Of Anomalies

There's a lot to say, and the best part is none of them have any sort of relation to each other. But I want to talk about all of them in one single post, hence this title.

On the work front, things are running smoothly. And that's what scares me. A smooth running job is something that an Indian Government servant would wish for. If things are running smoothly means I'm not learning. There always is scope for improvisation. And if I'm not seeing that something is wrong in me, which I'll need to figure out.

Besides that, I've been doing some freelancing lately. Not major projects and big money types; but simple ones with basic design templates required. But what saddens me, is that I was awake for 2 nights continuously to finish the project (because it was an urgent project with minimal turn-around time) and I loved every single moment of the 2 nights I spent making the simplistic template. The age old battle of doing what you love versus trying to love what you do came to the foreground. I had buried this topic with myself, swore never to talk about it. Because I know there are not many people who have the balls to follow what they truly love doing. And right now, frankly I don't , one, because I need the money, two because I need some concrete definable experience that the 'corporate world' would accept, and lastly, because financial stability in life is perhaps the single most crucial attribute any society would expect out of a bumbling person straight out of college.

And then there are these MBA jargon related discussions. This is what happens when you stick around with a bunch of MBA degree holders. Your life discussions always revolve around nerdy things like lean supply chains and marketing research. A roommate working for an FMCG major talks as if there's no life beyond the Microsoft excel sheet filled with numbers (lots and lots of numbers), the other roommate working for a software solutions firm talks about nothing beyond Supply Chains and RFID tags. And listening to all of it, brings back memories of what I'd learned in an MBA. It is today I realize that I haven't really, genuinely given enough time to think over what I've learned in my MBA. One year is too short a time to reflect upon things. Supply Chains, Value Chains, Costing mechanisms, all these are the stuff that the hot shot consultants are well versed with. I did learn what these concepts are, but never got a chance to implement them.

So in short, something that I love doing, I can't do that for a living since its too unstable as a job prospect (plus when you have a 1 million rupee loan up your head you really can't think clearly). Something that I am doing currently is all hunky dory, but I honestly don't know where I am headed with it. And something that I have learned during the course of my MBA is slowly withering away and I've begun to start forgetting the concepts that were taught to me.

In hindsight, it's a little depressing scene. Sure, one can always say that as long as the job is going well why one should worry? And that's not a wrong question. But I'm not just made to do a single kind of a job all my life. I want to do everything. I want to make products, sell them too, see how they can be better stored, shipped, priced, promoted, marketed, branded, designed, serviced… everything.

In short I don't want to be a bloke. And looking at the way I'm progressing (or regressing), it seems I've already started on the process of becoming one.

Swades Déjà vu

9 days. That’s all it takes, to make you realize how much void you have in your life. People in India die to run away from dirty pot holes, screaming horns, cow dung on the roads and things like that. But believe me, 6 months after staying abroad, all of that is music to my ears.

Maybe we’re born messy, I don’t know, but I like the hustle and bustle. Sterilized environments sort of make you numb, and in many a ways incapable. Here all you have is control - temperature control, climate control, driving control, attire control, attitude control, control over what you say, and eventually control over what you think.

People call it being civilized, but honestly is there any civility in hiding your curse under your nose? Is there any civility in being so politically correct in whatever that you say and do? True, a developed nation teaches you discipline, and a lot of it. Be it discipline when driving cars, while standing in a queue… whatever; but at one point, that discipline aggravates into control and that’s not good.

Yes, in terms of process flow, developed nations are better and easier. It’s easier to buy property for instance in a developed nation. For a country like India, there are innumerable processes, and each take their own sweet time. But what’s necessary to understand is that our minds have been attuned to this ‘process-less’ system, since birth. We have been living in a world where even getting a cooking gas connection is a challenge. And that’s the very reason why we can strive in any given circumstances.

It was during my trip back that I realized how insanely complex it is to manage a democracy like India. In a place like Dubai, which is maybe twice the size of Ahmedabad city, it’s so easy to drive growth. Had Mr. Narendra Modi been asked to handle a state only twice the size of Ahmedabad city, he would have done wonders, and that too with relative ease. But sadly that’s not the case. He has to handle a state with about 20,000 cities and villages.

In a place like Dubai, a lot of micro-management is possible. The citizen is accessible. There is more money, and fewer responsibilities to put money into. The case is inverse in a country like India. And yet we strive. And yet we post 8-9% growth for a considerable period.

People say that 95% of retailing in India is unorganized. And for all I feel, there’s a fair chance that it will remain so, especially in a rural setting for a pretty long time. A lot of industries in India still remain unorganized. Industrialists, and economists feel that its not appropriate. What most people don’t realize, is that its these unorganized supply chains that have oiled the economy of India since independence.

It’s the roadside vendor, the small kirana shop outside your house, the ‘kaam-wali bai’ who comes to do the household chores everyday, the milkman… it is these people that oil the economy. Their contribution might be miniscule, but together, they give a lot to drive growth.

And this is what fascinates me about India. It is the minuteness of entities from where the enormity comes out. Challenges in large conglomerates are crap. There are really few challenges, but a lot of brains thinking who can solve the problem. But there’s no one to help in the Small Scale industries sector. There are the real challenges. SSI’s face problems day in and day out, simply because there are a lot of SSI’s and not enough trained manpower to run them.

And lastly, I’ve realized, that India is a Knowledge economy, while Dubai is very much still a trader economy. As a trader economy it might have huge financial resources, but not a lot of brains. As a knowledge economy, we have a lot of brains, but not enough resources to tap them.

In conclusion, all I would say is that it is after staying abroad that I’ve truly realized the potential of the Indian economy.

When MNCs started deciding to come to India for setting up business, I thought, “hey! They should have come a lot earlier”… but after staying away, I really don’t blame them. As a nation our PR skills are downright pathetic, and maybe that’s the reason why no one ever paid heed to us. It was the sound of money that made them overlook whatever image they had formed about India and came running to us.

If democracy were a norm of this world, we could have been a world power long back.

Chinese Imitation vs. European Innovation

With just about 6 months of ‘real corporate experience’ as some of my professors would call it, I’ve realised some of the vital differences between the Europeans and the Chinese.

Both the communities have gone through different periods of highs and lows; each economy had their own share of downfalls, but how they’ve eventually grown up is whats so interesting about them...

Coming to the point, my examples would probably refer more to the cosmetic industry, but I’m sure a lot of it applies to other industries too...

If you go to an international trade exhibition for instance, the way the Europeans set up their stalls is way different from the way Chinese people do. The white dudes always have that panache, that extra thing in their stalls... perfumed tissues and chocolates(tiffany’s and not some shady brand), coffee vending machines, freebies and all that... while the yellow dudes have completely plain and simple stalls, with the weirdest names possible. All they can offer you are bulky brochures and have some thousand pieces on display... As for Europeans, they have minimalistic display of actual products on the stalls... rather there are flat screen displays and cute little ladies with laptops ready with the latest presentations on new products...

While the Chinese people take out a visitor register for you to enter you name and email address and the company you work for, the Europeans have a bowl somewhere to drop your visiting card in... while the Chinese people welcome you with a genuine smile, they really cant get ahead more than that since their language skills are limited... While a European makes sure that he’s not too forthcoming in welcoming attendees to his/her stall and keeps the talk rather focused.

While the Europeans guarantee the best in terms of cutting edge research (even for something as boring as plastic bottle packaging), the Chinese guarantee that you give us anything, and we’ll give you a cutting edge copy of the same!

While the Europeans blabber a lot about R&D and innovation in design, thats sadly not something that a Chinese supplier would ever be able to do. But tell him what you want, specify it, guide him, and he’ll give you exactly what you asked for.

The Europeans feel the product. Its as if they add a soul to something so boring as a glass jar and call it exotic or something. But the Chinese just look at the product as a product. A glass jar, is a glass jar, is a glass jar. Cut the crap and get to the point types! They cannot innovate. They cant think on ‘how can I make this better’. They can always say, that, ‘you tell me what to do, and it’ll be done’...

And even when it comes to dealing with Europeans on a business relationship, they’re way too finicky, especially the French. They talk as if, even making a plastic bottle requires so much of care and precision like probably a gourmet dish does. They’re extremely slow in replying to queries and take their own sweet time. The Chinese on the other hand, are like hungry cats, waiting to get new orders. They will do as many changes as asked, to make sure that they get the final order.

And I feel all this is really sad. Its sad because the Europeans just dont see that their businesses are being taken away by Chinese suppliers, while they’re busy being finicky with the customer on how should a bottle look like. And, its also sad to see that a Chinese supplier has no knowledge base of the product he’s making at all, so as to make some improvements to it and give it to the customer...

While one supplier base, can provide real customer service, they’re overdoing at certain areas, whereas the other supplier base can give great value for the goods, but is zilch on any most kinds of customer services... Its like choosing the lesser evil...

Arabs and food

There’s some pretty interesting stuff I found out about Arabs and their relationship with food. Firstly, Arabs as a tribe or as a community is plagued by a compulsive eating disorder. They have to eat… all the time. Doesn’t matter whether they’re hungry, or thirsty, or what time it is… they just have to eat. And that’s really one of the reasons why a large part of the Arab community is so obese. This includes young Arabs too.

Whats more interesting to know, and it’s a sad thing too, is that they purposefully waste food. That is, they never buy things in small sizes. They always buy things in family packs or large quantities. It’s always more than what’s required. If 2 packs of chips would do, they’d buy a family pack of 4 instead, and obviously there’ll be some leftovers, which they’ll throw away.

In a way, its proving that we have so much (in terms of opulence) that we can afford to throw it away.

Sad no?

Zara enters/should enter/should not enter India - Part 3

There are alredy 2 blogs written on this topic earlier. Assuming you’ve read them already, I’ll not waste time on the technicalities of the Zara model, and get to the point.

Should Zara (really) enter India or not? If you look at it in that sense, perhaps every other international brand should enter India. And why not? A sizable part of the population of India is under 30 years of age; disposable incomes are rising, so are aspirations, living standards, customer awareness, and all the economic lingo stuff.

But that’s not the point. Just because things are getting better in an economy doesn’t mean that we have graduated to any other brand/product in the world. As a primer to this statement, lets take the example of a microwave. I think about 7-8 years ago, microwaves were first introduced in India. I really don’t know when, but what I do know is that consumer acceptance of that product wasn’t exactly high. For any American, a microwave is a necessity. Probably an American can live without a stove for a while, but not a microwave. That clearly didn’t happen in India. Heating cold food and feeding it to the children was like a disgrace on a mother’s part.

Today, after such a long time, things are changing aren’t they? And mind you, they’re still in the changing mode. Microwaves still haven’t received absolute acceptance even after giving the consumer so much amount of time to graduate to one.

Same goes for Zara. We as Indians used to wear only traditional dhotis and salwaar-kamiz 80 odd years ago. The transition to the western clothing apparently began during the British rule. So firstly in absolute numbers we’re about 300 years behind the Europeans as far as fashion for western clothing goes.

Think about it; even today, if you wear your dad’s shirt and go out, no one would be able to point out that this is an ‘old cut’. The cuts, the stitching techniques have remained the same since a really really long time.

Think about women’s formals for instance. There’s an extremely short range of women formal shirts available in India. And mind you, I’m talking about the design and cuts, not the color of the shirt.

To put it in simple mathematical sense, this is how the 2 ideologies differ:

For Indian Fashion Industry its –
few cuts x lots of color variations

For the Zara Model its –
many cuts x very few color variations

And even if we take colors as a basis, even that sadly isn’t our strongpoint. We were shades of red in summer and wear shades of yellow during winter.

We wear linen in winter sometimes and synthetic materials in summers as well.

There’s no synchrony in us as far as colors, shades, cuts, fabrics go. We wear whatever we feel looks good on us. Every season, has its own shade, color swatch, designs, cuts etc. etc. We’re never so detailed as far as these attributed go. And the Europeans are extremely fetish about these minor details; the same way we’re fetish about cricket maybe.

Also, India follows a 2 season process; Summer/spring collection & winter/monsoon collection. While in Europe there are 4 different collections released for all the 4 different seasons.

Also, I don’t know how many of the readers have seen a Zara store, but Zara doesn’t play with colors a lot. It plays with cuts. And to save on its supply chain costs, you wont find colors other than white, black, grey, cream, red and a few more. Their color swatch is extremely limited, and their design swatch is much higher than an average Indian apparel outlet. You really think Indians will gladly buy only base colors and wear them, when they have so many other vibrant colors being offered by other apparel retailers?

Mango, one of the leading fashion wear brand for urban women has a few stores in India. The collection that it keeps on the Indian stores is one season old already in the International markets.

After reading all this some might see this as a drawback in us Indians, that we’re not so sensitive towards colors and cuts etc; that we haven’t graduated to these details like others have. But honestly are we supposed to graduate? Were shirts and trousers a part of our cultural heritage? We have our own saaris and salwar kameez. That’s where our forte lies. And that’s precisely the reason why Zara originated in Spain and not some shady town in India.

Zara has not been quite a success in the US, and for the simple reason that an average USUS, not in Europe. citizen wants clothing that is completely relaxed, functional and rugged. That’s why jeans were invented in the

Europe has its own fashion, US has its denim jeans, India has its bandhani.

Its seriously wrong for any of us to expect to graduate to the fashion sense that Europeans have. Simply because their definition of fashion is different than ours.

In Gujarati, there’s a saying, ‘gaam khase ke gaadu?’ (should the village move or the bullock cart?)

P.S. Thanks a lot to Sharimbal Kanishk (ex-Globus merchandiser & a NIFT grad) for all the info on Indian Fashion Industry.

cam expose

aha! Another hidden cam expose! Stumbleupon is the sweetest thing on web I’ve found. Good time pass if bored!

Anyways, so this one talks about glasses that says ‘sterilized’ actually being washed in your wash basin instead of some clean washing space.

I’m like so what? At least they’re being washed. One should come to the kitchen of an Indian hotel. That guy will probably faint and wont ever come to eat at a hotel again. Typically Indian 5 star hotels have frozen everything. Frozen juices, frozen chicken, paneer, and stuff like that. All they do is take it out, heat it, add gravy and give it to you.

Still we hog like crazy no? And brag about it in front of the neighbors too the next day… “We had lunch at Le Meridian!”… yeah right… and the food was like probably a year old! But who listens to me anyways!