Happy Diwali
14 October 2009
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Culture
Since the last ten years (maybe a couple more), we have a tradition at Elephant. It is an annual event & it is exclusively an all girls’ event at that. A day before our Diwali break, we dress in our traditional finery & I take all the girls out for lunch. I think the idea first popped from Jayashree or Vandana and we were about 8-10 of us then. Over the years it has become a day we all really look forward to. Guys at the office have expressed mild to severe protests & demanded a Boys’ evening out, but I don’t know why this has not materialized yet.
Firstly, I love the fact that we all take special efforts in dressing up in sarees. For a bunch that is most comfortable in a pair of jeans & t-shirts or kurtis, it is no mean task to figure the whole ensemble, wear it to perfection, commute in our respective vehicles to work & make the saree last elegantly through the day! The second thing I really appreciate is that Jayashree plans the entire menu & pre-orders it at a restaurant just across our office. So we only need to cross the road to begin our Diwali celebratory lunch.
By default, we land up talking very girlie topics, giggle a lot & share some amazing stories from our lives. This is the part I really cherish the most. Today was one such day & we heard no less than half a dozen stories of love in the times of kandepohe & internet.
My Diwali truly begins here... Seeing the light in your eye girls :-)
Vrishali Kekre – “Like every year, a ritual much cherished and looked forward to, all the girls at elephant spend a wonderful lunch with Ashwini today. Much to the boys envy, the Diwali lunch is a fun filled, gossip flowing ‘activity’ afternoon. From anecdotes, to musical chairs to Chinese whispers, this afternoon is one thing no one wants to miss. All of us dress up, look festive and get to know each other better. Just like today we found out that there are only 2 arranged marriages amongst all the ladies at office and they are secret love stories. These are the personal moment that makes elephant a very special family”.
Roopa Eli– “It was an fun experience, getting together & talking about lives recollecting the cherished moments at Elephant”.
Jayashree Babar - “We always go out with friends and family but it was a really different & nice experience to sit with our director to find her just like us, balancing personal as well as professional life, Actually this annual get together is a time when we open up with things related to our personal life, our hobbies. We share our dreams, share our likings etc”.
Sanyukta Kothari-" It was nice to sit with everybody at lunch today, which is not something we get to do on an average day at work,. All of us ate till we were stuffed".
Vaishali Khoje- "Diwali ….Festive occasion and Elephant’s custom ----- only girls go out for lunch with Ashwini …Being the only ladies get together we enjoy gossips and of course the food".
Posted by Ashwini Deshpande
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Annual Reports @ Elephant
05 May 2009
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Publication Design
Doing good annual reports is a science. It is not about showing miles of assembly lines at factories, smiling faces in conference rooms or sun soaked glass buildings. Nor is it about outdoing your conventional competition by using some clever copy. Because when it comes to stock markets & investors, they do not necessarily compare you to the competition in your own domain of products or services. You are actually compared to any other listed company that has similar share prices or similar growth pattern.
Annual reports have to be honest portrayals of the performance from past year and an earnest projection of future plans for growth. Pictures, words & figures in annual reports have to be realistic and devoid of overstatements or jargons. Every word, chart or picture must have a reason to be there and they must be the most appropriate expressions to convey the message.
Shareholders want to know what is happening & what next, analysts want to know how stable the company is, where & how it plans to move forward, employees want to know about the future plans and their exact position in the value chain. So the message really needs to convey multiple things to multiple interests with a single focus.
Before beginning any annual report exercise, we understand all the highlights of the year that was, we also soak ourselves in the messages to be conveyed.
At Elephant, we learnt all these nuances from the best in class clients. The list reads some of the best performing Indian companies. We have done reports for Bajaj Auto, Bilcare, CII, Panacea Biotec, Praj, Reliance, & so on…
Our 2002 Annual Report design for Reliance Industries was adjudged the “Best in India & amongst top 25 in Asia” by the CFO Asia Journal.
Posted by Ashwini Deshpande
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