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Studying in US gave me opportunity to see the other side of world. The place from where all technology and concepts are exported to all over the world. As I come from India, I can see many things back home which are direct replica of systems in US. This created many questions in my mind.  The systems which look very practical and obvious in US are not at all practical in India. But still companies refer best practices from abroad and implement in India without any modification.

Online retail. One of the biggest thing in US. Online retailers are selling billions of dollars worth of goods. Selling every possible things that can be sold. Many people want to replicate the model in India. They are banking on the calculations that if 400 Millions US citizens can buy Billions of dollars worth goods online, 1 Billion Indian citizens few years down the line will buy goods worth hundreds of billions. But the situation is different as I see. Here buying online very helpful and convenient. The stores are miles away and you need to drive down to store to buy the goods. Most of the stores store standard furniture, standard designs. So online retail is all about convenience and comfort for customer. When Indian online retailers are selling online they have to keep in mind that customer will always check online and buy local. Customer want’s to touch and use the product before he buys it. So people will buy online only if its having large price difference some reward point deals, some bonus point redemption deals. Many will disagree and say online site revenues are growing rapidly but you have to look at what is sold. Rail tickets, air tickets, hotel reservations, car bookings, music CDs, Standard Electronics and list almost ends here. These products need not be handled or checked before you get them. Will you ever buy shoes online. Or will you ever buy a clothing online I guess not.

For India model should be hybrid, I think online retailers should appoint franchisees in local markets, stores that will be used only to display products as car showrooms. One piece of everything that is to be offered. Once customer visits, reviews and decides to buy the product then it gets transferred to online model. Showroom owners gets some commission and online retailer sales the actual product. This will not only help the transition in mindset but will also give customer confidence in website and products that it sells. Current model is targeting only gen next. People who are comfortable buying online but hybrid model will allow all customers to participate in online buying. Also Biggest worry in India is quality and whom to contact if there is any problem. Customers are afraid to order from unheard websites as they suspect frauds this makes entry very difficult. Hybrid model will help in solving this problem.

There are many things similar in the retail industry which I observed. I will post about them at later date.

Signing off

Corporate Social Responsibility (Part 2)–Not for Profit Organizations

 

Yes its time for part 2. After very good comments from you all and discussion with fellow students I decided to post this to explain my views about this subject in more depth. I thank all of them who shared their views and contributed.

What has changed? As I spoke to some NGO’s and people working in non profit industry I sense there is a major shift in Non profit sector. Now people and businesses are no longer giving donations and expecting nothing in return. Now donors want to know how Non profit organization is going to use it with emphasis on how they will be self sustainable in years to come. People are now realizing that you can not indefinitely bail out poor or under privilege,its not practical and World economy going through tough times and corporate donations drying up this is way forward for self sustained Not for Profit movement.

So now there is demand from donors that Non Profit organization makes enough profit to survive without external help. So this is a major shift in thinking. Shift from “Giving people food” to “Teach them how to fish”.

I like the way it is shaping up as I totally agree that Organization should be self sustainable to make an impact in society.  Now I see NGO’s creating innovative revenue models to make profit to survive. Some people argue that such mentality will only take organization towards profit making and will distract them from their main purpose, but my argument is organization will continue to work on its purpose if it survives. If World economy do not recover quickly then we will see half of the NGO’s shutting their operations or holding back on expansion plans which will be great setback to those who need help.

The shift will also cause major effect in management of Not for profit organizations. Today Organization’s Management was wholly focused on philanthropy but now they have to tackle revenue, deficit, forecasting, planning tasks. I don’t know how things will go but my sense is you will have Not for Profit companies fighting with for profit companies for talent. So It’s a major challenge for businesses as they fight with attrition. Not for Profit sector will give tremendous satisfaction factor to work force which for profit companies hardly give and Once Not for profit companies start using community services and local businesses to generate revenue they can surely offer more compensation to people working for them.

It will be really interesting to monitor this development. I have decided to keep a watch on this and I will update once I find some real life example.

Disclaimer: The ideas mentioned are not unique and have been used in real life. Many NGOs are already working on this model. Also the opinion is not based on any actual data to prove it.

Signing Off

Nikhil parchure

Identity

India is growing fast. Consumer demand is growing and businesses are doing good. But I  see a problem. We are not finding our identity. We are not finding something that only we can have.

I will like to take example of cars. We are driving Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen, Suzuki, Fiat, Tata, Mahindra but all these cars are having designs which are European or Japanese. Where is the Indian design. You may get confused by the statement above. Let me explain.

When you say Japanese car Toyota Corolla or Honda City comes to mind. When you say European car Volkswagen comes to mind.

What comes to mind when we say Indian Car.

Yes Old Ambassador. I think though it was not originally designed in India this car truly symbolizes India in Car industry. I am very disappointed that no car after ambassador was having such Indian stamp on it. All cars were inspired by European or Japanese models and reconfigured to Indian conditions. 

Now take case of US. When you say vehicle for US market what comes to mind.

Yes true a big truck.

I want India to find its Identity. I took example of Auto industry as I saw example readily available. Unless you find your identity you will not be a leader in world. You can not be unique and important.

I think Indian businesses should start creating their own identity otherwise it will be difficult to grow and survive. I am thinking about how we can be different and yet successful. I will post my views about that shortly.

Disclaimer : The car pictures are taken from manufacturer or related websites and brands visible are owned by manufacturers. The pictures are not intended to promote or comment about quality of the product and are only used to help reader visualize the idea.

Signing off

Nikhil Parchure

Find Your Navratnas (Nine Jewels)

Reference : The Concept is not directly derived from any reading. But I think it is influenced by two writers. One is the father of management Peter F Drucker and other is Chief Belief officer at future group Mr Devdutt Pattanaik. Any other writer who touched on this subject before I wish to give credit to him.

Entrepreneurs, businesses, institutions, organizations are all humans. When you are working in any company you are practically helping someone achieve his dream, joining efforts to extend the passion of some pioneer. You may not realize it if you are stuck in day to day working but when you can pause for a minute and see the global picture then you will find some link.

So it is very important for leader to understand that people are working for him, people are working to achieve his dream, people spending their valuable lives to help him reach new highs.

So I thought of dream as a basis of institution and hierarchy as follows.

So Master dream is a dream of creator or Pioneer who is visionary and want’s to change the things around him or her. Step 2 Dreams are dreams which are related to any one of several aspects of bigger picture and small tasks are the wheels on which all the system works. The interaction between them is bi directional and not unidirectional. Proper feedback is important for success and revise the expectations or even increase the level where we want to reach.

Ok why I introduced this concept here is the fact that I want to emphasis on the fact that Step 2 dreams are most important. These are the pillars on which building can be built. So you should have people who can do this. You need people who will support your dream but also Create their own dream to motivate the tasks.

The concept of Navratnas come up here. Raja Shivaji was one of the greatest warrior in the history. he saw a big dream. But he had people who could see step 2 dreams. People who were aligned with big picture but also having their own path. So these people were motivated and were pursuing individual dreams. Take another example of Pandavas, Krishna was having bigger dream of defeating evil forces but pandavas wanted revenge and their land back. These step 2 dreams were powerful it propelled bigger dream.

So if you have dream, start looking for people who can see step2 dream for you. Start looking for partners who can align with your thinking and will create their own path to reach their dreams. so I gave the title as “Find Your Navratnas”. Find people who will fit into and your chances of reaching the goals suddenly increase many folds.

Motivation comes from meaning and dream and not from money and material things. Leader who understands this will be successful and his partners will be satisfied.

Disclaimer: The views above are independent and not pointing towards any organization or person. examples from history were used as I tried to relate the subject. If someone thinks they are not suitable please feel free to comment on the same. 

Signing off

Nikhil Parchure.

Inside Out

From the name you can not make out what this post is about so to save your time and energy I will like to mention that the post contains my opinion about assumptions and realities in companies. Assumption when we are inside company and realities when we are outside.

Always people asking questions are seen as trouble makers, they are people who will never follow..these people are untouchable and should be kept at arms length. This is the approach of managers.

Managers will hire consultants and get the work done, consultant will ask the same question as the employee asked but as consultant an outside party asks the question it suddenly becomes important. It gets the due attention that was needed. And perhaps if company paid attention to what employees was saying it could have saved thousand of dollars. It amazes me that you can start your career as consultant straight from college. Big consulting firms hire graduates from B School and put them directly in consulting role. So it shows that it is not different things that need to be done but rather do the same things differently. The outside view will allow you to do that. So in organization someone should always be doing this. looking at organization from outside, looking at it as if you don’t know anything about the organization and then evaluate from whatever data is available to outsiders.

Shareholder are one of the most important stakeholder of company and their opinion is important. But companies fail to take the advantage of that. Some companies have millions of shareholders so that is they have millions of outside eyes watching them. each eye will bring different perspective and each one has some different expectation. What companies do is that they will send postal ballot form (As it is required) and ask whether you approve the deal to buy the company, whether you approve appointment of X person as CEO. So most of the decisions are already taken and shareholder approval is just a process.

I want companies to ask what product you want us to bring in next five years, what field you think company should invest etc. You can get good feedback from them, it may not be something top class which you can work on but it will certainly give you outside view of the company which will help evaluate plans for the future. Asking your top shareholders only will be big mistake as you will play into hands of some individuals who want to make extra money all the time.

When you are inside company everything is rosy, all plans are good and every plan has guaranteed future success. But actually reality is different and when company comes out with the plan it fails. Then it hires consultants to fix the thing and pays through the roof to them, using expertise which consultants have from prior experience. So what you are doing is replicating the process that your competitor or someone in the industry already tried. And now you want to make it a success and so you make it happen rather than it happening.

I am not suggesting consultants do not bring value to company they surely do, they give valuable insights that you are missing. The point I am making is that they are able to do it because they look at organization from outside, they look at you as client. They are not afraid to say things which employees may not dare to say.

So as manager you have to respect employees who object your policies and raise questions. The simple questions asked today can answer the complex problems of tomorrow.

Note: The intension of the article is not to point fingers at consultants, I used the example only to establish the fact that looking at company from outside solves most of the problem. In case anyone has different opinion, then I respect the same.

Signing Off

Nikhil Parchure