I want to bill like Simon Sinek. Not Infosys.

Yo!

When I joined Infosys in 1998 my salary more than doubled from my previous job at Ogilvy Advertising. Advertising?agencies quite simply didn't make the kind of money that IT services did. Clients paid more for the work done by Infosys than they did Ogilvy.

The way to increase profits is to either make the resources produce more without an increase in costs, or to make the resources produce items of more value. Recently, around the world, there has been a trend of CEOs wanting people to work longer and produce more. ?

Is AI not making people more productive?

AI should be helping the employees produce more within the same time. For example, using AI for route mapping should provide the most optimal usage of the driver's time. On the other?hand, once AI does this, anyone can match an expert driver's or fleet controller's productivity, which unleashes a new set of competitors. In Bangalore, now, I might consider Namma Yatri app or BluSmart over Uber. So AI is helping employees become productive, but also removing the premium for certain types of expertise.

I wonder if this is what is making corporate leaders around the world jittery? Do they want employees to work longer (which translates to a lower billing rate) to compensate for the loss in competitive?advantage to AI? ?

The Power of Why Simon Sinek

Designing business conferences is a form of experiential art. I love putting conferences together! Always have :) It's the energy of a group of humans united in thought and spirit.

A good conference leaves attendees with learnings and a boost of positivity. A big part of designing a business conference is choosing the speakers. And the pricing varies significantly! Celebrity sportspeople in India can command over Rs 50L ($50,000) for an hour's talk in person, while top American motivational speakers can charge double that amount for a one hour virtual talk! ?

Why so much?

So let's take the example of Simon Sinek. He used to work in Ogilvy too. Now he is a millionaire and bills what was probably his annual salary in a day. His claim to fame is "The Power of Why" - and he got his kick start through a TEDx talk. Yes, not even a "real" TED.). But. He has parlayed his idea into a unique position and is a fabulous speaker who has books, talks and a podcast. He can host a podcast with Trevor Noah - another eponymous brand - titled "Trevor Noah Makes My Brain Hurt" which has 600K views in a month. He has built a brand and is unique and cannot be easily replaced by anyone else. Unlike say an Infosys programmer who generates $55K worth of revenue per year for the company but is not unique and can often be substituted by another human or AI. Uh-oh. ?

The longer vs smarter logic

Elon Musk has been criticized as being too hands-on. Yet he is able to spend the entire day with Donald Trump. His businesses continue to fund his gazillionaire status. I'd say that he is able to work "smarter" where his businesses are concerned and longer where he is cementing his relationship with Mr Trump. Of course, noone is MAKING him do this, and AI isn't removing his job. And there is the crux - what happens if you compete with a bot that doesn't have to take any breaks?

Core vs Surround Branding

As humans we need to find ways to address this challenge - it is round the corner for many of us. One way is to lobby ?governments to protect the rights of humans. While that is definitely necessary, we also need to invest in our brand and see if we can find the escape velocity to be a Simon Sinek.

Can we be so good at something that we cannot be substituted?

Can we be so appealing that people pay a premium to have us do our thing?         

It doesn't have to be rocket science - I pay more for a Starbucks or Blue Tokai barista-made coffee than one from the automated coffee machine. AI is slower than I expected - I saw this piece?I wrote for a Clevertap webinar?6 years ago and realized not all of it has happened yet. So we may have the time to invest in our brands. Not to panic. Yet. Let me leave you with the choice of building a?core or surround brand?for yourself. In core, what you do is so different that noone can replicate it easily. In surround, your core offering is not necessarily unique, but the why, how, where of it can be. And once you've determined your branding elements, you need to let everyone know! ?

Content vs Bestseller

I have read a couple of Paulo Coelho books recently and discovered that though his books are philosophical, he too has parlayed his brand to make $500 million. Chetan Bhagat is apparently worth millions too. I confess that my source of research is ChatGPT. Where humans make the buying decision there is an element of the soul that is at play which distinguishes content from bestseller. It gives us an idea of how to proceed, how to be the "handcrafted" suit in the world of Shein.

I'm off to drink some custom coffee and then hand-make some food.

Mail me your branding dilemma and I might be able to send you some custom thoughts too :)

See you next week!

Best regards

Jessie?Paul

[email protected]

CEO, Paul Writer