घुँघरू की तरह बजता ही रहा हूँ ………….

Developing Habits

Mindsets - Perceptions

mindsets outline our perceptions

mindset = established sets of attitudes held by someone

American Psychologist Carol Dweck in her book Mindset illustrates how accomplishment in school, work, sports, arts, and almost every area of human endeavour can be intensely influenced by how we contemplate our own talents and abilities.

mindset is an assemblage of thoughts and beliefs that shape my habits. My habits affect how I think, what I feel, and what I do since they are related to mindset, it helps me to understand attitude and beliefs.

She goes on to add there exists two types of mindsets – a) growth mindset, b) fixed mindsets that shape our lives 

The fixed mindset is entrenched in the credence that an individual’s personal qualities are engraved in stone, at birth, we are granted a certain amount of intellect, morals, talent, etc. and that there is nothing we can do to grow it more.

The growth mindset “is imprinted on the belief that our rudimentary qualities are things that we foster through our hard work, our strategies, and the resulting benefit from others. Even though individuals may differ in their initial talents and abilities, interests or personalities — everyone can change and grow through application and understanding.”

To narrate an example a man was passing some herd of elephants, confused he paused and observed the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was apparent that the elephants can, any time, break away from their shackles but for some purpose, they did not.

His eyes fell on a trainer nearby and inquired why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. The trainer responded, “when they were smaller and much lesser in size, we used the same sized rope to leash them, at that age it was adequate to hold them, but as they were bred, they are conditioned to believe that they cannot break away. They believe the rope can keep them immobile, so they at no time try to break free.”

The man astounded thought these animals can time break free from their bonds anytime but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.

Each one of us can relate to this fable and the sense of having botched at something over all our developmental years. 

Alike the elephants, many of us go through life holding on to a belief that I cannot do something as I have already failed at it. Over time, I begin to think that I am incapable of doing specific things and start accepting that as the reality and bound myself to a very narrowed world. 

Internally I start contemplating I did try that earlier but since it didn’t work out for me, there is no point in trying it again and wasting my energy and time, I want to look good and don’t want to appear as a fool!’, giving rise to shrinking of my capabilities as I look for an external cocoon to find solace within.  

Can I start looking this as a process of elimination i.e. when I start looking at failures as stepping stones to success I start responding positively with a sense of satisfaction that I tried and failed which makes my next step easier or when I acknowledge that I failed, I only use it to my advantage and make sure the mistake never happens again

To quote another example is Shamu the Killer Whale albeit on a positive side. How did they get a killer whale to jump 25 ft’ out of the water over a rope and dive the headfirst back into the water? 

This procedure is broken in a few steps. The 1st step is to start with the rope below the surface of the water, just high enough from the bottom for the whale to swim under it if the whale swims beneath the rope, the trainer overlooks it, however, each time the whale swims above the rope, the trainer positively reinforces it and the whale gets to indulge fish.

The whale later starts to think there is an interesting analogy between the rope and the food.” So, the whale swims over the rope more often, gradually the trainers keep raising the rope, and lo because of its conditioning od mind the whale does its viola act.

Remember the legendary Michael Jordan’s testament in Nike’s commercial on failure "I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've missed over and over and over again in my life.

So, don’t bound yourself to a small world, stop limiting yourself to a life that is constrained, break free of your mental restrictions, and enlarge out into this wonderful empire that we live in.

Practise makes it perfect

Recently Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy on took to Twitter to urge people to not wait for the novel coronavirus enforced lockdown to end before honing their skills.

"Once, Lord Indra got upset with Farmers, he announced there will be no rain for 12 years & you won’t be able to produce crops. Farmers begged for clemency from Lord Indra , who then said , Rain will be possible only if Lord Shiva plays his Damru..." began Swamy.

In a series of tweets, the Rajya Sabha MP narrated what happened next. Lord Indra secretly requested Lord Shiva to not agree with the farmers' plea. When they arrived to plead their case, Shiva said that he would play the damru after 12 years. The disappointed farmers decided to wait for 12 years.

"But one Farmer regularly was digging, treating and putting manure in the soil & sowing the seeds even with no crop emerging. Other Farmers were making fun of that Farmer," writes Swamy.

After three years of the same, the other farmers asked him why he was wasting so much time and energy despite knowing that there would be no rain for quite some time.

As Swamy narrates, the farmer said that while he was aware of this, he was "practicing" to ensure that he didn't "forget the process of growing crops and working in the field". He adds that this farmer intended to "produce the crop the moment there is rain".

His comments piqued the interest of Goddess Parvati who told Shiva that there was a possibility that even he could forget how to play the damru.

"The innocent Lord Shiva in his anxiety just tried to play the Damru, to check if he could….and hearing the sound of Damru immediately there was rain and the farmer who was regularly working in the field got his crop emerged immediately while others were disappointed,"

It did not matter whether the lockdown was lifted after two weeks, two months or even two years.

"Don’t wait for rain , that is the lock down to be lifted and then start something… focus on our skills today, upskill yourself so that you are ready to meet the challenges

The Still Flight

4 monks decided to meditate silently without uttering a word for two weeks. On the 1st night, the candle began to flicker and then goes out.

The 1st monk - "Oh, no! The candle has gone out."

The 2nd monk - "I thought we had an agreement not to speak?"

The 3rd monk an in irritated tone - "Why must you two break the silence?"

The 4th monk smiled with pride and said , "Ha! I'm the only one who didn't speak."

*Reflections*

"Individually each of the 4 the monks spoke for different reason, each of which is a shared stumbling block to inner journey, meditation, distraction, judgement anger and pride.

The 1st monk became anxious by one element of the world - the candle- losing sight of the rest and forgot what was more important.

The 2nd monk was more concerned about rules than the meditation itself. He was quick to criticise / judge others without noticing the he himself is guilty.

The 3rd monk let his own anger at the first two to affect him . The singular eruption of anger ruined his energy.

And the 4th monk was lost in his ego because of pride. He was convinced that he was superior to others, proving his ignorance, had he simply maintained his silence, he would've been successful in his endeavour.

But if he had continued likelihood the other 3 would've possibly continued to argue and not even observed his stillness.

I know many people who are like the 4th monk; their motto: If I'm doing something good and no one is watching (or no one notices), I might as well not be doing it at all. They believed that the reward is not in the determination, but in the acknowledgement.

It is clear from reading the story that none of the 4 monks are spiritually ready to perform the difficult. Unfocused and easily distracted by their surroundings. I see the moral of the story is 'to plan thoroughly and be solidly ready before embarking on an action. Focus your mind repetitively in reaching your purpose, and the objective will be reached, however difficult.

What would you have done if you were the 5th monk?

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.

Lockdown 1.0 was undeniably taxing time for e-tailers, grocery firms as they have responded to first-time tests with pioneering strategies to maintain supply chains and ensure consumers can access their goods. Survival of the fittest - Firms adapted to supply provisions to homes through their platforms as a means of its existence.

Newer insights - On a routine discussion with a leading blue collared job aggregator, I was delighted to hear they were helping eCommerce companies recruit individuals for delivery of essential goods since companies were facing adversity in their present set of employees moving to their home town unknown about their future 

The hurdle - Trade was hit badly at the workforce level with numerous employees leaving for their home towns immediately after the declaration of lockdown, reducing eCommerce working capacity by half and at the same time, 5X times increase in consumers ’ resorting to panic buying.

Adaptability - Businesses like BigBasket, iD Fresh Food used technology and business process engineering by filtering their SKUs and further justifying reach in cities facing manpower scarcity increasing their productivity. 

iD Fresh Food manufactures of fresh foods like idly/dosa batter parottas, chapatis, curd and paneer embarked on an innovative method to halt customers from panic buying as they launched a store finder feature on its website rationalizing SKUs, it provides consumers with updated info on iD products available at stores near them. They also offer a notify-me feature to alert consumers as and when fresh stocks get refilled at neighborhood stores.

A newer way of doing business - Milk basket a subscription-based micro delivery service gratifying dairy essentials and household need of customers need every morning now has a new normal as the cost of serving customers multiplied with the anti-Covid measures, they had to temporarily cut down on their capacities, cancel last minute orders inconveniencing customers apart from large scale wastage & dump of perishable goods. 

Nandu’s chicken and Licious Food supplying fresh non-vegetarian foods recruited a new workforce to cater to the gastronomical needs of their customers.

MTR foods tied-up with Shell oil to ensure their products are accessible across all petrol pumps in South India apart from enhancing direct deliveries of orders placed through their website to 15,000 pin codes in India.

Marico partnered with logistic companies like Delhivery, Shadowfax, and Lalamove to ensure products are delivered from factories to depots to distributors and to end consumers.

The 2nd lockdown - with no letup on non-essential items has given Fashion brand Nykaa an opportunity to launch its private label in handwashes, masks, and hand sanitizers with a pledge to deliver it to over 14,000 pin codes. 

The logistics trade also swung into action as they were allowed intra and interstate movements of trucks. MyGate, a community-based management platform realigned its business by building partnerships to restore essential services for its users by partnering with companies like Grofers, ITC for the fast delivery of grocery supplies apart from free medical consultation tie-ups with healthcare companies like DocsApp and mfine.

Reckitt Benckiser, P&G, Unilever have become more resilient than ever and are revamping their production of cleaning supplies as they see unprecedented demand even in the future. Products like Lysol and Dettol are in huge demand as personal hygiene is becoming more important and they expect more pronounced changes in consumer behavior and are quite confident that consumers will stick to well-known brands. 

Aid from tech companies - Marut Drones, Flytbase, GarudaUAV is rushing up the process compared to traditional deliveries by delivering medicines, vital supplies. These drones fitted with infrared cameras, speakers help civic and government authorities not only monitor body temperatures but spray disinfectants, help to monitor and cautioning citizens, providing pertinent evidence on people’s movements

Don't worry about dying, worry about not living - Heartening trend signified amidst a countrywide lockdown, the e-commerce industry has tried to stay afloat by delivering essential goods and expanding to grocery and are still working on their business continuity plans and will be more active in their direct-to-consumer outreach and will need to devise strategies to adjust to this new reality. 

This too shall pass

A Few days back, I received a forward in WhatsApp urging citizens to boycott e-commerce platforms operating in India stating earlier these companies splurged on advertisements by generating noise as they held round the year sale, imposing us to purchase things that we don't consume, but now they are unseen during testing times, living us with no option but to fall back on our time tested neighborhood stores to meet our daily needs.

For a moment even I felt like falling to the forward, but then my mind pondered with a few questions like a) are we not responsible for the rise of these companies? b) did we not fell to the enticement? c) did we not savor all the rebates? d) did we not purchase things that we don't need?. We changed our basic understanding of consumption forgetting the thin line between needs and wants.

We can always keep debating on this topic but my opinion is not for or against that forward but in such adversity how new generation fintech/e-commerce companies have responded to an adage - "Tough times never last but tough people do".

Life is not always calm, there have been periods in the past - mankind, when faced with adversity, had looked deep within and believed in their everyday power to get all of us through.

Pessimist started perceiving the ongoing pandemic as a glass half empty by terming the pandemic as "a Black Swan", but optimists approached positively by looking the glass as half full and could see the swan as cool, calm, graceful but furiously fierce and determined paddling below the surface.

It is during such troubled times you know the true character of a person; a chance to exhibit their best as optimists reinforced the statement "new beginnings are often disguised as painful endings".

Tech companies started factoring the directives issued by the government for essential goods and services to their advantage, this business disruption might not be a major revenue earner for them but this out of the box thinking paved way not only for collaboration but also led to a different stream of business opportunity as huge demand for daily staples were forecasted.

Organized existing marketplace in Big Basket, Grofers, along with e-com companies like Flipkart, Amazon all were facing a mounting task of fulfilling the extra demand during the last week of March' 20 fuelled by lockdown resulting in reduced manpower, disruption in logistics, uncertainty in supply-chain across state borders and panic purchasing. Almost all forcibly had stopped taking orders as the orders surmounted beyond comprehension.

A slew of internet businesses like Zomato, social commerce start-up Meesho, etailer Snapdeal, DealShare, Paytm Mall, real estate platform NoBroker, Swiggy, have all diversified into the groceries space, a category considered hard to crack for e-commerce players.

To meet the rising consumer demand companies started teaming with local manufacturers, Kirana stores, local modern retail outlets like Nilgiris, Modern Bazaar,  NinjaCart, Gully Network, Jumbotail apart from organized retail-like Spencer's Retail, Vishal MegaMart, More Retail, Metro Cash & Carry, etc. to fulfill orders, all of them now are in further discussion with multiple national and regional (FMCG) brands for strategic alliances.

Companies started accepting finite disappointment, but we're not losing infinite hope." Start-up company Perpule (app for self-checkouts & easy payments) launched an e-commerce portal "Storese" by launching a grocery ordering online platform by partnering with prominent offline retailers such as Vishal Mega Mart, More Retail Ltd, Metro Cash and Carry, etc by targeting apartment residents of Bengaluru city to order essentials and groceries by leveraging its POS technology through a real-time inventory map of the stores on its online platform.

All online and offline companies are pooling their resources to survive the current business environment and have kind of rewriting the rule "Life keeps throwing stones at you, and we have to keep discovering the diamonds" or "when life knocks you down, you can either bounce back up and move on or you can stay down there and live the rest of your life with resentment and regret".

Flipkart has started a pilot project in partnership with Spencer's in Hyderabad to make doorstep delivery of groceries and essentials to leverage synergies and delivery of essential products to consumers and promote social distancing.

Marico has partnered with Swiggy and Zomato to ensure the delivery of its popular Saffola brand of oats and oil. Once the order is placed, a delivery executive picks it up from the nearest Marico distributor and delivers it to the consumer in Delhi, Gurugram, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chandigarh, and Ahmedabad.

ITC Ltd. has tied-up with Domino's Pizza to deliver its Aashirvaad brand of flour, salt, and spices, besides Savlon hand sanitizers, to customers in Bengaluru, Noida, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, and Hyderabad

Big Bazaar has aligned with online bike aggregator Rapido and food delivery service scootsy is delivering groceries in Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Jaipur.

Spencer Retail has joined hands with Uber in the Kolkata market aside with Rapido and Scootsy to deliver in Mumbai, Gurugram, Cochin, Hyderabad, Haridwar, and Chennai.

BigBasket has teamed with Uber and Rapido to deliver groceries in select parts of India

Simplymarry.com is advertising-free profiling of clients during the lockdown period.

Zoho an app development platform is letting companies use their products for free.

We may never know how long humans have to face the ongoing situation? or to that matter how many such stop-gap associations between companies will last? whether retail consumers spoilt for choice will continue to solicit this temporary arrangement without any discounts or will the retail customers revert to time tested habitual buying behavior developed over the last few years. One thing that I can foreknow is such disruptions are there to stay.   

These all are just a few examples of how as a nation we all are fighting together, paradoxically these are testing times but learning times which reiterates "our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." This too shall pass.

Reality Check

Today morning I, woke up abruptly and found myself in a new surrounding, peculiar faces, everything around me appeared to me strange, and though there was a bit of chillness in the air I was feeling uneasy, the peaceful atmosphere was disturbed by the ding dong sound striking eight times giving an indication that it was 8.00 in the morning.

I tried getting up from the bed but felt something dragging me back; however hard I tried I could not move my limbs. Mustering all my courage I sat down but could not recollect any of those faces around me which made me wonder where were my family members whom I was habituated to see each day in the morning.

I was barely able to speak but the thought of seeing me in an unfamiliar area sent a chill down my spine. The more I was trying to recollect where I was the more it bothered me.  I wanted to somehow get away from that unfamiliar environment and was desperately yearning to meet my family members. I dragged myself to the edge of the room but the sight of everything new around me was dreadful. I realized this wasn’t my home, so gathering all my strength started walking out of the room. People inside the room tried stopping me but I was not the one who was to listen to what they were going to say.

 It was a very frightening morning, with all my might I started dragging myself and upon casual enquiry with bystanders I could not draw any response which further intrigued me.

However hard I was trying to recollect “where I was” I experienced more pain in my head, the sight of alien faces was both surprising and scary. The surrounding was completely new and so were the people around me. Plush shops bordering both side of the road made me wonder in which part of the world I was. In the hustle bustle of the city people were walking silently, had complete sense of road discipline,  no pan stains, no people smoking on the roads but the vehicles were zipping on the road with the usual honking sound missing as if I was in a completely foreign ashore.

On one hand my legs were moving unsteadily in a particular direction and on the other hand my mind was asking grim questions on what was happening around me? I did seek directions for my house from passerby’s only eliciting drawing blank responses. The horrifying thing was my hands were wrinkled and was trembling similar to what we see in Parkinson’ disease, walking a few feet further I could make out a tall watch tower as it resembled a similar tower near my house but then Ignored it as I knew this wasn’t what I was familiar with .

Huge Malls adorned both sides of the roads, the shops inside had fashionable accessories; it seemed to me that fashion was out of sync with what I was used to seeing. People were well behaved, following lane discipline, roads were squeaky clean which was not what we are used to observe on a daily basis.  The thought of not finding my house kept haunting me repeatedly, I was completely exhausted by now hardly able to stand on my legs, I was hallucinating as if I was travelling in an earthquake prone area. My mind was strong willed unwilling to rest but my physical body was not supporting, left with no option I decided to hunt for a place to rest but could not locate one. Everything around me looked unusual.

Exhausted I was, seeing a newly built temple I decided to take some rest but my mind was wandering all over. I was praying to find my house at the earliest but I was not able to recognize the roads. Suddenly I saw a ray of hope, could see light at the end of the dark tunnel journey that I had embarked. I sighted a familiar face of my friend Mahesh but he appeared to me at least 2 decades older, since he was the only flicker of hope the curiosity took over me and with all my strength I pulled myself towards him. I told him he resembles a friend of mine who must be of my age hence I thought of approaching him. He immediately recognized me and barged a few questions saying Hey Venkatesh what happened to you? Don’t you recognize me?  Why are you behaving as if he was a stranger? I am Mahesh; he had a hearty laugh saying old age has caught upon you. I couldn’t believe my eyes, he had an aged look, and his hair had turned complete grey. He later asked me whether I need any help in dropping me home. This is what I was waiting for; I was talking to a stranger intimidating as my friend and willing to drop me at my house which I was desperately yearning for.

Holding his hands I accompanied him, his hands were also completely wrinkled. He took me to a new place which had a complete new look. As I entered the house hesitatingly I could recognize a lady who also resembled my wife but was appearing older than her age and she was sitting besides two young handsome boys whom I could not immediately recognize. Sighting me she sighed relief and offered me a customary glass of water. I was completely dazed, traumatized and not ready to acknowledge anything. It really was terrifying experience as I could my body become cold, my wrinkled hands continued to trembling, reluctantly I took the water to drink but definitely not coming to terms on what was happening to me.

She made me comfortable and asked me why I was behaving unsympathetic to them? Both the boys also walked up to me and tried to reassure me. I was not relating to them but was startled when she called the names of both the boys as I could recollect it was both my son’s name but they appeared to have grown big.

My eyes simultaneously fell on the mirror and the calendar on the wall and I gave a shriek, I was not able to see eye to eye on the mirror, on the other side of the mirror was an elderly man who was nearly twice my weight with protruding stomach, wrinkled hands, dark complexioned and with receding hairline. The date showed the year as February 2030 and I felt the whole world twirling around me as l fell unconscious.

The shriek caught attention of my son who immediately shook me and said Appa please wakeup it is already eight in the morning. I woke up to realize it was a real nightmare and I have seen myself ten years ahead of me a time machine going forward.

Meet Pradeep the driver with an "er"

As we go about peeling an Onion our eyes become moist and the tear glands give way for it to flow, the more you peel it we will actually know whether it has a sweet heart or a rotten core.

Today morning happen to meet Pradeep an Uber driver whose personal transformation is like peeling layers of onions. He has taken life as a pathway of progress. He has delved in a problem one layer at a time only to conceal an important something. He has progressed inwards in understanding from surface issues to deeper truths.

29 year old Pradeep is a Bachelor of Education. (B.Ed.) degree holder who secured 82.5% having studied History, Economy and Kannada while studying for the Arts Stream. He struggled for two years to get a teachers job only to be told that he has to grease the palms of officials for getting in to a rural Government school around 100+ kms from Bengaluru. Since he belongs to the Gowda Saraswat community -open category he is a victim of our reservation system.

He did try his hands in few private schools only to be offered a paltry salary of Rs 8K as he was not having the requisite teaching experience. He was asking me how and where will they gain experience if they don't lay hands on their 1st job.

He is unable to find a life partner as wannabe brides doesn't want their husbands to be drivers, as driving as a profession is still a taboo to a large section of society.

His friends suggested him to become an Uber driver, which he is now for the past 1.5 years and is happy with his life. He was speaking about the incentives he earns, the various schemes brought out by Uber for drivers etc in chaste English and how he manages work life balance with no boss round as he can work flexi hours.

He was well adept to the pluses and minuses of both the profession and was happy to rattle it. I was literally stunned by his clarity of thoughts and understanding of one self.

The guy is extremely good looking, talented, soft spoken, well mannered and was very decently dressed, he closed our 30 minutes long conversation by saying so what if I could not become a teacher their is "er" even in a driver and that's why he drives an Ub"er".

A Open letter to Ravi Shastri

Dear Mr. Shastri, Too comfortable to be in comfort zone. Bygones are bygones, Shastri sir, please do not try to stir a hornet’s nest by un accepting your non-selection as the chief coach of the current Indian cricket team? and creating a controversy over frivolous thing. An individual with good sportsman spirit would have left with two choices either to exit gracefully or bounce back the next time instead you chose the third route - to blame external environment (the selector). I believe you did not take the job of Team India coach seriously else how can one explain your stand on attending such a responsible interview over just a video chat sitting in another country. This clearly indicates your over confidence as you took the interview and the panel as granted or probably you thought that the job was already pocketed by you. Weren’t you a part of such committee in the past, would you have allowed somebody to attend the interview sitting at another part of the world hence let’s accept it that you as an individual did not follow a process. Maybe the BCCI also should share this blame as they should have disallowed you in attending the video chat or probably they too like you viewed this job not seriously. During your eighteen month stint as director of Team India, we just managed to reach the Semis of both World Cup’15 and the World T20 ’16. Although we managed to reclaim the no.1 test team for 8 weeks till Feb’ 16 it was primarily because South Africa was dethroned 2-0 by England. Currently India ranks No.2 in ICC test rankings, No. 3 in One day Internationals despite playing maximum number of limited over matches and ranks No.2 in the smaller or T20 format. When it comes to individual players none of the Indian players figure in the Top 10 test batsmen, though a solitary Virat Kohli appears as no. 1 player in T20 format and no. 2 player in the one day format. The common thread between you and the current coach of Team India Anil Kumble is both stand tall at 6’ 3’’ inches but the playing statistics narrate a different story. Though it is wrong on my part to compare two individuals let’s explore some playing statistics about you and Anil Kumble. (incl.) Anil Kumble served Team India as a player for little over 18 years as against 11 years of yours which naturally states Anil Kumble managed to stay fit and contribute more to Indian cricket by playing more number of tests and limited over Internationals. It was a landmark occasion in 1985 when your name was getting etched in the history of Indian cricket as you were crowned ‘Champions of Champions’ playing against Seven ICC ranking teams disapproving many myths that India won the 1983 world cup as Fluke. I was one amongst the fortunate to see you bring a C3Audi 100 car but let’s not give the devil his due as Anil Kumble has worn more awards and accolades for team India. You clobbered six sixes a part time bowler Raj Tilak in one of the first class matches in stark contrast to Anil Kumble who is the only Indian bowler to achieve 10 wicket haul in a single innings against the mighty Pakistanis helping us to win the test match single handedly. Even the world cup statistics are not in your favour as against 14 matches played by you in World cup Anil Kumble has played 18 matches. Anil Kumble is a recipient of the prestigious Padma Shri and Arjuna award instituted by Government of India. Perhaps you have forgotten the image of a heavily bandaged Anil Kumble claiming the price scalp of Brian Lara when he came to bowl against West Indies despite having a broken jaw during the year 2002 in a insignificant drawn match only because he did not like availing rest. Anil Kumble is the leading wicket taker for India with over 600 scalps and is an embodiment of discipline, strong willpower and commitment to fineness with astute knowledge of cricket which can be matched only by a few. Anil Kumble has managed to bowl 40,000 balls in his entire test career against 15,000 by you. Let’s take a huge lesson from Anil Kumble who in his first media interaction post his appointment as coach said the success of The Indian cricket team depends on the players and not who was the head coach. It’s not about Ravi or Anil. We all want the Indian team to do well. Ravi was part of this journey now I am part of this journey. It could be somebody else tomorrow. I am not permanent here in this role. The trio of Sachin, Laxman and Saurav has done a wise choice in appointing Anil Kumble and it would a great help to our nation if you with your experience help team build team India and make our team and each individual the best performing team players in the years to come.

Is the Ecommerce War more of a mind game?

Is E- commerce war a Mind Game ? The top of the mind e-commerce names that comes to the mind today are the triad “Flipkart”, “Amazon” and “Snapdeal”. What was looked at by suspecting eye a few years ago by all of us is here to stay. Customers then were very much wary about transacting online as they feared their personal data would get stolen, also the most important factor for us was the touch and feel of the product prior to initiating any purchase. Cut to today the customers are now more spoilt for choice as they have now matured and keep fishing around for the right offer. Indian shoppers, have got used to deep discounts throughout the year for shopping online. None of the customers are loyal to any brand. A growing section of customers have settled for buying products online which also has given rise to birth of lot of logistic companies (ECOM, Quickdel Logistics,Delhivery, GoJavas, DotZot etc.). The industry got a Fillip when Flipkart introduced cash on delivery in the year 2010. According to Gurgaon-based consultancy Technopak, the $2.3-billion (Rs 13,800 crore) Indian e-tailing sector will touch $32 billion (Rs 1.92 lakh crore) by 2020. Infact the e-commerce logistics will be a 2 –billion industry by 2019. E-commerce companies are gunning down the neck of their rivals by calculating their sales based on Gross Merchandise Value. What is Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) GMV or gross merchandise value means sale price charged to the customer multiplied by the number of items sold. For example, if a company sells 10 books at Rs 100, the GMV is Rs 1,000. This is also considered as "gross revenue". E-commerce companies today strives on reliable services, timely delivery, and quality packaging and they are continuously finding ways and means to increase their customer acquisition and retention. Online companies have realized their target customers are beyond the realm of eight cities and hence are concentrating their growth trajectory on tier-II & tier-III cities. Companies like Myntra have adopted App only sale and a few believing 70% of their business happens via app hence concentrating on the upper strata of the society targeting only the top cities of the country. Companies are also trying to find ways and means for promoting their wares right from micro-targetting an online audience, creating content to build stickiness, tailor the browsing experience to target segments, integrating it across all the channels. Recently Flipkart’s owners in Bengaluru worked with the logistics team and visited a few houses as a part of the delivery team. This not only got them good PR mileage but it also helped them to testify their own logistics and delivery support during the midst of a big sale. Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal are all banking on a series of sharp demographic and economic shifts to drive consumers towards their marketplaces thus opening new vistas for growth of online payment, the recent example being mushrooming of lot of Wallet companies It’s particularly important for Amazon to build a large business in India, which is considered to be the last big unconquered market in the world, after it lost out in China to Alibaba. Amazon, Flipkart & Snapdeal control nearly 80% of the e-commerce market even as competition is set to increase with Reliance Industries entering the segment by March 2016 It is also foreseen of the three majors only two active players will compete with each other for the winner’s slot. Whether this turns out to be a bubble or the beginning stages of a shopping revolution is what needs to be seen but as on today the Customers stand to get benefitted. http://www.businesstoday.in/magazine/features/ecommerce-logistics-startups-are-growing-rapidly-delhivery/story/214446.html

The Ecom business in India

The year 2014 saw e-commerce companies as the biggest ad-spenders across all media as brand building and customer acquisition were the top priorities for these companies. According to a Datawrapper report, Flipkart and Amazon led the charge, with Snapdeal, and Jabong following suit. Market experts feel the trend is likely to continue till there are investors who are ready to bankroll the ad-spend or their cash run out. As the entire online shopping battleground made news headlines after the Flipkart hoopla, buyers were forced to think what led to the popularity of festive sale advertising all over TV, and other media. Here are the top e-commerce players grabbing shoppers’ eyeballs: >FLIPKART: The brand launched teasers around 'The Big Billion Day' sale for October 6. The teasers buzzed all over social media platforms and television with news about the forthcoming sale. Flipkart positioned it as something that has never happened. One teaser ad was a stand-up comedy act by Bollywood actor, Vir Das, and another promotional video highlighting attractions like bumper discounts and unprecedented prices for a variety of products across categories. Flipkart, did jacket ads with national dailies, making sale announcements almost every day this month.

AMAZON: As Flipkart’s big day saw major setbacks such as products vanishing from the cart, rampant order cancellations and system failure led to reality falling short by several miles of what was claimed in the promotional ads. Infact through exclusive tie-up with Flipkart Chetan Bhagat launched his book “Half Girlfriend” which was pre-booked and sent to customers post the launch But during this Flipkart fiasco, Amazon stole the show as customers moved away from Flipkart and landed in the Amazon basket, and with the kind of dominance that Amazon holds in the ecommerce sector, it steered the Indian fanfare for online shopping from Flipkart to its own cart. Even as Flipkart drew curtains on its 'Big Billion Day' sale for the day, Amazon tried a novel way to own the catchphrase coined for the sale, to get users to their own site. When users typed bigbillionday.com in their browser, they landed on the amazon.in site and not on Flipkart.

SNAPDEAL: In a deft strategic move, Snapdeal.com roped in leading TV actors from top GEC channels to roll out a mega Diwali campaign. The 40 commercial campaign (yes 40!) called the ‘Diwali Bumper Sale’ stars the current brand ambassador Pulkit Samrat of Fukrey fame and 20 well known TV celebrities such as Ali Asgar, Sumona, Kiku from Comedy Nights, Alok Nath, Harsha Bhogle, etc. who reprise their TV avataars, albeit with a quirky twist. The campaign focuses on the key offers from Snapdeal on more than 5 lakh products across different product categories, establishing Snapdeal as the one stop shop for all the shopping needs of the consumers. Snapdeal aggressively advertised on all print mediums too.

JABONG: Jabong.com launched a campaign featuring a 360-degree multimedia integration of television, print, outdoor and digital platforms. The new TV commercial conspicuously emanates the philosophy around which Jabong functions today with a message directed in two simple yet assertive words, “Be You”. The TVC which was aired across channels, had been shot across many cities in India, capturing the personal styles of youngsters, and emotions derived from the sense of empowerment and confidence from fashion, the commercial showcases the latest styles and trends across clothes, shoes and accessories.

courtesy: inputs from exchange4media

Countdown to Ganesha 2014

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In-film advertising

In todays market scenario marketers are finding unique ways to reach their audience. Various integrated marketing communications have been emerging by the day. One medium Product placements has gained maximum mileage at a lesser cost involving customers without they feeling obtrusive. In India in-film branding has been in existence ever since early 70’s not taking in to account movies like Shree 420 and An Evening in Paris where Coca-cola was prominently displayed in the early 50’s and late 60’s .

 In-film advertising is a medium through which brand or products are placed in movies, that is visible to consumer without any distraction, this is also known as “Covert advertising” and is gaining momentum because of its clutter free features as it leverages on the entertainment value along with the emotional quotient of the film leading to a psychological impact on viewers.

Covert advertising is different from celebrity endorsement. The celebrities endorse products and brands with commercial reasons, which normally come in the breaks in television programmes or cinema halls. Brand placements provide an opportunity where the involved audience gets exposure to the brands and products during the natural process of narration of movie or television commercial.

Films like “Taal”, “Fashion”, “Phir Hera Pheri”, “Koi Mil Gaya”, “OM Shanti Om”, “Love ke Liye Kucch bhi karenga”, “Aakhen”, “Baghban”, “Dhoom”, “Krish”, “Dil to pagal hain” “Dostana”, “Dil to Pagal Hain” “Kaho na Pyaar hain”, “Lage Raho Munnabhai”, “Krrish”, “Corporate”, “Dabang”, “Dabang2”, “Cocktail”, “Mission Istanbul”, “Don”, “Namaste London”, Tara Rum Pum“, Bum Bum Bole”, “Rang De Basanti”, “Heroine”, “Bodyguard”, “Aisha” have used it successfully and have been drawing viewers attention. Marketers conveniently have been using the advertising of the product as a part of a films plot.

Recently Krissh3 had various products perfectly placed in their film, the placements of which appeared very easy in the film and was not at all overboard and appeared clutter free. The products that were subtly placed or mentioned by the characters were Bournvita, Flair Pens, Tata Motors, Air India, Hamleys, SIS security where the central character of the film was shown as adorning security guards dress, Aaj Tak and Tej TV channel, Euro Now a prime TV channel Forever jewellery with their Fusion brand, Airking airlines, 9.1 swisscom pay phone, TV club, xoso, Del monte, Havmor – both the central characters visit an ice cream parlour, Bisleri mineral water, Fortis hospital, Café Coffee day, Rado, Mcdonalds, R city mall, HSBC, Yamaha, Hungama.com, Shopperstop. 

With such plethora of in-film options available, advertisers are waiting and latching on such opportunities and we can definitely say in-film placements are here to stay.

what a B school doesn't teach

Service Levels - The People and the Process

Recently on a visit to a wholesale vegetable market, I experienced huge service gap in  understanding the nuances of how a wholesale market (primary) works in comparison to  retail (secondary) market. 

This strongly reiterates the understanding, whatever is taught at B-schools covers only the secondary market totally overlooking primary market and similar trends are found in majority of B-schools that has mushroomed across the country.. 

All through our life it has been reiterated again and again that customer is King, they are like God, kindly recap what the legendary Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had quoted about the customer. “A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so.” this is followed across the globe primarily because a positive word of mouth fetches more footfall and business and it helps an organisation to survive longer in this competitive world.

To further substantiate this the book "Principals of Service Marketing and Management" by Christopher Lovelock & Lauren Wright, helps us to understand and learn all the facets of what constitutes a service, its processes, the service encounter, the emotional labour, the customer behaviour, relationship marketing, pricing etc. However what was observed is in stark contrast to the above and it will be etched forever in my memory.

The Customers (Buyers) who buy in wholesale were gleefully transacting with rude and incompetent wholesale vendors (sellers) and neither of them were actually concerned about both the quality nor the value of the services, but in the both seemed to be happy. It was a kind of situation where the sellers were displaying an attitude akin to "take it or leave it", however hard the customers bargained the sellers were more adamant probably having a feeling in their minds that the buyer needs them more than they needing the buyer. 

To further substantiate my learning, the exchange of pleasantries was also unheard in service industry (the thought still shudders), the language used was blasphemous and both the seller and buyer were not complaining about it, rather I, believe they treat it as a like a customary practice to wish or greet each other or even used it when they differed  with each other. 

This visit of mine can be a classic case study in how not to treat a customer – as it contradicts all the rule book and as I look back on my experience what surprises me is that all services and offerings from the vendors were overlooked by the buyers. How else could we explain why more and more buyers were thronging the market and that for every customer the sellers lose there are a couple of hundred thousand queuing out there, ready to buy their wares. 

If we calculate the money that is transacted on a daily / weekly / monthly basis it would run to several crores. What was observed at the wholesale market is a an example of low contact high audience that happens on a daily basis, the supply chain that we have learnt is different than what is practiced here, both the seller and the vendor transact and trade business with each other 365 days and when the same buyer transforms himself as a retail seller the market scenario changes and they start behaving differently and must be experiencing a different service encounter, Emotional labour etc. The customer insights changes at each level. Fortunately, in almost every industry there are service suppliers who know how to please their customers while also running a productive, profitable operation.

In our case because of the diversity the way in which services are created and delivered to the customers, is often hard to grasp since many inputs and outputs are intangible. Here we need to understand how as a nation we are moving toward service marketing economy and therein the need to understand the concepts from different perspective. The Government is working very hard to enforce FDI in retail, there emerges a concept of whole sale market, where we need to understand the only thing that is constant is change and understand what and how to handle various grades / classification of CUSTOMERS thereby altering client servicing at various distribution levels. Of the 8 Ps in Service Marketing, apart from the Process assesment of the People providing the service matters.

A few other interesting observations:

In another lesson on optimum use of resources it was observed the vendors in order to keep the vegetables fresh were not spraying water through spray jets but were using  make shift disposable plastic bags, piercing it with a hole and sprinkling water on the vegetables which goes on to prove necessity is the mother of all invention. Another interesting observation was made by a vendor who casually informed me that they do not discard the crushed tomatoes or any of the rotten  vegetables because there is another set of loyal customers waiting & willing to buy at a very subsidised rate post market hours, and please please no prizes for guessing it is our own the F&B industry who buy it in bulk and use it in their restaurants to feed lakhs of hungry customers who gorge on outside food. A classic example of perishable product put to optimum use and we pay premium for consuming this at restaurants, the bigger the restaurants bigger the premium.