Culturally sensitive Marketing

Without a culturally correct interpretation of a country’s aesthetic values, a host of marketing problems can arise. Product styling must be aesthetically pleasing to be  successful, as must advertisement and package designs. Insensitivity to aesthetic values can offend, create a negative impression, and, in general render marketing efforts ineffective or even damaging. Strong symbolic meanings may be overlooked if one is not familiar with a culture’s aesthetic values. The Japanese for example consider the crane as being very lucky because it is said to live a thousand years; however the use of the number four should be avoided completely because the word or four, shi, is also the Japanese word for death. Thus teacups are sold in sets of five, not four, in Japan.

Patther Panchali

I happened to see Satyajit Ray''s 'Pathher Panchali' yesterday, and was almost moved to tears by what has been so nicely picturised by the great cinematographer.In one short film ,he was able to capture the abject poverty of the rural Bengali people, and their almost hopeless situation in life.Things are pretty much the same in any part of India, and the problems too are similar.This is despite India growing its GDP by almost 8 % every year. I guess it is the law of averages at work,with some people growing at a meteoric pace, while others showing a negative growth.And Robindranath Goes....Into that heaven of freedom ,let my country awake............!

Crime control

Law and order situation of  a county is a parameter that determines the 'country risk' which various business entities use to judge the business environment of a country.If the law and order situation is not healthy, no business man in his right mind would risk an investment in such a state or country.The law and order in our own country is not very good ,and therfore we do not attract as much FDI as many of our Asian neighbour do. There are only two ways in which crime can  be effectively controlled.

• Surveillance
• Deterrence

While the former is prohibitively expensive and impractical as it is next to impossible to keep an eye on each individual or each geographic area,most of the countries use the latter or deterrance to good effect. If a crime is commited ,the justice is often delivered swiftly and there is no appeal system.When we think of India, it seems that the cases remain pending in the judiciary for aeons and the system of appeals in a higher court actually makes a mockery of the whole system. So ,in my opinion the solution lies in firstly ensuring that there is effective deterrance by repealing the archaic IPC code, and secondly in effective implementation of these laws through the judiciary.The sysytem of appeals in a higher court should be done away with without any further delay.It may be interesting to know that in US no such system of appeal exists,and the judgement once delivered can not be challenged.Of course, the Indian government would have to ensure that the judges do not indulge in corruption. Is that a tall order?

Regressive Tax Regimen

Is it not strange that out of all the tax revenue that the government gets almost 80% comes from indirect taxes?From the govt's point of view indirect taxes are better as they are supposedly not painful to the tax giver.Do you know that when you buy one litre of petrol, 17  Rs goes in the kitty of the govt as tax, or when you buy a matchbox,25% of its value is tax.What a regressive tax regimen indeed ! The poor for whom the marginal utility of additional money is much more than for the rich pay the same taxes as the well to do.Given that the PDS system is dysfunctional , they buy the rice and sugar at the same price as you and I .And the govt has  the gall to say that it is pro poor.

360 degree

The case discussed in the class today was about the star producer of Capital market division of Morgan Stanley not being promoted to the higher level because of being rated poorly on team skills by his peers in the 360 degree feedback. Although the protagonist had  shown a steller performance and single handedly increased the market share from 2% to 12%, the decision to not promote him was taken.The case learnings are as given

• Being  a star performer is not enough. With growing seniority, team building skills are more important.
• 360 degree feedback is a tool that can help in taking better decisions and thus save the organisation from future troubles.
• The superior who was responsible to give continuos feedback to the protagonist was held equally guilty and was punished by no longer being in charge of the protagonist.Poor performance by juniors is as much a fault on the part of the seniors as on the part of the juniors.
• Many a time, we hesitate in giving a negative feedback to our subordinates fearing retaliation in the form of future disinterest in the work or we are just intent on being goody-goody.Remember that performance management system is different from performance appraisal system. While the latter appraises at the end of the year and is out  of vogue with good organisations, performance management system is a continuous process and aims at improving the performance of the subordinate during the year.
• In hindsight I feel that many a times I too have been guilty of this flaw.The quarterly feedback form that I used to submit for my subordinates usually was a hurried affair.

Chinese threat

Out of ~ 3 trillion dollar reserves that China holds , 70 % are in the form of dollar denominted US Govt bonds. What it essentially means is that the Chinese govt has loaned out this amount to the US on an interest rate of about 2 %, which happens to be the bond coupon rate.With the value of dollar dwindling day by day and the Chinese currency overvalued significantly, China is indeed in a difficult spot.What more than the fact that its economy is export dependent with most of the consumption outside the country.Further the country is in the midst of a domestic crisis which is likely to increase in the times to come with the populace seeking more right to property and free speech. The best that can happen from our perspective is that the country will implode in the medium term and wouldn't be a threat to us.Let us do something to launch an economic warfare on this country.

Another thought that comes to my mind is that we must increase cooperation with this country à la Europe, with more of their business coming to India and ours going there, so that the stakes for each other are high against  fighting a war. Both the countries can then prosper and provide  a better quality of life to their people. In the mean time it makes sense to prepare and strengthen the fences because 'Good fences make good neighbours'.Any opinions.............. 

Power Distance

India is a country with a high power distance index of 7-8.Power distance is  a factor that determines the culture of a country and means the readiness with which the junior members of the society accept the domination of the senior members.It is the extent to which the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally. This represents inequality (more versus less), but defined from below, not from above. It is because of this that we do not speak up in meetings ,but when out of the door we end up  indulging in criticizing the proposal threadbare.Also as  a society we are more interested in the other person's affairs and are not happy minding our own.Our own promotions/rewards become less valuable to us if someone else gets the same reward/promotion, since we perceive that she doesn't deserve it. More often than not these are just perceptions since they are not based on hard facts/data.

Lovable Fools

Our professor of 'Recruitment and Selection' came up with a marvel yesterday .He said that in an organisation it is better to have lovable fools rather than competent jerks.An organisation is composed of people and a competent jerk can offend a lot of workers by his attitude and thus vitiate the atmosphere. On the other hand a lovable fool is more compatible and understands the people issues. All of us want competent people around us, but we should work out the cost benefit ratio of having them. Also we must know that it is easier to teach  a skill and turn  a lovable fool into  an intelligent contributor, while changing an attitude is almost next to impossible.

Ageing

Today afternoon when Shalini and I were at Hazratganj in Lucknow, a beggar woman came to us and had this to say,"खुदा आपकी जोड़ी सलामत रखे और आपको एक बेटा दे ". That was some compliment after almost 13 years of marriage.Shalini obviously was over the moon,with I too swooning with pride.Either the beggars are learning the power of appreciation, or we still look very young.What do you say Guys!!!! 

Mehdi Hassan

Rafta rafta woh meri hasti ka saamaan ho gayey,
Pehlay jaan, phir jaan-e-jaan, phir jaan-e-jaana ho gayey !


Din-b-din badti gehin us husn ki raaniyaan,
Pehlay Gul, phir gul-badan, phir gul-badamaan ho gayey !


Aap to nazdeek say nazdeek-tar aatay gahey,
Pehlay dil, phir dilruba, phir dil kay mehmaan ho gayey !


Rafta rafta woh meri hasti ka saamaan ho gayey,
Pehlay jaan, phir jaan-e-jaan, phir jaanayjaana ho gayey !


Pyar jab Hadd se badha saare Taqaloof mith gayey,
Aaap se phir tum huay phir tu ka Khunwaan hogayey!


Rafta rafta woh meri hasti ka saamaan ho gayey.....
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