Everytime I hear Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera, from Swades, my heart gets heavy. I want to escape. Go travel. Chuck everything behind. Move on. Do something.
Wishful thinking.
Showing posts with label Business in India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Business in India. Show all posts
Crib Crib Crib
Crib Alert: High. Proceed with caution.
Every person I meet in Delhi, or met in Mumbai while I was there, they start by asking a question. What do you do? And basis of that answer, they would create a character sketch for me and decide how open/close they would be with me while discussing things. So, when I was part of Creativeland Asia, it was far easier to get access to people and their thoughts. I would say that I belong to KM function at CLA and people would be falling head over heals to spill out even their bedroom secrets. Now that I am running Cyntax when I actually say that I am running a small web design business, they shun me out. They even take their websites offline, lest I read em!
I don't understand. Why is it not acceptable to people if you are confused? Or directionless? Or fickle-minded? Or chase dreams? Or have that poetic Bawra Man? I mean its my life. As long as I can deliver what I am promising, why cant they accept me being fickle? Dint these same people yell out in appreciation when Steve asked us to Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish? Or it is that they preach something and practice something else?
I was being a vegetable in my previous job and people thought I was the best thing to have happened to intellectual world since Dilbert!. And now that when I am actually thinking and trying to do interesting stuff, no one sees the pattern in chaos and I am dismissed as one of those million other mom and pop web designers who would work for cheap. GUYS, FOR CHRIST SAKE I AM NOT GOING TO REMAIN A WEB DESIGNER FOR REST OF MY LIFE. ITS A STOP-GAP ARRANGEMENT.
Coming onto the second issue at hand. Prestige. I mean what is it with people on the Internet and their egos? Why cant they for once talk without being diplomatic/political as if I issued them a Miranda ("Anything you say, can or will be used against you in a court of law .. ") before we agreed to speak? They want to be in good books of everyone they meet. I mean that is fine but if you keep doing that then you would some day hit a dead end. No advancements happened in the world when things were in accord. If everyone is content and praising everyone, you promote mediocrity. You return to the mean. You become average.
And what prestige are we talking about here folks? By definition, prestige is what other people think of you. And then not-by-definition, people think of you as something/someone, they say something else (read second issue above) when they meet you, they say something else when they dint meet you, do something else and in effect, something else happens. If I could summarize, prestige is what you think you have created in other people's mind and more often than not, it would not be what you wanted to create.
Guruji says and I concur, everything is temporary, Anichaya. You either move first and fast. Or you perish. (Darwin?). These people need to understand that till the time they hear negative feedback, they cant move ahead. Start accepting things guys. Take criticism well and improve.
Somethings wrong with me or what? Sigh. Waiting for Sweet November (imdb).
P.S.: This is not over. I need to rush for a client meeting. Will come back and add more ;P
Every person I meet in Delhi, or met in Mumbai while I was there, they start by asking a question. What do you do? And basis of that answer, they would create a character sketch for me and decide how open/close they would be with me while discussing things. So, when I was part of Creativeland Asia, it was far easier to get access to people and their thoughts. I would say that I belong to KM function at CLA and people would be falling head over heals to spill out even their bedroom secrets. Now that I am running Cyntax when I actually say that I am running a small web design business, they shun me out. They even take their websites offline, lest I read em!
I don't understand. Why is it not acceptable to people if you are confused? Or directionless? Or fickle-minded? Or chase dreams? Or have that poetic Bawra Man? I mean its my life. As long as I can deliver what I am promising, why cant they accept me being fickle? Dint these same people yell out in appreciation when Steve asked us to Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish? Or it is that they preach something and practice something else?
I was being a vegetable in my previous job and people thought I was the best thing to have happened to intellectual world since Dilbert!. And now that when I am actually thinking and trying to do interesting stuff, no one sees the pattern in chaos and I am dismissed as one of those million other mom and pop web designers who would work for cheap. GUYS, FOR CHRIST SAKE I AM NOT GOING TO REMAIN A WEB DESIGNER FOR REST OF MY LIFE. ITS A STOP-GAP ARRANGEMENT.
Coming onto the second issue at hand. Prestige. I mean what is it with people on the Internet and their egos? Why cant they for once talk without being diplomatic/political as if I issued them a Miranda ("Anything you say, can or will be used against you in a court of law .. ") before we agreed to speak? They want to be in good books of everyone they meet. I mean that is fine but if you keep doing that then you would some day hit a dead end. No advancements happened in the world when things were in accord. If everyone is content and praising everyone, you promote mediocrity. You return to the mean. You become average.
And what prestige are we talking about here folks? By definition, prestige is what other people think of you. And then not-by-definition, people think of you as something/someone, they say something else (read second issue above) when they meet you, they say something else when they dint meet you, do something else and in effect, something else happens. If I could summarize, prestige is what you think you have created in other people's mind and more often than not, it would not be what you wanted to create.
Guruji says and I concur, everything is temporary, Anichaya. You either move first and fast. Or you perish. (Darwin?). These people need to understand that till the time they hear negative feedback, they cant move ahead. Start accepting things guys. Take criticism well and improve.
Somethings wrong with me or what? Sigh. Waiting for Sweet November (imdb).
P.S.: This is not over. I need to rush for a client meeting. Will come back and add more ;P
Satyam Saga - How Not To Run A Company
Satyam is was one of the big 6 Indian IT companies (Wipro, Infosys, TCS, Cognizant, HCL or switch as few analysts call them).
The story started on Dec 16 2008 when Satyam (promoted by Mr. Ramalinga Raju) said that they are going to acquire Maytas companies (Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties - both promoted by Mr. Raju's sons). Everything was fine about the acquisition except two things. One, Maytas companies are real estate players and Satyam being an IT company has no business to acquire a real estate company. Second, the Maytas companies were promoted by Satyam promoter's immediate family and clearly violated ethical code of conduct.
When this acquisition news was made public, people were of the opinion that Mr. Raju was stealing money (Satyam reportedly had about 1.6 bn of free cash that was being used to finance this acquisition) from Satyam (and Satyam shareholders) and rewarding himself and his family (as a part of the deal, the promoters of Maytas were to receive cash component against their shareholding). Eye brows were raised because apparently Mr. Raju owned just about 8% of Satyam and he did not have complete ownership over the free cash flow.
The stock analysts did not like the deal. Here is the confrence call transcript.
The stock obviously took a beating and as WEB says, there is seldom just one cockroach in the kitchen, this acquisition news opened a can of worms for Satyam. Suddenly everyone was analysing Satyam's books and all this additional scrutiny revealed that promoter holding in Satyam is less than 8% (promoters had pledged their shares against cash flow to meet Satyam's opex). And then the World Bank 8 year ban for data theft became public. And then there were all sorts of other rumors on the street.
It was still all ok till today (Jan 07, 2009), but when Mr. Raju resigned from the board and wrote this letter to SEBI and board members of Satyam stating
And this nudged the stampede on Satyam's stock price (as since Satyam is a large part of sensex, eventually the sensex fell by 7% or 700 odd points). Here is a chart that indicates both the Maytas deal and Raju's resignation from the board.
This is a perfect example of how not to run a company.
The story started on Dec 16 2008 when Satyam (promoted by Mr. Ramalinga Raju) said that they are going to acquire Maytas companies (Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties - both promoted by Mr. Raju's sons). Everything was fine about the acquisition except two things. One, Maytas companies are real estate players and Satyam being an IT company has no business to acquire a real estate company. Second, the Maytas companies were promoted by Satyam promoter's immediate family and clearly violated ethical code of conduct.
When this acquisition news was made public, people were of the opinion that Mr. Raju was stealing money (Satyam reportedly had about 1.6 bn of free cash that was being used to finance this acquisition) from Satyam (and Satyam shareholders) and rewarding himself and his family (as a part of the deal, the promoters of Maytas were to receive cash component against their shareholding). Eye brows were raised because apparently Mr. Raju owned just about 8% of Satyam and he did not have complete ownership over the free cash flow.
The stock analysts did not like the deal. Here is the confrence call transcript.
The stock obviously took a beating and as WEB says, there is seldom just one cockroach in the kitchen, this acquisition news opened a can of worms for Satyam. Suddenly everyone was analysing Satyam's books and all this additional scrutiny revealed that promoter holding in Satyam is less than 8% (promoters had pledged their shares against cash flow to meet Satyam's opex). And then the World Bank 8 year ban for data theft became public. And then there were all sorts of other rumors on the street.
It was still all ok till today (Jan 07, 2009), but when Mr. Raju resigned from the board and wrote this letter to SEBI and board members of Satyam stating
It is with deep regret, at tremendous burden that I am carrying on my conscience, that I would like to bring the following facts to your notice:
The Balance Sheet carries as of September 30, 2008
Inflated (non-existent) cash and bank balances of Rs.5,040 crore (as against Rs. 5361 crore reflected in the books)
An accrued interest of Rs. 376 crore which is non-existent
An understated liability of Rs. 1,230 crore on account of funds arranged by me
An over stated debtors position of Rs. 490 crore (as against Rs. 2651 [cr.] reflected in the books)
For the September quarter (02) we reported a revenue of Rs.2,700 crore and an operating margin of Rs. 649 crore (24% Of revenues) as against the actual revenues of Rs. 2,112 crore and an actual operating margin of Rs. 61 Crore ( 3% of revenues). This has resulted in artificial, cash and bank balances going up by Rs. 588 crore in Q2 alone.
The gap in the Balance Sheet has arisen purely on account of inflated profits over a period of last several years (limited only to Satyam standalone, books of subsidiaries reflecting true performance). What started as a marginal gap between actual operating profit and the one reflected in the books of accounts continued to grow over the years. It has attained unmanageable proportions as the size of company operations grew significantly (annualized revenue run rate of Rs. 11,276 crore in the September quarter, 2008 and official reserves of Rs. 8,392 crore). The differential in the real profits and the one reflected in the books was further accentuated by the fact that the company had to carry additional resources and assets to justify higher level of operations — thereby significantly increasing the costs.
Every attempt made to eliminate the gap failed. As the promoters held a small percentage of equity, the concern was that poor performance would result in a take-over; thereby exposing the gap. It was like riding a tiger, not knowing how to get off without being eaten.
The aborted Maytas acquisition deal was the last attempt to fill the fictitious assets with real ones. Maytas’ investors were convinced that this is a good divestment opportunity and a strategic fit. Once Satyam’s problem was solved, it was hoped that Maytas’ payments can be delayed. But that was not to be. What followed in the last several days is common knowledge.
And this nudged the stampede on Satyam's stock price (as since Satyam is a large part of sensex, eventually the sensex fell by 7% or 700 odd points). Here is a chart that indicates both the Maytas deal and Raju's resignation from the board.
This is a perfect example of how not to run a company.I cant even imagine the spread of its impact. Apart from impacting the India story, more than 50, 000 careers are in jeopardy. Creditors (and banks) stand to loose their investments and money. The suppliers of Satyam would be hit. Most importantly the customer would be left in lurch. Not to mention the shareholders who have invested in Satyam.
Anyways, what's done is done. Questions that we need to find an answer to now, are ...
- What were auditors and chartered accountants doing when the books were being cooked? How could they sign the quarterly reports?
- What is the point of having a board of directors in place if they cant detect these things and bring them to the notice of shareholders?
- What can SEBI and other industry associations do to salvage corporate India's reputation?
Mumbai Delhi for 20,000
Inflation has hit us real hard. There used to be a time when one could travel Mumbai to Delhi on a low cost airline for just about 3000 bucks including taxes. Today we cant get one
If you click on the attached screenshot, you will see the kind of prices they are charging for a one way trip between Mumbai and Delhi. Is this justified .. ? I dont think so. And yes there were cheaper flights available but I ticked them out so that I can take this screenshot.
I know inflation is taking its toll on airlines, fuel prices are all time high and manpower cost is increasing by the day. The taxes are adding additional burden but 20K for a one way flight is stupid.
Bezos on Kindle, Amazon and EC2
BookExpoCast.com has this podcast where Jeff Bezos talks about Kindle and then Chris Anderson (Wired Mag, The Long Tail) speaks to Jeff about publishing industry, Kindle, Amazon and Blue Origin.
The podcast is very very insightful and here are my raw notes from the podcast. Please note that these are raw notes and I scribbled them while listening to the podcast. I might have mis-understood and/or mis-interpreted the podcast but there are so many gems of wisdom that it would be a crime to not post them here.
I am breaking them into sections.
On Amazon
- Amazon was founded in 94. (I read later that Jeff Bezos created the Amazon business plan post his road trip across the country. I am planning to take one myself end of 2008. May be I will have some ideas too :D)
- When he was founding Amazon, Bezos had more than 40 meetings with 22 angel investors to raise USD 1 mn for the seed.
- Bezos also said more likely someone knew about the publishing business, less likely were they to invest in Amazon.
- One Amazon customer has bought more than 1700 books. WOW.
- Things like Super Saver on Amazon saves time and money or both Amazon and end customer. This helps them save by exploiting economies of scale and scope. They can ship two orders together faster.
On Kindle
- It took more than 3 years to develop Kindle.
- Kindle is a device that allows people to get books that they are looking for. And the ones they aren't looking for. Serendipity and accidental discovery of interesting books plays an important part of Kindle experience.
- Kindle uses electronic ink. This is different from text that we see on a computer or LCD screen
- While designing Kindle, the Amazon team wanted to capture few essential features of the system that they were making redundant. Things like book like form, ability to take notes, underline things etc.
- Other important things were weight of Kindle, ability to read in sunlight, efficient on power-consumption.
- The annotations and markings are stored on the Amazon servers. These are later searchable and can be accessed from anywhere.
- Kindle wanted to make it easy for the customer to browse the books and eventually buy more titles off the store. (The streamlined the book buying experience by integrating the buy button on recommendation engine and then not charging customer for the download separately. The cost of the network/download is bundled with the price of the book)
- Bezos made sure that the popular titles, including the ones on the bestsellers lists were available on Kindle right from day 1. This is important so that the customer who have spent about USD 399 on buying a device are not disappointed.
- Someone sent a comment "it is about the message and not about the medium" - when they were comparing reading physical books with Kindle. (This I think is very important. We can make thousands of industries redundant if we focus on the delivery of the message).
- Interesting statistic. About 6% of total Amazon book sales (by volume) now come from Kindle. Kindle customers buy as many physical book as eBooks. This was a surprising for even Jeff Bezos.
- The grand vision for Kindle is all books ever published in any language anywhere in the world made available to you in less than 60 seconds. Which in my opinion is as large as a PC on every desktop. Kudos to Jeff Bezos for this grand a vision and ACTUALLY making it come to life.
- He actually got CEO of Simon and Schuster on stage to talk about Kindle and how it is making it easier for publishers. (This was probably to address concerns of publishers - since the publishers have to first make the books available in electronic format).
On Future of Kindle
- Amazon sees Kindle as more than just an access device. They are already talking about experiments like never-ending book and collaborative writing using Kindle.
- Bezos envisions Kindle as a toolset for publishers and readers. He further talks about giving both publishers and customers these toolsets and let them surprise everyone else with their discoveries and inventions (I am reminded again of Jan Chipchase and his research).
- Its also about finding the right readers for publishers. If you are a student in Iceland looking for books on biological traits of Saharan camels, you can only find them on Amazon. Or Kindle. Kindle thus acts as a platform where a publisher can find his audience and vice versa.
- When asked if Kindle is already redundant with faster cellphones and other access devices, Bezos compared it with cameras. Every mobile phone has a camera now and people still buy smaller cameras and SLRs and other photography equipment. (I am sort of confused at this one. I think cameras AND Kindle both might get redundant at some point in time.)
On Bezos himself
- Jeff Bezos is bald. :D (And so am I.)
- 4 kids. 8.6.3 and 3. :D
- "You do not choose your passions. Your passions choose you." Awesome quote by Jeff Bezos, when he was asked about Blue Origin. Bezos says motto for Blue Origin is Step by step ferociously and he says they are in an industry that helps humanity get into space.
- Bezos says at one point in time that planetary alignments were needed to Amazon what it is today. Is he superstitious? (Am sure paparazzi would be snooping :D)
Other things
- Jeff Bezos talk about a concept of "me time". A time that you spend away from everyone including your family, co-workers etc. This time is typically spent bathing, exercising, traveling etc. A Kindle gives people something to do in this "me time".
- Awesome insight into way humans understand interactions. Humans are storytelling animals and we like narratives. (Actually wrote about branding as storytelling few months ago but I never developed the concept further.
- What about used books? Is there money to be made there? Everyone wants to read books and doesn't really want to pay for the book prices. If there was a website to regulate that? A pre-web2.0 era website is doing that in Delhi. Is their merit in buying that website out?
- You make money when you help customer make the purchase decision. This was in response to someone asking if negative reviews are bad for the business. All reviews actually help make the purchase decision. Negative , positive doesn't really play a role
- On elastic compute cloud, the idea was to convert the huge fixed cost for customers into onDemand variable cost. (I wrote about onDemand economics for my Berlin School application)
The best part about any great conversation is the quality and quantity of ideas that stem out of there. For me, these are the things that I think have the potential to be businesses.
- I think the Techcrunch Web Tablet probably stemmed out of the Kindle idea. And even though the commercial production and distribution might be years away, they want to stake a claim on the idea before anyone else.
- How about doing something on the old books market in India. Especially in all the engineering colleges in India, the content remains same and thus there is a large chunk demand. And then obviously there is the long tail.
- Search cost plays an important part in getting the buyers and sellers together. I wrote about Search Cost way back in Feb 08 and I think its about time I revisited that.
- Purchase decision is an interesting thing to think about. My day job involves working on this purchase decision for some of the leading brands in India and there is so much that I learn everyday. Need to post about it. What if there was a tool that everyone trusted and assisted in purchase decisions?
- The entire idea of making fixed costs redundant has been in existence for a long time. Things like outsourcing and contracts actually do that. But doing it to something as fundamental as network, access and storage is sheer brilliance. Airtel did that with their network in India and do far have reaped awesome rewards off it. What else can converted into variable costs? Brain power? Processing? Coding?
If you are listening to the podcast, please share your thoughts. And apologies for such a long post. I did not realize that I have taken these many notes.
Credits
Image: Gizmodo.com
Portfolio in Red
I have been investing in the markets for over 2 years now. In fact All my life's savings (a very meager amount by all standards) is invested in stock markets. And since I am invested in markets, I have obvious emotional biases and emotional incentives to say that I trust Indian stock markets. So far, I have not made any money from the markets and till yesterday, I used to take pride in saying that my portfolio has never ended a day in red.
Anyways, the reason why I am rambling is that my portfolio went into RED for the first time today ever since I started investing. Obviously a momentous day :D So much so my investment blog :D.
Image Coutsey: Anandham
Aviation Industry and OTA in India
In India, we have a couple of famous full service carriers (Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines) and a plethora of no frills or low cost operators (Spicejet, Air Deccan, Go Air, Indigo). And all of these players have been in troubled waters for quite some time now.
The industry has been reeling with rising fuel costs, rising manpower costs, airport charges, taxes, consumer awareness and complaints, regulatory hurdles etc. In fact because of all these, none of the operators in India is making money. We have already seen the mergers and buyout games begin.
Of all operators, the low cost carriers are the worst hit. Especially the smaller ones. Simply because they were anyways operating on low margins and revenues from value added services were absent. And since they are not big, they cant extract efficiencies of scale by sharing ground staff and airport or negotiating prices from their vendors etc.
Then there is another industry that has mushroomed in last few years. The online ticketing industry. We have so many players now in the OTA market that even keeping a count is really difficult. So how do these companies make money? They get certain amount of brokerage (if I can take the liberties of using that term) for every ticket they sell. The number varies from operator to operator and airline to airline but its in the range of 1% to 3%. Then they make money by offering hotel bookings, weekend getaways, travel packages etc. But they still make most of their money from commission from airlines on tickets sold. With rising prices, airlines are now pushing these OTAs to the wall and cutting their margins as well. Does this signify slow and eventual death of OTAs? I don't know and I can't predict but next few months would be very interesting.
Apart from OTA, the newly privatized airports in the country are also facing the heat. They have pumped in so much money to create huge "world-class" structures that its not even funny. Their sources of revenues are fees from the airlines and other services like parking, restaurants, advertising etc. With drop in number of travelers, revenue from all these value added things would come down. How would these sustain? Traditional economics says that a toll gate owner or a broker would always make money as long as the number of passengers (or transactions) is high. In the long run, airports shouldn't loose money but again you never know. Its hard to predict.
Coming back to airlines and their problems, they acted like a typical producer in a producer driven economy. They hiked prices of their tickets. So much so that these prices are now comparable to full service operators. A lot of people look at this as a very good move. They argue that with higher fares, the revenues would also increase. I beg to differ.
Lets divert from the debate and try to see a traveler in action. A traveler can choose a low cost carrier, lug all his bags with him, sit in really cramped seats with his legs folded, pay for every thing he uses in the plane (except for the loo - and paid loo can be a good idea :D) and come out of the travel feeling harrowed and hassled. This traveler could alternatively pick a full service carrier, have a valet help him with bags, relax with enough leg room on the aircraft, have a choice of three course meal on the aircraft, pampered by the staff of the airline and get to his destination feeling good about his travel.
Again back to the debate, in my opinion if fares for no frills carriers are comparable to full service carriers, any rational person would opt for service and comfort levels offered by full service operators. And with limited choices, fare hike by low cost operators mean more business for full service operators.
And this is not all. As flying gets out of the reach of the common man, more and more travel would happen for business reasons (leisure and casual air travel would reduce substantially) and these fliers would choose full service operators. This would translate into lesser capacity utilization for low cost operators. And empty seats means more losses for low cost operators.
What about full service carriers? With this hike, they might get better occupancy rates but how can they survive the spiraling costs and dwindling margins?
And for how long can these airlines operate on losses? What about the investors? Air Sahara (acquired by Jet Airways) and Air Deccan (merged with Kingfisher) have already succumbed to their losses and growth costs. Are there more in pipeline? What is in it for existing players?
Airline operators have never ever made money anywhere in the world. Will it be different in India? Can there be solutions? Can they come up with more creative ways of making money (like charging for check-in luggage)?
Whats your take?
The industry has been reeling with rising fuel costs, rising manpower costs, airport charges, taxes, consumer awareness and complaints, regulatory hurdles etc. In fact because of all these, none of the operators in India is making money. We have already seen the mergers and buyout games begin.
Of all operators, the low cost carriers are the worst hit. Especially the smaller ones. Simply because they were anyways operating on low margins and revenues from value added services were absent. And since they are not big, they cant extract efficiencies of scale by sharing ground staff and airport or negotiating prices from their vendors etc.
Then there is another industry that has mushroomed in last few years. The online ticketing industry. We have so many players now in the OTA market that even keeping a count is really difficult. So how do these companies make money? They get certain amount of brokerage (if I can take the liberties of using that term) for every ticket they sell. The number varies from operator to operator and airline to airline but its in the range of 1% to 3%. Then they make money by offering hotel bookings, weekend getaways, travel packages etc. But they still make most of their money from commission from airlines on tickets sold. With rising prices, airlines are now pushing these OTAs to the wall and cutting their margins as well. Does this signify slow and eventual death of OTAs? I don't know and I can't predict but next few months would be very interesting.
Apart from OTA, the newly privatized airports in the country are also facing the heat. They have pumped in so much money to create huge "world-class" structures that its not even funny. Their sources of revenues are fees from the airlines and other services like parking, restaurants, advertising etc. With drop in number of travelers, revenue from all these value added things would come down. How would these sustain? Traditional economics says that a toll gate owner or a broker would always make money as long as the number of passengers (or transactions) is high. In the long run, airports shouldn't loose money but again you never know. Its hard to predict.
Coming back to airlines and their problems, they acted like a typical producer in a producer driven economy. They hiked prices of their tickets. So much so that these prices are now comparable to full service operators. A lot of people look at this as a very good move. They argue that with higher fares, the revenues would also increase. I beg to differ.
Lets divert from the debate and try to see a traveler in action. A traveler can choose a low cost carrier, lug all his bags with him, sit in really cramped seats with his legs folded, pay for every thing he uses in the plane (except for the loo - and paid loo can be a good idea :D) and come out of the travel feeling harrowed and hassled. This traveler could alternatively pick a full service carrier, have a valet help him with bags, relax with enough leg room on the aircraft, have a choice of three course meal on the aircraft, pampered by the staff of the airline and get to his destination feeling good about his travel.
Again back to the debate, in my opinion if fares for no frills carriers are comparable to full service carriers, any rational person would opt for service and comfort levels offered by full service operators. And with limited choices, fare hike by low cost operators mean more business for full service operators.
And this is not all. As flying gets out of the reach of the common man, more and more travel would happen for business reasons (leisure and casual air travel would reduce substantially) and these fliers would choose full service operators. This would translate into lesser capacity utilization for low cost operators. And empty seats means more losses for low cost operators.
What about full service carriers? With this hike, they might get better occupancy rates but how can they survive the spiraling costs and dwindling margins?
And for how long can these airlines operate on losses? What about the investors? Air Sahara (acquired by Jet Airways) and Air Deccan (merged with Kingfisher) have already succumbed to their losses and growth costs. Are there more in pipeline? What is in it for existing players?
Airline operators have never ever made money anywhere in the world. Will it be different in India? Can there be solutions? Can they come up with more creative ways of making money (like charging for check-in luggage)?
Whats your take?
500 and My Blogging Biography
This is my 500th post on this blog. Come to think of it, its been an interesting journey.
I am not a celebrity blogger as yet, and in all probability I would never be one but blogging has been a really important part of my life. I have made very good friends (Megha, Priyadarshini, Ravi, Sandesh, Sanjukta, Shankar), learned so many things, found an avenue to express my thoughts, made public my inner most thoughts, shared with the world things that I am really fond of and a lot of other frivolities.
I think it all started sometime in 2000 when I saw Aakash, a very good friend from MAC update his profile page on yahoo. I did not know that time that Yahoo has this page where you can write your profile. I still remember he was using the only computer with a pathetic dial up network in out computer lab.
I went to a friend's place that very day and created a yahoo email account (I no longer use it - dont remember the password). And that was the beginning. After that I created my own yahoo profile, created a lot of websites for my self and for other people including my college fest, Lucky Ali and Simone Singh. I extensively used Geocities and other yahoo tools. No I knew had heard of blogging, social networking, even Google.com in those days.
Then all of a sudden Y2K happened. Along with it came a lot of new thoughts, opportunities and information. Online activity was limited to emails on yahoo mail, chats on yahoo chat rooms, games on yahoo games, websites on geocities, freeservers and buildtolearn. It's funny how those days life revolved around yahoo and now its around Google. Wondering what would it be tomorrow.
And then somewhere in 2004, I stumbled onto blogging. Yet again because of Aakash. Started this blog and have been writing since. There are times when I post every 5 minutes and there are times when I dont write a single word for weeks. But somehow my interest in blogging never waned. I then thought one blog is not enough. And I started a blog for posting my pics, this, this and this for posting my thoughts on travel, one for stocks, one for my not-so-random thoughts, one for MDI, one for MML and a host of other ones that I dont even remember now.
Then sometime in 2005, I registered SaurabhGarg.com to move all my unofficial pages at one place. I had esaurabh.8m.com (unfortunately I have forgotten the password to this one too) and a lot of pages sprinkled on the Internet.
Then I had this itch to start contributing to more websites and getting a wider audience and discussions, I started looking for more avenues to write and express myself. Sanjukta introduced me to mutiny.in. I found what Ashish was doing at pluggdin and thoughts users at VentureWoods would be able to add a lot to my understanding of the businesses. And then I started writing for these people. It has helped me a lot already and will hopefully meet more interesting people.
And this brings me to a very interesting point now. What should I do with my blog. I have realized that blogging is one of the best initiatives that I have ever taken. And this is probably something that I have not left mid way. I tend to get bored too soon from things and there are times when I thought that I need to move away from blogging but somehow I was always back.
Now as I write this 500th post for this blog, I think I need to create a blogging policy. I need to update my blogs frequently to remain pertinent. I need to write sense. I need to think before I actually write things. Things like one post per week on mutiny.in, one post per week on pluggdin, one post per fortnight on VentureWoods, one post every two days here. Even if I dont have the ideas, I will have to think hard and come up with ideas. I need to bring a discipline in my blogging.
To end it, I can now be found on the Internet at my website, my blogs, and various other places including LinkedIn, Twitter, Tlickr, Friendfeed, Blogger, PBwiki, , Facebook, Orkut etc. Long term goal is to get listed on Wikipedia.
And hopefully reach more milestones with blogging. Signing off.
I am not a celebrity blogger as yet, and in all probability I would never be one but blogging has been a really important part of my life. I have made very good friends (Megha, Priyadarshini, Ravi, Sandesh, Sanjukta, Shankar), learned so many things, found an avenue to express my thoughts, made public my inner most thoughts, shared with the world things that I am really fond of and a lot of other frivolities.
I think it all started sometime in 2000 when I saw Aakash, a very good friend from MAC update his profile page on yahoo. I did not know that time that Yahoo has this page where you can write your profile. I still remember he was using the only computer with a pathetic dial up network in out computer lab.
I went to a friend's place that very day and created a yahoo email account (I no longer use it - dont remember the password). And that was the beginning. After that I created my own yahoo profile, created a lot of websites for my self and for other people including my college fest, Lucky Ali and Simone Singh. I extensively used Geocities and other yahoo tools. No I knew had heard of blogging, social networking, even Google.com in those days.
Then all of a sudden Y2K happened. Along with it came a lot of new thoughts, opportunities and information. Online activity was limited to emails on yahoo mail, chats on yahoo chat rooms, games on yahoo games, websites on geocities, freeservers and buildtolearn. It's funny how those days life revolved around yahoo and now its around Google. Wondering what would it be tomorrow.
And then somewhere in 2004, I stumbled onto blogging. Yet again because of Aakash. Started this blog and have been writing since. There are times when I post every 5 minutes and there are times when I dont write a single word for weeks. But somehow my interest in blogging never waned. I then thought one blog is not enough. And I started a blog for posting my pics, this, this and this for posting my thoughts on travel, one for stocks, one for my not-so-random thoughts, one for MDI, one for MML and a host of other ones that I dont even remember now.
Then sometime in 2005, I registered SaurabhGarg.com to move all my unofficial pages at one place. I had esaurabh.8m.com (unfortunately I have forgotten the password to this one too) and a lot of pages sprinkled on the Internet.
Then I had this itch to start contributing to more websites and getting a wider audience and discussions, I started looking for more avenues to write and express myself. Sanjukta introduced me to mutiny.in. I found what Ashish was doing at pluggdin and thoughts users at VentureWoods would be able to add a lot to my understanding of the businesses. And then I started writing for these people. It has helped me a lot already and will hopefully meet more interesting people.
And this brings me to a very interesting point now. What should I do with my blog. I have realized that blogging is one of the best initiatives that I have ever taken. And this is probably something that I have not left mid way. I tend to get bored too soon from things and there are times when I thought that I need to move away from blogging but somehow I was always back.
Now as I write this 500th post for this blog, I think I need to create a blogging policy. I need to update my blogs frequently to remain pertinent. I need to write sense. I need to think before I actually write things. Things like one post per week on mutiny.in, one post per week on pluggdin, one post per fortnight on VentureWoods, one post every two days here. Even if I dont have the ideas, I will have to think hard and come up with ideas. I need to bring a discipline in my blogging.
To end it, I can now be found on the Internet at my website, my blogs, and various other places including LinkedIn, Twitter, Tlickr, Friendfeed, Blogger, PBwiki, , Facebook, Orkut etc. Long term goal is to get listed on Wikipedia.
And hopefully reach more milestones with blogging. Signing off.
The Great Indian Media
If you dont know Arushi, The Great Indian Khali, the colored cheerleaders, blog wars of Amitabh Bachchan and Amir Khan you live in a cave. The Indian media has gotten into so much frenzy with all these that all other events sound minor.
Inflation is touching 8% and there is no analysis or debate on the same. Indian Hocket team finally is doing something right. They lost in the finals of Sultan Azlan Shah cup but there was hardly a mention. A very important issue is being debated at WTO but no one has a clue about it.
Brings me to a point where I am thinking if media business needs a radical change. I have expressed my displeasure at the way media functions in India. They show what is popular and people see what media shows. With time the original thoughts would die away. They need to move beyond popularism and start talking about things that really make a difference.
Coming back to Arushi, whatever happened with that girl is very tragic. It should not have happened but I guess media could leave her now in peace. I am sure media is saying that they want justice for her. But did media raise a single hand for justice to all those people who die very regularly on roads because of negligent driving?
The bomb blasts in Jaipur were forgotten as fast as they happened. Media has decreed that police and intelligence have failed in their task and thats it. I want to ask why dont they investigate the Jaipur blasts with as much gusto as they are tracking murderers of Arushi? Why cant media itself become the investigation department and then we will not need the CBI, IB, RAW or even the new central investigation agency that Dr. Kalam has envisioned. It will sure get them more eye balls and save the nation some money.
The great Khali is another example of media going overboard of things that dont warrant a single glance. Agreed he is 7 feet. Agreed he is from a village in India and now a professional wrestler at WWE - a place known more for glamour rather than professional wrestling. In my humble opinion, the great Khali might be the best ever but on the wrestling stage he has only brought disgrace to India. The way they talk about India, the way they dishonor the Indian flag, the National Anthem and the way they mock Indians there at "professional wrestling" ring is not even funny. If he was half Indian, he would have put a full-stop to all that show business.
IPL - Indian Premier League. If I start talking about this, I wouldn't even stop. Agreed cricket is our unofficial national game but any channel - sports, news, family, even devotional channels are full of insights. Someone correctly said that there are 11 players and 1 billion experts on the game. Every one has an opinion and everyone wants to voice them. It doesn't matter if the logic is flawed or opinions are biased.
Wish there were more people who wanted to raise their voice against this stupidity that we call media in India.
Inflation is touching 8% and there is no analysis or debate on the same. Indian Hocket team finally is doing something right. They lost in the finals of Sultan Azlan Shah cup but there was hardly a mention. A very important issue is being debated at WTO but no one has a clue about it.
Brings me to a point where I am thinking if media business needs a radical change. I have expressed my displeasure at the way media functions in India. They show what is popular and people see what media shows. With time the original thoughts would die away. They need to move beyond popularism and start talking about things that really make a difference.
Coming back to Arushi, whatever happened with that girl is very tragic. It should not have happened but I guess media could leave her now in peace. I am sure media is saying that they want justice for her. But did media raise a single hand for justice to all those people who die very regularly on roads because of negligent driving?
The bomb blasts in Jaipur were forgotten as fast as they happened. Media has decreed that police and intelligence have failed in their task and thats it. I want to ask why dont they investigate the Jaipur blasts with as much gusto as they are tracking murderers of Arushi? Why cant media itself become the investigation department and then we will not need the CBI, IB, RAW or even the new central investigation agency that Dr. Kalam has envisioned. It will sure get them more eye balls and save the nation some money.
The great Khali is another example of media going overboard of things that dont warrant a single glance. Agreed he is 7 feet. Agreed he is from a village in India and now a professional wrestler at WWE - a place known more for glamour rather than professional wrestling. In my humble opinion, the great Khali might be the best ever but on the wrestling stage he has only brought disgrace to India. The way they talk about India, the way they dishonor the Indian flag, the National Anthem and the way they mock Indians there at "professional wrestling" ring is not even funny. If he was half Indian, he would have put a full-stop to all that show business.
IPL - Indian Premier League. If I start talking about this, I wouldn't even stop. Agreed cricket is our unofficial national game but any channel - sports, news, family, even devotional channels are full of insights. Someone correctly said that there are 11 players and 1 billion experts on the game. Every one has an opinion and everyone wants to voice them. It doesn't matter if the logic is flawed or opinions are biased.
Wish there were more people who wanted to raise their voice against this stupidity that we call media in India.
Vodafone customer care
I make this trip to a Vodafone store every month to pay my phone bill. I dont have a credit card and hence this unnecessary evil. And its an awesome learning experience.
Anyways so this trip is to any Vodafone store in the vicinity and I stay there for five minutes on average. Its surprising that even in those five minutes I see at least two people shouting on poor and often clueless customer care executives. And this is not an one off incident. It happens every time without fail. Every time someone or the other is shouting about inflated bills, sudden disconnection, charges without consent or 1000 other things.
I wonder for a company that shouts out loud that it is Happy to Help (btw GE Money also prided itself with this Happy to help gimmick), the service levels are pathetic. Customer care executives are often clueless about things that you ask them. Half the times they cant speak English or Hindi. And the other half times they are busy fixing their hair or creases or drinking tea etc. All the money that they pump on advertisement (which in my opinion is top notch) goes for a toss moment customer screams in the store.
My heart goes out to all those customer care executives that face the wrath of these angry customers for no fault of theirs. Can something be done about this rather than wasting money on frivolous things like fliers and other innovative ways of charging a customer? Is the advertising agency and social media agency for Vodafone listening?
Anil Ambani vs Kishore Biyani on Big Baz(a)ar
Not caring for literary flowerification and language style critics around here, this is going to be rude post.
For people who dont know that specifics, Reliance ADAG is Anil Ambani and Reliance Industries is Mukesh Ambani.
Reliance ADAG has made clear their intentions on getting into organized retail. People might remember that ADAG and Reliance Industries had a non-compete agreement when Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani agreed to split in 2006. Terms of this agreement were not made public but how in the world can Anil Ambani get into organized retail when everyone knows about Reliance Retail and its hazaar different retail formats and more than 500 stores?
And if this was not enough, ADAG's retail venture is called Reliance Big Bazar. Surprised? Not really. Shocking? Yes. What about Kishore Biyani's company called Pantaloon Retail and their flagship retail store Big Bazaar?
Perfectly understandable that ADAG calls all their businesses BIG. Big FM, Big Music, Big Flix, Big Entertainment etc. but Big Bazar? I always thought that CGA will not allow you to name your company that confuses customer will an already existing brand. If there was small guy in some class C town in India doing the same thing, he would have been sued for his every penny for corporate lawyers.
If the name was stupid, the reason given by ADAG is even more stupid. They are saying that Kishore Biyani's company is called Bazaar with two a's and their's is called Bazar with a single a. With even bad Photoshop skills, one can very easily make the two logos very similar and rest can be left to anyone's imagination. They have said that they would not use the word "Bazar" or "Big Bazar" on standalone basis. They will always use "Reliance Big Bazar". This saves some grace for them.
But overall a very bad move. And Isn't this piggybacking on someone who has put in time and effort to create a huge brand? What about customers? Isn't this a cheap way to get customers?
India asks Y.
Image Credits: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/142/349070891_d279d63b80.jpg
Podcast with Sumir Chadha
Sumir Chadha is the MD of Sequoia Capital in India and over the weekend I got this podcast from Iinovate with him.
It was interesting to say the least. He talked about a lot of generic stuff but these are my takeaways from it.
What kind of companies do you like?
• Large market opportunity - a lot of people should be ready to use your product/service
• The management team should have an exceptional customer understanding.
• 100 mn in revenues, cos we want to make 10 times the money we invest (these are ballpark figures)
What Indian IT lacks?
• Product Management
• Marketing Skills
• Technology markets are in the west
⁃ But this will change over the years
• Research and entrepreneurship are treated differently whereas in US, researchers create companies based on their original research.
Why Entrepreneurship?
• Change the world
• Revolutionize something
• Making money - Money is always a byproduct rather than the primary objective.
He also adds a lot of other things like a startup should be geographically close to where their customers are, Importance of learnings and open exchanges, research and entrepreneurship.
As always good to hear people from the industry talking. Not a very good podcast but certainly worth the time.
It was interesting to say the least. He talked about a lot of generic stuff but these are my takeaways from it.
What kind of companies do you like?
• Large market opportunity - a lot of people should be ready to use your product/service
• The management team should have an exceptional customer understanding.
• 100 mn in revenues, cos we want to make 10 times the money we invest (these are ballpark figures)
What Indian IT lacks?
• Product Management
• Marketing Skills
• Technology markets are in the west
⁃ But this will change over the years
• Research and entrepreneurship are treated differently whereas in US, researchers create companies based on their original research.
Why Entrepreneurship?
• Change the world
• Revolutionize something
• Making money - Money is always a byproduct rather than the primary objective.
He also adds a lot of other things like a startup should be geographically close to where their customers are, Importance of learnings and open exchanges, research and entrepreneurship.
As always good to hear people from the industry talking. Not a very good podcast but certainly worth the time.
Fake Characters
Inspired by work done by Phonethics, I also thought I would create some characters. And some lives. Here is the first draft.
Koncious Kapoor
Khoob Bai
Totaram Sharma
Toofan Kumar
Happy Singh
This has potential to become a huge business by itself. Not on the lines of what Phonethics is doing but something else. Keep watching.
Koncious Kapoor
KK is our typical metrosexual Indian. He belongs to a very small time in UP and his is the first family to have stepped out of their town. They hence have an elevated status amongst their peers. Kconcious Kapoor has studied in a boarding school and although he has a modernish outlook towards life, he is still conscious of his background and upbringing. Like any typical young Indian, he wants to get rich quick, become famous and is really scared of facing an audience.
Khoob Bai
Everyone knows that KB is 35ish, claims to be 25ish, looks 30ish and is 45ish in real. She does everything including cleaning utensils, scrubbing floors, acting as the informal communication channel between young lovers, delivering gossip and obviously peeping on personal affairs of her employers. She knows more secrets than the FBI, CIA, RAW, The Mossad, MI6 and KGB combined. And she keeps dropping hints about her (in)famous access to information. She promises her loyalty to everyone but she is loyal to only one thing - money.
Totaram Sharma
better known as Sharma Ji in his colony and Sharma Babu in his office. He is a struggling middle aged government employee who has been a clerk since last 30 years and has seen two salary hikes and one promotion. He is a perpetual landmark on his office canvas. All the kids in his colony hate him for his never ending cribbing about noise and ruckus that these kids make. He has two teenaged daughters that add to his agony in life. He is also known for speaking for hours without making any sense at all.
Toofan Kumar
is in a perpetual state of hurry. He is rushing for something or the other. He even talks as fast as he walks. Folklore has it that he was last seen relaxing when he was standing in the visa queue to US of A. He thinks that world today is full of opportunists and he needs to do something about it. He feels very passionately about all the popular social causes and actively participates in debates around these. Motive is not to save trees or prevent child abuse but to pave a road for his political dreams. And of course the visa was rejected.
Happy Singh
is a typical surd. Happy go lucky, content and hungry - all three at the same time. Thanks to his beard, no one knows where his smile begins and ends. Or if he is smiling at all. He is on the heavier side and has an insatiable appetite. Every time he sees a cow, goat, chicken or any other animal of edible quality, his hunger pangs strike him. He is still single with no immediate plans or chances either. His family lives in Ludhiana and thus he has all the money he needs to live comfortably without working.
This has potential to become a huge business by itself. Not on the lines of what Phonethics is doing but something else. Keep watching.
Ceat, Shoppers Stop and Godrej Rebranding stories
Three very big Indian brands have gone for a makeover. Godrej, Shopper's Stop and Ceat. Before I get into a long rhetoric on these individually, I think except Godrej, Shopper's Stop and Ceat have got it wrong.
Godrej Industries Ltd.
Godrej has added colors to it age old logo. Shoppers' Stop and Ceat have completely changed their looks. Also, Shoppers' Stop says "Change is Good" and Ceat says "Change is here". I wonder if both these have been created by same team?
Godrej the behemoth that sells everything from shoe polish to animal feed to almirahs to locks to lavish food for rich to real estate to a lot of things unimaginable has got a new look. They did not do anything drastic. They retained their logo. Added some animation, color and jazz to it. As a customer I love what they have done. For me I have grown up in house where we had tons of Godrej almirahs and locks and for me Godrej means trust. Is the new look enhancing that? No it does not but it gives me a sense that owners are trying to reinvent the old company and are committed about it. And since And are they doing it because a Godrej Properties is planning to come with its IPO?
Shoppers Stop
Coming on to Shopper's Stop, its is a chain of premium retail megastores. They sell clothes, accessories and other fancy things that riches and the great Indian middle class buys. In fact they are amongst the first players in Indian retail industry to have experimented with large format stores and organized retailing. Their earlier logo and identity was very classy by Indian standards and for the last 10 odd years that logo has been itched in the minds of the customers. It had everything a premium brand's logo should have - curves, stars, symmetry. It was very very appealing.
The new logo is anything but premium and yet is a good piece of work on a stand alone basis. But moment you compare it with older logo (and comparison is inevitable), it looks dull. It looks like someone has stepped back in time. To start with it is plain text in a font that can be used by anyone and everyone. A plain text logo could have been good if you added colors, gradients or other elements to break the clutter (hint Godrej). But that too is missing. I think they wanted more serious and elegant look for the brand and the logo has failed to deliver that. I would say this was created by an amateur designer trying random text layouts.
I have no clue what warranted the need for a change in logo. I understand that Shoppers' Stop is coming up with an IPO but did it require a change in look?
Ceat Tyres
Ceat is one of the oldest tyre manufactures in the country. Its a publicly traded company and although I have not had any interactions with their business (never purchased a ceat product), have heard a lot about them. The new logo looks like a half baked pie. Its like work in progress and first time I saw it, I could not relate it to the type manufacturer. When I read the headline, that was the time I realized that it was ceat they were talking about.
As a customer and as an observer, I like their earlier logo better. It had a meaning to it. I could see a rhino and I could conjure an image of a vehicle running on a ceat tyre negotiating hard curves. The new look might also have a road (the E looks like a road with a divider) but it fails to conjure any kind of imagery. Is there a trend in design houses to move towards plain text fonts with minimal use of colors? Or both Shoppers Stop and Ceat have been done by the same agency with a Creative Decision Maker believing that plain text is good and we should talk about change to go along with that?
Its often said an organization is as good as the decision makers it has. I dont really think design teams for both Shoppers Stop and Ceat have done their homework and tried to design a contemporary look. And they should consider the fact that people do not buy products or services. They buy and consume brands. And brand is something that makes the decision process for the consumer simpler. Not more complex by creating conflicting images in their minds.
Design, Advertising and financial markets may sound very different but there is indeed some kind of a relationship. Any more IPOs or redesigns coming up .. ?
P.S.: All the comments are not from an aesthetic point of view. I am hardly a person who has good design sense. I am talking from the perspective of a customer. I have tried to think how would a customer feel when he is interacting with a brand that is supposed to be premium.
All three companies trade on the stock exchanges and I own certain number of shares of Godrej Industries ltd. I might or might not choose to buy/sell these shares.
And I just realized that I am indeed passionate about brands and way consumers think abut brands. As a very good friend would say .. "Aha" moment of the day !
Tags: IPO, Indian Financial Markets, Godrej, Ceat, Shopper's Stop, Retail, India, Design, Logo, Re-design, Advertising, Marketing, Branding.
Godrej Industries Ltd.
Godrej has added colors to it age old logo. Shoppers' Stop and Ceat have completely changed their looks. Also, Shoppers' Stop says "Change is Good" and Ceat says "Change is here". I wonder if both these have been created by same team?
Godrej the behemoth that sells everything from shoe polish to animal feed to almirahs to locks to lavish food for rich to real estate to a lot of things unimaginable has got a new look. They did not do anything drastic. They retained their logo. Added some animation, color and jazz to it. As a customer I love what they have done. For me I have grown up in house where we had tons of Godrej almirahs and locks and for me Godrej means trust. Is the new look enhancing that? No it does not but it gives me a sense that owners are trying to reinvent the old company and are committed about it. And since And are they doing it because a Godrej Properties is planning to come with its IPO?
Shoppers Stop
Coming on to Shopper's Stop, its is a chain of premium retail megastores. They sell clothes, accessories and other fancy things that riches and the great Indian middle class buys. In fact they are amongst the first players in Indian retail industry to have experimented with large format stores and organized retailing. Their earlier logo and identity was very classy by Indian standards and for the last 10 odd years that logo has been itched in the minds of the customers. It had everything a premium brand's logo should have - curves, stars, symmetry. It was very very appealing.
The new logo is anything but premium and yet is a good piece of work on a stand alone basis. But moment you compare it with older logo (and comparison is inevitable), it looks dull. It looks like someone has stepped back in time. To start with it is plain text in a font that can be used by anyone and everyone. A plain text logo could have been good if you added colors, gradients or other elements to break the clutter (hint Godrej). But that too is missing. I think they wanted more serious and elegant look for the brand and the logo has failed to deliver that. I would say this was created by an amateur designer trying random text layouts.
I have no clue what warranted the need for a change in logo. I understand that Shoppers' Stop is coming up with an IPO but did it require a change in look?
Ceat Tyres
Ceat is one of the oldest tyre manufactures in the country. Its a publicly traded company and although I have not had any interactions with their business (never purchased a ceat product), have heard a lot about them. The new logo looks like a half baked pie. Its like work in progress and first time I saw it, I could not relate it to the type manufacturer. When I read the headline, that was the time I realized that it was ceat they were talking about.
As a customer and as an observer, I like their earlier logo better. It had a meaning to it. I could see a rhino and I could conjure an image of a vehicle running on a ceat tyre negotiating hard curves. The new look might also have a road (the E looks like a road with a divider) but it fails to conjure any kind of imagery. Is there a trend in design houses to move towards plain text fonts with minimal use of colors? Or both Shoppers Stop and Ceat have been done by the same agency with a Creative Decision Maker believing that plain text is good and we should talk about change to go along with that?
Its often said an organization is as good as the decision makers it has. I dont really think design teams for both Shoppers Stop and Ceat have done their homework and tried to design a contemporary look. And they should consider the fact that people do not buy products or services. They buy and consume brands. And brand is something that makes the decision process for the consumer simpler. Not more complex by creating conflicting images in their minds.
Design, Advertising and financial markets may sound very different but there is indeed some kind of a relationship. Any more IPOs or redesigns coming up .. ?
P.S.: All the comments are not from an aesthetic point of view. I am hardly a person who has good design sense. I am talking from the perspective of a customer. I have tried to think how would a customer feel when he is interacting with a brand that is supposed to be premium.
All three companies trade on the stock exchanges and I own certain number of shares of Godrej Industries ltd. I might or might not choose to buy/sell these shares.
And I just realized that I am indeed passionate about brands and way consumers think abut brands. As a very good friend would say .. "Aha" moment of the day !
Tags: IPO, Indian Financial Markets, Godrej, Ceat, Shopper's Stop, Retail, India, Design, Logo, Re-design, Advertising, Marketing, Branding.
Analyze vs Act
Yesterday I was reading The Ambler Warning by Robert Ludlum and he talks about this interesting 1v1 dilemma. Act vs Analyze.
There are basically two kinds of people. People who analyze and people who act.
The ones who analyze things are in great demand. Most of managers, consultants, experts are generally the ones who analyze. They look at any situation with an analyzing mind, often use decision trees, rely on expertise and use tools to find solutions to the problems they are facing. Their motivation is to make a rational decision and they need an anchor to base their decision on. Ambiguity does not have any place in these decisions. They have created and live by terms like water-tight, rational decisions etc.
And then there is a second breed of people. People who act. They do. They are the ones who don't really understand, cant really explain and don't believe in analysis, research and other frivolities around decision-making. They claim that they just know when a thing is correct and when something is missing. They use words like gut feel, guess work, spur-of-the-moment, knew-it-all-along etc. These people are more likely to be sportsmen, entrepreneurs etc. who rather live on the edge than to wait in the conference rooms or meeting halls.
You could be someone who either acts or analyzes. There is nothing wrong on picking either. Its all about personal comfort (and breaking away from it).
Me, I have relied all my life on analysis. I think its about time I move on to action (wow a discovery... Action comes from Act).
Originally posted here.
Related list of 1v1s
- 1v1: Excellence vs Mediocrity
- 1v1: Expert vs Employee
- 1v1: Popular vs Pertinent
There are basically two kinds of people. People who analyze and people who act.
The ones who analyze things are in great demand. Most of managers, consultants, experts are generally the ones who analyze. They look at any situation with an analyzing mind, often use decision trees, rely on expertise and use tools to find solutions to the problems they are facing. Their motivation is to make a rational decision and they need an anchor to base their decision on. Ambiguity does not have any place in these decisions. They have created and live by terms like water-tight, rational decisions etc.
And then there is a second breed of people. People who act. They do. They are the ones who don't really understand, cant really explain and don't believe in analysis, research and other frivolities around decision-making. They claim that they just know when a thing is correct and when something is missing. They use words like gut feel, guess work, spur-of-the-moment, knew-it-all-along etc. These people are more likely to be sportsmen, entrepreneurs etc. who rather live on the edge than to wait in the conference rooms or meeting halls.
You could be someone who either acts or analyzes. There is nothing wrong on picking either. Its all about personal comfort (and breaking away from it).
Me, I have relied all my life on analysis. I think its about time I move on to action (wow a discovery... Action comes from Act).
Originally posted here.
Related list of 1v1s
- 1v1: Excellence vs Mediocrity
- 1v1: Expert vs Employee
- 1v1: Popular vs Pertinent
Guiding principles for a company
Symbionese Liberation Army was a terrorist organization based out of USA.
Their philosophy came from the seven principles of Kwanzaa (a seven-headed snake), with each head representing a principle. They are: Umoja (Unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility), Ujamaa (cooperative economics), Nia (purpose), Kuumba (creativity) and Imani (faith).
I think all these are awesome principles to create a company on.
Their philosophy came from the seven principles of Kwanzaa (a seven-headed snake), with each head representing a principle. They are: Umoja (Unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility), Ujamaa (cooperative economics), Nia (purpose), Kuumba (creativity) and Imani (faith).
I think all these are awesome principles to create a company on.
More Rational thoughts on the reservation policy in India
The last piece I wrote was an emotional outburst. This is more rational argument on reservations. I shall try to figure out the impact of reservations, thoughts on what could have been done and finally is there any hope?
Ok why reservations in the first place?
Reservation was the card played by the VP Singh govt. when they decreed for the first time that India needs reservations to help the lower castes. Some people credit their win at the centre to this card only. Obviously its a thing of past and no one can say what really happened. After-all history is written by people who win the battles.
I am not saying that reservations is a card that is played when you want to elections. You actually want to help the backward classes. You are motivated by general upliftment of the country.
Is it really going to help?
I have my doubts. These doubts are based on following observations.
Obviously I don't have numbers to prove or reject these claims. Can someone help me with this?
To end this chapter (if I may say), honestly I don't think that reserving more seats is going to help. They should rather try to find out why do people from these classes perform this bad in the first place. Is there a flaw in the primary education system? Is it because they assume that education for them is going to be easy and hence no need to put in effort?
What will be the impact and what could be possible outcomes?
Impacts would be many-fold. For the students that avail this opportunity, students that are now deprived and the country itself.
Is there a way to help backward classes?
Getting a reservation done at under-graduate level does not guarantee that the life standard would improve. This move might create a large work force that is unemployable. And this would bring in more frustration. You are educated and cant find a job. From personal experience, I know for a fact that there is no feeling worse than that.
So what can we do to change things for people who have been oppressed? To start with I think we need to change the way they live. A child learns as much from his parents as from his surroundings. How about taking a cue from Madarsas and Gurukuls and replicate this in mainstream? These are the places where gurus preach and teach kids about virtues of life. Make them aware of the world around them. If we cant provide quality education to these kids at formative stages of their lives, how about making the system unconventional.
I used to work with an NGO called Pratham and they used this concept really beautifully. They would take a community and teach all the underprivileged children there. Mind you - underprivileged, not the reserved category. And they did it very well. That model runs on a self-sustaining model and is awesome. Can share more details if someone is interested in knowing more about it.
What can be done to mark protest against this move?
I am simply out of ideas. Can someone please put forth more thoughts so that we can actually do something constructive rather than just debating? Another peril of Indian education system is that we start debates and never finish things. Lets come forward with solutions rather than talking about things.
To end this on a light note, I was thinking about way forward for people who advocate reservation
Please understand that views submitted are personal only and might be flawed. Please help me see the correct picture.
Crossposted
Ok why reservations in the first place?
Reservation was the card played by the VP Singh govt. when they decreed for the first time that India needs reservations to help the lower castes. Some people credit their win at the centre to this card only. Obviously its a thing of past and no one can say what really happened. After-all history is written by people who win the battles.
I am not saying that reservations is a card that is played when you want to elections. You actually want to help the backward classes. You are motivated by general upliftment of the country.
Is it really going to help?
I have my doubts. These doubts are based on following observations.
- I don't have numbers but I am told that at engineering colleges of repute (not the ones that are opened in small homes on outskirts of Bangalore), the candidates admitted from reserved classes don't pass at all. Most of them flunk in first and second year and stop studying thereon.
- Then a lot of seats for reserved categories are filled with people getting less than 10% marks. End of the day education is about quality of students and maturity of interactions between them. If there are 53% people from general categories and average scores of 80, and 47% of people with average scores of 20, what kind of discussions are we talking about?
- There seats remain empty because there aren't enough applications in the first place to grant admission to people belonging to reserved categories. If an institute can intake 100 students and it has to start a course with 80 students only because we could not find enough people to take reserved seats, aren't we depriving other students of an opportunity to study?
Obviously I don't have numbers to prove or reject these claims. Can someone help me with this?
To end this chapter (if I may say), honestly I don't think that reserving more seats is going to help. They should rather try to find out why do people from these classes perform this bad in the first place. Is there a flaw in the primary education system? Is it because they assume that education for them is going to be easy and hence no need to put in effort?
What will be the impact and what could be possible outcomes?
Impacts would be many-fold. For the students that avail this opportunity, students that are now deprived and the country itself.
- Reservations means that only the best from the education system get into quality higher institutions. What happens to people who were average? They would have to settle for below average education. And because of this, they would miss the opportunity that could have transformed them from average to exceptional.
- This also means that general quality of education will come down. Not because people from reserved categories cant perform or they lack intelligence. But because they are not equipped to face higher education. Mind you a person can be intelligent and ill-equipped at the same time.
- Brain-drain might be back. And with a bang. I can already foresee a lot of talented budding doctors, engineers leaving the country in search of a place where their talent is respected. Not their castes.
- All the hoopla about FDI and India's growth story might be in for a rude shock. If I was Microsoft or Google or Suzuki for that matter, I would not want to set shop in India because I know that finding good people would be tough and costly. It would also mean that business environment is unconducive. And once the growth story stops, then its a debate for another day if the country would grow or not.
Is there a way to help backward classes?
Getting a reservation done at under-graduate level does not guarantee that the life standard would improve. This move might create a large work force that is unemployable. And this would bring in more frustration. You are educated and cant find a job. From personal experience, I know for a fact that there is no feeling worse than that.
So what can we do to change things for people who have been oppressed? To start with I think we need to change the way they live. A child learns as much from his parents as from his surroundings. How about taking a cue from Madarsas and Gurukuls and replicate this in mainstream? These are the places where gurus preach and teach kids about virtues of life. Make them aware of the world around them. If we cant provide quality education to these kids at formative stages of their lives, how about making the system unconventional.
I used to work with an NGO called Pratham and they used this concept really beautifully. They would take a community and teach all the underprivileged children there. Mind you - underprivileged, not the reserved category. And they did it very well. That model runs on a self-sustaining model and is awesome. Can share more details if someone is interested in knowing more about it.
What can be done to mark protest against this move?
- How about getting talking to all bloggers to write about it? At least the ones with reach like Mutiny, DesiCritics etc.?
- Can this be a topic for blogathon? Anyone from their team listening/reading?
- Help YFE and other forums with online propaganda and marketing.
- Make an online task force and spam news websites with comments, thoughts and opinions. And make these quality comments so that they have to raise it on their prime-times. Knowing Indian media, they would anyways do anything to hike their TRPs.
- I am strongly against any kind of mass agitations that stops the normal functioning of the country. I voiced my opinions on the medico strikes, batti bandhs etc. I think I was wrong when I took that stand and I need to change. Now I am neutral to it. Is there a strong case of a mass agitation?
I am simply out of ideas. Can someone please put forth more thoughts so that we can actually do something constructive rather than just debating? Another peril of Indian education system is that we start debates and never finish things. Lets come forward with solutions rather than talking about things.
To end this on a light note, I was thinking about way forward for people who advocate reservation
- Just education is no point. We need to reserve places on the buses also. How about roads? Special clubs for reserved categories. Does someone remember 'Dogs and Indians not allowed' posters? How about 'dogs and unreserved not allowed' posters? Come to think of it, this could be an awesome article.
- Now that we have reservations for SC, ST, OBC, how about talking about reservations on the basis of religion? region? height of a person. Imagine - we only accept applications from people who are 5 feet 7 inches and weight 150 KGs.
- How about creating small states for every simgle category that you can identify and then ruling over them? Who wants 29 states. Lets split India into 19043 states all with homogeneous people. There could be a state for people who are bald and have Sharma as their surnames. Oops what about ladies then? Will they marry inter-caste, inter-state? Will these be approved?
Please understand that views submitted are personal only and might be flawed. Please help me see the correct picture.
Crossposted
Thoughts on entrepreneurship
I was reading this presentation made by Axis Holding's Kuntal Shah at VCCircle's event at Pune.
One of the slides had this quote ...
Although I dont agree with God part but I couldn't have said this better. And re-affirmed my belief in entrepreneurship. Something to cheer up post reservation news.
One of the slides had this quote ...
I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be uncommon…if I can. I seek opportunity…not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me. I want to take the calculated risk; to dream and to build, to fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole; I prefer the challenges of life to the guaranteed existence; the thrill of fulfillment to the stale calm of Utopia. I will never cower before any master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud and unafraid; to think and act for myself, enjoy the benefit of my creations and to face the world boldly and say: This, with God’s help, I have done. All this is what it means to be an entrepreneur.
Although I dont agree with God part but I couldn't have said this better. And re-affirmed my belief in entrepreneurship. Something to cheer up post reservation news.
Reservations in India - A reality now
Rediff.com says that Supreme Court of India has given its nod to 27 percent reservation to the OBCs. They have excluded the creamy layer from the reservation and they have said that this reservation would be periodically reviewed.
I have only one thought on my mind. Why did I ever study? All I could have done was wait for this day to come, get a fake certificate by paying a babu some 500 bucks, score less than average on JEE or CAT, get into the best educational institution in India, get a fat pay packet and live happily ever after.
I understand that we are a democratic country and we have to win elections, we have to divide the voters and win the electorate and we have to create a fuss on our "national son" not joining the cabinet. But want about the future of the nation? Aren't these educational institutes supposed to nurture the talent for tomorrow? Are we going to run the nation with engineers and managers and doctors who are below average?
I am not saying even for a minute that OBCs cant perform as well as regular people. These castes and creeds were made in ancient India because of the way country was ruled. This in my opinion should have been abolished by the constitution in the first place. All I am trying to say is that because of the reservation, many deserving candidates would now have to go for alternative careers.
Also wouldn't this incident set up precedents for every other group of people? Currently it is MNS in Maharashtra that is talking about reservation on the basis of region. There are certain groups that are asking fore reservation on the basis of religion. Tomorrow every tom dick and harry would want a reservation because they are different. What if I get 10,000 supporters and since I am bald, I demand reservations for bald people? And what if we start granting these reservations, a day shall come when majority of population that falls under "regular", "non-reserved" category would be fighting for 10 seats. May be they can then demand reservation for "unreserved" category. Arent we dividing the country ourselves? Aren't we doing what East India Company did to us?
And what about all those hate crimes that would now happen? I can already see these institutions polarizing in two sects. One from the reserved categories and one from unreserved. What about the poor unfortunate students that will have to face the brunt of the entire political drama?
Whatever has happened is unfortunate. There are other better ways to help OBCs reach a good living standard than reservations. I had high hopes on the Supreme Court of India. They have proved correct in the past but this time, at least in my opinion, they have made a mistake. No amount of argument would now dissuade me from speaking against education system in India.
I am so sorry to have voted for a govt. that took this step and I feel cheated right now.
Author took all the entrance tests that a school kid can take after his 12th class examinations. Got through one test to join a course at Delhi University. Took two years to get respectable enough score at CAT to reach MDI Gurgaon and now would preach that there is no point in pursuing formal education in India.
His other posts on reservation and education system in India are here, here, here, here and here.
I have only one thought on my mind. Why did I ever study? All I could have done was wait for this day to come, get a fake certificate by paying a babu some 500 bucks, score less than average on JEE or CAT, get into the best educational institution in India, get a fat pay packet and live happily ever after.
I understand that we are a democratic country and we have to win elections, we have to divide the voters and win the electorate and we have to create a fuss on our "national son" not joining the cabinet. But want about the future of the nation? Aren't these educational institutes supposed to nurture the talent for tomorrow? Are we going to run the nation with engineers and managers and doctors who are below average?
I am not saying even for a minute that OBCs cant perform as well as regular people. These castes and creeds were made in ancient India because of the way country was ruled. This in my opinion should have been abolished by the constitution in the first place. All I am trying to say is that because of the reservation, many deserving candidates would now have to go for alternative careers.
Also wouldn't this incident set up precedents for every other group of people? Currently it is MNS in Maharashtra that is talking about reservation on the basis of region. There are certain groups that are asking fore reservation on the basis of religion. Tomorrow every tom dick and harry would want a reservation because they are different. What if I get 10,000 supporters and since I am bald, I demand reservations for bald people? And what if we start granting these reservations, a day shall come when majority of population that falls under "regular", "non-reserved" category would be fighting for 10 seats. May be they can then demand reservation for "unreserved" category. Arent we dividing the country ourselves? Aren't we doing what East India Company did to us?
And what about all those hate crimes that would now happen? I can already see these institutions polarizing in two sects. One from the reserved categories and one from unreserved. What about the poor unfortunate students that will have to face the brunt of the entire political drama?
Whatever has happened is unfortunate. There are other better ways to help OBCs reach a good living standard than reservations. I had high hopes on the Supreme Court of India. They have proved correct in the past but this time, at least in my opinion, they have made a mistake. No amount of argument would now dissuade me from speaking against education system in India.
I am so sorry to have voted for a govt. that took this step and I feel cheated right now.
Author took all the entrance tests that a school kid can take after his 12th class examinations. Got through one test to join a course at Delhi University. Took two years to get respectable enough score at CAT to reach MDI Gurgaon and now would preach that there is no point in pursuing formal education in India.
His other posts on reservation and education system in India are here, here, here, here and here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)