A peer who was introduced by a friend not so long ago, subsequently became a friend said that “He considered me his mentor”

Whilst this pleased me no end, it also raised the above question in my mind. Over the past 20 odd years, I have had the opportunity of working with a lot of bright sparks, who have eventually moved on to different organizations, industries or geography.

However it has been a constant source of pride that they have kept in touch with me & vice versa, calling upon when the need to bounce of ideas, thoughts becomes strong.

And so this friend asked me how was I able to manage, keep the connection live and more importantly Did I not feel insecure, it set me thinking, to write down some thoughts that may be useful.

1) I have always accepted the fact that I am not a Star but an actor.
2) I am a Snob & hence prefer to be surrounded with intellectual bandwidth.
3) I avoid comparing responsibilities, accountability, package with peer group.
4) I do not stifle growth by using the personal loyalty card.
5) I definitely keep the professional & personal element separate, becomes easier for decision making.

From an organization perspective it is important to see that the seniors allow exceptional talent to flourish, since if they become insecure & ignore it, the death knell sounds. If not so drastic then it would be a organization based on mediocrity rather then meritocracy.

Do let me have your thoughts.

On a recent visit to Hyderabad, spending time at the airport, chanced upon Indian authors and picked up some books out of which two ‘The Young Turks’ & ‘Delhi Durbar’ by Krishna Pratap Singh; The Betelnut Killers by Manisha Lakhe; The Game Changers by Fake IPL player.

In terms of grading, the books are no literary marvels, however the ones by Krishna Pratap Singh were worth the money paid.

They are well written, the characters being brought alive & you can recognize the tongue in cheek references to the past & current crop of politicians as well as the incidences referred to. They lighten your mind and the author manages to entertain the masses.

The Betelnut Killers by Manisha Lakhe is a mish mash of American Born Confused Desi with decently etched characters which neither entertains, but you just suffer through the laborious story.

The Game Changer is just a rehash of last year’s blog, but shows how Perception is different from reality. Better books than this have sunk without a trace whilst this is supposed selling well.

It is good to see that there are numerous Indian writers coming up and writing over a plethora of topics. Now only if enough Indian readers read:)

I had earlier written about Dell here.

Exactly a year later, it stopped working a couple of days back 4th May 2010 to be precise. Since my wife has been using it for basic surfing, chatting, skype, I thought it strange; however the problem was diagnosed as the adapter not charging the battery correctly; the plug being lose; some issue with the motherboard on the 5th May 2010.

She lodged a complaint on 6th May 2010 at around 2 pm. They verified everything and assured her that it would be sorted out in the next 24 - 48 hours.

They walked in at 2.30 pm on 7th May 2010 and replaced the motherboard once again; changed the socket in the computer and gave a new adapter & walked away at 3.30 pm

I know, I know some people told me that with some brands you would not have this problem etc. etc. however my reasoning is simple:

1) For an additional 4000/- I got an onsite warranty in which the total changes would have ordinarily cost me 40,000/-
2) The time saving & customer service commitment which leads to peace of mind is worth it.
3) Having used other brands in the past & even currently, I still think DELL is VFM for product & service particularly for hard usage.

AND hence I see no reason to say that I would have no hesitation to recommend it all over again.

I have in the past written about Vodafone and my experiences here, here & here

It has been nearly a year after that, in the meantime I changed my handset twice over, finally settling for a BlackBerry Bold 9700, which entailed my going to the store, paying a year in advance, following up for nearly 48 hours and getting it activated.

During this time, Vodafone also made its presence on Twitter, where for nearly a month it got hammered for the EDGE services, since they had not intimated its customers about some hardware & systems upgrade.

In the past 4 months, I have had the experience of prompt service from them on the following aspects:

1) EDGE not being activated, had tweeted about it & in turn substantial people also joined in. Received a call from a young lady, who explained the problem and assured that it would be done by a time line which surprisingly they adhered to.

2) Once EDGE was activated, within a couple of days it stopped working, again tweeted about it, promptly someone from BlackBerry services replied with the problem & got Vodafone to call me. The same young lady provided an explanation and also assured me that I would not be charged for that month so effectively for my package now would be allowed 13 months. (I am yet to verify this, however, I have no complaints about such issues in the past & have found that they keep their word)

3) One month later, received a whopping bill, which charged me double, so back I tweeted about it, promptly the call came with reassurances that it would not happen and I could pay the correct amount; however a week later my ECS withdrew the entire amount & on tweeting the problem, the young lady called back with reassurances of my account being credited in the coming month’s bill etc.

Traveling, busy with work, I have decided to wait for the next month and verify this.

A lot of people have asked me why do I continue with Vodafone? Also told me that soon number portability shall come & then I can teach them a lesson.

My take is very simple:

a) At the end it’s a % game, losing customers is built in the business.
b) Who amongst all others is ready to guarantee that they shall provide better service?
c) I have been hearing Number Portability for the past 3 years & do not see it happening for maybe another year or so.

Yes, I have had problems & suppose would continue having them, but over the past couple of months their reaction albeit via twitter has been impressive & as far as I’m concerned as long as that continues I am happy with a known devil:)

Don’t get tempted by what others are doing and saying but, if you look closely, you should recognize that talk are reality are not always the same.

CRM - Customer Relationship Management as it is called, though I prefer calling it Customer Retention Management.

It is the core component of effective brand visibility as well as resultant sales. Whilst, everyone jumps on the band wagon of CRM, they forget that concept needs to be tailored to their industry, brand, people which involves a fair amount of Personalization, Training and some Trend forecasting which should add some unique value to the brand.

The customer with variety of options has become quite fickle & loyalty is now at a premium.

It is quite interesting to see what companies have done in the recent past and how CRM is actually evolving rather than the same vanilla offering of card, points etc.

Shoppers Stop arguably has one of the best programs which they have invested a lot over the 10+ years.

Personally, I like the Future Group - Green Card - which offers instant gratification - 5 - 15% off on immediate purchase, no worries about collation of points etc. And mind you they offer this discount during their Sale time also.

Tata, Westside, Landmark et all offer the vanilla card calling it CRM but which is of no real use. You collect points and encash at their outlets, which is fine, but 1 point for Rs. 50/100 means spending a Lakh or more to get something worthwhile, but yes there are people who keep collecting these cards and then of course need a bigger wallet to carry all of them & then get a back ache because it digs into their rump.

However, there are some good samples of how some brands are changing rules of engagement; some of them

Brioni believes in intensive direct marketing & ensuring sale conversion in a consumer’s own space.

Ferragamo/Kenzo/Cavalli/Paul Smith/Canali all hold Trunk shows in different cities where they don’t have a retail presence. This enables luxury brands to increase not only their sales, but also customer brand awareness, before they finally take the plunge to enter the location.

Emporio Mall in Delhi introduced the concept of Personal Shoppers probably the first time in India where an experienced stylist finds clothes & accessories that fit your tastes, size & budget thereby increasing probability of a sale at relatively low cost and it worked well, but I do not know if it still continues.

Some brands inc liquor brands began referral programs, which were a bit different than the Pyramid scheme or member get member scheme, but these eventually die out, having finished its cycle.

Then of course there are those extended distress sales; SMS marketing; New Brand Ambassadors but is this really aggressive marketing or retailers fear a spillover effect of brand equity dilution.

But in this broad spectrum of generation, catchment, geography that one needs to address in India the only ones that shall succeed would be those who would be able to communicate across multiple channels, quickly, crisply and answer the consumer’s basic question “What is in it for me”?

I do not know about many others, but this is a constant fight which eats away into my time continuously.

Identifying, Recruiting, Training, Retaining seems to be a constant fight, more so when you realize that there is an ever decreasing pool of talent available on a particular day, week.

And why is that? Mostly because the curriculum laid down by the HR ministry and taught through the degree & professional colleges are not in tune with the corporate requirement that keeps evolving with the changing business and environmental needs.

So by the time, someone graduates, they are already out of sync except probably in the consulting, finance etc. where theory would be consistent.

That really brings me to the main question:

Why can’t corporate help bridge the gap between skills & expectations.

Job are disappearing globally but less so in India at this point in time. However the real concern that with 15 million youngsters hitting the job market every year any prolonged slow down in job creation is bound to result in social discord which some faced and was visible over the past couple of years.

Whilst not an expert, personally I see no reason why transformation of professional education for the services industry BPO-KPO, hospitality, health care, retail, media & entertainment should not be feasible

Industry should constantly come forward with internship opportunities, projects, whilst colleges & universities should insist on at least 30% of practical work experience.

Skill gaps not huge, and corrective action today will build base for improvement in employability in years to come, which would be of great use to the young generation as well as cut down the learning curve for Industries as well.

But, unfortunately except some of the Indian MNC’s who have initiated this, nobody really wants to invest time, effort and money in this.