Really New Products V/s Incrementally New Products

While I was at college, I came across this beautiful research paper by "David L. Alexander, John G. Lynch Jr., Qing Wang (2008) As Time Goes By: Do Cold Feet Follow Warm Intentions for Really New Versus Incrementally New Products?. Journal of Marketing Research: June 2008, Vol. 45, No. 3, pp. 307-319."

Authors claim, people will prefer an incrementally new product when the time to actually buy the product comes and develop cold feet to buy a completely new product. Somehow, it did not appeal to me. I was audacious enough to write to them, if they think it would universally apply. John was kind enough to respond, and replied that he would expect this pattern to replicate across cultures. I was hooked. Six years hence I have observed and continue to observe products around me with this hypothesis in mind.

I have to admit is I have failed. Yes. I gladly accept it. Each time a company releases a completely New Product it is pitted against a competition which is 4 times stronger!

What do you think, will this hold true in case of modern weaponry? Will the psyche effect differently?

The faulty GDP

There is a proverb in English, 'Ignorance is bliss'. Unfortunately, there are certain things in life which you cannot ignore. Period. Every country today is in a race. Race to be the number one Economic Giant. Is there something wrong? In this case, yes. Other factors being constant, historically wars were waged by different races and what was the purpose usually? To expand their territory, so that, they would have access to more and more resources. Modern history repeats the story. Why do China or Pakistan want to have control on Kashmir? Water. Why does US want to control Middle East? Oil. Why are countries interested so much in Africa? Natural Resources.

                             

Why are Nations interested in Resources? More resources translates to more production at cheaper rates, which gives them the power of supply and the power to control markets. 'Producing' more is unfortunately viewed as an opportunity for more Sales and thereby Profits and one of the chief parameter which is used to measure a county's progress or prosperity is the amount of 'Production' or 'GDP'. (Though GDP is measured in 3 ways - Production, Income and Expenditure, this post chiefly is aimed at Production method)

They say, All the best things in life are free. What they don't tell you is , 'All the best things in life are free, as long as they are not commercialised'. The moment you assign a monetary value to a Natural Resource, it is no longer free! When we are utilising resources, we are doing so at a cost. The trade off here is, we are utilising the resources at future generations' cost. What we are ignoring today is to include this cost in the overall Production. What we are ignoring is to include the cost needed to replenish these resources.

Natural Resources, unfortunately as on date can not be replenished. It is only fair for us to use resources responsibly which we have borrowed from our future generations. If any Good / service when produced is being wasted repeatedly, means nothing but someone is producing them just for the sake of producing it. There is no real need. According to World food USA

• Every year, consumers in industrialized countries waste almost as much food as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (222 million vs. 230 million tons)

Stop wasting food!

What does it imply? These nations produced 222 Million tons of waste! They have produced this food by draining Water, Coal, Cereals, polluting air and destroying ecosystem etc., Who is accountable for this wastage? A nation which 'produces' this waste should be held accountable. This is just an example of Organic waste. Consider inorganic waste! This wastage ironically also forms part of GDP!

A country's GDP doesn't always give you the correct picture of its prosperity. A country with high corruption levels illicitly increases several persons' income. Government expenditure on welfare programs doesn't necessarily reach the target population. In such a scenario, a segment of population will have to spend a major part of the income on Basic needs. Corruption prevents certain segment in a country to participate in the 'production' part of the country and restricting their social class or status of living up-gradation. The income lost due to this corruption is also accounted as 'Government expenditure'. The income gained by several individuals illegally by corrupt practices could also be used to avail of the services or to buy goods produced by the country.

Don't you see the fault in our so called race to be an Economic super power? We are basing our calculations on certain parameters which conveniently ignores the facts and gives false hopes. Right then what should be the correct method of calculating GDP? According to me it should be calculated by reducing certain parameters from the GDP. Let's call these parameters Arka's Delta)

GDP = GDP - (Arkas Delta). Where Arkas Delta = (Cost required to restore renewable resources to initial state before utilising them + % of corruption in the country * GDP)

After arriving at GDP post the calculation, I would like to see which country Ranks first! What do you say? Is it a wake up call yet?

Strengths and Weaknesses: Yin and Yan

I had a subject during my Master's on Personality Development. Needless to say the course began with the definition of Personality, Various forms of communication, How to write Official / Business emails etc., Later when I joined my first job and during my interactions with my friends who are now managers, it dawned unto me that precious six months were wasted studying just theory! We had a wonderful opportunity to experiment and to learn various things. Alas! no wonder Industry always complains about the Curriculum and Karam (work) Gap.

What have Tongue, Feet and Fingers got in common? They all have set of ridges. They are located at various positions. They all serve a Body. The best part is, all these ridges are unique, they do not match with anyone in this world. If you draw parallels, all of us who join an Organisation and share its vision to excel, are very different, in a special way. Our journeys, philosophies, experiences could be different and shape us in to an 'individual' that we are. We have our own Strengths and weaknesses. Having said that, When we join a company, we are joining a team. We are joining a company with a Mission and Vision. Which means a target is already set. You achieve it by playing to your strengths or minimizing your weaknesses and most importantly by being part of your team.

How do we know which strengths to use? To make your job easy, companies usually assign a set of competencies for each job. If you were to succeed in that job, you'll have to tune your strengths accordingly. Now, Managers have to think three fold with the given understanding that, they are done without emotional and personal bias towards self or any particular team member: 

1. About their own competencies
2. About guiding their team members to align to team's targets whenever required
3. About team members' areas of improvement and how it may effect team's performance

There are various tools available to assess one's Strengths or Personality - MBTI, DISC, Strengths Finder 2.0, Enneagram, Gabriel Institute Role Based Assessment etc.,

                    

When you've identified strengths see if a common theme emerges and how you can nurture those strengths. Now, the tricky part of working on Areas of improvement. Unfortunately, there is one resource which is infinite in nature but never so particularly in Business context. While it is relatively easy to focus on your strengths, it takes conscious effort and hard work to overcome weaknesses. For working on Areas of improvement, Manager needs to have a high level view of the Business road map and team's weaknesses.

                                                                                                                                       

The nature of Business is extremely volatile and one should be agile enough to align with changing Business needs. So, according to me, it is a time consuming process to work on each team member's individual Areas of Improvement. Instead work on their strengths. Provide, timely, constructive, Formal / Informal feedback for weaknesses and provide all the support required by them to overcome them. Employees tend to get motivated to receive prompt feedback. It is like someone challenging you and then providing a chance to improve and work on it. Let each individual overcome their weaknesses through your guidance. All of us have weaknesses, so a Manager should focus on identifying team's common weak links and work on improving them.

For example, you get a new Project or identified an area to improve a process. Ask each of your team members, what do you think is a weakness of the team? Identify and freeze solutions. Ask your second in command to lead the project and you could be the Mentor for the team. If the Lead makes a mistake correct them. Ensure your work reflects the vision of the company and fits the bill.

In the end, Strengths and Weaknesses are like Yin and Yan. A Manager needs to work on Team members' individual strengths and Teams' collective weakness and vice versa.

Image credits: stocksnap.io

How Young India should be taught?

Ever wondered why some of us, coming from 'Good' schools seem vibrant, they beam with self confidence, have an attitude which is pleasing and inspiring. Of course, there could be exceptions.

Ever thought, why some of us, coming from 'Not so Good' schools are confused in life? Hardly smile? Criticize others easily. Have a herd mentality? Of course, there are exceptions.

Is schooling so important? Can't a personality be molded later? Possible. But Old habits die hard. It is easy to tame a baby Elephant (calf) than a fully grown Elephant. Is our Schooling system missing something? Well, most of them. When I say Schooling, Parents should realise I am talking about a kid's formative years, till they reach the age of Eighteen. What after Eighteen? Those students should be treated as adults. Their learning curve doesn't stop there though. According to a Philosophy, a man should focus on learning with continuous improvement in the areas of Physical, Spiritual, Worldly, Scientific aspects till he attains the age of Twenty - Eight. After which he has to disperse the knowledge.

So, its not just the responsibility of a Teacher to mold a student but parents have an equal responsibility.How and what Young India should be taught is something which is based on my personal experiences.

1. As a Parent never quarrel in front of your children. It leaves a significant impact on your kid. Either the 'Mother' or the 'Father' could potentially be viewed in a negative sense. Kids may also develop a tendency to hate that particular 'gender' or may get averse to marriage / relationships. If not properly treated, they may turn into complete introverts. (image source: https://stocksnap.io)
   
   
   
                      
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. In case you need to quarrel, do it in a room in private, preferably, not when your kid is around. This may not be possible all the time. Treat your kids as matured adults, let them know that you're all part of the team. Conflicts in life are inevitable and that you guys are sorting the problem and there is no reason to worry.
3. Never critcise or undermine a female child in front of a male child and vice versa. Never criticise other children too.
   
   
                     
4. Teach them the value of food and water, the right way and more importantly not to waste food and water and whenever possible to share their food and water even with animals
5. Ask your kids, one positive thing what they had learnt everyday day, ask them to maintain a journal
6. In the below format collect from your students a positive nick name and a positive trait for all other students. (How this could be used in Personality Development also in an organisational context, I shall present in my next post). During parents meet, or along with monthly letters, let Parents know what positive traits, their children have.
   
   
   
   
   
    Year on Year, if you have this data, imagine how easily you could track a child's progress and a class progress. You could generate a beautiful word cloud by using www.wordle.net. A sample picture is given below:
   
   
                                        
   
7. As you must have realised, one can never ever finish learning in their life time and one can never ever be a master in any particular subject. Sometimes this academics could get frustrating very frustrating. Hence from childhood encourage your Kid to take up an art, pickup a hobby, take up a sport - This will help them to play fair, understand that success and failures are part of life and they can take off their mind to relax by practicing the art.
8. Talk to them about various professions like - Farming, Embroidery, Weaving, Pottery, Blacksmith, Mining etc.,
9. Teach them very important etiquette - To stand in a queue, To say 'Thank you', To apologize, Not to spit on Roads, Not to litter Roads, Not to write on walls, Respect - elderly, Teachers, Farmers and Soldiers, To love - animals, Nature, younger ones, To vote and Not to Bribe
10. Teach them the importance of saving money and also that earning money should not be the only focus in life
11. Encourage them to participate in Debates, Public Speaking competitions, Story telling exercises
12. If you have a male child - Let them know, its ok to Cry. If you have a female child - Let them know, its ok to Laugh out Loud.

Corruption destroyer of GDP and Ecosystem

You may ask, am I serious? Can corruption destroy Earth? Oh yeah! Corruption in any form, in any part of the world, has first and foremost a serious impact on our Eco-system. Why do we need to pay bribes?

1. To create more industrial corridors and emit more poisonous gases. Isn't Carbon credit a form of bribe? It is like failing in an examination and purchasing marks from your friends so that you can pass the examination. In this case, purchase is being made, using Public money!
2. To get something cleared from Government officials. Say for example, Passport verification or Licence examination. You're increasing their social status by illicitly increasing their income. These officials, if they spend on purchasing Goods and Services, they are creating a demand which isn't  natural. This has problem in three folds:


1. The demand created by summation of all such corrupt officers is significant and will create a bubble
2. If these officers decide to hide this unaccounted money, these notes will go mutilated, imagine the amount of Paper which needs to be used for printing currency and the amount a country has to spend on printing. You may curb Black money by removing particular series of notes from your economy. This doesn't solve the ecological problem. Who is answerable to all those trees which were fell to make these notes? coal burnt to keep the press running?
   To met this artificial demand, arising out of corruption, companies will have to produce more Goods and Services, which translates to nothing but more Pollution
3. With that in mind, the real GDP of any country should be
   
   Real GDP = GDP - % of level of corruption in that country
   
   For example, lets say GDP of country 'S' is 10. If we can estimate that level of Corruption is 3. Real GDP is 7.
   This % of corruption should be used to arrive at the real demand too
4. Look at the level of Corruption across the world. Now, are the GDP figures realistic? (Image source: transparency.org)
   
        
5. The above image shows, Five of 10 most Corrupt countries also rank among the 10 least peaceful places in the world
3. As the level of corruption increases, there is ample scope for humans to destroy wild life, fell more trees, increase in dust and pollution
4. Corruption not only increases the income illicitly, but also increases the luxurious needs. This robs an opportunity for the resources to be efficiently utilized. For example, a dishonest officer, earns more, and buys a luxury car, his need to purchase a car is not only dubious, but the GDP he created through the purchase of the car and also for its maintenance should not be accounted for as the purchase in itself is illegal and the most precious natural resource, 'Fuel' is not efficiently utilized.
5. According to transparency.org, BRICP nations and their overall rank amongst 168 nations are, Brazil - 76, Russia - 119, India - 76, China - 83 and Pakistan - 117. With some of the most populous countries having such low scores isn't a good news isn't it?

So, its an urge to all the readers, please do not accept or pay bribes.

(images are not owned by the Author. They are used only for representational purposes. Images downloaded from: http://www.transparency.org/cpi2015)

Impact of Bad infrastructure - a Bigger Picture

If I were to ask you, what do you remember the most and can have impact on you, is it the most happiest moments?  Or the unhappiest moments which tend to leave a scar on you? How much ever, you may deny its the latter which have a long lasting impact on our lives. Just think about it, years of hard work in a relationship, doesn't it usually ruined by one momentary temper lapse? An argument early in the morning, won't it shape your day? Well, how to have a healthy relationship is a topic for another day. Then, what is the correlation between Infrastructure and our relationships?

Let me take an example, over a weekend, you decide to watch a movie along with your family. You had a GOOD time. How long are those happy memories retained? 14 Days or less than that. Now, let's say, you had a very unpleasant experience, how long are those memories retained? Sometimes, a life time isn't it? Whenever you have an unpleasant experience, i.e any experience which deviates from your expectations, you tend to get protective. The natural tendency is to save oneself. In order to do so, you spend more energy and when you spend more energy for an unproductive purpose, your brain stores the information as a warning. It warns you next time, not to visit the theater again, to be-aware of such situations etc., Ever touched a hot stove when you were a kid? Why don't you touch it again? Your brain immediately warns you against such an action. It is for your survival.

The more unhappy moments you accumulate, the more Frustration, Anger, Jealousy, Sadness get accumulated in the system which aren't your good friends. If your life is a Bank account and your daily deposits are just negative experiences / feelings / emotions, what will be your annual / monthly or daily returns?

When we are living in a society, it is the responsibility of the Government to provide its citizens with Good infrastructure and there is an equal responsibility of the citizens to conserve and protect the infrastructure by proper usage and help the Government with maintenance.

Some of the common Infrastructure problems which India faces are lack of Good roads, Schools, Irrigation projects and Health related Infrastructure. Imagine you're struck in traffic for 2 hours and the distance from your home to office is just 10 Kms! Isn't it frustrating? If it happens daily!? Imagine the negative deposits of emotions in your bank account. All these negative emotions kill you slowly, bit by bit. These emotions kill Nations. Its people tend to get more frustrated, they will lack concentration ability, promises will be missed, Accidents tend to increase, Productivity will be decreased, efficiency of vehicles will come down, Corruption and Pollution will increase, citizens will vent anger on innocent people. I could go on.

So, as policy makers it is important to concentrate on building quality infrastructure. Either have no infrastructure or have excellent infrastructure in place. Build excellent roads. Not roads with pot holes. Build excellent Schools. Not Schools with just roofs! Build excellent dams. Not half built walls! Build excellent Hospitals. Not a shed with some beds. If transforming nation into a super power is your aim, with happy citizens dwelling in - Concentrate on Infrastructure.