Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Providing Service: Fundamental attitude challenge in India??

Posted: March 10, 2011 in Uncategorized
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How rare is it in India, to hear of some really good service received? I have to really scan my memory hard to remember any kind of service that really impressed me. And yes, then, I CAN mention 1 or 2 striking examples.

I was particularly impressed by the service at Olde Bangalore, in Bangalore.

At the Orange County Resort at Coorg.

If I rack my brain some more, I should come up with few other names.

But it’s hard.

Many other service providers where I don’t have a problem, are at best adequate. I would put my Citibank credit card (nowadays), HDFC Bank, Vodafone, Indigo Air, etc. all in that league. Adequate. Nothing outstanding about it. Adequately efficient. Nothing more. Sometimes a little less.

And then there are MANY that actually cause grief. Service providers that “just don’t get it”. Besides the usual suspects of government services, there are just far too many restaurants, stores and showrooms, health clubs, hotels, etc. that all fall into this league.

Let me give a specific example.

I was in the market sometime late last year, for a new vehicle. I was impressed by the VW Vento. Went to the showroom. Was given the initial information with a lot of enthusiasm.

Till the point at which I actually booked the vehicle, and made the initial payment (there was a 4-month wait for the vehicle, so balance was payable when the vehicle got ready). things were fine.

From the point of time that I actually made that booking amount to the VW Mumbai East dealer (at Bezzola Complex in Chembur), from a service point of view, it was all downhill.

Every single interaction has been painful, simply because they are not equipped to provide better service. And their attitude is one that “couldn’t care less”. This extended to their service station also. Within a week of purchase, there was a minor hiccup. The car was sent to the service garage. They took a whole day to attend to the small thing. And after paying upwards of Rs. 8 lakhs, a week back, for the car, they demanded Rs. 300 odd for some parts. When I protested that it did not make sense, they brought it down, but insisted on getting paid Rs. 48/- or so. That’s a dollar! After having paid upwards of USD 20,000 a week back.

No one at that garage had the authority to take a call, to let that dollar go. When I have paid so much, it is certainly not about that dollar. It is just that they made an issue about it.

For an otherwise great product, VW has obviously not been able to get service standards and policies in place, that can address such issues.

So is India a society that can possibly produce good products, but just does not have an approach to good service?

Since we have a lot of people, we have lot of service providers! On a typical small hop flight also, we may have 5-6 air hostesses or stewards on board. At a wedding party, we may have a whole host of waiters hovering around us. There will be enough help at a hotel. BUT there will not be a true service attitude. We try to compensate for quality, by quantity.

That does not work.

However what that has done is to bring down our fundamental expectations of service. When we get adequate service, we are happy. Because “at least it was not bad”. Both the recipient and the provider of the services, are settling down to “adequacy” and not more!

People will be willing to pay a price and get excellent service. A great product can get supremely enhanced, at nominal additional cost, by great service. If a VW showroom and garage can also exemplify the same attitude that the vehicle is trying to showcase (via its advertising), would it not be wonderful?

When at the Apple store in California, you don’t see a cash counter, but the store help pulls out the machine from his pocket and swipes your card, and you don’t need to wait in a queue, it is telling something more about the cool brand that Apple is. It’s that extra bit.

When you drive into a Hertz store at the airport to give the car back, before catching your flight, and all paperwork, payments etc. can be done in 3 mins, so you can comfortably catch your flight, even if you got late, that’s more loyalty for the brand.

When the Southwest Airlines human operator picks my call within 2-3 rings at most, and the one person can help me confidently with any and all kinds of queries that I may have, then I ask for Southwest by name, and don’t look for just ‘any airline’.

There are amazing examples of this kind, in the west (well, there are duds too – don’t get me started on American Airlines!!). We’d so love to have some emerge in India too. At this time, they’ll stand out as unique.

Like Orange County Resorts does. And where at time of checkout, I put a rating on their response card, of a 11/10. Yes, those are the rare gems in India.

Can others stand up to get counted now??

Where does our time go? Challenges of modern day life!

Posted: March 9, 2011 in Uncategorized
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There was an interesting discussion on our college alumni yahoo group that started by a comment that the long drawn out cricket world cup is causing the loss of so many productive hours.

But more opinions were added, which stated that similar or more time is also lost in following American sports, perhaps all year round, and in many other distractions that life offers to anyone, these days.

I feel this is a part of modern day living, and the challenges on account of the many options we have in life.

I still remember a life where the man would get up around 7-30 am, go for a walk or a game of tennis, come back, get ready, take a good breakfast, go to the temple and offer nice, long prayers, then head to work around 10-11 am, wind up office by 5-6 pm, reach home, have a cup of tea, read the evening paper, shower, do dinner, spend time with family, and go off to bed around 10 pm or so. Maybe even go for an evening walk prior to that!

Seems almost idyllic. Seems like its coming from a different world altogether. And yet, it is not THAT old too. I have seen it (which tells something about my age 🙂 , but which also means its not that old), and I don’t know if in some households or some parts of our country, or with some people by choice, this kind of a lifestyle may still be a reality today.

To me, this seems unimaginable at this time.

Here are my challenges, or what I grapple with on my time:

– personal finances and investments

– keeping up with great blog posts, tweets from interesting people, facebook updates

– listening to and viewing podcasts

– reading interesting non-fiction books – finding time for fiction is like a dream (make up on that, with films!)

– news, from various parts of world, on various subjects, from variety of media

– wanting to write – tweets, facebook updates, blogs, notes, film reviews… hey, even a couple of books, not to forget my old and still cherished desire to write a film script

– oops, before I forget – family time – kids, wife, parents, brother, uncles, aunts, cousins

– friends, Rotary Club, TiE, Mentoring assignments, speaking at seminars and events

– travel – for pleasure and for work

– music – love to listen to it

– interesting apps on my iPad

– Scrabble on Facebook

– extremely heavy load of emails, very busy work life, spending time with team at office too

– business partners, investors, our mentors, strategic planning, new business opportunities

– cricket, movies, theatre, eating out

– oh.. and then there’s TV, and the 100s of channels there – and this is without DVR just yet

– Exercise, taking care of the physical self; perhaps also the mental one.. relaxation, meditation, etc.

And guess what just came to take up some more time now..

The phone just went 3G. So I can now see live TV and do a bunch of other things, while I am on the move.

Does that mean, those 3 minute short drives I used to have, where I resisted the temptation to switch on my laptop, and just looked out of the window – will those be taken away from me too, now? So I switch the TV on, on the phone, during this time, then??

It is clear that the clutter in life has to be reduced. There is an increasing need to simplify life. Cut out the junk, let some things go..

I started with TV (though due to some other compulsions), and I have not missed it a lot.

Can I do the same with few other things in life?

There is as much physical clutter around us, as is this mental clutter. And perhaps somewhere the reasons are the same.
Why don’t we throw away physical stuff? We reckon we may need it some day, so we hang on to it.

Likewise, we hang on to things in life, somehow stretching ourselves, slicing ourselves down to smaller and smaller pieces. Just holding on to everything.

Here’s where I remember one of my old favorite phrases, and which I need to seriously question at this time, “All I want is everything”. Yeah, that is how life is today.

But can we really handle it?

How about this other old favorite phrase of mine, “Success is living the life you want to live”.

Can we visualize, out of all the things that take up our time now, which are those we really want in our lives? And which aren’t. And then, work towards holding on to the ones that we want, and let the rest go. And simplify life?

What do you think? Tough questions here? Challenging and questioning our today? Harsh realities? Or not..?
Let me know what you think about these..

The relativity factor: all about perception again..

Posted: March 9, 2011 in Uncategorized
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Yesterday afternoon, a client call came, and I needed to visit Pune for a meeting today.

I started thinking, what all commitments I needed to adjust, if I had to make it happen. Finally got things together, and planned to visit.

Called the driver early, the wife packed me a good bottle of water, etc. And I started out to Pune, a place outside of Mumbai.

I never think twice like this, when I travel within the city, nor do I carry water or anything in particular, while traveling within the city. No matter how far I am going, or how much time it will take.

In this case, we reached my destination in Pune, in exactly 2.25 hours, probably around the same time that I’d take, if I were to travel to say, Malad West, during rush hour.

But Malad West is “within Mumbai” and Pune is outside.

I was asked by few people who knew that I went to Pune yesterday, as to “how was the Pune trip”. They never ask me, how my trip to Colaba or Bandra was.

Distance like time, is then, a matter or perception. Even in this world that is shrinking – in distance and in time!

What’s your take?

“Walking slow is fine”: Confirmation Bias issue??

Posted: March 7, 2011 in Uncategorized
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As me and my couple of friends started our morning walk today (my 15th consecutive day at it, by the way!), one of them mentioned that he has read a report that says that “it is not important to walk briskly, but just to walk is good enough”. This was quite contrary to what I had read and heard earlier, that it was important to build up the aerobic exercise to a certain pace, for it to be really effective.

But these words sounded nice to me. Brisk walking is more painful. Not that I amble on a morning walk, but I am not doing a real “fast and brisk walk”. Not just yet, anyway.

Walking pace not being so critical, then, sounded like music to my ears.

Except that, I had just heard an interesting podcast, the same morning, prior to going for the walk. And this was on the subject of “confirmation bias”.

What is confirmation bias?

Here’s the Wikipedia definition of it:

“Confirmation bias (also called confirmatory bias or myside bias) is a tendency for people to favor information that confirms their preconceptions or hypotheses regardless of whether the information is true.”

Did I want to believe that the pace of the walk was not critical, because it served my purpose (of not needing to walk that fast) well?  Or was it a confirmation bias?!

How often do we fall in the confirmation bias trap?

How closely is this concept connected to having an open mind, allowing new thoughts, even thoughts that are contradictory to one’s own beliefs or convictions?

In fact, I have noticed that the more successful a person becomes, the more convinced he gets, about his own convictions. Which is sad, in a way. For the world is so dynamic today, that without keeping an open mind, one stands a huge risk to get outdated!

I have been to many meeting with senior folks, where the concerned CXO (typically) is ‘listening’ to you, but ‘not really listening’. His mind is already made up, and he wants to ‘do it his way’. And it may not even be an action oriented meeting. I have had discussions at parties and at clubs, on a variety of subjects, and you can clearly see how for many people (and this is especially true for senior folks and folks who have met with prior success), the mind is virtually closed. And they live in a world of denial, and stand a serious risk of becoming dinosaurs in this new era.

I want to challenge my own convictions every now and then. Especially when alternate thoughts or ideas come in. I want to be sure that I have an open mind, I am receptive to new ideas, and open to experiment as well.

I don’t want to carry too much of a ‘confirmation bias’. I want to try and speed up my walking too, no matter the pain involved 🙂

What about you? If you examine yourself closely and honestly, do you see yourself succumbing to the confirmation bias? Sometimes, often, rarely, never…? Do share your views.

“Naam Ada Likhna” – in appreciation of a brilliant song!

Posted: March 6, 2011 in Uncategorized
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I had shared my views on this small (almost forgotten?) film, Yahaan, long back.

One song of the film, “Naam Ada Likhna” is breathtakingly beautiful. Everything about the song is outstanding – the music, the lyrics, the emotions of the two stars, Minisha Lamba and Jimmy Shergill, but most importantly, the photography.

Here’s the song – check it out:

If you see the whole thing, I am sure you will appreciate what I am saying. But in case you did not play the whole song, let me show you a few striking images from the song. Well, to tell you the fact, the entire film has been shot brilliantly, and the camerawork is absolutely awesome. The song is just a sampling.. so here you go:

Light and shadow play

The Shikara, the trees, the water, the reflection...

Lying down in the Shikara, the sun breaking through from within the trees and the branches..

The sepia tone, the wooden bridge, the depth.. beautiful..

Love.. and happiness..

A light in the background, shadows.. a woman in love..

The sepia again, the smile, happiness.. nay, bliss..

The light from the back, giving a silhouette feel.. happiness on the face

In the valley, with the hills and the sky behind..and togetherness..and love!

More play with light and shadows..

I love the whole effect.. the song has a mesmerizing effect. I want to keep seeing it. And I want to take a trip to the mountains.

What do you think??

Some impressions from the Enterprising India (TiE) Summit 2011

Posted: March 5, 2011 in Uncategorized
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At the outset, I must state that entrepreneurs are lucky to have organizations like TiE around. These are boons for anyone starting up. I mean, the ecosystem that they manage to create is so wonderful, that it can make significant difference to an entrepreneur, in terms of getting some interesting ideas or saving time or money, or meeting some perfect contacts, etc. etc.

I wish we had more of these in my early days of starting up.

But well, let me not dwell on that. More importantly, TiE is here, and amongst the many wonderful things that TiE does, one of them is the Annual Summits that they organize.

I am not sure about the TiE Summits in other parts of India, or the world, but the ones in Mumbai, really rock!

I managed to catch a few hours only, of this summit yesterday, but I was most impressed. By many things, including:

– the organization, the location, the layout, the works.. all done very well. The team of volunteers at work, the commitment that everyone showed, was quite exemplary.

– the few talks that I managed to catch, were good too. Kishore Biyani, Murkhumbe and Ajay Piramal on stage, giving excellent gyaan, and having good banter, for example. How easy it is otherwise, for young students and entrepreneurs, to be so close to these luminaries? TiE makes it happen.

– the talks by founders of Goonj, Bangalore Traffic Project and Flipkart. All of these were interesting in their own way. The Goonj talk was a shocking reality check for most of us, including Kishore Biyani, who was on stage and moderating the session. What they are doing is truly commendable. Likewise, the Bangalore Traffic project is also an excellent initiative and showing real results as well. And for Flipkart, even though the presentation was not as slick and smart as the other two, the business itself, of course, is path breaking. That finally someone is demystifying e-retail in India, and making real transactions happen, is great. Unlike group buying and stuff of that kind, which is about “giving away a rupee for 50 paise” and hence is unrealistic to last!

– the overall energy in the corridors was also infectious. Loved it.

– the 5-min talk that Sanjeev Bikhchandani gave, gave me my money’s worth (although, strictly speaking, as a Charter Member, I had NOT paid any money for the specific event!)

So indeed, entrepreneurs should thank their stars to have bodies like TiE around. Spoilt as they may be, with choice on account of the hundreds of similar sounding startup activities and mentoring events, entrepreneurs should not find fault with these bodies. It is NOBODY’S duty to provide an entrepreneur with any specific ecosystem or mentoring or guidance or anything. If it is done, and one gets the benefit, accept it, use it, and make the most of it. Don’t crib, and keep asking for more.. !

What the crap?!

Posted: March 4, 2011 in Uncategorized
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Dear Pet Owner in the City of Mumbai,

When I feel like a desperate pee, can I come and relieve myself, in the corner of your bedroom??

When the neighbour’s baby has had her feed, and is ready to burp, can the mother get her to your living room, and have her burp on to your sofa??

Can the child on the 6th floor, when he just HAS to crap, come to your kitchen and crap on the floor there??

NO??! You don’t think so??

WHY?

But you never found it odd to litter the compound, the streets of our road and our gardens, with the poop of your pet? Why then, do you feel so shocked at some of the above suggestions?!

Listen, dear pet owner, walking in this city, whether in our own compound, or on the pavements, or in the ground with the walking strip duly marked out, is becoming an obstacle race of sorts! One needs to tippety toe and do the hop-skip-jump routine, to avoid stepping on to dog’s poops.

Some days more than others. Perhaps the day following the dog parties, or perhaps when YOU had a party, and fed the leftovers of your mutton or rajmah or whatever, to your pets!

PLEASE spare the streets. If you must take the dog out, please carry a poop collector with you, to clean up the space, after your pet’s “done it”.

We have enough dust and grime and pollution to reckon with, not to speak of the city cattle owners who let their cows and bulls to fend for themselves in the streets (and leave their dung behind).

You are educated, you probably walk the street yourself and might face similar jumpy routines. You’d understand.

Please change your habits, for your pets. Save our city. Keep it a little cleaner.

Thank you.

Yours truly,

– A harrowed, city walker

How do I make Standard Chartered Bank stop calling me?? They suck!

Posted: March 3, 2011 in Uncategorized
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It was a few years back that I had the bitterest experience with Standard Chartered Bank, in respect to a credit card that I had of theirs. Finally, I ended up tearing the card, throwing it away, and instructing them to not bother me ever again.

But little did I know, that you can enter the Standard Chartered network, but never get out of it!

Every once in a while, I would get a call from them, offering to “give me a card again”. Letting me know that “my name had been selected to be offered a card all over again”.

Like I had been rejected earlier, and now they were approving me again!!

How many times I needed to tell them that it was ME who had rejected Standard Chartered Bank, and not the other way around!  Well, in spite of these clear instructions and angry retorts from my end, I would keep getting calls, every few months.

Since it would be once in 3-4 months or so, while still being upset, I let it be.

Except that suddenly these days, it has become terrible.

I get a call from them nearly once in 3-4 days! And that in spite of the fact, that a couple of weeks back, I asked the operator concerned to note down, that I HAD REJECTED their card, and I did not want anything to do with Standard Chartered Bank, ever again. And that they should remove my number from their system, FOREVER.

And YET, the calls would not stop. Every 3-4 days, without fail, they would call me again. From their Pune call center (here’s the number they call from: 91-20-40078959). And offering me “the privilege to own a Standard Chartered Bank credit card”.

They don’t have any clue about the extent to which they damage their brand. Not only will I never use their credit card, EVER, in my life again, I will also NEVER use ANY other services offered by Standard Chartered Bank. AND I will use all opportunities of this kind, to let everyone I know, that they should not do ANY business with Standard Chartered Bank.

So there.. !!

I am not missing television..

Posted: March 2, 2011 in Uncategorized
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The TV has been off at home, for a little more than a month now. And it may be off for at least another 3-4 weeks.

Reason for this being the board exams of the younger daughter. And the need to eliminate all distractions for her.

We had done this once before when the elder one had her boards 3 years back. So for me, it was a repeat performance.

And while when TV is on, I have my hour or so of intake (mostly sitcoms and the like), I have not missed television in this 1.5 months approximately.

In spite of the World Cup cricket going on, and all that..

In fact, the change in my lifestyle with early sleeping, being productive early mornings, getting into an exercise schedule and all, have all also happened, thanks to the TV not being around, for me.

Just makes me realize how much of my time, TV was taking up, and how little of an impact, its absence has had on my life.

Are there more of such time wasters that we all have in life? Those that take away precious minutes and hours from our day, without us realizing it? I am going to look for those in my life, and try to eliminate them.
And you?

Will TV be forever off, now that I have understood how much of a time waster it has been? I guess not. I also do not want to live regimented life. But appreciating life without TV enables me to be more choosy about how much and what to watch.

Listening..

Posted: March 1, 2011 in Uncategorized
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Listening.. is becoming an interesting and significant word and act, in my life.

In my professional life as a Social Media entrepreneur, I advocate listening (to the social media conversations about your brand) to brands and businesses.

But here I talk of a different kind of listening. Listening to the sounds in our life. In our background.

I remember a brief interaction with the famous film personality, Gulzar. I was at a 5-day feature film script writing workshop in Noida, and Gulzar had come in as a guest faculty. He was talking about a writer describing the rising sun, in great detail. In response, I asked him a kind of stupid question. About how in our busy world, we barely get time to look up into the sky, or even notice that the sun is out. In that case, how can we write in this kind of detail, that he was talking about.

And he gave me a blunt, yet straightforward answer. That in that case, why am I even thinking of writing!!

That’s stayed with me. Do I have the time or the luxury to watch life around me? Do I “listen” to things nearby?

If I think about it, all the listening that happens in a typical day – and which I assure you, is nearly NOT noticed, in spite of it being loud and around – is the clicking away of the keyboard, the screeching of tyres on the road, honking of horns, shouting expletives on cell phones, and the like.

Are there more sounds about us? Have we tried to listen?

With my new found regime of sleeping earlier, getting up earlier, going out for morning walks, and the like, I also don’t want to crowd my mind, at least that early in the morning, with more music or more podcasts. But rather, try and experience life and nature around me.

Today was a particularly early start as I went out to walk at around 6-15 am. It was still quite dark. Left with not much to see and not much to do, except walk, my other sensory organ picked up. The ear. And the mind chose to focus on the sounds.

And ended up discovering very interesting ones.

– the bhajans at a nearby temple. Loud enough to be heard, but not really decipherable. First the lead person, and later the chorus.

– the crows. Making different sounds. Perhaps like humans, there were few who made a point and shut up. And others who kept going caw, caw, caw.. wonder if the word cacophony came from them..

– the other birds. With better sound. But barely audible, amidst the cacophony of the crows.

– the sudden interruption to the natural sounds coming from a noisy autorickshaw. Oh, believe me, Mumbai is up far earlier than the 6-15 am that I was out for a walk, so rickshaws would be plying a plenty, at that time.

– a loud grunt from one of the senior players who missed a shot, at the adjoining flood lit tennis court.

– and again, nature’s sounds disturbed by the aeroplane taking off – one of the many early morning flights leaving from Mumbai airport, at that time.

No, there was no emptiness. All of the above sounds are present right through the day, but we do not hear them, due to the many other noises in our noise polluted world. at 6-15 am, I was at least able to experience some other natural sounds. Perhaps in the middle of the night, say around 2 am or so, there may be yet some other sounds to experience. Or not. Maybe there IS a emptiness. Maybe there is quiet.. ?!

What do you think?

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