Universal right

France has declared access to internet as a universal right.

Millions of Indians are waiting for their government to deliver on basics like clean drinking water , sanitation , medical care and education.

Tackling effects alone

Found this article (online) about Mumbai in a Calcutta newspaper. The High Court is urging the Municipal Corporation to declare car-off in days in Mumbai as a means to reduce pollution. The line of thought is why should 85% of the population suffer due to the 15% who use their vehicles. There is a genuine issue - pollution and a declared villain - the folks who use their vehicle to commute. Has the makings on a needless saga.

This makes as much sense as the Traffic Police in Mumbai putting up energy guzzling electronic signs to flash statistics of drunk drivers arrested , messages like - don't honk . Implication being all problems on the roads is solely due to the indiscipline of motorists . Never mind that most roads resemble the moon's surface , traffic signs in many places don't work or are not even installed , BMC has thoughtlessly dug up roads in an entire area reducing the lanes available for traffic movement , corrupt officials have turned a blind eye to pavements and roads being encroached , successive governments and the municipal corporation have not made the effort to develop the public transport adequately . I have read often that Mumbai has a very good public transportation system compared with many other parts of India. Well , in the land of the blind the one-eyed is king.

Coming back to the pollution issue . It is a genuine problem . One that affects most residents of Mumbai. Commuting takes much longer than it should. The solution for that is not to mandate car off days . First and foremost develop the public transportation system in quantity , quality and frequency which incentivizes travel by public transport. Once a robust and comfortable public transportation is in place then to experiment with car-off days makes sense. The government need not do it all by themselves . Some of the bus , train transport can be privatized. Improving the public transport takes vision , will , ability to implement plans within specific timelines * - all of which our successive governments and municipal corporations have so far not demonstrated.

* cases in point - 

1. The Metro . It looks like a fairy tale ending . And then they built it happily ever after....

2. Bandra-Worli sea link

We need to work on genuine, long term solutions rather than waste time on impractical (at this point in time) ideas like 'car off days'. 

One woman global village

Brilliant show by Sarah Jones.

Imported

The electric kettle in our office brewed it's last cup of tea 2 days ago. It could not be repaired . Went to the local supermarket to select it's successor. There were a range of brands. Some with a discount offer at Rs 599 , some at Rs 899 , few brands at Rs 1385 etc. Asked the salesperson on the floor for feedback on quality differences (if any) between the brands. No answer . Is the 599 kettle comparable in quality to the 899 one ? Yes , said the salesperson.  Why is xyz brand priced at Rs 1385 ? The salesperson's response ' It is good quality . It is imported '.

On wonders whether sales staff receive product training or do they create their own explanations ? It's also clear that the Indian brands across categories need to work on dispelling the perception that a product or brand is better simply because it is imported. When a product value exceeds a certain level consumers are more likely to research the product and the brand. And likely to arrive at the store with a shortlisted set of brand and product options. In (relatively) low value items the feedback of the salesperson has an influence on the choice. With responses like the one I encountered the choice moves to the lowest price product.

(Ironically the response of my chauffeur + office help re the earlier kettle was " It can't be repaired. It's poor quality because it is 'made in China' " )

In my career I have worked on marketing Indian products in international markets (and within India as well ). The endeavor was always to create a positive product quality and service experience , to offer innovation. I don't have rabid notions that everything made in India is superlative . I do believe that there are many products produced in India which are comparable in quality with a similar product produced 'overseas'.

Indian brands in various categories have to deal with the reality of the product quality AND the perception that 'imported' is somehow better.

My (un)mobile week

Mobiles are increasingly becoming important to consumers .In countries like Korea the mobile has become indispensable as a form of identification , navigating through daily life. It is a matter of time before other/all countries approach this level of usage of mobiles.

I had a mobile free week in Japan (my gsm phone does not work there). To be honest , I quite enjoy it. No time or attention lost in checking for messages / emails. A quality of presence which I see quite difficult with a mobile that keeps buzzing regularly.

Reconnect with customers

These days most folks have multiple credit cards. It is therefore likely that one ends up using 1 or 2 cards making the other cards dormant. Naturally it's a challenge for the credit card companies . They understandably want to reconnect with customers and get them to start using their card on a regular basis. 

What would be some of the ways to reconnect with customers ? 

- Send them a letter highlighting benefits of the card

- A 'welcome back' , 'we've missed you' type of communication

- Something to incentivize the card usage

- Call the customer to discuss why he/she stopped using the card and if there's something they can do....

If you are Hsbc you reconnect with dormant customers by taking the effort to print and courier a bill for an outstanding amount of Rs 0.79 i.e approximately 0.01 cents ( I'm not making this up ). This morning while going through my mail I saw a credit card statement from Hsbc. It's been months (possibly a year) since I used the card. When I saw a statement (considering that I haven't received any for many months now ) I was puzzled. In the few moments it took to open the envelope my mind had raced through many options . Maybe there has been unauthorized usage of the card and that's the reason I have received a statement etc

Granted that these are challenging times where one needs to recover all payments due. Is it worth it to print and courier a bill for Rs 0.79 ? Is it worth the customer's time to write a check and deposit it , for a bank to clear the payment ? A bill like this is a sign of a system devoid of common sense (or any kind of sense ), empathy. I'm quite sure if I make the effort to call the world's local bank ( the cost of the call will undoubtedly exceed Rs 0.79 ) I will get a canned reply on how it's the 'system' which prints out the invoices. I'll therefore spare myself the effort and the aggravation.

 

Are we in control of our decisions ?

Brilliant presentation by Dan Ariely. Will make you review your choices as consumer and offerings as a business person. You'll look at your magazine subscription , physician with a new perspective .Visual illusion as a metaphor for 'reality' is a powerful thought with ramifications way beyond business.

(expect more Ted posts in the next several days . Have seen some amazing presentations in the last few days)