Shobhaa by Shobhaa Dé

Author:Shobhaa Dé
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hay House
Published: 2014-01-29T16:00:00+00:00

48

THE INVALUABLES

People change. Values don’t.

‘Value’ is such a loaded five-letter word. Difficult to define, difficult to compute. Yet, this much we do know: certain ‘values’ are universal … eternal. Those are the ones that cut across cultures and centuries and cannot be challenged – truth, loyalty, goodness, honour. When it comes to compiling a list of ‘India’s Most Valuable’, it is virtually impossible to draw it up in an all-inclusive fashion.

It is all about branding. Isn’t everything these days? Companies are brands, products are brands, shockingly enough, even people are brands. Perfectly sensible marketing professionals speak earnestly about Ratan Tata’s personal brand equity and I wonder if that makes him squirm. Or is he realistic enough to see it from a business leader’s perspective: personal brand equity-value addition to the company’s stock. True enough in his case. Just like one cannot separate Bill Gates from Microsoft, Ratan is TATA. And TATA is him.

It wasn’t always this way in India. Ratan Tata is in a unique position given the Tata legacy. But there are countless other self-styled tycoons who believe business credibility is but a click away. Such ‘personalities’ walk around flaunting price tags, labels … brazenly boasting about their net worth … buying their way into and out of situations. Even a decade ago, such crass conduct would have been frowned upon, even despised. But in today’s far more upfront age of aggressive self-promotion, if a famous person does not cash in on individual equity, he/she is considered dumb … out of it. Media, of course, has played a key role in promoting personality cults.

In this context, those making the short list for the country’s ‘Most Valuable People’, are the ones with the highest profile. People who have impacted one billion lives directly or indirectly during the past one year. The same people watched by an awestruck nation giving nightly gyaan on television channels, those whose mug shots peddle products ranging from cameras to condoms, those who bring glory to India in the sports arena and most significantly, those who influence policy, those who entertain the masses via music, cinema, television. So long as the average Indian can put a face to the name, the fame game is on. Often, the actual achievements of the person being enthusiastically applauded by the masses is unknown even to those fans clapping away. But that’s a matter of detail … nobody minds.

We love our icons. We worship our heroes. We adore success.

It has often been said that the biggest marketing guru India produced remains Mahatma Gandhi. The man and his message are both alive and well a little more than six decades on. Gandhi gave Indians their spine back. His ‘product’ was independence. His ‘by-product’ – self-respect. We have been patiently waiting for the New Mahatma to rescue us in the 21st century. We may have to wait much longer. But, why despair? There are several ‘amazing minds’ in our midst who influence our lives on a daily basis. These are towering individuals … well, most of them.

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