Monday blues: Knock Knock

Open doors do not mean absence of problems and oppositions. In fact they often go together! Some doors will appear closed. Closed doors do not mean locked doors. All you need to do is knock. So this week don't think you do not have a chance take it up once again and try. May be this door is not locked. Happy Monday!

Do you matter?

Do you matter?

You would if you...

• Deliver extra
• Do the new
• Take initiative
• Take ownership
• Don't wait for time
• Don't wait for the right time
• Create opportunities
• Break chains
• Open doors
• Keep running
• Outperform

Now, do you matter?

 

Screw driver!

What motivates you?
What makes you push forward?
What changes something in you and moves the wheels?
What lets you have goosebumps?
What makes you feel special?
What drives you?

If you feel your daily job is a business then you are just another guy. If you feel your daily job is a platform to transform lives, change attitudes, change believes, educate, learn and encourage, then you have a platform.

So what would you choose to do today?

Art is by Hugh MacLeod

Naukri JobSpeak for February

Key Highlights:

• The hiring activity and demand for professionals in IT - Software moved up by 24% in Feb'10
• Hyderabad has been most bullish on hiring with the job index moving up by 29%
• The top 10 cities of the country saw a double digit growth in Feb'10 over Jan'10
• Majority of industry sectors show an upward moving index with the Telecom and Auto sector moving up considerably by 27% and 24%
• The top 15 functional areas saw an upsurge in hiring activity
• Hiring activity across all experience brackets moved up with growth ranging between 17-19% in Feb'10 over Jan'10

Go rural

The potential of the rural market in India is huge. Even after all these years of studying and understanding the rural consumer, distribution channels still remain one of the biggest challenges of working in rural India. When compared to the consumerist urban society, the rural consumer's choices are need driven first, which results in him being a thrifty cost-conscious buyer. There is a conscious effort to spend less but this doesn't mean good quality products don't get picked up. In fact the rural market absorbs huge amounts of products and in certain categories they are faster than their urban counterparts. A study by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) threw up some interesting facts. The rural market accounts for:

• 53% of FMCG sales
• 59% oc consumer durables sales
• Almost 100% of agricultural product sales
  

With the current slowdown ringing death bells n several firms, the focus has shifted towards Indian villages and custom made products to suit these consumers are being sold. This is a good sign. Like I said in the beginning, Indian rural consumer holds a lot of potential and is worth a look.

Monday blues: Awaken the leader in you

An exceptional leader lies inside you. This leader is usually silent down playing the opportunities to convert a situation into a wow experience. Weaving leadership skills needs a lot of patience and positive outlook which comes with practice and enthusiasm to create an environment where the dormant leader in every person gets more active and steps out of the closet in to the limelight.

Far too many such opportunities are disguised in the form of hurdles which we choose to ignore as it takes an extra effort from us to attract that leadership quality and use this card. The other option is much easier when you let the inspiring level of leadership stay calm and let some tag or designation on your visiting card do the job. As a manager it is your responsibility to make sure your employees are transformed into exceptional leaders they can be. As a colleague you should encourage such behavior while exhibiting that yourself.

This applies to every role you play as an individual in your family, friends, at work and even in your personal life. Is the exceptional leader in you sulking or is proud? What have you changed today? Have a great week ahead.

FMCG in India set to grow

THE 86,000 crore FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) sector in India is running full throttle and is expected to have a lot of action in 2010. As the fourth largest sector in the Indian economy, it is distinguished by a good distribution network and a strong competition between organised and unorganised segment. According to Financial Express, the sector will witness a growth of 15 per cent in 2010, compared to last year.

Present and the future

While the global economic ire consumed everyone in its fire, FMCG happened to be one area that stood tall and strong by overcoming its impact. Although the input costs were high, the sector didn’t witness any price rise in fairness/anti ageing creams, soaps and the likes. The Indian consumer continued to enjoy royalty and hence the sales saw a hike. The issue was balanced by downsising packaging. “The sector has coped well with recent challenges and grew by 15 per cent over the last year,” says industry chamber FICCI.

According to AC Nielson as reported by The Mint, the year 2009, also saw modern retail format stores and aggressive marketing which helped home-grown FMCG firms wrest market share from leader Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL). HUL’s share in the estimated Rs 8,000 crore personal care market fell to 44.5 per cent from about half last year, as others like ITC, Godrej and Wipro fought for space in markets like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat with a rural push, says AC Nielsen.

The sector saw rarely any merger and acquisition except for Wipro’s Rs 210 crore acquisition of United Kingdom’s Yardley. The optimism in Indian market was shown when PepsiCo, for the first time held its board meeting here. Its investments are up by another 100 million dollar from 500 million dollar that was announced last year.

Overall, the prospects of the FMCG sector remain good. According to FICCI, it has grown consistently during the last three to four years. The sector is expected to grow at 12 to 15 per cent over the next three to four years.

Good times... Ahoy!

It seems good times are back on the horizon. Here is why... the Naukri.com Job Index climbed up by 4.1% in September '09 as compared to August '09.

Overall highlights of the report :

• 4.1% increase in hiring activity: The Naukri JobSpeak at 729, indicates an uptrend in hiring activity by 4.1% in Sept '09 as compared to Aug '09
• Hiring up in metros: Hiring activity in Mumbai and Chennai was up by 9% and 8.4% respectively
• Uptrend witnessed for ITES: The ITES/BPO and Real Estate industry saw an increase by 18.3% and 36.8% respectively
• More good news for ITES professionals: Hiring for ITES/BPO, HR and Admin professionals is gaining momentum with an increase by 21.4% and 10.4% respectively in Sept '09 as compared to Aug '09
• Demand for freshers rises: Freshers and Trainees showed an increase of 39 % in hiring in Sept '09 as compared to Aug '09

Don't be a copy cat

Copycats are trying to make a lot of money, fast. They are not interested in offering great follow-up care to their customers; nor do they offer higher-end products to customers who want more. The fakes die out fast as they are built on faking and cheating. The problem is that this whole industry is based on fad cycles and they adapt quickly to fads on the streets.

You, on the other hand, don’t make those mistakes, so your customers are loyal. Business success is built on loyalty repetitive purchase and long term good will. This is what you should concentrate if you want me, the consumer, to pay attention to you at all. Consumer is always looking for great follow up care. I understand that sometimes things get bad, products fail, designs flop but will you back it up with a great care is what matter. If you can then the mess could actually help in strengthening my value beliefs about your brand. This is a great opportunity to build on. So aim long term and follow up.

Lack of?

Is it true that most people don't make it a point to find things out? I know many lazy people who cannot walk up and find what a word means in the dictionary. It applies to several other things.

Do you know that only 8% of all the telegrams sent in Inda are in Hindi! Did you know that you can send a telegram in Hindi? Almost 80% are in English. Now do you know that its almost 50% cheaper for Hindi telegram than its English counterpart?

Most times we are content with the regular stuff, regular things. 80% of the times you order the same thing each time you dine out. Average expectations for an average life. Try to see what other options are, like the Hindi telegram. May be its better, cheaper and more comfortable. Is it the lack of choice or interest?

Retail + Apparel

Working on my dissertation and came across these facts...

• Organized retail market in India is expected to reach US$ 50 Billion mark by 2011
• Number of shopping malls is expected to increase at a CAGR of more than 18.9% from 2007 to 2015
• Rural market is projected to dominate the retail industry landscape in India by 2012 with total market share of above 50%
• Organized retailing of mobile handset and accessories is expected to reach close to Rs. 5000 Crore by 2010
• Driven by the expanding retail market, third party logistic market is forecasted to reach US$ 20 Billion by 2011
• Apparel, along with food and grocery, will lead the organized retailing in India

The top jobs of 2009

Fast Company lists the top jobs of 2009

1) Nursing & Medical Services

2) Computing & Engineering

3) Education

4) Green Jobs

5) Energy 

6) Infrastructure

7) The New Finance

8) Self-Employment & Small Business

9) Telecommuting

Placements Pulse?

Elaborating on the changes in the type of employers, Patra said: “We have witnessed an increase in the number of consultancy, manufacturing and FMCG companies.” Similarly, IIT-Kanpur has seen an increase in profiles offered in marketing and consultancy, especially enterprise resource planning (ERP) and domain consultancy. “In fact, the profiles offered in these fields are better compared to last year,” said the placement committee member.

Further, Kanwar said that GIM students have even been offered jobs in investment banking as well. Kanwar added: “Looking at the current scenario for I-banking, this is very good news.” Placements at NMIMS, too, witnessed an increase in FMCG and marketing profiles. “The best thing about placements this year is probably the fact that some of these companies are offering much better profiles than those offered by I-banks.

Read more here.

Dual standards

Its how you treat your heroes that makes you as a nation.

When Abhinav Bindra won a gold medal in a game at Olympics, shooting some mud targets Government of India gave him 5 crores and his picture was all over the media for almost a month. Remember the support and prizes that the Indian team got when we won the 20-20 world cup?

When three warriors fought off terrorists and gave their lives facing real bullets in the recent Mumbai attack the same Government gave 5 lakhs each (I wonder why they gave this big amount). And every one, including you and me, the media have already forgotten them! Every one except their families. And you call them heroes!

This is high time to increase the salaries and compensation of the military, police and other forces in the country. Hope the politicians would take this step before the the families die waiting for the pension and wondering if they could get back their loved ones in exchange for the money they got. And thinking what un-grateful people we are.

Pride forever

Is there a bigger sentiment than your Alma mater? Can you think of a market opportunity here? Pride forever did. Pride Forever™ is the “official academia licensing company” focused towards branding of educational institutes. They emerged to create a wide range of licensed academia merchandises via retail chains at schools, colleges and several other reputed institutes.

At Alliance Business School, Anekal, Bangalore a new store is shaping up. Several items like teddy bears, tees, coffee mugs, iPod covers, caps, pen stands, etc are already available and will be open for sale shortly. Pushkar and myself visited the store and were the first customers to see. A deluge of students followed and by what seems to be affordable price Pride offers a wide range of products that share our pride with all our school or college mates anywhere and everywhere. It is also time to reminisce and cherish each and every moment that the institutions have instilled and suffused with indelible and unforgettable memories.

The positioning and the target selection is awesome. If you want them to set up a store at your college let me know.

New hot stock options

Security systems provider companies witnessed a sudden action in terms of both orders/enquiries as well as stock changes in the last 3 days.

Companies providing Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) solutions in India and internationally. It also offers Radio Frequency Identification Device (RFID) solutions, smart cards, and point of sale solutions. Also technological development such as access control, building management, crowd management, patrol management, retail security, campus management, canteen management, library management, application tracking, vehicle tracking, warehouse management, work-in-progress tracking, siren management, inventory management, job costing, consignment tracking, field service automation, sales force automation, and fleet management are in huge demand now after the Mumbai Terror attack.

You are fired.

Not a good word to hear right? We are downsizing and you are going home. How does this sound?

Isn't this natural in this recession. Some friend of yours or a relative's friend has been downsized. Does this bring a bad feeling in you? Do you feel insecure? I would too.

But is there something you could do to be safe from these bad times. No matter how powerful people you know it would be difficult to stay put. The simple solution I feel for this is to keep delivering. Contributing more than your peers, more than what I expected from you. Is there a limit for performance?

So will you be the one who is safe when bad times hit the company and some are laid off? I cannot assure you. But it keeps you safe and fit to get another one.

Its your insurance. So are you insured?

Wat r u doin this Deewali?

It was a really hot summer's day many years ago. I was on my way to pick up two items at the grocery store. In those days, I was a frequent visitor to the supermarket because there never seemed to be enough money for a whole week's food-shopping at once.

You see, my young wife, after a tragic battle with cancer, had died just a few months earlier. There was no insurance -- just many expenses and a mountain of bills. I held a part-time job, which barely generated enough money to feed my two young children.

Things were bad -- real bad.

And so it was that day, with a heavy heart and four dollars in my pocket, I was on my way to the supermarket to purchase a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread. The children were hungry and I had to get them something to eat. As I came to a red traffic light, I noticed on my right a young man, a young woman and a child on the grass next to the road. The blistering noonday sun beat down on them without mercy.

The man held up a cardboard sign which read, "Will Work for Food." The woman stood next to him. She just stared at the cars stopped at the red light. The child, probably about two years old, sat on the grass holding a one-armed doll. I noticed all this in the thirty seconds it took for the traffic light to change to green.

I wanted so desperately to give them a few dollars, but if I did that, there wouldn't be enough left to buy the milk and bread. Four dollars will only go so far. As the light changed, I took one last glance at the three of them and sped off feeling both guilty (for not helping them) and sad (because I didn't have enough money to share with them).

As I kept driving, I couldn't get the picture of the three of them out of my mind. The sad, haunting eyes of the young man and his family stayed with me for about a mile. I could take it no longer. I felt their pain and had to do something about it. I turned around and drove back to where I had last seen them.

I pulled up close to them and handed the man two of my four dollars. There were tears in his eyes as he thanked me. I smiled and drove on to the supermarket. Perhaps both milk and bread would be on sale, I thought. And what if I only got milk alone, or just the bread? Well, it would have to do.

I pulled into the parking lot, still thinking about the whole incident, yet feeling good about what I had done. As I stepped out of the car, my foot slid on something on the pavement. There by my feet was a twenty-dollar bill. I just couldn't believe it. I looked all around, picked it up with awe, went into the store and purchased not only bread and milk, but several other items I desperately needed.

I never forgot that incident. It reminded me that the universe was strange and mysterious. It confirmed my belief that you could never out give the universe. I gave away two dollars and got twenty in return. On my way back from the supermarket, I drove by the hungry family and shared five additional dollars with them.

This incident is only one of many that have occurred in my life. It seems that the more we give, the more we get. It is, perhaps, one of those universal laws that say, "If you want to receive, you must first give."

There is a little rhyme that goes like this:

"A man there was, and they called him mad,
The more he gave, the more he had."

If you do something like this for Deewali, please tell me that. Perhaps if you have some change left after your jewellery, dresses, sweets, cards, diyas, etc.

Source: FFO

Paan

Meet the camera shy Hello panwalah! While I couldn't convince him to pose for me he was more than willing to strike conversation.

This is a pic taken from a paan shop at Empire, Koramangala. 150 paans at a time are prepared in a span of 20 mts flat. 10 such sets per day are sold during lunch. That is about 1500 paans * Rs. 10/- which make it to about Rs. 15,000 per day. This guy has a turnover of Rs. 36,00,000/- per year! Non-taxable, no office, no timing, no tension. Compare this to my earlier post about MBA salary and self-employment.

Elephant becomes a tiger

For a change, its good news. The Indian economy is making waves. It seems to be growing fast and that too consistently for several years in a row. What the economists call, "a sustained high growth path". The latest official data says overall economic growth touched 9.4 per cent in 2006-7, giving the UPA government a nine per cent average during its three year tenure. There is, however, a dark lining to the silver cloud. Agriculture is lagging behind the rest of the country with a low 2.7 per cent growth rate, showing that the aim of inclusive growth has yet to be achieved.

Firstly, it shows that sustained high growth is possible for this country like the tiger economies or China. India no longer has to continue being compared to an elephant lumbering along slowly. Even if the high growth is uneven for the time being, this defect can surely be made up if concerted efforts are made by policy makers. Secondly, consistent high growth does have some amount of trickle down effect even though this may be a slow process. Which does not mean we have to wait for affluence to trickle down to the poorest of the poor. Anti-poverty programmes have an important role in this country. But it does mean that high growth will have a positive impact on large sections of the populace even in rural areas.

For instance, despite all the hoopla over the negative effects of large retailers on small traders in the country, they seem to be helping farmers in some regions.. Reports have come in about Jharkhand farmers finally getting a good price for their produce as large retailers are buying directly from them and bypassing the middlemen. Till recently, middlemen would buy at low rates from the farmers and sell at exorbitant prices in the retail markets. Farmers never got the benefit even when vegetable prices were ruling high. Now that cultivators are finally getting their due, politicians are taking up cudgels for the middlemen.

Read more here.