As you read these lines, this blog will cruise past its 52nd week in the Social Media space. In March 2009, when I began www.josephfz.com, social media became the most popular platform of interaction on the World Wide Web, crossing e-mail  for the first time since 1993.

For over 1.15 billion users, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn have become a powerful way to communicate.

Social Media is our brave new world. It offers unexplored territory and new frontiers. And it challenges our notions of transparency—and privacy.  It asks for a new understanding and focus as we step into new ways of communicating and responding in this new era.  In turn, we will step into the realms of opportunity offered by LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and their cousins.

For organizations, social media works at three levels: to engage employees, deliver strategy and drive business results. Watch the Pioneers. They already begun to move towards employee and executive blogs, online video, and internal Twitter-style forums. Social media is today delivering key strategic messages, stimulating work place collaboration and knowledge sharing. And all this, while improving productivity.

My one year in this space has been incredible. Thanks for sharing it.

I remember it like yesterday. A moment from a sunny afternoon at Cardiff, Wales in the mid 1990s, when I was listening to Red Dragon FM—this British Capital’s iconic radio station. On a chat show that featured a couple married for 60 years, the host asked the question: ‘So, what is the secret of your union?’

The husband was the first to answer. “Shared Values and Togetherness”, he told thousands of listeners who were tuned into the Show on that Welsh afternoon in the mid 1990s, “The ability to share what you believe in and of course, enjoy being with each other in everything that you do.” I never forgot that afternoon—or its insight.

Today, a decade and a half later, I realize every day that the secret of lasting personal partnership is also the secret of lasting professional partnerships. As a Team, do you have a unique sense of ‘Togetherness’—that innate ability to stay connected in a multi-tasked world? Does your Team celebrate its Shared Values every day—from its Vision to the little things that matter?

Shared Values and Togetherness are where it all comes together.

On January 25, 2010, I took stage at the INSPIRE International Media Seminar 2010 at MOP Vaishnav College, Chennai to speak on Corporate Communications to an audience drawn from India and Asia.  The theme of my presentation read: Corporate Communications and the Media Industry - The Road through 2010... and Beyond.

Anywhere in the world, you will find that the most searching questions come from the keenest minds: students. INSPIRE exemplified that spirit of enquiry. Every presentation I experienced was rich with insight and exchange. In a three part presentation—video, presentation and podcast—I spoke on the emergence of Corporate Communications and its strategic importance in our new era.

The key take-away for me were the rich insights and ideas that students brought to the platform of interaction that INSPIRE was. Beyond its global panel of speakers, INSPIRE drew the likes of N. Ram, Chief Editor, The Hindu (India's National Newspaper), Srinivasan Jain, Managing Editor, NDTV (One of India's top Broadcasters) and Vijay Xavier, Vice President, Lintas Lowe (One of India's premier advertising agencies). And, the iconic Mr. Parthasarthy, who inspires us in his 92nd year with his youthful spirit of learning and enquiry.

Kudos to the Management and Faculty of MOP Vaishnav College--its dynamic School for Communication and Media Studies--for the Vision to realize INSPIRE!

When Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics at the Stern School of Business, New York University and chairman of RGE Monitor, the economic consultancy firm, looked out of the windows of his world in the mid 2000s, something startled him. Speaking to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2006, he spoke of a scenario in which "The United States was likely to face a once-in-a-lifetime housing bust, an oil shock, sharply declining consumer confidence, and, ultimately, a deep recession." His talent and intuitive understanding of economics and mathematics led him to

- W-shaped recession, which was a double-dip recession, with a small temporary upward blip in the middle

A short while ago, an Internet parable made a deep impression on me.  Here is my version:

Once upon a time, in an era not too far removed from ours, there thrived a farm in a green valley on the other side of Utopia’s border. Given that it was the other side of Utopia, things were not  always perfect.  Despite the sylvan settings of the incredibly productive, picture-perfect farm, there swept across the land, monsoonal storms of great ferocity every quarter laying waste to the efforts of the 12 weeks that had passed it.

One morning, a serene, comfortably dressed stranger presented himself at the door of the farm owner’s cottage. He was seeking employment on the farm and had remarkably little to say beyond a few words of introduction. Since resumes were not yet invented, he handed a scroll of recommendation to his potential employer. The curious farm owner opened it to find it sealed with the crest of the largest landowner. The golden parchment had a single line etched in a fine turquoise ink. It read: ‘He sleeps in a Storm.”

Now, the owner recovering the ferocity of the last week’s storm was desperate for help. His farm hands had abandoned swearing, never to return to this particular realty show. So, the serene stranger was hired. Twelve sun-blessed weeks passed on the farm that bordered Utopia. Then in predictable fury, the powerful storm returned to rip and destroy everything in the valley. Awakened by the torrential rain and howling winds, the weary owner leapt out of his bed, calling desperately for his new hand who did not hear the frenzied knocking on his door. The man slept soundly, above the howl of the wind, lashing of the training, and the occasional crash of debris.

So the Owner dashed to the nearby barn and to his amazement, saw that it had been reinforced with logs and stood firm against the raging storm. The animals inside were secure and grazed placidly with plenty of feed. He raced against the pelting rain to his field, where he saw the bales of wheat had been bound securely, wrapped in tarpaulin, preventing even a sheaf from being inundated in the rain that cascaded in torrential streams down the ash-grey valley. In a final dash of adrenalin, he sprinted to the his favourite silo and discovered its doors securely locked and the grain, dry.

He then understood why the scroll read: 'He sleeps in a Storm'.

And so, Friend, if we tend to the things that are most important to our lives, we become like the serene stranger who slept through his storm.  Indeed, I have heard that on the right side of Utopia, ‘Sleeping in a Storm’ is the best way to find out if you are living your Happily-Ever-After.

These last few months have seen me fly several times from Trivandrum into neon-tinted nights at Chennai, where I have been working on projects at animation studios. (So, where’s the recession?!) Long after humvee-like Macs sign off in the early hours of morning, I head off to Mathsya. For a memory of Madras, the city in which I grew up.
 
Mathsya, for me, marks a moment in time. Our rights-of-passage years—and the magical appeal of its filter coffee. Every trip home comes alive for me with a culinary pilgrimage to Mathsya at Egmore. The restaurant that is also a 21st celebration of the 5000 year old Udipi cuisine—a offering of India’s West Coast Mangalore region. Mathysa is an exemplar of Udipi Cuisine at its best. Mathsya has delivered a consistent brand experience since I first sampled its spread in the late 1980s. And, its spirit of hospitality is topped off by Ram ‘Bhatta’ Narayan, my friend, raconteur and restaurateur par excellence.

Udipi cuisine is a 5000 year old celebration of vegetarian cuisine that blends grains, beans, vegetables and spices in a mystic gourmet experience. It’s Aromatic. Earth-respecting. Wholesome. And, served with Ritual Purity.

The coffee set in front of you is not any coffee; it is a delectable decoction of two exotic coffee beans from the Coorg region. The ‘dosa’ is not just any dosa; it is a flavorsome ‘methi dosa’ that blends the magic of fenugreek with the traditional dosa. The sambhar is simply divine—it eludes description. And the chutneys, you see, are divinely ordained infusions of coconut, chillies and mint.

No wonder, they call it Food of the Gods!