itS mY LiFe !!!!!!...

The UID Experience

2011-10-13T09:11:00.000+05:30

Unique Identification Number or the UID is something that is expected to change the face of the nation.
In the future, it is not going to be not just a card or a 12 digit number but a reflection of your complete identity linking your bank accounts, driving license, PAN card etc. It may well be your permanent phone number of the future.

The drive for registering the citizens of India is on and I was excited to get the 12 digit number for myself and flaunt it on Facebook. But it was not to be.

One such camp has been put up at a Gurudwara near my home and I went there to get myself UID-ed.

It is not a cumbersome process and if you are alone at the center, it would take you around 15 minutes to register for it. Less if the person registering you is faster at typing. Lesser if the whole family is together as you need not type the address again and again.

But the problem with India is the numbers. The major waiting time is to wait in the line.

The basic process is that you fill out a form with details like name, father's name, address, date of birth. Email, phone number are optional. I wrote them but still the guy putting the data on the computer did not enter them. Attach one or more identification documents as DOB and residence proof.

You submit this document at the desk and then wait. I had a home nearby so I submitted and went home, had lunch, rested and came back an hour later.

My form along with two others were allocated to a computer guy. I sat there seeing the computer software work as this guy entered the details of the person before me.

The software was impressive but the hardware was not. The peripherals were but there was the same problem with the laptop as is the case with most laptops I see today (even with mine). While typing the cursor with its own mind goes to any place it wants without any guidance from the trackpad. It goes to the previous line or at some place else in the same line and if you are not looking at the screen while typing you will not come to know and will keep typing rubbish.
Clearly our guy was not very adept at typing and was typing slowly looking at the keyboard and this hardware problem was screwing the software efficacy.

The screen had a form with different tabs. Firstly you scan your finger prints in 3 installments using a special scanner. As the computer records them it beeps. Next you sit down in front of a screen and put a scanner in front of your eyes as the computer records your retina details.

Then the guy starts filling out the details from the form you had earlier filled out. A duplicate screen is in front of you so that you can also see what is being typed and correct him at any point.

As he types in the left column in English, the translated version automatically appears in Hindi in the right column. So after around 10 - 15 minutes of data entry of all kinds, your form is ready to be saved.
The data entry person has to put his finger prints as a record of who has done the entry.

I had thought that at the end of it, a brand new identity for me - the UID would be generated. But it was only a temporary number. Of course some background checks will be carried out before handing me the identity - it will take around 2 months.

The 'early adopters' for getting the UID made were mostly people from the strata of the society who are not economically well-off - mostly from the small villages around Chandigarh. Of course they need it more.
For people like me - we just need it show it off on FB!

Anna and Cricket

2011-08-19T10:08:00.002+05:30

The Anna Hazare movement - a revolution which has caught the imagination of the whole country. A revolution which is going to change the bloody face of the nation. Obviously I was excited to be part of the historical revolution and I duly went to the India Gate to register my protest.

It was a deja vu experience. It was exactly the same at a India-Australia cricket match at PCA Stadium which I went to see a few years ago.

1. In the match people wished that Sachin "Aage Bade" and chakka maare. Here, they goaded Anna with the same: "Aage Badho.. hum tumhare Saath hain" (of course they can not say 'hum tumhare saath hain' to Sachin. One always follows God!)

2. In both cases, people shouted at the top of their voices or displayed interesting banners with the sole purpose that the camera pans on them and they get their few seconds of fame on national television.

3. In the match, the cameras were busy finding beautiful faces in the crowd. Here, cameras focused on kids (preferably with Gandhi Topi).

4. At the stadium, people were shouting "Pakistan Haii haii" (Did not matter than Pakistan was not playing). Here Pakistan was replaced by Kapil Sibal/Sonia Gandhi/Rahul Gandhi etc.

5. In both the cases, there were people who had come drunk, which gave an extra zing to their voices.

6. In the match, there were some female Aussie supporters in the stand. One could see young boys going up to them to have a photo clicked with the 'gori mem'. It was the same case here too. Some foreigners had come to 'experience the changing India' and the Gandhi topis of some young boys were temporarily thrown away for a presentable picture with the gori who perhaps later updated on her facebook with "Participated in India's second freedom struggle".

7. The voices heard around during the match were same as at the protest - Ignorant. Some of them had for the first time noticed that bowlers change ends after each over and were thoroughly confused about why it was happening. One of them then said, "tu match dekh na..technicality mein kyu fasta hai"

Then I overheard the following at the protest march.
First guy: "Yaar vaise ye PM ko Lokpal mein laane, na laane se farak kya padega?"
Second Guy: "Tu Naare laga na... Technicality mein kyu fassta hai"

The only thing missing (thankfully) in the protest march was a customary fight (at least at PCA, Mohali) between two groups - most probably over a girl.

If you feel I am ridiculing a movement of national importance, consider an example.
If tomorrow you are returning from a party and have had a peg or two more than permitted by law for driving a vehicle. A police-wallah stops you and there is a good chance that you could be jailed for the offense.(Take any other example where you know its your fault and the punishment would be harsh).
Now would you prefer spending the night in jail or greasing some palms which can prevent it?
If your answer is the latter, kindly don't bull shit yourself by supporting this movement.
Of course you are welcome to go to the protest to have some fun and to vent out some frustration.

Follow Rules or Common sense?

2011-04-24T17:59:00.000+05:30

It was an interesting trip early morning from Gurgaon on Meru cab. The expressway is meant to be fast and driving below 60 - 70 kmph specially in the morning when there is no vehicle rush is quite foolish. In this case, the cab's driver too, promptly accelerated. Soon, a computer aunty started telling us loudly that the vehicle was over the speed limit and the driver should slow down. Common sense said that we should not slow down - the road was wide and open, the traffic was sparse with some trucks to give us company at that time. So the driver, with his left hand covered the speaker and continued driving with the muted but still loud voice of the computer telling us to go slow.
So now the driver was driving at quite a high speed with only one hand on the steering.
A system designed to increase safety of the passengers not only failed but in turn increased the risk.
What would you do if you were Meru? Give a switch so that the driver, on his discretion can turn the warning off or avoid driving at high speed on roads where it is an insult to the excellent infrastructure by driving slow?

Auto wallahs and the Bias

2011-04-15T18:40:00.001+05:30

Amit and I were looking for an auto. I saw one standing empty on a corner.
"Vo raha", I announced.
"Nahi yaar. Sardar hai. Lootega", Amit replied.

Unfortunately I couldn't agree with him more. A north Indian going to Chennai or Bangalore is always warned about the scrupulous auto wallahs there who always over charge you. I had never imagined it would happen but the same notoriety is now applicable to the Sikh Auto wallahs of Delhi.

I have had many encounters with them and not a single one has been on the positive end of the expectation spectrum. Take for example one instance where early in the morning while coming to office, I went to one who was standing on the side of the road. He agreed, I sat and he put the meter on. For the next few minutes he kept on sitting there and I wondering what the hell he was up to. After some time he called a passerby, asked him where he was going and asked him to sit in the auto as well. It was the final nail in the proverbial coffin I guess.

Now, it has come to a point that the bias has taken deep roots and it is better not to ask than a rise in the frustration level when he quotes an absurd price or does something to the same effect.
So people coming to Delhi and hiring a taxi/auto. Beware!

No Idea

2011-03-23T20:51:00.000+05:30

I must admit that I find the recent Idea ads unwatchable. Some like the one where the girl in the parking lot is wondering why her billing is so high is simply illogical and I feel giving a tight one to her. Add to it a hollow attitude/arrogance that Abhishek Bachchan shows. He seems to have come straight out of the Shahrukh Khan School of Overacting.

But the paradox is that the tagline is catchy. In normal life there are actually times when you say 'no idea' or something to that effect. And that 'something' is now being increasingly
replaced by 'No Idea' which prompts a reply 'Get idea' by the other person.

There is no doubt that the advertisements have created a strong connect and recall value by the use of a simple, everyday phrase. Just that I still have No Idea why the 'Sir ji' is such full of himself.

Playing with the mind

2011-02-04T09:16:00.000+05:30

I have been a regular visitor to KFC for sometime. Recently, I discovered that if you order a Chicken Zinger Meal (which I do 99% of the time), they ask you, "Sir, would have Medium or Large Cold Drink".(Zinger meal is a combo of a burger, 1 chicken piece and a cold drink).
A health conscious person that I am, I always used to say 'medium' - choosing the lesser of the two evils.

Actually, the normal size of the cold drink which comes along with the zinger meal is 'small'. When you are posed with the choice of medium or large, you simply chose one of them. One thinks that it is covered in the price of the meal so 'what the hell'. But the actual thing i.e. small never occurs in the choice list. So is it unfair or a good sales maneuver?
After all, ideally they have displayed the details of the meal and the customer ought to know that they will be paying more if they chose medium or large option of the cold drink.

Prayer

2011-02-03T09:04:00.002+05:30

Every morning a Pandit ji comes to our office and does a little Pooja. And it is very interesting to listen to it. Some day there are yawns while he is reciting his mantras. Another day, his mobile phone rang. And the days when he is disinterested he rushes through the mantras eating some words, mincing others and of course yawning through the remaining. In all probability he is not even thinking about any of the God that he is naming.
Hence, I fail to understand the purpose of it all.
I don't think any Gods, if at all they exist, are getting appeased by this half hearted, emotionless, soulless rant every morning. It is said that prayer often has a calming effect on those saying it and also on ones listening. In this case, seeing the hurry the Pandit is in, it definitely does not calm him and for the listeners, everyone wants it to be done before the office starts! In the end it is nothing more than a superstitious ritual and a mere job for the Pandit.

News Channels

2010-11-17T23:10:00.000+05:30

As I switched channels between NDTV and CNN-IBN a few days back, I couldn't help laughing. Both the channels were claiming that they were the ones who broke the story of the Adarsh Society scandal. But that was not what amused me. With hundreds of channels, this has become a common affair. What was really ludicrous was both these channels were showing exactly same clipping of a politician praising the channel for 'exclusively' breaking the story. The politician, coming out of parliament was in all probability praising the media on a whole.
The way the news channels have marketed themselves has become quite common now. They are on the same lines:

We are the first ones to break this story.

We had the highest TRPs. (the real story lies in the fine print)

Our story had such and such impact.

It has been the same along with some marketable faces of the channels.

Most of the times these self-congratulatory claims make me cringe, specially considering that all the 'impactful' stories surround only 'popular' people.

Can news channels have some different message which they can communicate in their marketing?

Aaj Tak's Sabse Tez was one such message which had made it stand apart at that time. It focussed on the value of getting close to the news the fastest. Of course the competition then was not like what it is today but it did create a mind space and still has a good recall value. An example from the print business is the magazine - Open. It has been able to differentiate itself from the traditional weekly current affairs magazines like India Today, Outlook etc with their positioning as a weekly for the young mind. Of course it has a strong product to back its claim up.

May be it is time that news channels do something different to stand out. Presently they are all focussed on themselves, loudly and unnecessarily beating their chests.
Going forward, they can offer something that is of some significant value to the customer or at least has that perception.

Outsourcing Selling

2010-10-30T16:30:00.000+05:30

An interesting sight took me back to the desktop years of my life. It was a kiosk in front of a computer shop where you could mix and match components of your choice for an assembled computer. It instantly gave you a consolidated price without any involvement by the retail outlet manager. The manager had outsourced some of his job to technology.

For us buying an assembled desktop computer used to be a more interesting experience. And since all the friends bought computers roughly at the same time, trips to the computer shops had become quite common. The process was time-consuming and most of the times finding limits to your decision-making. Even if you clearly had in mind what configuration you want, still the shopkeeper would come up with offers which resulted in greed for more capacity splitting the mind.

Typically, he used to take out a big pad with names of most of the parts that went into making a computer written on it. Then you would discuss each component. He would tell you the price; you would oscillate, trying to balance the price and capacity with offers and counter offers.

The challenge for the shopkeeper was first that of the complexity of multiple customers with highly customized demand. Secondly, he was sitting and spending time with only a 'potential' customer. The buyer would take similar quotes from multiple shops before making the final decision. Afterall it is in our buying culture, specially of expensive items.

But a seller was more successful if he was more involved. One who educated the customer and helped resolve the conflicts. Giving the pros and cons of the components and many times not hesitating to tell that a certain part was expensive and not necessary for the needs of say a college goer. There were other sellers too, who just mechanically jotted down what you demanded and told you the total cost. They thought of you only as potential customer who is here to get one of the quotes among many from across the town. 'Why spend time on him? We will focus more when he comes to actually buy'. But the buying was done from the person who had 'helped' take us some decisions.

A kiosk is definitely less hassle for the outlet, specially considering that a consumer today is far more knowledgable and knows what he wants. But it is definitely an opportunity lost for up-selling, cross selling and most importantly making a relationship which can help in completing the sale. A recent article in McKinsey says:

Many retailers assume that customers walk into stores for purely transactional purposes: they know what they want and just need to buy it. Yet McKinsey research indicates that as many as 40 percent of customers remain open to persuasion once they enter a store, despite undertaking extensive product research, reading online reviews, and comparing prices on their own.

Commentators and Salesmen

2010-10-17T20:16:00.000+05:30

CWG was a great marketing platform for a variety of sports. People saw athletes in action, winning medals and in the process making the sport popular. With that a hope arises that youngsters will follow them and in the process make India reach out to the world. More than that, make the sport reach out to Indians, making it as popular as Cricket. The process may be on and the change happening but can they reach Cricket's level of popularity and more importantly sustain that popularity? Tough. Very tough. Yes, there are many variables like more exposure, more games, more facilities etc etc. But one thing that I believe has played a pivotal role in marketing cricket is the commentary!

The difference between the cricket's commentators and the ones of the other sports was evident in the recently concluded CWG coverage. In cricket, since childhood we have been fed on the nitty gritty of the game. It has been helped by Gavaskers, Shastris, Bhogles who know the intricacies of the game and articulate it very well.
Why do We know that if there is grass on the pitch, it will be good for the fast bowlers and if it is a dry pitch having cracks, spinners are going to rule the roost? Not because we know the science behind it. But because it was drilled into us again and again, match after match in the extensive pitch reports. Keys were pushed in the pitch, the cracks were shown clearly, the grass or absence of it was clearly pointed out along with the implications. The 8 odd hours was literally a cricket classroom if you had the patience to sit and watch the whole match. And I am sure there are plenty of atleast my generation who have sat there listening intensly for 100 overs and more.

The knowledge of all the nuances of the game makes it interesting. You get more involved because you understand. And when you understand, you can talk and debate. And when something gets people talking, then it is.. well, popular!!
An understanding of why the sports person is doing something in a certain way enhances the experience of watching the game. I saw sports like Boxing, Wrestling and couldn't understand when and why they were being awarded points. What are the strategies employed? We saw boxers leading comfortably but still going for aggression in the final round rather than saving energy in defense. What were the reasons?

One can learn from observations. Yes. But commentary enhances the observation. Whenever a team needs two runs in say 3 balls, all the fielders are brought closer to the batsman. We can know that by observation. But commentary adds a reason to it and supplements our understanding . For a youngster it is a terrific learning experience which they can simulate while playing on the ground.

There may be an argument that cricket is long and not very fast (like Hockey), giving plenty of time for a good commentary. It will be tougher in games like boxing, wrestling which last for 15 - 20 minutes. Yes, it may be difficult but the time can be utilized better. e.g. in Hockey, most of the time the commentary consists of who has the possession of the ball and to whom it is being passed. It is as if they are stuck in the radio mode describing the action in detail which is actually not required.

Organisations have Brand Ambassadors as well as Salesmen. A Shahrukh Khan will make you aware of a new Hyundai car in town but for actual selling, a Sales man is needed to tell you the features and benefits of the car and to overcome your doubts. In sports, we have the brand ambassadors in form of these medal winning and awe-inspiring athletes but what we lack is a Sales team in the form of commentators who need to do the actual connect, giving a good experience to the audience.

Why don’t music co.s provide free music?

2010-10-14T21:44:00.000+05:30

I know nothing about the technology involved in digital music. But what I know is that we are easily able to download pirated songs for free from various websites. These songs are then played on the computers and easily transferred to mobile phones, iPods etc.
Now the first thing that you notice when you open a site like apunkabollywood dot com for a 'pirated' music download is the number of advertisements flashing all around - supposedly their primary source of revenue.
So if they can do it, why not the record labels themselves? Open a website, put up ads on it and let the users download the songs for free. (Presently, the websites have the songs and they are available at a very low price of Rs 10. But still I have to pay that Rs 10 which takes considerable time. )

Apart from the ad revenues, you can gather a lot of data on what people are searching, consuming, their preferences, patterns, trends. They can be segmented geographically, demographically and so on. All this can also go as an input while creating music. And the information can even be sold off to other interested marketers from different fields.

This can also be used in other dealings by the music labels. You instantly get an accurate update on what songs are popular and differential pricing can be used to benefit more from licensing to radio and TV channels, to mobile companies for caller tunes, to concerts where it can be sung by artists etc. Every marketer wants to pull customers . And here are people from a variety of backgrounds who will automatically get pulled for the sake of free music.

The point is that the labels are crying that piracy is killing their revenues. So why not change the revenue source which they are blocking. Those who want it for free are already getting it for free and giving nothing in return to the music company. By this, at least gets some data, some information. And today, information is not cheap. Google has become a behemoth simply by gathering data and using the information.

Speaking of Google, it is taking music to another level itself - to the Cloud. Buy music online and Store it on an online library. Then listen it anywhere on any device. The basic requirement - a very fast internet connectivity, which India lacks. But who knows, with 3G round the corner, we make take a long jump!!

Re-Marketing

2010-09-29T16:12:00.000+05:30

If you have been to Palika Bazaar in Delhi, you know that only one “kitne ka hai” about something is enough for them to get behind you like anything. They call you, cajole you, follow you till a distance – their voice does even if they physically don't. Heavy discounts are offered and more often than not they close the deal. After coming out, many times we look down upon the cheap methods by which the sale was done – even if the shopping bags are full.

Well, now even sellers who term the Palika Bazar's methods as 'low market' can also benefit from the same technique. The euphemism that Google has used is 'Re-marketing' or 'Interest Based Advertising'.

The 'advertising innovation' is around 6 months old but came to know about it when Ankit was trying to book air tickets online. Though he did not go through with the transaction, for the next few days, he kept on getting related ads by airlines/travel portals flashed on various websites he visited. It was then we realized that he was being re-marketed.

The concept is simple. Suppose you are on the web to buy let's say an airline ticket for a leisure trip to Singapore. You visit a website which has employed re-marketing and browse around. In other words you have asked a Palika Bazaar dukaanwala(shopkeeper) the price of some thing.

The information gets stored in the cache. The dukanwala has locked on to a potential buyer.

If you leave the website without a purchase, then website uses the cache information to display related advertisements wherever you go on the web. If you leave the dukaan without a buy, the dukaanwala follows you, shouting “Aao to sahi. Kitna doge”.

The ads being popped up offer various discounts on the exact route you had searched for. The same is done by the dukaanwala.

I wonder if Palika Bazaar actually had something to do with Google Re-marketing.

Ulta Pulta

2010-09-17T01:28:00.000+05:30

I think it has been in place for some time now but pray my poor observation skills, I observed it yesterday only.

In cricket matches, two ad spots which have perhaps the highest visibility are the ones just behind the starting point of a fast bowler's run up. Shoaib Akhtar used to start from those banners on the ground.

That batsman and the banner behind the bowler used to face the same direction. Once the bowler started the run

up and camera zoomed on the pitch, the advertisement went out of sight. Or in case of spinners, it hardly was visible. One could only see it behind the batsman but it was facing the other way.

Now, yesterday I observed the banner behind the batsman was facing the camera or in the same direction as batsman. So now when the camera zooms on the pitch, you can see the advertisement or in fact read the name of the advertiser as it ought to be read.

Does it make any difference?

On the face of it - may be not because generally it is a popular brand with a known logo or name. You know that it is Airtel or KFC even if you see the name reversed.

But may be at some psychological level, it makes an impact as legible words are in your face.

In any case, it makes sense to have the banner in the direction where it is going to get the maximum footage. No one had thought about it for many years. Now someone, somewhere has shown some creativity and challenged the status quo!

This one is from a game where when the spinner is bowling, the logo in the background is reverse, thus making less impact. Now-a-days it faces the camera.

Images from here and here

Anti – Social

2010-09-16T03:28:00.000+05:30

Main aur Meri Tanhai....

Aksar yeh baatein karti hain...

The case of an actual robbery happening due to facebook updates

Voice of Youngistan!!

2010-08-22T21:43:00.000+05:30

Main aur Meri Tanhai...... Aksar yeh baatein karti hain..

*These ramblings by the anchor are real life - on a show called Wuzzup - The voice of Youngistan on MTV

** Stick figures concept inspired from thevigilidiot (though not very well copied)

*** More MMTs here

What is IBU?

2010-08-17T18:12:00.000+05:30

Infosys Technologies is one of my favorite companies - largely because of the inspiring leadership and also because I started off my proffessional life here.

Soon after I joined in 2004, the company was re-organised into different industry verticals. Almost every Infoscion today is a part of one of this vertical known as IBUs.

I used to forget the full form of IBU initially when they were formed. And gradually I had drilled it into my mind. But recently that information betrayed me. The full form which I knew for so long - "Independent Business Unit", was wrong.

So I decided to ask my friends and ex-colleagues if they knew what IBU meant. The results were interesting.

The question was posed to 20 people - including ex-infoscions, present infoscions who joined along with me, some seniors and some young people with less than 3 years of experience.

3 answers formed the majority - 25% each for "Independent", "Industry" and "Dont know". (that was the I of the IBU. Everyone knew that BU stood for Business Unit).

The correct answer according to the intranet @ Infy is "Industry Business Unit".

Yes, 20 people out of more than a lakh is a totally illogical sample size for a survey to provide any kind of conclusion or evidence. But it may be a fodder for thought for some intervention by HR @ Infosys.

P.S: A special thanks to my friend V at Infosys for quickly getting the responses from people around him.

P.P.S: I have a strong feeling that it used to "Independent" earlier. Even a very senior manager who now has left Infy replied "Independent"

Update: Amit just pointed towards this Client Presentation (Slide 7) where IBU is Independent Business Unit... and this presentaion where it is "Industrial". In Business World the definition is "Integrated". Seems like no one knows!!!

Responses of 20 people who were asked the full form of IBU

Lava

2010-08-17T17:04:00.000+05:30

Saw the latest advertisement from Lava Mobiles. First could not understand what was so special about the keypad and why were they focussing on a Qwerty Keypad while every tom, dick and harry is having one. But then it dawned that it is not a Qwerty Keypad. It is a ABCDE Keypad - called Alpha Keypad. Instead of copying a computer keyboard, they have done it differently.

The first reaction, however is "Silly". The argument being that everyone today has a computer and is accustomed to typing on a Qwerty keyboard, so ideally the mobile should also have that.

But it may not be that silly actually. Many people do have computers but everyone may not be an expert in typing on high speeds on that. Even if one is quite adept at it, doing it on a mobile is a different ball game, specially if you are shifting from a normal mobile keypad where you have to press the same button 3 times to go to a "C" and where the alphabets are not jumbled up but in order.

I myself took sometime to adapt to a qwerty keypad on mobile despite using a computer for 6 hours almost everyday for the past 10 years.

Only the keypad may not be the reason for the success or failure of the model but it would be interesting to follow the user comments on this experiment.

P.S: Lava has two research labs so good thought must have gone behind the move. Also read recently that the new rupee symbol has also been incorporated on the kepypad.

Hyundai Traffic Squad

2010-08-13T04:25:00.000+05:30

It was taking a long time for the traffic to move at one of the prominent intersection. On moving closer it was observed that the traffic lights had conked off.. Well..Not surprising at all. Reasons for major traffic jams are the traffic lights going blind followed by us trying to make the 'best' use of the situation.

But what was surprising was a couple of guys handling the traffic. They were managing the flow to their best of abilities - bravely stopping us from entering the gates of hell. Without them the minor jam could have easily turned into a major headache. I was impressed with the work of these good samaritans.

But on moving further closer I saw not two but eight people there. All similarly dressed and Hyundai written boldly on their T shirts.

So it was a plain marketing gimmick. In all probability the traffic lights were deliberately turned off and these people were managing the traffic and gaining eyeballs. I would not be surprised that in their annual report, under the CSR Activities there is something like "formation of traffic squad to assist traffic Delhi police during peak traffic hours".

It may be the case that they were actually helping, the lights had actually gone off and it is actually a positive CSR activity. But still some questions did surface.

How much they must have paid to the Traffic Police/Delhi Govt for this activity? Do they have the right to do this? How much extra fuel must have been burnt due to this activity by a company which is attempting to project a 'Green Image'?

The good samaritan brand image sadly failed to make a favorable imapact on atleast one of their audience.

Anniversary

2010-08-10T03:33:00.000+05:30

9th August will always be an significant day - no matter it is forgotten or remembered..

The graphical representation inspired by NM-Indexed (and originally by Indexed). Just thought to try it again - not satisfactorily though.

A Slice of Delay...

2010-08-08T16:43:00.000+05:30

It was my first experience of ordering from Slice of Itlay. And possibly it will rarely happen again. There was an important lesson which we learnt during MBA and yesterday's experience was a good example of it - Product is not everything. The accompanying services are much more important.

The trigger for ordering from Slice of Itlay(SoI) was their beautiful pamphlet which came along the newspaper with a wide variety of delicacies and "Express Delivery" prominently displayed on it. SoI had made an impact on this first moment of truth. But sadly, it went downhill thereafter.

In the evening, a phone call was made. When I told them that I wanted to order for a home delivery, the response was "1 second". There was fumbling noise and this guy asked another person to take the order. The second guy came along and asked me my contact number and name. On being told, there was no response for a long time apart from "Sir, 1 Second" - marring the very definition of a Second! Then he let me know that there was some problem with the computer.

May be the SoI people can henceforth update their training program with the suggestion that the customer is not at all concerned with what your internal problems are - be it computer or an untrained guy picking up the phone. I just want to order! The simplest alternative in case of technical issues is to take down the order on a paper and update it later. But No. Probably the guy was working according to a script and didn't know what to do when such a problem arose. It took me a full five minutes to order one pizza and one garlic bread. And believe me 5 minutes is a lot of time in the context of ordering on phone. Try calling the next door resturant. It hardly takes a minute. May be lack of technology can be a boon sometimes.

Next failure came at the time of delivery. In a business where competitors have a delivery time of less than 30 minutes, these people took One hour and 10 minutes including a reminder call to them after 50 minutes.

A very basic step while getting an address is to ask a landmark - which I believe in this case would have reduced the time significantly. But there was a failure on this part too.

The product though was good - a crispy and fresh pizza. But no matter how I like the product, it is the service that will lead me to think twice before dialing their number again!

Blackberry or BlackCherry??

2010-07-19T22:59:00.000+05:30

A girl is sad that her Boyfriend is leaving for another town. But he assures that they will be in constant

touch. How? Through the Blackberry Messenger!!

This is the theme of the advertisement which Blackberry is broadcasting on radio these days.

My first reaction was that of a shock!

My first thought was that it must be BlackCHERRY - one of the numerous duplicates that Times of India proudly

advertises everyday. But No. This was the same business smartphone which last known had a significant

aspiration value linked to it. No doubt new models have been introduced, the prices have dropped making it much

more affordable. But still, if you draw the mindmap of the brand, the strongest link still is a "business

phone". An advertisment involving teenagers with the Blackberry Messenger being projected as the USP is totally

unexpected.

Is this a strategy to target an altogether new segment by blackberry(RIM) or is it just a random short term

tactic to meet some sales targets? Are there more 'cool' phones coming in from the RIM stable to accompany the

'smart' ones. Or is it that the choice of the generation today is more smart than cool.

There seems to be a trend of having connectivity on the go with everyone wanting to share their minds on FB,

Twitter there and then rather than waiting to get to a laptop.(which also augments the need for a qwerty

keypad)

It may well be an attempt to build a loyal base of customers who start off with BBs in college and then go onto

better models as they rise in their professions later on - something which I feel Nokia has done successfully.

It basically ends up in a throw up between exclusivity and volumes. With their exclusivity of services like

Push mail already in doldrums with n number of mobile devices having the similar features, guess the way to go

for BB is to drive up the volumes.

One challenge that they will face with this segment is the price of data services - which are still steep.

Making "All" Users Happy

2010-07-17T16:20:00.000+05:30

Apple - one of the best marketing company is experiencing one of their worst marketing challenges ever.

iPhone4 has been in news for all the wrong reasons. The problem has been accentuated by the negative word of mouth it is receiving on social media. It would be interesting to see how the problem is solved by the guru of marketing. May be it will be a part of the case studies in near future as well.

As of now, Apple has admitted that there was a mistake and is trying hard to rectify the problem as soon as possible. Admitting the mistake is an important step considering the trust in the quality of the product that Apple enjoys - both from its users & non users.

Secondly, they are giving away free cases till Sept 30 which will help solve the problem temporarily. Giving something free is important for customer delight in cases such as these. In fact, we as customers expect it. The question is that will there be a free replacement of the handsets if and when the problem is solved?

If the customer focus of Apple in the past is anything to go by, I will not be surprised if there will be something on that lines. This was emphasized on by Jobs in the press conference as well.

"We want to make all our users happy. If you don’t know that, you don’t know Apple."

After this and knowing that there is a true intent behind the statement, who wouldn't want to buy an Apple product?

Mobile Payments

2010-07-15T00:14:00.000+05:30

Year 2007 - first trimester of MBA and a presentation in the area of Information Technology.

Inspired from a Swaminomics article in Economic Times, I had chosen the topic of Mobile Payments. Mobile payments have already been implemented in other emerging economies like Brazil and South Africa. For India, it looked a bit futuristic at that time but the simplicity of it was what attracted me. India had the highest potential keeping in mind the mobile penetration which is in fact still going on on a scorching pace.

The problem with credit cards is that you need a swiping machine, telephone connection et al. This limits its scope. You still need to carry cash if you are travelling by auto, buying groceries from a mandi or paying to your next door mom-and-pop store.

M-payments change things significantly. Both the parties just need a mobile, where in I can transfer the money to your number. Just like a pre-paid connection holds money, this becomes your virtual bank. In any case, if you need cash, you just go to your nearest shop, transfer the m-money and get hard cash from him. Anyone would be willing to do it, making everyone around with some cash as a bank.

And considering the recent focus of telecom companies to target semi-urban and rural areas, it becomes a boon for a city dweller who needs to transfer money to his family back home in a far-away village.

It may have looked futuristic at the time of presentation but within 3 years its time has come . Yes Bank has recently launched mobile money services in Chandigarh (where else ;))

The shot has been fired, the race started. Right now it may be a hurdle race - technology issues, regulatory issues, legal issues. But I am sure in no time this hurdle race is going to become a cross country one - reaching each and every corner.

Football Craze

2010-06-19T20:14:00.000+05:30

Read an interesting Faking news and it prompted me to write this.

I could totally relate to the Fake guy Nitin. Wherever I turn, I can see people super excited, ranting off strange, and tough to remember names.

Recently I posted something on Facebook asking who Messi was and it evoked a whole lot of emotional responses - quite similar to what would happen if you happen to ask "Who is Sachin" to someone in India. (Btw I knew about Messi. was just being cynical)

I also realised that Football (or Soccer.. whatever) has striking similarities to our Hindu Mythology. There are multiple Gods. In cricket it is quite the opposite. Hardly months ago there was one and only one chant - Sachinnnn Sachin.. He was the only God that was there.

Despite everyone saying that football is a better game than cricket (duration + full of action), I could never watch a complete match without dozing off or changing channels.

Hence, unfortunately I am never able to comprehend that why there are so many Gods, some hardly 22 year old.

I used to play football but never got interested in it. It was only for recreation and keeping fit (no doubt it is a great exercise).

Often I wonder, if like the Faking News item, many of us are just trying to fall in line with others - a mere peer pressure to follow the game. I, myself have tried it in the past - just to see what is it that the whole world is mad about. But alas, despite several attempts, I still prefer watching Sachin or even Federer than Messi.

And ya, I too (like the FN article) came to know of the funda of football's off side when I was 20 while cricket's off side - I think I knew it when I was born!

Valuable Forgeries

2010-06-07T20:00:00.000+05:30

Came across an interesting line while reading City of Djinns by William Dalrymple.
"Forgeries exist because real gold is so valuable"

The case is not only with gold. Forgeries are there everywhere around us.
Take duplicate books for example. Selling duplicate books for half the price on streets seems like a profitable business these days with so many vendors out there. But you will always find only the best sellers down there. It may be a worrisome development but the book is being 'forged' means it has become valuable.
Similar is the case with many products, specially in FMCG segment.

May be publishers, companies and marketers can look at alternative ways of extracting this value.

How? I am also thinking!!

Sabse badi Invention…

2010-06-04T02:19:00.000+05:30

The most important invention of all times may be a highly debatable topic. The choices can vary from a wheel to a light bulb to a telephone to an aircraft etc etc etc. But they all span over a large period of time.

Lets narrow our search of the most important invention to our generation.

But before that lets define the parameters based on which we can build a case of our choice. Though there can be a variety of parameters like communication, computing, entertainment, transportation and so on but I won't opt for all these. I would like to go to the roots of our existence.

What is the basic necessity of a human?

Yes, it is the cliched Roti, Kapda aur Makaan. We can live without our cars and mobiles and TVs and Laptops, and Internet. But its really tough to live without the above 3 things.

And it is under Roti or Food, that my choice of the greatest invention lies. The invention is.. <drum rolls>

Maggi Noodles!

I hope everyone agrees!

We love it when we are kids - a time when we have plenty of choices of the home cooked food. It is a delicacy - to be enjoyed once in a while. The scarcity of it providing the Value.

Once you grow up, it becomes kind of a necessity. Hostelers swear by it. You can have it anytime - the taste becoming better as you move closer to midnight.

If you are on a trek, making a maggi over a bonfire becomes the highlight of the trip.

Though I have no experience of it but I can imagine its use in a married life. Ya, when you have a fight and the wife refuses to make dinner!

In any case, it is the perfect backup when you are not in a mood to make dinner and running tight on a budget so can't order or go out.

The basic point is that maggi has been a solution to the most important need of your life when you need it the most.

Now, after writing so many words on it, how can I resist not having it right now. Will be back in 2 minutes!!!

And the Oscar goes to......

2010-05-28T01:52:00.000+05:30

So I turned 28 today. Through the day, I realized that wishes came from 2 sources - Calls and Facebook (Orkut

bhi check kar lena chahiye ek baar). In 'good old times' sms wishes used to form a sizeable chunk of these

wishes. Now it has been almost eliminated - a huge loss in revenue for the Mobile operators for sure.

Actually when you think of it, the case is of Volume vs Value. Facebook is definitely for Volume Lovers -

hundreds of wishes from across the globe - it certainly feels nice to have them.

Sms provided the value. After all it took a little bit of effort on the part of the sender to type it and he/she

needed to know your number!!!

Reading the above lines again, I realize that being a part of the 'Change Generation' - the one who have seen

both sides of the technological revolution - it is a sin to call something 'good old times'. I mean how can you

say 4 years ago as old. Good, on the other hand is definitely subjective.

Anyways, the idea before penning down this post was something else but is turning out to be entirely

different. This was meant to be an Oscar like speech on the past 28 years of life - a suggestion from KT.

But now I realize that for a Oscar-like speech, you need to have an equivalent achievement. Most Oscar winners

have one thing in common - they have been able to focus all their energies on one project and make it the best

in the world. In many cases, they have toiled their whole lives to reach that pinnacle. I compare my 28 years to

it and find myself at the other end of the spectrum. I graduated as Mechanical engineer, became a Software coder

and then delved into learning the art of Management. On the way washed my hands in the washrooms of a heavy

machines manufacturing plant, a steel plant, five star ones of an IT company, a small branch of an Insurance

company and then quite literally with five different types of oil. In a nutshell, these 28 years cannot be more

diversified - quite the opposite of a 'Focus' that is required to be the best in the world.

No prizes for guessing what the learning is out of the thoughts in the last few lines. Wish it was easy to find

out what exactly you need to do in life... You can call that my Birthday wish!

Khussshhh to Bahut ho Tum….

2010-05-19T14:47:00.000+05:30

It seems to have been a happy 2010 for Indians - if Facebook's Gross National Happiness Index is to be believed. And assuming it is largely a young India that is Social media active, we indeed have a very happy young brigade.

In fact, in the past several months, even on the occassions we have gone below zero - implying that most of the FB status updates were negative in nature - have not been less than -1. (the only significant dip was last on 26/11/2008 for obvious reasons).

The reasons for this positivism and happiness can be multifold.

1. Jobs are back - probably the biggest reason.

2. No major terrorist attack. Ofcourse Naxals attacking and killing CRPF Jawans by the hundreds is no terrorist activity. Terrorists are only the ones who come from across the border. These Naxals are fighting for Basic human rights. No?

3.Sachin's form. He completes 20 years in Cricket, hits a double hundred, top run getter in IPL, joins twitter. Sachin's form is directly proportional to the nation's happiness.

4. A general conscious or sub-conscious human tendency to make others jealous by writing awesome things happening in their lives.

5. Extra ordinary performances in Farmville. IT may be our growth engine but we are really farmers at heart. It has been proved by young Indians, specially those working in the IT sector being so successful at managing huge farms on their own.

6. Plenty of jokers to make fun of: Yuvi's pregnant woman body, Rahul Mahajan's marriage, the 1411 tigers, MRF Blimp, Nithyanand and ND Tiwari, the evergreen Arnab Goswami.

There are plenty more I am sure. If anyone reading this has more reasons in mind for our happiness, do share.

The GNH index of India and other countries can be viewed here.

Image courtesy Facebook.

Vofadone... Did I call your name wrong?

2010-04-07T17:41:00.000+05:30

I would like to applaud Vodafone people for the rigrous training they give to their customer care representatives.Each time I call them I have a distinct, innovative experience. This time it was to get GPRS activated on my mobile. And the representative was so caring that he talked for full 5 minutes to give me an answer which he could have given in around 10 seconds. I was reminded of that ICICI advertisement in which the bank employee keeps listening to the old lady even after the office isclosed.

But in this case, I didn't even have to spend my energy talking. It was the customer care who was talking. And what a polite talk. Every word was preceeded and followed by the words: "Haanji Sarfraz ji batana chahunga".Ya, my name is Sidharth but hasn't someone great said that "Whats in a Name?"

And of course, Vodafone spends so much money entertaining us with zoozoos and pugs etc that we cannot and should not expect them to have CRM softwares which brings up all the customer details in front of the Customer Care representatives.

Anyways, he told me each and everything he might have learnt in his training course on GPRS. It was of real help to people like me who don't have an iota of idea about what yahoo and google are. He was so damn helpful that even after telling him that I have saved the settings which were smsed to me, heasked me three times if I had recieved the settings.

After having accompanied me through the long and tedious process of recieving and saving the setting, when I was all ready to surf the internet, he politely informed me "Haanji Sarfraaz jee... batana chahunga... aur maafi maangna chahunga ki GPRS seva J&K mein uplabdh nahi hai. Sarfraz ji batana chahunga ki yeh seva kuch hi maheeno mein shuru ki ijayegi. Sarfraz ji yeh batana chahunga ki tab aap yeh seva alag alag sites jaise yahoo, google kholne ke liye istemal kar sakte hain. Sarfraz ji..maafi chahunga ki abhi aap yeh kuch nahi kar payenge".

I calmly pulled my hair off my head.So I asked him what should I do with the settings that I had just saved.But may be he had forgotten some lessons from the GPRS class. C'mon who remembers all that what is taught in class. I myself have slept through many classes and during exams skipped many chapters which I was not comfortable with. And as he started "Sarfraz jii.. batana chahunga", I recognized that it was the same tone, I used to have when during vivas I was asked questions from "that" chapter. I am a very impatient man. And I didn't want to de-motivate the guy by running my patience-less train of thoughts over him so I quietly disconnected the call.

Customer Care Again

2010-03-19T18:32:00.000+05:30

Continuing on the customer care note, got an interesting call.
I had got my car serviced from Hyundai a few days ago. So the customer care called to know my feedback. It was a sweet voice of a lady.
This is how it went (Original was in Hindi, translated to English for my global audience!! - Ya there is not even local audience as of now but I like to think Long term!!!)

CC: Good Morning Sir. I am calling from ABC Hyundai. Am I talking to Mr. Shadaab.

Me: This could be me. But may be they bungled up with cell numbers.

Me: No. You have got the wrong number.

CC: Oh. You own a Santro?

Me: Yes.

CC: You got it serviced it on 13th.

Me: Yes. But my name is Sidharth

CC: Oh! Sir, I would like to ask you how was the experience.

Me:Not even a sorry!!!

Me: Ya, it was OK.

CC: Were you satisfied with the washing of the car.

Me: Yes I was.

CC: And Overall experience?

Me: Ya good!

CC: Out of 10, how many marks would you like to give us.

Me: umm... 8

CC: Why have you cut 2 marks???

Me: WTF.. what a question!!!! Well..because you call me and don't know my name. And because somebody changed the channel in the customer lounge when Sachin was batting that day!!!

Me: You had promised that some stains on the seat cover will go off. But they didn't. But that's Ok. You didn't charge me for it.

CC: So why cut the marks?

Me: Because you Overpromised and Underdelivered!!

CC: whaat??

Me: Nothing. you promised something and could not do it

CC: But we didn't charge for it.

Me: Ya Ok.

CC: Sir, 9 and 10 marks are for excellent. and below that Very Good..

Me: what the hell!!!!

Me: OK. 9 marks.. Fine now????????

CC: Thank you sir!!

New Heights of Customer Involvement

2010-03-18T04:05:00.000+05:30

I became a fan of the national telecom company of India. Their transparent systems are of the order such that they ought to be included in the Customer Relationship Management(CRM) case studies of management schools.
Customer involvement is one of the popular jargon in marketing and this company takes it from theory to practice. what happened yesterday is proof of that.

Broadband at my home was erratic for 10 days and for past couple of days it had completely conked off. But it was not followed by any bull shit like calling customer care and lodging complaint, then following it up with the same cranky customer care whose sole purpose in life is to increase Blood Pressure of people. May be customer care centers have secret tie-ups with hospitals. Seriously, either IT companies should design better systems for these people or the companies whom they represent should share more information and empower them (words directly from a CRM case study)

Anyways, coming back to our customer focused company, a call was made to the lineman who had installed the land line at the house. The favor balance had been made heavy at the time of installation with the proverbial chai-nashta. So he suggested to get the modem checked. And hence started the journey which opened my eyes to what extents companies go to please their customers. I went directly to the room where all the action was. Huge racks of telecom equipment with cards and wires occupied most of the room. Along side sat the officials who greeted me warmly as the line man himself was there. I was offered a seat along with another customer who was also facing broadband issues. As one of the official remarked "It seems to be our Broadband day today". Gradually they started the diligent process of checking out the fault step by step. Everything was done in a transparent way in my presence so that I could understand how tough it was. And tough it was. Specially identifying the correct wire from amongst a thousand wires. It was literally finding a needle in a haystack. But the well trained officials did it. Important lesson learned - Nothing is impossible though it may take a long time to do it.
After around one hour, the modem was confirmed to be in working order. But by this time, I had mingled with the people there thoroughly - customer involvement!!
I was made part of the team and like a nurse I handed the expert doctors all the tools they needed.
"Pechkass(screwdriver)", one said. "Here Sir". "Gun (some tool)". "Right Away". In fact, after around one and a half hours I was telling them where the tools were after they forgot where they had left them. Some of the more aggrieved customers who came - not surprisingly with broadband problems (it was broadband day after all) thought that I was an employee there and discussed their problems. I heard them patiently and referred them to the concerned person. At one point of time I almost picked up an incoming call on their extension.
I had chai with them and chatted about different office politics specially in PSUs. VRS or Voluntary Retirement Scheme was being introduced in the company and was a hot topic of discussion. I too, gave my honest comments about how it would be in the benefit of the company. How the high average age had affected the PSU to slow down, how dogged with old practices (except the Marketing and Customer Support Department ofcourse) and resistance to change was affecting the flexibility. How losing the old war horses will help improve the efficiency and will open to new, fresh ideas which were desperately needed in the face of changing technology everyday.
But unfortunately, my ideas were not taken very well. May be it was the age of the employees or may because they thought that VRS was a poor scheme. Soon, I excused myself as I had to leave for work. But the good 2 hours spent there really opened my eyes.
Sadly, the broadband is still not working!! I am wondering if my comments on VRS has to do anything with that?

P.S: It has started working although very slowly now. So I am able to publish this post!!

Main aur Meri Tanhai

2010-03-14T17:15:00.000+05:30

Aksar yeh Baatein karti hain....

Related Post

Moral Conflicts

2010-03-14T17:10:00.000+05:30

The biggest challenge, I have faced on job is to deal with people - people who are not very literate, have low IQ, come from low income backgrounds and many times earn on daily basis.
So what are the challenges?

1. First and foremost is to know whether a person is actually idiot or just acting idiot to gain attention or sympathy. There are some who ask about each and everything all the time. Though they have been doing the same thing for a fairly long time. But they have the habit of just asking. It may also happen in case if the person has made some mistake. He knows he has so he acts idiotic to show he doesn't know. This brings up the correlated second challenge.

2. To know when someone is lying. How do you know if a person is telling the truth or not when he asks for a leeway on the pretext of some death in family or a court case or he being stuck in a traffic jam. Experience - some own and some of the others, tells that for every genuine case there are 10 fakers who have killed all their living relatives at some point or the other. Taking a morally correct path and accept the excuse every time may lead to you being labeled as "Soft" and may affect work in some cases. Sticking to "rules" may be considered rude and may not be acceptable to conscious. so how do you maintain the balance??

3. Then comes the 3rd case - When someone commits a mistake. Any mistake in my present line of work should be and are generally taken up seriously as it can take a real disastrous turn - take the case of recent fire in Jaipur. So strict action is sometimes taken against non-employee workers and drivers committing mistakes. The strict action, many times according to "rules", sometimes result in their loss of wages for the day. And hence comes the moral dilemma. Mistakes can be made by anyone but it can be a difference between life and death considering the sensitive work. So to punish and affect his earnings so that learns never to repeat it or let him go this time?

A special case of the above moral conflict comes when the person realizing his mistake, comes, pleads to you and some times even try and touch your feet. Mind you the person begging forgiveness is 10, 20, 30 years elder to you. what to do at this time? Even if you want, it is very tough to follow rules.
You know that the guy is doing it deliberately - to influence you, to soften you up but the oddity of the situation leaves you confused.

There are no easy answers and may be it is experience which gives the answers.

Related MMT Comic

Main aur Meri Tanhai...

2010-03-11T03:47:00.000+05:30

Aksar yeh baatein karti hain....

Related Post

Twitter in Colleges

2010-03-11T02:25:00.000+05:30

So now twitter has entered classrooms too. Some tech savvy teachers are using twitter in class rooms for better interaction with students. In a large class, there are many students who have doubts but are shy of raising there hands in fear of public ridicule. "What will others think of me?", "What if the question is a stupid one?" "After the class they are going to call me names". These are some questions which lead to doubts and hence a hesitation in asking questions. It happened with me and I am sure with everyone at some point of time in their lives.

Twitter has come to the rescue now!! A trending topic can now be created (using "#"), and it can be put up on the OHP where the questions can be put up in form of tweets with the particular hash tag. So the shy students can put up questions without having to raise their hands.

I LOL'd thinking how much more miserable lives of our profs could have been if twitter and this pedagogy been around during our times at college. The imaginative and innovative graffiti and ideas due to which desks had to be repainted after every semester in engineering could have been permanently imprinted on the twitter servers and for everyone to see and enjoy. Twitter would have benefited by using it for trend analysis and targeted marketing. Historians could have recorded the data and years after now could have written papers on how the thinking in colleges have evolved/degraded over the years.

During MBA, we used to give a feedback for each teacher at the end of every trimester. Had twitter been around, the prof could have got a Live feedback there and then!! What fun it would have been. The best thing in any case would have been organizing mass cuts would have been child's play.

Yes, twitter in Indian colleges will be a disaster. In any case, one should be working on getting more confident in college rather than using twitter to contribute your thoughts which may or may not be stupid.

Related MMT

Main aur Meri Tanhai

2010-03-07T22:48:00.000+05:30

Aksar yeh Baatein karte hain....

Related Post

Main aur Meri Tanhai

2010-02-25T22:54:00.000+05:30

Aksar yeh baatein karti hain....

M: Why do they keep asking people for their comments on someone which everyone knows has achieved something great? Obviously they will say good things only.

MT: You haven't got a single visitor on your blog praising Sachin on 200. Right??

M: ahem.. well....

The One

2010-02-25T22:47:00.000+05:30

Yesterday it was the last nail in the coffin for all so called critics of Sachin. Strangely, these were the people who have not seen or experienced an iota of cricket in comparison to what the master has. After today, whenever a voice against Him will rise, only a scorecard or a shot square of the wicket to a widish delivery will be needed to be shown. And the sad part is that it will not be the umpteen other bat raises of the past.

Now His place has been permanently fixed as THE GOD. In fact, He quite literally is. Every so called religion, caste, region has its distinctions and beliefs. But one thing that remains undisputed is the common belief in Sachin - belief that he will never cheat, belief that he will try his best for the team and the country, belief that Hope is alive till He is there. Now compare that to what all is associated with God - the one that people normally pray to. That God will be always be fair, that whatever he does is the best for you and that Hope is there till the time you are under his wings. Any similarities??

They say that God created the world - the grossly flawed world that we know and live in. Sachin created another world where in people live in pure harmony till the time he is on the pitch. No egos are hurt when a guy in a Mercedes comes to a autowallah with a radio and asks "Kitne pe khel raha hai??". There are no class distinctions when outside a TV showroom you can see people with expensive clothes standing alongside street vendors looking at the screens - all with the same wish in their hearts. And a world where a whole nation can rise with one voice if something goes against the God. Where else can you find such a homogeneous world?

If world is destroyed today and the twitter, facebook and google servers are somehow saved, it will not be surprising if historians of the next phase of human evolution conclude that Sachin was a God who walked the earth - uniting people, making them rise over petty issues - even for a few hours and most importantly making them happy.
If the historians of tomorrow can conclude that, why not do that today??
We are a terribly fragmented nation. There is virtually no so called Unity in the diversity. There is that only one person - THE ONE who provides the constant factor - the unity. He does to India what no Other God can and will be able to do!
*Bow*

Random Observations

2010-02-23T00:15:00.000+05:30

It was a small dinner with a transporter last night. As I sat there enjoying the Kashmiri delicacies – Ristae, Rogan Josh, Gushtaab, Sheekh Kabab and Mirch-wangan korma (Ya I ate all that!!), two things struck me.

One was the Similarities in Diversity. Sanchit, after his trip to Srinagar had remarked that he didn’t understand the language in the markets of Chennai. But he didn’t expect the same in North India(Kashmir) as well. But yesterday, I observed the Similarities. As I started eating Spoon, Fork, Knife etc, it was recommended to use hands. So rice was mixed with the Ristae like it is mixed with Sambhar and eaten in the same ‘andaaz‘ as till now I had seen only South Indians eat.
I found it quite amusing.

The second thing which struck me was the extent to which an entrepreneur has to keep his senses open to happenings around him to survive, compete and grow. The guy treating us was a transporter – with a fleet of trucks which carry oil from the IOC facilities to various retail outlets, army, air bases etc. He was interested to know the effect of China skirmishes in Ladakh region to his potential growth. The link is quite simple but it has to be observed. Due to the China factor, there has been an increased movement of army towards the Ladakh region. The area experiences extreme weather conditions hence to meet the fuel demand in the winters, something called Advanced Winter Stocking or AWS is done during summer months. Now with increased army presence and the potential longevity of the issue at hand, the demand – both current and for winters is going to be high. This means many more numbers of trucks required to carry the fuels from here – more so because it takes much more time for them to supply and return than say a trip to Srinagar or Kargil. Hence, with increased requirement means he has to take a decision to invest capital to buy more trucks (and eventually increase his profits – somebody has to take it!!).

Favor Balance!!

2010-02-04T05:49:00.000+05:30

Realized today that interactions with other beings specially with whom you have a professional relationship results in a game of "Favor Balancing". (read something similar in an article long time ago. but can't find a link to it)
It means that if some one has done you a favor, there is an instinct to return that favor.

Now favor balancing can be short term or long term.
In short term, we sometimes call it a tip or to chose a harsher word - a bribe. e.g. there is a scene in the movie Rocket Singh where the Sales Representative tips/bribes the watchman with a pack of cigarettes. He later on charms a receptionist - which can also be painted in similar colors - the latent need of the receptionist to be praised/getting attention is fulfilled against the favor she is doing of letting them an easy access to the boss.

In long term relationships like friends, colleagues, customers, subordinates, seniors that favor done keeps your Favor Account in positive and may be redeemed some time in any time in future. The other person becomes obliged to return your favor in some form or the other. Many times it is in form of 'Gifts'.
Strangely, Gifts are socially acceptable while bribes are not!

Another associated side effect is that once this fact is realized, people manipulate their actions - deliberately trying to emphasize that a favor is being done, hence adding weight to their side of the favor balance.
It will be wrong to judge this as right or wrong because may be most of us must have done this at some point - knowingly or unknowingly. An example of this can be found in a statement like - "There is problem x, Y, Z but OK.. Let me see what can be done". "Its really tough to do it..but no problem yaar.. I will do it..just for you my friend!!"

This can be found in organizational setups where it can help build brand loyalty. A customer facing representative initially shows that a particular request cannot be complied with or is tough to execute. The customer naturally pushes a bit and then the solution is put forward with a show that something impossible has been achieved - thus burdening the customer with a fact that he has been done a special favor. The customer, having made feel special thus unknowingly becomes a fan of that particular entity/brand. If it is a case of subordinates or superior - the return can be improvement in your personal brand.

In life, there are only a few people - family and a set of close friends who do favors for you without thinking it as a favor but because they actually love to do it - may be because they genuinely like you. In this complex world of balances and imbalances it is important to cherish those 'un'favorable people!! :)

Main aur Meri Tanhai

2010-02-03T02:13:00.000+05:30

Aksar Yeh baatein kartein hain....

Main(M): Why do people send friend requests to someone they dont know....

Meri Tanhai(MT): Have you received a request from a cute/hot girl..

M: Ya.. How do you know??

MT: You would have hit the "Decline" button by now had it been a random guy...

M: Hmm....

Empty School Bags

2010-01-31T05:35:00.000+05:30

My generation of school goers was characterized by heavy bags. I remember many articles in newspapers which focused on reducing the weight on the shoulders. It was considered the Ministry of Education’s job to help this burden. The solution instead lay elsewhere – in technology!

But books and copies offered exciting time. At the start of a new year, fresh copies and books used to be bought and diligently covered with brown paper and plastic paper. A special cupboard was assigned to books with labels put to divide it into different sections. A sketch pen was used to put the name of the subject on the width side of the copies for instant recognition. Then each night bags were packed according to the next day time table. I remember the anxiety and that fear which used to strike when the wanted notebooks could not be found – may be given to a friend or when there was a sudden realization that some homework given had not been done.

But now, all that is set to get over. The advent of Kindles, iPads or the more local Pi’s is set to change the students – not only at school but at all levels study. School Bags will now carry a digital reader to store all the syllabus books and a digital notepad – to take notes.

There will be no need to pack bags at night, waste cupboard space, fear of losing copies full of notes right at the end of the year with exams approaching. It will also be easier – it actually already is to just copy the homework from a friend.

The only thing that will perhaps not change will be the tiffin box which will still offer a suspense of what has been packed, with a hope that there is maggi inside.

Foggy Drives

2010-01-19T04:05:00.000+05:30

Returning from work..Night time.. Dense Fog… Headlights on low beam.. Can’t see more than few meters ahead…Slow Music… Heater is on… Trust your instincts and carry on..

Want to keep driving infinitely...an urge to hit the highway.. the practical mind comes forth… calls you idiot.. turns the wheel in the opposite direction..

Not a soul on road…Misty settings...Seems like a dream sequence from a movie.. Suddenly the mist clears…the destination beckons… Dream Over.. reality time…

Social Media and Social Change

2010-01-19T04:03:00.000+05:30

First of all what is social Change?
Simply put, it is a collective change in the behavior of a large group of people which is different from a tradition, trend or a way of working of a system.
To narrow the definition we can say that the change is more libertarian – a more open minded society – open to changes, new ideas and not stuck in ancient beliefs – just following what has been going on and scoffing at what is not in line with that. It can concern anything – religion, politics, movies, business - everything that affects and modifies our daily life!
In no way, I say that those ancient beliefs and ideas are wrong or out of date. There are many examples where we can learn from the past. In religion, for example, going to a religious place, reciting/singing hymns (or listening to it) has been an ancient tradition. It was primarily an exercise of stress relief or a kind of meditation. But now going there has been made kind of compulsory, leading people to believe that if they don’t God will not be happy and his wrath will befall upon you.
The basic point here is that there was a reason to things which became ingrained in traditions and slowly people mindlessly started following it. The need is to know the Why behind it and if ‘Why’ is not relevant then being open to change.
All matters of Social Change will always start with a Why!!
Why should I be only an engineer?
Why shouldn’t I leave my job and be an entrepreneur?
Why can’t the government make public a detailed statement of account of its sources of income and expenditure?
Why is a scene in a movie with a person riding a horse banned or what is the problem with Savita Bhabhi?
Why can’t the government not punish who deserve it or who by acting in certain ways, with certain (un-understandable to common man) motives disrupt the daily lives of people.

Again, the focus here is only on the change in thought process and knowing that there is another person who thinks the same way. What can be done, How it can be done? – The action will be an after effect.
So now can Social Media of today lead to Social change.
I believe it certainly can - the main reason being the viral nature of it. Thoughts, views, observations get transmitted quickly over it that it beats the traditional - the literal word of mouth. Take Twitter for example. The option of retweeting ensures that 1 message will reach multiple people and the fact that it is being retweeted means that it is acceptable and people agree on it and are at par with the thoughts.
It further helps in opinions getting formed, sharpened and being known. Influencers like people from popular media get their thoughts easily transmitted. And more importantly, these ideas are challenged – many times with valid arguments. It also ensures that much more relevant problems and news will be able to reach the people who matter and who are in a position to take it to masses where mediums like twitter wont.
The best deal is that people who are stuck in the old form of beliefs with their stick to traditions and no change policy are NOT there on social media. Of course, how can they accept this wide world that continuously generates new thoughts and messages? As a result, with a majority of libertarians who are active here, the ideas being generated and transmitted are of that nature as well. And thus is in perfect sync with the social change defined above.
Once a good number of us are in line, then there can be a time of action. Then we can ask the authorities on where our taxes go or as Chetan Bhagat points out – even change the governments. After all many of us go voting believing that each and every vote matters and I can change the fate of nation with that one vote – which is clearly a farce. We can change only if 20 million of us vote similarly.
And what can be the medium to channel a similar thought for 20 million people - obviously a place where they all are present, where they hear, listen and observe. The Facebooks, twitters of today and may be something more focused to this task tomorrow!

The Conflict

2010-01-16T00:35:00.000+05:30

He sat outside the door of his small two room house and stared directly at the setting sun and couldn’t help comparing his life with it. Both were nearing their end and everyday were in a conflict.
Far away army bunkers and watch towers were casting long shadows. It had not always been like this. Born on the other side of the barbed wire, not too far though, he remembered running around the open, unhindered fields without a care in the world, lying down in the open at night and playing in the mud when it rained. But then there was a conflict, he never knew why. The same grounds - his beloved fields were raped repeatedly in front of his own eyes. The result was an undesired, illegitimate child – some called it simply the fence and the others Border.
The conflict took away everything. He had to mature early – the only school of the village which was walking distance earlier was too far away now. Every day became a struggle when running from pillar to post to save whatever remained of his fields. He recalled the delight, the enthusiasm and fervor with which people had celebrated on that special day. There was also a speech he heard on radio and its various translations later. ‘Tryst with destiny’ they called it. Reliving those moments helped in times when he had to stand in queues, wait for the babus to ignore pleas to let him be on his fields. The short stature didn’t help either – it became too easy to overlook him. His walk was like a joker in circus, whole body swaying from side to side as he walked. The dense growth of beard helped hide his thoughts – and pains. They were visible only through the light brown, intense eyes. But who was bothered to look in the eyes of a 5 feet joker.
His son’s voice broke his spell. Thinking about the past seemed more pleasant. His struggle to get the fields back was still on but the energy seemed to wane away now. But the hope was still there in his eyes. His son had then sought to renew the effort. The prospect of getting his fields back made him happy but not the approach that the son sought. The rebellion streak that was absent in the father had caught attention of some people.
He didn’t approve of the path chosen. The belief n the voice in the radio was still there – the passion and the love for the nation it had evoked was fondly remembered and cherished. He would never do something that would be unapproved by what that voice stood for. The time will come – the belief in the system was intact. But in a corner of his heart, there was also that fear that time taken may not be too long. He wanted to run on his own fields one more time and to die lying down there, peacefully staring at the stars. May be his son would be successful.
But after many years, his son had suddenly appeared today – on the run. The dream had gone awry and he needed a place to hide. Only his father could help. The same short height and joker like walk once people made fun of had become respectful - may be pitiful and believable when the beard turned grey and then white.
Again he was jolted back from the past. The sun had set and it was dark now. He had been summoned to the police station for an enquiry about his son. They had got news that he was in the area.
It was Hope against the Belief. Today, with his son accepting defeat the Hope had died. For the belief to survive he would have to confess about his son’s whereabouts.
At the police station, the officer had his usual questions but like everybody he didn’t bother to look into the eyes - Eyes of the 5 foot joker, which always revealed the truth.
He walked back slowly to his house having done what his son did – killed. Today, the beliefs had died too.
He took out a pot of mud from his trunk - saved from his fields. Its smell was invigorating. But today he took it to the roof and spread it out there. Then he stretched his small body over it and lay back staring at the stars. It was strangely peaceful.

New Year Resolution

2010-01-09T02:36:00.000+05:30

I didn’t have any last year. Just hoped that it should be a good one. It was an amazing one. I can easily call it the most amazing one till now – full of ups and downs. It really went to real extremes this year – a roller coaster year… a year of crests and troughs.

Well, I am not in a mood to fret over the bygones – a lesson learnt in 2009. Let’s focus on the one to come and start with the (in)famous new year resolution.

It is not a long list that I have in mind right now. Only one – reducing the net addiction. Possible? The year end will tell. But with things spilling over from computer to internet on mobile too, something definitely needs to be done!!

So how to go about it and what should be the metrics of reduction in the net addiction. Quite simply, a control on time spent on the web!

To detail it further, 2 main things need to be done.

1. No frequent checking of mails, twitter and facebook

How to do it?

- Not keeping all the tabs open. The college time is over – the time when there was a new mail every 5 minutes. It was important to check them because there were some where there was the most important information on lecture cancellation and you wanted to be the first one to know and tell others, gaining some good wishes from them for telling them the good news.

- Switching off the alarm sound on Tweetdeck – already done.

2. Keeping a designated time for reading blogs/news/articles etc.

This is a tough – very tough thing to do. But that itself is the challenge.

Ego:Now… time to plan the timetable for mail checks…

Alter Ego: Damn!!! What are you doing? What for? Plan something else.. Make a new resolution. You will not be able to do..

Ego: Shut Up Shut Up… Take out the diary and write it….

And the fight continues….

Why I am an Atheist - I

2010-01-09T02:32:00.000+05:30

Definition: a lack of belief in the existence of God or gods

It was this autobiographical piece by Bhagat Singh (http://www.boloji.com/spirituality/051.htm) that started my mental turbulence- of questioning the beliefs.

Bhagat Singh was a superbly clear minded person who could put what he thought about his atheism so eloquently in words. I am still trying and this is an attempt in putting tough thoughts in words.

Some of these thoughts and ideas would, of course, be borrowed from what Bhagat Singh wrote.

One reason is that belief in God leads to an association with a religion. And religion is something that leads to biases. In Mumbai, when we went out to find a house on rent, the point of religion came up many times. If you are of a particular set of religion, then only you can rent the house.

Why?

Are the others not the sons/daughters of the so called GOD?

And needless to say we have been witness to so many incidents where the division of INDIANS on basis of religion has been exploited. Religion makes boundaries around the lives of people. A bhakt of Hanumaan has to go to Mandir every Tuesday. He reads Hanuman Chalisa every day. A Sikh has his own rituals – may be reading Japuji Sahib every morning. The ritual is good intentioned – so that people read it, understand it and may be follow the learning in their lives.

But do they understand what they read? How many people try to follow it? It has become what it is - a ritual that has to be done so that the Gods are pleased each morning.

So my first step to atheism start here – reading a religious book or praying each morning. Why not read a good motivational book or some article on positive thinking instead?

HR is not all Gass

2010-01-09T02:29:00.000+05:30

An Oil Depot, though a part of a gargantuan organization, is a small company in itself. We have our own set of customers, our own products, a separate finance department and an operations department. Products are the different types of fuels. The team which is responsible for filling these products in Tanks and dispatching them can be called an operations department. The Supply and Distribution(S&D) Deptt gets daily orders from customers and assigns tank trucks to meet the demands on a daily basis.

For the past few days I have been shuttling between the two departments of my office – the client facing S&D and the operations. And I can clearly see how susceptible they are to conflict.

S&D has to cater to the demand of all the customers – from the next door retail outlets to the far flung, many times inaccessible parts of the crown state of India. Sitting in an S&D room means non-stop phone calls, people barging in through to know the status of their demands. You cannot turn them away as the product is an essential good.

Coming to the operations part. Filling of Tank Trucks (TT) as directed by the S&D is just the basic requirement. In addition to providing the right fuel with right quality and quantity, operations also has to take care of the safety aspect as we are dealing with a highly inflammable product here. It has to take care that the TTs have all the safety fittings on, the drivers and helpers who are filling the product are doing so in a safe fashion. And add to that the normal operational hazards of dealing with erratic behaviors of both man and machine.

Now this creates a potential Mahabharat type situation.

For example, a customer is pressuring the S&D to dispatch the product at the earliest.

But while filling of the TT, one of the following occurs:

-       The loading mechanism goes out of order for some reason in the middle of the filling

OR

-       The less educated worker makes does not follow the safe filling procedure and has to be reprimanded so that he does not repeat the mistake. (old school methods)

OR

-       There is some deficiency in the Truck for which it is not safe to fill it with the product

In any of the situations above, there will be delays in meeting the customer demands.

Primarily no one is at fault and are doing their job but it creates a conflicting situations where there will be fingers pointed at each other.

This is at a much smaller scale. I am sure big organizations face this conflict at larger levels.

So what is the solution to avoid such conflicts. One classic solution which we generally used to write in the MBA exams was Job Rotation - people involved in both the jobs be rotated so that each other can understand the pain points of other.

But it has other associated problems of handling the ego conflicts and the human resistance to change.

The point is that all problems at the end involve Humans or in other words are HR problems. May be the HR subjects in MBA courses need to be marketed well to students – after all that is what they need to know the most!!

Idiotic Ideas !!

2010-01-09T02:26:00.000+05:30

3 idiots, the latest buzz in town is also getting released on You Tube, though some 8 – 10 weeks later. Raju Hirani, the director says that people are anyways going to download the movie from the internet, why not earn some revenues from it. I think this is an excellent idea.

Many people will still prefer going the free way – downloading from torrents or getting it from friends. But there will be some who won’t mind spending a few bucks getting it “legally”. Human mentality is at work. If it is really cheap vs free, people will have tendency to go for the real cheap because it frees them from the guilt of piracy. It is something similar to what Chetan Bhagat books did a few years back. Everyone used to get the pirated books to get them cheap. E.g. a Rs 300 book is easily available for anything between Rs 80 – 120 at any roadside vendor. By pricing the book at 100 bucks (which now has become a trend with new authors), people went in for the original because it was real cheap. Why not buy an original for 100 rather than a duplicate for may be Rs 60 – 70 and be guilt free.

Moreover, it also helps in creating a buzz which is especially useful for a new movie. Say the movie is available for download for Rs 100, one who downloads it will definitely put it up on twitter, facebook etc encouraging the circle of friends to go for it.

One potential problem can be the payment on the internet. Many people are still wary of internet payments and many users will be of the age group who may not possess bank accounts or credit cards.

I am eagerly waiting to see how this strategy of 3 idiots goes through!!

MBA & Politics

2010-01-09T02:24:00.000+05:30

Rahul Gandhi yesterday won the CNN-IBN politician of the year.

Well, I think he is a good example and a case for the MBAisation of politics.

Politicians traditionally have been people who have risen from the root level, understanding people and their problems and then getting their support and votes to get elected. And while they were at it, many didn’t get enough time to get a full education.

Then there are technocrats, young (mostly), highly educated, having and open to new ideas who want to change things work. Many times they have been charged with not able to understand the basic problems of people at a very basic level.

Rahul Gandhi is doing something similar to a FMCG marketing job for a MBA. A young management trainee out of a high profile institute is put on a sales training in different parts of the country where he travels deep into the heartland, understanding the basics of consumers – who they are, what they want, how they behave etc. They are highly educated and talented; they understand the macro side of things very well. And by undergoing this kind of training, they get the micro picture as well. And after that they are as comfortable giving a presentation to a CEO or talking to a paan walah in a small town.

May be such kind of training programs can be designed in politics as well. Different political parties can come for campus placements, pick up bright people from across the fields – doctors, engineers, MBAs, Accountants and then put them into a training to a point where they are at ease giving a joint statement with a country head or addressing a rally in villages.

Free Education

2010-01-09T02:19:00.000+05:30

Seth Godin recently came out with a e-book which is available for ‘free’ download. According to him it’s all about spreading the idea. In one of the interviews on music piracy, Palash Sen of Euphoria said that he didn’t have a problem with piracy as long it is helping his work to get to people. If people really like your work then it will help your brand to grow and there can be plenty of alternative channels to make money out of it.

Can the same logic be applied to education too?

Currently we have MBA preparation centers, Engineering coaching centers, GMAT and GRE book who provide you material for preparation at enormous costs. How about some company providing books, question papers, podcasts of lectures – all free of cost. But what can be the source of income for them? That is a food for thought !!

It can be easily applied to schools and colleges where free material can be provided on the net. There have been some arguments that this will lead to students not attending classes. But I think attending classes has a direct correlation to the quality of the teacher. If the classes are great, no one would trade it for mere notes.

As one of the articles on a similar debate says:

“The value of a college education has never been entirely about the content of the classes. People go to college to make connections with ambitious peers and eminent professors, for the social life, for the facilities and, of course, for the credential. The exclusivity of an elite education is a great part of its value, and the fact that anyone can click through a Harvard biology class online is unlikely to change that.”

Rekindling the Future

2010-01-08T20:43:00.000+05:30

Few moments have passed in the past 3 years when there was a laptop in front without it being plugged into the vast cloud of internet. But the last 5 months were exactly opposite. Getting an internet connection here in Jammu was a project in itself. But, as they say everything has a brighter side. Lack of connectivity on the laptop meant getting GPRS activated on the mobile.

Once I was a net addict and now I became a mobile net addict. With laptop, you still had times – travelling, in the class or in general where there was no wi-fi available. But with that small piece in hand and it being connected to the world meant the addiction was waiting to happen.

So now after around 5 months on surfing through the mobile, I am having trouble concentrating on the big screen of the laptop when it has been finally found purpose. Checking mail on the mobile is much easier, though replying back is not (It can be made easy if you have a qwerty keypad. But can’t complain much as I am using a high(est) end mobile phone that too given for free by Lalit, which also had a major role to play for my mobile-net addiction given its huge screen).

Recently, I have also been reading books on mobile. Well !! From paper to laptop to mobile. With the emergence of Kindle (and some other e-readers), a debate has been sparked on what is better – a traditional book or reading on some e-reader like Kindle.

Well most of the arguments in favor of books have been emotional – that smell, filling up the racks with a rainbow of collection, getting cosy with a book in a corner with a cup of coffee on a lazy Sunday etc etc.

Yes those things make you nostalgic and difficult to toss the books aside. But thinking rationally, for me, books always meant less concentration. It is easy to lose track after some time, especially if you are reading a tough book.

I read books on speed reading and am still struggling to reach the enormous reading speeds which these books make you dream about.

I find it much easier to read swiftly on a mobile or on a laptop – without any speed reading guides.

Though I am yet to experience Kindle but I am pretty sure that I will like it. The only problem that remains is that of High prices. As of now, it is out of reach but that is the best thing about technology. I am sure it will be ‘pocketable’ in no time.

Main Kahan hun....

2009-12-23T19:08:00.004+05:30

After 4 years of blogging here, I decided I need a gift for the new year – apna domain name.
Will be blogging from this new more personal space from now on.

http://sidharthbedi.com

Owner is God!!

2009-11-21T17:04:00.000+05:30

Every day, for 8 hours I am surrounded with hundreds of trucks. The truck wallahs have a penchant for writing quotes on their vehicle. The most popular one is the famous,
“buri nazar wale, tera mooh kaala”. Then there are some good intentioned people who say, “Buri nazar wale, tera bhi bhala”.
The most common one I have found on side of trucks is “God is One” while many of them advise against AIDS with a “AIDS se bachen”
Today I saw a rather confusing one. It said, “Owner is God”.
Well don’t know if the truck owner is calling himself God or he has simply translated the hindi saying – “Bhagvaan Maalik hai”.

'Work'ers or 'No-Work'ers

2009-11-18T17:18:00.005+05:30

I have been observing this for the past couple of months now. Today an incident marked the tipping point for me writing this.
The incident that happened was a boy at office happened to vent out his frustration to me. This boy who has been contracted to do some particular work at office is asked everyday to do a variety of jobs – the real responsibility of which lies with the ‘staff’ of the company. (Graduates and Post graduates join at the Officer level. The staff level is the one below them). What led to this boy’s vent of frustration was that not only was he told to do jobs which were not his, but also he was scolded, threatened to do them.

After having seen the attitude of majority of workers or staff people, it is no wonder that pressure (and responsibility) is put on a person who is not an employee of the company and who has no “associations/unions" to support or back him up. The rest of the junta is happy munching peanuts in the warm winter sun – a typical picture which comes to mind when you think of a government owned or run organisation. A mere 4 months in the organization and I have been witness to people openly saying that they don’t know the work. You can’t force things as the threats to go to the union can be issued at the drop of the hat. There is no propensity to learn because without that too the monthly cheque is coming to the bank account and joining a “Government company” has already allayed all their ambitions.
Bland refusal to follow orders does affect the ego of the officers, who then vent it out all on the contracted guy who cannot reply back in fear of getting his contract cancelled.

There were talks that the organization is trying to move away from hiring people at the staff level instead outsourcing those works.
The benefits are many.
First, there will be no union, hence no complacency. A negative point can be that who does the contractor go to in case of any injustice. Well, I guess the answer to that is that if he is good, the organization would not like to let go of him and his concerns will be addressed.
Secondly, the thing they call – job security won’t be there. The staff level knows that even if they don’t do any work, they cannot be fired. This problem takes a colossal shape in case of state owned enterprises.
Third - the cost. By outsourcing, we are changing the fixed cost to a variable cost component making the organization leaner and flexible.
Fourth – safety. Recently we have seen a major disaster due to negligence. If a contracted labor, whose work is that of a sweeper, is asked to operate those huge, deadly things called oil tanks or may be the complex machinery like oil pumps, a disaster is waiting to happen!!

Sachin !!!!

2009-11-17T19:07:00.000+05:30

The other day someone asked me, “You call yourself a big Sachin fan, so tell me the exact number of runs he has scored till now”
“12000 something and 16000 something”
“Haa ! Sachin fan!”, came the sarcastic reply.
“OK. how many centuries and half centuries”
“well 40 something and 90 something”
“What the hell! How do you call yourself a Sachin fan dude”.

That got me thinking, introspecting.

I don’t remember how many 100’s and 50’s He has scored
But I know, it is way more than anyone else.
I don’t remember the runs he has scored
But I know that no one will be able to reach those numbers in my life time.
I don’t remember what shot he played to which bowler, on what ground against which opposition.
I simply know that the shot must have given me immense pleasure, thrill and excitement.

And I think that is all what Sachin is all about. For me, it’s not about the numbers it never was. He hardly raised his bat when he reached the 17000 mark recently but you could see the joy on his face, in his body language after he punched the ball through the off side for a boundary. And that is why me and probably numerous others watch Him.
When he comes dancing down the pitch, it is as if the seconds move slowly. As soon as you see that aggressive stance, then the legs moving, the heart beat literally stops. There is that deadly mix of fear and excitement - something that Michael Douglas would have felt in Basic Instinct. It never feels the same when other numerous other batsmen do the same.
There are plenty of shots like the cover drives, straight drives, sweeps and paddle sweeps, gentle nudges and the on drives – which are replayed time and again. But there are those some special ones which are at top of the mind – fixed permanently there. One being the upper cut off Shoaib Akhtar in World Cup 2003. There had been some boundaries hit before that, but may be that shot “opened the floodgates”. I remember, watching it at Lolly’s place where we friends had gathered to watch the match. Oh, we jumped off our seats – again the fear followed by ecstasy – all in a matter of seconds.
Then there was the ferocious pull off Andy Caddick against England. It went soaring past the boundary – not of the ground but of the stadium. I was sitting in at Bulls Eye, doing some DI problems for CAT, which was some 9 months away(Damn!! ). That shot “opened the floodgates” of sms’s, prompting me to calculate the percentage increase in sms before and after the shot. Of course, I literally ran back home after the class.
The next one is a six of Fleming at Sharjah. It was not a sweetly timed straight batted shot over the bowler’s head but was intended to hit hard. It went soaring over the long on.
All the three were seen on TV. There was one special one seen live. I was sitting just to the left of deep mid wicket at PCA, Mohali. It was a full pitched delivery and I saw the ball move in 2 directions. First, it moved perpendicular to my line of sight and then a few seconds later, moved back in exactly the opposite direction as if it had hit a wall – Action and reaction. I don’t know why, it was beautiful to watch.
There was a beauty even when He got out on 99. It was the beauty of sadness. I have never seen Fifty Thousand people at one place absolutely silent. It was amazing – the spell that He cast. It seemed like the shrieks of the Pakistan team was swallowed in that silence. Half the stadium had their hands on their heads, the other half on their faces, just showing the sad eyes.
This silence was also the sound of shattering of one of my dreams to watch Him raise his bat Live – in front of my own eyes and applaud Him. It is tough for such an occasion to appear where He raises His bat if He has not scored a century so technically numbers are involved here. But the dream is just to see his bat raised – possibly in His last match. I wonder what will that be like – the last match. May be all the flood lights will get automatically turned off and a light will appear from the skies directed in the center of the ground which will follow Him as he walks to the pavilion, one last time. Meanwhile the dream still remains.

Banks!

2009-11-10T11:00:00.003+05:30

Visiting 2 banks – a public sector and a private sector one can be a bipolar experience. Some key differences which I observed in a matter of minutes were:

1. Written Application:
In a public sector setup, a grumpy looking person asks you to go to a corner and write an application for xyz purpose. If you ask for a blank sheet of paper, you will get a hard look before it is presented to you. God help you if you ask for a pen. After all being a banker to every Indian can be a tough ask!
Quite contrastingly, on my visit to the recently ‘rebranded’ private sector bank, the application was written by the representative and all I had to do was read and sign it.

2. Computer Savvy:
The generation who are lifers at the Public Sector banks are yet to get comfortable with computers. Of course, it’s been tough on them but, well, you can’t help but see the difference at the private banks where instead of finding some form through a sheaf of forms, all they do is to type in the IP of the server having soft copies of all docs and get a print out. It was quite funny watching a middle aged employee getting up from her computer terminal and sulking like a child, calling out loudly to someone because she got a error message.

3. Customer Satisfaction:
Is customer the king or the employees? Well, if there is a line of customers on your counter, and a fellow employee comes behind in the counter and asks for some work should you do it on priority? That was the thought with which I left this Public Sector bank.

Many things which happened in the public sector bank must be happening in private sector too. But may be the inherent attitude which makes the DNA of any organization is definitely different!

Bhagat Singh and Mumbai

2009-11-02T17:32:00.000+05:30

On a 'Geri' of Punjab University, I saw the building where I gave my NM entrance test. Its called Bhagat Singh Hall.
It led to a train of thought where I found that Mumbai part of the life had some more relations to Bhagat Singh.
Not only the hall in which I gave the test which led me to Mumbai was named after my favorite hero but also my address during the first year was Bhagat Singh road in Vile Parle.
To add to the coincidence, my last day in Mumbai was on 23rd March - the day on which Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev were martyred in 1931!!

Island Day

2009-10-19T23:29:00.003+05:30

A cool, pleasant breeze – indicating that typical North Indian winters are just around the corner and a mildly warm sun – one that just warms up your skin so that it feels amazing when the cool breeze soothes it. A chilled Budweiser and the surroundings green and empty. Four of them sat there, 5 years after having sat there every day for four years. They had just spent half an hour taking a round of each and every nook and corner of the college – the only difference that instead of 4 guys being on 1 black scooter, they were on a black SUV. They sat there for an eternity – talking, remembering. There were cycles of a recalled memory, followed by a homogenous mixture of 4 different types of laughs.
It is important to do silly, stupid things – especially in college life – so that you have memories of it later. Be it a gheri with 5 people on a scooter meant for 2 or 8 people in a car meant for 4, going to a 5 star hotel and ordering the cheapest item on the menu – a fruit ruffle, and sharing it with 2 other fellows or starving on the lake with no money in any of the pockets. Just lying down, staring at the sky, thinking about gastronomy and making some stupid comments about astronomy.
If the afternoon was good, better was to follow. He had once dreamt after watching DCH, that he and his friends with their WAGs are sitting like them in the last scene – a round table and just chilling. He didn’t know that he would see the dream turning into a reality. But before that it was time to go to the 5 star hotel – the new one. Ironically it was owned by a guy with a name which was similar to what they had done to their most loved college lives 5 years ago. 3 of them were there with their W’s. He was the lone exception – not that it mattered much. And this time they didn’t order the cheapest snacks and shared it with everybody. The best part, apart from the company was the ambiance – the best one he had seen till now in the town. And it was here that a degree of completeness was added. Everyone took turns to talk to the one who had woken up when we were getting ready to have dinner. The meaning of long distance calls has completey changed. It used to be a call from 200 kms away and people used to talk loudly on phone. Now its saat samundar paar and we just turn on the loudspeaker. It was time then for the newly added family members (read the Ws) to get introduced to us – they did well!
The party moved on from the latest in town to one of the oldest in town – 5 stars don’t have the flavor of the butter chicken and naan which simple mortals like them aspired for. Here, he saw the round table with chairs around it and he saw the dream unfolding in front of him. Despite suggestions of moving to a comfortable location, he insisted on this table and from then on it was a kind of trance - maybe it was the butter chicken.
Here followed the stories – some short and sweet and some elaborated, complete with dates and venues and yet some where all of them contributed because all were associated it in some way – stories of how singles became doubles. In time, as existences of some living beings were eradicated, the crowd slowly became silent. There was not even a clichéd “Itna sanatta kyu hai bhai” – all deep in thoughts or getting nostalgic or may be everyone was sleepy.
The day was an island. Soon it was time to leave it and sail in the unknown again. After enjoying the comfort of an island, how can the sea look exciting to anyone?

Home Shopping

2009-10-13T09:29:00.000+05:30

They said that Internet penetration was not enough in India and people are afraid to pay online, so shopping from the net is not a viable option.
So now we have the concept of shopping channels pioneered by Network 18, Star etc. They are 24 hour channels which will have live feed and people can buy from their TV – No problem of penetration as all houses especially in tier 2, 3 cities(the primary target market as these cities don’t have the big brands which people aspire for) have TV’s and housewives don’t have to learn to operate it. Considering the size of modern retail being estimated at $200 bn by 2012, home shopping has tremendous potential.
But it will have to overcome some of the basic Indian buying behavior problems or in other words “educate the customer”

1. Establishing Trust
The problem with internet shopping has been establishing trust. No doubt with brand names like Star and Network 18, they have the brand image to push things.

2. Quality of ads on the channel
When you say home shopping or teleshopping, what comes to mind are those silly ads which has foreigners with 6 pack bodies, a ridiculous hindi voiceover (which has been a topic to mimic in Laughter Challenge), selling some health equipment. Who buys those products seeing those ads?

3. Buying Mentality
Even if we have to buy simple things like utensils, we have a habit of going to 3 – 4 shops, checking them out by touching and feeling, bargaining and then buying it. Nothing of that sort is possible while buying from a TV. And may be is the greatest challenge in e-commerce.

4. Early adopters
No doubt, just like any new technology, this channel needs to have its early adopters – who would adopt the channel and promote it by talking about it. Are these early adopters going to come in the form of tier-2, tier-3 housewives or youngsters from metro cities?

Right to Education

2009-10-12T09:26:00.000+05:30

Swaminathan Aiyer writes about the imperfections in the right to education bill – it giving only a right to schooling, not education with a major problem of teacher absenteeism still not solved. A possible solution that has been long recommended – not only in case of education but as a replacement for Public Distribution System – is the introduction of vouchers. With that, any ‘aam aadmi’ can go to any large or small, public or private school for his education, using the coupon to pay the gargantuan fees that schools today charge.
The system of coupon may work in case of PDS where we are dealing with a commodity - a person has to just go to a shop and buy the product. But when it comes to education, the same system can develop flaws. We are talking about a child from a relatively poor background getting admission in a neighborhood, big, private school, all his fees being paid by the government through vouchers.
But what about the associated costs in a school education. Every day in schools, there are demands of funds on pretext of one ‘development’ or the other. Today, it is an art project for which you need to buy some expensive paints, tomorrow it may be some cricket match for which you have to keep in proper gear. There are numerous associated costs of studying in a private school today. Now, will the government vouchers pay for that too? Or will that burden come squarely on the poor soul who was too happy to send his ward to a ‘private’ school.
And what happens to the morale and self confidence of the child, who is bullied by his peers when he is not able to match up to them?

Austerity

2009-09-17T12:17:00.000+05:30

The buzz word for more than a week has been "Austerity". Right from Twitter to TV, this has been the topic of discussion.
There is an interesting editorial in the Economic Times, which refers to the austerity of Mahatama Gandhi and Sarojini Naidu quipping that it "costs the nation a lot to keep Gandhiji in poverty".
The ground reality has most probably been the same in our times too. If a Sonia Gandhi travels economy class or Rahul gandhi by train, half the other seats are taken by their security setup, so there is a high chance that ultimately it is costing the nation more for this austerity drive.

But I have come to believe that COngress is turning into smart marketeers. In General elections, their national positioning was clear - Youth!
Now when state elections in some important states are coming up, they have started another round of marketing campaign and they have been successful in creating that space in the mind of the "aam aadmi" by the blitzkreig of the austerity drive.

The role of the media is also important here. They are news hungry and just have to be fed 'correctly' and they will give you a free of cost campaign (Ideally it is free). May be a lesson for all the corporates out there!!

Govt Offices

2009-09-16T12:00:00.003+05:30

Well.. a nice start to the day - having dealing with 2 govt offices within a few hours.
First it was BSNL where I was determined to make some progress regarding my landline and broadband connection which I had applied more than 2 weeks back. After meeting with the SDO, I came to know that they didn't have some cable.
And it had to brought from somewhere. And that the officer in charge of that purchase was on leave, returning only next week. Process Stalled.

Next in line was Post Office. I had to send some documents through speed post (DTDC people said they were experiencing some problems in logistics)
So first I went to the neighbourhood post office which was the best small post office I have ever seen. Neat and clean, new furniture - it had a modern look to it. When I said, that I wanted the mail to reach as soon as possible, the lady suggested to go to the office at the railway station where the dispatch happens more frequently. At the station post office, first got into a tiff with the security guard - they are the hardest to please - anywhere. After he did not let me park the scooter near the gate, I went a couple of meters ahead and parked it. On way to the office, the guard gave me sheepish smile and started explaining that there were (unwritten) rules and all. I followed a strategy which I have faced many times - mostly in government offices. I gave a slight glance at him for a fraction of a second, so that he knew that I knew that he was speaking to me and then completely ignored his presence as if nothing existed. I have seen this thing work - not being acknowledged completely frustrates a person.
It hits at the ego - makes him feel totally irrelevant and unimportant. I could see the effect when I came back from the office. He was shouting at someone - may be to not park his vehicle there.
Anyways, after this little encounter, I went in the post office. And asked the pointers to the speed post counter from an employee. His volume was so low, I could hear the buzz of the fly near his face but not what he was saying. After asking exactly 5 times, I got the message that there was another section for speed post behind the building. I went there. It was kind of a warehouse where all incoming and outgoing mails, parcels etc were kept. After getting some directions, I landed up in a office where the concerned person sitting behind the desk asked me to go the front office. I countered with, "unhone hi yahan bheja hai" - they have only sent me here.
He retorted with "Its their job. Not ours. Go to manager saab".
So next task was to find the manager saab.
I was shocked to see him. To an MBA, the word manager is a coveted word. It has some nice images and expectations attached to this word. But this particular manager looked more like a cleaner.. ok. clerk!
He was busy playing with his mobile.
After looking at the envelope from all sides, he called a person and asked him to get the job done. This guy then takes me to the guy who sent me to the manager. Now he knew that he HAS to do the job. So he gives a couple of abuses to the front office guy for not doing his duty and accepts the envelope. And ya, he doesn't respond to my query about when can I expect this mail to be delivered.

I come back home and decide to break the writing block on my blog with today's experience.

Next Destination: Heaven on Earth

2009-07-27T08:44:00.001+05:30

Had talked about the cocoon in the last post before leaving Chandigarh. After that 2 small cocoons have again been formed and the last one is about to break again… Initially it was 2 weeks of effortless life at Gurgaon amongst the easy environs of the training center. Free food, free and excellent accommodation, Gym and Swimming facilities – overall preparation for a smooth transition. Met some old friends and had a good time making new ones.
Then again after 2 weeks half of the batch was uprooted and sent to the eastern part of India – the land of the left – Kolkata. Again the facilities were provided and it took no time settling in a routine here. Some more friendships were formed and it was quite a fun time in the past 4 weeks – the highlight was first learning and then endless sessions of Poker. And well the official learning part too. (just a relevant example - came to know that just opening the windows when a LPG leak happens in the house doesn’t really help because all the Gas settles down on the floor as it is heavier than air. Sealing the cylinder with the cap should be the first step).
Having roamed about almost all of India, I was comparing the no. of states and UTs visited with a friend. Both of us had the figure of 22 out of 35 (28 states + 7 UTs). I remarked about not having visited J&K especially because it is in north – in close proximity to where I live. Somehow it was missed. And as luck would have it, a couple of hours later I was informed of my next posting – Jammu.
This time it won’t be the same. No free food and AC accommodation with housekeepers on call. It’s something like going to Infy, Mysore after training at Hyderabad (though there were 9 of us then as against only me here). So time to prepare – mentally and physically for some more change.

Possibilties of Stagflation

2009-07-12T15:26:00.000+05:30

The budget has brought in mixed reactions from different quarters. The task for the FinMin was to balance the problem of economic reforms (read fiscal deficit) and the social reforms. While there is no doubt (as already argued here) that focus on social expenditure is necessary for the growth of the country in long term but seeing away from the problem of fiscal deficit has in built problems of possible Stagflation in the country.
The logic is simple. Increasing fiscal deficit (Govt Expenditure minus Govt Earnings which is around 6% of the GDP) means the government has to borrow more(around 400,000 crores) to meet its expenditures. Now when the government is borrowing a huge amount, the banks don’t have much more money to give out to other companies. As the demand for money increases to more than the supply of money, it results in increase in the cost of borrowing money i.e. interest rates. This results in 2 possible effects.
a. Less borrowing by the industries, which results in less expansion plans, hence less growth
b. As cost of borrowing increases, the cost of production increases and the company passes on these costs to the consumers resulting in increase in prices or inflation
Already we are facing a drought like situation in India due to lack of monsoons, resulting in increase in commodity prices. Though the inflation measured by the WPI index is less but the consumer price Index (CPI) which is a more relevant figure from the point of view of ‘aam aadmi’ still hovers around 10%.
Hence we can see a possible halt in growth and increase in inflation – in other words Staglflation.

Cocoon....

2009-06-14T12:31:00.000+05:30

Within the last 5 years, I have broken the cocoon of a set life around 4 times and I am all set to do it for the 5th time today. Hence, on an average every year I bit goodbye to the comfort of a normal, set life and start again. If you think of it, it seems tough but when you live it, it becomes a habit. Given that you have a place to stay, the first thing you need to find is a place to eat nearby, the mode of transport, the nearest market for daily stuff, then slowly the house begins to take shape and soon you are not living out of the suitcase anymore. If you think about it, it look like a uphill task, but while living it, it becomes natural and before you even know, you are back in the cocoon of comfort and then - soon it is time to break it again. Let’s see how the breaking and the formation process unfolds in the next few months.

Search...

2009-06-08T14:41:00.000+05:30

Structured Search – that seems the buzzword and the way to go forward for the search companies. Wolfram Alpha was the first one to come up with such a structured result of a query. But the results are from a massive database it has. Google has taken up a more challenging task of structuring the whole web through Google Squared, which is still developing in its Labs. Microsoft’s Bing brings in a good competition to the search area of Google. But not to be left behind in its own game, Google, with squared (and the amazing Google wave) clearly has a vision of where it is headed.

As for structured search, it seems the natural way forward. Google has indexed the whole World Wide Web and pulls up what you need at the click of a button for the user. The way forward, quite logically is to present the information or data in a format that is much more user friendly, which saves time and reads the mind of the user effectively.

The advent of Web 2.0 and the user-generated data on the web results in an overload of information. Any innovation which provides a structure, sense and a certain authenticity to this maze of data is bound to be accepted and widely popular.

Lullaby

2009-06-07T15:31:00.001+05:30

Summer time. It is afternoon and hot outside. Inside the house, it is calm and quiet. Half-lying on the bed you are reading a book. The book in high probability is something you are not very much interested in. May be some exam is lurking round the corner so you have to read it but it is not tomorrow so not reading will also not make much of a difference. Propped up on the pillow you see the ceiling fan – an old one, itself tired from the tough job in the hot weather but still, lazily carrying on. It is making a creaky noise while going around, as if to sound its displeasure. But nevertheless it is responsible for the difference from the harsh and sunny outer world you can see through the gap between the drawn curtains. It seems like a gentle breeze caressing you. The fast fading black characters on the book cover up the light as the creaking sound from the fan acts as the ideal lullaby for a perfect afternoon nap.

Brand India

2009-06-05T21:58:00.000+05:30

Now this was something which I feared.

Slumdog may have won all the Oscars of the world, but it has led to people having a certain wrong perception of India. Now when someone who is not very familiar with this part of the world, hears the word India, the direct association with the movie takes him to an image of the slums which were spectacularly shot in the movie. Brand India certainly takes a hit.

Jim Rogers in a recent interview said “Wherever I go for speeches around the world I tell people, if you have to go to one country in your lifetime, you should go to India.”
But may be his audience are restricted to the ‘Economic Times reading type’.

Movies are a powerful medium which have both the reach as well as the influence to change or form perceptions. May be some of the filmmakers should take lead in making movies which have global appeal and which something better to people to associate India with. It will be quite a creative challenge to weave this aspect in an interesting script.

Social Reforms and Economic Development

2009-05-24T13:51:00.000+05:30

Mr. Swaminanthan Aiyar, talks about not to expect radical economic reforms from the government. Rather than that, it will be more focused on Social reforms like infrastructure, health, education, rural development etc. This has been the theme for the past 5 years and is on the agenda for the next 5 years too.
But there is no harm in following this route to economics success. Mr. Amartya Sen, in Argumentative Indian, points out the strong linkage between social opportunity and economic development. The most common notion is that economic development occurs when global trade happens in the country. This has been the case in India too specially with the IT sector. But as Mr. Sen points out, to be on par with the global competition we need to have quality products, which in turn requires more skilled and educated people. We need to be high in our efficiencies – for which we need less absenteeism and good health of people. Ultimately it boils down to how socially developed the country is.
The government is also right in focusing on rural development. In this environment of receding global demands, our local demand, especially from the rural sector has led to us maintaining a very good growth rate compared to the world. Everyone has realized the importance of that market at the bottom of the pyramid. And to sustain and develop that market, we need to shift the spotlight on them.
The mantra seems to exploit this linkage between the social and economic aspects. It may not give the magical and drastic reforms that the country is expecting but may lay a firm ground for the long term benefits of the country.

Decontrolling Fuel Prices

2009-05-19T22:33:00.000+05:30

There is a lot of euphoria over the stable government for next 5 years in India. Already scores of policies – disinvestment in PSU’s, Pension reform etc are being talked about and expected in the near future. All these will have a major impact on the country. But one reform which will have a direct and visible impact on the people (or aam aadmi as congress likes to call) will be the decontrolling of the fuel prices. [link]

Simply put, the price for which we get petrol and diesel from the petrol will be much more variable as they will move according to the global market prices. The artificial controlled prices of fuel in the recent past have been both a headache and leverage for the government. Leverage because a reduction in fuel prices can bring about a change in sentiments of the nation in its favor and headache because of multiple reasons - various quarters pressing it for reduction in prices, deep losses for government owned Oil companies, anti-government sentiment when prices are increased. In fact often long meetings are held before an increase or drop in prices is announced.

Once prices become market controlled, a lot of this headache gets off the government’s head. Of course, there are a lot of quarters which need subsidy in fuel – agricultural sector, poor (for kerosene oil and cooking gas). But effective means are being employed for them to get the subsidy by the way of smart cards and coupons. These are much more efficient than a subsidy based pricing for the whole of the nation. The variable prices will lead to reduction in tremendous amount of consumer surplus which all of us enjoyed.

The benefit of this will also be seen in other spheres. With highly subsidized prices we could get the fuel cheaper especially when the global prices were touching $150. Now there will be an incentive for both the fuel intensive industries as well as the government to focus on greener and renewable sources of energy. The risk of variability in fuel costs (which form a major component of the costs) will force to invest in alternative sources with lesser dependency on oil and hence lesser risk.

There will also be some encouragement for companies to enter in oil and petroleum sector making it more competitive. Essar and Reliance were wiped off when they established their own petrol pumps but could not match the government controlled prices. Now there will be more incentive for private biggies to enter and may be give some challenge to the well established PSU’s who dominate the oil market in India.
The move is a good one but Mr. Prime Minister needs to look out for the initial unrest and confusion that this move can cause.

Elections 2009

2009-05-17T22:56:00.001+05:30

For the second time my vote mattered in bringing a government (and a stable one this time) to the center. Glad that Dr. Manmohan Singh could make it with a decisive verdict.

2 major reasons for voting for congress:

- Trust in the abilities of Prime Minister. This time there is a potential of people like Shashi Tharoor, Montek Singh Ahulwalia, Jairam Ramesh coming to the decision making table. I hope people of such high caliber can really make a difference.
- Rahul Gandhi and the youth factor. The simple fact that he has been focusing on making Congress a party for the future by actively working in this regard and bringing a lot of youth into the fold. I prefer his forward looking, long term vision to the divisive politics elsewhere.
More of my views on the elections on my other blog here.

Elections and Marketing

2009-05-17T22:44:00.000+05:30

1.Who is the target customer? – Young India
65% of India is between 18 and 35 - 2 years in my MBA this was the first line I used to write under target customer of any marketing plan.
And how do you target these young customers – Divisive Hate politics?
Not at all. We, youth are no more concerned about it. People of India are becoming so called Global Citizens erasing the boundaries between countries and here is someone who is attempting to create boundaries of religion, caste etc. No surprise that there were few takers.

2.What are you selling? – Hate or Hope
Congress and all the regional parties who won, especially in Bihar and Orissa, won because they were selling the development. There was NREGA(which affected 38 million households [Source]), Loan waiver etc for the rural masses. For the urban section, it was the image of Congress being a secular party and the prime minister as an honest man.
BJP were not selling anything except de-positioning Congress by a single minded attack on the current prime minister. One of the TV anchors, who attended many BJP rallies, commented that Modi (their only face of development) focused only partially on development. The rest of the speeches had ferocious communal agenda built into them. Many claps at rally but ‘shoegate’ on the real stage.

3. Positioning? - Weak and Strong Netas
More of de-positioning tactics used by BJP. But again they were tactics not a strategy. Weak Prime Minister Logic was only based on the fact that Sonia Gandhi was the party president and common perception held was that she was driving the government. I don’t agree to this line of reasoning but for once even if we believe that is the case, then she is there now too. Right? So she can drive the government again. So what if she sets a direction in which she wants the party and the country to move? Think of them as Mr. Narayana Murthy, the chairman and mentor of Infosys and Mr. Gopalakrishnan, the CEO. Mr. Murthy is not actively involved in the running of the company but he gives a strategic direction. Does that mean Mr. Gopalakrishnan is a weak CEO?

4. Brand Names- Gandhi
Gandhi is definitely one of the biggest brand names in India. People argue that we are enslaved to a family. Well then it can be argued that so are we to other brands – HUL, Airtel, Nokia and so on. Why do we ‘follow’ a brand or become ‘enslaved’ to it – because we think it is good for us, it gives us good value for money. Same is the case with Gandhi Brand name. In the past it has provided us stability and good governance and that is what people needed right now.

5. Brand Extension – Rahul Gandhi
Rahul Gandhi is using his family name to his advantage. So do all brands.
They are simply using the same brand name for a different product – a product which appeals to the young India, something which gives hope for the future and which people can trust.

Integrating Mass Customization and Social Networking

2009-05-15T13:34:00.000+05:30

‘This is the era of Mass Customization”, our Operations professor has repeated this line innumerable times in each class.
Mass Customization is “producing goods and services to meet individual customers needs with neat mass production efficiency”. (definition: Tseng and Jiao (2001, p. 685)
The famous example was of TVS Scooty, where the outer frame, which is colored is separate from the rest of the machine and according to demand the plastic frame of desired color is put on ‘Just in time’.
Another example was that of Asian Paints where one has the option of mixing the colors on a computer kiosk in Asian Paint Shops and then that customized paint.
Reebok has taken the concept one step ahead in the shoe industry and combining it with mobile technology. The users have option of 3 shoe designs where they can customize what colors/materials they want in their shoes. And all this from their I-phones in an interesting, user friendly application. [Link]
If the integration of Mass Production, Customization and Mobiles was not enough, a social networking angle has been added too. These days we love to share our lives – anything from an insignificant “feeling bored” to sharing marriage pics. So why not let the world that you are getting a customized shoe from Reebok which has X, Y, Z colors and looks like this.
Quite innovative of Reebok to get into their consumer’s lives and interact with them almost one to one.
Talking of trends, Reebok will have a powerful tool once they put up all the designs being purchased on a Google Map. Interesting insights about consumer behavior can be in store for them there.

Twittering

2009-05-12T15:11:00.000+05:30

On top right corner of Hindustan Times today there was an interesting announcement: Now you can follow HT on Twitter.
Twitter, is not yet as famous as Facebook or orkut in India but then it is not something in the league of those social networking sites. Twitter is something like only the “what are you doing” section of FB. You have 140 words. You can write what you are up to so that your friend know or may be a post a miniature blog which will be relayed to the people “following” you (in other words your friend list).
But in case of Twitter, the usages have surpassed the normal Facebook Time Pass stuff. Reason? It can be done through your mobile phone also. You just need to send an sms and the message will be ‘Tweeted’ where all your followers will be able to read it (through web or mobile).
It is this simple fact that Twitter involves Mobile Phones, that it has the great potential in the Indian Market. Internet doesn’t reach everybody but 300 million people in this world are connected by mobiles. And that makes it a powerful tool.

Journalism: Twitter is being widely used for Journalism. It can be used both for collection and distribution of news. There have been instances where people know about any incident before the conventional media even hears about it. It adds a new dimension to the aspect of Citizen Journalism.

Travel: It could work something like this. You are travelling for the first time to Mumbai. While visiting the gateway, you feel hungry, so you tweet, asking about any good place nearby. Someone on your followers list gets it, replies back: Try Café Mondegar or Try Bade Mian behind Taj. Sounds improbable? Well. Not really. There was an initiative [link] by UK Guardian wherein they decided not to plan anything but just getting feedback using twitter.

Politics: How wonderful it would be if Twitter can be used by to let know of politicians about the development work they are doing for the constituency. British PM Office is there on twitter and is used it to constantly update people. In this case, mostly may be journalists but it can turn out to be a very good way to be in touch with people. It may be limited to a very less percentage of population but well no harm trying!

Marketing
Immense opportunities for Marketers. All your viral campaigns can be run through twitter (obviously you need to keep things interesting on a continuous basis for people to follow you)
These followers can also help you in test marketing any new products or give live feedbacks to any new initiatives. Of course, getting people to follow you is a difficult task if it is known that it is being done for selling something. It has to be more informal and friendly. Even if you can market it to a select group of followers who have their network of spreading the word, your work is done. As Seth Godin says, "The cool thing is that now, everyone has ten times as many friends as they used to. The social graph online is a fascinating, exponential factor in growing the list of people who might be willing to hear what you have to say (once).” [link]
By the way, I am on twitter at: http://twitter.com/sidharthbedi

The Nano effect

2009-05-08T13:47:00.000+05:30

Brand is important for a company. Why? Because it gives something that the consumers/customers can directly correlate to a notion, a thought, an adjective in their mind in an instant.
When you think TATA, something like Trustworthy, Reliable, Honest comes to mind. With the backing of that strong Brand that Tata has already built, next one seems to be in-line – NANO.
Already to the millions of minds of this country as well as the world, Nano means Cheap and small. And now they are extending it further with the Nano Housing.

Weeks after launching the much-hyped Rs 1-lakh car, another Tata Group company today unveiled an ambitious project called Shubh Griha, which will offer low-cost homes at under Rs 5 lakh across the country to tap the large and lucrative market for affordable houses. [Link]

The bottom of the pyramid market is really huge and the after the miniature products by FMCG companies, Tatas seem to have really caught the pulse of the funda of BoP market by entering it in Big ways. What can be expected in future. May be Taj Nano - small, low budget hotels. Or Voltas-Nano – small, inexpensive AC’s which can cool the Nano-Homes.

May be a full Nano City can be created (replacing the villages???)- Nano Houses, people only have Nano Cars, Nano Hotels, Powered by exclusive Nano-Power Plants.
Way to go Mr. Ratan Tata!!!!

Common Man and Environment

2009-05-05T15:56:00.000+05:30

Recently, Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and Friedman’s Hot, Flat and Crowded provided me a good dose of Environmental concerns around the globe today. It was this dose that led me to think if a common man is really concerned about environment at all or should these issues be left to the government to be solved on a macro level.
The first question is - Is it really happening? Well, the statistics, videos, photos, documentaries (happened to see one on Discovery recently) - all point to the fact that some drastic changes are really happening. And it indeed needs attention – much more attention than it is getting at present.
But are we concerned about it at an individual level? I don’t think so. We definitely complain that this time around the heat wave is terrifying and started much before it used to happen 5 years ago. There are status messages of how the temperatures in Delhi are breaking 10 year old and 50 year old records. But again we are not really bothered. If the outside temperatures are up, our AC Panel will show a lower temperature. And we can sit pretty comfy. If there is lack of water, electricity, it can be blamed on the government. Traffic problems can be attributed to the rapid development that we are witnessing. The statistics are merely numbers or a news report. Nothing can be directly attributed to the environment. And it may be too harsh to blame us for not being concerned. We are rapidly developing and urbanizing. Why can’t we enjoy a good life?
And even if we want to act environment friendly – what incentives, motivation do we have? Before that, the million dollar question is what do we need to do to be environmental friendly? Refuse take the plastic bag from the shop, don’t use the AC, refrigerators because of some Chloro-Floro Carbons which I cannot even see?

Ultimately it is up to the governmental organizations to implement plans and policies which on a macro level and in the long run will be helpful in saving the environment. But then again, it has to tread the fine line between development and environment. The priority according to the manifestos of 2 leading political parties is quite clear. Both talk of development in BOLD letters while the environment is a 10 – 15 line mention somewhere on the 20th page.
It was a funny feeling when I went through the 11 points the party had mentioned to protect environment. If you had put a question “What steps can be taken to protect environment in India” to a MBA Class, you can expect a similar kind of ‘Gas’ Answers.

Banning of plastic bags in shops has been implemented in cities like Chandigarh. Guess, that is where a start that can be done on a pan-India basis. It also ensures active participation from the citizens to some extent. Environment Impact Assessment or EIA is another initiative which is compulsory by law before start of a new project in an area. It involves active participation from citizens and people from an area where the project is coming up. They can give their feedback on environmental issues that the project may bring about. Often EIA’s of many projects have been in news for all the wrong reasons.
If right reasons and correct incentive is provided, a common man can also play his or her part in the protection of environment which so desperately needs contribution from all quarters.

Asiad to HRC: The MBA Journey

2009-05-01T21:54:00.004+05:30

Well, strange way to define the MBA journey but this heading got stuck in the head when I entered HRC on the last day of my MBA life – which if I see in hindsight was a 2 year of dream journey. Something I had hoped but never expected in my life.
It all started at Hotel Asiad. Amit and I had just landed up in Mumbai and after dumping our stuff in the hostel-flat – later branded as 3HMV(and we as 3Hmvees), were looking for a place to eat a hearty (and economical) meal on a hot and humid day. We walked and searched till we reached Hotel Asiad. Looked fine, had AC and with some butter chicken and Naan, the Mumbai life had begun. What we later learnt was that Asiad was ‘The’ place for NMites. You won’t find a person in the batch who doesn’t know Asiad.
Our vice-chancellor on the opening day had said that time here will pass so quickly that you will never come to notice. It indeed did – specially the first trimester. It was hard work fitting in lectures of 10 subjects in 3 months. And on top of it there were those multiple assignments, tests and aahh.. the presentations.
The presentation part was a weak point and something I wanted to focus on. And indeed, it was a long journey as regards giving presentations is concerned. I remember the first presentation. Trying so hard to get it right. Consulting books whether one should prepare a script and cram it by heart or remember points and speak naturally on stage. Everything was tried. For once, I even tried recording it and analyzing it as part of the preparation. Cut to 2 years later. There were 2 presentations in the last trimester. Just before one of them, I was participating in a dance competition. Rushed to the class immediately after, saw the slides and gave some gyan. I had at least seen the case before hand in this case. The last presentation – I didn’t even know the topic and spoke for 3 slides. Un-imaginable.
The second remarkable aspect was the hostel life. It was for the first time I was living in a hostel kind of environment. Although it was not a perfect Hostel but quite close to it. And it is here that first of the 3 incredible group of friends was formed – the 3HMVees. 3 meaning 3rd floor and HMV for the building name – Hemu Villa. The amazing part was we had people from 4 religions and 4 corners of India living together. Hemu Villa was witness to innumerable discussions (especially when the internet was not working), India’s 20-20 world cup victory, playing dart games and ‘marann pitti’ at 2 in the night, coke bathing on each summer placement, Alok ki kheer, 10 different ways of studying (and non-studying) for exams and the unforgettable 3HMVee awards – all coming together. We had plenty of choices for food here but Hotel Nithyanand is a hands down winner for most orders from 3Hmvees, which includes a record of eating chicken biryani everyday continuously for more than 2 weeks – set by who else but me!! The irony is even after 2 years of ordering food from Nithyanand (conservative personal expenditure estimate of around Rs 15,000 – Rs 20,000) I have not even seen where the hotel exactly is. The best part – after 2 years he even recognized my voice and I just had to give the order!
The second trimester was similar in intensity in terms of subjects and presentations but I guess how to ‘manage’ things was being learnt. So it was not all academics now. Some extra-curricular activities started. And that led to the formation of the super group called Bulls. We started as a class project group and from that emerged a group which brought so many laurels that it got a special mention at the convocation at the end of 2 years. A deadly mix of people, we had the NM flag flying high from Mumbai to Pune to Chennai to Indore to Delhi and all the way to USA. Bulls grossed around Rs 8 lakh worth of prizes by the end of 2 years. The Bull run at the sensex – which inspired the group name, may have turned bearish but this Bull run continued unabated for more than 1 year. What the rosy picture doesn’t tell is the hard times, some failures and some hard fought debates behind the scenes. This was a group of friends largely responsible for the 2 years being a dream that it was. I remember a wonderful discussion – we had sheets of paper strewn across the table, chai and cold drink were sweating away in the side and the special part was the surroundings at Prithvi Café. Prithvi is something unique – in the center and still away from the hustle & bustle of Mumbai, creativity is in the air and you will find such a wide variety of people. From KK Menon having cutting chai, college students doing masti with their gang, people in formal suits pouring into their laptop, Shashi Kapoor idling out in his kurta pyjama, Markand Deshpande in his dreamy world, someone enjoying the intriguing peace with a book and coffee, and an occasional glimpse of other bollywood stars – amazing place.
After the first year, things became a lot chilled out on the academic side - except the 4th trimester which was intense than the whole MBA put together. Anyways, after that with the 5th trim setting in there was that placement pressure lingering on one side and on the other hand another group of friends was in the formation – the fun and party group called KIRDSS. It was KIRDSS who was responsible for the unlimited parties, hanging out, bekar ki bakar – basically chilling out and me finally falling in love with Mumbai. The times were tough (placements!!!) and it was due to this frequent chilling out sessions that some sanity could be maintained and pressure released. And it was not only fun we were having. There were discussions that helped us in our placements too. Improvement on the weaknesses, lending a helping hand wherever required, preparing for those typical interview questions were some alternative aspects of the group apart from other reflections on life as such. Now that the main aim was hanging out so it was now that some favorite addas were born. The first choice was usually Cooper Hospital Canteen. It is hard to fathom that after a meal, we used to leisurely stroll out in front of the emergency ward of the hospital where in sometimes you could hear cries of pain from inside. Ontoes was another hot spot specially after people started getting placed. It was a place when one was in a mood to be a bit lavish. More frequented and lighter on the pocket was Alfredos. Then there was the unmatchable rooftop and the Bhurji-Pav outside Cooper which was reserved for dinners after 2AM.
The last trimester was a haze. Trip to US, participating in dance, play, frequent parties. In fact it had become tough to just manage the parties by the end. Even the farewell by the juniors happened right in the middle of exams – no time for it before or after. And then that feeling of end as everyone started departing one by one. Suddenly it was the end of 2 years of post graduation. And it was decided to celebrate the last day in Mumbai in style at Hard Rock Café – the best one in town. And it was truly amazing. One huge place with rock music written all over it. The memorabilia, the music, the atmosphere– in an instant it became the favorite for all of us.
The journey which had started from Asiad where 5 people could eat stomach full in Rs 350 ended at HRC where a chicken burger cost that much. The progress from Asiad to HRC is just a metaphor to describe the unusual amazing journey which only went upwards in the 2 years at one of the most wonderful place one can have for a student life to be in.
I am one of the lucky few who have been able to enjoy a student life in a cool, laid back place like Chandigarh as well as in a fast paced, hectic, never sleeping and truly rocking Mumbai.

Sound of Silence

2009-04-30T13:58:00.003+05:30

How often have we heard of this phrase – Sound of Silence. But it was something never experienced. But a recent trip gave an opportunity to actually hear the sound of silence – literally.
Silence is generally considered as no noise from a human being. When you can only hear the nature’s voices – breeze gently ruffling the leaves, a river or a stream lightly going by or may be animals softly chattering away. Basically completely merged with the nature. That had been the definition of silence for me till it happened on the Tawang – Lhasa highway – some 13000 feet above sea level.
The setting was similar - it completely belonged to the nature. The white of the snow and the blue of the sky were the only visible colors with a dash of green provided by the sparse trees. It was a lonely mountain, sun covered by the clouds, a light fog settled around. There was not a whiff of breeze and birds and insects excused themselves from the extreme weather.
As I moved down taking in all the beauty around, I was surprised to hear the peculiar sound of my soaked socks making that “pachh-pachh” sound against the soaked boots. I then realized that there was not a sound around. I stood their motionless for a minute, removed the cap and tried to hear any sound – may be something far away or may be something down below from the army camps – Nothing. Absolutely Blank. No birds or insects. No water. No Air or breeze to ruffle things. No human being even remotely close to disturb the setting. It was still, absolutely still. And then I heard it – The sound of Silence , complete Silence. It was a kind of whistle softly blowing into your ears. I stood there, eyes closed and heard it for a long long time – something that I had never heard and may be will never hear it again in life again…

BackPacking North East

2009-04-14T22:42:00.006+05:30

The trip provided Amazing Spectacles

The original plans had started off with a back-packing trip across Europe. Ultimately, keeping in mind all kinds of restraints it ended up being finalized to North East India. And it was quite a trip – plans changing every day, every moment during the sojourn. The 3 people had something in common. All three names started with ‘S’ and their company’s name started with ‘I’. Sanchit and I caught the morning flight from Delhi while Suvo reached Guwahati from Kolkata. We were to travel and trek for the next 12 days.
The final destinations encompassed 3 states – Assam, Arunachal and Meghalaya. The first destination was Tawang - a small town situated literally in the lap of the magnificent Himalayas. The first morning was a sight to remember. It was bright and sunny, clear blue sky and wherever you looked you had snow peaked mountains staring down at you.

Paradise Lake at Sela Pass

It was truly breathtaking. Next 4 days were spent at Tawang. In that for 2 days we trekked, climbed the nearest mountains and altitudes of around 4000 feet to snow ranges. The whole region is army dominated. There are different posts at different heights and it was a close range view of how tough the army life was there in that area. For us, it was remarkable. For them, it was routine and tough. Apart from the treks to PTSO lake – a small water body amazingly unfrozen at 13,500 feet, we also saw the Tawang Monastery – largest in India and second largest in Asia. We also found out that the town went dead at 8.00 PM. The shops close down by 6 – 6.30. There was a electricity cut for 1 – 1.5 hours at 7.30 PM everyday and any traces of ‘night life’ left went off at that time. It was tough resisting a comparison with Mumbai. Another interesting thing was the internet penetration. In Tawang where there was no Mobile connectivity (in fact mobile was off for the whole North East trip) and where a call from a STD/PCO took around 3 minutes to connect – still the place had a cyber café with broadband with decent speed and cheap prices (even the computers were quite modern with flat LCD screens and all)

PTSO Lake: The trek Objective standing at more than 13,500 feet

After 4 long days and 5 nights in Tawang, we left back for Tezpur. The plan was to go to Guwahati from there and then carry on to Tinsukia, Miao and finally to Namdapha – which is a rare Tiger reserve at the extreme East end of India. But destiny had some other plans. On the way to Tezpur, we were stopped and our huge back packs checked 3 times. Then we came to know that serial bomb blasts had taken place that very evening in the area – it was ULFA's rising day next day. Neverthless, Suvo’s uncle was contacted and he gave a green signal to come to Namdapha where special permission had to be taken to enter the area. We found buses leaving from Tezpur itself so booked ourselves. We had an hour to leave so decided to quickly check our mail once. By the time we reached back and Suvo made another call to his uncle to confirm the plans, everything had changed. The bomb blast news had just reached them and we were asked to drop all plans and go to Shillong. The original plan was in fact quite interesting. Had we gone ahead with it, we would have traversed through whole of Assam on the eve of ULFA rising day to the place which allegedly has headquarters of 4 terrorist organizations. May be its good that we went to shillong ;)
Anyways, it was time to check in to a hotel at Tezpur for the night. It was Sanchit’s birthday that day so had a celebration dinner for the most extraordinary birthday of his life. Next morning we left for Shillong. Shillong was a typical tourist destination – not different from our very own Shimla. After checking into a hotel, we enquired about the treks and places to visit. Days here were also full of uncertainty. Plans were deliberated on, discussed, searched, quashed and still changed even after climbing on the bus. The trek to Living root bridge – a rare one found only in India was quite exhausting but enjoyable – through the jungles of Cherapunjee, crossing wire mesh bridges, arduously climbing mountains. The place known for world’s highest rainfall had a harsh sun shining on us on 2 days.

The only double decker living root bridge in the world - Cherrapunjee

Return journey from there was equally exciting. It was a small tribal village that we reached. According to information gathered, there were hourly buses till 3 PM. But our 2.5 hour stay in the middle of the road till 2.30 PM didn’t witness anything which could take us back to shilling. Eventually we took lift in an Ambulance to Sohra (local name of Cherapunjee) from where we took a cab to Shillong.
It was a long journey back from Guwahati but the air journey provided some magnificent spectacles – firstly of the huge mountain peaks of Himalayas and the plains down below in a single view. Secondly of views of 2 other aeroplanes from our plane.
It was one of the longest travel trips I have ever had. The longest time that the Mobile phone was tucked away in the bag. And a rare one where life safety had to be factored in before making some of the decisions. The landscapes , the treks, the grueling bending roads, rare sites and cities – everything has left a distinct mark on the memory – a cherish able mark.

Peaks and the Plains: View from the Aeroplane

Day 8...

2009-03-09T18:02:00.012+05:30

Final day... Big Day...
It seemed like we had been in seattle for years where it was hardly a few days.
The morning was a bright sunny one. Perfect day for a perfect competition. Raka had stayed with me overnight and we left early morning for the university and reached there by 7.30.
Had light breakfast and practiced some more for the preliminary round or in other words the semi finals. 5 out of the 14 teams were to be shortlisted after this round. At around 9, we left for the HUB where our presentation was scheduled at 9.30. We met Suzy there and she encouraged us more before our presentation. We entered the room with 7 judges and few audience at 9.30. The presentation was for 10 minutes. It went flawless - exactly as planned. The next 10 minutes questions and answers happened. They too went without any major hurdles. In fact we think we gave more than what was needed.
It was a satisfied, happy and confident bunch of 4 that came out of the room.

With Suzy
Lunch was scheduled for 11.30 and we decided to use the time and the excellent weather for some more exploration and photo clicking.
We got a few minutes late for the lunch in this whole process. We had 2 of the judges waiting for us at lunch where in they gave us some valuable feedback and also questioned us more on our plan and the business environment in India with respect to our plan.
The final five finalists were announced just as we were finishing our lunch. We were in. Through a random chit pickup we were slotted to be the 3rd one to give the presentation.
We had not seen what the hall looked like or how many people were there inside. And it was a much bigger hall full with people that met us when we entered at the time of giving our presentation. We had the next 20 minutes with us and again we delivered what we had practiced so hard. We were much more confident this time around though made a few mistakes (which hopefully only we noticed). Ankit, raka and I came out after our presentation and roamed about in the university campus - much more relaxed.
The results were not announced after the final round of presentations. They were to be announced at the Banquet Dinner at Fremont Studios. All the teams then moved to the venue then. The setup was lavish there. But before that, there was another round of elevator pitch with our posters setup – like the one we had on Wednesday. It was not a graded round so the atmosphere was much lighter. We also took the opportunity to interact to a couple of other teams and heard their projects. It was basically a time to network and interact with the top bosses of many companies like Microsoft. The most interesting, though was the one with the COO of Theo Chocolate - the Chocolate Factory in Seattle. We had heard about it the previous day and that it was open to the public where one could go in for a tour of the factory and see how chocolate is prepared. We were offered a tour at that very time. But it being not possible at that time, he offered us a pack of fresh chocolates. It was quite an overwhelming gesture.

At Trade Show II

Meanwhile we were also interviewed by a TV Channel. It was time for dinner then. A full banquet dinner with all kinds of forks, knives etc were last experienced only at a sample lunch at Infy’s Cross Cultural training session. It was a first time real experience. Everyone was given a table number and it was made sure that a variety of people were seated at each table. We had some nice discussions on cultural differences in India and US there. Time flew as we ate and talked. The keynote speaker on the occasion, Dr. William Foege gave an interesting presentation. Finally, it was time for the awards. The first one was the investors choice award – given for the trade show which was held on Wednesday. It went to the team from Princeton University. Next in line were the 2 prizes by department of global health. We were strongly expecting to get one of these. But there was disappointment when we didn’t win either of the two. A slight dejection feeling was sinking in now. It was the final award – the Grand Prize of $10,000. And there was that euphoric moment when our name was announced as the winners. The moments after that are in a blur.

The Moment

We hugging, getting a standing ovation, going to stage, hoards of cameras clicking, everyone wishing us. We first went to Suzy who had patiently guided us all along followed by photos and more photos. And then suddenly everything ended.

Center of Attraction
I took a cab back to Anu’s place, went out for a dessert in a fabulous hotel downtown. We had a flight early morning the next day. It was already 2AM. So Anu, raka and I had a night out.
So some of the last moments at Seattle were quite similar to when we arrived – dark outside, a beautiful view of the city and the lake from Anu’s living room with the space needle promptly standing out amongst it all – similar to the last 8 days which simply stand out in the life till now.

Day 7..

2009-03-03T14:25:00.005+05:30

Day 7: 26 February

What a start to the day. As usual got up at 5 and it was a city covered with snow that said Good Morning! It had snowed through the night and it was serene everywhere. The real problem started later. The bus service was badly hit. No buses were plying. I waited for it for around an hour. Ordered cab – and again waited. Finally, Binay had to drop me on his way to office. And it was just in time for the feedback session presentation scheduled at 9.30. Here we gave the presentation which was supposed to be a final drill for the grand competition next day. The judges gave us feedback on which we worked on for some time. In between we also found out time to have photo ops in the snow cover around the campus. Sreejith booked an appointment with Suzy – the faculty for communications and leadership programs at UW. She is a former theater actor and teaches presentation skills. She spent more than 2 hours with us – giving us tips, suggestions and hearing out our presentation – and helping it to completely revamp it.

One thing that Americans do is appreciate others really honestly and expressively – to the point it becomes embarrassing (may be we Indians are not good at giving or receiving appreciation)
We received a lot of this appreciation and hence confidence in ourselves. The presentation was significantly changed and practiced again and again and again to the point of being extremely meticulous. In fact, timings were taken on each slide, extra flab was cut wherever necessary and it resulted in lots of information being packed into the 10 minutes we had (the point was later appreciated by 1 of the judges in the preliminary rounds as well)

All this while we also made new friends – all from different countries from Ghana to Canada to Mexico – everywhere. The day ended with Raka and me running to his friends house in Redmond and getting his stuff over to Anu’s place so that we could leave easily for the airport next day. So it was 48 to Montlake, changing to 545 to Redmond. Back on 545 to MontLake and then 43 to Broadway. We are now adept at moving around in Seattle..

Day 6..

2009-03-02T01:49:00.001+05:30

Day 6: 25th February

It was the start of the real thing – the competition. The whole process started with the orientation in the afternoon. Some forms were filled in, basic rules were set and we were given the Foster B School bags. ;)
It was followed by the first competition – The trade show. It was an interesting concept. All teams were given spaces in a big hall where they had to set up their posters and make elevator pitches – basically 1 – 2 minutes of pitch to potential investors who would come to them. There were 25 mock investors who were given $1000 and they had to divide that into 3 teams which they think that would give them the best returns. It was a long 2 hours. With all of the investors coming in each one of us kept on talking the same thing over and over- again and again. And it went on more than 2 minutes. There were questions from everyone which had to be handled up to the last detail. Ultimately it was an incredible session – a first experience which left us mentally and physically drained.

The trade show was followed by dinner where through a ice breaking session we interacted with some other teams. A practice round of presentations where we would get feedback as a preparation for the final thing was scheduled early next morning so despite the extreme mental exhaustion preparation had to be done for it and an hour’s session followed the dinner.
As I reached home an interesting weather was taking shape – it started to Snow!

Day 5

2009-03-02T01:39:00.007+05:30

Day 5: 24th February

It’s amazing how much you can experience in a day. It started with a visit to Microsoft. The most amazing experience there was the Future Home designed by techies at MS. It was futuristic – but not so futuristic. It was very easy to believe that such homes would be a reality in the next 5 – 10 years.
It used simple technology of RFID (in everything that there is at home) and light bulbs with smart chips (not at all an expensive option in near future). Just few examples of the usage – which we actually saw in the future home. You take out milk from the refrigerator and place it close to the mixer. Some recipes involving milk which will be used in a mixer will be displayed on the kitchen surface from an overhead intelligent bulb. If you chose a recipe which, say involves choco chips and the refrigerator doesn’t have it, the Home will announce that you are out of choco chips and cannot make that particular dish.
Further, what you have on your computer screen can be seen on the TV or the walls of the room. When we wanted to see where the planet Jupiter was w.r.t the sun, the whole room got converted to a planetarium showing Jupiter’s position. There is no need to paint the walls. You can have it re-designed as and when you like by just by announcing to the home that you need some kind of a setting. It will change the color on the wall, change the photographs on the electronic photo frames – basically you won’t feel it is the same room. It’s tough to describe the whole 1 hour experience in which we actually were in the future.

Microsoft Office: A slight Deja vu of Infosys
After this awesome experience, Binay, Anu and I went to the space needle. The 360 degree view of Seattle from the top of the 600 foot tower is breath taking. More than that it is fascinating to see how the Americans market it. Cameras were installed on the top and you could see the whole city standing at one place and moving the camera with a joystick. Interactive touch screens were installed to give information about the part of the city that you are viewing at a particular point. We got out of the air conditioned enclosure only for a few seconds and were blown away by the super chilly winds at that height.
The dinner was Pan Asian today and time to again learn something – using chopsticks. I learnt it quite quickly and went on eating for sometime using the sticks but it was tiring after some time. Such a fascinating day full of experiences is of course tiring and it was tough to think of anything else apart from the bed on reaching home.

Observation Deck of Space Needle

Day 4..

2009-03-02T01:09:00.005+05:30

Day 4: 23rd February

Duong showing us around the UW campus

The first official day of the GSEC week. And it was quite awesome. The day started early with leaving for the college early. It was a bright sunny day. Sreejith and I landed up in the Balmer Hall – a common room where we sat comfortably with our laptops and tried to access the net. There were few terminals where the net kept on disconnecting at frequent intervals. After working on the presentation for some time we moved for lunch and a tour of the UW with our student ambassador. Lunch was Mexican – Chicken Burrito. It is like a big Roti which has lots of things like rice, salads, chicken etc stuffed inside. Tough to eat the whole but I was hungry. Duong Dang, our student ambassador took us for a tour of the beautiful UW campus. The most fascinating was the Suzzallo Library. Tough to resist comparing your own library with the one here. But not tough for me as there was no comparison at all.

Suzzallo Library
It was a visit to Path – a company involved in global health by technological innovation. Met some other teams from different countries here. And it was quite amazing to sit around a table with from so many backgrounds and listening to them. The Pat h had some interesting innovations which it was trying to bring to the improve health in collaboration with different partners in the developing countries.
In the evening it was time to try another cuisine – Italian. And it was not the simple Pizza that we generally think of under the Italian category. Under Anu’s able guidance we had Bruschetta, Rivoli, Gnocchi, Tiramisu and Mussels - though now it is tough to remember which was which (Excuse me for any spelling mistakes I have done in these dish names). Damn I am getting more interested in trying out new cuisines. After dinner it was a ride to the east side of Seattle from where we could get a magnificent view of the city.

Amazing view of Seattle

Day 3

2009-02-25T20:35:00.001+05:30

Day 3: 22nd February, 2009
Day 3 belonged to Walmart. Woke up early at 6.30 AM (guess the jet lag is still not out). Sky Diving was cancelled today – it was the bad weather this time. Guess that is one thing that has to be there in the bucket list for some more time to come. Nevertheless, no regrets for that. The lunch was Mediterranean at Flowers - a place jointly owned by a European man and his Indian wife. The combo was well visible in the buffet.
Walmart as expected was huge. The main aim was to shop around a bit but it is a bad place to go when you don’t know what you have to buy. One gets lost in the massiveness. After struggling for a couple of hours we moved to an adjacent complex which was full of factory outlets of all possible brands. Some browsing around and after some coffee at Starbucks, it was decided to go to Redmond where Raka was putting up with his friends. Time for the 1st bus ride of Seattle. The one at NY was easier as it was more like a tourist bus with 3 main popular stops. This time around it was a local bus. Raka, the 2 day bus ride veteran was the guide. His friend’s place was like a typical bachelor house though more refined than the ones in India. We learnt Minimizer, a new card game – quite enjoyable I must say. The residential campus – just across Microsoft was quite similar to the Infy mysore campus. Or should I say Infy campuses are deeply inspired from MS. The return journey was independent of the veteran raka and after some struggle we were able to reach home – getting lost in the dark on the way.

Insights:
1. There was a survey by Reader’s Digest that people in Mumbai are not courteous as compared to ones in US or Europe etc. Don’t know about other places but people here are definitely much much more courteous – especially in buses.

2. We threw away our bus tickets after completing one leg of the journey but the ticket here is valid for all journeys within 3 hours. On our way back, by chance we got into the same bus and the driver recognized us and updated us about this. He didn’t take any money and gave us new tickets for our 2nd leg of the journey.

Day 2

2009-02-24T19:04:00.005+05:30

Day 2: 21st February, 2009

Snoqualmie Falls

Well.. the jet lag effect had its say on the first morning in Seattle. After hitting the bed at 3AM, I remember watching the wrist watch at 6.30 AM last. And then as if something hit and it was deep slumber till Sreejith woke me up. It was 2PM and I had already said bye bye to plans of Sky diving on a bright sunny day.
Had breakfast errr.. lunch – a big chicken sandwich at Broadway. (Though they call something else a sandwich – what we normally know as hot dog kind of thing). Travelled to Snoqualmie Falls – a half hour ride South of Seattle. Did some hiking down to the waterfall there. Amid the nice chill. Then had coffee at Starbucks. One thing noticeable is the huge servings of quantity here – be it dinner, lunch or coffee. On the way back saw Anu’s hospital Virginia Mason – her working place to be precise and got to know the ultra modern processes and facilities available there. It was a trip downtown then. Seattle touches the pacific ocean so had a nice walk alongside it. We went to meet Anu & Vinay’s friends then. It was something like you see in HIMYM or friends – café below their flat. Someone sitting in a corner playing games on his mobile, others chit chatting and most of them with their laptops on coding, researching and having coffee. There are plenty of cafes in Seattle with a similar ambience. It was dinner time – Ethiopian this time. Nice food – with a similarity to Indian food. We had a big dosa kind of thing with Dal (2- 3 types), Paneer.. ok cheese etc around like a thali. And everyone gorging on it. Time to move to a sports bar – a huge complex with pool tables, TT tables, a huge video games section, Dance floor etc. You lose track of time in a place like this – after rounds of video games, pool and TT. That’s what pretty much ended the short day.

Breaking rules???

Insight: If everyone follows the traffic rules any place can look so good.
The laws are too many, well defined and well followed here. For example, you don’t cross the road wherever you like – only at a zebra crossing and only when the light is green for you. Imagine someone coming from Mumbai and told to follow these rules and regulations. No wonder it took me a couple of days to adjust to it.

Day 1. Part 2

2009-02-23T20:26:00.000+05:30

Day 1(20 Feb, 2009), Part 2: Seattle
This has to be the longest and the most eventful day of my life. The fact that I am writing it in 2 parts signifies that. Longest because we travelled through 3 time zones and every time moving backwards in the day and most eventful. Well.. does that need further explanation???
Anyways, so the flight to Seattle was uneventful – slept the whole time (It was night at that time in India). Anu and Vinay came to receive us at the airport as did Duong Dang, our student ambassador at GSEC. Sreejith and I came to Anu’s place while Duong dropped Raka and Ankit to his friend’s place in Redmond. With the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean, it was a scenic ride to the beautiful apartment. Minimal furniture and cosy environs with a three side window giving an amazing view of the lake and the city on the hill beyond. Actually this part is quite similar to the house we had in Shimla where there was a view of the whole of shimla from the drawing room. After freshening up, it was time to try some new cuisines. It was Thai on day 1 - a meal which looked quite healthy considering the high percentage of color green in the food. We dashed quickly from there to watch Delhi 6 (quite amazing – coming from India and watching a desi movie within hours of landing). The theater was much more amazing - one that is hard to find even in India. Sunil and Ruchi – friends of Anu and Vinay joined us. Once you enter the compound, it doesn’t feel like its US. All Indians around, no English, typical long lines in front of the ticket counter. Once inside, any feeling left of being in US also goes. There is no seat number assigned so sit where you get a seat – typical jugads (“yaar, 1 seat udhar ho jaa, hum 4 log saath mein hain”) in the making. The 9 PM show hadn’t started and began half hour late – letting the theater fill up. I won’t comment on the movie here. After the show, 6 of us moved to Broadway café for some late night coffee, ice cream etc. The day ended quite late with lots of mails, replies and some photo uploading.

Insight: Nice exhibition of customer service by continental airlines. They knew 4 of us were on a connecting flight and were served special Indian vegetarian food and it was free for us while rest of the passengers or ‘customers’ as continental call s them has to pay for meal. At Seattle too, our luggage was brought out separately and we didn’t have to wait at the conveyor.

US Trip Log

2009-02-23T00:56:00.008+05:30

Day 1(20 Feb, 2009), Part 1: NY

Newark Airport :

At Times Square

Just a day has passed since we left Mumbai and already so much has happened that it’s tough to believe.

Things started at Mumbai itself where I left our poster (brought for a competition) at the immigration desk. Realized it later after having gone through all the security checks and had to go back, reversing all steps and finally retrieving it. After multiple security checks, we finally boarded the aircraft. Raka’s row was different so he boarded late and with that came another news that he gave the wrong boarding pass (the one meant for travel from Newark to Seattle) for the Mumbai – NY flight. With that settled after some time, started the 16 hour long journey. There were plenty of movies on board (which I was quite excited to see initially) but eventually landed up watching only 1 and rest of the time listening to music only. 16 hours passed easier than expected. All the time it was dark outside, so was good that I got an Aisle seat. It was a first time being in an aircraft with 3 columns of seats.

After more security checks and questioning at the immigration desk in Newark, we finally settled down for the 8 hour wait to the connecting flight to Seattle. It was while waiting that we met Manisha – an Indian settled in Columbia. She was also waiting for a connecting flight and suggested we go out to see NY as we had lots of time on our hands. Raka had already proposed it but the fear of unknown had led to turn us down. After a bit of reluctance initially everyone agreed – Manisha had been to NY so the resistance was considerably reduced. The trip turned out to be a chilly and memorable one. Gloves were the first thing bought to beat the cold. In record time Times Square, Grand Central Station, Wall Street, Statue of liberty (not upclose) were visited. Time spent at each place was minimal – due to cold and lack of time.

Managing to Hold on!!!

Some insights:

1. Desi help was readiliy available – from airports (all guidance about sight seeing in NY was in a Hindi/Gujrati mix) to buying gloves (maandwali to lower the prices in Hindi).

2. As we entered Grand Central station – one color that hit us was black. Everyone was wearing black – the preferred color of heavy over coats.

3. There was no clock at the airport. Surprising. Yes!!

4. There was no security at the front gate of the airport. Generally when you enter a airport in India, the policewala checks your ticket and then lets you enter. Nothing like that here.

Writing this post @ Newark Airport

Economics and Branding

2009-02-07T12:00:00.000+05:30

Interesting to hear the word “Brand” in a class of Economics of Industrial Organisation. But it seems brand is in a way derived from the concept of monopoly – which you generally find in a Eco book.

Though Marketing, essentially has been derived from economics only but still it’s interesting to see the concepts merge. According to economists, Branding is a way of gaining “Artificial Monopoly”.

Monopoly is when you have the power to control prices. You are the Price Maker – i.e. you can set the price and then are able to sell everything at that price. By branding you are differentiating yourself and trying to positioning yourself a tad above the rest. You are trying to gain that distinct space in the minds of the consumer – or in other words a monopoly in the Mindshare – which will then give returns just like a ‘copy book’ monopoly.

A tradition Monopoly Market is not generally preferred as it results in an overall social loss. Hence many economists are against the concept of Branding or artificial monopoly too. They believe that an activity like advertisement or branding does not add any value – it does not increase production.

Well, just a contrarian view point. Though I am a die-hard fan of the concept of Branding !

Who wants to be a Millionaire???

2009-01-27T20:28:00.002+05:30

Freida Pinto, the Latika of Slumdog said in one of the ‘Making’ of the movie that Slumdog Millionaire showcases ‘True India’. That was the point where all the phoniness surrounded reached the bottom most point for me. That was the point where a respect for the movie changed to a dislike for the movie.

For me, the craze for the movie started when it reached amongst the Top 250 of IMDB List. In addition, I had read Q&A by Vikas Swarup around 3 - 4 years back and had loved it. So was really keen to watch the movie. The movie was interesting though different from the novel – specially the end where the motive of coming to the show is entirely different and captivating in the novel. But overall, I enjoyed the movie – better than the regular movies that Indian film industry was churning out. But only better – how was it different from a regular hindi movie – apart from the background plot of a KBC setting. And how did the entire Oscars thing set in??

On one hand was the news of 10 oscar nominations for this movie and on the other was the rejection of a much more thoughtful movie from India – Taare Zameen Par. The success of Slumdog at an international level seems to suggest that Hollywood is getting so-called ‘Bollywoodish’ whereas Indian audience are waking up and appreciating the ‘hatke’ movies – the tag which was reserved for Angrezi movies. Or is it the India – the emerging economy effect – just like it happened in 1994 – 95 when focus shifted to the grand Indian market and there was a surge in the Miss World and Miss Universe crowns coming India’s way. Indian film industry is in focus this time with the sector witnessing huge investments by the biggies like Reliance. With it becoming more business rather than a starry affair – an opportunity for businesses to invest and be ‘millionaires’.

Though it makes good business sense but something that goes against us is the branding. Seth Godin defines Worldview as the rules, values, beliefs and biases that an individual brings to a situation and Frames as elements of story painted to leverage the world view a consumer already has. (Basically another way to define Segmentation)

From the recent developments a dangerous proposition that is developing is that this worldview of the rest of the world about India is in a pretty bad shape and people are putting up frames to showcase that pathetic worldview.

Abstract!!

2009-01-25T23:02:00.009+05:30

Captured

Prisoned

Punctured

Trapped

And Set Free......

Organised Retail

2009-01-19T18:21:00.000+05:30

The retail is booming in India. The present share of organized retail is hardly 4% of the GDP and is all set to boom with multiple malls mushrooming everywhere. It is expected that the organized retail will grow at 21% by 2015 where food, grocery and general merchandise being the leading category.

But the big question is that can it give serious competition to the 12 million retail outlets in India.

One of our Profs shared a rather interesting perspective. There is a limit to the extent organized retail can grow. This is because there are many positives of a small mom and pop store. First is the personal touch. In most of the cases, the next door kiryana wala knows you by face and over the period of time knows your choice. He needs no sophisticated IT systems to know this and that you cannot get at a big store – no matter of how much you improve the service delivery levels.

Another noticeable difference is the provision of credit. This derives from the above point only. Almost on each visit to my kiryana dukaan, I can see him giving off stuff without cash and writing in his small booklet about it which he collects at the end of a specific period. Yes, there are credit cards today but what about a daily wage earner. If a person living his life on daily earnings falls ill for a couple of days, he will have nothing to eat for those 2 days if our credit giving neighborhood retailer is not there.

There are scores of positives in favor of large, organized malls. As a consumer there are many schemes and offers whenever I go to a Big Bazaar but again ‘I’ am not India. 77% of Retail market still is in the 5500 towns and 6 lakh villages of India and the figure will be still around 60% in 2025. And as managers we need to know if someone is comfortable going to a big mall for small items or if there is a tendency of ‘impulse purchases’ (large retailers thrive on that) in smaller towns or if people prefer fruits and vegetables in a AC hall or from a cart which comes by every morning.

*Numbers from a report by Tata Strategic Management Group

Hot, Flat and Crowded (Continued...)

2009-01-12T10:15:00.000+05:30

....continuing

5 Problems

1. 1. Energy and Natural Resources Supply and Demand

- This happens when the flat, connected world meets the crowded, highly populated world.

- The demand increases by the emerging economies who are now well connected to know the kind of ‘American Lifestyle’.

- 2004: The reason behind the sudden spike in Oil Prices

o Outside the wars, oil shortages were generally cushioned by spare refining capacity, spare crude oil and spare oil products inventory. All these acted as shock absorbers.

o After late 90s and into early 2000’s the demand kept rising steadily and the shock absorbers kept on absorbing without increasing their absorbing capacity.

o In 2004, all these shock absorbers disappeared. Secondly there was huge increase in demand due to China. (It was estimated that the global increase in demand of oil barrels would be around 1.5 billion. Actually it increased by 3 billion - 1 billion for China alone.

o Further the cushioning could not take place due to:

§ Shortage of equipment and skilled labor

§ Russia squeezed out foreign producers – discouraging global and professional oil companies to carry out operations

- Increase in Cost of Food due to rising oil prices

- The energy and food demand has been artificially high and prices artificially Low in many countries like India. This has led to market distortions.

2. 2. Petro-Dictatorship

- Huge wealth is being transferred from energy consuming nations to energy producing nations.

- Many of these energy producing nations are headed by people who have not earned the leadership by building economies or educating people. Many are hardliners

- E.g. Russia closed down natural gas supplies to Europe to show its power. Russia didn’t get more educated, more efficient, and more productive. Instead Europe got more dependent on Russia.

- Latest EU gas Crises:

o Gas row flares as supplies to Europe cut

o Russia is testing the limits of its powers

3. 3. Climate Change

- Earth’s temperature has risen and carbon dioxide levels are increasing day by day.

- IPCC (which got the Nobel prize recently) says: Without a dramatic reduction in human induced carbon dioxide emissions, climate change may bring abrupt or irreversible effects.

- Mantra for ECE – “Avoid the unmanageable and manage the unavoidable”

4. 4. Energy Poverty

- Electricity: even more important now because of the need to be connected to collaborate

- E.g. In South Africa, the increase in sales of generators has been enormous. Businesses are failing and the lack of electricity is the biggest threat for starting up new businesses.

5. 5. Bio Diversity Loss

- Loss of flora and fauna is rampant in all parts of the world, especially in emerging economies. There will always be a struggle between growth (which you cannot prevent) and the natural resources.

- Extinction of the #1 endangered species – Baiji (River Dolphins) in China was the tipping point for the author.

- In addition, around 90% large predator fish and 20% corals are gone.

The current situation is like the proverbial frog in the pan whose temperature is being slowly increased.

After World War II, 3 main aims were:

- Peace and security – for which UN was formed

- Economy development – GATT was formed

- Human rights – Uns declaration of Human rights

There was and still is blindness about environment despite Rio, Kyoto and Montreal Protocols. The need of the hour is to focus on these issues at top priority.

Hot, Flat and Crowded

2009-01-12T01:09:00.000+05:30

Recently I started reading Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman. The second chapter gives an outline of the whole issue Friedman is talking about in the book.

There are 3 major forces prevalent presently which has ushered in an era which Friedman calls, Energy - Climate Era (or ECE) and these 3 forces are a cause for 5 major problems, ignoring which, argues the author, can be very dangerous.
The 3 forces are:
1. Population or Crowded
2. Globalization or Flat
3. Global Warming or Hot

1. Crowded
- Projected population in 2053 = 9 billion
o Mostly absorbed by developing countries
- Leads to
o Infrastructure problems
o Land Loss
o Water scarcity
o Anti – Social Elements – This is because issues like food, housing, education, unemployment will not be solved. That would lead to extremism
2. Flat
- Happening due to:
o Invention of computers
o Emergence of Internet
o Revolution of software and transmission protocols

– called “Work Flow Revolution”

- In China and India alone, 200 million people were able to move out of poverty after opening up of economy
- All this development, progress, growth creates demand – demand for energy, land, water, natural resources
- Also, this emits pollution – green house gases, Carbon dioxide.

3. Hot
- Industrial Revolution saw the emergence of fossil fuels (below earth fuels) which resulted in production of energy and emission of carbon dioxide
- Then came the Transport Revolution – cars, autos which further worsened these issues
- Next in line to multiply the effect was Urbanization.
- Earth has already warmed up by 0.8 degree Celsius (1.44 deg Fahrenheit) – compare this with a similar increase in the body temperature – A 2 – 3 degree rise in body temperature tells you something is wrong with the body – similar is the case with earth!!!

To be Continued.... 5 problems

The "New" Year!!!

2009-01-12T00:12:00.002+05:30

The New Year indeed brought some new rays into my life. The 3rd day of 2009, which is being considered lucky by many (for different reasons like numerology, stars, planets etc etc) got lucky for me too as I got placed in Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL). The process lasted the day starting early at 8 and ending around 5 after which I found myself to be the chosen one!

It was an irony of sorts for last 2 days wherein the Oil PSU Officers were on strike. On one hand, the whole country, including me were facing lots of problems and on the other hand if the strike was successful in managing hike in salaries, it was me who would be getting the benefit. May be the ironical situation is more prominent because presently, I am more a common man than an IOC employee.

Going forward, time to set some new goals. Have atleast 3 things to look forward to. The US trip and preparation for that, alumni meets next week and an attempt at Enduro. Another attempt will be to update the blog more often and do some more work on the newly started MBA gyaan blog!!!

What a Year!!

2009-01-01T11:56:00.014+05:30

"2003 was one of the most important year of life – it was when I got my 1st job. 5 years later comes a more important year and I hope when I write a similar piece next time, it will be a ‘employed’ me who will be writing it. So here’s one to a 9% growth, Sensex > 25K and no recession (in US), Sachin in his usual form and India winning atleast 1 Test down under in 2008!!"

These were the words I ended my blog welcoming 2008. So how did the hopes for 2008 turn out?
1. 2008 will end with me being employed – Negative (Well!!!!!!)
2. 9% growth – Negative (PM/FM keep on reducing this each day)
3. Sensex>25K – Negative (sarcastic smile on my face)
4. No recession – Big Negative (Huh!!)
5. Sachin – Positive (terrific form)
6. India winning test down under – Definitely Positive

So it seems apart from cricket, nothing has gone right this year – the year which will be remembered for years and years to come. Fortunately, it has come to an end and we can always hope that the sun which rises on 1st January will, in some way or the other have some different kinds of rays – rays of change so as to say.
So as we wait for that different ray(s), I go back in time to see how my life turned out in this unforgettable year.

January
Exams started the year on a hectic note. It was followed by a trip to Mahabaleshwar - the first real excursion after coming to Mumbai. Many more were to follow.(In fact I realized that May and June were the only months in 2008 when I didn't travel outside Mumbai)
The Month also saw the famed sensex experiencing its biggest crash. The crashes on Jan 21(1408 points) and 22(857 points) are at the 1st and 4th positions of top 10 single day falls in the history of sensex. (Amongst the top 10 single falls of all times, 8 are from the year 2008!!!!)

February
The month started on a high with Rompy’s marriage – one of the top highlights of the year. It was further followed by the start of Bull Run of the year at S.P Jain B plan contest

March
The travelling outside Mumbai which had started in January carried on with a visit to Chennai where we landed with the winners prize at the toughest competition at LIBA.

April
April – the trimester end month shifted focus back to the completion of projects and presentations. The highlight was the re-Branding exercise which we did for Indian – complete with print ads, video ads, radio ads etc etc.

May
Start of Summers though I would term shifting to the new house as a highlight of the month. Touching the railway lines, it was a tough time initially to ignore the early wake up calls by the passing trains.
It was also start of 2 months of change in the body clock with early to bed, early to rise funda coming in.
Moreover, it was IPL time – the super hit tournament provided time pass for 44 non stop evenings.

June
Summers continue. Lots of walking around in the sun and lots of sugarcane juice. All this meant loss of all extra flab. In addition started the real good gymming sessions which continued non-stop for more than 3 months.

July
Back to college after a long break. Start of a new year and new trimester. The trips continued with beautiful malshej ghats on the itinerary this month. In addition, it was SFM pressure – the one of the very few subjects or rather teacher which was able to add value in the 2 years of MBA.

August
The highlight for the country was Abhinav Bindra winning gold at Olympics followed by more medals by pugilists. Personally, the highlight was rappelling – one of the things on the bucket list. The place was kasara this time around.

September
Trimester end month again. Wonder how the time passes quickly. It started with a weeklong trip to Bangalore for placement visits. Meeting some friends after years!! Exams towards the month end.
The last exam found us discovering a new place to hang out – Rooftop. It was also followed by a trip to Chandigarh after 5 months.
September also marked the collapse of Lehman Brothers – which was the trigger point of a global collapse. Any positive sentiments there in the industry were laid to rest for good.

October
Passing away of Nanu – saying goodbye to the uptight moustache, finger handshake and the indomitable spirit.

November
The month started with a high of IIM Indore competition, Anki getting married and Lolly getting engaged. But ended with one of the worst tragedies in the Indian history – attack on Mumbai and experiencing terror from close quarters.

December
The start itself was a fantastic one – an invite to go to the US of A for a competition. Bull Run which started in Feb 2008, getting set to reach its pinnacle in Feb 2009.
December also belongs to the KIRDSS and the placement anxieties. The fall of the job market and the rise of the friendships. And ya it was also the trim end month – any one notice that ?? Hardly..

Looking back at how my wish list of last year was screwed up, I am tempted not to voice my hopes for new year this time around. Just hope that whatever happens, it happens for good.

SACH is IN

2008-12-29T02:49:00.000+05:30

So there is new toned milk in town – Sach. Sach is the new private label brand from the stable of Future Group of Big Bazaar fame. It will have many other things like Apparel, cooking oil, toiletries etc under the same brand name. I didn’t know anything about Sach when I entered Big Bazaar today and was attracted towards it by Sachin’s association. The price was Rs 42- a good Rs 10 higher than the standard Amul Toned Milk. Though today Sach was available for Rs 33 – a special Food Bazaar Offer. Testing the waters, I thought. A consistent toned milk drinker for the past 4 years and like a true early adopter I bought one pack.
Some thoughts about it.
1. Packaging: The brown Colored pack stands out – amidst the general Blue and white of the other brands. But for me a brown color doesn’t give a direct association with Milk . A blue or white is easily recognizable.

2. Price sensitivity: It is priced at RS 42 – at a premium to the normal available milk. Will the consumer be ready to pay this premium just for the Brand Name. Hard to say. I will not – ya despite Sachin being there all over the packaging.

3. Health Benefits: Ok. I can for once think of buying it if it gives me added health benefits – may be a competitor to the Amul Gold or the double toned milk. But just compare a standard Amul toned and Sach toned milk.

So what do you infer from the table above. Common perception says that Amul is far better in terms of nutritional value at much lesser the price.
Further problems for Sach occur due to the fact that it seems they are trying to play primarily on the health aspect - they have their nutrient values boldly pasted on the front of their packet (Amul has it in miniature font on a side).
Their primary motive is to position the brand as ‘Healthy’ – not only milk but everything associated with the Sach Brand (Source). So maybe they will succeed in this effort by offering health benefits upfront – but just a casual look under the hood reveals a starkly different picture.

4. Availablilty: Sach will be available only at Big Bazaars as of now. Now I don’t have any statistics on the percentage of milk being bought from modern trade channels but just observation of going to a big bazaar for the past 2 years tell me – very few!
Mostly prefer to buy it from the mom and pop stores. Why? The perception of being fresh. Though you can keep a tetra pack for 2 months without opening but the general tendency is to buy small quantities at regular intervals. Now keeping this in mind, can Sach compete with the highly efficient and well set distribution network of Amul? May be in their own stores but what about outside.

5. Brand Association of Amul with dairy products is very strong and that is some more challenge for Sach to break the mould and get into consumers mind and then the refrigerator. Amul may have become a generic brand and Sach may be attempting to break the clutter – but very difficult.
As of me, I am not buying it if it is priced more than Rs 33 and not available at the shop next door.

Bailouts...

2008-12-29T01:36:00.000+05:30

“Bailout” is the hottest word around the globe today. Governments around the world are following what Keynes, one of the founders of Macroeconomics, preached after the Great Depression of 1929 – trying to increase consumption. 2 primary things are being done.

1. They are pumping in tax payer’s money into saving large organizations from crashing down, eventually saving lots of jobs and preventing unemployment which will further lead to decrease in demand of different commodities in the market. And which will further lead to closing down of more industries, more job losses and so on. The basic aim of this step is to keep the demand of different products high in the market. That is, people should not get a reason of not consuming. For this, there can also be tax rates increase because the government wants more money to bail these companies out.

2. Reducing Interest rates artificially so it is easier for:
a. Industries to borrow money. Presently, as people are buying less, industries are getting lesser cash inflow. Due to this it is tough for them to carry on their operations and produce and sell their products.
b. People have less incentive to save and they consume more, hence keeping the demand high
So the basic mantra is to increase consumption. But ironically, the basic reason for the current crises was the same – tendency to consume was much higher than tendency to save.
So the solution is the problem itself.
Now what will happen when interest rates are reduced artificially and tax rates are increased.

As is evident from the figure, it will lead to further failure in the long term.

What does the Austrian school of thought, people like F.A Hayek say. According to them, the government should losen its control at junctures like these. Rather than tax increases, tax cuts would benefit in the longer run. Tax cuts would mean more money in the hands of people. Now with same level of consumption, people can save more. More savings will result in interest rates coming down naturally.( Banks have more money to lend when savings are more. Hence lowering the interest rates). Hence it will be a natural reduction in the rates unlike the artificial one at present. The government has to become efficient and come in cost cutting mode to reduce the fiscal deficit it will incur due to lower taxes.

Kaushik Das explains this in detail here.

Chaos!!

2008-11-28T09:23:00.001+05:30

27 November. 9.00AM
Mumbai from the windows of my house seems normal. But the irony is that I am afraid to get out and experience that normality. But again, it only seems normal. 9 AM is certainly different on a usual day. Hoards of people rushing to catch trains, to open their shops, to get to their schools and colleges. But today, there is hesitancy- a caution in the step of the few who have come out, wondering if they should carry on or not.

It was 10.20 last night when Amrut called from Bangalore. "There is some shooting happening in your city dude", he said. "Where is it?" I asked him as I walked leisurely on the streets of Vile Parle. When I heard 'CST', I smiled and told him that was way far off from my place and told him not to worry. A few minutes later, as we group of friends sat chatting, we heard a loud explosion. "May be it is a bomb blast. The CST terrorists have reached Vile Parle," we joked. And then laughed out when someone suggested that it must be a cracker in the marriage hall in the neighborhood. But then something caught our attention. Flats in Mumbai are so close by that you can even see the emotions of people clearly. As we saw the shocked faces of some people watching TV in a flat, something odd struck. We decided to come back home and it was shock and awe that met us as we switched on our TVs.

It was indeed a bomb blast which we had heard and it was pretty close. Sirens could be heard rushing towards the site. Slowly, all the GTalk taglines changed and the words 'Mumbai' , 'Attack', 'Terror', 'Sad' became dominant. There were phone calls and inquiries, more among the local friends, many of whom live in the area and cross the blast site quite often. The news pouring in changed from bad to worse. From firing at station to firing on the streets (shown Live on TV), hostages being taken at more than 2 places, top cops of Mumbai getting killed and finally the beautiful Taj Mahal hotel engulfed in flames of terrorism.

It is not the chaos outside, but the chaos inside the mind that is much more dangerous about this incident. Wondering why people are getting killed on streets, why we can't get out of our homes without a certain apprehension or even why we double locked our door last night. Seems preposterous right? Some flat, on the top floor, in a corner of a building at the corner of a road worrying about some terrorists entering their flat at night.

Well that is the chaos!!