Why Mohan Bhagwat orders review of Gandhi-Ambedkar Reservation system only?

All reservation systems are naturally anti-merit and could only lead to eventual disaster for the people that they aim to protect. Reservations perpetuate hegemony, entitlement of few incompetent individuals over their competent contemporaries by threat of force that could emanate from religion, state or both.  A reservation system not only hurts the Eklavyas but also prepares ground for eventual annihilation of its practitioners like DronaCharyas (Mahabharat Epic). Mother Nature promotes and rewards freedom, equality, competition & rewards merit. Nature is both awesome & beautiful. But unfortunately the social reservation systems are an antithetical to the spirit of the Mother Nature.

There are two reservation systems, not one, prevalent in India which naturally impede meritocracy and consequently weaken the fight against equality, poverty and violence in society. Ironically the more pervasive & powerful reservation system in place is not the one enshrined into the Indian Constitution by MK Gandhi to placate Dr. BR Ambedkar who suffered heinous discrimination due to the mighty reservation system propounded by Hindu religious scholar Manu through Manu-Smriti. Just like an eye for an eye could make the whole world blind therefore a new reservation system to counter the older one could only lead to more darkness in India. Evidently China has galloped miles ahead of India in the fight against poverty and social injustice to become a great country. Merit has no substitute, hence reservation systems of all hues need to go in a global society.

Hindu Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh, a Hindu Supremacist organization sworn to make India a Hindu Nation, have always eulogized the Manu’s reservation system but baulked at the Gandhian-Ambedkar one. It would be extremely rewarding to undertake several research projects to compare & contrast the impact of two reservation systems, Manu Smriti based & Gandhi-Ambedkar pact, on the Indian society after the transfer of power in 1947.Both seem to have outlived their utility in the modern world.

The Gandhi-Ambedkar reservation system gives some protection to the disadvantaged Hindus who have been tortured discriminated as per institutionalized religious tenets of Hinduism. It’s near impossible to fight religious biases with rational legal direct action. Wonder why Gandhi-Ambedkar didn’t take the time tested home grown Indian method to fight the menace of Hindu religious caste system? Guru Nanak Dev ji the founder of Sikhism eliminated the caste system in Punjab region in 15^th century itself thus making it the prosperous and honorable society to live in the entire sub-continent.

Sikhism not only made Sikhs a proud nation but also helped Hindus & Muslims to live with each other in spirit of harmony and brotherhood for a century in a region which have been tormented for ages due to caste religious confrontations. Sikhism eliminated the practice of reserving religious jobs to a particular section of Sikh society which led to the decimation of caste system. Unfortunately it seems MK Gandhi’s bias for ancient Hinduism and Ambedkar’s lack of courage led to their agreement which is nothing but seeking an eye for an eye to deal with the Hindu caste system. No wonder the monstrous caste discrimination has not only strengthened in Hindu society but also have spread its tentacles into other religions that strictly prohibits it.

Will Mohan Bhagwat the powerful chief of the Hindu Rashtriya outfit initiate a review of the more hurtful reservation system that reserves millions of jobs in Hindu temples for Brahmins only? The day Hindus begin to appoint temple priests on merit rather than on caste it would be impossible for anyone to discriminate against fellow humans and benefit from it. All Indians, Hindus particularly, need to work towards a future where each citizen competes on merit without any crutches of any kind of reservation quota system imposed either by Manu-Smriti in the name of Hinduism and the one of Gandhi-Ambedkar sort. No country can survive & win without embracing merit wholeheartedly and history of India provides ample proof of it. Hope Mohan Bhagwat will demand review of both the reservation systems prevalent concurrently in India for sake of its survival.

Why the Online Advertising (SEM.PPC) is unable to see a galloping growth in India?

Were you frequently pissed off to read newspapers cluttered with lengthy versions of already known stories dished out by some self-righteous johnny on TV channels? Indian journos have made the social media, particularly Twitter, their core source of news-leads, beyond what they are handed out by their media owners on orders from the above. Media chaos & clutter have become insufferable burden in India. Who could be in mood for looking at advertisements and moved by them? Therefore it can be safely concluded that the remaining 50% of the Advertising budget is also going down the drain along-with the first half.

Google, Bing, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube & Instagram are fast emerging as the new media for targeting the youth but still the online advertising don’t seem to pick up at a scorching speed that it must. The mainstream media of TV, Print & Radio in India continue to garner the lion’s share of the total advertising spend in India. These three could collectively walk away with Rs. 54, 320 crore in 2015 against Rs 47, 490 cr in the previous year.

Did you notice fewer advertising campaigns in the Print media in 2015 India? But you couldn’t blame anyone else for the virtual clampdown on the out of home media (OOH) in the name of clutter & safety. And surely you must have noticed majority of the urban consuming class, including you, diving into a smart phone, tablet or laptop trying to kick up a discussion or catching up with breaking news.  In nutshell, all the advertisers, media moghuls and marketing experts agree that the media consumption scene is undergoing a metamorphic transformation headed towards ascendancy of the online medium over the rest.

Despite mushroom growth of domestic Online Commerce platforms and entry of Amazon in India the online advertising category has not seen the kind of spectacular growth that it deserves & the economy of India needs.  Although overwhelming majority experts & industry agree that digital advertising can target customers more efficiently than the traditional but still vast majority of advertisers have not begin to leverage its potential. Although the industry watchers forecast that this space may grow much beyond anticipated 15-20% in 2015. Let’s hope it happens for the good of India economy.

Could you tell the single major factor responsible for the poor growth of digital advertising in India? Well most would have guessed it right. It’s the Indian advertising agencies that failed to adapt to the changing media environment and create capacities & skills to guide the advertisers to go online. I wonder if you could guess the second factor that is equally responsible for slack growth in this category. Think of the profile of Indian Entrepreneur in MSME and Large & Medium sector. The lack of education and attitude towards technology of Indian Businessmen has stifled the growth of digital advertising in India.

But the single most blameworthy player in the entire saga, I call it the Gabbar in the story, is the advertising agencies that were born to handle traditional print and audio-visual media but lack the knowledge & skills to execute a great digital campaign. In my opinion the digital advertising in India would not grow at the desired pace till a new type of advertising agencies are born that understand the complexities of this exciting & economical medium.

Let’s hope Sundar Pichai & Satya Nadella could step forward and offer customized programs to educate the existing and new advertising agencies in India in the domain of digital advertising. 

Myth & Realty of CRM in India

A corporation must strategize its engagements plan with the customer in order to have a healthy top line over longer period. A corporation must attempt to create an engaging dialogue with target consumers and stimulate their engagement with the brand.

Reams of literature exist that stresses the need for focusing on the Consumer engagement & Delight in order to have financial profit from the enterprise. But what is the reality of the real market in India? How many consumer durables companies have a customer complaint/feedback button on their website? In the FMCG domain the scenario is no different. The E2E or B2B markets have different mechanisms to deal with negative feedback. No durable or FMCG company in India has a formulated Customer Grievance policy that could be set in motion in case of negative feedback & assist the executive to remedy the hurt/loss. What does it mean? All that ‘marketing talk’ on customer comes first are mere sham or myth? Check any company budget templates and try search the allocation &appropriation for complain redress?  Where is the marketing in India? 

Another important misunderstanding about marketing in Indian context is about the relationship between Consumer engagement & consumer satisfaction. As per wiki,” Customer engagement has been discussed widely online; hundreds of pages have been written, published, read and commented upon. Numerous high-profile conferences, seminars and roundtables have either had CE as a primary theme or included papers on the topic. 

Customer engagement marketing places conversions into a longer term, more strategic context and is premised on the understanding that a simple focus on maximizing conversions can, in some circumstances, decrease the likelihood of repeat conversions (Customer engagement interview with Richard Sedley). CE aims at long-term engagement, encouraging customer loyalty and advocacy through word-of-mouth.”

Customer Engagement in services is more critical than in the products because of the nature & ownership issues. Most Marketing managers focus more on satisfying the customers at the primary product level without strategizing the process of engagements. In a scenario of less importance to marketing in the deficit markets of India/ China nature most companies are confused in allocation of resources between Engagements & Satisfaction. Such a situation would mean the once you have a strategically great product, price & promotion you need not factor in the issues of engagements.

I have researched the problems with my client organizations and the market at large. The service companies must have a defined engagements policy that could maintain the consumer trust resulting in financial success for the corporation. Some of my recommendations are:

1.    Engaging consumer in pre, sale & post sale needs strategic stance.

2.    A satisfied customer can forget you so needs reminder

3.    A bad situation can be converted into a gain with the help of quality engagement.

4.    An engaged customer has more value than the satisfied only.

5.    Quantity & quality of the communication must be calibrated with a bias for quantity in deficit markets like India

India needs to dismantle Bania-Brahmin caste system for sake of skills.

So long as Hindu society treats white collar Brahmins as the highest caste its impossible to inculcate and build world class blue collar skills among Hindus, direly needed for the economic development. Would you like to become someone who is looked down upon in society?

Government has realized that fast economic development is not possible without inculcating critical skills in the people of India. Economic growth based entirely on the capital has limited leverage on the growth . On the other hand innovations based on skills rather than the capital could have a major catalytic impact on the long term sustainable growth of economy. Skills don't follow the capital, its the other way round.

CK Prahalad & Gary Hemel introduced the concept of Core Competencies into Management literature. Michael Porter,strategy stalwart, advised many governments to persuade them to build a Competitive Advantage for their economies and companies. Though India can invite FDI for various industry but importing skilled managers with innovative creative minds is almost next to impossible due to domestic socio-economic conditions. 

Just imagine that you have a choice to become a doctor or a fashion designer, and the society you live in accords more respect to a doctor, would you prefer the later route? Besides livelihood people work hard to earn respect of society around them. Can you say I bought a Ferrari by selling contraband? People are identified by their profession and skills so skills are important part of what a person is? Isn’t it?

Presence of large number people having knowledge of English language available at low cost provided  competitive advantage to India in the BPO sector for couple of decades. China took few years to scale up their assembly & manufacturing on the basis of manual skills present in the Chinese people. Indians, Hindus particularly, on the other hand don’t seem to have any significant manual skills needed for achieving success in manufacturing space.

Another conundrum prevalent in India is presence of huge number of professionally educated youth that the India Inc find as unemployable due to lack of skills.  Who would believe that some undergraduate colleges in Delhi, don't accept students without almost 100 percent marks. How could students score such high marks? And how the teachers establish the fact that someone deserves 90 percent plus marks? Is it for real or just another mythological tale from an incredible India, the most mysterious country on the face of Earth.

In the real world a genius drops out of formal education system to blaze a trail. Steve jobs didn't like the taste of fruits served to him in college, so he left the formal system to cultivate his own Macintosh Apple.  Naturally why in the world someone with 100 percent marks in 12 the year of education be need to seek admission in some formal college? S/he could pretty much be on her/his own. But in India, innocent young people go around flashing their 'percentage prize' like a designer accessory, simultaneously, pray to god for mercy to help them get admission in a branded college. So the education in India is all about marks alone.

Though more students obtain significantly higher marks today than a decade ago but employers are complaining about poor quality of training & absence of skills in the fresh youth. How could rise in marks be indirectly proportional to skill creation in India? Govt of India has already committed itself to skill creation in India. In this direction, India signed an MOU with the US govt for setting up of community colleges in India during the recent visit of Secretary John kerry. High marks are like Himalayan peaks, very attractive but difficult to scale.

But the deluge of high marks in India is leading to more chaos on the ground than presenting a pretty picture on the canvas of economic development & industrialization of India.The absence of skills in not limited to technical & professional sector alone. India is not producing great quality managers, actors, academicians, writers, administrators and politicians.  So the education system is unable to improve on existing quality and take it to next higher level. How can India become a global power with low quality human resources?

Its time India wakes up and take steps to upgrade the quality of its citizens through formal & non-formal education. Hindus must open their hearts and minds and demolish the caste system once for all and stop that look down upon those who have world class skills. White collar brahmanism is keeping India poor and week.

Snack food marketing: Nutrition, Taste, Health and/or pleasure segments

We eat to live. Well most of us definitely do. Hence the food must make us healthy and increase our life span. 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. But the 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. Hope no snack food player would like to present their products on the lines of Chawanprass 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 Fritolay, 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 PUNJABI DHABHA and SHER-E-PUNJAB? Is someone listening 

Do the MBA grads lack aptitude for management?

Despite large quantity of MBAs coming out of various institutes & b-schools the industry generally bemoans the shortfall in supply of skilled professionals. Why do an MBA lack the industry relevant skills to enhance their employ- ability quotient? Reasons are many fold encompassing syllabus, non-availability of teachers, lack of exposure and a general absence of aptitude.

The students who join the MBA & PGP courses are not to the only ones to be blamed; it is the manner in which the course curriculum is delivered to them. 

Firstly MBA cannot be taught in group settings alone as it is against the basic principle of adult learning. Students coming from different backgrounds must be taught separately. The lack of exposure of the teachers to the business & trade complicates the matter further. Therefore the teacher ends up teaching MBA students as if they were doing some accountancy or economics studies. Lecture after lecture continue without learning about the industry and business domain.

How could a student study the marketing of passengers’ vehicles without knowing the name of major players and the product mix? Umpteen numbers of teachers discuss Coca Cola Pepsi etc in the classrooms without knowing the turnover of these companies. We, the teachers, must bring industry knowledge into the classroom if we wish to produce a student that could be employed in some industry.

The Boy

University Gold Medal for Journalism & Mass Comm 

Lecturer in English at ASM, near Sangrur

Industries Dept Punjab, Chandigarh

he changed the boy for ever.