Flaunt your Assets

“Nothing has happened until it has been recorded”— Virginia Woolf.


One of the most common constraints that I face while giving coverage

about our solution providers and partners is that some good success

stories are getting left out. In fact, most of the criticism that we

get are about what we should have done, rather than what we have done.

And it is very often from the guys who have directly or indirectly

worked on those projects that have got left out-the SPs, partners and

so on. The dichotomy though is unlike vendors who are proactive (and

sometimes launch aggressive PR campaigns) to get these case studies

covered, the solution providers are reticent, not sure or downright

indifferent. But then again they cry that their successes are not

getting adequately covered. And let me admit at the fi rst count, very

often a lot of those claims are fairly valid. There are many good

stories we often miss out. But having said that, I would like  to

quickly add thatit is despite our best efforts to get as many deserving

stories as possible. The reason some get left out is because unlike in

the corporate sector, in the  channels, there is no organized

machinery  working out full time to ensure media coverage, or even

to


respond to media queries. Very often,  missing out good stories by

us (or by any media) is because of lack of basic information.





Of course, as journalists, it is our job to get to those information.

But I must take this opportunity to make  a strong point: it is

also the job of those who put a lot of efforts to make those projects

work, especially the solution providers and their marketing people

involved in the project. To many Indians, this would sound like 

the anti-thesis of what they have often believed: if you do good work,

you do not need to talk about it. That is a mindset we need to

challenge. Karma defi nitely does


not work the ancient Indian way anymore. Why was Gandhiji going from

place to place speaking to as many Indians as possible? We have an

answer there. Without people's active participation, the freedom

struggle would have remained just that: a struggle for ever. Media is

an important vehicle. But I am not becoming too pompous pretending that

it is the only vehicle. The stakeholders in the success of solution

providers are many: SMBs, even smaller partners down the line and yes

even the vendors...The better they know about your work, the better is

the possibility of overall success. A project's success is not just

about how smoothly and how effi ciently did the rollout happen. Not

even, for that matter, how many  people have used it in the fi rst

few months. Today is the day of marketing yourself...otherwise, however

good may be your work, you would stand nowhere...If you have the right

assets, fl aunt it....only then you will make them attractive to the

right suitors.