Demolition of The Great Wall in India.

Walls, what does a wall do? They stand in between those which should not meet, things which needs to be differentiated or even just to claim territory. I always imagined in our context that what have walls got to do more and which wall has fallen without notice but created a big mental shift. I got my intermediate answer to this, the observation is simple but its implications are stark.

Few walls are physical like the compound walls, The Great Wall of China, Berlin Wall or any such wall or partition. There will be few walls which are in our minds like a Brahmin avoiding eating non-vegetarian or a Bong (the way I like to call Bengali’s) feeling offended to pay for a vegan bill, not to raise voice against elders etc. it was on 9^th November 1989, when the Berlin Wall was demolished and the interspaced barrier broke & intermingling between the two sides started.

One such wall which vanished at few places and the trend is ever increasing- this wall is the wall separating male urinals (ladies- you have to trust me on this as you may not have witnessed it yourself). Till almost 7 to 8 years back in India, male urinals had a separating wall between the two pots and a person had his entire privacy while relieving his intrinsic pressure through drain. However there was a change coming in which disrupted privacy but few bothered to protest, this was the Fall of The Great Wall in India.

This physical wall broke many mental ties as well (very few are for good!), in the last 7 to 8 years, urinating in public have reduced by some extent, in the same period the sales of condom have dropped by 38%, in the same time crime against women has increased, it’s the same time when Congress was ruling (non partitioned urinals is a western style apparently) and many more.

What is that we were separating through those walls? It was a mental barrier which these walls offered and I think it was for good. It offered some resistance to enter into others personal zone and I have a feel that its implication is bad than being any good (apart from saving on the cost of few granite separators).

I will not like to pass a verdict but would like to leave readers with more question than answers. The wall here is directive, there are many such walls which have fallen & are falling every other day, but are we observant or is it that we just going on accommodating it.

Sustainability & the state of "Shashwat"

“Shashwat” originates from Sanskrit and it means permanent or perpetual.

I have been silently observing the world around, the breaking news on screen, the corner article on the paper, the talk’s people talk, promises which people make and the commitments which other break; finally all these things were compelling me to believe in the non existence of the word “Shashwat” in real sense amongst individuals, teams, companies and countries.

As I see, to reach the state of “Shashwat”, the answer may be not comforting to many and will arise many questions to the mind of people and corporate. I am writing this purely for an open discussion and ask few questions and help to answer few questions to myself.

I will take the support of buddy; his name is Thermodynamics as he will be with me as I put forward my views.

Prudent companies have been working rigorously towards sustainability, there are many initiatives they have undertaken and working towards it. The buzz words are “Triple Bottom Line” and “3P- people, profit & planet”. The intent is to make the business model and the organization sustainable. Sustenance will lead to perpetuality and that investors realize the commitment of the company and have confidence on the future of the company. Even if the company doesn’t make great profit, stake holders would like to see returns at least more than the “price value of money” for the current year.

Now here starts the fundamental concerning issue. To reach the state of sustenance and perpetuality, the initiatives call for immediate and bold steps... but considering the concept of Perpetual Motion Machine (PMM), the state of perpetuality comes when there are infinitesimally small change which cannot be differentiated but the state changes without realizing it.

Now when companies plunge into sustainability and perpetuality, the steps they have taken are more than what it should be, hence disrupting it more. Here the selection of initiatives is the key, thrust on going green initiative and investment in sustainable business models are something which everyone know but does it is disrupting the balance of 3P and eventually increasing the entropy of the organization. While reaching the state of sustainability the entropy of the organization should tend to move towards lower and lower (I am discounting the fact that companies will still compete for triple bottom line but in balance).

Hence change agent leading to physical dislocation such as green initiatives & investment in sustainable business model brings lesser imbalance than changes which impact an employee’s mind. I have my clear thoughts that sustainability & perpetuality of what organizations are working on should start with the fundamental change in the thinking and thought process of employees.

The suggestion is to make changes small & consistent in the minds of the people but not directly on the business model (the practice which most companies are up to these days).

I am trying seeing through a common link between “Shashwat”, sustenance, sustainability, organization and proved concepts of thermodynamics.

If this needs discussion feel free to contact me on shashwat.km@gmail.com.

Spell & grammar to be ignored as it’s a Saturday noon and though my name is Shashwat but I have still not reached the state of “Shashwat”.

Our first official tour...

The first embarkment of my professional travel was to one of our offices at mumbai from Nasik. We were the people fresh out of college (not to mention the overflowing zeal & enthusiasm we all carried) and we were made to travel in a school bus!!!

Though there was not much difference as we were still children, 22yrs young but only the leg room was less (less to be read as zero).

Travelled with just a bag which company had provided and obviously the stuff what the bag could contain.

We started for the journey by around 7 AM. The bus had 40 odd people and almost everyone sleeping including the conductor.

When my mates decided to be awake as the bus was getting hot as it had no AC so we had no option but to be awake. I still remember those glittery eyes of those people, all from one or the other premier engineering colleges, what everyone new was to just make there own car which would revolutionize the way people travel but to again remind back the way we were traveling was just not so revolutionizing.

We reached the office and had a day long visits to various production units and machining shops, knowing that we will be into Research & Development and we were amongst the creamy lot but as its said the cream melts under temperature & so did we under the heat of furnaces & heat treatment units.

Now the best part begins, it was late evening & we were dropped to the guest houses. The apartment was new, so new that it didn't had towels & even the bed sheets were even not taken out of the plastic bags. So there were we, the bed sheets were our towels and the bed were left with no sheets.

Apparently at the same time the admin team came to check out how were placed and they find us wrapped in white bed sheets and the other guys trying to pull it, it looked like the perfect set for an Urban Draupadi's Cheer Haran, but those guys never worried to open the wrap but the fact that there were no curtains as well & the other towers balconies were gazing towards us made them fight back to save the bed sheet being pulled open.

now it was time to sleep, we had put on the AC from mains but realised that the apartment was so new that the AC remotes was not available. So we slept with the room chilling our spines at 16 degrees.

As its said that a Bachelor never sleeps so was the case at our apartment as well, at any point of time some or the other guy was awake & his agony was not why he is awake but rather why others are sleeping. So each one tried there best to keep everyone awake.

The next interesting scene was of the next day morning in the office.

Last night the admin saw us attempting a Cheer Haran, we all had red eyes as no one slept.... So there started the stories about us. But who cares, admin is there to make & kill stories so we never bothered.

And like every story comes to an end so did this one as well but there was no good in the ending as we had to travel back to our base locations in that same Primary School Bus (remember we came here in that) and all the guys slept coz they never slept the whole night & all the girl did what they are always good at, that Talking... There talking soon took a horrific turn when they decided to play antakshari & the consequences were more than thought, all the guys were awake, the conductor was awake & we could see thwarted driver driving the bus much faster & its no brainer to guess why he did so.

That how my first official professional visit came to an end, but there was something I now think back, no we travel in premier airlines, have a car waiting outside the airport to drop me at my office, get the most comfortable guest house (which has towels, bed sheets, curtains & AC remote as well) still I find there is something missing & its those days when we all joined to embark the beginning of our career. Those were the days & those were the guys. There are very few who were with me in that bus who still continue to work with M&M. The dream with which I joined to make a revolutionary car was later realized to be a too big a dream, but as still we nourished on a product which is now called the XUV500 to the world but to us, it was the smaller dream which we all saw.

It’s not what it looks like.

Insight to auto car dealers, why few offer discounts? How they afford to offer discounts? Why do they do so? What happens to the ones who don’t?

India has seen the automotive sector booming at a very promising pace with most of the global big names preparing their foothold in the country. Firstly, India has a very high captive market for the passenger cars and secondly, India offers cheap labors hence the automotive companies have made India there production hub. Few companies cater to the global market by through production in India.

In this article the author will make a mention as to why the dealers for passenger cars offer discounts and give a perspective to the other side of offering discounts.

In the B, B+ & C segment cars in India, there happens to be a strong correlation between the discounts these dealers extend to the profit they make.

These dealers have their prime focus to sell the car and that too by offering heavy discounts what so ever possible. They increase their market presence by selling the cars in the local market, but do they really make any profit by just selling these cars? The answer will be shocking to many; they just make mere marginal profit by selling cars. Now, if they make so less profit by selling cars, why do they still offer discounts and sell these cars across, they can always reduce the discount and make higher profit out of it. Perhaps a deeper look into the profit model of these dealers revel that they make profits by not just selling but by servicing them.

How it operates? The dealers bring down the price point of the car to a lower level from P1 to P2 by offering discounts (i.e. P1-P2); the consequent effect to the same is seen in the car sales which go up from Q1 to Q2. Hence with the mentioned discount the sales volume go high. (Refer the under mentioned exhibit)

The dealer makes profit when these cars come back for servicing. Also they try is to attract more cars from the market which they haven’t sold for servicing. As long as the business of servicing of cars is working, the profits keep flowing in.

When this operational model is seen from evolutionary perspective the intention of the dealers are very clear. In the finite world with fewer customers and more offering, the traditional model of making profits by selling can no longer earn them that extra north bound revenue at the end of the year. The customers are drawn by lucrative discounts and once the sale is made the peculiarity of a particular car sold can be handled by the company run service station itself, moreover these days the customer have become more sensitive to servicing and they return back to the same dealer for their servicing needs.

This intention of going back to the same dealer for servicing is by the virtue of latent pull which the dealer creates with the positive vibe while selling the car to the customer and the customer has a mental picture that the particular dealer gave him the best offer in terms of discount and hence an intrinsic loyalty pull comes towards the dealer.

What is the darker side of this model? As Charles Darwin’s theory of “origin of species” made Herbert Spencer make a mention of “Survival of Fittest” and used it in his economic theories on the similar lines I want to draw a similarity in this article as well.

When a particular dealer does not do well in services and his profits tendency to decline, he usually thinks of micro correction by offering lesser discounts and recovers his profits by selling the cars only. It tends to miss the bigger picture, by reducing the discounts; the volume of cars sold drops and even his sales goes down as well.

This is a vicious circle of never ending damage to this dealer. Firstly he reduces offering discounts to increase profits, which actually draw customers away. Secondly, other dealers in the same city keep offering a discount which adds on to the problem of this dealer. Thirdly, even after knowing the fact if tries to offer discounts equal or more than others he will be hitting under the belt and further worsen his own condition. This dealer knows that “people respond to incentives” (4^th Principle of Economics) still there is no way to come out of this condition, unless fresh cash is flown in.

The article can also be viewed from the 1^st Principle of Economics: “People face trade-offs”, here the dealer had to trade-off to either make profits by offering lesser discounts or to make profits by servicing them, but by now it must be clear that in this trade-off the dealer has to let go discounts for the higher profits through services.

Looking the article from the 2^nd Principle of Economics: “Cost of something is what you give up to get it”, it is clear that the dealer gives up the discounts to get the profits through services. Hence it costs the dealer in terms of discounts offered.

Imperfect is the best thing happened to me.

Dear Public,

My apologies for staying away from you for so long, but an apology should have a nod above excuses.

The thing which runs on my mind is an off league to my style of writing. People who know me or spent time with me know that I can go crazy over witty issue to prove myself correct ranging from water drinking competition to driving Scorpio so fast that people vomit to spending sleepless nights for a silly 10 marks assignment to working non-stop for over 40 hours.

What goes in my mind is that I can go very often go to extremes to prove my point and to prove that I am near perfect.

But later I realized that I have a big chunk of imperfectness within me and perhaps this imperfectness is the best thing which has happened to me.

In one of the meeting we brainstormed to reach nothing but the very best on world standards, but the direction of the meeting all changed when it was said that the perfect requirement is an end state and the termination of urge to reach a destination fades off. People work better with targets in mind & sight, it’s not important how far or how close it is, it even does not matter how easy or tough is it going to be to achieve it; what matters that there has to be a target, the end state which I would now call as the perfect state.

This lessons of imperfectness comes from all directions, one should not bogged down too much with them but rather filter it with the ones for which you really would like to be called imperfect. Once the imperfectness is seen then it’s all fun working against it, ripping it apart and giving it a fight which it wouldn’t have imagined in its worst nightmares. The charm is in identifying the correct imperfectness and then working against it.

So as I said earlier, this imperfectness is the best thing which has happened to me. It has pushed me far from my cozy & warm safety cocoon to an all new world of unseen issues, unparalleled adversities and fostered every time to new avatar, what remained constant is the Shashwat Instincts.

Ending the article abruptly to keep you unanswered so that trickles your brain.

Isn’t this article imperfect? Keep thinking…

Yours luvingly,

Shashwat K. Mitra

Nine eight eight one seven two six nine one five

Dynamics of association

Hi Public,

This morning makes me to share lot of view coming to me. I want to touch upon a complex issue of dynamics of association; association of relations, friends, emotions, sentiments, strategy, logic and non-logic.

The way we work, behave and act depends on the association we have with a person, this changes drastically when the index of association changes. Let me make it simpler, the way we speak to our boss changes when you change your company, the junior senior complexity is not there then. The way you speak to your girl/boy friend changes drastically once she/he gets married (provided you are on speaking terms…lol). The way you speak to a stranger once you get to know he is from your city.

All the above examples touches upon the point of association. The dynamics comes into picture when the current association goes through a change or transformation, it sometimes is further reinforcing & sometimes devastating. These becomes the case why people leave there jobs, change their circle of friends, change career, change their way of living or force someone else to change their way of living.

When to some business proposal has a nod from the management the business case take an easy clearance through them, but on the other case logic has to work its way harder to prove its point.

When the emotions & sentiments are overwhelming, then the scope of practicality takes a back seat. On the same way in business when rage or passion is on a high then the canvas of logic is never painted with the true colors.

Shower your thought over the same and give your view.

Luvingly yours,

Shashwat K. Mitra aka SKM

Mumbai Inc: My experiences

This is a city which had always accepted me with arms wide open, never felt stranger here and it never disappointed me. In this city I had few days of a passion following, few days of indulgence, few days of professional enigma, few days of connections, few days of disappointment, few days of achievement, few day of challenging my own limits and finally few days of growing & few days of finding the child in me.

I always had a strange feeling when I entered this city & even today I get the same feeling as I indulge into it. For me, mentally I reach Mumbai earlier than I reach their physically.

My first inception to this city had when I was a kid with the Mumbai craze in my eyes. Then I had been around the city in the safest cocoon of my parents. The life was so so simpler that way and Mumbai was so tamed then.

(Watch out for this space… the bigger experience coming soon…)

Sweet September

I am a mid September born guy, so what I get complementary along with my birthday is struggle, hardships, hustles & tussles. This is what sets apart a Virgo in the complete sun sign… when you can not complain you are only left to accept and say ‘I am lucky”.

This September had been a very much similar and a lot different than the past 25 Septembers. It was much similar as I had my birthday, I gifted myself, had the engineers day, travelling comes complementary on this month & yes the month ended. But what was lot different was on both personal & professional fronts. I had to take tough decisions professionally & personally and both were interlinked. I was trying to chart a territory which comes to me as a huge challenge. The challenge seems to get demystified and I thus hail towards getting more clarity.

Black is the new color

Black means celebration when it’s the color of a tuxedo, black means strength when it is the color of reinforced wall, black means creativity when it’s the color of the board, black means optimism when the rays just try to spear through the dark night, black means passion when it’s the color of your new camera… black means a lot more than the color of sorrow. Now, black is the new color. As I take you all through my experiments with black, you would fall in love with this new color.

Find these pics uploaded on my FB profile http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33519&id=100000413015421

And drop down your comments or mail me directly on shashwat.km@gmail.com

Cadbury: Sahi me kuch khaas hai…

It was an old advertisement when I was young “kuch khaas hai, hum sabhi mai…” since that day it had struck its chords with the listeners.”
Now almost 20 years later, Cadbury evolved from being a product to a phenomenon. There is no other thing which conveys the feelings as promptly as a Cadbury. Its jingles have now become anthems. Its taste has now become tradition. Its liking has now become an emotion. The same piece of Cadbury means just so much and the same jingle means so much to many people. I want to devote a piece of Cadbury and the jingle to all my fellas, public & buddies.

This product has moved ahead in all spectrums, as a strategist, as a marketer, as a brother, as a friend, as a junior & as a superior.