| Gopinath Premnath | - @thambi_balo

Virat Kohli’s average impact against the seamers is 2.16m away from his stumps in the current series against Australia, which is the most by any visiting batsman ever in an Australian Test series.

Rafael Nadal has saved 70.46% of the breakpoints when serving and converted 45.57% of the breakpoints while receiving serve in the 2018 tennis season.

Lionel Messi has 14 goals and 10 assists this season which is the highest in all leagues in Europe despite him missing more than a month of football.

These are just a few intriguing statistics — amongst a whole lot of other statistics — that I have read this past week.

 Stats Stats Stats

Statistics has been a key element of modern-day sports for over the past twenty years. It has not only become an integral part of strategy but has also enhanced the viewer- and engagement-experience of sports fans...

| Harish Anand Thilakan | - @TheSharck

After the success of our campaign, Making Cinemas Great Again, aimed at the US market, we took the opportunity to attend the Emerging Cinema Markets Conference in Istanbul last week to announce a unique programme to bring the latest in digital design and technology to cinemas in Africa.

We titled it It’s Showtime For Africa and announced that any cinema that originated from, and operates in, any of the African countries would be eligible to work with Influx and gain access to our full suite of products, including ticketing websites, mobile applications, kiosks, food and beverage ordering systems and more — at no cost at all. Click here to get in touch with us for more information.

 The proposition

We will work with the qualifying cinemas to help set attainable business targets and dedicate a full year to achieving those targets. In the event of...

| Vaidehi Bhashyam Mehta | — @mehta_vaidehi

In the course of your career, you will have written, read and replied scores of emails. So, it is essential that we understand the fundamentals of business email writing.

 We write business emails to:

• ask for information
• share information
• exchange views and opinions
• fix meetings

Every email is different from the next in many ways, but here are some common points to bear in mind when you are writing one:

 1. Start with a good subject line

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, if you want your email or message to be read, your subject line should draw the reader’s attention.

Pitch Meeting - (name of client) - 10 a.m., (date) makes better sense than Meeting or Pitch.

 2. Keep it simple

You want the recipient of your email to understand your message, and understand it fast. You don’t want to confuse the reader, so keep your writing simple...

| Daniel Anandaraj Garnipudi | - @dodosamuel

The past couple of weeks have been a somewhat stressful with incredible deals having to be delivered at work. Of course, there have been stress-related outbursts. Every outburst turned out to be related to some other factor and the reason for the outburst was just a culmination of, perhaps, many small things which added to my stress.

Stress, if not managed correctly, can lead to unwanted pressures. And such pressures, like slowly growing pimples, will get bigger and bigger till they explode.

I am not talking about “chronic” stress that could lead to depressions, but rather what is termed as “acute” stress – stress related to pressures of the recent past or near future and — importantly — the present. A review that perhaps didn’t go as well as you would have liked, a big event coming up in your life, or even being late to work due to...

| Vaidehi Bhashyam Mehta | @mehta_vaidehi

With the internet allowing for instant communication, letter-writing is becoming rarer by the day. Text messaging seems to be the preferred way of communicating. And with it has evolved a whole new language — txt msg english.

We write and read emails every day. While your personal emails to friends and family are casual and intimate, business or work-related emails are formal, or at best semi-formal. Despite being tech-savvy, most managers today still struggle to use the email efficiently as a means of communication, whilst others are blissfully unaware of where they are going wrong.

But, there’s no denying that email-writing is important and has become an essential means of daily communication and a record of dealings and transactions.

Here are the essential elements of an email and once you follow this structure, writing a good email...

Jose Joseph

It is pretty hard for teams and individuals to change an approach or the way they do things are being done. With change, invariably, comes resistance. For example, if I am used to doing things in a certain way and someone wants me to do them differently, I may find it very difficult to change or even accept that change is possible or necessary.

In the same way, when we move our existing delivery process to a new one, we are bound to face our own challenges in coming to terms with the new process.

Here are a few pointers that I believe we can follow as a team to deliver the projects in the Agile way.

 It’s all in the attitude

Agile begins with attitude. If the team emphasises “doing agile” rather than “being agile”, you’re on the wrong foot right from the start. Agile is a paradigm, a mental shift in how you approach development. The specific techniques and ceremonies...

| Amit Mehta | - @AmitKO84

“PVR buys Sathyam Cinemas!”

Multiple Whatsapp groups are buzzing with messages about the big acquisition. Only people associated with Chennai (like me) will understand that these messages are not from sharing news from a business standpoint but due to an emotional quotient.

“What will happen to Sathyam Popcorn?!” — a question asked by everyone from my mother to a close friend. This message clearly echoes the sentiment created by Chennai’s most beloved cinema chain.

Where else will you find these sentiments?

Let’s break the topic down and see why it all adds up.

 Setting the scene

PVR Cinemas, India’s largest multiplex chain (with 638 screens) will be acquiring close to 72% of SPI Cinemas, south India’s largest cinema chain (with 76 screens) in a deal valued at INR 850 cr (over USD 122 m). SPI Cinemas owns the iconic Sathyam Cinemas in Chennai.

| Sulil Madhok | - @sulil

Have you lost out on closing the deal because it was hard for you to justify the cost of your website or app development or other digital marketing services?

Do you think it is difficult to convince a client to pay the asking price for the expertise and value you offer rather than for just your labour?

If you have faced these issues, let me make it clear that you are not alone. Many people find themselves in these situations and are trying to find solutions to ensure the deal is closed. One of the most effective ways in which we try to avoid this is by showing our potential clients the Value Proposition.

 Make clients come to you through Brand Positioning

We study and understand what competitors do when they offer services similar to what Influx is offering. This may be complicated to find out for a specific competitor but it is possible to get an overview...

| Misbah Fathima | @mizuuuuuu12

“Being a mother is learning about strengths you didn’t know you had and dealing with fears you didn’t know existed” — Linda Wooten, author

How often do you feel guilty for working late? For not being there with your kid all the time? For buying cookies outside instead of baking them yourself? For meeting the standards set by your own mother and mother-in-law? The list just goes on and I have faced all of this and more in my day-to-day life. I am here to share some of the tips on how to get things straight based on my personal experiences.

To begin with, the answer to all our problems is, Get Over It!. Whether you are a working mother or not, you are going to be criticised for how you bring up your kid. This blog is not about what you should be doing for your little one; it’s about how you do it.

 Communication is the key

Just as it does in any other...