Has India chosen a clever & lazy bunch of leaders in 2014?

 “In my business of research, economies of scale don’t exist” says Franz Huner CEO & Chairman of the Swiss Pharma giant Roche. According to Hurner, Competitive advantage lies in the ability to create an economy driven not by the cost efficiencies but by ideas and intellectual know-how. Therefore the task of a great leader is to create an environment in which ‘clever people’ can thrive. These people are the handful of persons whose ideas, knowledge and skills give them the potential to produce disproportionate value from the resources provided to them. [Source HBR]

Martin Sorrell, CEO WPP, a leading most communications services firm in the world also backs creativity over capital for greater returns on investment, says,”One of the biggest challenges is that there are diseconomies of scale in creative industries. If you double the number of creative people, it doesn’t mean you will be twice as creative.” Reminiscent of too many cooks spoil the broth? One defining characteristic of clever people is that they do not want to be led, a red alert for you leaders. Clever people don’t plan their pension; they know their value and expect everyone to recognize it.

The bad news is that all the resources and systems in the world are useless unless you have clever people to make the most of them.  As per Hammerstein-Equord view people can be divided into four groups based on their behavioral habits:

There are clever, diligent, stupid and lazy officers. Usually two characteristics are combined. So the groups are set as follows:

• Clever and diligent
• Stupid and lazy
• Clever & lazy
• Stupid and diligent 

Who would be the most undesirable group that must be avoided? Certainly the ‘stupid & diligent’ must be avoided and not entrusted with any responsibility as they will always cause only mischief. And the clever & lazy qualify to for the highest leadership duties, because the intellectual clarity and the composure necessary for challenging tasks would benefit for great positive outcomes.  Erich von Manstein was regarded as one of Germany’s best military strategist during World War II and Kurt Gebhard Adolf Philipp Freigerr von Hammerstein – Equord was Germany’s Chief of the Army High Command before Second World War.

India has twin advantage of political stability and relative democracy but faces enormous challenges of culture war led by Hindutva lobby, poverty, and population.  The rising inequality in incomes can’t be camouflaged with strident Hindu nationalism. Indian elections present an opportunity to people to select the desirable class of leaders to take India forward. 

The mass media due to its structure and the lack of knowledge & circumstances have never educated the voters about what type of leaders people should elect that would help India march forward and develop a competitive advantage. Justice Katju, head of Press Council had warned Indians about the poor quality of journalists in India and the need for citizens to avoid voting on identity factors and chose merit for sake of progress. But Indians & the mainstream media swept aside his views and got itself a new set of leaders. The quality of life in a country depends upon the leaders it elect. India has failed once again to elect a bunch that can take it forward. 

Need for Branding Higher Education

You would agree that the self financing universities & technical education institutes, both private & public, in India are going through consolidation phase post a rapid mushroom growth. Due to slowdown of economy, intense competition & regulatory bottlenecks many higher education players are facing serious challenges. Continuous decline in student intake numbers & rising costs require immediate solutions for the long term survival of this critical sector of economy.

Though corporatization of education in India has yet not been allowed but many major education brands are using commercial marketing principles, concepts & tools to attract students & other stake holders to them. But most institutes are unable to benefit from strategic marketing due to absence of a full time marketing director to take care of this critical function. The regulatory bodies of higher & professional education, UGC, AICTE, MCI etc, not only discourage use of marketing but also don’t make it mandatory for all self financing institutes to employ a professional marketing manager on the campus. How can an education enterprise succeed without proper marketing in the times when religion to politics use marketing to further their cause?

Every self financing education enterprise must either have an in-house marketing team or outsource the critical task to some outside professional agency. To fill this very gap, AnahadMC offer services to assist your management in creating & implementing of a customized marketing strategy.

Major challenge facing this sector is lack of branding. Despite existence of private players in education sector at all levels for a considerable long period in India not many private institute have been able to create brand equity higher than that of public sector autonomous institutes. The problem of branding in not peculiar to education sector alone, it’s pervasive in other commercial & not for profit enterprises as well. The mother of all questions is how to create a brand in the education sector? Let us admit that the advertising is not the chief vehicle for marketing in all the marketing scenarios.

 It’s well accepted that unless an institute presents itself as a brand to the students it may have to struggle a lot to be the first preference for the brand conscious youth of 21^st century India. Branding exercise is a critical factor in success or failure of institutes with full & partial enrolment record as market forces continue to change the game each year.

Some characteristics that determine the brand equity of an education enterprise:

1.   Years in operation

2.   Size of campus

3.   Placements

4.   Affiliations

5    International relations

6.   Faculty quality

7.   Number of courses

8.   Affiliations

If you want to go beyond the generic factors to create a differentiated brand for your enterprise that fits seamlesly to the target please drop us an email at anahadmc@gmail.com and we would get back to you within one working day. Let's make India an education powerhouse. 

Semiotics of 2014 Gen Election in India & Lord of The Flies

There is a shocking uncanny resemblance of the 2014 India election scene with the William Golding’s ‘Lord of the Flies’. The hunter wants to dominate the weak social order incapable of producing excellence. But unfortunately, unlike in the book, India has no luxury of a foreign messiah rescuing it from the chaos. Will India pay the price & submit meekly to the hunter, as it has on innumerable occasions in pre & post 1947, for its lack of social order capable of producing excellent public order & society?

The antagonist in the Lord of the Flies, Jack, older of the boys left stranded on a deserted island in wake of raging war in the developed world, lacks love & affection for others and he tries to make that up with offers of security & food. In the struggle for acceptance, Jack wins the largest following among the disparate group afraid of its survival & redemption, by persuasion & force both.

In India Narendra Modi wants majority India to support him despite his management of 2002 Gujarat riots. Modi almost resembles Jack who is adept at manipulating others, represents the base instinct of savagery within all human beings, in contrast to civilizing instinct of Ralph, the protagonist.  

Another major character in the LOTF is Piggy, a whining intellectual boy, who represents the scientific, rational side of the civilization, like media & couple of experts therein. The Jacks of the chaotic democracies know that characters like Piggy pose no threat to their dictatorship dream but also help them project a liberal side for publicity, a camouflage. Media in India is like the Piggy.

The chief protagonist in LOTF is Ralph, who is younger to Jack and has backing of the majority in the beginning. Rahul Gandhi campaign is trying to project him as the leader who promises a just civil society capable of delivering all that is promised by the Jack, and with a humane face. Although  some may disagree with my opinion and would like to paint Arvind Kejriwal of Aam Adami Party as the true hero of India’s enactment of LOTF 2014 edition.

Most outside India, who don’t know the Hindutva character of India, find it difficult to understand why a two term Prime Minster of India , a humble, suave sophisticated & brilliant economist Dr Manmohan Singh don’t have same adulation & following within India as abroad?  Well Dr Manmohan Singh is a Sikh & majority of Hindus are not yet ready to accept a non-Hindu as PM of India, even beyond 1947.

President Obama is elected by people of the USA and hence represents their collective morality. On the contrary, Dr Manmohan Singh can’t win an election despite being the PM of India. Simon in the LOFT is the only person whose sense of morality does not seem to have been imposed by the society. Simon represents natural goodness, in contrast to unbridled evil of Jack & imposed morality of civilization represented by Ralph & Piggy.  A Simon can’t be first past the post in contest for power.

Akali Dal & Shiv Sena are to BJP what Sam and Eric are to Jack in the LOTF. Congress too has its own band of likeminded parties that support it for from time to time based on mutually profitable terms that has nothing to do with development of India. Those who have read LOTF would see many characters like Roger, in Indian political scene too, who are willing to kill for a consideration.

Although many Indians believe that India is no island and it is a super power or going to be superpower which has lot of respect in the world but when they travel abroad their dream gets shattered. India is still like an island that needs to work hard to grow into a continent of power and so it must choose wisely. The Ralphs may not look strong with enough killer instincts but such characters give promise of a just & civilized society which can integrate itself with rest of humanity on the planet. A Jack can hack well but they should be contained to some island for sake of humanity.

Media the fourth pillar or just for Chillar?

Media pride itself as a critical component of a functioning democracy. It enjoys vast powers in the name of being the guardian of citizen’s rights & interests from mighty powerful governments.  Media claims to be the watchdog of people in a republic. But is it possible for privately owned, advertising revenue funded media to keep the interests of democracy and citizens ahead of their own avowed aim of profit maximization & business?  You would doubt.

Let’s examine the media thesis of being a public service for strengthening of democracy in a republic. In order to analyze the myth of media being a public service it would be appropriate to study its conduct during most critical period of elections in democracy. How media contributes, influence or obstructs election process can reveal its true intentions and therefore nature.

Media in India competes for vast advertising & promotion budgets of political players.  There is no harm in fair competition but media do not treat political advertising at par with other advertising. If media want to further the cause of democracy in a republic then what is the rationale to charge premium over normal advertising tariff? Moreover if commercial advertiser gets credit then why deny same facility for political advertising? Why should media organizations be allowed to charge higher tariff & cash terms for political advertisements meant to educate citizens and make informed choices? Profit maximization on public service advertising is criminal and anti-democratic.

Media monsters charge lower than commercial tariff on many categories of advertisements but during elections time they go for kill and bring a variety of wrongful pressures on political players for maximum share of advertising budget.  The Election Commission of India must intervene and order the media to charge lowest advertising tariff close to DAVP rates as election advertising has no commercial objective.  

Indian media is a unique beast. It has no resemblances to anyone else in any democratic country on the earth. The unregulated media doesn’t serve the nation, governments or citizens and places the profit maximization motive of its owners foremost.  India must stop it & tame the beast. Media enjoys vast benefits in India but its actions are directed at collecting chillar [Money] than working as fourth pillar of democracy. 

2014 Gen Elections: Politics of Anger Management

Bharat experienced slow economic & social progress, often described as a Hindu rate of growth, for most periods since 1947, when the British left India, until the present PM of India Dr Manmohan Singh, an economist, was discovered by distraught political leaders & handed over the critical task of managing economy.  Since 47, the caste-religion minded political class in India thought it imprudent to hand over the important ministries in union cabinet to professionals on merit alone without factoring in their social class.

The Chalta-hai & Aya-Ram-Gaya- Ram approach to politics in Bharat pushed it into turmoil by a staccato fix it style handling of economic policies. The trial & error attitude adopted by ruling elite led to chaos and brought it on the verge of exploding internally due to poverty, hunger & slow haphazard growth, as if the socio-political leaders had no choice available in front of them in operation in the West & Asia. Since the political elite were busy managing vote banks, the three other pillars of democracy decided to serve their own selfish interests than that of the citizens.

Bharat experienced rapid economic development much later than even south-Asian countries, due to reforms introduced by Dr Manmohan Singh & emulated by others. But this growth has tapered once again & may soon degenerate into pre-Manmohan- Singh- era level. Growth by itself is useless unless it is in right direction.  Cancerous growth looks amazing, in color pictures. A growth movement without direction does serious long term damage to a society because it can’t help one arrive at the desired destination.

The world has long accepted & imbibed the truth of best man for the job approach but Bharat continues to live by the rank opposite philosophy of any adult can do every job. That’s why you see exponents of yoga, a traditional physiotherapy regimen, lecture seasoned economists & industrialists on how to run economy & industry.  That is sure recipe for a long period of directionless Hindu rate of growth in Bharat.  Never been to school brand of swamis are not the major reason for chaos in Bharat. It’s the lack of right quantity of quality leaders that hurts most.

Though INC would have preferred to have another PM in 2009, in place of Dr Manmohan Singh, to balance various religious identities for compulsions of electoral politics, but Sonia Gandhi perhaps had limited choice to replace Dr Singh. But the second term as Prime Minister to a humble honest clean scholar from Sikh community has not helped political fortunes of Congress Party in mainly Hindu-heartland states in Bharat.

Political parties In Bharat seems to have divided along secular versus communal chasm. But this divide is facile as most political players keep trotting to either side as per convenience. The Congress party often calls its opponent BJP a communal party, but the majority population doesn't see much difference between the two. Bhajpa became a formidable political force by leveraging the Hindu pride. LK Advani led movement for construction of Hindu temple at the place of Mosque bore sweet fruits in India that prided itself of being a secular state different from religion based Pakistan & Nepal.  Advani & Vajpaye didn’t spend a single day in jail for leading the Hindu pride movement of Ram Temple and were rewarded by top leadership positions in the secular republic of Bharat. On the contrary, Shiromani Akali Dal, a party of Sikhs in Punjab, has not been lucky, as its leaders had to suffer a lot in the politics of Sikh pride.  

It is incorrect to credit BJP for resurrection of Hindu pride movement. The seeds of it were sown much earlier during the British raj. If triumvirate of Gandhi, Nehru & Patel had shown foresight by refusing to undertake construction of Somnath temple on priority in newly independent India and focused on economic matters alone perhaps India would have been a super power by now ahead of China? It confounds many why they took such a step when Europe & Asia were into thick of anti-religious sentiment fuelled by socialist revolution? Did India err in anger management of Hindus who were forced to live under non-Hindu empires for thousands of years?

Hindu supremacist organizations like RSS [Sangh] don’t condemn demolition of Babri mosque, Operation Bluestar, major riots of 84, 92 & 2002 etc in which minorities of Bharat suffered enormously. Most often such incidents are justified by Hindu political class as genuine acceptable reactions to atrocities inflicted on majority Hindus by minority Sikhs & Muslims. No Hindu politician has ever gone to jail for participating in such tragic carefully planned attacks on minorities in Bharat, though leaders & professionals from minorities have been routinely punished by various courts or mere suspicion alone. Chief Minister Punjab S Parkash Singh Badal has spent 17 years in jails as political prisoner, second only to Nobel laureate Nelson Mandela.

While India was busy managing the Hindu-angst, China raced ahead to become a global power of enormous magnitude. Despite huge population, equal to China, Bharat wins far few Olympic medals, Nobel awards and Oscars etc.  Wonder why don’t Bharat use available fora to stamp its strength on global scene?   The industry, with exception of few, still find it difficult to inculcate competencies required for success despite decades of protection, catalyzed further by liberalization ushered in by Dr Manmohan Singh. Failure of domestic industry majors, despite protections against global competition, in organized retail is clear proof of their lack of managerial strengths.

History is not created by those students who want stars on each page they write from every teacher no matter what. But by those who study very hard & work harder. Narendra Modi, CM Gujarat, a representative of RSS-BJP Hindu philosophy wants to be next PM of India in 2014 to, as he says so loudly and repeatedly, to rid India of economic mess created by Dr Manmohan Singh led government & put an end to pseudo-secular politics in India. He wants to make India like Gujarat that he claims is a model state in the world.

But is he the best man for the job or an average guy who will ask others to work for him & produce excellence? Can a good administrator be a great inventor or economist or engineer? Media has projected N Modi as a control freak, certainly not known for giving freedom to the team, a prerequisite for germination & nurture of excellence. Will Bharat once again opt for placating ‘outraged Hindus’ looking for suitable route for anger management by electing N. Modi? Could emergence of Aam Admi Party provide an alternative to India to vent its frustrations and take India forward towards a respectable image of a global democracy?  Perhaps the Congress party understands that India & Bharat are angry but it doesn't seem to appreciate who is more & why. 

Why no Amul from Punjab? Verka & Food brands !

Punjabis are known for hard work and entrepreneurial nature. They happily venture out on paths where few dare to trot. Punjab has considerable expertise in manufacturing as some punjabis have done quite well at the global and domestic level. When we discuss cycles, milk products, yarn, hosiery, knitwear, hand tools, sports goods there are some sparkling stories. But why do we not have a 'brand' like Amul, Dettol, Britania etc ?Punjabis are popular for thier appetite and fine eating, what stops us from creating a brand ? Lassi has market potential, why not have a branded lassi ?

As consumers are becoming more demanding the food companies have to work  overtime to convince the buyers to depend on them for offering nutrition combined with pleasure. Therefore food companies are taking fatty foods off the shelves and replacing them with the healthier foods. You may segment the food along four benefits; Nutrition, Taste, Health and Pleasure. What are the alternatives with the Cola majors like Pepsi & Coke? Would they be able to sustain a strategic attack on their consumption? Could they survive by asking consumers to go for cola drinks for pure pleasure? Or could they pass off as the tastier water available? They would find it very scary to go for a pleasure tag. Certainly they would never imagine killing their market by hawking Cola as a health drink. How the future is going to play out is a million dollar question.Snack food market in India is dominated by the unorganized sector.

Future may be different. The organized retail revolution unleashed in India would change the contours in no time. Most retailers have or are in the process of launching their own snack food brands. The local small snack food players would be edged out from the market and would remain in business as vendors of the large stores.

The evolution of biotechnology would also upgrade the snack food portfolio.The sweet snack food segment dominated by biscuits is experiencing real tremors with entry of new competition from within and global market. Players in biscuit market are planning to launch biscuits as a healthy snack food. We are all convinced with cereals and dalia etc as a healthy food. But a snack is a snack.

How can you force fit a biscuit to pass of as a health food? Surely a snack food product positioned on health benefit segmentation is in nothing but a horrendous idea here in India.

Hope no snack food player would like to present their products on the lines ofChawanprass or some Churan. If they do how would the packaging look like? Would it look like a health product, a medicine or some happy pleasurable packaging? How many snack food players have we got in the Punjab region? Not many! Why is it so when there is huge market available in the region? When you shop for a snacks all you see if Frito lay, Haldiram, and 2-3 local players.

We know that being a developing country that has recently come out of a total regulatory regime, our entrepreneurs are more comfortable with production than being adept in marketing their produce. Every big small town in the region has 1-2 famous snack food player. How we all miss the great retail effort undertook by Lovely Sweets from Jalandhar.Gopal from Patiala has also flexed its muscles but have not taken a real shot at becoming an established player. Dhoda sweets may have shifted base to Ludhiana but their product line is woeful short.Cremica has opened up into this domain but they seem to be satisfied with organic growth only.

When would we see a snack food brand leveraging the worldwide appeal of PUNJABIDHABHA and SHER-E-PUNJAB? Is someone listening!

Will India Change in 2014, for better or worse?

India is a unique country in some ways than the rest of the world, despite many similarities. Most differentiating features of India that make it unique are the population, film industry, cricket and the Hindu way of life.  Besides these four, India is an average country.

Many economists & leaders have debated the challenge of massive population and have either saw it as an impediment to growth or a demographic dividend. If you have no preconceived socio-political agenda, then you can’t see huge unskilled population of India as a beneficial positive factor?

Besides population explosion the other arena where India is undisputed, but dubious, leader is the so called film industry.  Indian films are exactly similar to Indian people, well few exceptions to the rule can’t be denied. Indian people fail to win at Nobel & Olympics, two main global events that recognizes the power of the intellect & physical strength, respectively. And Indian movies too, like the Indians, fail to get recognition at the Oscars.

Besides filmed entertainment the other most pervasive entertainment that India is known for is the game of cricket. Despite more population than any other country on Earth, India fails to compete with nations with 1/100^th of population, at the Olympics and the FIFA world cup. India’s neighbor, PR China, is home to as many people as India but it wins way more medals at Olympics. Cricket, like Indian films, keep people lost in the make believe world to escape the realities of life.

Let's examine how the controversial issue of how a Hindu way of life could impact the future of India. Descartes said ‘I think therefore I am’.  People become what they believe in & form groups with the other like-minded individuals.  People are different from each other more at the psychological level than the physical. India is a large diverse place united by foreign invaders from came from afar & sometimes from other continents. Many Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, & Muslim kings have ruled some small parts of India from time to time in history but none could ever succeeded in uniting all Indians under one umbrella. Therefore when the British decided to leave India, post WWII, local political leaders could not keep it united and India was divided in 1947.

One part of India became Pakistan in 1947. Religion divided India. The founders of Pakistan followed Islam but were Indians by nature & culture. They certainly were not the descendants of Turkish or Persian Kings. The largely Hindu India, many Hindus leaders say Sikhs are part of Hindus but no Sikh leader agrees, decided not to make India follow a Hindu way of life. India in 1947 naturally & wisely chose to be a secular country surrounded by Hindu Nepal & Muslim Pakistan in 1947.

Since India failed to tackle twin challenges of poverty & population due to the culture & character of people, the Hindu religious lobby is projecting the utopia of ramrajya as panacea for better governance. The clamour for running India according to the Hindu way of life is growing by the day. And, this has led to emergence and popularity of Narendra Modi. Indian media is largely in Hindu hands, so it has chosen to promote Modi, than question him for 2002, and his unknown agenda for governance. If a religion based Hindu state of Nepal & Islamic republic of Pakistan could not do better than secular India till today, why alter India’s character by imposing Hindutva? India doesn't need to return to Hindu roots as that would hurt its economic & social fabric. India needs to become a modern scientific nation.

Hinduism can’t solve the problem of poverty. India need to change from a Hindu way of life & leave behind asphyxiating caste system that divides people & subjugate the majority of skilled workers. The caste system creates an unequal social order that stigmatizes people and rob them of their dreams of achievement & growth.  Whenever in past a part of India broke away from a Hindu way of life, it benefited with exponential growth. Rise of Sikhism in Punjab is proof of this thesis.  Punjab has mostly been an area under influence of Sikh culture of equality since 17^th century. Sikh gurus preached a message of universal brotherhood and condemned the caste system that divides & subjugates the skilled people in society. Punjab has remained most progressive state in India despite small size & geographical bottlenecks.  

If anything needs to be changed asap in 2014, so that Indians could have better economic & social future, make Hinduism free of the caste bias. Once most of India feels free & equal, it would find the way to progress.