Dispose Responsibly!!!

We have seen this symbol on most of the electronic gadgets, batteries, cells etcetera. This symbol says do not dispose this item/gadget in the dustbin as it will harm the environment.


In India most of the gadgets carry the same symbol (might be because we are becoming global). My question to the marketing team of big brands is where we dispose them when finding dustbin is a challenge.

I would like to make a point here that why can’t we be real and practical or maybe we can implement executionable ideas.


In developed countries, there are collection days for hazardous waste and centers where people can dispose of these items. May be in India the battery companies can offer buyback for lithium ion batteries which generally goes into the dustbin.

In India the lead acid batteries are mostly recycled but in an inefficient and harmful to environment manner as checks are not there in place.


Final word is, please find out an actionable way of reducing impact on environment rather than just branding ourselves in an unsustainable manner.

My Distant mentor

David Novak;

I am a big fan of this personality who is Chairman & CEO of Yum Brands Inc.
He has authored a book 'The education of an accidental CEO'

He has written his heart out in this book and I suppose he has been dead honest in that.
Once he graduated out of college, he got a job of selling encyclopedias. He manage to sold some on day one.
He honestly admits that, he was not a good salesman but its the old women who bought this just for a chat. Probably in that age she don't need an encyclopedia but needs someone to
share his loneliness.

He was unhappy after the transaction and quit that job and later became an account executive for Frito lay.

The second instance where he has shown intense courage is when Taco Bell was in news for all the bad reasons before an investors meet.
There was a store located in New York metro station and New York is famous for big rats. The store was undergoing some pest control activities and the team worked till 3 in the night.
They left a hole in the wall to come back tomorrow and fix it up.

The big rats came in the store and some passer by filmed a clipping through the front glass door. This was one of the top ten watched video on you tube next morning; right before the investors meet.
The top management wanted to postpone the meeting. David said no and started the meeting with a rock solid confidence. He said let me appreciate the media for making us realize where we are going wrong and then he declared to cancel the store license because of location issues.

The investors responded well and nobody raised a single question about the sensitive issue.

I get huge inspiration from him.

The Indian Traffic Scenario 2020

I get excited when I foresee traffic situation in 2020.
Roads:
Roads will be widened to the maximum possible space but the traffic will still flow as a perennial stream @ 10 km/hr. Yes, the road dividers will be thin sliced to give way to traffic.
Flyovers will have multiple levels, one over the other. You will be paying a Rs.300 bill if you wish to travel from the top tier.
Every house will have a red light; you can enter the road only once it’s green!

Cars:
Nano will be big ancient petrol run car. Companies will fight to build even smaller car. Marketers from B-school will be positioning them on the grounds of sideways shock absorbers! Yes the side body of the car will contain 6” shock absorbers on all sides. Latest technology will allow 1 minute come back of dented portion guarantee. Car body will of fiber plastic till window allowing ample space for daily collision and scratches. The day you don’t get one will be considered misfortune!
All cars design will be like this:



So that bikers can ride over the car and overtake without disturbing the car driver.(Traffice rule: Biker got to overtake from the top left side of the car only as driver is sitting on right)





Car Insurance:
They will provide 30 minute guarantee to reach on site of collision like pizza guys used to do in 2010. The mobile team will be accessible on toll free number. They will inspect both vehicles and take photograph and issue cheque amounting to damage calculated by an algorithm written by IIM-A guy.
IMT marketing guys will be positioning auto insurance companies on grounds of 2 minutes claim settlement on road (collision site).


Animal fencing from the highways will be removed as there won’t be any left to come over. Guess where the animals of 2020 are, they all will be driving the car!

Mislead India Campaign

I could see a clear unethical approach towards business in the name of campaign called LEAD INDIA.

It was a scintilla which build hope across the country as if they are going to revolutionize our crippled political system.
Suddenly those leaders have disappeared and there are no updates of what objectives they are trying to accomplish.


Crores of rupees were spent on marketing the entire event and yes it paid of in a way.
They were declared as "Advertiser of the Year’’ at the Spikes Asia ’09

People voted in hope of improvement in system as they claimed in their advertisement and certainly not to get them a good Brand recognition.
I appreciate the fact that they are a business organization and the survival is profitability, but at what cost is the question here.

Now similarly their is a TEACH INDIA campaign where their is no structured format for education delivery process and under privileged kids are taught
arbitrarily by volunteers.I really doubt the improvement that the program will do in the education level.

The elections were conducted out at the people money at the rate of Rs. 7/- a minute. The other marketing materials are available online
Lead India address book Rs. 699/-
Lead India shoulder bag Rs. 699/-
Coffee mug for Rs. 249/-.

I may be sounding pessimistic but unfortunately I could not find and statistical data which could prove the improvements made so far.
The approach is purely unethical by this way of getting Brand recognition.

Post down Turn, B school should reflect on the course credit!

We saw the challenges faced by businesses in downturn of economy
The question arises, does B-school prepare future managers to face crisis? Even if they do so, how effective they are?
As a student of PGDM executive at IMT- Ghaziabad, I recently attended a 6 days marketing simulation program conducted by faculties from Austria.
Executive MBA requires people with minimum 5 years of work experience as a manager.
MARKETING SIMULATION is software based program in which teams of student form a company and compete in simulated global market. At the start of the simulation, each company sells its products in the market. As the simulation progresses, existing products can be changed or withdrawn, and new products brought onto the market, depending on how the game develops. The aim is to strengthen your own company's market position and profit situation. This makes the conflicts between a company's various goals, which arise when making business decisions, very obvious. Each company's sales strategy should reflect its unique position within the market.
There are 9 rounds to play this game and each round is a considered to be a financial year. The teams makes their strategies based on multiple variables like positioning, new product development, marketing mixes, demand forecasting etc. The variables go upto100 in number. At the end of each round, results were declared. Results include market shares, revenues, unit solid contribution margins, net profit, etc.
Now, by artificially creating recession in random periods, companies are tested. Companies which strategically build capacities, staffing, investments in R&D etc. were able to face recession well. Others were left with piles of inventories & huge fixed costs killing their profits.
This stimulation gives student managers a chance to practice handling real life scenarios without risking millions of dollars which otherwise may damage the bottom line.
I experienced that business can be taught better by putting student managers into challenging scenarios. Learning’s which comes out of such situational handling are long lasting as they change perspectives.
Simulation vs. Case based approach:
Harvard business school case base approach is highly appreciated & followed by most of the B-schools across the globe. Moving one level ahead, it will be simulation, which gives you result for your chosen strategies. It also gives an opportunity for new idea generation and application of theoretical concepts.
Similarly case studies also provide simulation, as there are multiple options that one can choose. Challenge is that you never come to know the results of your chosen strategies.
Ethics: How important they are in business?
One of the core reasons for financial downturn was excessive greed for profit. I believe that business ethics should be a core course {full credit} which should be mandatory for all B-schools students. I have studied core course on business ethics which is taught through HBR case studies. It repeatedly reinforced the fact that companies whose core ideology was ethical were at disadvantageous positions in short term, but in long term, these companies were highly admired by stake holders.

Banglore Visit

I visited Bangalore for the first time. It was found exactly as told to me over years. I visited best MNC’s in India and candidly telling you ‘I found their office marvelous’. Infosys, 3M, were ‘corporate giants’ if I can say that.
Well journey was interesting as a guy from Micro soft was there to listen to me. You see I always need good listener. Temperature was little high which was a challenge.
People are very different here, they look dangerous but they are not and are actually sweet and simple. Certain differences are there in typical NCR region and south India e.g. Morning means 5:00 am and appointment means appointment.
I must appreciate the professionalism displayed by people in this city.
Well, development is visible, very much visible. Huge IT parks and jumbo corporations expanding their business in kilometers is testimony.
All I miss is my dear one in this trip. I visited one pub called NASA at MG road. I heard about it in year 2003 and since then wanted to be there. I had a good experience at NASA and also liked the local grown wines (pretty much OK). Tomorrow is the last day of Bangalore trip. I wish to come here soon.

My stay at IMT

I landed in campus with a sinking feeling & hope together. Most of the decision that I take for my personal life turn out to be disaster. I thought, I have taken another “good decision” when I heard about the placement struggle that was going on at that time.

Well, campus was impressive in terms of greenery (people are free to derive different meaning of greenery).Somehow I had a jinx of getting superb roomies which followed me to IMT as well.My roomie will only tell those things outside to everyone which can pose a potential threat.lolz..

I was elected as CR. I was happy, possibly for the last time.

Now there was a twist in the story as we formed the GROUP-C, there was lot of learning and fun together. Something was missing to complete CR into a CRY, so I joined place com also. (I am just joking; I actually like to work a lot)

Some faculty members will not get out of my memory for reasons which you know. Like Prusty sir (conceptual clarity- I don’t know whether in this life time I will get it or not)