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By:

Divyaa Advaani 

2 November 2024 at 8:58:38 am

Your First Impression Is Delegated

A prospective partner called your office last week. You do not know his name. You were not told he called. The phone rang four times before it was answered, he was asked to repeat himself, and he was promised a callback that arrived two days later as a message with no greeting. He formed an opinion of you in under three minutes. You were not in the room, and you will never know that opinion existed. Most founders believe their personal brand begins when they walk into a meeting. It does not....

Your First Impression Is Delegated

A prospective partner called your office last week. You do not know his name. You were not told he called. The phone rang four times before it was answered, he was asked to repeat himself, and he was promised a callback that arrived two days later as a message with no greeting. He formed an opinion of you in under three minutes. You were not in the room, and you will never know that opinion existed. Most founders believe their personal brand begins when they walk into a meeting. It does not. It begins at the first point of contact, and in any business of real size, that point is almost never the founder. It is the assistant who manages your calendar. The sales executive who sends the first proposal. The person who handles your WhatsApp, the receptionist, the coordinator who confirms the meeting. These people speak for you every day, in your name, using your reputation, and most of them have never been told what that reputation is supposed to feel like. Many are loyal, hardworking and capable. That is not the issue. The issue is that nobody ever showed them what a first impression of this founder should feel like. Here is what a prospective client experiences. They do not separate you from your team. They cannot. To them, the speed of a reply is how seriously you take them. The tone of the first email is the tone of your leadership. A proposal with a spelling error, a late response, a careless "will check and let you know" becomes evidence about the person at the top. If this is how the organisation presents itself while trying to win my business, they reason, this is how it will treat me once I have signed. And they never tell you. They simply go quiet. The deal that stalls after a promising first call. The partner who becomes "busy". The client who chooses a competitor and offers a reason that has nothing to do with the real one. Across a year, that is every enquiry that stalled, every proposal left unanswered, every introduction that never became a meeting. This is a personal brand problem, not a staffing one. A founder can spend years refining how they present in a room and still lose the room before they enter it, because the impression was formed by someone else, in a conversation the founder was never part of and never heard about. The founders who avoid this are not the ones with the most polished staff. They are the ones who have made their brand legible to the people around them. Their team knows how the founder speaks, what the business stands for, what warmth looks like in a reply, how a delay should be explained and how a client should feel in the first thirty seconds. The team is not following a script. They are carrying a standard, because someone took the time to define it. When did you last experience your own business the way a stranger does? Not a test call arranged with your team's knowledge. A real one. Send a first enquiry from a number nobody recognises. Notice how long it takes to be answered, what the tone is, and whether you would want to do business with whoever replied. Then ask yourself honestly whether that person sounds like you, and whether you would be proud to be represented that way. If the answer is uncomfortable, it is worth acting on now. Every week of that experience is a week someone forms a verdict about you without your knowledge. Your personal brand is not only what you say. It is everything said on your behalf. If you have a suspicion about how your business is being experienced before you ever walk in, that suspicion deserves a direct, focused brand consultation, not a casual chat. Book yours here: https://www.calendly.com/divyaaadvaani/founder-brand-audit — Divyaa Advaani, Personal Branding Strategist (The author is a personal branding expert. She has clients from 14+ countries. Views personal.)

The Art of Justice: Drawn to Solve

Dr. Keshav Kumar and Madhubanti Das
Oct 5, 2024
3 min read

Updated: Oct 22, 2024

The Art of Justice

Forensic sketches, the hand-drawn portraits crafted by skilled artists, have been an invaluable tool in criminal investigations for decades. These simple pencil-paper illustrations remain a cornerstone of criminal justice, bridging the gap between eyewitness accounts and the pursuit of justice.

Forensic artists take scattered fragments and turn them into vivid portraits that can catch a criminal. These sketches are a psychological bridge between memory and reality. When witnesses are unable to recall specific details, forensic artists use interview techniques to draw out hidden memories. But it’s not just about art; it’s about the science behind it. Cognitive psychology plays a crucial role in sketch creation, as artists must understand how memory works under stress.

Forensic sketching originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the early artists who were often police officers with an innate talent for drawing. These officers would sketch suspects based on witness descriptions, and these images were then distributed in the form of “wanted” posters. In India, it gained prominence in the mid-20th century. The use of software like FACES and E-FIT in the late 20th century improved the accuracy and reach of forensic sketches, allowing for quicker and more widespread distribution.

One of the most significant cases in India where forensic sketches played a crucial role was the investigation into the Nithari killings in 2006. The case involved gruesome murders in Nithari, Uttar Pradesh, involving abduction, murder, and mutilation. Forensic artists created sketches based on witness descriptions, apprehending suspects Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic helper Surinder Koli, narrowing down the search and leading to their conviction.

The notorious “Black Widow” killer involving Jolly Joseph in Kerala is drawn from a witness’s brief encounter, circulated widely, and eventually led to her capture. She is accused of poisoning six members of her family with cyanide-laced food between 2002 and 2016. Without a single photograph or fingerprint, the sketch became the face of the investigation.

Recently, the Uttar Pradesh police released a sketch of the accused man and showed the sketch to the villagers and most of them pointed to the sketch of a man called Kuldeep Gangwar. Eventually, the police arrested the suspected serial killer in August 2024.

The Supreme Court of India has recognized the value of forensic sketches in criminal investigations. In the case of “State of Rajasthan v. Mahesh Kumar” (1986), the Court upheld the accused’s conviction based on a forensic sketch that matched multiple witnesses’ descriptions. The court emphasized the importance of forensic sketches as valuable tools when corroborated with other evidence. It also stressed the need for trained professionals to maintain accuracy and avoid wrongful convictions, underscoring the judiciary’s recognition of their crucial role in identifying suspects.

While the rise of AI and facial recognition software might seem like a death knell for traditional forensic sketches, the truth is that these two worlds are merging. Cognitive interviewing techniques and AI integration are being used to enhance memory recall and identify suspects. AI-powered software can analyse multiple sketches and compare them with existing databases, while virtual reality is being explored for aiding in the recall by immersing witnesses in a crime scene-like environment.

Forensic sketching remains an essential tool in the justice system, complementing modern technologies by capturing the essence of a suspect’s identity with a human touch. Its relevance in criminal investigations is evident in India’s history. The Supreme Court’s recognition ensures that this artistic discipline continues to play a vital role in the pursuit of justice. As technology advances, forensic sketching is expected to become even more effective in helping law enforcement bring criminals to justice.

(Dr. Kumar is a retired IPS officer and forensic advisor to the Assam Government. Das is a researcher with NFSU, Guwahati)

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