Notes on Marketing 011021

 My notes from a webinar on branding.

Friday dressing is rumoured to have been introduced by FMCG companies to push sales of their detergent powders as casual dresses may be washed and not dry-cleaned.

Hawaii is said to have introduced wearing of Hawaiian Shirts on Fridays by all locals to popularize these shirts which was successful. 

Tea-breaks were introduced to push for making tea a habit and thus increases sales of tea. Though it had added benefits of better motivation.

Fax machine use in offices was started during US postal strikes to send and receive messages. Later when strike ended, people had gotten used to fax machines so they stayed.

Video conferencing pre-covid was an add-on. But post-covid, it may become the norm.

Regardless of which group consumers belong to, they prioritize consumption by sorting products and services into four categories:

• Essentials are necessary for survival or perceived as central to well-being.

• Treats are indulgences whose immediate purchase is considered justifiable.

• Postponables are needed or desired items whose purchase can be reasonably put off.

• Expendables are perceived as unnecessary or unjustifiable. (reproduced from an article)

Dilemma for a decision-making system that only has incomplete knowledge of the world is whether to repeat decisions that have worked well so far (exploit) or to make novel decisions, hoping to gain even greater rewards (explore).

All Big Data comes from the past.

Deliberate slack in system.

Fail fast, experiment fast and cheap

Notes on Life 270921

Mother Nature and Father Time are two greatest healers

Buildup, anticipation or journey are sometimes better than destination.

Think of attitude as a skillset and not as a mindset. 

Your life starts with B (birth) and ends with D (death). In between there is a C (choice)

Practice being the last to speak, that is what Nelson Mandela did. Hold your opinions to yourself till the end.

Finite players play to beat others around them. Infinite players play to better themselves.

Zig ziglar gave a term automobile University, meaning learning through audiobooks, podcasts etc. during commute.

Your passion is for you. Your purpose is for others.

Routines root us.

Character above cover drives.

The studies have shown that people aren't good at forecasting their responses to emotional incidents. In particular, the researchers have found that people typically overestimate how long they will be unhappy following negative events. In short, the studies suggest, people forget that they possess what Gilbert, Wilson and their colleagues call a "psychological immune system," which shelters them from the worst effects of their misfortune

Identity foreclosure is a psychological term that describes one of the key steps young people experience in the process of finding a sense of self. At this stage, adolescents may adopt different traits and qualities from friends and relatives, but have not yet settled on their own.

Notes on Creativity 130921

 When you set a time limit or pressure, creativity suffers. It needs openness of space, mind and time to bring idea forth.

We can only be creative in an area we have knowledge in.

Curiosity and risk-taking ability are required.

Six thinking hats, negative brainstorming are tools to stimulate creativity.

Get an outsider to encourage creative thinking.

Asking questions can help creative thinking.

Asking solutions from employees who bring problems.

Creativity cannot be taught but caught.

SCAMPER Technique is a team brainstorming technique used to develop or improve products or services. SCAMPER is an acronym for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify/Magnify, Purpose, Eliminate/Minimize and Rearrange/Reverse.

When you over-generalise or focus on just negative things, creativity suffers.

If we can overcome cognitive distortions, we can live life freely and be more creative.

We hold ourselves back with our inhibitions.

Notes on Spirituality 120921

Existence of God can be understood through cause and effect. It is not like milk and curd because milk causes curd to be made, but curd cannot become milk. It is not like ice and water because both can convert to the other but don't exist at the same time. It is more like snake and rope. Rope is the cause snake is the effect. Those who know it is a rope, they know. Those who think it is a snake will not believe easily that it is a rope. Both exist at the same time. It is a superimposition of cause over effect.

In Gita, Krishna says I am the source of all beings. If you can identify with your source, you will start liking everything because it comes from the same source. Just like you don't dislike anything your child does because you identify with and love your child.

World is a projection of yourself. If you are good, all are good. If you are bad, all are bad.

Mind is flow of thoughts. A thought is inert in itself, when we identify with it, the thought becomes flow.. Just like a bucket of water cannot be a river, a mere thought cannot be powerful. River is flow of water, the more water flows, more deep and strong the river. If flow of thoughts is more, they become stronger.

Stories from Work-7

 Let me share two examples to show how experience counts.

First one is from my LIC days. It was in early 90s. LIC was still doing payrolls manually. No spreadsheet softwares, no payroll management systems. I was working in OS (Office Servicing) Department and there used to be A2 size green ruled sheets on which I had to make salary calculations on a monthly basis. For first few months, it was very hard. There always used to be a difference between debit and credit side. Being proud of myself, I hesitated in going to my boss for help. On days, I wasted hours on finding where the difference originated. And after wasting lot of time, when I used to surrender and go to my boss for help, he asked about the difference amount. On hearing the figure, he used to tell me to look in this head. And most of the time, difference used to be in that head of account. This was his experience speaking. After a year or so, I could also guess the culprit area and then I realized the importance of experience.

Another example is from bidding domain. We usually tender out high value jobs. In jobs requiring creativity and expertise, relying on just cost is tricky. So we used mixed bidding in one such tender. Weightage was divided between creative and financial bid. Based on the marking in both the bids submitted by each party, final ranking and work order was to be placed. Initial proposal was to give 70 % weightage to creative bid and 30 % weightage to price bid. One senior official had a different view, hunch or insight whatever you may call it. He changed the criteria to 60 % weightage to creative bid and 40 % weightage to price bid. When marking was done, his hunch proved right and we noticed that the job would have gone to a different party if we had stuck to 70-30 ratio. Here price importance was increased by changing price weightage to 40, and another bidder won the contract. Experience does count.

Stories from Work-6

 I have many weaknesses and foot-in-the-mouth disease is one of them. Let me share a few examples.

I joined SAIL in 1997. After 45 days of induction training at Management Training Institute, Ranchi, we went to our respective places of posting. In my case, it was Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL).

During our induction training of one year, we were to go to different departments for familiarizing ourselves with different functions. So on one of these visits, we went to a lady HR officer. After understanding the functioning of her department over a cup of tea, I complimented her on leading a core HR department in a Steel Plant Personnel Unit. I compared it to boring job of Training Department to bring out the contrast. She maintained a poker face. It was later when we came out of her room, that one of my batchmates told me that the husband of that HR lady works in the Training Department of same steel plant. The whole group had a good fun at my predicament.

When the first year was over, we were to appear for our placement interviews to decide which department we could join. Luckily I had topped the batch in our Steel Plant so I was hoping to get the department of my choice viz. Public Relations Department. In the interview were two senior officers from Personnel Department, one from HRD/Training and the PR Head of Steel Plant. When I told that I wanted to join PR Department, one of the Personnel Officers asked, "But you have done PG Diploma in HRM. Why don't you join HRD?" My response was, "The kind of HRD practiced here in Steel Plant is nothing like we studied in our theory. Here HRD is limited to training only." I got my desired posting. But on my first day in PR Department, the PR Head told me, "First thing you need to learn in PR is to use the right words. In your placement interview, you criticized HRD in front of HRD officers. There are better ways of saying things." It is then that I realized my mistake. But I was just 27 then.

Another episode happened around 10 years back. I had attended the classical concert of a lady. I did not like it, maybe because of no training and taste of such music. After a few days, an event management agency suggested the name of the same lady for a programme. I was going to criticize her but don't know why I stopped myself at the very last moment. Later on I got to know that the lady was related to a senior bureaucrat and the event agency guy was her relative. Near escape indeed from a career suicide.

There are many such stories from my personal life also, but these are the stories from work I could recollect.

Stories from Work-5

 You must have heard of the joke about a space scientist who when asked about the most amazing thing about his space travel replied, "I wonder at times that we could accomplish all this with most of the parts procured using L-1 concept."

L-1 or the 'lowest bidder gets the job' concept has its own advantages like curbing corruption, getting competitive prices and ensuring transparency and fairness. Naysayers, on the other hand are of the view that if you give peanuts, you will get only monkeys.

Let me share with you an example where we made a new discovery through L-1 concept. Actually we were asked to get a 10-page document translated to a foreign non-English language on a most urgent basis. We had never got translation done in that language. So we googled details of a few agencies and sent them emails and followed up with calls. We received the quotations and we noticed that average price was coming to be around INR 2 Lakh. However, one agency had quoted almost half of that price. We presumed that the agency might be undercutting and would do a poor quality job. When the agency enquired, we informed them of our view. They strongly refuted the assumption and assured of a professional good quality job at that price.

When we shared our apprehensions about their price being half of other bidders, they were not forthcoming about the logic. After prolonged deliberations, when pressed on as we wanted job done urgently, and lower cost was an added advantage, they disclosed. They realized that we could not take risk of undercutting and poor quality job, and they had to explain the logic. What they told was indeed revealing. They had a special software which enabled them to charge for one word only once, even if that word occured many times in the document. That is why their cost was so low.

Now I hope you agree that L-1 concept is not always bad and there are wonderful instances like this.

Stories from Work-4

 I worked in life insurance company LICI from 1991 to 1997. I am reminded of two incidents with a common thread of fake things linking them.

I was working in the New Business Department and the role was to check life insurance proposal papers submitted by Agents and Development Officers (DO). They sell insurance to potential customers and get the relevant papers signed and collect payment cheques as a service to the customer. So one fine day, I found that three proposal forms had signatures of the policyholders missing in supporting documents. I called the DO concerned and brought this to his notice. Without batting an eyelid, he said, "Sanjay, by chance, these three policyholders are sitting with me. Let me go and get their signatures." I smiled back and gave the papers to him. And he came back in 2 minutes with all the signatures. Actually, it was an open secret that for supporting documents etc., if a signature was missing, the marketing person will affix the fake signatures himself, instead of taking the trouble of going to the house of policyholder and getting the signature. Of course, for main papers, no one indulged in such a practice. In the instance I described, if the DO had waited to go to policyholders and get signatures, he would have not been able to get these three cases completed in time for a contest and month ending.

Another incident was a serious one. Fire extinguishers in our office were nearing expiry date and needed to be refilled. So, our office called the OEM helpline number and registered a request for refilling. After some days, two guys came to collect the cylinders for refilling. They gave us a receipt mentioning that they had collected the cylinders. After some days, when we enquired from the OEM as to when will the refilled cylinders be returned, they said that they had not been able to send anyone till then to collect the cylinders. That baffled us. Because we had contacted the OEM only and there was a receipt also. The files were taken out, opened and checked. On close scrutiny along with the OEM team, it was found that some fraudsters had used photocopy of OEM letterhead and issued the receipt. Now the information about request for refilling of cylinders could have been leaked and it enabled the fraudsters. So fake receipt and fake signatures led to a crisis.

Stories from Work-3

 I joined Public Relations (PR) Department of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) in 1997. Editing Monthly inhouse journal of RSP viz. 'Ispat Sahayog' was one of my key responsibilities. As anyone who has done this, would know that there are last minute additions and changes in every issue.

But at one time, we had a real last minute crisis. Actually a VIP visit was to happen and our Managing Director wanted that the next issue of magazine must be brought out to coincide with that visit. That meant squeezing the timelines to half. First proof and second proof were expedited. But time was running short. So to give go ahead to the ready-for-print edition, I had to go to the office of our Advertising Agency in Kolkata.

Last minute changes were incorporated. We got an important news item just before going to print. Four new promotions to the post of Executive Directors were made and were to be included in the magazine. We rearranged the matter and inserted the news item with four photographs. I noticed at the very last minute that the names given with the photos were mismatched. I thanked God and made the corrections and confirmed to the agency and gave go ahead.

The magazine went to the press for printing and I came back to Rourkela. After 2 days, the printed copies were delivered and I was relieved. But it was short-lived. On quick glance, I found that the corrections I had made in the news of EDs were not included. So names given with photos of EDs were wrongly mismatched.

I overheard other colleagues making fun of me that I could not do this small job properly. I went to our Head of Department who was very angry. He called up the agency in Kolkata and I was sure that the agency would shrug off its responsibility. To complicate the matters, I had not taken care to get a printed proof of the version I had given go ahead for printing to. I was mentally preparing myself for a bitter lesson in life. The agency guy apologized to the boss and reverted in 10 minutes after checking at his end. And to my great surprize, he conceded that I had made the corrections and by mistake a version saved previously had gone to print.

That day around 20 years back to now I still fondly remember the name of that agency M/s. Select Advertising. Thanks for your honesty.

Stories from Work-2

 Yours truly is blessed with ample body weight that can equal combined weight of two people of my height. That has resulted in funny situations at work and elsewhere. Let me share two from work.

I was transferred to Delhi in 2006. I started going to office at Lodi Road from our company flats in Kaushambi, Ghaziabad by a chartered bus which was running already. One of the co-passengers was Anil Mishra Sir, who has a very good sense of humour. One fine day, while going to office, he remarked, "When Mr Rath mentioned about bringing a heavy weight boy to Delhi office, I did not guess that he was talking of body weight."

In another incident, our corporate office was being redesigned and new cubicles were being constructed. Some were small, some were large and plan was to assign them based on seniority. Now I was aware that based on my designation at that time, I was to be assigned a small cubicle. So, just for fun, in a department meeting, I told my boss, "Cubicles should be assigned based on weight of employee. More the weight, bigger the cubicle." But my boss, Arti Luniya Madam who is sharp and usually reticent quipped, "Sanjay, in that case, it should be the other way around. Smaller cubicles should be assigned to weighty people so that they stay motivated to become fit for that cubilcle size." I had no reply and sheepishly smiled back.

Let me share another recent humorous episode, not related to weight though. I was not promoted in due time a couple of years back and shared that with my father. In between, our company decided to change designation names, in consonance with other PSUs. So E-6 in our company was changed from AGM to DGM. Grade was same, just name was changed. I shared that with my father too. Later when I got promotion and my designation was changed to GM, I shared my happiness with family and friends. Funny part came when I overheard my father telling someone on phone that Sanjay has been given double promotion (from AGM to DGM and then GM) as the company was impressed with his work. I wish that was true.

Stories from Work-1

 In early 2000s, I was working in Public Relations Department of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL). One of the roles I had was to supervise writing of daily news, which was then video recorded and edited in our in-house studio (RSTV) for daily telecast to people living in Rourkela through linkage with a satellite tv company. It was translated and produced in Hindi and Oriya (Local language) also, apart from English. The content of news was primarily based on events and achievements of Steel Plant & Steel Township. One or the other PR team members used to go to these events for news, photo and video coverage. Each day, 3-4 news items were prepared.

So that is the background for you. The tricky part was making news for Sundays. Since each of us wanted to enjoy our weekly off, we used to prepare 3-4 news items for Sunday news in advance on Friday and Saturday. But that was very difficult because number of events was limited. As the weekends approached, we used to scramble for news stories and Saturday used to be very hectic and nerve-racking.

I came up with an idea of having a Weekly Roundup of News, instead of daily news on Sunday. That way, we would still have to write, translate etc. but the hassle of finding new stories for Sunday every week would be gone. I was very excited and shared the idea with my boss. He rejected it outright. I was crestfallen but boss is boss.

I sulked and sulked for a few days. Then after a few days, as the weekend approached, I decided to put in an extra effort to try to sell my idea once again. I collected news items from Monday to Friday, and wrote a weekly roundup of news to put down in writing what I had in mind. I took it to boss and explained the concept once again to him, but this time with a sample of the weekly news roundup ready. He read it and understood my idea. He allowed me to go ahead and since then we had a Sunday weekly round up, instead of Sunday daily news.

That is what I meant when I said, go the extra mile to sell your idea.

Notes on Management 040921

We keep focusing on headwinds and forger to be grateful for tailwinds.

Some companies, like insurance have started pincode based hiring of salesmen. Logic is that people from a pincode will have better chance of selling in that area. So companies hire across the country based on pincode.

Cognitive empathy is ok. It means recognising other person emotions. Emotional empathy is bad. It means you start having those emotions. Compassion is good and it is not emotional empathy which causes distress.

Toxic positivity is when one tries to remain positive and enthusiastic even when circumstances don't allow it

A coach or mentor acts as a sounding board by co-narrating your story.

A mentor solves the problem for you. A coach helps you think of solutions to solve the problem.

Gravitational pull of silence is more than of voice. It is a leader s duty to encourage speaking up.

Rituals are very powerful in organization context