A Storytelling Coach More details here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravishankar-iyer/
Welcome to the 99th edition of 'Story Rules on Saturday'. (excited about the upcoming #100!)
This week's recommendations are heavily influenced by Sajith Pai of Blume Ventures. He recently dropped his newsletter and it had a bunch of fabulous pieces. For instance the flagship article about the three (plus one) products every startup needs to build, which also give us the four stories that need to be told.
a. 'The Three (or More) Products Founders Have to Keep in Mind' by Sajith Pai
Sajith, arguably the foremost thinker and writer in the Indian startup ecosystem, is writing a book on the concept of Product-Market Fit (PMF). I'm sure it will be a must-read when it launches.
As preparation for the book, he is interviewing leaders on PMF and also penning his thoughts as posts - a great way to clarify one's own thinking, elicit comments from readers and strengthen one's arguments.
In this post (which is a part of his superb newsletter), he talks about the three kinds of products that founders need to build - apart from the core product that is targeted at customers/users:
To me, these are nothing but the four kinds of stories every leader needs to tell:
Sajith then elaborates about each of these products or narratives.
For instance, the investor product:
The 'content product' is interesting - Sajith says that founders should start building it along with the core user product and not later as an afterthought:
The fourth product: internal comms and culture is focused on perhaps the most challenging audience to retain - employees.
And then there is culture:
Call them products or narratives or stories - crafting and telling these are fundamental roles of leaders.
(Also, check out this superb article that Sajith references on the importance of narrative distillation by Kevin Kwok. I was chuckling at his hilarious visuals!)
a. Board Room conversations with Ireena Vittal by Sid Talwar (Lightbox Ventures)
This conversation was also recommended to me courtesy Sajith's newsletter (over-dependence much?) in which he shares extracts from several podcast conversations that he transcribes and reads.
Ireena Vittal (ex-McKinsey Partner and a senior Board advisor) is a highly respected leader in Indian boardrooms. Sajith Pai calls her "one of the well-kept secrets of the Indian business world."
In this conversation with Sid Talwar of Lightbox Ventures a VC firm, Ireena reflects on her storied career (across Nestle, Mckinsey), her focus on product quality, her take on the challenges of scaling up consumer product businesses in India, et al.
What I liked more than the actual conversation transcript was Sajith's Notion page in which he's summarised his key highlights from the episode.
Below are some portions that I found thought-provoking:
Ireena's advice to young professionals:
The importance of the owner investing in product quality:
Consumer product companies in India need to be 'schizophrenic':
The hollowing of the middle in Indian consumer products:
The questions of scale that founders grapple with:
I would highly recommend listening to this podcast, especially if you work in the consumer space in India or are part of the startup leadership team looking to scale up.
I need an answer to this!
Any guesses as to which way the column height will go in 2023?
Some hilarious copy on these ads by British Airways
For instance, take this one:
"Perhaps modern time travel is our ability to take a loan out from our future success to ensure we achieve it."
- Kevin Kwok
a. Only Murders in the Building (Hotstar)
Who would have guessed that a comic murder series headlined by a couple of 70+ year-old veteran actors and a 30-year old singer actress became the most streamed hit on Hulu...
This series is a testament to the power of writing and dialogues. There are no superstar actors, fancy locales, stunts or VFX. But the story is riveting, the dialogues hilarious and the chemistry crackling between the lead actors.
A parody of the true-crime podcasts, Only Murders in the Building is a highly recommended watch.
a. Pratibha's Birthday Party by Aiyyo Shraddha (3:54)
Mrs. Kulkarni is back and delightfully so! In this laugh-out-loud sketch, Shraddha parodies the children's birthday party (and musical instrument classes, among other tropes) in an upper-middle-class Maharashtrian household in Pune.
Her razor sharp writing, on-point expressions and that delightful Maharastrian accent - uff, what a talent.
That's it folks: my recommended reads, listens and views for the week.
Take care and stay safe.
Ravi
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A Storytelling Coach More details here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravishankar-iyer/
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