Author: Suresh Dinakaran

Your ears hear the noise. Your intuition hears the truth

 

The most dangerous phrase in business isn’t ‘We failed.’ It’s ‘I didn’t see that coming.’ Read the silence.

 

The Unspoken Symphony

 

We are drowning in noise. Our inboxes are battlefields, our calendars are prisons of back-to-back Zoom calls, and our Slack( or whatever intra organisation communication you use) channels are a constant hum of performative busyness.

 

Yet, in this cacophony of “Let’s circle back” and “Per my last email,” we are starving for connection.

 

Peter Drucker, the sage of management, said something that will happily trespass into most of our professional conscience: “The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.”

 

Food For Torque

 

If you are only listening to the words, you are managing at 50% capacity. The other 50%? It is in the pause, the tremor in the voice, the furrowed brow during a pitch, or the sudden silence when you ask, “Any questions?“

 

Consider the “Airline Pilot” Principle

 

Let’s look at the unusual. When a plane is in crisis, the pilot doesn’t just listen to the control tower’s instructions; they listen to the engine’s hum. A slight variance in pitch tells them more about a mechanical failure than any dashboard light could. Or consider a master sommelier; they don’t just taste the wine; they listen to the “pop” of the cork. A dull thud tells them the wine is corked before it even hits the glass.

 

In business, we are often too busy planning our reply to notice the emotional subtext.

 

Why is it that the most charismatic leaders often speak the least? Because they have realized that silence is not an absence of content; it is a presence of meaning.

 

Throwing Some Inspiration(Hopefully)Your Way

 

The 5-Second Rule: When someone finishes speaking, count to five before you respond. Let the silence land. You will be shocked at what they fill that space with—often the very truth they were hiding behind corporate jargon.

Watch the Eyes, Not the Deck: In your next presentation, ignore the PowerPoint. Watch the micro-expressions of your audience. Is that “interested” nod actually a “confused” tilt? Adjust accordingly.

The “Emotional P&L”: Just as you track revenue, track the emotional temperature of your team. Are they quiet because they are peaceful, or because they are disengaged?

 

Remember, trust is not built on what we say; it is built on what we notice. When you acknowledge the unspoken fear in a junior team member’s hesitation, or the unspoken weariness in a partner’s sigh, you move from being a colleague to being a confidant.

 

The greatest communicators are not the great orators; they are the great listeners of what remains unarticulated.

 

A Call to Action

 

This week, may I dare you to listen more than you talk. And when you do talk, speak to what you see, not just what you hear.

 

Yours in provocation,

Suresh Dinakaran

 

PS: On a completely different note, pleasure to share that ISD Global has introduced two new products viz the Strategic Foresight Almanac and BrandKnow. They are available for review and purchase on these links below

BrandKnow https://www.magzter.com/AE/ISD-Global/BrandKnow/Business/

The Strategic Foresight Almanac https://www.magzter.com/AE/ISD-Global/The-Strategic-Foresight-Almanac/Business/

I am also taking the liberty to share here that my other blog SOHB(State Of The Heart Branding) Story is now a Podcast as well. You can access it on these links below

Where You Are From Is Who You Are

 

How Brands Borrow From Places And Places Borrow Right Back

 

A brand’s passport matters more than you think.

 

Where a brand is born shapes how it walks, talks, and sells — long after it’s gone global. Heritage isn’t a footnote. It’s the whole plot.

 

This BrandKnew piece unpacks why origin isn’t just a “Made in” label — it’s identity, equity, and story, baked in from day one.

 

Where you’re from is who you are.

 

Every great brand has an accent.

 

You can hear it in how it speaks, see it in how it shows up, feel it in what it stands for. That’s origin doing its quiet, powerful work.

 

BrandKnew’s latest explores why domicile isn’t geography — it’s DNA. And why the brands that own their roots are the ones that grow tallest.

 

Where you’re from is who you are. Brands included.

 

More to read on in BrandKnew .

 

PS: On a completely different note, pleasure to share that ISD Global has introduced two new products viz the Strategic Foresight Almanac and BrandKnow. They are available for review and purchase on these links below

BrandKnow https://www.magzter.com/AE/ISD-Global/BrandKnow/Business/

The Strategic Foresight Almanac https://www.magzter.com/AE/ISD-Global/The-Strategic-Foresight-Almanac/Business/

I am also taking the liberty to share here that my other blog SOHB(State Of The Heart Branding) Story is now a Podcast as well. You can access it on these links below:

Not every ending needs an ending

 

What if the most profound thing you can leave behind isn’t a mark—but an absence?

 

Mikko Harvey whispers: “Please forget your scarf in my life and come back later for it.”

 

We spend our lives clinging to people, places, and identities as if they were lifelines. We believe if we let go—even a little—the thread will snap. So we hold tight. We suffocate the very thing we love. But Harvey’s line is a gentle, devastating nudge: What if you left a part of yourself behind on purpose? Not out of carelessness, but out of trust.

Think about it. A scarf is intimate. It carries your warmth, your scent, your comfort. To “forget” it in another’s life is to say, I trust you to keep my warmth safe. To “come back later” is to say, I believe this connection can survive the distance.

 

The Reason We Never Say Goodbye Properly

 

Some people you meet, and something happens.

 

Not romance. Not friendship. Something smaller — and stranger. A five-minute conversation that refuses to end when the conversation ends.

 

Mikko Harvey knew this. So he wrote a line disguised as nothing — a scarf, forgotten on purpose — and hid inside it the oldest human wish: let there be a reason to come back.

 

We do this constantly. We just don’t call it poetry.

 

The book we lend and never chase down. The playlist we send “for later.” The “let’s continue this sometime” we half-mean and half-hope for. We are all scattering scarves — small, deliberate forgettings — across the lives of people we aren’t ready to lose.

 

Because endings are unbearable. But unfinished — unfinished is alive.

 

Here’s the provocation

 

What if you stopped trying to make every goodbye complete?

 

What if, instead, you left something behind on purpose — a question unanswered, a thought half-said, a door not quite shut? Not because you’re avoiding closure. Because you’re choosing continuation.

 

The people who matter don’t need a perfect ending. They need an open loop.

 

So the next time you leave a room, a relationship, a city, a version of yourself —

 

Don’t tie the bow. Leave the scarf.

 

PS: On a completely different note, pleasure to share that ISD Global has introduced two new products viz the Strategic Foresight Almanac and BrandKnow. They are available for review and purchase on these links below

BrandKnow https://www.magzter.com/AE/ISD-Global/BrandKnow/Business/

The Strategic Foresight Almanac https://www.magzter.com/AE/ISD-Global/The-Strategic-Foresight-Almanac/Business/

I am also taking the liberty to share here that my other blog SOHB(State Of The Heart Branding) Story is now a Podcast as well. You can access it on these links below:

Great brands don’t happen. They accumulate meaning

 

Bet you didn’t know THIS about Ray-Ban!

 

How does a 1937 aviator brand stay culturally relevant in 2026? These trivia bits in the video shared here hold the answer.

 

Ray-Ban is proof.

 

From military gear to a $150B fashion empire — Ray-Ban’s origin story is a masterclass in reinvention.

 

From war zones to red carpets — the wildest journey of your favorite sunglasses brand!

 

Here’s to wearing a new lens to look at brand Ray-Ban!

 

This one fact about Ray-Ban will make you look at your sunglasses differently. Watch now!

 

Check the video here https://thesaurustristis141219.substack.com/p/great-brands-dont-happen-they-accumulate

 

PS: On a completely different note, pleasure to share that ISD Global has introduced two new products viz the Strategic Foresight Almanac and BrandKnow. They are available for review and purchase on these links below

BrandKnow https://www.magzter.com/AE/ISD-Global/BrandKnow/Business/

The Strategic Foresight Almanac https://www.magzter.com/AE/ISD-Global/The-Strategic-Foresight-Almanac/Business/

I am also taking the liberty to share here that my other blog SOHB(State Of The Heart Branding) Story is now a Podcast as well. You can access it on these links below:

Have You Made Your 60-Second Commercial?

 

Picture this.

 

Before the world sees you, a commercial plays.

 

Not on television.
Not on YouTube.
Not on Instagram.

 

Inside your own head.

 

Every.
Single.
Day.

 

Sixty seconds. On repeat.

 

The question isn’t whether you’re running one.

 

It’s this: Who wrote the script?

 

Most people unknowingly air the same advertisement every morning.

 

“I’m not ready.”
“I’m too old.”
“Someone else is better.”
“This isn’t for people like me.”

 

Run that commercial long enough, and your life quietly becomes its most loyal customer.

 

Truth be told

 

Your brain doesn’t distinguish between a script and a sentence. It just executes.

Consider Wilma Rudolph. Polio at four. Doctors said she’d never walk. Her mother’s daily commercial to her: “You will walk, and then you will run.” Not hope. Not wishing. A script, repeated until belief. Rudolph didn’t just walk. She ran — straight into three Olympic golds.

Or take the Japanese rice-farmer study where researchers labelled identical jars “Thank You” and “You Fool,” spoke to them daily for a month. The insulted rice rotted faster. If words can shift mold on grain, imagine what your inner monologue does to sixty trillion cells listening every single day.

 

Stating the obvious

 

You are not lazy. You are not stuck. You are simply airing reruns.

 

Permit me a bit of provocation: what if you treated yourself like a brand about to launch? Brands don’t stumble into greatness with vague slogans. They obsess over every word, because they know perception becomes reality, and reality becomes results.

 

Your 60-second commercial isn’t motivational fluff. It’s the operating system your entire day runs on. Write it wrong, and you spend your life debugging a broken program. Write it right, and you become unstoppable — not because life got easier, but because you got louder than your doubts.

Elite athletes don’t just train muscles. They rehearse victories. Great founders don’t merely build companies. They build beliefs before they build balance sheets. Extraordinary creators don’t wait for confidence. They broadcast possibility until confidence catches up.

 

Your internal commercial becomes your external reality.

 

Think about it.

 

Before every iconic brand convinced the world, it first had to convince itself.

 

So did every visionary. So will you.

 

What if your commercial sounded different?

 

“I’m becoming impossible to ignore.”
“Every setback is rehearsal.”
“I create value wherever I go.”
“The future is already looking for someone exactly like me.”

 

The remarkable thing about the human mind is this: It cannot tell the difference between a script you’ve inherited and one you’ve consciously choose to produce.

 

Which means you are not just the audience.

 

You’re the writer.
The director.
The producer.
And the broadcaster.

 

Food for torque

 

Stop doom-scrolling your own doubts.

 

Tomorrow morning, before you open your email, your news feed, or your calendar…Ask yourself one uncomfortable question: What is the 60-second commercial I’m about to air for the rest of my life?

 

Because sooner or later…The world buys the story you’ve already sold yourself.

 

PS: On a completely different note, I am taking the liberty to share here that SOHB(State Of The Heart Branding) Story is now a Podcast as well. You can access it on these links below:

Big people monopolise the listening; small people monopolise the talking

 

“Nobody ever said at a funeral: ‘He spoke so much. God, we’ll miss the volume.”

 

I might be stating the obvious here: Silence is not emptiness. It’s storage. The loudest people in the room are usually the emptiest.

 

Intelligence debriefers and hostage negotiators have studied what is now famously termed as the (Vladimir) Putin Pause– not for what he says but for his deliberate silence gaps before answering — sometimes 8-12 seconds. In those gaps, the other person always fills the void, always reveals more. In a way, it is silence, weaponised.

 

The Bedouin Listening Tradition

 

Among certain Bedouin tribes, the elder who speaks last in a council holds the highest rank. Speaking first is considered a sign of incomplete thinking. The West reversed this entirely — and called it leadership.

 

The Buffett Rule Nobody Quotes

 

Warren Buffett reads 500 pages a day and speaks maybe 20 minutes at shareholder meetings. His partner Charlie Munger was famous for saying “I have nothing to add” — and meaning it as a power move, not a retreat. The room always leaned in harder after that silence.

 

Issey Miyake, The Designer Who Barely Spoke

 

The legendary Japanese fashion designer gave almost no interviews for decades. His silence became the brand mystique. Compare that to fast-fashion CEOs who tweet 40 times a day and are forgotten in 4 years.

 

The Surgeon Paradox

The best cardiac surgeons in the world are notoriously terrible conversationalists at parties. One study found that senior surgeons talk less during operations than junior ones — the junior doctor narrates everything he’s doing; the master just does it. Narration is rehearsal. Execution is silence.

 

Maryanne Amacher’s City-Links (1967–1988) 

Amacher didn’t just compose music; she composed perception. She’d install microphones in places like Boston Harbor and pipe the “silence” into galleries. Her work was about the act of listening. The irony? The “big people” (curators, institutions) controlled the transmission, while the “small people” (the audience) were left to talk about what they thought they heard—misinterpreting it as “environmental sound” when it was actually about how we hear. The smaller the listener, the louder the confusion.

 

If listening is a power move, why do most of us treat it like a passive activity? Because it’s not passive—it’s a weapon. When you listen, you collect data. When you talk, you give it away. The small person talks to feel powerful; the big person listens to be powerful. 

 

The tyranny of the airwaves: power isn’t in the broadcast, it’s in the receiver.

 

The Great Monologue Monopoly

 

In a world obsessed with personal branding, we’ve conflated noise with net worth. The more you speak, the more you think you’re building equity. Wrong. The currency of power is silence, and the interest rate is listening.

 

The “small” person is running on a treadmill of verbal diarrhea, trying to prove their worth through volume. They’re the guy at the dinner party who tells you his entire life story before you’ve finished your appetizer. They’re the CEO who dominates the boardroom, only to realize later that nobody had the balls to tell him his strategy was flawed. They’re not communicating; they’re vomiting. 

 

The “big” person? They’re an art collector. They curate what they let in. They don’t need to show you they’re smart; they demonstrate it by absorbing intelligence from others. It’s not about being introverted; it’s about being intentional. It’s the strategic withholding of opinion that allows others to empty their tanks.

 

It’s akin to the philosophy behind avant-garde composition. A work isn’t judged by how many instruments are playing, but by the quality of the space between the notes. Think of Maryanne Amacher—she didn’t care about the boat horns or waves; she cared about how the listener processed the silence of the harbor.

 

Mauricio Kagel’s Antithese (1962–63) 

 

Kagel walked on stage, threw radios on the floor, and created a cacophony of ambient noise—footsteps, laughter, clinking glasses. It wasn’t music by definition. It was a performance that flipped the script: the performer was talking through chaos, but the “big people” in the audience were listening to the subtext—the political commentary on what belongs in a concert hall. The small people just heard noise and walked out. The big people understood the revolution.

 

The “Magic of Thinking Big” is actually the “Magic of Shutting Up.” David Schwartz’s axiom flips the script: it’s not about thinking bigger, it’s about making room bigger—for others to speak.

 

Some Provocative Takeaways, If I May

 

  1. Stop Talking to Win: The next time you’re in a negotiation, count how many times you open your mouth. Every time you speak, you lose leverage. Every time you ask a question, you gain ammunition.

  2. Be the Conductor, Not the Player: The big person orchestrates the sound. They don’t play all the instruments. They create the stage for other people to play.

  3. Beware the “Humblebrag”: The “small person” often pretends to listen. They nod. They wait. But they’re not listening; they’re reloading. Don’t be a reloader. Be a recorder.

  4. Adopt the Amacher Principle: Listen not for the words, but for the perception behind them. Ask: Why is this person saying this, now? The answer is more valuable than the data.

 

The Big Person Is Auditing the Room; The Small Person Is Just Auditing Themselves. Stop Microwaving Your Wisdom: Let the Silence Simmer.

 

PS: On a completely different note, I am taking the liberty to share here that my other blog SOHB(State Of The Heart Branding) Story is now a Podcast as well. You can access it on these links below:

OH EMOJI RE!

 

Honestly did not know that a World Emoji Day existed on July 17th. Since it does apparently, here we go.

 

Caveat Emptor:The caption has been inspired by the iconic Kishore Kumar song,R D Burman composed gem from Amar Prem, ” O Maji Re ” beautifully penned by Anand Bakshi. We are rocking the boat a bit with this one.

 

This is about how a tiny yellow face took over our brain, our texts, and quite possibly, our soul.

 

In the beginning, there was the word. Then came the wink. And then civilization collapsed into a single 🍆.

 

How Tiny Yellow Faces Hijacked Human Civilization

 

Somewhere between Shakespeare and WhatsApp, humanity took a wrong turn.

 

Or perhaps a right one.

 

After spending thousands of years inventing language, grammar, punctuation, poetry, literature, essays, novels and love letters, we collectively decided that the best way to express ourselves was:

😂

 

Three thousand years of linguistic evolution. Reduced to a crying-laughing potato.

 

Welcome to the Emoji Economy. Or How We Outsourced Our Souls to a Yellow Blob.

 

A place where:

👍 can mean “Great!”
👍 can mean “Fine.”
👍 can mean “Whatever.”
👍 can mean “I’m angry but don’t want to discuss it.”

 

Entire relationships have collapsed because somebody sent a 👍 when a ❤️ was expected.

 

Emojis: Because ‘I love you’ takes too long to type”

 

Here’s a disturbing fact: The most read “word” in human history might be a yellow circle with no nose.

 

Welcome to the Emoji Age — where Shakespeare writes “💔” and calls it a sonnet, where your boss sends you “👍” and you spend three hours decoding whether you’re promoted or fired, and where a single “🙂” from your mother means you are absolutely in trouble.

 

An age where your personality isn’t your star sign—it’s your emoji keyboard. And dare I tell you: we are messed up. Gloriously, hilariously, thumb-scrollingly messed up.

 

A Brief History Of Tiny Chaos

 

Emojis were invented in Japan in 1999 by Shigetaka Kurita.

 

The original set contained just 176 tiny icons.

 

Little did he know he was creating the world’s fastest-growing language.

 

Today there are thousands.

 

Soon we’ll need translators for the translators.

 

a) Personality Types via Emoji Use

 

  • The Forensics User (👀🤔📊): Uses emojis like evidence. Will respond to “I love you” with a magnifying glass.

  • The Over-Explainer (😂😂😂😂😂): Sends five crying-laughing emojis for a mildly funny cat video. Panics if you send only one.

  • The Passive-Aggressive Poet (👍): That thumbs-up means “I have filed your message under ‘trash’ and will never speak of it again.”

  • The Thirst Trap (💦🌶️🔥): Everything is a double entendre. Including their grocery list.

 

Some more variants of these personalities: unmasked, unstoppable

 

The Emoji Economist uses exactly one per message. Surgical. Efficient. Probably a Capricorn.

The Emoji Hoarder responds to “okay” with: 🎉🙌🥳💃🔥✨👏😭❤️🫶 — therapy pending. Surely.

The Thirst Trap (💦🌶️🔥): Everything is a double entendre. Including their grocery list.

 

The Charts Don’t Lie

 

The world’s most-used emoji? 😂 — Face with Tears of Joy. Basically, humanity’s coping mechanism.

 

After that( a close second, mind you): ❤️, 🤣, 👍, 😭.

 

WhatsApp runs on ❤️.

 

Twitter/X worships 💀 (because everything is dead, apparently).

 

Instagram breathes ✨🙌🔥.

 

LinkedIn — God help us — has discovered 🚀, and cannot stop launching imaginary rockets.

 

Can An Emoji Tell A Story?

 

Absolutely. Here’s The Great Gatsby in 6 emojis: 🥂💵👀🏎️💔🔫

 

Reads faster than the audiobook. And somehow hurts the same.

 

👨‍💼➡️🏦💰➡️🏠❤️👩➡️👶➡️📈➡️💀⚰️👼- Well, that’s an entire Bollywood film. You’re welcome.

 

Are Emojis Replacing Language?

 

Fear not. Not really. They’re becoming emotional subtitles.

Language tells us what happened. Emojis tell us how to feel about it.

Without emojis: “I’m outside.”

With emojis:

“I’m outside 😍”

“I’m outside 😡”

“I’m outside 😭”

 

They are potentially three completely different Netflix series.

 

The Purposeful Takeaway

 

Perhaps emojis aren’t making us lazy.

 

Perhaps they’re revealing something deeper.

 

For all our technology, algorithms, AI and productivity tools…

 

Humans still desperately want to communicate feelings.

 

And sometimes,

 

a tiny yellow face gets there faster than a paragraph.

😂

PS: On a completely different note, pleasure to share that ISD Global has introduced two new products viz the Strategic Foresight Almanac and BrandKnow. They are available for review and purchase on these links below

BrandKnow https://www.magzter.com/AE/ISD-Global/BrandKnow/Business/

The Strategic Foresight Almanac https://www.magzter.com/AE/ISD-Global/The-Strategic-Foresight-Almanac/Business/

I am also taking the liberty to share here that my other blog SOHB(State Of The Heart Branding) Story is now a Podcast as well. You can access it on these links below:

THE HEART IS THE NEW MARKETPLACE

 

Most brands are trying to be remembered.

 

The extraordinary ones are trying to be felt.

 

Sharing 25 Laws of State Of The Heart Branding👇.

 

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/heart-new-marketplace-suresh-dinakaran-qo6jc

 

Just 25 timeless truths for founders, leaders, entrepreneurs, marketers, creators, and anyone building something that deserves to matter.

 

Think of them less as branding lessons and more as branding physics.

 

25 short, sharp ideas on meaning, conviction, authenticity, trust, courage, emotion and why the future belongs to brands that move hearts, not just markets.

 

Read it. Forward it. Debate it.

 

In India, we don’t buy chai, we buy tapri nostalgia. We don’t buy jewellery, we buy heirloom anxiety and wedding pride. Emotion is our default currency. Yet most brands still compete on price, features, and discounts. That’s Law #1: Brands built only in the mind compete on price. Brands built in the heart compete on meaning.

 

Take Namma Yatri – the auto app built on driver dignity. No surge pricing. Just conviction. It grew because it stood for something (Law #6). Or think of Fevicol – not glue, but binding generations together. That’s Law #12: The most magnetic brands are built around a belief, not a benefit.

 

The West has Patagonia. We have Kantha fabrics, Milky Moo’s hyperlocal love, and a thousand unsung dhabas that outlive five-star hotels. Why? Because they resonate (Law #21), not shout.

 

Movements are simply brands with moral energy (Law #14). And moral energy cannot be faked. It starts with the founder’s life (Law #3) and deepens when courage exceeds caution (Law #13).

 

Most brands are busy chasing attention.

 

The smartest ones are busy earning affection.

 

What if branding wasn’t about occupying shelf space, screen space, or mind space…

 

…but heart space?

 

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/heart-new-marketplace-suresh-dinakaran-qo6jc

 

❤️ 25 Laws of State Of The Heart Branding☝️.

 

Welcome to the SOHB (State Of The Heart Branding) Story movement.

 

Read. Reflect. Challenge. Share.

 

❤️ Because the heart is the new marketplace.

 

If this blog post encourages you to write to me, you can do so at suresh@groupisd.com

 

PS: On a completely different note, I am taking the liberty to share here that SOHB(State Of The Heart Branding) Story is now a Podcast as well. You can access it on these links below:

 

 

PSEUDO-KU™: The Puzzle Of Pretending!

 

Caveat Emptor: There is NO such term called PSEUDO-KU™. It’s a figment of my imagination. So, no pretense meant!

 

Let’s begin with a question: Name the most popular game in the world that no one admits they’re playing?

 

Clue: It’s not chess. It’s not poker. It’s not even Wordle on a weekday morning.

 

Now it can be safely told: It’s PSEUDO-KU™.

 

You know Sudoku, right? The New York Times acquired it given its huge popularity. Nine squares. Nine numbers. Every row, every column, every box must have all nine digits — no repeats, no gaps, no faking it. The grid either works or it doesn’t. Numbers don’t lie.

 

PSEUDO-KU™ is the opposite game.

 

A game where every box is filled incorrectly, but confidently.

 

Welcome to the world’s fastest-growing sport.

 

Pretending.

 

If Sudoku is a 9×9 grid of logical bliss, PSEUDO-KU™ is a 1×1 grid of your ego, filled with a number you made up.

 

You Know One. You Might Be One

Pseudo Kus don’t play games. They curate games. They don’t solve problems—they reframe them using words like “synergy,” “helicopter view,” and “circle back.” Then they post a photo of a coffee mug that says “Hustle” while napping through the 3 PM stand-up.

 

PSEUDO-KU™ Is Not Ignorance

 

Ignorance can be cured. Pseudo Ku is performative competence—the exhausting theater of appearing logical, deep, and busy while adding zero value. You’ve seen them in Zoom calls: “Great question, let me unpack that.” Unpack what? Your empty suitcase?

They use frameworks like trophies. They mistake motion for progress. They confuse having an opinion with having a clue. And worst of all—they make the rest of us doubt our own slow, boring, honest struggle with Cell R5C7.

 

The Truth Sudoku Taught Us

 

The empty cell is not your enemy. It’s your teacher. Fill it with guesswork, and you lose. Fill it with thought, and you grow. Pseudo Kus never grew. They just rebranded their confusion as strategic ambiguity.

 

The Rules Are Simple

 

You don’t have to know.

You only have to look like you know.

You don’t have to be.

You only have to appear to be.

You don’t have to build.

You only have to post about building.

And unlike Sudoku, there are no wrong answers.

Only louder ones.

Take personal life.

We’ve become Michelin-star chefs because we posted a photo of avocado toast.

Fitness experts because we bought shoes capable of running marathons.

Spiritual gurus because we uploaded a sunset with the caption: “Trust the universe.”

The universe, meanwhile, is desperately trying to figure out what exactly it is being blamed for this week.

 

PSEUDO-KU™: THE PERSONAL EDITION

 

You’ve met the Pseudo Mindful Person. Meditates for the gram. Posts sunrise photos with quotes about stillness. Loses their mind at the airport check-in queue like they’re auditioning for a regional theatre production of rage. What was that Shakespeare quote: ” All the world’s a rage..sorry stage“.

 

You’ve met the Pseudo Vulnerable Leader. “I’m going to be raw with you today,” they say — and proceed to share a curated, pre-approved, PR-reviewed, totally safe emotion. Vulnerability as strategy. Authenticity as content calendar.

 

You’ve met the Pseudo Reader. The one with the intellectual bookshelf behind them on every Zoom call. Dostoevsky. Yuval Noah Harari. A book on stoicism they bought at the airport and opened once, to the dedication page.The friend who reads book summaries on Blinkist and quotes them at dinner like a prophet. “Actually, Nassim Taleb says…”No, Karen. Nassim Taleb says stop pretending.

 

The grid looks full. But pull one number? The whole thing wobbles.

 

PSEUDO-KU™: THE PROFESSIONAL EDITION

 

The Pseudo Mentor. Gives you forty-five minutes of their calendar and fifty years of their ego. Listens only long enough to interrupt with a better story about themselves.

 

The Pseudo Collaborator. In every meeting: “I love this idea, let’s build on it together.” After every meeting: takes the idea, rebrands it, presents it upstairs. Solo. With a new slide deck.

 

The Pseudo Change Agent. Speaks fluently in disruption, innovation, and transformation. Has disrupted nothing. Transformed nothing. But the TED talk was fire.

 

In real Sudoku, the puzzle catches you. In PSEUDO-KU™, there’s no grid. So no one ever checks.

 

PSEUDO-KU™: THE BRAND EDITION

 

The Pseudo Purpose Brand. Launches a campaign about saving the planet. Ships everything in six layers of non-recyclable plastic. Donates to one tree in a forest they’ve never visited. Wins an award for it.

 

The Pseudo Community Brand. “You’re family to us.” Family, apparently, that gets unsubscribed the moment their data loses value. Heartwarming.

 

The Pseudo Bold Brand. Brave, rule-breaking, convention-smashing. On the outside. Inside: seventeen rounds of approval, two legal reviews, one consultant, and a color palette decided by a committee of people who’ve never spoken to an actual customer.

 

The brand grid looks perfect. Until you buy the product.

 

The New Kid On The Block

 

You guessed it. And there comes Artificial Intelligence.

 

The newest playground for Pseudo-Ku Olympians.

 

Yesterday they couldn’t attach a PDF.

 

Today they’re AI visionaries.

 

By next week they’ll be discussing machine consciousness over quinoa salad.

 

Every conference has one.

 

A person who says “agentic ecosystems” fourteen times in six minutes.

 

Nobody understands him.

 

Yet everyone nods.

 

Because nobody wants to be the first person to ask:

 

“What on earth are you talking about?”

 

Which brings us to the greatest irony.

 

PSEUDO-KU™ exists because authenticity has become terrifyingly rare.

 

We are so busy curating our lives that we’ve forgotten to live them.

 

So busy broadcasting intelligence that we’ve forgotten curiosity.

 

So busy projecting expertise that we’ve forgotten learning.

 

The truly impressive people I’ve met have a fascinating habit. They say:

 

“I don’t know.”

 

Those three words have become rarer than affordable housing and sensible WhatsApp groups.

 

Can We Get Real?

 

Real confidence isn’t knowing everything.

 

It’s not needing to.

 

Real leadership isn’t pretending certainty.

 

It’s embracing discovery.

 

Real branding isn’t shouting louder.

 

It’s resonating deeper.

 

Real life isn’t performance.

 

It’s participation.

 

Maybe the antidote to Pseudo-Ku isn’t becoming smarter.

 

Maybe it’s becoming more honest.

 

Imagine a world where people admitted confusion.

 

Brands admitted mistakes.

 

Leaders admitted blind spots.

 

Experts admitted limitations.

 

LinkedIn admitted exaggeration.

 

Okay, perhaps let’s not get carried away.

 

Until then, the great game continues.

 

PSEUDO-KU™.

 

Where everyone fills every box.

 

Nobody checks the answers.

 

And somehow everybody declares victory.

 

Game on.

 

If this blog post appeals to you and you would like to engage with me, I will be happy to receive your thoughts on suresh@groupisd.com

 

PS: On a completely different note, I am taking the liberty to share here that my other blog SOHB(State Of The Heart Branding) Story is now a Podcast as well. You can access it on these links below:

Your Brand Isn’t Hated By Accident. It’s Hated By Betrayal

 

Brand hate doesn’t go viral. It goes nuclear. And by the time you see the mushroom cloud, your NPS score is just a eulogy.

 

The scariest thing about modern branding?

 

Customers no longer whisper disappointment. They livestream it.

 

Welcome to the era where brands are no longer judged by what they say. They are sentenced by what people feel.

 

And feelings are wonderfully irrational creatures. They remember. They exaggerate. They screenshot.

 

Which is why “State Of The Heart Branding” is no longer poetic philosophy. It is business survival.

 

Exactly what the latest edition of SOHB(State Of The Heart Branding) Story is articulating.

 

Brand Love Is An Asset. Brand Hate Is A Wildfire

 

What we have been measuring has been wrong. NPS tells you if someone would recommend you. It says nothing about whether your brand makes them feel anything at all. And in a world where emotion drives every purchase, every post, every rant — that gap is costing you more than your last bad quarter.

 

Strong emotional positioning is a double-edged sword that cuts beautifully or catastrophically. Patagonia told people not to buy their jacket — and built a cult. Gillette tried to redefine masculinity — and split their audience clean down the middle. Fabindia stayed rooted in cultural continuity — and earned trust that no campaign budget could buy. Zomato cracked jokes on the internet — and built a brand personality millions actually look forward to.

 

Same lever. Wildly different outcomes. The difference? Alignment.

 

Most brands are busy measuring Net Promoter Scores while completely ignoring Net Emotional Fallout.

 

Consumers today do not merely buy products. They buy alignment.They buy emotional resonance.They buy moral consistency. And increasingly, they buy brands that feel less like corporations and more like emotionally dependable humans.

 

“What’s one promise your brand makes that your customer service team doesn’t know about?”

 

The UFP Decode is ruthless: Weak positioning disappears. Misaligned positioning combusts.

 

The future belongs to brands whose operations, leadership, culture, customer experience and communication sing from the same emotional hymn sheet.

 

So before your next brand campaign goes live, ask yourself the question most meeting rooms overlook answering: Where is our brand overpromising emotionally?

 

Purpose isn’t a campaign. It’s a contract. Break it, and brand hate won’t just find you—it’ll franchise you.

 

Emotional equity compounds. So does emotional debt.

 

The clock is ticking. Which one are you building? What is your SOHB(State Of The Heart Branding) Story  ?

If this blog post appeals to you and you would like to engage with me, I will be happy to receive your thoughts on suresh@groupisd.com

 

PS: On a completely different note, I am taking the liberty to share here that my other blog SOHB(State Of The Heart Branding) Story is now a Podcast as well. You can access it on these links below: