It is generally important to be in touch with all your stakeholders, even if it demands feeding them some not-so-important updates at certain time intervals. Yesterday, I got a call from one of them and the poor fellow was totally confused about what is happening. So today's agenda began by paying him a visit and appeasing him by "offering" him a few intangibles which would eventually be beneficial to us too ;-) Synergy!
Another thing which is generally important and very very important when you are doing something on the scale of INDEX is efficiency. So whenever I need to make a visit to the city, I try and ensure that it is planned out and I can meet maximum people. Consequently, after making my first pit-stop at the proposed venue, I went and met some other potential sponsors - the usual ups and downs journey. Eg. We were "99%" sure this one guy would be in; but the 1% turned out to be more powerful, as his parent company decided a new strategy for their latest brand launch. Another likely guy who we approached (quite late in his defence :-p) couldn't go ahead due to time constraints, but he said was very nice and said sorry and all to me 3-4 times :-p . Really big deal in this context! Met a few new people too. It's challenging and fun though. And definitely a learning experience - since you directly interact with people who have been there, done that and are absolutely aware of all ground realities and ask surprisingly specific questions to understand what is in it for them.
For example, today I went to this computer dealer to ask him to put up a stall in our fair. But he nicely pointed out that his shop is already in a prime location in an area famous for these goods. When he already has the "PULL" factor working for him in his existing place, why would he want to move out elsewhere? Good point! And many such small snippets have come across while working for INDEX. Thing I may probably have never learnt otherwise. The whole thing would probably be a separate post though.
And then one meeting at night. Guess this is going to be a lot more common for the next few days.
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