Back After the Diwali Break!!

Today, the team members were again back in action (though not fully) at Blue Caramel, with some absenteeism. Manish at Jodhpur was still in Didwana, Sujit was still in Udaipur and Mehul was still in Daman. All in all, the Blue Caramelers were still in a Holiday mood (28th Oct also being Bhai Dooj) after the festival of lights-Diwali, which was celebrated on 26th Oct.

On 26th, the D-iwali Day, Sanjay, Suheil, Prerna, Sujit, Himanshu, Shinod, myself and Srishti (a late appearance) gathered at the office and the Laxmi pooja was conducted with much reverence. In this, we were helped by Harish from Religare. Tulsi, who had gone home to Zawar and Niharika were notable absentees. Prior to the conducting of Pooja, Shinod and I went and got some Diwali gifts for all the Blue Caramel members which were then subsequently distributed at the office by Sujit, who was designated as the Chief Guest for the occasion. After the Laxmi pooja, everyone dispersed for home to celebrate the Festival of Diwali with their near and dear ones.

The Diwali Week!

The Review for the last week has been deferred by a week due to the fact that this week hosts the Festival of Light-Diwali and in this festive week, it was decided that everybody should have more of fun and lesser of work. So, this week having been designated as a Fun Week, nobody was entrusted upon with the additional charge of an Area Manager/Head for this week as well.

Last week saw some commendable performances with the Girls' Brigade of Prerna, Tulsi and Niharika putting in some good innovations and initiatives like the Interviews, for which they ventured out of their "Comfort Zones".  Sanjay was as solid as the previous week. Suheil's performance was way below par (getting down on account of Viral might have been a factor) and Mehul, the Head, inspite of some good efforts and innovations, could not lead the Team in the way that was desired, this after he got an extension for a second week.

But the final analysis and election of the AM/Head and the reward for the Best Performer of the week ending 22nd Oct will be held on Monday the 31st Oct11. The AM/Head would have an added responsibility then, as s/he will usher in the new month of November and November is a very important month, before "Maha-December" sets in!!!

T.E.A.M. Dream!

A team is usually assembled/made when there are some goals and missions to be achieved. This team, comprising of individuals of varied constituencies, aptitudes and skills, is then lead by a person of some charisma towards the accomplishment of the said goals and pursuance of further missions . For example, The Indian Cricket team, the Men in Blue, is a group of individuals with varied skills and aptitudes (bowlers, batsmen, all-rounders, wicketkeepers etal) ably lead by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Captain, which through common efforts accomplished the Goal of Winning the ODI World Cup and is now in pursuance of being number1 in all formats of the game.

So, a T.E.A.M. which could be expanded as Together Everyone Achieves More has to have:
1) a commonality of goals of its constituent members.
2) the members themselves should have a variety of skills, which they should continuously improve upon.
3) should be dreamers, but the dreams should have a deadline as well &
4) should be lead by an inspirational leader.

Blue Caramel which comprises of individuals with a variety of skills and which dreams of being the Best Comprehensive Travel/Event Solution Provider wishes that all the T.E.A.M. members can be inspirational leaders as well in future. Hence, the recognition programmes like AM/Head of the Week as well as the Performer of the Week are initiated.

Tomorrow is the end of another week! Lets see how Head-Udaipur, Mehul fares this week!
Will Niharika keep her tag of Best Performer???  Or would we have a new contender??
We will all have to wait for the review of tomorrow to know about these...
Till then Adios!!!!!!!!!

Nurturing of Blue Caramelers!

Everyone of us is born with some talent which is very unique to us. Everyone of us is a genius in some facet of life both personal as well as professional. Someone maybe a great communicator, someone a great orator, someone maybe a great financial mind and someone maybe a great negotiator. Someone maybe a genius artistically; someone maybe just a great friend and a great subordinate.

The AM/Head campaign that has been implemented in Udaipur is just that; an opportunity for every team member to showcase his/her talent in the various functions of management as well as the team management and inter-personal skills that each individual possesses.

This exercise has been undertaken to recognize and reward Genius within All Team Members because there is an old saying "Everyone is a Genius. But if you judge a Fish on its ability to climb a tree, it will live all its life believing, it is stupid" and at Blue Caramel, it is just this thing that we do not want to propagate and want every team member to learn and improve & show us their mettle. 

Some Hard Facts!

Today a lady, who is working in a 5 star hotel, had come for an interview! A scholarly lady, she had done her MA in English Litt and was also pursuing her Ph D. She had also done her MBA in Hospitality and now after working in a 5 star hotel was looking for a job change. When I asked her what she really wanted to do in her life, she gave me a blank face, the same look that a deer gives when caught in the headlight of a vehicle at night.

We all are actually like flowing water. We all try to follow the path of least resistance in life and most of us concentrate only on today, never thinking twice, that tomorrow too would be today, the next day. But by being like Flowing water, we flow as the water does; from a higher level to a lower level and but the time we realize that we have fallen so far down, we are already at the abyss and then usually it is too late to reinvent and re-energize ourselves.

Though it is not that easy, but we should never be afraid of trying to do things that are close to our hearts. Usually, pressure from parents, peers, friend, family and the society at large, influence many an important decisions in our lives, the consequences of which have to be suffered not by anybody else, but us.

Here at Blue Caramel, what is endeavored is that any member who starts working should have a clear picture of what she/he wants and what is expected out of her/him. Successful people is what is envisaged at Blue Caramel, but as the wise men have said " There is No Short Cut to Success".

Performer of the week ending 15th Oct2011!

Mehul was elected as the "Head"/AM for the week ending 15th Oct2011 by the members of Team-Udaipur. He had the overall responsibility of Team Blue Caramel Events, Team mydestination.com/rajasthan and Team matrix for the week. There were some commendable performances from the respective teams, but only Team Blue Caramel Events was able to achieve its mutually agreed upon targets. At the meeting of the members, the performance of this team consisting of Sanjay and Niharika was duly applauded and appreciated. It was also decided in the meeting that the Best Performer of the Week should be given a cash reward on a weekly basis. For an outstanding performance last week, the Best Performer of the Week award was given to NIHARIKA of  Team Blue Caramel by the Team Members!!! Kudos to her..

Mehul was given an extension as Head/AM as it was felt by the members that since it was just the first week of the new initiative and since his overall performance left a lot to be desired, he deserved an extension!
So, the race for the Best Performer is on at the Office of Blue Caramel in the city of lakes-Udaipur, lets see who grabs the coveted title.....

HR Policies!

Blue Caramel being a small company enjoys the freedom of having HR policies drafted after consulting with each and every member of the company. Since the members themselves are the framers of the policies, hence they take special care to see to it that these policies are implemented to the T.
New comers are made to understand the policies and their immediate seniors as well as their peers help them follow the Rules. So, you have a variety of innovative HR policies like- joining party which is mandatory for all newcomers after they get their first salary and "Sweet" Punishments, wherein a person  who comes late for office has to offer chocolates to all his/her co-workers in that Office.

Area Manager for the week is another innovative initiative that has started as a pilot project in Udaipur. The members themselves select one amongst them to be the Area Manager for the week. The elected "Head" then has the responsibility of all the 3 departments of Blue Caramel ie. mydestination.com, Matrix and Events and in conjunction with other team members has to see to it that mutually decided upon targets are fulfilled within the week.  Hence, a true form of democracy is envisaged for the Members of Blue Caramel. Hail Democracy!!

Aim for Organic Growth!!

In April2011, mydestinationinfo.com was rechristened as mydestination.com and myrajasthaninfo was renamed www.mydestination.com/rajasthan. Though this was a huge re-branding exercise, encompassing nearly 100 destinations, it proved to be quite successful as it gave us a better scope to leverage the mydestination.com brand

With the personnel on board and work of www.mydestination.com/rajasthan on an auto-mode, it was time to scan the environment for further growth prospects. In May2011, tie up with Matrix took place and Suheil was entrusted with the task of heading this new division. Similarly, the genesis of Blue Caramel Events took place in Aug2011 and Sanjay was recruited for it and Mehul was given responsibility for Udaipur Area for mydestination.com/rajasthan. In Sept2011, www. mydestination.com/mumbai was formally launched with Shinod relocating to Mumbai to spearhead its growth.

At the Back office end in Udaipur, Prerna was assigned Mumbai territory where she was to work in tandem with Shinod, Srishti was assigned Rajasthan territory where she was to provide help to Sujit, Manish and Mehul, with further help from Niharika, who was also to work as an Event Co-ordinator and assist Sanjay. Tulsi, continued to be responsible for the overall Admin and Write up content and quality.

Hence, a broad demarcation was done for smoothness in operation to further the Organic expansion of Blue Caramel which now had mydestination.com/rajasthan, mydestination.com/mumbai, Matrix and Blue Caramel Events under its wings.

Get Set Go!!

With the team on ground, action started. Jaipur was the first to come up with revenue followed by Udaipur. Some indirect revenues were generated in Jodhpur as well.

Raghuveer and Heena joined Jaipur, Niharika, Priya and Mehul in Udaipur and Mohit joined in Jodhpur. But as days went by, some found the going tough and fell by the wayside. But as the going gets tough, the Tough get Going and gradually people started loving their jobs or rather their own enterprise as Blue Caramel offered them flexibility of time, encouraged them to be innovative and provided them with a vibrant work environment which fostered Bonhomie.

The HQ, Udaipur was fast epitomizing "Unity in Diversity". Suheil, a Pathan, was quintessentially a good worker, Tulsi, a Nepali Rajput, was an efficient administrator, Niharika, a Rajput, was quite and a trier, Mehul, a Gujju, was a typical salesperson, gifted with good communication skills and Prerna & Srishti (2 Sindhis who joined us subsequently)  were 2 bodies and one soul, absolutely inseparable. Sanjay, a Menaria Brahmin, who joined our Events division, was a cool dude and seemed focused on what he was doing/aiming. Put a Bong, a Mallu and a Maheswari into this bunch and you had a heavy Blue Caramel concoction :)

Jaipur, Udaipur & Jodhpur

After setting up the Jaipur office, the next obvious destination was the city of Lakes, the Venice of the East, our hometown - Udaipur. After some deliberations, 5/6 Shyam Plaza, Hazareshwar Colony became our functional office, though the corporate office continued to be the registered office, Himanshu's shop 163 Bhatiyani Chohatta. The fully furnished office at Shyam Plaza was indeed a boon for us as we hardly had to invest anything on the infrastructure. Though it was and still is a stop gap office, it has been a harbinger of a better future for Blue Caramel. Manning of the office was again a relatively easy process as I was able to rope in an acquaintance from my days in Insurance, Suheil as a Business Manager and my Marketing Manager from my Education days, Prasun was able to refer an acquaintance of his, Ms Tulsi (a small eyed girl of Nepalese origin) , who was entrusted upon with the Office Admin & Recruitment as well as the write up content and quality. This was December 2010.

Next on the agenda was operations in Jodhpur. Here again, I fell back on my past and utilizing the time and energy I had spent in Jodhpur during my Soft Drink & Finance days, I was able to recruit Manish, who was once, though for a brief period, my room mate in Jodhpur as an Area Manager. He further roped in a friend of his Bharat as a Business Manager. The orientation of the Udaipur Team was done at Udaipur itself whereas the Jodhpur Team had its orientation at Jaipur.... With a Team on ground, the ball was set for rolling for the actual Launch of Blue Caramel on the whole and myrajasthaninfo.com specifically!!!!!

1st phase of the journey!

Oct28th 2010 was the day when I decided to take the plunge into an unchartered territory, a territory which was directed more by the heart than the head - an Entrepreneurial Journey.

 I took the early morning train to Jaipur, the inter city to Ajmer which was now extended to Jaipur, to start my journey as a Blue Carameler. Shinod, Himanshu and Sujit were already there at our new office cum residence at the 206, Golden Sunrise Apt, C-Scheme. Our first 2 recruits in Jaipur were also there, Priyanka and Rajni and so was a Scooty, whose constant break down was a reason enough for Rajni to leave soon afterwards. We were all very excited to embark on a business voyage into a new field, as partners of www.mydestinationinfo.com (as www.mydestination.com was known at that time). And work began on  www.myrajasthaninfo.com, our very first travel information site in India.

Gosh, the 1BHK flat was a very cozy office cum accommodation. The Hall was converted into an office, the Bedroom was our resting area and off course the Kitchen satiated our gastronomical demands, though more often than none, the items were outsourced from the canteen of the Rajdhani Hospital or the Doors Restaurant near Raj Mandir Cinema. The most precious area of 206 was the balcony adjoining the bedroom, which opened into a bungalow with ample gardens and trees on which you could find a variety of birds. These birds, infact, were our morning alarm clocks as their screeches, though deafening, were refreshing, as they gave you a feeling of being in the wilderness.

We spent most of our time in the Hall- Our Office, gathering information for the site, uploading it, scanning for photographs and again uploading it. This continued day in and day out, even when the 3 musketeers, Arunabh, Shinod & Himanshu returned back to Udaipur, till the site was officially launched on 24th November2010. The Journey had indeed begun!!!!