THE SYNERGY THAT CREATES 'BIG'
Pic.: Elaine Pereira
Siddhartha Basu was 33 when he, along with his wife Anita
Kaul Basu, founded their company called ‘Synergy Communications Pvt Ltd.’.
While Siddhartha was a multi-talented young-man, particularly in the field of
quiz, his wife, with her own unique talents and strengths, was a journalist
with India Today Group. I don’t expect anyone to reward me for my guess, that
the young-couple was well aware why they were baptizing their new-born baby,
their company, with the first name – ‘Synergy’!
“Synergy is the essence of principle-centered
leadership,” writes Dr. Stephen Covey while presenting his ‘sixth habit’, in
his path-breaking book, ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’. He adds, “When
properly understood, synergy is the highest activity in all life – the true
test and manifestation of all of the other habits put together.”
In the year 2000, Siddhartha Basu was 46 and
his baby, 12, was all set to walk into the teenage. That’s the most
harrowing time in the life of one of the greatest living -legends of our times
- Amitabh Bachchan. World says, KBC, the TV game-show by Basu’s Synergy, saved
Bachchan’s life...
I say, Basu and Bachchan synergized and saved
themselves... It was a monumental example of what Dr. Covey made famous through
his teachings - a ‘win/win’ situation, a ‘third alternative’. There was Star
Plus (later Sony) and there were scores of other players behind the scene, who
have been invisible, who have made the Synergy last so long... Fourteen years and eight seasons later, it is
still rocking!
In 2007, Siddhartha Basu’s Synergy Communications
Pvt Ltd teamed up with Anil Ambani’s media and entertainment group and became
really big. Aptly, it was re-baptised as ‘BIG SYNERGY LTD’!
On the other side, Anil Ambani’s Reliance
Entertainment teamed up with legendary- Hollywood-filmmaker, Steven Spielberg’s
DreamWorks to create something really ‘big’ in the entertainment global screen!
What Star Plus or Sony had Basu hadn’t. What
Basu had, Bachchan hadn’t; what Star Plus/Sony, Basu and Bachchan, in combine, had, Ambani hadn’t... And, what Ambani had, Spielberg hadn’t and vice versa...
Life, everywhere, abounds on synergy!
Last night, while watching KBC, there was a team of
doctors from Anil Ambani’s Kokilaben Hospital. They were there to promote a
social cause – ‘Organ Donation’!
“Wow,” I said in my mind, “how smooth it all
can be!”
Ambani and Bachchan have been friends for so
many years... How easy and mutually beneficial it can be if we bring friendship
– the old name for synergy – into business... Sony and Basu have cast their
synergy for so long and so strong... Basu and Bachchan have done the same for
so long, and so beautifully... Ambani and Bachchan, and, now Ambani and Spielberg...
it all works so miraculously when blend in the true spirit of synergy...
But, I shall, always, call it by the name I was
first introduced to it: ‘THE MASTER MIND ALLIANCE’. Yes, my guru, Napoleon Hill, chose to describe
it so. He would say:
“The
human mind is a form of energy, a part of it being spiritual in nature. When
the minds of two people are coordinated in a SPIRIT OF HARMONY, the spiritual
units of energy of each mind form an affinity, which constitutes the
"psychic" phase of the Master Mind.”
All said and done - and going all around the
globe and coming back - it brings home only this truth:
If we are able to strike a great friendship,
then, we are, very able to strike a great synergy, too, and create anything
‘BIG’...
Yes, in Life...
GERALD D’CUNHA
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