How Consumers' Fancies Can Ruin Markets

The picture is just to catch your attention. :)

But yes, another thing which should catch your attention is the fact that consumers like you and me, who don't particularly have answers to consumer behaviour surveys do actually make or break the market. Lets take simple cases like the car 'Nano' designed, manufactured and marketed by the TATAs.

It was us who created the hype, (OK maybe we were drawn into the hype created by the media and the seller). It was us who went on a spree of advance bookings for the tiny little 1 Lakh car years before the manufacturing operations actually started. It was us who. by word of mouth made our neighbours/ friends/ colleagues believe that it would be the perfect car if we wish to keep the budget low. It was us who were convinced that even as an 'extra' car car in the family for children , wives etc. Nano would be a cute option with low investment. It was us who thought that it would be easy to park a Nano in the midst of cities like Bangalore where your average speed of travel from any point A to any point B at any time of the day, at any location is just about 10 kmph. And yes It was us who made Nano 'the best invention of our times' because it was so consumer friendly.

And then suddenly after the melodramatic manufacturing of the car, we suddenly don't hear ourselves speaking about ' The Nano' anymore!! It doesn't seem to be interesting anymore. We suddenly feel as though buying that car is a negative status symbol! No one is talking about it, no one is planning to buy it either, no one is recommending it to others. Is this hype and disappearance of the same a 'Classic Case of Public Memory Is Short' ??

We sure can go on to analyse the issue, but the fact remains , We as consumers might have caused a Huge Loss to the Company just by waning our interest in an issue we once hyped and which gave incorrect signals to the Company of Public Euphoria!!

Contemporary Gyan

The Only Thing Preventing You From Believing Me,
Is Not The Presumed Lack Of Logic In My Reason
Or The Practical Impossibility Of Its Implementation,
But the Very Resistance Of Your Own Belief....

Contemporary Gyan

I Love Deadlines...

You Don't Have To Work After Them ! :)

Chronicles of a B-school - Volume 2

No I am not talking about the News B-schools tend to generate at the time of CAT/XAT exams and interview process etc. , I am talking about the lack of knowledge of current affairs possessed by the dedicated MBA pursuing junta across B-schools ;) The picture denotes how the newspapers being delivered every morning stack up unread in a lousy corner of the room. It also shows 2 words clearly standing out in the bottommost paper.. 'System' and ' Students' ... Ok let me first start by blaming the system , later we can come onto the internal locus of control and consider holding ourselves accountable, BUT that is in case I fall short of reasons for blaming the System :D

The last paper I remember reading carefully was the TOI copy in the hotel room in Delhi when I had come down for my XLRI interview.. The first and the last ever budget analysis I have ever gone through was the 'Interim Budget' of 2009... I got to know about the news about the AP CM Rajasekhara Reddy 2 days later over the lunch table one afternoon.. I got to know broken pieces of news about the Telangana issue when I saw gtalk status messages such as " I am bored and I want a separate state of my own , hence I shall go on a hunger strike from tomorrow " ! .... I also got to know about Sachin s awesome victory through a group mail inviting batch mates for a 'Sachin Puja' on the day of the match... And I guessed that India defeated Pakistan in Hockey World Cup because there was an uproar in the mess :D

Now , that my dear friends is the condition of a LARGE percentage of MBA junta who have no time to read newspapers or watch TV because they get up at 8.55 am to attend the 9 am lecture , because they have slept over an assignment at 6 am. Also because they shall not read the paper in the half hour break at 10.30 as they missed their breakfast and would love to make up for it. And because they shall not read the paper after lunch because they would consider bathing n rushing for class again or sleeeeeeeeping.... The paper is still lying around in sight though. Now comes the evening schedule , where after a class they would hang out with friends where some earth shattering news about next assignments is revealed, so no one is really bothered with the problems of the world or the country... And then comes the time to while away time which is the time for NO useful work... And soon (er or later) comes the time to sleeeeep again .. And the next morning the paper goes into the dusty corner :D .. And there it is, justified and done , the lack of knowledge about current affairs ;)

Let Your Wards Pursue Whatever They Like...... And Believe Me They Might End Up Doing Nothing At All !!

It is often said, actually it is said again and again and again that children's career must not be forced upon them by their parents aspirations, that they must not be pressurized to pursue the path their parents or society or their peer group or their teachers 'think' appropriate for them. And that their young minds should be allowed to flourish without any bounds and that their interest in any field they are good at must be encouraged instead of forcing them to run the rat race for marks and undergraduate colleges and post graduate colleges that would kill the talent within them....

But, do the proponents of the above theory realise the percentage of the section of society who would actually be benefited by such a culture??? Do they also realise the number of students who DO NOT fall within this category of ' pursuing their interests and making a career out of it' or ' being given the choice to pursue their talent which would do them greater good than the rush for marks' ??? Are the proponents of the above theory living in the real world?? Come on guys, get real, see the conditions around you.. Do you really think that if all the school kids are given absolute freedom to pursue whatever they like, they won't just while away their time pursuing things out of which no 'career' can be made.. That, if no rules of marks or ranks or grades based on syllabus exist, they would still be making constructive use of their time..And that if education does not include making them aware of what the world runs on, sciences, arts, mathematics, computers,biology, law by 'forcing' upon them these subjects through their years in schools and college , they would ever choose to dive into these sensible , lucrative career paths which not only the economy of the country but also personal intellect demands.... Don't get me wrong , I am not talking about the one in a thousand exceptional child who can easily be recognised by his/her parents , teachers, peers and should be allowed to pursue his talent , excel in the same and make an exceptional life out of it. I am talking about the common junta like you and me. I am talking about people like us who have no concrete goal ahead of us ( how much ever we claim to fulfilling so-called goals 10 years down the line in various application forms and interviews :D) . How many youngsters in school and college actually know what to do if not for the everyday tasks that their course demands and How many of them would do ANYHTING useful if given a even a semester off from forced syllabi ?? Come on , Realistically hardly anyone would.. Say whatever about the rat race , it is at least giving a means of livelihood to millions around the world.

The exceptional lot would still be able to do what they've always wanted to because they are exceptional , the rest would only be left behind in the rat race if no guidance is forced upon them, practically , rationally and generally speaking...

Why I Believe That ALL people Are Basically Good Deep Inside

Ever considered looking beyond what is evident from a persons untoward actions... Ever considered what might have triggered someone's rudeness, what might be behind someone's irritable behaviour, behind someone's repeated selfish actions, behind someone's irrational views, behind someone's shrewd ways, behind someone's negative vibes, behind someone's hatred towards society, systems, nature or simply behind someone's repulsive personality.....

No, it is not their character that I have the right to comment upon , nor do I have the right to comment upon what they did in circumstances I was not a witness to... All I shall comment upon is the fragility of the human heart... No person would ever 'love', in the true sense of the word, to behave in ways cited above. It must have been the circumstances surrounding them that made them what they are at this moment... An inherent , maybe irrational insecurity, a rational one to them perhaps, a rude shock in their lifestyles, loss of a loved one, a crumbled ego, financially disrupted childhood, emotional setback..... An appeal to all who read this, believe in the goodness of the human heart, please believe in giving benefit of doubt to all those you encounter, to all those who may have been rude to you, or cheated you if you would still like to put it that way and for God sake do believe in the basic goodness of mankind and the compassion he holds in his heart, a compassion which is often bound by convergent forces of ego and insecurity...

Lawfully Yours

Ever wondered why decisions of one court are often overruled by the other? Or why a same court decides differently on similar case facts of cases appearing before it in different points in time? It isn't merely a question of law that judges presiding over similar cases differ on... Also coming into play are innumerable unstated factors, factors which cannot for obvious reasons be stated. Some of these legislations were intended as 'beneficial' pieces of law like the Workmen's Compensation Act so that the economically weaker section of the society wouldn't suffer in case of accident and being rendered incapacitated for work by the virtue of the very fact that they chose to serve the organization. Take for example a workman cycling to the workplace hit by the company truck dies on spot but is not covered under the Act because his accident wasn't "in the course of employment" ... Another case where a workman was't awarded compensation merely because the judge interpreted the organization wasn't covered by the Act because it had fewer employees than required by the law.. Doesn't seem all that beneficial , does it ?? Plenty of reasons/ explanations are given supporting the judgements, overruling the previous one on the premise of different case facts although on the face value the case fact don't much differ. Sometimes the court behaves too generously,some other times the judgements appear ridiculous to the workers' right activists. What we fail to understand is the ideology of the judge , the circumstances which are not explicitly stated in the law books come into play, for instance if a judge considers ruling in favour of the workman , directing the employer to pay him a sum of 3 lakh INR , what would happen to the small entrepreneur who s running a firm of 8 workers (lesser than reqd. by law) , would he be able to follow the order without going bankrupt , what would the rest of the 7 workers go for a living. It then starts making sense for the court to rule in the favour of the employer giving reasons other than those mentioned above. While giving a generous judgement, the judge could inherently consider the number of dependant the workman has and their standard of living. Such reasons can often never be made public for the basic reason that fingers would be raised on grounds of prejudice , deviating form the rules of Law.. But all the same , it must be understood , all cases depend a lot more than bare case facts or rules of Law , they are more about human compassion in dire circumstances...