Vol 3 | Issue 3 | July 2016

Articulation is victory
There are many ways to say this, like ‘Begin with an end in mind’, or ‘Ambition without knowledge
is like a boat on dry land’. This applies to an idea you’re about to pitch, a point you’re about to make
or an interview you’re about to give. You need to know what you want to achieve out of it and you
need to appropriately communicate it.
At the beginning of 2015, I was clear that I needed a new challenge; something that was in the
consumer space; that built on my current skill set and more, and that gave me international exposure.
In that pursuit, I got a role with Vuclip, my current employer, where I’m working in international
markets. I now have done campaigns across Malaysia, Indonesia and UAE and all of that has been an
enriching experience. But if I hadn’t articulated to myself what I wanted, this experience would never
have happened.
Camp is what you make out of it
At the end of 2010, I was given a client Evernote, which was a US based productivity app. I was
apprehensive of what could I do to promote an app and being a good performer, why was my
employer giving me such an unknown brand to work with.
But with strategic communications and a great team, we managed to organically increase the
user base of the app from 20,000 in December 2010 to 5 million in September 2015. I also won
6 Indian and international industry awards for our work on the brand, such as Gold – Marketing
campaign of the year at the 2014 International Business Awards, Technology campaign of the year
award at 2014 PR Week Asia awards, Best use of social media for crowdsourcing at the 2013 PR Daily
Social Media awards, Gold Stevie at the 2013 International Business Awards and Best PR campaign in
the technology category at the 2013 Indian PR and Corporate Communications awards.
For any questions or comments, feel free to ping me on Twitter @KB_Ideabaker.
BOOK REVIEW
Rebooting India: Realizing a Billion Aspirations
Author: Nandan Nilekani and Viral Shah
Publisher: Penguin Books India, 2015
Rebooting India reconnoiters the faults in India’s road to effective governance
and imagines patching these problems with technology. An audacious premise
and prescription to this book is that, one hundred people contained in 10 startups
can append government and can essentially transform India. As a pioneering
example this book uses AADHAR, the world’s largest social identity program on
which Nilekani and Shah worked and created a startup with in the government.
Nandan Nilekani, who is called as “ the Bill Gates of Bangalore” the cofounder and former
CEO of Infosys along with Viral Shah, the co-inventor of the Julia programming language, and cofounder
of FourthLion Technologies , says that the book is a combination of things they have done
and the things they have extrapolated in future with similar approach. Beyond the potential of the
AADHAR card, the book also sketches how vital area of governance such as health, education,
the legal system can be transformed with the help of technology. The book also highlights 12
challenges where technology can make a difference and a bang of the buck for using technology.
It will also be a critical part for the effectiveness of GST, which has been put forward as the
next big thing in the country. Once accepted, its implementation will depend on how technology
is able to pilot the tie up of things so as to bring an ideal solution.
Rebooting India pictures a new governance paradigm shift, via access to a data network that
has every single Indian on it.
Reviewed By:- Komudi Arora, Class of 2018, IBS Gurgaon
20 SAMVAAD | Vol. 3 | Issue 3 | JULY 2016