A few weeks ago, Namma Yatri, a Bengaluru born, driver to driver taxi-hailing app with no middle men and Corner House, Bengaluru’s iconic ice cream since 1982 collaborated to make a film, touching an unmistakable chord with Bengalureans. You can see the film here.
Can you think of three ways in which the world of business has gotten better in the last 15 years? I am sure you can name 3 things that have changed, but the added filter of ‘better’ opens this up for debate.
The young force is not as afraid of losing their jobs or forming a questionable CV due to frequent job jumps. Is this for the better or worse, is open to debate. Better for human rights. Worse for business? Better for work-life balance and mental health. Not good for profits? Or is it actually better for business and profit to have employers worrying about forming a bad reputation of high attrition rates?
You are wondering what this line of questioning has with the brand collabs? Allow me. In a country where the population mindset is getting younger by the day, it is good for business to be ‘young work-force favouring’ – for a nuanced understanding of customer mindsets. Many companies are scrambling to please the Gen Z customer set, but impose old school systems on their Gen Z employees. When we run our company as a gen Z favouring company, we get relevant, meaningful content – which by the way, is no longer the sole prerogative of a communications agency. There too, we are collaborative today.
Art and creativity have become more inclusive and fertile than ever before. In olden times, one required tools, skills and time to be able to afford a creative lifestyle or career. Something as ubiquitous today, as photography, for instance, was known as a millionaire’s hobby when I was a kid. When it comes to video making, it took one Dada Saheb Phalke to risk all his belongings and much much more to succeed in bringing moving pictures to India. It would be foolish to think no one else had his talent or ideas. But, his passion that bordered on insanity was perhaps unique to him. From a world that relied on sacrifice, borderline insanity, grit and resilience to achieve something, we have moved to a world where it takes far less, to put it mildly. This change is not too good for the ego, arrogance and temper that great achievers were licensed with, in olden times. But, it is good for art and creativity. Because it allows for more experimentation, more platforms, wider audience and cross pollination of ideas. It allows for great minds to come together. This is also good for business. How? You ask. Allow me.
Today it is possible for anyone to start a business without necessarily needing to raise a huge capital. You can make it exist first at a low cost and keep improving it along the way and pump in more money as it comes. As long as we keep the intent to serve higher than the intent to make millions, it is possible. This is good for people. This is good for employment. But, for good old giant brands that run the world of business on their own terms – it all depends on how they approach matters and their young employees.
People are not afraid of one another as they were before in the context of ideas and business.. People with the same skill sets don’t’ compete. They collaborate. Brands are following suit. Today, brands need to have a mind. That means they need to represent something beyond the product they sell or service they provide – an ideology, a cause that connects them with their customers. When brands have a mind – it is easy to find like-minded brands to collaborate with – like Namma Yatri, Bangalore and Corner House. To me, this feels like a wonderful change.
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