Fighting my alter ego..

5 months gone not a single post.. Sounds like I have lost interest in blogging. Not sure if it is true. Hard to find any excuse. Was lost in daily chores of life.. So much happened in last 5 months - Scams, anti-corruption movement, politics.. Cricket - CLT, India white wash, England Whitewash.. Anna behind congress & now Congress behind Anna.. Iran threatening America :) China supporting Pak.. India Supporting Vietnaam.. Pak threatening America..:) Gaddafi.. actually many more.

On the eve of Deepawali.. there was no Deep (Diya), only electric lights around. Delhi turned into a War Zone with lots of fire work and bursting sound of heavy duty crackers.. Today was a bit relieved weekday at office and so at home. Half of colleagues are on off, agency closed.. Boss out of office..:) Though not a good reason for intellectual stimulation, perhaps the fire work sound has done the job. We always cherish to celebrate. Any celebration comes at certain cost.. I want to celebrate an anniversary, bought a gift for my wife, I paid the cost. I want to celebrate, burst crackers.. I paid the cost but at the cost of many more...We must remember that humans are not the sole owners of Earth. I also understand establishing equibrilluim is so difficult. But, we should have some limit in place. Many of my dear ones will give me a bad vibe for being so philosophical.. my wife comes first in the list.. But can’t help it. You must appreciate how gentle I am in putting my point forward.

Me the biggest conjus (So called) on the earth bought just one packet of fuljhari (Rs. 50/-) for my kid.. Had hard time convincing her that one is enough :). She has just entered in her 4th year. I am sure it will be even tougher as she grows up her age. The irony is - I was the one who used to go overboard in buying crackers in my childhood.. My father's budget was never enough for me.. I always sheltered to the most reliable source (Mother) to get more.. I don have words to express my gratitude to my parents for fulfilling all my idiotic demands in childhood, just to see me/siblings happy.. Sounds so Hippocratic isn't it? I do not know when this transition took place.. Still fighting my alter ego.. Not sure if it brings more changes in me and my thought process.

From Anna to Baba Ramdev: An emrgence of a new equation in Indian Socio-political environement..

Empowered by democracy Indians are speaking their Mind and they are willing to fix the things up for them. Its no more an India where people ignore obnoxious acts by politicians and beurocrats. Recent state assembly polls are the live example of the same. What is more important to the youth today is basics in place. We are really not bothered about from which social group we belong to? We are also not interested in showering swallowed egos on others basis our caste, creed or language.. Obviously, because we have started conversing a language called "Development".

Its very interesting to understand the change which is taking place in Indian civil society. Its sheer because of increasing expectation from policy makers and escalation of frustration because its hardly met. Anna is not an individual but an attitude of a new India.

Recently launched campaign of Baba Ramdev is even more appraisable. Baba would start a 'satyagraha' against corruption and black money and go on an indefinite fast from June 4, demanding that the government bring back black money stashed in tax havens abroad. His movement seeks the early establishment of a neutral and empowered Jan Lokpal Bill, which has the authority to recover black money and send offenders to prison. As per his statement -"The black money that is deposited in the foreign banks should be declared national property by the government, and no Indian citizen should be allowed to deposit money in foreign banks with illegal methods. If anybody does that, he should be declared an anti-national".

Weather it is practically possible or not is debatable but it has a very sound message to the government and its corrupted aides. Also, the road ahead is bumpy for the people who have their black money in foreign banks. Moreover the people in queue will think 10 times the idea of black money and its deposition outside India. Request all annas, matas, Babas and the entire civil society to keep the good work going..

Jan Lokpal Bill will dilute the authority of other well-functioning institutions…

I am delighted to see the response of people to support the Jan Lokpal Bill drafted by Shanti Bhushan, former IPS Kiran Bedi, Justice N. Santosh Hegde, Prashant Bhushan, former chief election commissioner J. M. Lyngdoh in consultation with the leaders of the India against Corruption movement and the civil society. It further promotes citizen’s involvement in policy making process.

Jan Lokpal bill is centripetal to anti-corruption. People frustrated and disgusted with series of scams and day to day policy and system failure have reacted to the bill without doing a systemic check and scope of its practical implementation. Citizens see it as panacea to combat corruption. Before we conclude anything let us look at the features of Lokpal Bill and Jan Lokpal Bill:

Draft Lokpal Bill 2010 (UPA proposed)*	Jan Lokpal Bill (By Public)*
Lokpal will have no power to initiate suo moto action or receive complaints of corruption from the general public. It can only probe complaints forwarded by LS Speaker or RS Chairman.	Lokpal will have powers to initiate suo moto action or receive complaints of corruption from the general public.
Lokpal will only be an Advisory Body. Its part is only limited to forwarding its report to the "Competent Authority"	Lokpal will be much more than an Advisory Body. It should be granted powers to initiate Prosecution against anyone found guilty.
Lokpal will not have any police powers. It cannot register FIRs or proceed with criminal investigations	Lokpal will have police powers. To say that it will be able to register FIRs.
CBI and Lokpal will have no connection with each other.	Lokpal and anti corruption wing of CBI will be one Independent body.
Punishment for corruption will be minimum 6 months and maximum up-to 7 years.	The punishment should be minimum 5 years and maximum up-to life imprisonment.

Though Jan Lokpal bill gives more power to the public and Lokpal & Lokayukta, It lacks scope of its implementation and smoothen transition of old policies to the new one. At what level of confidence we can say that the Lokayukta and Lokpal will not be corrupt. Taking power from PMOs, Supreme Court and divesting CBI doesn’t sound a full proof solution of corruption.

As per Jan Lokpal bill - Lokpals and Lokayuktas will be elected by people (By judges, citizens and constitutional authorities and not by politicians, through a completely transparent and participatory process.) Our LS & RS members are also elected through a democratic process which has scope to allow almost every adult citizen of India. What I meant to tell is – if a member or the system elected by the citizens becomes corrupt most often, what guarantee do we have for a completely novice LOKPALS & LOKAYUKTAS? India where one-third of the population is still illiterate, what scope Janlokpal bill has to include them in the process? Corruption is an instinct which is one of the very strong negative attributes of humans. Practicing corruption is highly correlated with society we stay in. Practice of corruption and failure of civil system depends on socio-economic and socio-political equation of the society. Consistent involvement of public in the policy making process, awareness of the social cause, scaling up education system and economic reform will the change the socio-economic and socio-political equation of Indian states and so we will see less corruption in India.

Though I am not against any anti-corruption bills, however I do not accept the both the current form of Lokpal Bills. The first one doesn’t has power but mere a political agenda, wherein the second one is more feel good for public but lacks practicality and will dilute the power and scope of work of a robust and existing public institutions.  Vandemataram...

* Reference: Wikipedia

From Invention to Innovation: A take from “The Game Changer” by A. G. Lafley & Ram Charan.

While we all chant the marketing mantra of “The consumer is King”, it is very difficult to practice it in real life management of Brands. I found the book really relevant for the middle level business/brand managers. It has derived a brilliant equation of how to make inventions an Innovation by practicing the business mantra of “The consumer is king”. 

Consumers expect brands to improve their life. An Innovation shall be centered on the consumers but not the fantasy of a business leader.  Innovation doesn’t mean an invention of a product or service but it mean lot more about serving consumers better. It could be a technology, could be a better supply chain or a brand building exercise may be a slogan, a punch line or could be an interface with consumer. According to Ram Charan, “An innovation is the conversion of a new idea into revenue and profits”. What it means is an Invention which get materialize to add value to the consumer’s life thereby generating revenue for the inventor is an Innovation.

The process of innovation shall start from consumer and end at consumer. According to A.G. Lafley, “We need to understand your consumer at both the rational and emotional levels. This goes well beyond the basic of demographics and psychographics.” We need to do the need gap analysis based on not only the need of consumers but also their aspiration, their dream and how our product can help them achieve their aspirations. It was impressive to know about the P&G’s “Consumer closeness program” where P&G employees live for several days with lower-income families to understand the equation of family income and buying decision making about the brand they choose to buy.

The story of P&G and other company’s such as GE, HP, Apple, DuPont, Honeywell etc. is opens up a new spectrum of thoughts and insight. To become an innovation driven organization one needs to put the innovation friendly structure in place. P&G’s various structures and divisions such as CIF (Corporate innovation fund), Future works, NBD (New business development), EBD (External Business development) and Innovation Hot zones helped them to become an Innovation driven company. The culture of connect and develop which allowed employees at P&G to willingly come up with new idea and become part of the innovation team, helped the company to achieve a sustainable business growth. HP’s IPO (Innovation program office) is chartered to work closely with business units to deliver the breakthrough products. Honeywell disintegrated the process of innovation and made it the job of each business leader but not the exclusive domain of the chief technology officer. Later part of the book talks about the building the culture of Innovation in the organization by virtue of which departments, customers internal and external, collaborate and teamwork across to fuel in the innovation process.

Overall the book has got smooth flow of the Innovation process. The language is simple and easy to grasp. The examples and explanation through various chart and grid has made the job easy for the reader to understand the process. Both the writers A. G. Lafley and Ram Charan have adopted the story telling style of writing which helps readers to stick to the book.

A Brand Manager within you..

As a marketeers we all would agree that brand management is a complex process, a real blend of an art and science. We intend to complicate it further by putting across marketing jargon to prove our worth. If we intervene/question the consumer inside us, it gives the real perspective of brand preference and its subsequent role in our life. If we understand an individual as a product, we realise how much care we do to create our image (Brand image). If we do a careful observation of our day to day activities, we realise it helps to create a self identity (Brand Identity). When we get feedback from others, we realise our perceived value. Believe me this entire process is a set of sub-conscious actions. Putting all behavioural aspects in perspective we get certain attributes which defines our brand personality. These set of attributes are different for different individuals very subjective to external and internal factors. External factors could be Religion, ethnicity, society, political and climatically. Internal factors may be upbringing, physical, mental, Social status, education, economic status, age, profession and gender. It could be many more.

Brands similarly are live and have attributes by virtue of which It carries a personality. Let us look at our expectations out of the self brand management process. We certainly expect to have a positive disposition of others about us. We want to differentiate our self from the mass thereby creating a self identity. A brand necessarily will have an emotional appeal to hook the consumers in. As a brand we hook in to somebody who fits into our scheme of things. We as brand connect to some other brand (individual/product) who share the similar attributes or at least complements each other. This where the role of a brand comes into the picture. Imagine a situation you went to a mall to buy a toothpaste, you had an option of all the best brands to buy. But, you ended up buying the brand X but not the Y. As a human we try to act smart and give rational reason always when asked. But, while doing that we cheat our self. I do not have a syndicated data to support with but out 10 buying at least 7 does not have rational while preferring a brand. What we bought unconsciously is the trust of a brand or at least the brand whose imagery intersect with our self imagery.

The Munni Mystery & Zandu Balm

Its been last five months but the saga of "Munni's Badnami and Zandu's Nam (Fame)" seems to be an endless epic. Being the Brand Manager I was always on double edged sword. Infact clueless. Sales was growing on but scientifically difficult to give credit to Munni, unless we go for an expensive quantitative research. We dropped the idea of research driven by an irrational thought - All is going well so why to go for an imposed intelectual stimulation?   

One thing was very clear that I was not comfortable when people around me were chanting "Munni Chalisa". However, I don hesitate to admit that I was euphoric too, looking at the success of the song and the enourmous media coverage we got for the brand out of this Tactical strategy.

Munni episode was a calculated risk out of promoter's strong understanding of Business cues and much beyond of a Brand Manager's marketing prudence. Though we understand that to facilitate the brand recall with the consumer, we weave in story around the most popular medium of performing arts i.e. cinema. But, it was the first time in the history of brand endorsement a family brand which helps members carrying their responsibilities by relieving pain has gone to Munni for her latake jhatake – a complete fun loving, sporty & seductive route. We were all scared about how consumer will react to it? But it worked. This is what everybody is saying and finally I also started believing. But, the biggest question is – was it enough in the song for a consumer which compels him to buy Zandu balm?? 

My answer is a bitter “NO”. It was a recall booster. It has done its part really well. Other than this tactical strategy we had mainline strategies in place. Our objective was to bring this brand into consideration set of the youth today. To further stop the erosion in the consumer base thereby recruiting new and young consumers to the brand. To execute this strategy we had  plan of actions in place: (A.) Zandu balm associated with IPL (Mumbai Indians – Sachin, Zahir & Harbhajan) the most happening youth festival.  (B.) There were lots of spurious products in the market as the brand pack was so easy to copy. The same age old pack was changed to new Bi –injection plastic bottle which gives it young and dynamic image. (C.) We took three young reliable and performing cricketers (Sehwag, Karthik & Amit Mishra) as brand ambassadors to give Zandu a young, adventurous and active image.    (D.) As a leader in the category we were the first to attack analgesic tablet on premise of “No Side effect” to take share from fastest growing analgesic tablet category. (E.) We launched Rs. 2 pack for trial generation and penetration. Though Zandu balm is very active at wholesale, it further helped us to get indirect distribution.

I would end here by a touchy thought – “The brand war fare is very similar to the battle ground where its entire warriors have to fight and support/complement each other but some get gallantry awards and most become untold stories...”