidental case or two.

A haphazard billion
Sunday 1 November '09

Ive often visited India, accompanying CEOs of Western clients who want to understand the Indian market climate.

A closed environment stifles entrepreneurship

Sunday 25 October '09

Society at large is experiencing a contradiction between open and closed environments at the individual and industry levels....

All you need is ELA balance

Sunday 11 October '09

Travelling with MindTrees gardener Subroto Bagchi the other day, he reminded me of a tea-break tte--tte 12 years ago, when we had met in Bangalore....

Romancing the unpredictable

Sunday 4 October '09

For foreign tourists, theres exotic charm in India being unpredictable in multiple senses...