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How AAP redefined electoral campaigning

They came, They saw, They conquered

Much has been said & written about the fantastic performance by AAP(Aam Aadmi party) in the recent Delhi elections & how it caught the imagination of entire nation & not just Delhi.
How they were able to achieve this? What can we learn from them?
Many are comparing AAP to a nimble startup which were brushed aside by large establishments until they were proven wrong. And boy wrong were they.

Here are couple of points that i think we can learn from AAP.

1. Understand your customer/ Partner with them - Democracy is Of the people, By the people & For the people. AAP really understood this. By being very close to people & really understanding their real issues AAP knew the pulse of the people of Delhi, their worries, their issues. No wonder when AAP leaders went out & made speeches they were able to really connect with people. All of us felt AAP knows our issues & what we want from a government. This video shows how Arvind Kejriwal frequented visited people's homes while his opponents choose to stay away. (http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/how-sheila-dikshit-lost-the-new-delhi-constituency/300826) . Think of it, how often you meet your customers. What concerns them, how your product fits into their lives.

2. Purpose - AAP political campaign was unlike any other. Where would you see people coming out of their homes & becoming volunteers & that too for no pay. Very often it has been said that democracy is a participatory function, we actually saw in this past elections with people  participating in the election process. I have heard too many stories of neighbours asking their neighbours to go & vote for AAP, students at metro stations volunteering after their college to talk about AAP. Why did they do that? Because AAP had a purpose. They projected a purpose to change Indian democracy, of giving a government of the people, by the people & for the people. People really connected with this purpose. They were able to convert people into believers. Believers of change, Believers of hope, Believers in a better future.
It was not a regular election for their believers. It was the only chance to change the system for the people yearning for change. AAP had a bigger goal, a bigger vision than just governance. Think of it, what does your company/brand stands for....for eg: is it just making biscuits or eliminating hunger?

3. Tool for Brand recognition & rise of Believers - I was in Delhi during the last week in the run up to Delhi elections. And where ever one went, one could see people wearing white Gandhi cap, Immediately one could recognise there is either a member from AAP or a believer. Children were wearing in metros, oldies were wearing it while doing morning walk, students were wearing in colleges. The cap had one simple message written on it - 'I am a common man'. People had a sense of pride. The cap was a brilliant tool for word of mouth marketing. It was a conversation starter between a believer & one who can
be converted. People took it on themselves to make others also believe & be part of a shared vision & purpose.

4. Reframe assumptions 'from Rule to Serve'- If you look at the common assumption towards political parties, its that they are big, corrupt & they are here to rule us. AAP turned this around on its head. AAP was nimble, they didn't had any corruption cases against them & the biggest difference in their strategy was that their objective was to Serve rather than Rule. Think of it, with change in words suddenly the whole mindset changes. One starts to think of how if i come to power , i will serve people & decides policies which are in the interest of people. With AAP here to SERVE rather than RULE they really picked the suitable candidates who will be able to achieve this purpose & voters connected with them.

5. Focus on Building a platform - Last but not the least, AAP successfully created a platform which a common man can be part of. Earlier political candidates were either rich or were dominant in their own region. Look at the candidates of AAP - Saurabh Bharadwaj (34) was a software engineer & comes from a middle class family, Rakhi Birla (26) was a journalist at a news channel and there are many like them. AAP has successfully set up a platform for the common man to participate in democracy. Democracy by the people, of the people & for the people.

Posted by FreeSpirit at 6:20 PM 


Anonymity could be treasured by some, uncalledfor by others.

How can we enable whistle blowers to remain anonymous after disclosures?
If you knew you will remain untraceable, would you report on behaviors, actions & deeds of others?
Will this step leads to curbing corruption !!!!

There is a Quote in Game of Thrones - There's a beast in every man & it stirs when you put a sword in his hands.

Imagine you will remain anonymous irrespective of your actions. Would you behave the way you do currently....how will your behavior & actions change.

How will our actions change once we have Google Glass.

Will Anonymity be a desired virtue in 21st century?

Will we be able to be Anonymous when desired.

Anonymity is amazing......

Posted by FreeSpirit at 11:45 AM 

We are Back !!!! Posted by FreeSpirit at 12:39 PM 

Global Service Jam Bangalore We are organizing Global Service Jam Bangalore...............woooohooooooooooooo

Join, Like, Share https://www.facebook.com/GlobalServiceJam2012.Bangalore
Twitter - @GSJ12_Bangalore
Global Site - http://www.globalservicejam.org/
Posted by FreeSpirit at 2:57 PM 

An App that is Changing Behavior for Safe Sex

The Sex Profile from ESTER on Vimeo.

Amazing Idea........how can we change similar behaviors towards Smoking, Drinking, Wearing seatbelts, Using low beam at night.

Posted by FreeSpirit at 7:19 PM Labels: design thinking, Interesting Stuff


I love thissssssssss

Love this talk.
I guess we should do more stuff similar projects here. Make people around you loosen up, laugh at themselves, meet each other, participate, have fun.
Being weird is good.  Is that spelling correct?

Posted by FreeSpirit at 12:45 AM 

Observing Spaces

We all shift from one space to the other during the entire day. By space i mean My room, My Bathroom, My breakfast table, My car, My office, My cabin, In the Atm, At the shop, In the elevator, At restaurant, At Canteen, In the bus, My Bedroom, At the Cafeteria, My study room,.........etc.
In each of these spaces we perform various tasks, interact with with various things,
...........how we interact changes, our behavior changes,  expectation changes, goals & needs changes.

Good starting point to understand what all spaces people shift during their day. What activities they perform, goals & what all interactions takes place.
For eg: Commuting daily to office in a driver driven car for 40-60 mins.......what interactions takes place there, what are the needs, goals.

Posted by FreeSpirit at 12:57 PM 

Thank You Steve

Sources : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHineBZTpNw
Posted by FreeSpirit at 5:17 PM Policies of the people, for the people & BY the people.
In a remarkable victory of Anna Hazare & millions of us there is one point which come across.
Its the participation of people in forming policies.........totally reversing the entire model.

May be in the future consumers will tell companies what to make instead of viceversa.
How would that happen? What Business model we will have?

Just some thoughts

Image source - msnbc.msn.com http://tinyurl.com/3gzenk5

Posted by FreeSpirit at 11:34 PM 

Searching for Meaning Why is that people who stay & serve at a Holy place like Golden Temple have found a meaning to what they are doing............found a couple of them with interesting stories on a recent visit to Golden Temple.
Met this guy over there.........a B.Tech who worked at a Top Indian IT firm...........left it & now stays over there...........said over here i have found meaning & peace.
I sometime wonder

How can Education & Work Environment provide Meaning to people?


Posted by FreeSpirit at 4:53 PM 

Upcoming Documentary on Design Thinking

Hey everybody
check out the trailer of Design & Thinking .....an upcoming documentary on Design Thinking.
Its still in the making & the unit is looking for donations to complete this project. Help them if you can..........http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1472557232/design-and-thinking-a-documentary

here's the trailer

Posted by FreeSpirit at 1:28 PM 


Standup comedians

Hey Everybody
Just rewatched Jaspal Bhatti's Flop Show (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flop_Show) ..........was watching Russel Peters the other day..........wow........comedians are amazing observers.....their great talent lies in picking up great insights of the society they are part of. Look at Russel Peters ..........how he picks up insights of different culture........after watching his show u think like wow man....we are like that.......
Too much to learn from these guys.........need to spend more time understanding how they notice behavior & pick up insights.
Was also wondering how can Comedy as a tool be used in organisations............ How can HR people in organisations use comedy to create an environment within organisation wherein an employee is Destressed, Feels Connected to each other & is more imaginative (enhanced creativity).

Too much to learn from these guys.


Posted by FreeSpirit at 11:26 PM 


Mhealth - Role & Opportunities in India

So here are some questions

- How can we extend the reach of our basic healthcare facilities? – Considering India has less than 7lakh functional hospital beds of which more than 40% are located in top 20 cities & we have less than 6.5 lakh qualified doctors.

- How can we detect & control the availability of adulterated medicines? - Considering we have high incidence of adulterated & expired medicines in the market estimated approx 20%

- How can people be empowered with information to stay healthy? – Considering a rise in Lifestyle diseases in urban cities (diabetes, depression, etc)

- Can being healthy be made sexy, aspirational & be incentivized?

- How to change behavior of people to be more health conscious? & above all
What role Mobile devices play in addressing all of the above

Barcamp is always a great place to gather & discuss ideas. Recently me & my friend Bhavya (check her blog - http://bhavyavoice.blogspot.com/) presented about Mhealth at Barcamp Bangalore.

We spoke on Mhealth - Role, Challenges & Opportunities in India

A lot is being said about Mhealth. It is being described as the next big thing after Mobile entertainment & Mobile Finance. So what exactly is Mhealth. Well, according to UN foundation Mhealth stands for Provision of health related services via mobile communications.
A lot is being done in the field of medicine.

Check out Daniel Kraft TEDx talk about upcoming Innovations in the field of healthcare. Includes lot of examples on how Mobile Devices are also being used.

As we searched around, we found a plethora of applications on the app store. However as we prepared our talk ....focused on Indian context, some questions remained –

Do Mobile Devices have a significant role to play in India & more importantly what role considering low awareness & attention being paid to health. Also low use of smartphones if we take the entire 750 million phones or so. Majority of people still have the basic mobile phones……so apps are out of question.

Some what are the possible roles that mobile devices can play in India in health domain:
Mobile devices can play the following roles in Indian context. Extend reach - Considering India has less than 7 lakh functional hospital beds of which more than 40% are located in top 20 cities & we have less than 6.5 lakh qualified doctors, mobile devices can be used extend reach of basic health related information.
Mobile devices can play two important roles to address a issue like this. First how to enable people to prevent diseases instead of fighting diseases. If people are able to prevent diseases then the burden of patients on the health infrastructure will be a lot lesser. Can SMS be a method .Can the devices be used to make people aware on how to stay healthy.
The second role could be to extend the reach of already available healthcare professionals & facilities. ……Imagine the role that mobile devices can play in helping Asha & Anganwadi workers to update their skills regularly & learn about how to treat… Can there be possibility to empower people in villages to have the knowledge of a doctor in the city …Can upcoming technologies like 3D be used to help in simulating the treatment process.
Can there be a new business opportunity for Mobile Service Networks to link a doctor & patient who are at different places.

Check & Control - How can every person purchasing a medicine know that he his not purchasing an adulterated medicine. What role mobile devices can play to address these issues. What kind of services are we talking about. Which technology can be used.

Detection – Can we detect epidemics early & restrict their spread. How can mobile devices play a role here.

Change Behavior – How to change behavior of people to being aware & knowledgeable about being healthy. Can being healthy be made inspirational & incentivized. Can people share how healthy they are. How to empower people with the knowledge of what is good health. Can metrics be made available for them to keep a track of how they are doing. Can we take some inspirations from gamefication trend & incentivize people.

I think although mobile devices can play a very important role, still I think we will face some issues like Authenticity of information being provided (Can we trust the information), Accountability on the information being shared (Who will be accountable – will mobile service providers be accountable for information they provide) & Affordability. Going ahead this area promises to offer a huge market & a lot of Business opportunities. However there has be a collaboration between Hospitals (for Authentic Information), Service Providers (for building the platform) & Government (for making it affordable).

I guess there is enough reasons to believe that Mobile devices can play an important role in addressing healthcare issues.

Check out the recent Coca Cola commercial reasons to believe – pretty cool


Statistics Sources – Business Standard - http://tinyurl.com/62jf52d
PWC - http://tinyurl.com/62klff3
mHealth for Development, UN Foundation - http://tinyurl.com/aptf7m
Coca Cola ad - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vKDOWAf5M8

Posted by FreeSpirit at 2:14 AM 


Future of Design & Design thinking

chk out this video of Tim Brown discussing Future of design & design thinking with Bruce Nussbaum. Interesting points there (particularly from 42 min).

video source : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D18Jyl-aWIY
Posted by FreeSpirit at 6:54 PM 


Airports for Frequent flyers

hey Everybody Recently got shifted to new city.
Also Recently saw the amazing Up in the Air movie.

While I was at the Airport, I wondered how would people who fly atleast 150 days or more in a year (in the movie the character played by George Clooney spend most of the year flying) would feel everytime they visit airports.
What is an Airport to them - a pit stop to relax & rewind or an unnecessary & tiring stopover? How can the experience of airport be defined by them.
Do they look forward to visit the same airport multiple times in a year?.........How can airports be designed to provide new experiences to frequent travelers visiting same airport multiple times in a year?
Do these guys value time & speed to leisure & experience?........
Can there be quick airports with entry into airport & boarding into plane in 15 min flat & with no shop/food courts - taking inspiration from low cost airlines model.

just some thoughts

picture source: http://tinyurl.com/34r2g8b
Posted by FreeSpirit at 4:47 PM