This post is on a different tangent from what I write on this blog, but I could not resist myself from sharing this.
This is the story of Mughli whose son disappeared after being taken away by security forces in 1990. After 19 years of search, she breathed her last this Sunday. A mother kept on the relentless search for her only son, her only ray of hope. Her son, Nazir was born after she was divorced by her husband. She decided not to marry and give her child a good upbringing.
Her last words: “My Nazir, have you come”
When I read this story (courtesy: Indian Express/Kashmirlive), I could not control my tears. Looking now at the situation in the valley, what has changed is the intensity of hatred. It just keeps on increasing. You kill us, they kill blab la… Huh!
There are many such stories that have become history; many more will be the order of the day if this keeps going. The only person to live in the valley would be neither me nor you, just hatred and hatred alone. Many more maniacs with no goals would nurture it and would die just to pass on the fire that would eventually burn the valley we are fighting for.

I had little time to take a view of the election campaigning process that took place in the state elections, the results of which gave BJP another Jhatka. Looking and analyzing the results and results alone, it wouldn’t be hard for anyone to say that second innings for congress has just got going. The glaring thing about BJP is the big rupture in the party. The word missing from the party character is “Integrated”. As a marketer, if I am not clear with my product or an idea I’m trying to sell, how would I convince others. It is as simple as that. But to convince yourself and that too when you have a 100 heads (just a number, no reference) is tough. There is still going to be that unhappy head, which would give you a big time headache. And then there are those tumors and genetic defects. Now the meaning of this post can slip. I’ll keep it simple – It is not possible to satisfy everybody at the same time. And not to say that winning parties don’t have conflict of ideas. When there are two or more people there is going to be conflict of ideas and interests. As a unit, BJP, even remotely does not give the impression that it is a single unit. The central command has a soft voice and it unfortunately forgot to cultivate the new set of leaders. Today, BJP is lacking a clear vision, but then who does have a clear vision. The only vision cum mission is growth, development and upliftment of India and Indians. To have an edge, parties try to go the extra mile, when there is no need to. The result is that you see mythical characters such as Marathi manoos, caste or religion oriented agendas. Now aren’t you yourself dividing your own vote-bank (nation ofcourse). Symbolic gestures to attract the voters you rejected in your core agenda would not call them back, rather they would deplete the existing vote bank. The only thing that should appeal to a voter is the personality of a party.

I would recommend 3 B’s for BJP

1. Behind: Look behind, and just look behind. Don’t analyze. Just check the extent of damage in your voting share. If possible hire some analysts.
2. Bend: Bend towards a new ideology, a more universal one. Everybody would be a part of it. Hindu’s won’t leave you if you call others to join the party of development and prosperity.
3. Birth: Think 10-15 years down the line. Cultivate new set of leaders. Expend some resources on them. Let the best one take the baton forward.

I want BJP to come back not because of my special affinity to it, but because for the prosperity of this country we need to have a competitor (and a one which poses some sort of a real threat) to the government to keep them on their toes and work for the betterment of the people (in a true sense, no tokenism). I hope BJP revives itself to challenge the government (on some real issues) and gives itself a national, infact an international character.

Obama for peace!
A hope for peace, a new dimension. There is a lot of debate going on whether he has done enough to deserve it or can he work for it. I won't be talking about whether he is the right one or not for the prize but lets look at it from how is it going to influence him. Maybe the man for hope will choose a path of peace. The prize definitely has increased the expectations of the world (atleast mine). Obama's policy initiatives, especially foreign policies can have more of a peaceful nature than his predecessor.

One negative aspect could be that Obama's influence and popularity could reduce if robust measures take the place of popular measures.

On the positive side, the expectations from Barack Obama would become higher and the positive effect would be that the world's most powerful man would force himself to act towards peace. I agree that it has been more of speeches till now, but that is what is needed. Without intitating dialogue how can you plan in an integrative way ? An integrative way, which would more or less would be a win-win for humanity is the only way.


I feel Obama has a new challenge. ["Peace not war", "Solution, not another problem".] Incorporate more of peace in the new solutions. This, I believe is a high risk, high return approach, but a high quality return is the need of the hour. So, I stand for Obama as the man of peace today for not what he has done, but for what he can do.

There is an interesting point of view of Harsh V Pant on the choice of Obama for Nobel Peace Prize,which provides a different perspective.

I was recently going through this article, which talked about lenovo's strategy in rural China. Lenovo, in the first half of 2009 had a market share of around 28% in China making it the leader. The article had an interesting statement regarding lenovo's rural strategy. It read

"They like to give desktop PCs because the boxes are large," says Li Zhong, director of Lenovo's consumer business in the Beijing and Hebei region. "They deliver the computers to brides' families on trucks, which everyone can see. In these cases the bigger the box, the better." WSJ

LiZhong seems to have caught hold of the need of the rural Chinese consumer. India's large untapped rural markets are still waiting to be explored. Given the uniqueness of these markets and the innovative strategies required to tap them, the first step to explore them would be to understand the needs of the rural consumer. The tough part is that most consumers don't know what they need. The stated needs are obviously clear. But the real, unstated needs are what the marketers need to know. When the iPod came, nobody knew they would need it, but Apple created a need for it. The same goes for mobile phones, when mobile technology was new. The new Tata Ace or Motorola's Moto Razr is a result of careful understanding of the market needs. Both these products sold like hot cakes since a lot of research on consumer demands was put behind their design.

India's success may lie in tapping rural markets and the key to it would lie in understanding the needs of rural consumer.

The NIT suicide case is an incident that reminds us of the dragon hidden in the invisible poison of stress. Stress due to any wanted or unwanted activity can result in consequences, either positive or negative. Ragging is an unwanted harmful activity that can be fatal to the mental makeup of an individual. In such circumstances the individual subject to it may take extreme measures as in Satyendra’s case. Environmental factors cannot be avoided. Stress is just like a road accident. Most of the times, you might not be at fault but still you have to bear the consequences. To avoid them, you adopt safer driving. The same is the case with stress. Asking yourself the question “how big is the problem, how insignificant is it as compared to me, my life” can be the major difference between overcoming stress and being overpowered by it.
I recently did a project with my team on “Health Hazards of stress and its effect on productivity”. Based on our questionnaire, survey and analysis we came up with two things. Our research was in corporate context and may not hold a direct relevance to this case, but it can be modified to tackle stresses associated with ragging.

• Those facing high levels of stress try to manage stress by taking more sleep.
• Those with lower stress levels discuss problems with coworkers and supervisors [1]

The former is an indicator of tackling stress in isolation and the latter is an example of discussing problems. While facing problems such as ragging, discussing problems with others and seniors could be a major factor between a happy and a stressful life-state.

[1] : Based on the findings of the project “Health Hazards of stress and its impact on productivity” by Rahul Pandhi, Sridevi Nune, Souvick Paul, Shadab Sayani, Sushant Kumar.

The 5 day strike of jet airways pilots that ended on 13th September 2009 is another example of the dangers of taking communication lightly. According to sources the simulated strike cost jet around $40 million. The damage done is although much deeper. Looking at the nature of strike, there are 3 things that went wrong

1. Communication
2. Negotiations
3. Interpersonal stage collapse

There was clearly a communication lag between the management and the pilots association that led to an ugly concert and pilots holding management to ransom. Labor unions can sometimes take advantage of the shortage of skilled labor and and can set terms and conditions not conducive to the growth of the organization. The history of the communication lag between Jet Airways management and its employees goes way back to Oct 2008 when around 1900 employees were laid off but later asked to return after government intervention.
This drama of layoff, which went awry in a way, gave the employees a sense of power over the management. Empowered employees won round I. The stage for Round II was set and all it needed was a spark. This time monetary losses were to the tune of $40 million. In hindsight it maybe easy to say all this, but looking at the consequences, had jet delayed the negotiation process, time would have given the management a big advantage.
Looking at way this strike has ended, if the management does not appoint a conciliator, who will provide an informal channel for labor-management relations to improve, an uglier showdown maybe on its way.

This was my team's entry in Prayaas 2009, a case study competition on child labor by Bhavishya. Bhavishya represents the united voice of the students of IIM Lucknow against the strains in our social fabric. Bhavishya is active in the domains of education, unemployment and health and women empowerment. It leverages the technical and managerial competency of students and the faculty to aid NGOs and the government. The other two musketeers studying the case along with me were Joshin and Mayank. Although we did not win the competition, I'd like to share the three cases we studied.

Below are the cases along with our suggestions

Case 1 – Mohit – aged 12 – sells ice cream.
We met Mohit at Kapoorthala, Lucknow. He was selling ice-cream. To break the ice, and to get to conversation mode, we approached him and bought an ice cream. Conversing with him we got to know his story. Facts about Mohit:

• He is 12 years old.
• Lives near Aliganj, Thana.
• Has never gone to school, although he desires to go to school someday.
• Family members involved in similar small businesses.
• His brother is a mechanic and uncle is a street vendor.
• He earns an amount of Rs. 100 – 200 per day and promptly hands over the money to his family.
• Mohit is a tobacco user.
Our Views
• He has been deprived of education because family has forced him to earn bread & butter.
• He is unaware of how education can help him, and negative effects of tobacco use.
• He wants to go to school if possible when he sees other kids go to school.
• As other people in Mohit’s family are earning, the family condition is not too bad, there is a ray of hope that Mohit is send to school.
Suggestions
• If Mohit’s family is persuaded and made aware of the advantages of sending Mohit to school and offered some sort of support (financial like tuition fee , materials like uniform, books, pens), there is a strong chance that Mohit can pursue education.
• Support for Skill development – Mohit’s parents and relatives can be counseled and helped to improve their skills so that they can perform better at their jobs.

Case 2 – Irfan – aged 15 – works in a meat shop.
We met Irfan also at Kapoorthala, Lucknow. He works in a meat shop. When he took a break from work, we approached him and enquired about his details which are as given below:

• Hails from Bahraich (UP). Bahraich has an average literacy rate of 59%, lower than the national average of 59.5%; with 57% of the males and 43% of females literate. 2
• 15 Years Old.
• Lives and works in the meat shop. Earns Rs. 2000/month.
• He can read Hindi, can do arithmetic.
• Eldest son in the family. Family is in extreme poverty.
• He has a younger brother & sister.
• Father is farmer but cannot earn much to meet both ends - So Irfan has to work.
• Studied till 2nd standard - Doesn't want to go to school anymore (has to support his family).
• He admits that a lot of children from Bahraich region are doing similar jobs in Lucknow.
Our Views
• Irfan is constrained in this situation – family survival takes priority over his education.
• No other source of income as father's agricultural income is not sufficient.
• Irfan's income of Rs.2000/month is important for supporting his younger brother and sister.
• He is a smart boy and can communicate well.
Suggestions
• In this case, financial aid takes priority over awareness.
• As places like Bahraich are remote rural areas and have a dense cloud cover of poverty, Government schemes (like NREGA) are difficult to have an impact on the lives of people.
• In these cases, the local NGOs and social workers can act in the best interests to track down such families and help them in a systematic way.
• The modus operandi for this can be – NGOs can provide a reliable database of the families and address the specific needs of the families like skill set development of members of the family, ensuring studies of children at least till matriculation.

Case 3 – Munna – aged 7 – works in tyre shop.
The third is relatively of primary concern as his age is 7 years, which is a crucial time for early development of the child.

• Munna works in a tyre shop.
Our Views
• This is a case were need is not the driving factor for the situation of this child.
Suggestions
• Here the awareness takes precedence over need. Munna’s family perhaps is not aware fully of how primary education of the child can benefit the family in future. Moreover, he is not a skilled worker. Considering his age, the amount generated by him is not significant enough to affect his family. Here, a concentrated effort through a local social program is required for the family to be persuaded to bring the child in the right direction.

These days I've been spending some time doing a survey finding out the buying habits of females online.My objective was to find the buying online buying habits of females below 25 years of age. To my surprise, very few access access internet and those who do have a lot of apprehensions about buying online. Their apprehensions are justified considering spam mails that overflow the mail boxes every day.
Pop up ads were a strict no-no. Out of 25 people I surveyed, only 2 said that they would click on pop up ads. They had doubts on the trustworthiness of the websites because of bad first experiences. My personal experience of buying sunglasses from a popular website wasn't very good too. In my opinion, these websites have created a mistrust of the apprehensive online buyer on genuine online sellers. The reinforcement theory states that behavior is a function of consequences. Hence the first-timer with a bad experience is bound to show a negative online buying behavior.

TV still wins when it comes to influencing the prospective buyers and on around 80% of the people I surveyed, celebrities have a high influence. Some bought a product just because Katrina Kaif endorsed it. But guess what celebs rank lower than few others, who score high on trust in the consumers. Teachers/Professors scored high on trust factor and had higher influence on the female consumer. This is something I haven't seen on the celeb heavy advertisements. Showing a teacher/professor with credentials and repute is bound to higher influence.

The next thing is going to be good news for congress in UP. The most unexpected answer from a prospective management student was politicians and Rahul Gandhi in particular.

The first day of our disguised survey did not meet up to our expectations but some strange,shocking and pleasant revelations did make their mark on our initial report.

I'm not happy because I've had a fight and now I have to deliver a presentation to a valuable client who can give my organization some good business. What do I do ? Wipe of the anger on my face and give the presentation. Just Fake it!

Now comes the dilemma. Do I fake the emotions required by my job or do I genuinely feel it. Research has shown that deeply acting and internalizing the feelings leads to less amount of stress due to conflicting emotions(Emotional Dissonance).

Check out the presentation below.

Emotional Labour

View more presentations from Sushant Kumar.

Who can be the next richest person ?
a) An Engineer/Graduate (pref IIT) + MBA (Pref IIM) + Work Ex -> Looking for meaty job
b) An actor/singer (celebrity)
c) Scientist/researcher/Scholar
d) Entrepreneur

Ans - d) Entrepreneur
He would make the rest 3 work for him.
So if they become rich, they'd automatically make him richer.

But what does a person have that makes him an entrepreneur -> A vision, an idea!.

If you check out the profiles of the richest people today, they were one among a,b,c, but had the vision and a bit of business acumen.
And entrepreneurship is the greatest social service. you are creating jobs and inspiring many more.

Old people always advice you to be honest and modest. But are both possible ? OK lets start it this way. Modesty gives you options and honesty leaves you with none. The new set of high fliers, I've interacted with have loads of modesty. The kind of modesty that'll make you feel that Mount Everest was left on ground floor. The new bunch of high fliers, although have options.

Now I debated about it with a friend of mine and he justified modesty. You underplay your thing. As a listener to a modest individual you would believe him.

If say Mr Sham said that his project is still going at snails pace (although it ain't) he is modest. Now you've gone to mr Sham to check your project status with his project. He is honest in this case because pace is subjective term. Snails pace to Mr Sham might be lightning fast for me.

Now rather than the above statement, Mr Sham said my project has still not got over the planning stage, although it has reached the final stage, it would again be an example of modesty. But it would be dishonesty too!

A Lot of the high flier crowd, the elites or future elites are falling into the Mr Sham trap.

At the end of it Why would I trust a modest individual ? or Can I trust people like Mr Sham ?
The thin line between modesty and dishonesty is being blurred as I feel people are preferring to go up by putting others down using the weapon of modesty. The result is that my trust over such people is decreasing.

My Advice : Think twice before trusting a seemingly modest person.