The Urge Within...

There is always a trigger for me in life to go ahead with something! This time it was this movie “3 Idiots”. Don’t worry, I am not going to describe the story here and reveal it to the world even before they watch it!

I always believed in this concept of “Listening to the heart” (though I did not do it). The urge within you to achieve something makes you really love it!! I should admit the fact that the last one and a half years have been really a paradigm shift for me in life where I have gone running behind my dreams. Though I have stopped temporarily, the urge within me still exists. The fire still burns. I still get goose bums!!

Let me get into the market realities. How many entrepreneurs had we seen when we were children? You could count them on your fingers (I am considering entrepreneurs to be as people who start companies here though I am wrong in assuming this note). And how many do we see today? Any thoughts of why this transition has happened? Any idea where were all these bloody brilliant ideals and bloody nerve before? They were all inside you! Inside your own mind and inside your own self!! Here are my few thoughts on this… They are pretty straight forward infact!

India has always been a land of opportunities. This is the case with most of the developing nations (not that developed nations are not!). Due to the onshore-offshore model which was introduced by the software industry, people in this developing nation started to become financially independent. Since it has been quite an amount of time since the advent of this industry and considering the fact that the competition is building, the growth at the top started to stagnate. So, the only choice left was to quit and start! This is the case with a selected few though!

Then came a set of highly motivated young professionals who wanted to prove to the world that they are different (please not to mistake this as their ego quotient). They were young, did not bloody care for money! Had confidence of winning this world! Had the motivation to slog their ass out in the market. Had the perseverance to sustain in the market even after getting royally raped in it! They also had the ideas with them and the courage to innovate! Now, does this sound like a perfect combination to you all? Well… if you ask me its not! Out of all these bunch of guys, only those went ahead who actually had the urge in them! Who had the passion for whatever they were trying to do! For doing what ever they found was good and not the world! This is what is required guys… Even if you don’t have the best of the degrees, even if you are not having the best of the ideas, even if you are not out of a tier 1 college, it doesn’t bloody matter!! Only thing that matters is the nerve that drives you crazy about one small thing! Go for it guys!! Just go for it!! (Yes, you would need patience for people to accept it as at the end of it, they are going to pay for it!)

Thanks to Aamir for this one more breath taking movie!!

Importance of transportation for an economy

Was on my way to visit the economic model which India copied from (initially ofcourse...). Yes, you guessed it right; in UK for a short assignment. Had heard a lot about it having one of the best plans with respect to the city transport and one of the very well marketed tourism department. Got an oppurtunity to see it first hand now. So, here going my thought process on it...

My flight to London was boring initially. But later discovered that the person next to me was the owner of a company. So talks began about discussions on a few business models. Since I was involved in a few startups since more than an year, I was more curious about things; the "do's and dont's" etc... Our discussions entered into one of my areas on interest; "The tourism department". Well... its a known fact that the Indian tourism department is not basically well marketed. Also, there is not enough support from the transport department to fill the gaps of the tourism department. Though this is majorly controlled politically, there is still a lot of scope where there can be a lot of improvement which can brought in by the private players. "Guys like you should plunge into it and not just talk about it." Those were the exact words the other guy said in the due course of the discussion. The discussions carried on with a few other things... But this thought of tourism stayed back with me and I wanted to observe a bit more closely while in UK (also considering travel is more close to my heart...)

Then came the day when I landed in London. Right after I landed, I knew where to go (well managed directions...). Went right into the counter of National Express to get tickets to Bristol (This is where I am staying now... till Jan'10). I could see boards all through the travel. Every small town; every small station had directions well before we actually reached there. I am not saying that this isn't there in India. This is very well there especially if you travel via NHs or SHs. Even in Bristol station, I exactly knew where to get down. This is one thing which is backed up very well by technology. There are automated announcements (not sure if its completely automated and linked to the navigator in the bus or it is driver controlled though...) which makes the life easy even for a person who has not travelled before.

Days went by and I was travelling down to Slough... I had to take a train (rather 2 trains) to reach Slough. This was again a first time experience for me as I did not know where to go in a station. Again, there were no hastles. Everything was well directed. Just that you as a traveller needed to have a little bit of common sense :). While at the parway station at Bristol (where I reached an hour early), I again did not have any problems. The customers are informed almost 45 mins prior to the travel with ample amount of information with enough time-time updates. Even if there is a last minute rescheduling, it is very well taken care and every system is interconnected so that there isn't any wrong information and the customers are not taken by any surprise. Even the train collision etc is managed well through proper information sharing... This took me back to MIS classes though. This is where the discussion with the CEO in the flight became more practical. Things were more clear... But this will require a lot of financial backing as well.

Going back to the parkway station... unlike the Indian booking system, UK has a concept of a lesser pay in the booking if the booking is early. Now this is pure ECONOMICS and an intelligent way to implement it as well. Not really sure if the money which is paid earlier is used for getting returns out of it... but its a really amazing concept and a win-win situation as well... Also, there was a lot of marketing in the train stations as well... all the offers for the new year with a guide book... travel book... reach etc etc... We (Indians) should seriously learn from their marketing methodologies now. Now that we have copied their Law, a bit of tourism and administration... its not a bad idea to copy this as well if it results in earning a few bucks :)...

Well... though it might not have been something different if I had written it if I hadn't come here; just that it is more authentic now as I am having the first hand information... Signinging off as of now... Until next time... Keep inventing... discovering... innovating... digging!!

Distribution Management – Decline of an Industry

Background:

XML Pvt. Ltd (name changed as the company still exists in a different sector) entered the market with a vision of being the market leaders in home appliances. They entered the market with Television as their only product in the market. When they entered the market, there were not many major players in that segment in India. Soon they became very famous and every household had its name associated with the company. The company had a wide network of local dealers and supplies. XML had very powerful sales forces who were locals from the various states in India and the market penetration was easy for XML. Slowly, XML expanded its product line from beyond TV and started manufacturing Washing machines, refrigerators and other electronic home appliances.

XML was an innovative organization with the R&D department consisting of engineers from the top engineering colleges of India who were working with the future technologies. Hence it always took its customers by surprise and quality was never a problem for XML as its products usually persisted for more than 10 years without a single complaint.

Supplier problem:

The main supplies XML had was of ICs, the manufacturing parts and cartons. It had tied up with various local vendors for supply of manufacturing parts and cartons. For sophisticated parts like high-end LCD and other ICs, it had tie-ups with international vendors.

The initial problems with the suppliers started when after monopolizing the television market, XML started demanding from the suppliers. The suppliers were given a credit period as high as 6 months. The suppliers also did not have much of a choice because XML being the major market player, if they are associated with XML, their value proposition increased at that point of time. Hence, XML exploited this situation even more. Even if the credit period was 6 months, the suppliers were being paid after a year or two. This lead to the descend of many local suppliers since they were not able to sustain the pressure of money.

On the other hand, the international suppliers were paid on-time. This increased the grudge in the local suppliers. They started meeting among each other without the knowledge of the company and started forming unions. Since the employees were also local people, the suppliers started encouraging for the employee unions. Finally after a lot of strikes, XML had to move its production unit to its headquarters.

In the new headquarters, XML decided to tie-up with more suppliers and spread its suppliers from over the entire country. This led them to take command over the few local suppliers they had. But this also put them into a lot of problems as the other suppliers were a lot more demanding with respect to the credit period. But XML did not change its strategy for the credit period. The suppliers now wanted to teach XML a lesson. Hence they now started to push all the rejected pieces into the manufacturing units by bribing the employees. This affected the quality of the products to a larger extent and the customer complaints started to increase. Since XML had never faced such a situation, it was not quick enough in responding to the customer queries and the service earned a very bad name.

Due to this, the international suppliers also did not see XML as the vendor they wanted to be associated with. Hence they also started to disassociate themselves with XML. This was a major hit-back for XML as it lost most of its suppliers. At the same time, competition had become fiercer in the market. Smoothening of the government norms had led to international brands enter the market. Hence the suppliers started to concentrate on tie-ups with the international brands. This lead XML to loose most of its quality suppliers.

Dealer problem:

Even though the government norms were eased and the foreign brands were allowed to enter India, these new brands had a very tough time initially. They had the main challenge of replacing the existing local players, setting up a distribution network and many other challenges.

With all the proceedings as depicted in the ‘Supplier problem’ section, the competitor took advantage of the situation. They paid a higher dealership price than what XML was paying. This made the dealers to concentrate more on the products of the competitors. The shelf space for XML kept reducing month-month. Many dealers discontinued their relationship with XML. The competitors need not have to think about penetration either. It was already present readymade in the market. This gave the competitors a cost advantage as the market was already open. Hence the competitors could manage a higher compensation to its dealers and suppliers.

Apart from the competition, dealer and the supplier problems, XML was also attacked by a family issue since it was a family run business. All this finally contributed to the collapse of the electronic home appliances section of XML.

Learning:

• For you to operate in a value chain created by your company, all the stakeholders in the supply chain have to be treated at par.
• Do not neglect competitors and update yourself on a regular basis. Though XML had a full fledged R&D team, they were not in par with the technology offered in the market by the competitors.
• Monopoly does not exist for long in an open market environment. Hence try to build brand values as long as you have the monopoly. These values will come handy during the time of immense competition. This will also help in arresting the competition from penetrating the market easily.
• Consider the business model of having exclusive dealers.
• Innovate the marketing strategies to be in sync with the changing business needs.

Sales ... A case study

Note: The discussions below are a true case study of a private company. Hence the name of the company, its clients and competitors are kept confidential for ethical purposes. Regret the inconvenience caused.

It was May 2008 and the top management of the entire organization was involved in a proposal to one of its most prospective clients. It was one of the highest revenue generating projects in the recent past for the organization. The company, XYZ Pvt. Ltd, is a niche telecom service provider in the market space of Europe. XYZ has been in a good relationship with its client organization CLT since more than half a decade providing constant innovative solutions to CLT and thus collaboratively helping them to growth in the highly competitive market. Due to the ever increasing demand of its customers, CLT decided to capture a place in the cloud to enable its systems to provide a cheap solution to its ever increasing client base. Hence CLT decided to change all the systems involved in providing the service so that the technical disability is avoided across the entire set of services.

XYZ was the most preferred vendor of CLT due to its constant innovative solutions provided. Hence they were asked to draft a proposal for this initiative. Over the period of more than seven years, many competitors had developed in the European market. Hence, along with XYZ, CLT also asked Comp A, Comp B and Comp C to bid for the proposal. Since the other three organizations were involved in supporting the other systems of CLT, this move of CLT did not surprise XYZ.

After a month’s long hard work, the final proposal was ready and a few top executives of XYZ headed to Europe for selling the services offered by XYZ. The major parameters considered for measurement of the proposal by CLT were as below:
• Quality of service provided (QOS)
• Cost incurred by CLT (ROI)
• Overall service package offered

For the ease of maintenance, CLT had divided the systems into eight logical domains ranging from customer registration to billing.

Among the above four expected parameters, XYZ had an edge in the quality of the service provided since it had a very good track record over a period of seven years and also due to the fact that XYZ was the most preferred vendor of CLT. The other vendors were also very reputed for their deliverables in the industry. But the fact that XYZ was in a long running relationship with CLT gave it a clear cut advantage.

Considering the second parameter under consideration, the variation in the bidding amount proposed by all the four vendors is depicted by the graph below:

From the above graph it can be incurred that the amount proposed by XYZ was comparatively the highest. It was around 50 million € greater than the lowest bidder. This is when CLT started to bend towards the other clients and the interest of CLT towards XYZ started reducing. Hence the chances of XYZ winning the bid were really less after the cost related statistics was portrayed.

Now XYZ had only one opportunity left to showcase that they are different from the other vendors in the room. They had to do a proper service mix to make sure that the contract is not lost. Instead of concentrating on what went wrong, the top management at XYZ decided to take advantage of the fact that they were the most preferred vendors of CLT. They concentrated on the quality of service they provide. Instead of just offering the solutions to the existing problem at CLT, XYZ also offered value additions to the systems at CLT. This meant that, along with the normal expected services, XYZ offered a free value addition to the domain under operation. They also went a step ahead to align themselves with the customer to identify their existing problems and providing a permanent solution for the same (thus removing the recurrence of the issue). This was a perfect mix of services which XYZ offered and CLT (who trusted the quality of deliverables of XYZ) had no other choice but to choose XYZ for the contract. At the end of the meeting, XYZ had won 50% stake of the entire bid and the remaining 50% was split among the other three vendors.

It was a win-win situation created by XYZ which led to it bagging 50% of the stake. Due to the non-reduction in the cost factor, XYZ was even more thrilled to provide a better QOS. CLT was happy that XYZ was closely working towards their business goals and were ready to improve their customer experience free of cost in the form of value addition to the domains under consideration.

A few points derived out of the above case study are as below:
• Cost or ROI is not the only factor on which businesses work in this highly competitive environment. You should always have a competitive edge so that you can make a difference.
• Proper pricing strategy has to be considered while selling. In the above case even if XYZ had lowered down the price by 50 million €, they might not have won 100% of the bid. Purely because of the fact that the perception of client to spread the domains was not because of the cost factor. It was because he had to increase the pressure of QOS due to cut throat competition.
• At times, a perfect product/service mix appeals to the clients. It might create a win-win situation.
• A sales force has to be flexible enough to cater to the customer demands. If the customer requires technical solutions or projections, the sales force should deploy technical people. If high level decisions have to be taken, the proper DMU (Decision Making Unit) has to be deployed.
• Customer perceptions play a very important role.

A business called Education...

It was a gloomy evening at the Gandhibazar CCD in Bangalore. I was hanging out with my friends as one of them was travelling to Germany for his higher studies. Pissed off with his job at one of the software majors, my friend decided to go behind his dreams; joined IISc for a project in Electrical engineering. After an year and a half, he got an admit in one of the technical Universities in Germany. Over the small talk we had, I got to know that the fee he paid for the education which was spanned for a period of 2.5 years was just 16,000 INR! It took all of us with a shock! He later revealed the fact about the universities in Europe being completely funded, do not take much money from the students who come to study at the universities... This lead me to a completely different thought process altogether.

If you imagine a similar quality of education in India, it would have not cost you lesser than a few lakh INRs. Even for that matter, the US universities also take a hell lot of money for their MS programs. In the due of learning, the people who cannot afford the education will loose the inclination towards the main intent of their visit and try to work out a deal in their lives where the main motive shifts from education to earning money to get over the heavy loans that was made in the due coarse of getting quality education. Even in India if you see, institutions like IIMs and IITs have a respectable amount of funding a real good Alumni who can work out to get more funding into the institutions. I do agree that there is a lot of government interventions in these institutes; but the whole point here is about quality and cheaper education. If you see the industry I am associated with (the service industry), I can atleast comment that the world is moving towards a mode where quality products are expected to be delivered with a highly reduced costs.

Coming back to the institutions in India, no doubt that they have a real good set of individuals who contribute to the technical innovations of the world. They have to be backed with a good funding from either private organizations or the government should work towards it so that atleast the quality is not lost. They are not here to make money by venturing into education considering it as a business and an evergreen market. (Of course, I do agree that money has to be associated but not to an extent at a which it is now) This is when even the poorest kid in the society can afford to get an access into the education offered in these institutes. This is when bright ideas won't die due to lack of money. This is when there will be an economic balance created between the poor and the rich. This is when India can grow as a super power!

Signing off as of now ... Good luck to my friend!

The new age entrepreneur

I was just collecting all my thoughts today which used to ponder around my head for more than an year now! It was more than an year back that I had set out with loads of dreams in my eyes! I joined MBA with an intension of meeting like minded people there with whom I can hopefully end up being an entrepreneur. Not because it was in the air, but I had a dream and my parents supported it. So I decided to give up my personal time to discover my dream. Went in search of people... the right idea... the right moment... In the due course, many new ideas came in... this made me shift my thought process of just a software engineer to that of a person who can actually make a difference in the top management! I became more and more creative... everyday was a new discovery for me... every night was tiring... We used to slog our nights out for just one small hope of making the real difference! We used to meet a lot of young / old guys who were there making a difference. A lot of marketing ideas came out of our brains. We began to observe each and every small thing around us like never before. Hope was at its highest level. We had gathered all courage to go ahead and take the ultimate step. Then came the great American recession! It just shattered our business plans, all the courage was washed out in just a very short span of time :'( ... The markets were hit!! The forecasts were bad!! Hence we had to do the thing we were never prepared for... We dropped the whole idea for the time being...

I didn't want my creativity to die ... I had started photography in the meanwhile and had picked up quite well in a short span of time. Hence decided to play in the market with it being a tool... setup a supply chain of my own with tie ups with 2 local vendors and a retail store. It was a real learning for me! I learnt to make business there... Though I came into the limelight, the recession had hit the art market also. I learnt a lot from the retail store manager (a Punjabi). This gave me the real essence of running a local retail business. It was an amazing experience nevertheless. Later on the ideas kept on coming in making some online business, thus making money etc... finally I tied up with an art market startup to sell my photographs. But it again failed!

Then came a dry period where I just had my normal job and MBA had become screwing now demanding a lot of my time and attention. But my dream was still ON! Then came a time where I got an opportunity to actually join an already running startup to build the sales and plan for the future marketing prospects. Looked like a deal for me! But somewhere inside I did not have a great feeling towards it (probably because it was not my original idea). Nevertheless I agreed for a few things with them. Went ahead and put in a lot of ideas and the real work of a sales and marketing fellow was done. This is when I met a few clients as well trying to convince them about the offerings and stuff. But this feeling which had initially developed in me made me feel more and more tired. I used to go back home everyday in the night with an amazing amount of headache! This is when I realized a few other things and decided to concentrate more on my health.

This was an amazing breathtaking, mind boggling journey for me. Though there was absolutely no monetary benefits for me, it changed me as a person and made me thick skinned! Today I have no fear to failure! I have got over all that. In the due course I discovered quite a few real good people who will be associated with me for lifetime! Even if not physically in contact, at least I would never forget the difference they made in my life!

There was a lot of learning that I take back from this experience of mine! Here it goes...

• Never compensate for your health! You just will loose the interest and the potential if you loose your health!
• Identify who is what and exploit the goodness in them rather than cribbing that they should have had this etc.
• You should have a core team of people with REAL stuff. The idea cannot be implemented otherwise.
• Go behind your dreams and not compensate for anything at least in this. If you are in a mode of compensation, get out of it. It is better to have a job and work for someone else.
• There is a lot of difference between what happens in the real world and what is being portrayed.
• Always have a parallel source of income which serves your bread n butter. This is required if you are not filthy rich or have a family who is dependent on you.
• Have a vision beyond 10-15 yrs. Things will not work out overnight. You cannot expect a sale to be done in 3-4 months, esp if you are a startup!
• Create a buzz in the market, even if your product is virtual!
• Customer is really the emperor!
• Learn from your mistakes; but don't repeat them. You will burn your fingers otherwise!
• Do not neglect even the smallest of the market triggers. The bull whip effect actually exists in the normal business scenarios as well!

These were the few learnings which I would always want to have in mind! This has not been a phase of failure but a learning phase for me! As of now, taking a good break and concentrating more on my health... But will definitely return to it one day with a new idea; a new initiative! The energy is still ON! Also looking at how to change the way India is working now... Any bright sparks out there ...??

Photography & Nudity

Before I start, let me make you guys aware of the fact that this is a pretty matured write and I would expect a professional thought process running through your mind while reading this. Thanks for your co-operation.

It was just a lazy afternoon for me at Reliance timeout near office. I was trying to get some inspiration for photography which has kind of dried up off late :'( ... I was just flipping the pages of this book called "The Photo Book". There were a lot of Nude photographs in the book which took my thoughts to a conversation I had with my marketing professor almost an year back. He had one of his friends who was into Nude photography esp black n white. I feel a nude photograph taken in black n white is a great combination! You will have a LOT of scope of expressing the feelings through a perfect mixture of lighting and facial expression.

Even today nudity is usually considered as a taboo in the Indian society especially with so many narrow minded a**holes around. But even according to the religion, nudity is the purest form of a human being. It is his/her own self. It outrightly displays the amount of confidence portrayed by the person. The day Indians get this into their nerves, we can expect a lot more matured approach towards issues related to it.

Just found this excerpt from the wiki ...

"Nude photography is a style of art photography which depicts the nude human body as a study. Nude photography should be distinguished from erotic photography, which has a sexually suggestive component. Nude photography should also be distinguished from glamour photography, which places more emphasis on the model and her/his sexuality, and treats the model as the primary subject.

Many photographers consider an art nude photograph to be a one that studies the human body, rather than the person. A photograph of a person that is meant to be recognized is called a portrait, and nude photographs often do not show a face at all. Nude photography is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. As an art form, nude photography is a stylized depiction of the nude body with the line and form of the human figure as the primary objective. Photographers sometimes use extremes of light and shadow, oiled skin, and shadows falling across the body to show texture and structure of the body."

I feel Nude photography is a very matured way of expressing your thoughts. It not only involves a lot of photography skills, but also is a lot dependent on the expressions of the model! Even with a lot of good work towards lighting, if the model doesn't have good expressions, the pic will be filled with vulgarity. It is a thin line of demarcation which a photographer has to be careful about! Even with a proper lighting set, the photo has to have a good exposure of colors. This will help to differentiate in the depth of the different shades of gray.

Even as an observer, one has to understand photography to actually make out the inner meaning of the photograph so that it can be appreciated and not blamed for vulgarity reasons.

Just took this topic to write about today... Hope you guys liked it... Happy blogging!!

The selling experience...

It feels really good start writing again!! Had gone out of it to gain an experience! Had the real life experience of selling... It was fun! Though I haven't got into it full time; this made my idea of MBA even more clear ;) ... For the ones who are following my blog it isn't new, but for the benefit of the ones who are not, here it goes.... "MBA is always just a facilitator! Its there to just give you a platform from where its upto u to launch forward or collapse..."

Yeah... Just thought of briefing about my experience in sales... It is a profession which is usually seen as a low profile thing in the society. When I say sales, all people will imagine is the sales person who either calls up and disturbs (or wakens u up ;)..) every now and then or the person who rings your doorbell!! These push marketing tactics have actually brought down the value of sales. The whole perception of sales in India has been hit due to these things. But just imagine a world without Sales 'n marketing. There would have been a huge barrier built between the demand and the suppply and would have led to an economic imbalance and created a lot of monopoly in the market. Only since marketing is existing is there a sense of utmost competition and thus an urge to succeed in the business world.

Getting into my experience, I got this small oppurtunity to sell an IT product to an age old sector in India which has a very strong background and covers the largest mass in the nation. The whole sales cycle inclusive of a sales call, meeting the higher officials, convincing them, making a concept selling, convince them about the product etc is so very well defined and it really works! You simply don't have to think twice before going ahead and executing this. BUT ... (that was huge but by the way :)... ), here comes the trickiest part. if it was so simple and st fwd, you might ask me the question as to y doesnt everyone click in this case? There is a lot of drama which needs to happen before and after selling. Lot of negotiations, hard talks, disagreements, rejections, retries and many more adjectives are involved.

Initially at the stage of conceptualization of any product or service, you should and must understand who is your target customers and the target market, thier psychology, the way they react to situations, the current, future and the historic trends, their future plans, the government involvement, the internation position etc etc. In short you should just know who you are talking to . Try doing an extensive research about the person and the organization you are planning to visit. Unless this is done, there is no point if you blindly go and meet. In case you happen to meet them just on the fly, be street smart to strike a deal. They will try to suck your blood and get the maximum in which case know what ur objectives are in the market and how will it affect if the deal is struck at a wong place and under wrong terms and this has to happen in a fraction of a second only because its a split second decision which you will have to take when you are in front of the client (prospective). You should know who is the decision making authority in the client organization. By hook or crook, get an entry to his chanber and sell with utmost passion as though you have nothing else from this and this is your life! These are just a few things which you need to know before hand (Guess now u know y everybody doesn't click :D)

I haven't got an oppurtunity to click a deal till now. Shall update the blog once I get the oppurtunity.

India is now going towards the after sales service part of it. Though it has been existing since years, the major chunk of the population is still isn't bother about the service quality and the after sales service. But if your end customers are organizations, then it is very important that you have an after sales service. Since the time of globalization, the organizations have realized the importance of after sales service. The individuals have now started realizing the importance of after sales service. The culture is fast growing in India now!

That was the experience as of now... Thanks for dropping in! Happy blogging!!

Moving from Constructive destruction to Destructive construction??

2nd of July 2009 was marked as the first Railway budget from the newly formed UPA government in India. I was not aware of it until I went and sat in front of the idiot box during my lunch time at office. There stood Madam Mamata with her list of offerings for the railway department of the nation for the new financial year. The first statement she made too the whole enthusiasm out of my mind! "Railways is not only for economic benefits. It should also appeal for the society." With this being plain English words, this is an ideal scenario. But if one can look deep into the thought process that would have gone while conveying this, it is devastating...

During the time of our Laloo Prasad Yadav, Indian railways recorded the highest profits in its lifetime! Thousands of crores of profit was recorded! More than 40% of it went into the develpment processes of the nation. All Laloo did were simple things. Nothing great, no technological advancements happened overnights. Implementation of simple ideas here and there was what led to the amazing turn over. This took Laloo to places like IIMs to deliver lecures on management! Though people might argue that he is very currupt and a few hundreds of crores has gone into his pocket, I still support Laloo. Why?? Here it goes... All of you will agree to the fact that the Indian goverment and all government related activities are surrounded by corruption. This is the way things work in India. I agree that it has to change so that the common man is not affected very much. But, this cannot happen overnight. It is very simple. Say you are following a ritual since your birth. Suddenly after 50 years somebody comes and asks you to go against it, the natural tendency is for you to resist the change even though there might be enormous amount of benefits by you not following the ritual. This has a lot to do with psychology and mind games people play. Okay... coming back to Laloo's kaarnama... He might have taken bribe, but dont forget, this has yielded for 1000s of crores being invested in the development of India.

This is what I term as Constructive destruction. You destroy an existing way of doing things to come out with amazing (though small) ideas to make things better. If you feel Laloo was destroying the money of the public, then he was doing so to get a return of an amount which no Indian could think of! This is the display of constructive destruction!

Coming back to where I started from; the budget is good to the public. But I don't see returns in the way it had in the previous term. All Mamata wanted to prove is that she has the capability to win hearts and not pockets (which she did eventually! Hats off to her for that...) and thus to disprove Laloo and show him that she is better than him (egoism plays a very major role in politics. Infact it is the base for politics to occur.) But, considering the economic downturn which happened very recently, it makes sense to concentrate more on the pockets. The hearts will be there for many more generations to come... She tried to constructively destroy what ever was done. Hopefully a few of her ideas will work out (I doubt though).

This is where I began thinking, will the railway budget be in a position to provide India with the same ROI which it did the last time? Was the roughness between Laloo and the UPA affect the growth of our nation? Where is India heading towards; Constructive destruction or Destructive construction??? Looking forward for the Budget today...

PS: Please note the big picture here without spending much energy on the intricacies of politics of India (If you feel anything is wrong, it is your thought process and I respect it completely...)

Board Room Delusions

It was 30th of June 2009, after two years and ten months into my professional life, it was the day when I was supposed to deliver a high profile presentation to a client who was completely unaware of the existence of we as a company. Prior to it, I had spent three days thinking about what to put and what not. I basically didn't want us to to lose business due to some small mistakes which might be politically wrong. I read, read, read and again read through the presentation as though it was the only thing I had in life. I forgot the weekend. I forgot my usual work. Used to have head aches almost daily in this period... Well... it was not because of the pressure... but just that I wanted to make it RIGHT and be opportunistic.

It was supposed to be a high level presentation and a forum for discussions about what is good and what is BAD. Well well... the later part actually scared the shit out of me. It was my first presentation in front of a CEO who is expecting to click a business deal (probably) from the client. The morning of Jun 30th went very well. The CEO reviewed the presentation and had a mock session where the CEO made clear on his thought process about the presentation and the importance of it etc. With some minor changes in our approach, we were done with the mock! To my surprise, there were not many changes. So I spent the the rest 2 hours modifying it a bit and preparing for it...

It was 1:40 and I was in the board room checking the presentation if everything was in place. Suddenly one of senior fellows calls me and informs that the client will be there in 5 mins. Well, that is what I call punctuality! ;) (15 mins early to the meeting...). I had left my blazer at the third floor and I rushed to get that. Eventually I arrived 5 mins late to the meeting. I enter the board room to see the client, my CEO and a few more fellows sitting there. I was like "SHIT! WHY TODAY??" Nevertheless, the discussions started with the CEO trying to sell the organizational values to the client. This was the point of time when I remembered my B2B professor! His famous statement of "Bahut drama hota hai sir ek room ke andar" was running in my mind ;). The selling continued with one of the senior folks continuing the talks after the CEO. It was then the turn for me to pitch in. By that time, all the really good values and a few existing problems were identified.

I started the presentation... the second slide and it was high level for the client! She was also new to the client organization and thus didn't have much of an idea of the operations. The CEO had to pitch in at this time and give a high level picture wrt the client organization. After a 15 minute session, I knew that I had to change the way I was presenting and had to thus skip a few slides which were probably irrelevant to the client. Then came the opportunity for me to sell. I sold with great passion by highlighting all the really nice parts of the business that we had done to bring down the operational expenses of the client. The client was happy and so was the CEO. Then started the real DRAMA! We had a few issues with the client organization and I was not really sure as to how to put it across since I hardly knew the client and she hardly knew us. But with the initial interactions, I was at least clear that she was pretty straight forward and meant business. I went around in a really diplomatic way in saying "U can be better so that the business will be better and we can offer more reliable and formidable solutions" (well not so bluntly though...). The hour long session finally ended with a lot of discussions and disagreements (at times) etc. Thanks to my CEO, he covered it up soooo very well! And at the end of it the client gave me a title of a "POLITICIAN" and the CEO and the senior folks said that I was good! Well... frankly speaking I didn't know how I made the difference but if they say I was good, then they should have had some points in the mind. I accepted it and moved on...

It was a really different world which I saw inside the board room. No cinema, no theater can beat it! ;) LOL... But then, that is how it is. That is how businesses work! That is how clients are got! It was a first direct experience for me. That is when I realized that an MBA will not make a difference. All it can do is just give a few guides here and there (esp to create high profile PPTs overnight ;)...). This is where I remembered my MBA mates who had told this to me on the Day 1 of my PG :)... But yes, probably if it was not for my MBA, I wouldn't have been in the meeting at all. So, there are pros and cons of everything... Makes sense to take only the pros :)

Hope to have more of such experiences in the near future...

Of Baristas n Scrabbles

I am one of this this weird persons who don't mind having lunch at Barista! Yes you read it right, Barista :D... It was one such (ab)normal afternoon for me. Went in there with two of my not so normal friends... LOL... As usual, ordered some stuffs to drink and eat. But today wasn't normal. One of my friends got a scrabble from nowhere. As a kid, I had always wanted to play it. Never got a chance though. Nevertheless was playing it now for the first time in 24 years! I was explained all the rules and regulations and made aware of a few strategies as and when i was playing. It was a combined effort that made me win the first ever game of scrabble I played! :D...

After that day, the visit to Barista became very frequent. Playing scrabble became very addictive. It became so addictive that I got one for myself as well! ;) ... Letters started floating in front of my eyes... words started dancing... mom involved, then dad, then sis... hmm... It has got a very high influencing power! ;)...

Nowadays it has become so that we visit Barista to play scrabble. Eating and drinking has become secondary! Was just thinking how many more might be there like us. What an amazing idea did they come up with! Hats off to them!! n hats off to ppl like us who make it worth the thought ;) LOL...

INDIA Votes…

The elections are fast approaching and here I am sitting at the corner of my house and penning down my recent experiences about the biggest democracy of the world! India has one of the most complicated structures when it comes to conducting elections majorly due to the wide variety of culture and people residing here. It is a very gigantic task to make sure that things happen in a proper way. Especially when it comes to the elections, it is the sole responsibility of the Election Commission (EC) to make sure of fair elections to happen.

In the last few days I had an opportunity to meet a few people who help out the EC with its job of smooth execution of the polls. I met people ranging from the ‘chaprasi’ to the PResiding Officer (PRO) (the one responsible for end-end transactions in a polling booth). I here realized the actual way things are executed at the ground level. Initially the people are selected on a random basis and are given the responsibility of handling different activities held at the polling booth. There are a lot of procedures to be completed before the actual voting day (clearing the voting machine, writing a few reports and some memos etc) to make sure of a smooth processing of elections. During the process of voting the PRO has the responsibility of handling people, avoid malpractices, handle challenge votes, convince people about voting etc. Once the voting is done, it is again the responsibility of the PRO to make sure of the proper and safe delivery of the voting machines and all the other documents into the right hands.

After giving you guys a brief about what exactly happens during the poll day, let me directly come to the point of me writing all this. The responsibilities defined above are absolutely fool proof if they are executed in the right way and by the right people. But as a matter of fact, I am afraid to say that this is not the case with most of the polling booths. Many of the polling booths have immatured inexperienced workers on job. They neither have the experience required to handle people nor do they have the expertise to do so. I do not know how exactly the work is allocated. But due to my technical background, I was able to guess to some extent that it’s a random series generation. To put it in layman language, a few people out of a lot are picked for this highly responsible job of a PRO. To substantiate by findings, please answer one question. Does it make sense to make a person who was a PRO/APRO at the previous elections to be asked to take up a task like putting the ink on the voter’s hand? To look at the other end of it, a person who has never taking responsibility in his/her life is made the PRO. A person who is a pune somewhere; a graduate who has just passed out with less than an year’s experience as a government employee and many more such people are made the PROs. I do not understand from what angle the EC gets an idea like this. (Though PROs are Gazetted officers in many cases, there also exist people who belong to the above mentioned category. Also please note that they are trained for 2 days...)

I perfectly understand the amount of pressure the EC will be during the time of elections. But with such high level of technological advancements, I don’t think it will hardly take more than a month’s time to develop a software which can do all this. All they need is a database of people who were previously involved and who can be added on this year, where are the resources available etc. If you counter attack on this asking for the money spent on development and maintenance of this software, then I am sure that all of you will agree to the fact that this will not even be a penny when compared to the amount spent on campaigning by the various political parties.

Let me now take your attention to another issue which caught my eyes – Involvement of women in the whole program. There is no consideration given to the gender of the people involved in this process. Even women are given equal amount of rights and authority. But the gray part of it is the fact that they are ruthlessly treated! This incident happened to a lady during the previous elections. She was asked to stay back till late night after which a transport was promised. As the famous saying goes, “Promises are meant to be broken”, she was asked to get down in a deserted area 5 KM away from her place at the mid night…

The arrangements this year are no good. No transport facility is provided. There is no guarantee of food and even water. The polling booths don’t have proper sanitation. There is no fixed plan of action and time frame for working. Due to the inexperienced PRO, they are not sure of the time at which polling process ends. Above all of these infrastructural problems, the ladies are being put into remote areas for taking the responsibility of polling. To add to it, there are incidents of pregnant ladies being put for polling duty. It’s a mere display of callousness and a taken for granted attitude by the EC. A proper involvement and brainstorming of the staff responsible for planning the activities could have solved all these problems and ensured a free and fair election in all senses.

Apart from these logistics problem, there is a bigger problem due to which the percentage of voting in India is at a very disappointing rate. This is driven by the IT culture which came into existence a few years back. Due to the IT boom in many major cities, a large part of the population started to migrate to the cities which promised a very good growth and career. Due to this, the concept of locals voting for choosing their leaders does not exist any more. When you are no more attached with the locality, there is no point of voting for the locality. Just look at the bigger picture. The whole country is there at your stake. You are ultimately voting for the nation. The locals are just representatives. This idea stuck me during a conversation with a friend. Can we have a centralized system which allows us to vote from anywhere in India (extensible to world as well) having proper security arrangements. Ofcourse through initiatives like www.jagoree.com, it’s no more a dream to achieve such a setup. But still I see a lot of people not making use of this facility. It’s high time that we and the government realize the importance of all the issues mentioned above. Hope to see the vital decision making day planned and handled in a better manner going forward. Guys we are speaking about INDIA and not any other minuscule culture or nation!

Through this small write-up I seek the help of fellow individuals to make people aware of the responsibilities they have which can make a difference to more than 1bn people!

Bullied away!!

It was a routine for me to browse through the sites for some news here and there. Just came across this headline which demanded my attention towards it! “16 students beaten by teacher in Dera Bassi” Well… this has been a regular news off late. The display of brutality from the teachers to impose some silly things which they feel is the most important thing in a students’ life!

Many people whom I have come across have this long running issue in their minds about the Indian education system which is in a way is bullied away by the teachers' view points. It’s not all though. We also encounter teachers who are gems! There are a few who really encourage to go beyond the boundaries to think about what, why and how do things happen in the way they happen and not make one restricted to textbook thinking. On a contrary, there are a LOT more of them who think they are GODS (imaginary supreme person) and according to who textbooks and the predefined methodologies are the ultimate way for knowledge acquisition! This article is dedicated to such wonderful creatures!

As children, we always have a quest for learning and a quest to acquire as much knowledge^# as we can. Even biologically, that’s the period when an individual’s grasping power is at the highest. Kids will be more experimental and will want a reason for anything and everything they do. “Why?” appears to be their favorite word! In the due course of answering their questions, few of them tend to go beyond boundaries and will think out of the box. When they do it the response they get is, "YOU ARE WRONG!" and why this response... because the syllabus doesn't allow u to do it! It’s not there in that thing called TEXTBOOK! You can't choose what you want to do... You can’t be in the way you are... You are not allowed to be creative... Most of all, you are not supposed to go against what your so called leading lights (in the form of teachers) guide you to! And why is this? Because they wouldn’t have done it in that way and it is out of scope of their thought process! They can't think in that way and hence you can't! And what is the result of it… the student gets demotivated and thinks that his thought process is wrong and hence he will never dare to do it again! Why... because he is not supposed to think on his own!

They say that teachers are the ones who lead people to what they'll become in the future! It's very true! But if we get such great individuals as teachers, then I am sorry... but it’s better to be illiterate! You will atleast preserve the values embedded by your own families! Please do not get me wrong here by assuming that I am self-centered. It’s just a humble attempt to express the dishonesty currently happening in the country. The whole point is that, there will definitely be a lot of learning involved when you come across people… when you meet wonderful teachers… even among the peer group for that matter; but as teachers they should realize the responsibility on their shoulders! You go wrong at times... that’s when teachers come into picture! Not that they can think better than you, but they would have had the right experience to guide you in a better way. This is the real teacher! You, at any stage should feel confident about doing anything and everything coz you always have a backup in the form of your teacher! The one who encourages the student to reach higher than where he/she really stands is the real teacher! That’s the spirit required for the New age India! They should realize the entire nation’s future is in their hands!

Instead, if the same situation continues... then I am sorry to say… but, India is going to remain in docks forever! When the world has reached a stage where countries like China are committed for a R&D spending growth of 21% per annum, if things like these happen on a regular basis, then the day is not far when the other third world countries will easily push us back! Only a few people sitting at the top and stressing on innovation will not help in any way! Each and every individual should have this embedded as a moral responsibility! That is the way where the whole nation can work towards one particular vision! That’s when the dream of our own ex-President, Abdul Khalam, will come true! This is the kind of bigger picture that one should be providing to the kids! That’s when they will grow to become individuals who can drive the entire nation to success!

^#Knowledge is not restricted to science, math or any subject related. It’s referred here in a generic manner.

The power of value perception!

"The value of water is more than diamond in a desert!" This one small statement changed the whole way I looked at things. I was exposed to this concept of "Value perception" when I for the first time in my life came across this wonderful subject called ECONOMICS!

This concept of value perception has influenced me in a very huge way! The whole building block for any business in this world, Rate of Return or more popularly known as ROI, is based on this factor. The ROI of your business is basically the value perceptions you feel is there for your products or services in your consumer's or client's eyes! Whatever you pay for the goods you purchase is basically because you value the good so much. You see the ROI in it. Here again I feel the words "Value perception" and "ROI" are interchangeable. Each of them are conceptually derived from each other! Few years back, had anyone imagined paying 100 bucks for a single cup of a coffee! (I am basically referring to the CCDs n Baristas we have today...) This is the paradigm shift in the perception of the customer which has created wonders!

This whole concept of value perception leads us to a new era of costing and accounting! At the end of the day, while pricing a particular product or a service, the first and foremost factor is to meet the break even! All extra you get is technically termed as profit. Now your profit depends on the way the customers/consumers value your product/service...

Since I have explored a bit on the Psychology also, let me not constraint myself to just business and accounting. If you see a relationship, the whole point of having or not having a relationship with a person is based on the way you see the value out of it! The amount of importance you give to a relationship is in direct correlation with the way you perceive it and hence the amount of value you derive out of it. You might want to term it as love, hatred, anger etc etc... But all these again are an output of human values! :)

If I correlate all of these factors, I will end-up with a summary to explain what I call it as "The power of value perception!" It just is an amazing matter of fact that all our lives, work, relationships, anything and everything you can relate yourself to, is definitely someway or the other related to the three evergreen letters "ROI"...

A random thought process...

Well well... my quest for knowledge continued and I started asking more and more questions to myself and to the people associated with me. I have offlate been into a mode of finding a relationship between vedanta/upanishad etc and physics. The basic reason being I believe that anything and everything that we have spiritually today (which is supposed to have been proposed by our ansestors) must have a logic behind it without which there is no point in which it can be quantified and presented in a way the world accepts it.

Okay... I had a very abrupt start in it though. I was reading a book called "Modern Physics and Vedanta" authored by Swami Jitatmananda of the Ramakrishna Math. I there was refreshed upon by the concept of the existance of the cosmic planes in particle physics. To give a brief; whenever an electron or a proton rotates around a nucleus, it does so in an orbit in the cosmic plane. Now I wanted to relate it to the cosmic plan talked about in meditation. The basic concept of meditation revolves around the 7 chakras present in the human body. If one can relate it to physics, this actually is how deep you go in identifying what is the finest particle with which your body is made of. When you reach to a level where you identify the existance of an atom in your body, this will basically pull you towards the same plane as the sub-atomic particles are in. Hence you will be in this cosmic plane!

Okay... this was just a hypothesis which I could derive out of my thinking. I need to find out the actuality of the situation through some more research on the proven theories in physics and some more in-depth knowledge about meditation which I shall be doing in the due course of time.

There is lot more actually. This whole concept of "Brahman" is related to the unified theory which the physicists all over the world today are trying to prove. :) ... Sounds exciting right!! :)

There was one more observation which I could make related to the massless paticles... When meditation reaches its highest level, I have heard that one reaches a level where he doesnt have a control over his body and his body for that period of time becomes immaterial to him. He starts acting with his 'manas'. Can this be the massless situation talked about in physics?

According to physics, a sub-atomic particle will reach a massless situation hypothetically when it travels at the speed of light. Say for example, photon, when it travels at the speed of light can be considered massless. Here Heisenberg's uncertainity principle also comes into picture! But in reality there is no concept of massless!

Coming back to meditation; when a stage is reached where you are in a different plane and when the claims of you virtually travelling around the world is made, is it actually this stage of a sub-atomic particle? Because through meditation the ultimatum could be you identifying your inner self which is made of these sub-atomic particles... So I am jsut wondering if this is the stage where you move a step ahead to the sub-atomic plane from the atomic plane and hence you have the capability of moving with a speed equivalent to that of light :O... While young I had heard SubrahmaNya (the elder son on Lord Shiva) going around the world 3 times on his vahana (a peacock) by the time Ganesha made three rounds of his parents... Now.. w.r.t the above hypothesis, was this vahana just a hypothecation to signify the plane in which he was? I am not really sure about the existance of the entity called God first of all... thats a different entity to research about altogether. But if I go by the assumption that they do exist and the stories surrounding them are true, do all the vahanas of the Hindu God indicate the same?

My questioning continues... and hence the research... :)

I was able to arive at one more concept related to music and physics... medine and physics. This was an output out of a discussion with my mom who has done some research on music. We would have heard about the existance of music leading to the extensive growth of plants... or curing of ailments in animals etc... A thought came into my mind that it might be because of the concept of resonance. Even though the other living organisms cannot communicate as a human does, the basic concept of frequency generated out of the pharynx and the ear drums responding to the vibrations outside (in case of fauna) still exists. Hence I personally feel that all these might be because of this concept of "RESONANCE" explained in physics. Even this different ragas in music to be sung at different time frames is in some way related to the electromagnetic waves generated by the natural environment. Thats probably why Tansen was able to light that diya in the court. This again is another hypothesis I am making. I am just wrting down my thought process which I underwent today.

I shall definitely get back with statistical, scientific and mythological proofs for this either to validate these thoughts or to negate these thoughts in sometime :)

Hogenakkal under threat!

South India is a land of wonderful places. It's a paradise of greenery with an innumerable number of tourist attractions. Down south, in the Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu, is situated a waterfall “Hogenakkal falls” on the river Kaveri. It is sometimes referred to as the “Niagara of India”. With its bewitching beauty and fame for medicinal baths and hide boat rides, it is a major site of tourist attraction. The carbonite rocks present are considered to be the oldest available in South Asia.

According to the etymology, when the water falls on the rocks, it appears as if Hoge (smoke in Kannada) is emanating from the top of the kal (rock in Kannada) due to the forcing waters. Hence it got its name Hogenakkal. It is also called as Marikottayam by the people of Tamil Nadu.

At Hogenakkal, the mighty Kaveri river spreads out over a wide area of sandy beaches, then flows through a straight but narrow ravine near Salem. Before reaching the falls area, the river flows through a forest range which contains herbs which are traditionally believed to enhance health.

Hence, Hogenakkal is considered both a sacred bathing place and a spa-like health resort. Here the area is spread across through a very wide area which gives a panoramic view. It also is a very good destination for many upcoming photographers.

Having all this advantages and an astounding scenic beauty, Hogenakkal is heading towards a threat from the tourists who come there and enjoy. On a recent visit, a few unfriendly sights stuck my eyes. All the plastic wastes and other non-biodegradable products are being left unattended. They are left for the nature to take care of it. Though it is very minimal, it is an alarm for all of us. We have been playing a very integral role in spoiling the rich heritage of our nation on a very regular basis. It's high time that we realize the importance of the rich cultural heritage India has and contribute towards the enrichment of the same.

Looking at it at a serious note, tourism in India is a very important and emerging segment where it act as the second largest net foreign exchange earner for the country and generated about 32.57 million employment, both direct and indirect. Tourism in India, both domestic and international has been growing consistently over the years with a growth rate above the world average! With such a large sector involved, as a citizen of the nation, it's very important for us to play a vital role in maintaining (if not improving atleast).

We don't have to invest lacs together to contribute towards the improvement of the situation. All we need is a quick action with individualistic responsibility. Being a tourist, its our responsibility to maintain cleanliness in and around the places where we visit. Hogenakkal was just given as an example. There are many more places across the state and nation where the situation is even more worse. Through this media, it's just our sincere appeal to all of you to maintain the purity offered by nature as it is. Play with the nature but in a way where none of us are harmed!

Retailing ahead…

Big bazaar, Shopping malls, Hypermarkets and Mega mart. These are just a few names which almost spontaneously strike to an individual’s mind when the word retailing comes into picture. It reaches every single home in every single corner of the nation! The market is huge and is untapped in various ways. India has still not experienced the ultimatum! But if one goes to see the history of the retail market in India, it took a little more than eleven years for it to evolve to the level it is today as compared to more than fifty year taken by the west.

Today, in the present economic position the world is, the word “credit crunch” seems to be highly fashionable. Let us try to analyze the hiccups and opportunities of this buzz word on the Indian retail industry. I will try and put forward my analysis on the same which has resulted from a bit of market study and interaction with big thinkers. I shall basically be concentrating on the opportunities that one can look at in the current market scenario.

The thought process moving across the investors today is “None of the customers are willing to invest their money in everything apart from the basic needs today.” How should one as a retailer take this? If one can sensitively look at the retail market, a huge amount of an investment is involved before a retailer actually pitches himself into the market. For him to reach the break-even and start making profits, it takes a lot of time and patience. Hence, in a highly skeptical and volatile market condition, it’s very important for one to sense the importance of the slightest of the opportunity that is created.

Having understood the seriousness of the situation let me just elaborate on the problem itself. Since retail industry runs on a low margin business model, the time required for the industry to recover is more. One can see a sluggish and a weaker period for a much longer time when compared to the other sectors. “The basic problem is profit and not consumers!” quoted Mr.Bhaskar Bhat, MD, Titan. This simple sentence says it all. The customers are still very much there in the picture. The only problem is that they are not yielding the kind of profit the companies were getting. This was just a briefing about the problem that is prevailing today. One has to also consider the impact of other sectors and the interdependency factors as well before coming to any conclusion. Just to sum it up, the magnitude of the problem is huge!

One choice for an individual is to sit and analyze the problem that prevails. The other option of course is to tweak the situation a little bit and make the best out of it. Just to take an optimistic approach, let me put forward a few good things about this situation as well. One can be aggressive in his approach and expand his establishments to reach out more and more people and make them realize that there are other ways of dealing things as well! The current situation also has seen the sustainability of various sectors like food and farming. So, the bottom of the pyramid is still alive and kicking. If India is considered, 73% of the population comes from this bottom of the pyramid. Hence there a considerably big gate asking to be opened. One has to just find the right key!

We can also look at the revenue shared model. This is the model followed in the malls now-a-days. One established individual/organization helping the other smaller ones by providing a good platform for establishment. This is a perfect WIN-WIN model. This also involves a good amount of economy distribution among the individuals involved in the business. Since more and more number of people are skeptical about spending, it provides space for a new era of innovation. One can concentrate on low-price high-quality products, thus providing a room for a lot of technological improvement.

We can also look into the service industry as a money making industry. If an individual decides not to buy a new vehicle for a few more years, this automatically calls for a good and reliable service provider who can help the individual to maintain his vehicle so that he doesn’t have to invest in a new one. Apart from these, the basic service providers like doctors, lawyers etc., will be in demand no matter what is the economic situation. To give this article a philanthropic twist, we can also ask them to reduce their prices or do more of social services if they are not serious about business!

Above mentioned were just a few bright sparks which are existing even in the current market which is told to chaotic by many analysts. At this juncture I would appreciate if you would think on these lines which says, “When the world is observing recession, India is expecting a 6-7% growth in the GDP.” This speaks about the market in India and its opportunities!

Just to take you all forward, let me just share with you all a few key points which I came across. These were a few takeaways from the established players in the industry.

• Get the cost structures rightly in place. Re-examine the pricing that has been conventionally been done.
• Do not reduce the prices of the products. Instead work on a pricing model which will basically reduce the overall pricing of the products thus preserving the MRP of the product. This is basically because, once the market comes back, you must make up for the loses. Also, you should exist in a competent way even when the market is doing very good. More importantly, you should maintain the expectancy level the customers have in the brand.
• Please consider the fact that the mothers, kids and other market pullers do not watch and analyze the market analysis telecasted on the television sets.
• Geographically position yourself properly in the market.
• Have the bigger picture of India growing along with you.

These were again just a few observations made in the market. This is the best time to invest, to gain good market share, to leave an impression on the customers, to exist and also to make a long term impact on the society. All that is required is a little bit of optimism and a foresighted thought process which can lead you to success. So retailers, nothing to worry, have patience, enjoy the competition and make the best out of the market! Happy retailing!!

NOTE: Few of the analysis and ideas were shared as part of the TiE Entrepreneurial summit ’08.