Explorer of Experiences

The bustling Lagos Market For too long, we’ve embraced the standards set by the West as that of excellence, and strive to achieve them. We may be forgetting that professionals in the West operate on the bedrock of mature economies with the benefit of structure and resources. For those of us operating in emerging markets where time is money and creativity the need of the hour, perhaps we will go further if we replace our ‘appetite for the acclaimed’ with ‘curiosity for the unknown’. Our creative process must become more inclusive if we are to create work that sets us apart rather than one that elicits a 'seen before' response. And so, I recommend shifting our gaze away from the same sources of inspiration in the West towards unlikely sources in West Africa to stir us up.  Countries like Ghana and Nigeria have served as incubators for creatives that thrive with meager resources. From there, underdogs have emerged and broken onto the world stage  despite a severe lack of systemi...

Take a look at this Instagram post. A smiling Priyanka Chopra is photographed in her home kitchen preparing a drink with a can of Bon & Viv Spiked Seltzer . It's made very clear it's a paid partnership thanks to the social media platform allowing influencers to disclose they're publishing sponsored content. With the actress's ginormous 54.2 million following, this particular post received 921k likes and 3.9k comments. That's a 1.69% engagement rate based on this commonly used formula >>  Engagement Rate = (Likes + Comments) / Followers x 100. Now, that's not surprising for a celebrity with a huge following. There are many articles indicating that people with a mega following greater than a million can see engagement rates between 0.7% - 1.7%.  But scroll through the comments (as far as your patience lets you browse through the thousands of comments), and you will notice that most of the comments (if not all) are random, with fans expressing the...

Are you regretting everything you took for granted? All the hurtful things you said but never lamented... And the those things you wanted but didn't need, and hoarded Clothes, shoes and makeup, now left unattended Are you regretting all the dreams you never pursued No time for passion projects, as work ensued And all the things you thought had your soul deeply bruised Doesn't matter no more, everyone mentally doused Are you regretting not visiting the places on your bucket list With physical distancing, this sees like an endless tryst Isolating, flattening the curve, sanitisation - you get the gist Reminiscing, your mind wanders to people you miss Are you regretting that time spent living in the past Such wonderful moments, you know they never last Learn to cherish even this difficult today, time's flying by fast A Norweigian proverb goes 'Either it'll go well or it will pass'

Living in excess was one of the markers of our lifestyles pre-COVID. But when I meet you on the other side of this pandemic, which of these excesses are you going to ditch?  Excessive pollution Excessive disruption Excessive procrastination Excessive depression Excessive capitalism Excessive work Excessive consumerism Excessive hurt Excessive buying Excessive drinking Excessive usage Excessive wastage Excessive whining Excessive blame Excessive sighing Excessive shame Excessive seriousness Excessive nonchalance Excessive carelessness Excessive imbalance Excessive ignorance Excessive passiveness Excessive arrogance Excessive recklessness Excessive self-doubt Excessive cynicism  Excessive fall-outs Excessive optimism Excessive indulgence Excessive air miles Excessive absence Excessive stockpiles Excessive apathy Excessive fallacy Excessive selfishness Excessive hopelessness

Between April 1 and May 20, I co-organized 11 webinars for Michael Page Middle East and Africa, as part of our engagement strategy with our key stakeholders during COVID-19. That's a handsome number considering the time-frame. I put together our first webinar within a two week period, and thereafter, I was churning out 1-2 webinars on an average per week. But until mid March, I was a complete webinar novice, not privy to the power of the medium and also clueless about the logistics involved in hosting one. But it was evident very early on that with companies switching to remote work, webinars were going to be a powerful marketing vehicle. So, I began my research and very quickly learnt the basics of curating webinars, including reaching out to my network for help. Hosting my first webinar was quite nerve-wracking: Can the audience here the speaker? Can they see the presenter's screen? Why are speakers facing dial-in issues? And so on. But there's no better teacher tha...

Not just brands, but employees too should be mindful of how they communicate in times of a global crisis Posting mindfully in times of a global crisis The onus is on each of us, not just personally, but professionally too, to exercise sensitivity while posting on social media in a time when businesses and individuals globally are experiencing the wrath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Not just brands, but employees’ own social media platforms are having increasing impact and reach. Now more than ever, consumers are closely watching how brands are communicating to their consumers, clients and vendors across various platforms. Thus, as employees and advocates of the brands we work for, the microscope is on us as well. After all, it does not take time for an inappropriate personal post to go, for the lack of a better word, viral.   How we engage with the community online and offline during this unprecedented situation will be extremely critical. Our social media behavior now...