How people sell in India

These days one type of news is going all around… India is growing… India is becoming Super Power… India is a future leader… Currently, all major companies are attracted towards India. You know the reason? It’s India’s one of the large population with people living with given small set of resources and, with all the large set of constrains and troubles.

For such a large consumer market, companies like (rather love or desperate) to sell all their products. If you can recollect, we have so many products on the self of the shops which were not at all there few years ago. Consumerization is picking up the pace and Indian people are shopping things like never before. In fact, it’s going more towards American type of consumerization where market will sell you things which you actually don’t need (‘need’ is different from ‘want’). And for such large people, this is how they sell things. You can also take points from here and can sell ‘your’ things to your target people.

In India if you want to sell things, follow these steps

1. Show them there is a ‘big’ problem in life and you are a part of that problem. Hitting emotions is the major part here.
2. Tell them, you have a solution for that.
3. Solicit it with few people saying problem is solved. (It can be some known/trusted people like, celebrity, so called scientific results, or your local re-seller/shop keeper)
4. Show them its value for money (people love it). This is only when you can show the problem is ‘so big’ or competition is high.
5. Just to support that, show them it’s a trend. All are doing it. (If you don’t, you the only one who would be behind)
6. Giving something extra. Tell them it will solve some more problems for you… (just to compete with others, people like free things)
7. Play the trump card at the end. You have multiple variants suiting to your skin/personality/… (Just change the color/smell/look)

That’s it. You will have successful sale.

That is what companies are doing these days. You can take few example of the products like, anti ageing products, hair fall treatment/product, ‘natural/herbal’ face/skin products, anti-dandruff products, health drinks/products and at the end, insurance/pension products (remember, Na sar zuka hai kabhi… ad)

There are other ways of doing sale. One of them is pushing the products so much to the people it becomes a trend and people who don’t have it, feel backwards. Like adidas/RBK/Nike types of products, iPods, mobile phones (especially big ones), bikes, chocolates, noodles, cereals, hair gel, etc. But that also many times follow the above mentioned techniques for selling as people gets trapped easily there.

There are few products which actually have improved the quality of life and I am not denying that. My point is, if you want to sell anything, these steps can help you. Some people will always be there to take it.

Do we really have time?

Currently I am working in one of the good going MNC where I am getting good amount of money at the end of the month. As it is MNC, it is expecting me to work as per my package and takes most of the time of my day time. It’s fair, coz I am paid good. I have no problems with it.


But there is a gray side of it. As much of my time is taken doing my daily job, I hardly get time to see what’s happening around. Before, I usually check my facebook account and read what my friends are doing, I also was reading status messages of my friends on GTalk. But now, all gone. Forget facebook or GTalk, I even hardly get time to check my personal mails once in a week. I sometimes miss the birthdays and important event. Sometimes my old good friends and family member complaint; “you don’t even call or message…”

But today something happened. I woke-up late today. I also had extra thing to do before reaching office. I somehow managed to complete things and reached office little late. I always keep buffer time for my meetings and joined meeting and completed all my day work at the end of the day. Then coming back, I was wondering even I started late today, still I was able to complete my day in time. That’s great!

Then I realized my old PG days. I was even busier than how I am now, but still was able to do all the things which I am not. I was working for my studies, for teams, for events, for friends, for juniors, for placements, assignments, competitions… still got time to talk to people on GTalk, put comments on Facebook, have a evening walk at college pond, enjoyed parties and had a great time. Why then its not happening now? May be I was doing better time management or my priorities have been changed or it’s just I really don’t want to become socialite anymore or may be something else. I really don’t know the reason at this point of time. But, one thing is there in my mind now, “DO I REALLY DON’T HAVE TIME?”

Today I read this at my friend’s status message:

“If you ask Rs. 2000 from your friend, you’ll get it; but if you ask 2 minutes of time, you probably won’t”…

Indian Political Power… Good for India

Recently while reading all about CWG and India’s ability to host such games, few thoughts came to my mind. The news was depicting the India’s inability of having world-class infrastructure and mis-management at every level.

It was all there because of one thing, the host was not India, it was Government of India. Same thing if taken by some private firm, then it would have been far better than now and at the same level as it would have been at any ‘developed’ country (with less cost).

Then something struck in my mind. India is told to be the future super power, and it would be; but is it how it will be? Certainly it will, but not because of the government. It would be because of the people of India. We all curse India’s political power as they have not done anything for us. But at the same time, by doing nothing, they have made (read: forced) us to do all things by our own. Being a small (read: having less money/power) in size, we still are moving the world right now. And the condition is still improving, people are doing better than yesterday and the same story repeats everyday! This is all being possible because of bad governance and ‘great’ Indian politics.

Just imagine, if politicians were good and working in a better way, then the people of India would never have been so enthusiast to work more and achieve more with less resources. We even might have the luxury like people of US and made us so much dependent on the government. Saving would have been less and courage and will-power to come out from all bad things would not have been there. The worst, the recent economic downturn would have collapsed the Indian economy as well.

So, pray god that politicians would help us to stretch our limits even further and help us to make our country even better.

PS: Please note that I am not having any political view and would not like to discuss which politician is better. Rather, work my own and contribute to Indian economy. And if government is not doing show to all that it is not doing.

India to become US

Recently I had a discussion with my friend. He was mentioning, “We are so much underpaid. If we were in US, we would have been getting 8 times more!” Adding to his points, “Same is the case with UK and other developed countries.” He has good knowledge about the economics. So supporting his comments on salaries, he added, “US has just 300 million people and still able to manage 14 trillion GDP and we (India) are more than 1.2 billion now and just have 1.2 trillion GDP.”## Then I said, “My friend, think in this way, India is managing its 1.2 billion population with GDP of 1.2 trillion where US need GDP of 14 trillion for its 300 million population! Who is better?” Here is the point where new perspective has come about India.



It’s true that India has the population of 1.2 billion and GDP of only 1.2 trillion whereas US can have DGP of 14 trillion with just 300 million people. And they are having such higher salary packages.


I asked him a single question: “What if in India, such high salary packages are being offered?” Forget about the capacity, it can be managed. But, going ahead what will happen? With higher salaries, we will spend more. But, with higher spending, demand of goods will increase, with same supply, so prices of the goods will go high. This leads to inflation. Government will try to buy more goods from other countries to fill the supply crunch. For that government need money. But remember, we have higher money to with us. So, government will go for higher taxes (as it is in US). And eventually with proper prices people will get things. But, still there is higher income. So people will buy more and at the end waste more (like US). And the whole cycle of high income and spending will turn in to higher GDP for India. And no doubt it will be more than US. India will become another US! Or may be bigger! Wow! That’s great! Then why not we are going in that way?


Now think from another side of demand supply chain. If India, like US, consumes more and wastes even more; then what will happen? Do resources in the globe have sufficient resources to supply this increased demand forever? And the answer is, NO. Currently, when we are managing with economy of 1.2 trillion and other ‘developed’ countries with higher GDP, are consuming more. With this scenario, the globe is facing very high resource crunch with other environmental problems.


Going that way will lead us nowhere. We have to reduce the resource usage. Currently, developed countries along with US have realized that high consumption should be controlled and should reduce the resources usage. In west, people are reducing their usage by “Going Green” and managing their life style with less money. And guess what, India is just doing that thing right now! In fact, it is pioneer in that.


So it is US who will follow India; not India to follow US.






## GDP – Gross Domestic Product – which generally means how much money a country is making and it is used to compare the countries’ economy

Some work Lessons by Keyur Thakkar...

If you want to look good in front of your boss, we have some lessons for you. Following these shall not guarantee you to get anything extra, but might end up impressing someone. The lessons are collected and compiled by Vani Patel (who is excellent fashion designer and a Software Executive) which is inspired by our own "Vadil" (Elder) in B'lore House, Keyur Thakkar (The most busiest person in town, after CM). I am becoming the medium for them to express their feelings.


Lesson 1:
Never walk down the hall without a document in your hands. People with documents in their hands look like hardworking employees heading for important meetings. People with nothing in their hands look like they're heading for the cafeteria.

People with the newspaper in their hands look like they're heading for the bathroom. Above all, make sure you carry loads of stuff home with you at night, thus generating the false impression that you work longer hours than you do.

Lesson 2:
Use computers to look busy. Any time you use a computer, it looks like work to the casual observer. You can send and receive personal e-mail, calculate your finances and generally have a blast without doing anything remotely related to work.

These aren't exactly the societal benefits that everybody from the computer revolution expected but they're not bad either. When you get caught by your boss--and you will get caught--your best defense is to claim you're teaching yourself to use the new software, thus saving valuable training dollars.

You're not a loafer, you're a self-starter. Offer to show your boss what you learned. That will make your boss scurry away like a frightened salamander.


Lesson 3:
Messy desk. Top management can get away with a clean desk. For the rest of us, it looks like you're not working hard enough. Build huge piles of documents around your workspace.

To the observer, last year's work looks the same as today's work; it's volume that counts. Pile them high and wide. If you know somebody is coming to your cubicle, bury the document you'll need halfway down in an existing stack and rummage for it when he/she arrives.


Lesson 4:
Voice mail. Never answer your phone if you have voice mail. People don't call you just because they want to give you something for nothing-- they call because they want YOU to do work for THEM. That's the way to live. Screen all your calls through voice mail.

If somebody leaves a voice mail message for you and it sounds like impending work, respond during lunch hour. That way, you're hardworking and conscientious even though you're being a devious weasel. If you diligently employ the method of screening incoming calls and then returning calls when nobody is there, this will greatly increase the odds that they will give up or look for a solution that doesn't involve you.

The sweetest voice mail message you can ever hear is "Ignore my last message. I took care of it." If your voice mailbox has a limit on the number of messages it can hold, make sure you reach that limit frequently. One way to do that is to never erase any incoming messages. If that takes too long, send yourself a few messages.

Your callers will hear a recorded message that says, "Sorry, this mailbox is full"--a sure sign that you are a hardworking employee in high demand.

Appraisals - Fit in wrong curve

I am a student of a leading business school in India and we have the best in class professors to teach us things. Currently I am studying an important subject for organization, i.e. Human Resource Management. While studying that, I came across one topic called “Appraisal”.

I have been an employee of one of the major IT Service Company in India. During my working time, I went through my appraisals. And at that time I heard a new term, “Curve Fitting” for appraisals. I think this was one of the way companies are doing appraisals and this may not apply to other sectors.

The process of appraisal was something like this. Initially person has to do “self appraisal” and then his assessor will do his appraisal and give him a rating. Reviewer will also confirm it. We were given 5 point grade according to our performance in previous year.

Now interesting thing comes here is after everything is done and results are sent to HR person for rest of the things, HR person changes the rating. And that change is obviously on the negative side. The reason was given as it was because of curve fitting and due to that everybody’s grade might get affected. At that time I did not take care of these things as I was getting top rating and also was into lot of work. But now while studying things about HR management, now I am getting what was happening.

Let us go to the basics first. Now in the image below, you can see three types of distributions.

• Normal - Where maximum density is in the middle and low at the ends
• Positively Skewed - where more density is at the left hand side and low on right hand side
• Negatively Skewed - where more density is at the right hand side and low on left hand side

Now in the normal distribution, as we can see from appraisal point of view, maximum (around 60%) people will be at the middle. That means maximum people will be having average performance and few (around 10%) will get higher grade.

So companies will try to fit the performance grades of employees in to this curve by changing the grade of the people. By changing the grade, they made most of the employees “average” employees.

If we see from company’s point of view, it wants to have best employees and wants them to perform better. Also they want to retain only those people who have above average performance (if not all, most of them).

Then, my question is, why they give less while expecting more? Isn't it fair to have a negatively skewed curve than normal curve when more people are performing better? In that case good performers will get more. But they are not doing this; and the only reason I could get is, they want to maximize their profit (for growth and other things) even though that profit has come by the hard work of the employees only.

Now you have to decide whether it is right or wrong. You are free to put your comments.

Non-Value Added Activity - Bhasad

Bhasad.

Its a word which I heard first time when I came here. But after that, I was overwhelmed by it. I found it all around me.

People do it everywhere. In class, near pond, in mess, more specifically on IPMSG and now they have started on emails also. I am trying to find a way coming out of it. Because there PEOPLE JUST SPEAK and NOBODY DOES ANYTHING. May be pointing to someone or rather pointless discussion. But they say something as somebody is forcing them to say anything even it is worthless.

Its a innovative way of spamming...

Any idea how to come out of it?

PS: If somebody knows how to block someone on IPMSG please let me know.