Second, from my own personal self. While I launched Mafoi in the mid-1980s, I was quite sure that there would have been not many people who would take me seriously. I mean, I did have competition, I did have “organized” competition, but what was another small player going to do to change the rules or indeed the manner in which the “majors” were playing the field. Today, almost a quarter of a century later, Mafoi has changed a lot of equations and indeed perspectives about consulting in the HR domain. We have, to a large extent, reinvented ourselves and have aligned ourselves to the modern paradigm that business demands. We have, I believe, emerged strong and are ready for a resurgent tomorrow because we are focused today, because we believe strongly, and I as an integral part of that “we” that Mafoi is today, fully believe in our potential and believe that we are going to be the best in our chosen sphere. I have no doubts about that. Time will prove me right.

The reason why I am so optimistic is because of the very reasons that are highlighted in this book. The belief in the self of the individual. In our case, I transferred that belief system onto the organization which I believe that I incubated into the Mafoi of today. The core of Mafoi dares to dream about a future where we will reign stronger.

In another sphere, we are also champions of the individual and we have met thousands of aspiring individuals. There have been engineers, doctors, young professionals, senior professionals, and the common thread as I have analysed that runs in all of them is that they all hope for a better tomorrow. They all dare to dream. You see, the zone in which the comfort zone is stymied in is a very comfortable zone. That is, in most cases, the present. But if you dare to dream, then there is an element of risk involved in that you have to aspire to get out of your comfort zone. As one placard in an office that I visited read, “To touch distant shores, one must consent to raise anchor from this harbor.” Such is hope and it is here that goal-setting comes into play.

In order to excel you must look forward. But more importantly, you must also look inwards. As Henry David Thoreau said a long time ago, what lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us. The amount of strength that one possesses within is phenomenal.

I have personally read many books on personal growth, motivation, and indeed positive thinking. Where this book stands tall amongst all those is that this is done by someone whom we can all relate to — not someone sitting far away, but a person just like us, who had hopes and aspirations and who made them happen despite several odds and someone whom we can easily understand without the doubt of “can this be true” creeping in. I would like to congratulate Jyothi Menon on this wonderful book and I do hope that each and every reader who reads this is touched by the message in these pages powerfully delivered by a master figure that we all seek, a someone who will show us the way for the problems that we are, each one of us, confronted by, on a daily basis.

K Pandia Rajan - Managing Director, Mafoi Management Consultants.

Brand-wise makes a strong case for love in leadership and caring in management - a brave new way of smart organisations to get their people to contribute from their hearts. This book is about partnerships - with customers, employers, employees - and how a synchronous relationship can be made fun filled, profitable and long lasting.

This book is also a handbook for those who want to step over the threshold of managing people through what is commonly known as Human Resources. It is about getting people to win so that organizations win. This book is about best human practices. It is about cherishing the human spirit. It is about showing caring; when it matters most. It is about quality. It is about being all of these, and more efficiently spontaneously and collectively.

Lastly, it also provides a perspective from another angle-the employee angle-of what can be done in an organization. And this voice is important. It must be heared, it must be acted upon-it could mean the difference between profitability and annihilation in the world of today’s business.