IndianMaze

"Things take forever to change in India" is a common phrase heard amongst India watchers. Being an Indian, I am tempted to respond that at least India has been trying! However, that is not a good enough response from a management practitioner. Going through the history of independent India, a large number of large scale programmes have been launched. All of them with very noble intentions but have been rather slow (very very slow) in achieving the stated objectives.  There is a change that one observes in the recent past. This article is to show the contrast in the achievement of programmes with very strong lessons for the Business Teams to take home the message that Indians have evolved and continue at a much faster pace like a S curve. I will take 2 examples each from the long past and recent past to demonstrate the change. 1. Indian Elections and voters India jump started the democratic process early in her independent life with first national elections held with

" Soda consumption in US down by 1.2%. 11th year in a row. 30 year low . "   Screamed the headlines.   This surely is a bad news for the industry and players. The world better get used to more such headlines and worse is that this may be due to a more permanent reason than merely a changing preference.  In the next few years to 2050, the population of many of the leading countries will fall. More so, the contribution of 60+ years will grow considerably. Above is a clear indication of lower consumption, both in quantity and quality. This consumption decline is applicable to both products and services. These countries account for a very large chunk of the current business and profits for almost all MNCs/TNCs. I am sure, their top management is having sleepless nights for the future of their corporations. However, it is not all gloom and doom. There are oases in this dry future. Countries like China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, South Africa, Brazil provide a bright f

"I am connecting Anil with you for he needs some help" was a crisp message from a dear friend. Anil is a seasoned professional who decided to go on his own after a very rich and long experience in marketing at companies to die for. Anil started his journey a couple of years ago with stars in his eyes trying to solve the marketing problems that are all around us in all scales of businesses. Anil had a long chat and the basic point was that he is not able to get the kind of scale he envisaged. On exploration it came out that he was shy of going out and talking about his expertise and garner business. He found it was not appropriate to "beg" for business.  Is Anil managing  himself  as a brand just like he did to his brands in the role he played as an employee. A few questiones followed - - Is Anil a well known brand? If not, what has been done to build the brand? - Has the brand been positioned clearly - what does Anil stand for? What will Anil deliver as

Jane and I were visiting a restaurant after a long time. This place was our favourite many moons ago in Mumbai. We moved away from the city a decade ago and were visiting there again and Jane wanted to have a dinner at the same place. We reached the place and it had changed, physically. It had become more fancy and what not. Over the dinner, we ordered a local dish that we used to fancy. It arrived and then the nostalgia took over and we got talking about the old times. After the meal, I commented that the meal was not as good as it used to be. Jane looked at me and kind said nothing though I could see that words were on her lips.... Later in the day, she asked me why I did not find the food as good as earlier and I gave a long list of reasons. She said that she found the food to be same as before and in fact enjoyed it thoroughly. It got me thinking! Why is it that my experience was different from hers? Who is right - she or me? I slept and dreamt of the whole episode. An