SMART Goals

 Hi Readers!!

Hope you all are safe and healthy. Today I would like to talk about Goals. Everyone has some kind of goal in their mind and they try to achieve their goals by taking small steps that they feel, will lead towards achieving goals. So, exactly what is Goal? In the simplest manner, it is your desire or a position or state that you wish to reach. For a school going kid, a goal may be to complete his homework before the end of the day whereas, for working professionals, a goal may be to get a promotion. 

How many of you have set goals in your life and were hardly able to achieve it? I guess everyone has faced such kind of failure at least once in their life. In this blog, I am going to talk about SMART Goals and how we can use them to achieve our objectives.

So, what does SMART Means?

It is an acronym that can guide you to achieve goal settings.

To make sure your goals are clear and reachable, each one should be:

• Specific (simple, sensible, significant).
• Measurable (meaningful, motivating).
• Achievable (agreed, attainable).
• Relevant (reasonable, realistic, and resourced, results-based).
• Time-bound (time-based, time-limited, time/cost limited, timely, time-sensitive).

The definition of the SMART acronym may need updating to reflect the importance of efficacy and feedback. However, some authors have expanded it to include extra focus areas; SMARTER, for example, includes Evaluated and Reviewed.

 

SMART is an effective tool that provides the clarity, focus, and motivation you need to achieve your goals. It can also improve your ability to reach them by encouraging you to define your objectives and set a completion date. SMART goals are also easy to use by anyone, anywhere, without the need for specialist tools or training.

Various interpretations of SMART have meant that it can lose its effectiveness or be misunderstood. Some people believe that SMART doesn't work well for long-term goals because it lacks flexibility, while others suggest that it might stifle creativity.

So are you ready for setting SMART or should I say SMARTER Goals?

P.S- SMART goals were discussed in our Business Communication class where Prof. T.Prasad gave invaluable advice that we should always aim higher than average & dream big.

For further updates stay tuned!! 

 

Integrating MECE principle with Business Communication

Hi readers !!

Today I would like to share with you my learnings from Business Communication class. The class started with reciting Shanti mantra by none other than our Professor T. Prasad who is famously known as Mandi sir. 

Sanskrit transcript:
ॐ सह नाववतु। सह नौ भुनक्तु। सह वीर्यं करवावहै।
तेजस्वि नावधीतमस्तु मा विद्विषावहै। ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः॥

English translation:
Om, may we all be protected, may we all be nourished, may we work together with great energy, May our intellect be sharpened (may our study be effective), let there be no animosity amongst us. Om, peace, peace, peace.

We discussed the importance of writing blogs. Also, sir gave us a few tips on how to make posters & videos for personal branding. He also introduced the concept of Series model of connecting people. One of the important take away from this session was understanding of MECE principle and how to integrate its concept with communication.

So, what exactly is the MECE principle?

Lets’ first understand what the principle is and how we can use it to integrate it with communication.

The MECE principle, pronounced "ME-see", is a grouping principle for separating a set of items into subsets that are mutually exclusive (ME) and collectively exhaustive (CE). It was developed in the late 1960s by Barbara Minto at Mckinsey & company and underlies her Minto Pyramid Principle, and is based on ideas going back as far as Aristotle.

The MECE principle is useful in the business mapping process wherein the optimum arrangement of information is exhaustive and does not double count at any level of the hierarchy. Examples of MECE arrangements include categorizing people by the year of birth (assuming all years are known). A non-MECE example would be categorization by nationality because nationalities are neither mutually exclusive (some people have dual nationality) nor collectively exhaustive (some people have none).

So in communication, whenever you present your ideas or thoughts on any topics you should try to inculcate the MECE principle so as to have a flawless flow of communication.

Thanks for reading!

For more updates on Business Communication,

Stay Tuned!!

Business Communication in terms of Consulting & Personal Branding

We always get to know something new and surprising in our business communication class at NITIE, and I would love to share today's lecture presented by Mr. Nikhil Kulkarni, Founder of Darwin Tech, who is none other than one of the renowned alumni from NITIE's rich alumni network. He quit his job in a highly sought after domain, consulting and started on the path of entrepreneurship.

He started by sharing the importance of communication in the world of business. Being a consultant himself, he gave a lot of insights into how things actually work in an organization where verbal communication alone is not enough. Nonverbal communication and Graphical visualization say a lot more than mere words. He shared his experience where he used to take 5+ hours to make report and his manager would edit it within very short period of time. From this, he learned that knowing shortcuts of MS Word, MS Powerpoint & MS Excel will make you do your work faster. 

One should also know when to use which software to effectively communicate your findings to others. For Example, one should use  MS Powerpoint presentation to convey new ideas visually, whereas for making financial reports like Budget sheet, one can make use of MS Excel.

He talked about MECE which means Mutually exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive, where there must not be redundancy and IDFL- Organizing our Idea, Data, Facts, and Logic. 

Use the above Pyramid principle to organize your ideas & supporting evidence as it reinforces the way the human mind sorts information into logical groups. 

Secondly, he discussed Personal Branding and why it is important to take it seriously. Few reasons he stated were

• To Excel in your career
• To Get things done Easily- as more people know you
• It builds credibility as a thought leader and expert.
• People know your authenticity and feels comfortable working with you.

In order to build your Personal Brand, you can use Blogs, YouTube Channel, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook.

Sounds interesting? why don't you try yourself! Go Brand yourself !! 

#PersonalBranding 

#HappyBranding 

Stay Tuned!!

 

Swadeshi Mandi Inauguration

 On 74th Independence day of India, NITIE Mumbai Inaugurated Swadeshi Mandi event virtually by inviting Shri Abhay Jere, CIO Ministry of Education GOI  and Ms. Apeksha, Founder Zyka Ka Tadka as special guests.

Shri Abhay Sir gave us a good message on communication that whatever we speak should make sense and should be coherent with what we want to convey. Everyone has Ideas, but it is important to communicate in a way so that that Idea can be implemented & monetized. I thank Abhay sir for taking out his valuable time to address us, the students of NITIE. 

After a brief speech by Shri Abhay sir, Ms. Apeksha who is the founder of Zyka Ka Tadka shared her experience starting from her days at NITIE ending at currently being an Entrepreneur. I loved the way she described her experience of Mandi Event where she had to stop the cars and convince people to buy her product. She also talked a bit about her work at P&G and how much she wants to be in India. She always had a back thought in her mind to start something of her own.

Zayka ka Tadka was an intuitive idea that was born when Ms. Apeksha's Mother's visited Ms. Apeksha's home. With the mother-daughter duo efforts, they have made the name of Zyka Ka Tadka among 5 Lakh plus people in 145 Countries. 

She started her business with just an INR 5000 phone set and Approx. INR 25000 investment in the website. She kept on insisting that everyone has idea and we can get ideas from our surroundings and can start our own business by leveraging digital technology.  

She is truly the source of inspiration and motivation for all the students of NITIE. 

I would like to thanks the MIG team and Prof. T Prasad for e- Inauguration of Swadeshi Mandi by inviting such awesome guests.

Stay Tuned!! 

MahaMandi2020 || NITIE - promoting vocal for local.

Hii readers!

On the occasion of 74th Independence Day of India, we NITIEzens are celebrating by promoting our local products, which is in the alignment with our Honourable Prime Minister, Narendra Modi's "ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT". We are going to make these products from Local to Global by being Vocal.

This is the great Initiative of Marketing Interest Group( MIG), NITIE, and our Prof. T. Prasad sir, famously known as #MandiSir. The theme for MahaMandi 2020 is SwadeshiMandi, where we need to select one local product from our home town and promote it. I would like to thank #MandiSir for his continuous guidance, support, and Mentorship for involving all of us in this event. 

I and Arohi bring you the spiciest and tastiest streetfood- Maharaja Sev Usad, which represents the amalgamation of heritage and taste of Vadodara, a cultural city of Gujarat. Sev Usad is a famous mouth-watering dish, which people have for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. On festive occasions, you will notice a long queue wherever it is being sold, may it be a roadside food stall or a restaurant! 

Sev Usad is a mixture of various sweets, spices, and tangy flavors which is made from peas, Indian spices, and garnished with Sev and onions.  It is complemented with Tari( spicy gravy), buns, and lemon juice. when it is served in the bowl garnished with Sev, Tari, and Butter, its something which you can't resist to have a taste of. Also its a Honeydew for the spicy food lovers. 

Tikha Khao Mast Ho Jao!

#MaharajaSevUsad

#Mahamandi

#Swadeshimandi

#NitieMumbai

Keep checking for Updates!!

P.S.This is the first time I am writing a Blog & that too on the 74th Independence Day of India. I feel like I got freedom from the fear of writing Blogs😜.