I recently read a book “Before you quit your job” and found it very interesting. I would like to share one important takeaway from that book - The attributes that an entrepreneur/his team must possess for building a successful business.
For building a successful business model, the leader/his team must possess four key attributes personified. (Even if the leader doesn’t possess, he must chose his team in such a way that he has right representation of the attributes below)
To find a person who excels in all these fields is quite a challenge. A person who is more on the Creative side will break the rules and come up with innovations. A person with highly “Technical Thinking” will always like to have associations/dialogues around the subject of his/her interest. An Analytical thinker will evaluate every situation analytically. Finally, a people thinker possesses the key attribute for being a leader - Public relations.
Imagine a person with a high rating on “Creative” and “Technical” and with a poor rating on “People Thinking”. The output what you get is an “Eccentric” fellow.
I often wondered whether Illayaraja got the kind of recognition for what he has achieved. Technically, this man has left very little to venture and experiment. I hate to get into comparison. But, the bitter truth is that he still has not got the kind of recognition that some modern composers have got. What is missing in him?
I can come up with only one logical answer – He fits into the quadrant that is high in “Technical Thinking” and “Creative Thinking” with very less “People Thinking”. I can only think of other greats like “Bharathiyaar”, “Ramanujam” etc. who were genius, but eccentric. They never got the recognition for what they were when they lived.
On the other hand, I put A.R.Rahman into a quadrant rich in “Creative Thinking” and “People Thinking”.
This is evident in black and white when you look at the marketing of “Vande Maatharam” vs “Thirvaasakam in Symphony”. Compare Rahman and Bharat Bala’s effort in marketing Vande Maataram vs how Thiruvaasakam in Symphony album was launched in presence of Vaiko and Peter Alphonse!
I feel miserable to say this. Raaja is capable of wearing multiple hats – lyricist, singer, arranger, and composer – but fails miserably in public relations and managing marketing. And his team doesn’t seem to possess the trait either!
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4 comments:
I think this is because Raja's peak came before the economic liberalisation. During that period, we were possessed with a rather conservative mindset. The idea of music labels and studios were not very popular then.
Rahman's advent coincided exactly with the opening of the gates. I think Sony Music signed Rahman early. I remember ARR telling the interviewer, when asked why he sported long hair, that it was due to a contractual agreement with Sony! So while Rahman himself might not be a great marketing person, the people who surround(ed) him have done that job very well, thus taking him to the world.
Yes , I agree with VKpedia .
The people around him like Bharat Bala made it happen . Vande Mataram wasn't his first non-film album , he had done an unreleased album for Magnasound prior to Roja . After the success of Roja , Rahman requested Magnasound not to release the album since it was of average quality compared to Roja .But the audio company released it and that turned out to be a big flop .Rahman was quite lucky as this happened when he had only one film to his credit and not much fans as now , which went unnoticed.Later he concentrated more on creativity rather than conventional music and the revolution began ... He did his job and producers ,audio companies , media did their part and rest is .... chemistry ( not history ).
I feel Raaja doesn't care much about the extra stuff like marketing etc.
I agree with your comments and welcome Naani.
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