I'm the best! That's one line he is known by, said Shahrukh Khan at the launch of my latest book, Thorns to Competition, which I coauthored with my wife Rajita. It was supposed to be a normal book launch with Shahrukh Khan – the man I personally think is the most intelligent, educated, witty and charming superstar the country has. But it turned out to be something else. Not just did Shahrukh launch the book, he also spoke in detail about how he had applied every concept of the book in his life. And his speech became a journey of his life. It sure was special, more so since he is known to be shy and rarely to open up like this in public. I have experienced this special side of him at least a couple of times in the past as well during our events. This time, I felt I must write on it. It’s pure inspiration for one and all to know of this side of his life and it sure will help the masses know this iconic man and his amazing journey better. I thought of writing this piece more so because today morning, when I made a Facebook entry on how I thought Shahrukh was so intelligent, I was instantly barraged by messages asking me to write more on the same.

However, before I write more about what he spoke, let me admit that like a majority of people in this country, I am a huge fan of Shahrukh, and that I feel I have been extremely lucky (it’s my pure luck that I had the opportunity to know Shahrukh from relatively closer quarters, much before he became this iconic superstar, through a very dear common friend of ours, Sabiena) that in every event of IIPM which he has come to, he has spoken about something that people later insisted that they had never heard before. Yes, I know he feels quite relaxed here due to his past links, but I don't think that is what makes him share so much. I believe that when he comes to IIPM, he sees students looking up to him. And he knows he shouldn’t just be entertaining them. Rather, he should leave a message to make a difference to their lives. And the messages have mostly been very, very meaningful, honest and drawn straight from his life’s experiences, as expected out of a man of immense intelligence and education like him. Similarly, when he comes to a book launch, he sees a totally different class of very learned people sitting across the stage, and I believe he gets into a totally different world of ideas and philosophies just to live up to their expectations.

I believe his tremendous habit of reading is what makes him totally different from most others. I have always believed that you can't be a great leader if you aren't a great reader! In fact, I tell my friends – just like in the case of Mr. Amitabh Bachchan – reading Shahrukh's social media entries is a great lesson on how to look at various facets of life and express them through absolutely brilliantly words. Come to think of it, both Shahrukh and Mr. Bachchan are known for their education, extremely brilliant communication skills, their unique way of expressing themselves, and of course, above all else, both of them made it to the top through their sheer sincere hard work and perseverance despite not being traditional good-lookers!

In this book, Rajita and I used ‘T-H-O-R-N-S’ as an acronym for six competition beating strategies! They are: Target it right | Hit where it hurts | Obsess with it | Reinvent it | Nail it | Sell it |

And when Shahrukh was introduced as the star who has literally given thorns to his competition during his entire journey, he decided to speak on what each of these letters stood for in his life! Yes, this is how the Badshah of Bollywood has given thorns to his competition... Read on!

Coming to the first principle; in the book, we focussed on the need to identify and ‘T’arget one’s consumer segment right. For Shahrukh too, targeting it right has always been very important! However, while most stars in the industry will consider the audience whom they wish to please as their key target, Shahrukh’s target has been beyond all this. He said that when he came to this industry, people found him too thin... too dark... thought he spoke too fast, that his hair was like a bear – all over the place – so on, so forth... and questioned him on why he even wanted to be in the film industry. His response always used to be, “To make people smile!” They couldn’t relate to this answer. They insisted that people came to the film industry to make money, to get rich; and said that what Shahrukh was professing couldn’t be true. When they asked him why he wanted to be a movie star, he said, “I want to be a movie star for my late parents... I want to make movies so damned bloody big that my parents, somewhere up in heaven, can sit on some star and see my movies from there too, and say, ‘Hey, we can see his movies from here better than we can see the Great Wall of China... We can see his movies covering the face of this earth’...” And that has been his target. A target that no one can compete with. It’s his own set, standard of excellence. And that's why he feels that he can't be beaten, for he has never fought the battle that everyone else has been fighting. For him, the target needs to have an ideology, and only then, he believes, can one succeed!     Read More....

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SRK is great! Not just because he is such a star, but because he genuinely is the most amazing person and has such a logical and sound brain. And now the entire nation idolizes this man all the more because he has become a symbol of sheer courage as well! And I think all it required was someone like him to stand up coolly and say, “This is not right, I’ve done nothing wrong and I won’t apologise.” When he was saying this, one could almost see the schoolboy rebel in him – not ready to cow down to an illogical man trying to act as the school headmaster. I am writing this editorial immediately after coming back from a show on NDTV 24x7, which was on the topic, “Is Sena the real power in Mumbai?” I was one of the speakers. It was sad to see Uddhav Thackeray, who was another speaker in that show, sticking to a stance that cannot be defended by any sense of logic. When questioned on the show by the NDTV anchor on his tendentious comments against SRK, Uddhav’s reply was that one should ask the average man on the streets how many times had he (Uddhav) troubled him on similar issues. True, he hasn’t. Then why now? Uddhav’s answer was an illogical “everyone should do their own work rather than commenting on everything” – implying that SRK should keep acting instead of speaking on issues! What a joke! We live in a democracy – and look at what we are saying! That we don’t have the right to speak on subjects of national interest? Unbelievable! And then, there was Gul Panag too on the show, who, in a most apologetic manner, kept stammering that after all, Shiv Sena had the people’s mandate, so they should be respected; and that issuing these kinds of threats wasn’t fair on the Sena’s part. It’s unbelievable we don’t realise that in an illiterate democracy, many people get the so-called “people’s mandate” often; but that doesn’t automatically make them or their actions right!

And then, we had a few others on the show giving exactly similar diplomatic answers. It’s so sad that despite seeing that someone had taken a brave stance and decided to stand up to illogical hooliganism, no one was ready to speak forthrightly in his favour! What’s more amazing is that the entire Bollywood is standing like a mute spectator virtually. It’s sad... Very sad... They make us really feel as if the real power is with the Sena. But the truth is that it isn’t! The real power rests with the State and the intellectuals. Unfortunately, with the intellectuals abandoning their duty and most people more interested in protecting their personal interests, it all becomes an illusion.

Barring once, the Sena has never ever won the assembly elections in Mumbai; and never got more than a 25% mandate in the state! Despite that, we not only see the film fraternity – filled with security-less individuals – not coming forth, but also notice a similar shameful behaviour from the State. It’s time for the State to show its power. And with Rahul Gandhi showing a clear tilt against the Sena, let’s hope this will happen soon. However, what I want to say goes much beyond this.

I want to challenge the very concept of Bombay belonging to Marathi manoos – not just from the perspective of India being a democracy and the city belonging to everyone, but even from the perspective of history. Bombay, till 1960, combined Gujarat and Maharashtra till the two states were separated. What then came to be known as Bombay – that is, today’s Mumbai – was built literally by the Gujaratis and the Parsis, with the Marathi manoos playing a much lesser role. It symbolises the ‘city of the great dream’ – if we were to borrow this phrase from the Great American Dream – where people from everywhere came and chased their dreams. They made Bombay what it is today. Even today, fi ft y percent of people are non-Marathis who run this city – a city that is the backbone of the Indian industry. So even historically, this concept of Bombay being for the Marathi manoos, is incorrect. Of course, one doesn’t really need to care too much about history when the key question is about the democratic right of an Indian to live anywhere he wants and say anything he wants. It’s a shame that such an incident is actually happening... and there is still no guarantee that this will be stopped soon!     Read More....

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM makes business education truly global
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri (IIPM Dean) – ‘Every human being is a diamond’
Arindam Chaudhuri – Everything is not in our hands
Planman Technologies – IT Solutions at your finger tips
Planman Consulting
Arindam Chaudhuri's Portfolio - he is at his candid best by Society Magazine

IIPM ranked No 1 B-School in India
domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
IIPM: Management Education India
Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri's Website

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